#but somehow i never put 2 and 2 together to just. make a rat oc that is me

[ultraternative]

i should turn myself into a rat at some point

[darkbluekies]

Silas asks #2

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Concept: I've put multiple asks into one post to avoid too much loose posts on my account! This way, you have more to read too<3

Warnings: violence, kidnapping, framing

Hello!! How would Silas react with a reader with insomnia?

Since Silas stays up a lot during the night to do work and business, he'll try to stay with you if he's able to. If he's at home and works down in his office, you may come inside and rest on the couch or cuddle up in his lap. He'll put on some calming music or hum for you if that's what you need. If you asked him nicely, he could run his hand through your hair and massage you slightly. In other words, he will do his damn best to make you fall asleep.

"Hm? Finally feeling a little sleepy? Good ... just focus on relaxing, Y/N. I will carry you up to the bedroom when I'm done."

Saw your track runner reader post with Silas n wanted to see what would happen if they escaped? Love all of ur works btw💕

You see, with track runner reader, there's a different situation than if it were the normal one. People know who you are and who you belong to, so if you escaped, no one would help you. No one would dare. Silas would do what Silas does best: cause havoc. Thanks to you being famous, he'll follow the news who will spill everything about your locations and then he'll just go and get you back :)

silas as terrible as you are,i still love you 😤😣def not one of my types Sincerely, First anon

Mate ... Silas will ruin your entire life. He'll ruin your reputation if he has to, to make sure that no one will like you if you ever manage to escape. Or he'll make you his partner in crime so that if you ever leave, the cops will take you. YOU SHOULDN'T LOOK PAST THIS, FIRST ANON!!!!! RED FLAG RED FLAG RDE GLAF

— Hii! I love your writing, and OC's! I'm not sure if you take requests but in case you do, I've thought of an interesting scenario I'd like to share with you if that's ok 💕 How would Silas react if his darling was somehow rescued by the government, and put into the witness protection program?

Shit. Silas would never give up the search. He has men who can find you in a month. You can't hide from him. Even if you change your name, appearance, or flee the country — Silas will come after you. It might take him a while to fully find you, but the moment he does, you better leave because he'll break down your door to get you.

"You thought I wouldn't find you? Baby, we belong together! Of course I'll find you. Don't look so sad, darling, you've had your fun now. Time to come home. Don't do stupid stuff like this again, it wastes my time."

— Silas my babygirl really number one in everything 😤☝️🏆 and PLS i accidentally voted for the king HELP- 😭 my vote is for silas not rat king!!! First anon

fIRST ANON ISTG STOP CALLING THEM THAT

[insomniamamma]

Greenhorn: young!Ezra x F!reader

A/N: This was inspired by @opheliaelysia and our conversation about how Ez wouldn't be able to resist squishing an aurelac pod, but it ended up turning into something more. ALSO, though reader and OCs refer to Ezra as "the kid" I am picturing an early 20s Ezra. None of these people are minors.

Warnings: Language. Canon typical violence. Death. Slight gore. Angst. Hurt/comfort. A lil bit of fluff. Implied may-december romance. No beta.

___________________________________________________________________

This is a bad idea, you think, as your drop-ship hits atmo, small squarish windows limned in fire, deep vibration that thrums up through your spine, the ship trying not to tear itself apart, and the kid is still talking. No one can hear him above the vibrations and the scream of superheated molecules shredding themselves apart against the heat shield. Del sings out

"We're at max pressure--" "Copy--" "There was this one time--" "No one gives a fuck, Greenhorn---" "All of you shut the fuck up--" "We're through," says Del, "Drogue deploy in 15--' 'There was a whole fuckin nest of em--" "Oi! Shut it!" "3-2-1, deploying drogues." Del punches the button at his right hand and the drogue 'chutes fire out and the drop-ship does a sick lurch, its pace slowing from suicidal to absurdly dangerous. You've got the ability to soft-land, but so long as Del lines it up right you won't have to, the bog should cradle you. Fuel saved on the way down makes the lift safer. "Deploying mains," you say, and flip the toggle, a loud thump and another jolt as the main chutes deploy, sprouting out from the top of your lander, like the days of Apollo on Old Terra. And still the fucking kid is yapping. In writing the kid seemed half-decent, a big, raw boned boy with a rakish, dimpled smile. Had his own suit and kit and filters. Was polite enough when you asked questions of him, all yes Ma'am and no Ma'am, and three bags full Ma'am. Never would have considered his green ass if Marko hadn't bailed, or, more precisely, if Marko hadn't gotten himself in trouble with the locals and run with his  tail between his legs, well, so now you had the kid, who could not for the life of him seem to shut up for two seconds. At first you thought it was just nerves, but he's been yammering away since you requested release. An uninterrupted, stream of consciousness narration. You are wondering if he is, indeed, brain damaged somehow.

"The thing about channel rats--" "For the love of Kevva no one gives a sweet jewel encrusted crap--" "Ezra! For the love of all that's holy, if you do not shut up I will shoot you in the face," you snap. "Clear?" He gives you a little wounded look. "Clear," says Ezra. And, for a brief, miraculous moment, there is silence. The drop ship lands, lurches in the boggy ground and is still. "How we lookin, Del?" "Nav dropped us right on the button," says Del, "We look great." The tight quarters fill with the sound of bodies unstrapping from the crash-couches. "Alright people. Let's suit up. Sooner we get our pull, sooner we get back up to connection orbit." You walk through the Green in loose formation. Del put you down not 3 clicks from the dig site, but the Green is tricksy and, lately, full of dangerous people. Del and Big Pete have rails. You and the kid have your throwers strapped to your hips. Del takes point, you and Big Pete hang back a hair. The kid is supposed to be bringing up the rear, but a look over your shoulder shows him entirely transfixed. This is probably his first time off whatever backwater sprung him, all shiny and new and dropped into the Bakhroma Green, his big brown eyes all agog, trying to look everywhere at once. And you feel this keenly, a spike in your chest that recalls your first time dirtside, the great, broad blue arc of the sky was enough to fuck you up, after only knowing smoothly curving station walls and blunted angles. You recall your wonder, setting foot on this lush and deadly ground, never had you seen so much life, never seen life that wasn't controlled and carefully cultivated. The Green is a truly wild place that obeys no rules but its own. "Is it all like this?" he asks, "So verdantly forested?" "Yep," says Del, "Once in a while you get a soft-spot like we landed in, but most of it's trees and roots." You slog along. The site is close, but it's already warm. And by the time you get there, the kid is mostly silent and that is truly a blessing, likely the effect of slowly poaching in his suit, not accustomed to the heat like you and the rest of the crew. "Should be getting close," says Del, brow furrowed, peering at a battered topographical map, a red x inside a red circle. You stop a beat and peer through the patterns of shadow and trees, the haze of winkling purple dust. "There," you say, hand reaching out to point without even thinking about it, a patch of dark, slightly sunken earth, devoid of brush. Plants don't like to grow over aurelac nests. You don't know why and it doesn't matter. "Right. We set up here. Trade me the rails, Del, you get to play teacher. Listen up, Ezra, Del is one of the best harvester's you'll meet. You listen to him, clear? You do what he says and nothing else." "Clear," says Ezra, grinning all big through his fishbowl helm. "Um...boss?" Says Big Pete, "Why we bothering with this boy?" "What if Marko can't get himself out of the shit this time, huh? We'll need another set of hands...we'll--" "PUT THAT DOWN!" Del's voice squeals loud and offended over the comms, "The fuck are you doin?" And before you can even think, you and Big Pete are running for the dig and would you look at that, there's the kid, gloves pulled out of their ring-seals and piled on the mossy ground beside him. He's got an aurelac node husk cupped in his bare hands, not even safely cut yet, it's umbilicus disappearing into the black dirt. "EZRA! WERE YOU BORN THIS STUPID OR DID IT TAKE YEARS OF RIGOROUS PRACTICE?" And, look at him, the kid smirks at you through his fishbowl helmet. "Sorry, Ma'am, " he says, "It seemed uncannily squishy. I just had to find out for myself--" You close the distance between you and grab his wrist, hard enough so that his idiot smile fades and you actually see some fear prick in those big brown eyes. Fear is good in the Green. Fear is your friend. Unlikely this kid has ever had cause to be afraid, but, by Kevva, you're going to give him some cause. You pull your knife from your belt and press the business end into Ezra's palm, right between the heart and head lines, just enough to dimple but not enough to break skin. He tries to jerk away, but you know how you hold him, grind those wrist bones together like marbles in a sock. "Ezra," your voice is soft, yelling does no good, this kid's probably been yelled at for most of his formative years, and it's obviously made no impression. "You see all this purple shit floating through the air? Pretty, isn't? Looks like fairy dust--" "Ma'am--" he tries to pull free. "Shut it, fool," you push the knife tip just a hair harder, feel him flinch, flinching is good, might save his idiot hide someday. "I break your skin, I give your the faintest kitten scratch of a wound and the spores will get in there and fest black. These spores will eat you from the bones out. You rot from the inside, clear?" "Clear." You let go and he scrabbles his gloves back on. "Fuckin hell," says Del. Big Pete just shakes his head.

Thank Kevva for small favors, the kid is a quick study. Those big hands are surprisingly clever, and even Del is impressed by his ability. The idea licks around your mind that maybe it's time to cut Marko loose for good, Ezra has plenty of raw talent even if he can't shut up. Your time in the Green is almost done, a half cycle to button up the dig, break camp and lift. You've given Del back the rail-gun, traded for harvesting. The thrill of splitting open those strange membranes has never gown old for you, the finicky work of dissecting the carom blisters away from the inner sac, the fizz of the fazer and then your prize revealed, in this moment your mind is fully on the pull, you don't notice anything off until you feel something thump into the back of your helmet, and hear the whine of a primed thrower. A voice crackles ever the common channel. "Drop your weapons boys, or this stupid cow gets one right through the brain pan." Big Pete already has his hands in the air, Petey always was a softy, Del still has his rails, looking at your face for a sign and you shake your head. Take the shot, you think, you try to think it AT him, but you see the rail-gun slide out of his hands. God Damnit.  You would have expected them to act selfishly. You always expected you'd die out here and the business end of some thrower. And, of course, the kid is nowhere to be seen. Probably wandered behind a tree to take a leak or already caught a blast to the skull. "Right then," Your assailant says, he's got your air-hose doubled over in his free hand, "You open up that case so I can--" The thrower discharges and you pitch forward, there is no pain, just pressure,  and suddenly you can breathe easier. You heave against the dead weight on your back, scrabble back down into the slick of dead leaves and needles and then the pressure is gone and you sit up. The dying man crawfishes over the loam, peering out of his helm with wide eyes and blood spattered lips, eyes that plead until they are obliterated. Ezra stands with his thrower smoking, his face pulled up into a rictus of fear and rage. "Del. Petey. Circle back. Comm channel zero. Anything flinches you take it out. Clear?" Big Pete :"Clear" Del: "Clear" "Ezra. Get his filter," "huh?" "Did I stutter? You get his filter and any other kit that's any good." You stand, but your legs want to betray you. You take a couple shambling steps and plant yourself on a fallen tree, watching the kid strip the corpse, peels the filters and o rings and hose like he's done it a million times. Your breath comes hard and ragged. Nausea grips you. All your time in the Green and you never get over that feeling of almost dying, the taste of it on your tongue like hot smoke, and here's the kid gripping your shoulder, helping you up. "We going back to camp?" "Yeah," you say, "Thrower out. There might be more of them."                                                                                                                                                                                         "I didn't want to--" You know where this is going. You remember hearing the same arguments spill out of yourself the first time you had to use a thrower, "I mean, he woulda--" You stop so you can look at him through the foggy business of his helmet. "You did right." You say, "he meant to take our whole pull." Ezra nods, but his eyes are still white-rimmed and shocked. You reach for him and give his arm a little shake. "Let's go. Eyes peeled, clear?" "Clear."

You keep expecting that shaky, nauseated feeling to dissipate on the walk back to camp but it does not. The suit seems suffocating, and you practically bolt for the tent, in and fumbling with your suit before Ezra can even turn on the scrubbers. You reach to doff your helmet, something you've done daily for years, but your hands shake and you fumble the catches, two attempts and you feel like you're drowning in your own exhalations, you need this fishbowl off your head right now, but your hands won't stop shaking. "Here," Ezra pushes your hands away and does the catches himself, lifting the helmet away from your face. His own fishbowl's gone, his sweaty hair sticking up in crazy quills, that little blond streak screaming up from his scalp like an exclamation point, and before you can properly process what's happening, Ezra pulls you into a hug, his arms wrapped tight around your shoulders. Your hands, which, by all means, should be shoving him the fuck off of you, turn traitor and creep around his middle. You're still shaking, but you feel him shaking too, the two of you vibrating with spent adrenaline like plucked guitar strings. His warm palm grips the back of your neck and nestles your head into the space between his neck and shoulder. You let out a watery breath. "Fuck. I'm getting to old for this shit." Ezra makes a dismissive sound. His fingers dig at your nape, pressing into the tight, cabled muscles there. You let yourself lean against him, lean into his warmth. You can't remember a time you've been this close to someone without expecting a backstab. Ezra murmurs. It's okay, we're safe, I've got you, we're safe, reassuring himself as much as you. "Ezra?" "Yes, Ma'am?" "Don't make this your life," You lift your head and look up at him, his brows are furrowed. "I'm afraid I don't understand."  You poke his belly. "Get yourself maybe three solid pulls and then you get the fuck out of here," you say, peering into those big, dark eyes, "Get out and don't come back." "Ma'am?" "The Green changes people," you say, "And generally not for the better." He gives you a hard squeeze that you return and then he releases you, but only partially, one arm still slung over your shoulder. "You know," he says, "I have among my personal effects a bottle of Kanvian fire-water. Once we lift we could find a quiet place on yon freighter and share it." "Kanvian, eh?" You turn up your arm to look at your chronometer. "We boost in, what, a third of a cycle? Manage not to do anything catastrophically stupid between now and then and I'll consider it." His lips pull into a smirk, his dark eyes glittering, crinkling at the corners. He raises his hand to his head in a mock salute. "Yes, Ma'am." "Del and Big Pete should be done with their sweep soon. Start system checks on the ship, then help break camp." "Yes, Ma'am." He scoops up his discarded helmet under one arm and heads for the entrance. "Oh, and, Ezra?" "Yeah?" "You say anything about..." You gesture vaguely, "Whatever this was that just happened--" "Not to worry, fair maiden," he says, grinning, "No word of our tryst shall pass my lips, because I know that the second I let things slip you will undoubtedly shoot me in the face." "The fuck outta here, smooth talker," you laugh. Ezra jams the fishbowl back on his head and steps out into the sticky heat of The Green, zipping the tent behind him. He's a fool, you think as you set about grading and stowing the day's pull, he's a fool and likely to get himself killed. You just hope you're not the one who has to see it.

[firemblem-fics]

Running With the Wolves [2]

<< | >>

-> Pairing: Yuri x Fem!Reader

-> Gang!Au | Modern!Au | Enemies to Lovers

-> Word Count: 2.4k

-> Warnings: Blood, Violence, Cursing, Angst, Crack

-> Summary: You were just a normal college student, trying to find her way in a new place. You didn’t mean to get caught up in the wrong crowd. You just wanted coffee, but now you’re running with the wolves.

-> A/N: okok i know this is a lot shorter than the last chapter BUT y’all already heard my struggle with it so i’m actually kind of happy with this and liked where it ended. i’m sorry it’s boring, i think this was just a chapter where i do some introductions and go further into characters and a teeny bit more into the world of the gangs idk more info in later chapters because reader will NOT suddenly get a huge info dump of shit - also i hope you all like my two oc’s in here!

if you’d like to be put on the taglist, send me an ask or a message!

“Run.”

In that second, Yuri began firing shots at your pursuers again. Hapi gave her gun to Balthus, who began using both his and her pistols to keep them back as well. She turned and grabbed your arm- the same one that was bleeding before recoiling.

“Who hurt you?”

“Yuri dragging me around.”

Hapi scoffed and reached for the other arm, leading you out the back door and into a small white car. She cranked the engine and backed out before you could even get buckled, narrowly missing a larger black van parked beside it. You held onto the door frame, your fingers turning white as Hapi whipped the car down a smaller, empty street.

“Why are you driving like a fucking lunatic?”

“They could easily follow us! Look behind, do you see anything?”

You turned as well as you could as Hapi made another sharp turn. “No, there’s nothing behind us.”

She slowed the car just a little bit. “Keep checking. We don’t need someone knowing where we’re going.”

You stayed turned in your seat, heart jumping out of anxiety every time you saw a random car or person pass by. “My home is the other way.”

“Wh- Oh, honey, no. They think you’re a part of us, you can’t go home.”

“What? Why not? I could just explain to them what I was doing- they’ll understand-“

“No, they won’t.” The redhead leaned her head back against the seat and bit back a sigh before mumbling to herself. “We weren’t even involved in their little spats with the other places. Why the hell would Edelgard come after us?”

You checked back one more time. “Didn't she say something about how ‘she’s the boss now’? Whatever it’s about, it’s because she’s apparently in charge or whatever. I- I just want to go home.” Your nose burned as tears filled your eyes, but you willed them to not fall. Hapi would definitely be the kind to make fun of you.

You thought back to the others- Yuri, Balthus, and Constance. Ellie had said that they were just some random college kids, making money to get by. Obviously they were more than that.

“What about the others? We just left them there.”

“They’ll be fine. They’ve had their fair share of fights. We’ll meet them back at the house.”

You could only nod and try to soothe your shaking body. Your arm still burned from the wound, but you didn’t want to look at it. Knowing the severity of it would only make it hurt worse.

Eventually, Hapi pulled into a normal looking house. It seemed inconspicuous, with a fraternity sign hanging out front to complete the “normal college kids live here” look. You shuddered. Things are not as they seem with these people, and their house for sure isn’t a normal one as well. Hapi got out of the car and scouted around it, searching the entire car before once again muttering to herself.

“... Can’t believe I forgot to look for a tracker-“

“Look who’s finally home! Hapis and- who’s this?”

Suddenly a loud, annoying voice shouted from the front door of the house. You looked up to see a new man, slowly putting down his waving hand as he saw you. From the top of the brick stairs, he looked quite tall, but as you continued to ascend, the shorter and shorter he became until he was scarcely a few inches taller than you.

“Hiram, this is Y/N. She was, uh, put in an unfortunate circumstance and had to come with us.”

His white eyebrows furrowed and he looked at Hapi confusedly before nodding. “Uh, yeah, okay. Come on in, then. Rhys is out getting takeout. What’s the circumstance?”

“Edelgard attacked the café.”

Hiram was still confused, but it was cut short as the same black van you saw earlier pulled into the open garage. Hapi motioned for the two of you to come inside, saying that Yuri would explain everything.

The house was more normal than you expected. The living room walls were painted a light blue with a couch surrounding the fireplace and a TV on top of it. The colors of that room contrasted greatly against the honey yellow walls of the kitchen, where everyone had gathered and sat at the table. You squeezed yourself between Hapi and Constance, the only other girls there.

“We should wait for Rhys-“

“There's no time.” Yuri scoffed at Hiram and leaned back on his chair. “Somehow, Edelgard took power from her father and is now the leader of the Black Eagles. I’ve yet to figure out what her plans are- attacking us, out of everyone possible- but I’m sure they aren’t good.”

You sighed and leaned against your arm, but stopped. You really, really needed medical attention for your arm. You also really, really needed to go home. You stood up.

“Okay, well, have fun with that. I’m out.”

Yuri laughed. “No, you’re not. Sit down.”

You whipped around to face him, your cheeks burning in anger. “I am! I’m going to leave this house, go to a hospital, fix my arm, and go home. I have no business here.”

You moved to leave again, but a pair of pale arms wrapped around you. One arm gripped your waist tightly as the other flicked out a knife, holding it against your neck. You tried to struggle, but the person- a tall man- tightened his hold even further. Yuri rolled his eyes.

“Easy with her, Rhys. You started having business here the minute you decided to open your stupid little mouth. Hasn’t anyone ever taught you to shut up? To think rationally in the face of danger? Did you even realize the danger you were in, or are you really just that dense?” He sneered, walking towards you. “You, Princess, have gotten yourself into a Hell of a lot of trouble. You’re right, you shouldn’t be here, but now it’s time to reap what you sow.”

You grimaced at Yuri’s close proximity and spat at him, making him stumble back and wipe his face in disgust. This caused Rhys to lift your chin with the knife, pressing down enough to leave a small cut. A trail of blood dripped down to your collarbone.

“I suggest you learn to keep your mouth shut.” Hiram laughed almost maniacally from the table. “Rhysie’s silent but deadly. Don’t mess with us.”

Said man finally let you go, pushing you back to your seat, which you took with a huff. Constance handed you a tissue from the small pocketbook she carried and you thanked her, smiling wearily.

Hapi, who had stayed silent the entire time, coughed awkwardly. “So, what’s our next move?”

Yuri shrugged. “We’re no longer neutral, obviously. But we don’t know if the Golden Deer or the Blue Lions are on our side either. Edelgard had to have had a plan when she attacked us.”

The six others sat in thought for a minute while you, on the other hand, had never been more confused. “Wait, what’s even going on? Why do restaurants kill each other?”

Hiram giggled and plucked the bloody tissue out of your hand, beginning to mess with it and look at the new stains. “You’re tellin’ me that you really thought this was just some dumb restaurant rivalry? Hah! Sweetheart, we’re gangs. Y’know. Drugs. Illegal trades. Turf wars. The usual.”

You tried to put more pieces together. “So, Edelgard’s gang is the bad guys?”

“Exactly-“

“We’re not good. None of the gangs are. Our sins are irredeemable- we’re not the good guys. Edelgard’s people aren’t the bad guys. We don’t know what’s going on right now.” Hapi cut off Hiram.

Said man snorted and ran a hand through his ponytail. “Hey, Rhys, say fuck for me.”

Rhys’s freckled skin flushed a bright red and he avoided the eye contact of everyone around. “...I can’t.” He mumbled.

“See? Rhysie’s good.”

Hapi closed her eyes and suppressed a sigh again, and you wondered what was up with her and sighing. “The next move is to wait. Maybe do a little digging in their computers and communication, but that’s Hiram’s job.”

“We’ve got to figure out something for the rat to do.She can’t just sit here and be in the way.” Yuri mused. “Housekeeping, perhaps?”

“I am not a rat!” You hissed, “You are!”

The purple haired boy only smirked. “Whatever you say, Princess. Go upstairs to the first room on the left. There’s a big stack of manila folders with profiles on the desk. Bring them back down here.”

You rolled your eyes and stood up from your seat, practically stomping your way to the wooden stairs. Opening the first door on the left, you found the folders Yuri was talking about. You reached for them, but hesitated and looked out of the window beside the desk.

It would be so easy to leave, you thought, but jumping from this height would definitely lead to a broken bone.

You committed this room to memory and grabbed the folders, taking your time down the stairs to plan an escape route if needed. You were going home, whether they liked it or not, you decided. You were close to the bottom of the steps when a paper slid out from one of the folders. It was a profile with a rather familiar looking face on it.

Yuri Leclarc, It read, Age 24. Affiliation: Ashen Wolves. Family: Father (unknown), Mother (missing).

You heard footsteps walk through the living room and you quickly snatched up the paper, stuffing it in a folder before you finished reading it all. Hiram became visible, one hand carrying a large laptop and the other, a basket of cables and other equipment. He didn’t say anything to you. Instead, he barely spared you a glance as he walked back into the kitchen. You followed.

“Here.” You huffed and slammed down the folders. Hiram was busy plugging up different cords and routers to the computer, still completely ignoring your presence.

Yuri nodded and stood, sifting through the papers before landing on one labeled “Black Eagles”. He pushed the other folders to the side and opened that one. He laid out 8 profiles, all of people around your age. You could’ve sworn you’d seen some of them around campus, but you nearly vomited as your eyes caught one certain profile.

Ferdinand von Aegir.

“It’s up and running!” Hiram’s voice knocked you out of your stupor. “A piece of art, truly!”

Constance snorted. “A piece of shit, actually.”

Hiram ignored her comment and grinned, placing his hands on his hips proudly. “I call it the Computer of Chaos. COC for short.”

The silence in the kitchen was practically screaming.

Yuri looked up from the profiles. “The what?”

“The Cock, Yuri-bird. Didn't you hear him correctly?” Balthus nearly choked trying to hold in his laugh.

“Exactly! And it works for everyone here, you just have to say your name and it’ll unlock for you.” Hiram motioned for someone to give it a try.

Yuri still looked at the computer quizzically, but walked towards it nonetheless. He leaned down and said, “Yuri Leclarc.”

“Access Denied.”

“What?” Hapi questioned, pulling the computer toward herself. “Hapi.”

“Access Denied.”

“Ohhh, that’s right.” Hiram’s grin turned mischievous. “It only answers to the nicknames I gave you all.”

If looks could kill, Yuri would have committed a murder. He sighed heavily and violently moved the computer back to him. “Yuris.”

“Permission Granted.”

“Go die.” He growled at Hiram, who only laughed.

“What nicknames?” You had to ask, but regretted it once Hiram’s smile was directed at you.

“I add an -is to the end of everyone’s names! Yuris, Hapis, Constis, Balis, but I call Rhys ‘Rhysie’, he doesn’t tell me not to~”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t fucking talk, that’s why.”

“Can I have a nickname?” If you were going to be stuck here, you may as well make friends.

“Hmm,” Hiram pondered, “No.”

“Wh-“

So much for making friends.

Yuri interrupted the awkward moment by slamming his hand down on COC, making Hiram gasp in protest. “Fucking- Hiram, try to find something- anything- to find out Edelgard’s intentions. We had a neutrality pact, she shouldn’t have broken it.”

Your head was starting to hurt from the events today. Rubbing your temples, you stood up, making everyone look at you.

“Listen, I’m tired. I’m stressed. Is there like, anywhere I can sleep? I can’t do much more.”

Constance nodded. “I’ll take you up to the spare room!”

She led you up the stairs and past the room you had gone into earlier. Opening the door to one of the bedrooms, she gestured for you to enter.

“I’ll have to lock you in, but I’m sure you won’t mind. You’ll be sleeping, after all!” Constance smiled, “Goodnight!”

You waved back at her and waited for the click of the lock before turning on the lamp and peeling your sleeve away from your arm. You grimaced- blood had dried and caked around the wound, which was still slightly bleeding. You needed medical attention, but you didn’t blame the Wolves for not thinking about it.

They certainly were stressed- being previously neutral and suddenly attacked. They’ve got enemies now and you suspected that was something they haven’t had in quite a while. And then there was you, the epitome of ‘wrong place, wrong time’. Who would’ve thought that you’d end up accidentally in the middle of a gang war when you moved here? Certainly not you.

Guilt tugged at your stomach. These people were different from you. You didn’t belong here and you needed to get out of their hair. Yuri made it obvious that you stuck out like a sore thumb, unaware of what to do like they did.

You glanced at the window in the bedroom and stood up, making your way towards it. You could easily unlock it and risk an ankle injury. You’d already hurt your arm, it would be fine.

Your two choices were to try to survive a mob that wanted to kill you all, or get a foot injury while escaping and get back to your normal life.

Unlocking the latch on the window, and sitting on the edge, you had already made your decision. You jumped down and ignored a loud crack that resounded in your ankle, slipping into the depths of night.

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taglist: @fairyblue-alchemist @emperor-pizza @flavoredmilktea @sadies-stories-n-things @mifuyuyu @blviddyd @laurexlance @atomicchocolatecookie @mapesandoval @local-goth-lilz

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[lalahbug]

The Informant - Levi x Reader

Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 4,982

My Masterlist

Warnings/disclaim: general Modern/Mafia AU

Author’s Note: continued under story Originally posted on DeviantArt, under the same username, on 01/05.2017. Revamped/edited in 2020.

___ is a blank for your name/oc/whatever you prefer Written in 3rd person

Line/header is to separate paragraphs to indicate time skips, as Tumblr hates my formatting.

Story under cut

          “Hey, boss.” Eren knocked on Levi’s door.

          “What?”

          “It seems a new informant is in town. You know, since we disposed of the last one. You want them on the payroll?”

          “What, are you a fucking idiot, of course. Have them come in tonight.”

          “To the club?”

          “Tch. Eren, were you dropped on your head as a child?”

          “I don’t know, did you drop me at all.” Eren teased his adoptive father.

          “Shut up, get the new information dealer here, tonight, in the club.”

          “Sure thing.” Eren walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

          Levi was leaning back on a couch, the normal whores were clinging to him, annoying the hell out of him. The club music was thumping through the building.

          “Eren!” Levi barked. Eren quickly popped into the VIP area. “Where’s my informant?”

          “They should be here soon.”

          “What do we know about them?”

          “Nothing. They just got in town, I don’t even know their name. I sent out word they were wanted at the club tonight. We got a handwritten note from them saying they’d be here.”

          “Who the fuck handwrites notes, why didn’t they just tell someone.” Eren shrugged and Levi clicked his tongue at him.

          “I’ll go see if I can find them!” Eren darted off, knowing he was about to be in trouble for not knowing more.

          Levi groaned while standing up, pushing the groupies off of him. He decided to go check on the bar. While overlooking everything, he stopped his gaze on a woman, who was fully clothed, no skin other than her face and neck showing. She was leaning against the wall, hands in her hoodie pockets, combat boots crossed. She was just watching, ignoring everyone, having headphones on. She didn’t stand out to others, blending into the shadows, but to Levi, she did stand out. Mainly because she wasn’t wearing anything see-through or skimpy. She was wearing a short shoulder-length black wig.

               “What do you want, Ackerman?”

          Levi didn’t realize he had walked over to her. “How do you know my name?” He growled at her.

          “Well, you are the one who wanted me here.”

          “Tch. You’re the new informant in town.” She glanced up at him as if asking if he was that stupid to ask that. “We need to talk, follow me to my office.” He started to walk away but noticed she stayed put. “Oi, brat, you deaf. I said, follow me.”

          “You don’t have any right to boss me around, ask instead of demand,” Levi growled at her a bit. “I came here because you need me. I don’t need you and if you threaten me. I have enough proof and information to bring down your whole operation.”

          Levi was a bit shocked by this news and glared at her. “Will you follow me?”

          “Yes.” She pushed off the wall and walked up next to him.

               Once in his office, Levi closed and locked the door. ___ pulled off her jacket since they were upstairs and now it was even hotter. Even in a simple black long-sleeved shirt, she oozed sex appeal to Levi. He loved watching her body move, even to the way she gently sat down and crossed her legs.

          “So, what information did you want?”

          “I want you on my payroll. Meaning, any information you get, you bring it to me. You get a weekly salary off of this agreement.”

          “No.”

          “Tch. What did you say?”

          “Are you deaf? No. I already told you. I don’t need you. You need me. I already have my clients set up. If you need information, you pay me half of my asking price, upfront, then once I get you the information. You pay up the rest. I’m very knowledgeable. I already have all of the other mob bosses in this town under me. The only one left, is you. You can take it or leave it.” She was cold and factual, there was only confidence and power behind her voice. 

          However, she was talking to the most powerful mob boss in this rotten city. However being under her in another sense didn’t sound bad. Levi is the most powerful man in this city and will not be under some woman’s shitty thumb.

          “Then leave, I’m not under anyone's orders. I give orders, I don’t take them. I don’t need you. Goodbye.”

          “Well, then I’ll take my leave. Have a great night.” With that, she stood without another glance at him, put on her jacket, and left. Closing the door behind her.

          “That bitch. Who does she think she is.”

          “Boss!” Jean burst into Levi’s office.

          “Oi! Did you forget how to knock, horse-face?”

          “It’s an emergency. That informant who has been here for a few months. She’s been getting information somehow and giving it to Erwin. He burned our stock!”

          “Get that bitch or one of Erwin’s grunts here. Now!” Levi barked.

          The noise of a precise slap echoed in the room as Levi stepped in. He pushed the other man out of the way. To see ___ tied to the chair, heavily beaten.

          “What the fuck, why are you beating her up. I need information, you beat her, now you’ve made my job even fucking harder.” Levi growled, she had a couple of scratches, cuts, a black eye, and was bruised on her cheek.

          “She was very unwilling to come here.” Eren piped up from the corner, Levi looked over to glare at him. Eren and Armin were both disheveled, cut and swollen lips, black eyes. “She put a fight, it took all three of us to get her down into that chair."

          Levi looked at ___, who then spat the blood out of her mouth near his shoes.

          “To what do I owe the pleasure of this kidnapping.” She sat up straight, making her words drip with sarcasm and venom.

          “Who did you talk to to get the information you gave Erwin?” Levi pulled up a chair to sit in front of her. 

          “I’m an informant. You will pay me, I will tell you.”

          “Tch. Fine, I need to get this rat. Name your price.”

          “Remember there are two payments. One I will name now, the other will be named after I give you the name you want.”

          “Bitch. You don’t seem to realize the situation you’re in.”

          “You seem to have forgotten, I already have all of the mob bosses in this town, under me. You mess with me any further. You will start a war. And if I don’t get paid and untied within 5 minutes. I will send my files to bring you down through the police.”

          Levi growled at her. He wanted to hit her. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He had underestimated her months ago and did it again just now. She clearly wasn’t in the mood to talk now that his grunts had to manhandle her.

          “3 minutes, Ackerman.”

          “Untie her.” Levi barked. Eren quickly did so. ___ stood and stretched.

          “Now my first payment will be; 1. My backpack that was torn from me, it should still be in the car I was dragged here in. 2. You will grant me any amenities and safe haven; I need at the drop of a hat. Meaning,” she sat back down in front of Levi. Her jacket was draped off her shoulder, she was wearing a gray tank top today. The most skin he’s ever seen from her. She leaned back, throwing an arm over the back and crossed her legs.

She cleared her throat. “Meaning, you will not do this shit again. Meaning, anything information I sell, even if it hurts you, THE MESSENGER WILL NOT BE TOUCHED.” She shouted at him. She finally showed some anger, some emotion. “If you ever put a price on me and put my safety in danger again, this agreement ends. And. I. Will. Bring. You. Down.” She stared daggers at him.

          Levi raised an eyebrow, she was smart. She wasn’t in it for just the money. She was in it to be the most powerful and most protected woman in the world.

          “I will never sell anyone your information that could tear your operation down. The same goes for my other clients. That is only for me.” Levi still had an eyebrow raised at her. She was intimidating but not scary. “Are you listening to me? Ackerman, if you make this deal and you go back on it. I have clients all over the world. You turn on me. You will bring war upon everyone under you.”

          “I get it, brat. Get her shit.”

               Levi and ___ sat in silence glaring at each other. Levi was checking her out, her piercings, her tattoos. He even stared at her natural hair, since he had never seen it before. Some about her just made him want to ravish her, he couldn’t decide if it was in a sexual way or a killing her way, yet though.

          Armin came in and gave her the backpack. She opened it and pulled out a file.

          “Before I give you anything. I need you to sign this contract. I only need the last page that you sign, you can keep the rest.”

          “You’re very prepared.”

          “I used to be a lawyer before this.”

          “That doesn’t shock me.” Levi took the paperwork from her. It was only about 4 pages and he signed the one page, handed her the one paper, and kept the file for himself.

          “Okay. Now that we’re on the same page.” She smirked while flapping the signed paper a bit. 

          “Enough of the shitty puns, tell me what I want to know.”

          She leaned over and took out a bigger file. “This is all of the information I sold to Erwin a couple of days ago.”

          “So you’ll resell information?”

          “Hey, this shit is hard to get sometimes. Especially shit on you. I’ll definitely resell info like this.”

          “Have you sold it to anyone else?”

          “Oh, sorry. That information is classified or will cost you extra.” She gave him a fake pout. He growled at her. Damn, she gets under his skin easily.

          “Then you better start a fucking tab.” Which only made her smirk.

          “I sold all of this information about 3 times, Erwin included. Dok and Pixis. Pixis is very much after your spot of the biggest mob boss. He’s even put Erwin to work for him. I wonder if you can figure what happened from that action.”

          “You mean because I refused to work with you. All of the mob bosses in this fucking city are using you to get information on me to work together and put Pixis in charge of this place. Which is why Erwin attacked my stock.”

          “I mean, yeah. That’s the gist of it," she smirked.

          “What else do you know about this?”

          “You know that lovely officer you have on your payroll?” Levi raised an eyebrow, she did know way too much about him. “Well, let’s just say he’s getting a higher pay now, so you’re not safe. Also, Pixis, he’s trying to up his drug market while having his moles here to taint your drugs.”

          “Who are the moles?”

          “It’s in the paperwork. Page 6.” Levi opened the thick packet, turning to page 6, which was a chart. Every man under Pixis, Levi scanned the page until he saw a familiar name.

          “Fuck. Eren. Jean. Oluo. Mike. Go get Reiner and Bertolt. Get information and dispose of them.” Levi was calm as all of the men left the room, his eye started to twitch. “I can’t fucking believe all this shit is happening because you’re too fucking good at your job,”

          “Oh, honey. I’m just good in general. I mean, not morals-wise, but any other way. You better believe I’m good.”

          Levi let his eyes travel over her body.

          “So, I have another appointment I am late to, now because of you. So you’ll be driving me there. Or one of your grunts.”

          “Tch. Connie!” Levi barked. A small boy bolted around the corner. “Take ___ anywhere she needs to go.”

          “Yes, boss!”

          “Seeya, Ackerman!” ___ slung her messenger bag over her shoulder and followed Connie out of the room.

          “That woman. She’ll be my fucking demise or my savior.” Levi ran a hand through his hair.

           A few months of working with ___, Levi was steadily at the top again, even got Pixis to start working under Levi. Everything was going the best it could ever be, for Levi. Everything was so smooth, no moles or spies anymore. Information and communication were flowing amazingly in his organization now.

          “What?” Levi groaned answering his phone at like 3 AM.

          “Levi! I need a car. I need it now. I need to be put into hiding. Now!” Levi rubbed his eye before sitting up.

          “___?”

          “YES!” She screamed, it sounded like she was in pain.

          “Where are you?”

          “I don’t fucking know. I’m bleeding. I’m angry. I’ll send you my GPS location. Please. Get someone to me soon.”

          “You’re bleeding? You said please?” Levi was teasing her a bit.

          “Levi. Please. I just sent you my location.” She sounded weak but she hung up on him.

          Levi tried to call a few people but no one was answering. He sighed and got dressed and headed to her location.

               “___?” Levi walked around the building. Trying to find her.

          “Levi?” He quickly turned to see her collapsed in the entrance of an alleyway.

          “What the fuck are you doing here?”

          “I’m bleeding a lot, I needed to hide. Levi, help me up.” She was trying to be strong and demanding even in a time like this. Reaching a hand out to him, he pushed her hand away. Levi sighed and squatted down and picked her up. She gave some slight protest but was too weak to fight back.

               Since Levi couldn’t get a hold of anyone, he took her to his home. Carried her into the kitchen. While he prepared some rubbing alcohol, things needed to patch her up. ___ hoisted herself up onto the counter, near the sink, and took off her jacket and tank top. Leaving her in her sports bra. When Levi returned she was trying to rinse the blood off her.

          “Oi. You’re going to get blood everywhere.” Levi took a cloth with alcohol to clean her off. She winced a bit while he started cleaning the wounds before stitching her up. But she didn’t cry or yelped at all. “So what happened?”

          “Old client found me. He betrayed me, so I tried to take him down. Caused him a lot of problems before I left. So he’s here to kill me. I need to get more dirt to take him down. It’s my fault for not doing it right before. Ouch!” She glared at Levi as he poured more alcohol over now sealed wounds.

          “Who's your former client?”

          “Darius Zackly or Mister as half of the country knows him.”

          “You had Mister working for you?” Levi was shocked.

          “Yupp, he was under my thumb for a year. Best client ever. Until he tried to get me as a sex partner and make me his own. I thought it was a joke. But still, I turned him down. One day I was selling information on Zackly to someone, who was an alliance of his. The guy was in the mob for 8 years, no family, right-hand man of the other mob. That bastard was an undercover cop. Zackly found out, came after me, even though in our contract, states I can sell information to whoever I want, as long as it has no malicious takedown intent," she sighed. “He didn’t believe me, put a price on my head. So I went to the police, gave all the information about his organization to bring him down. But I didn’t know the DA was recently added to the payroll. So it didn’t get far.”

          “You almost brought down the most powerful man in the country because he put a price on your head.”

          “Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to die.” She pushed herself off the counter and stumbled against Levi. “Sorry. I guess I lost more blood than I thought. Can I borrow a clean shirt.” She pushed off him and leaned against his counter.

          “Yeah.” Levi guided her to his couch and sat her down and went to get her a shirt. “The most wanted woman in the world is on my couch, wanted by the most powerful and dangerous man in the country,” Levi grumbled before pinching the bridge of his nose again, he exhaled deeply. “What the fuck did I get myself into?” He sighed softly as he grabbed a clean white shirt.

               ___ was sitting on Levi’s couch, laptop on her lap, headphones on. She was hacking into many different cities and cell phones to listen and get information on Zackly.

          “So is this how you get a lot of your information?”

          “Yeah.” She was curt and quiet, never really asked for anything other than to use things to make food or tea.

          ’She’s stronger than I thought. Not all just attitude. She was stabbed twice but is working away. Mainly to save her life, but she did mumble something about protecting her new clients from Zackly. Making sure he won’t go after them to get to her.’

                    “Yeah, I need to break our contract. I’m in deep shit and I don’t want you involved. When I get it resolved we can sign again.” She was talking on the phone. “Unless you want to go against Mister with me, we need to break up.” She chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She had the same conversation about 15 more times. Even in a couple of different languages. Before turning to Levi. “Well, I’m sure you’ve been listening to all of my conversations. I need to break our contract. I won’t drag anyone else into this. This is my fault.” She didn’t look at him, just kept typing.

          “No.” She stopped typing and looked up at him.

          “Levi. You’re going to get everyone in your organization killed. I’ve tried this before. It’s not going to work. We’re breaking the contract. Once my new place is ready, in about 3 hours, I will be leaving and we are breaking apart.” She was stern. But Levi didn’t want her to fight this on her own. She continued working.

          “Isn’t there anything we can do? Any of us?”

          “Unless you can get me a list of every media, every police member and maybe even some people in the FBI that aren’t on Zackly's payroll, no you can’t. I still have proof of all of his exports, illegal guns, and drugs, I have his kill list, I have everyone who works for him and I have every one of his bank accounts and secret hangouts and escape routes. But in order to bring him down. I need to get this information to as many people as possible and to people who are not on his payroll.”

          “I know someone in the FBI, they’re on my payroll, though.” 

          She paused and looked over at him. “Really?” He nodded. In a flash she went over and hugged him, ending up in his lap. “Please, oh please. Give me their name!” She clung to him.

          Levi was shocked at the least, to say. “I can give you their contact information if you want.”

          “Just their work email! I need to send this info out, but I have to do it anonymously. Other witnesses can testify against Zackly. I plan to send that information as well.”

          “Okay.” He had a glint in his eye that suddenly made her glare at him. “It’s going to cost you, though.” She groaned. “You’re an informant, you should have seen this coming.”

          “I thought you just wanted to help me.” She went to stand up, Levi wrapped his arm around her waist, keeping her there. “Let go.”

          “You didn’t even listen to what I want.”

          “Ugh, fine. I’ll at least hear you out.”

          “There will be a three-part payment.” He smirked a bit at her glare, he put up 1 finger, intending to count each reason on his fingers. “1. We stay business partners, in the sense, you keep me at the top. 2. You are now on my payroll, you work under me. Remember this is about your life on the line. 3. You will go out on a date with me.”

          “Wait, what?!”

          “Or we can just stay dating now.” He gave her a small wink.

          “This is serious. I’m not some whore either. So fuck you, not literally. I know they are on your payroll. I’ll find them from there on my own.” She pushed away from him, trying to get up.

          “Oi, brat. I was serious. If you want, you can just agree to the first 2, for now.”

          “Fine. I’ll accept the first two.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I want to get out of this, I want to live through this.” Levi then spotted a cut on her neck, he’d never seen before.

          He poked it. “What happened here?”

          “Huh?” She reached up and touched it. “Oh, that was the first time someone tried to kill me. That was back when I was a lawyer, I quit later that year. Became an informant and a hacker.”

          “I didn’t know you were a hacker until today.”

          “Well, I’m only average. So I can’t hack like the FBI and get away with it. I can hack their email server, though. So that information please?”

          “Of course, business partner.” Levi let her off his lap then typed up the information into her computer. She got to work right away. Put on her headset.

          Levi brought her some tea.

               “You’re sure you don’t want to stay here?” Levi asked while she was gathering her things.

          “Yes. I want to be in my own place, with my dog and my resources. I’m waiting on that FBI agent to get back to me before I know what to do next.”

          “Meaning?”

          “Meaning, if they want to get the witnesses into custody now, I can send the information to every single email I can get my hands on and not worry about their safety. If they don’t want to do that, I’ve got to find a District Attorney who is currently working on taking him down. I know there has to be someone trying. But I don’t want to find that out for myself. An FBI agent would be able to do much more than me.”

          “Where are you going at least?”

          “Out of the country actually. I just need to go pick up my dog and head to the airport.”

          “Wait, you’re just leaving?”

          “Tell me, Levi. Where exactly, where else, I would be safer from the most dangerous man in the country? The man wants to slit my dog's throat and 10 children in front of me. Because he knows that the only way he could probably break me mentally before killing me. My life is in danger the longer I am in town. I’ve already almost died today. I don’t think I can afford to be here any longer, now that they know where I am.”

          “I saved you today. I can protect you, brat.”

          “I think you’re underestimating again.” She finished packing her messenger bag. Levi grabbed her arm.

          “Don’t go,” Levi demanded, but it was sort of pleading.

          “Don’t worry. I’ll be okay. As long as your FBI agent is good at her job I’ll be okay.” She seemed more so trying to convince herself but she was still firm on her decision.”

          “Can you at least contact me once a week so I know you’re not dead?”

          “Maybe.” She gave him a small smirk before leaving his condo.

          “She’s going to be my fucking shitty demise,” Levi mumbled to himself.

          Levi tried calling ___, yet again. She had been off the radar for over 3 weeks and he hadn’t heard from her at all. The call went to voicemail yet again. The trials against Darius Zackly had started and his local DA was very intent on taking him down with all of the information ___ had sent almost the whole world. All the witnesses were in secret service and we’re testifying soon. 

                Darius and everyone in his main organization were locked up, behind bars, life in prison. So many murders, missing persons, and unknown drugs were solved now. ___ was being offered a reward, she just had to make it so she wasn't anonymous anymore. But she didn’t show.

          It had been nearly 5 months since she disappeared, Levi hadn’t heard from her at all.

               “Boss!” Eren ran into Levi’s office, panting.

          “Tch, what, boy?”

          “There’s someone here to see you.”

          “Who?”

          “You have to come to see.” Eren joked a bit.

          Levi groaned and clicked his tongue before standing up.

               “Look how cute he is.” Armin gushed over the dog holding a bag in its mouth. Who growled at everyone who came near him.

          “What’s this mutt doing here?” Levi scoffed.

          “He just showed up with this backpack in his mouth, it’s ___’s bag.” Levi’s widened slightly. The 110 pound Rottweiler walked over to Levi and sat in front of him, wagging his tail. The dog dropped the bag and Levi bent over and opened it, careful to not touch the saliva.

          “This is Boris, his plane got back before mine, I need someone to watch him. I’ll be back two days after you read this. Levi, take care of him for me. I told him to only trust you, gave him your scent. Everything he needs is in the bag. He is a very good fetch and guard dog. Sorry, ___.” Levi growled her name while crumpling the note.

          “What does she mean fetch dog?” Armin asked as he leaned down to pet the dog.

          “The idea is to train, through the use of some form of compulsion, a dog to pick up an object in his mouth, carry it firmly but gently and deliver it to the handler's hand. Like he did with the backpack.” Levi stated while pulling a chewing bone out of the bag, giving it to the dog. “So if I teach him what things are and where to find them, he can bring them to me.”

          “That’s cool!” Eren was excited.

          “But, he probably only listens to ___.”

          “She told Boris to listen to you, though.” Armin reminded him.

          “Let’s test it.” Levi looked at the dog, who was happily chewing on his hallowed bones. “Boris.” The dog's ears perked and looked at Levi. “I need a pen, go get me one.” The dog stuck his nose into the backpack and pulled out a zip lock bag with a pen and notepad. “Good.” Levi took the bag from Boris.

          “Boris!” Levi yelled at the dog, who was whining. “Shut up! I get you miss her too, but shut up brat!” Boris nudged his head against Levi’s leg. “Do you need out?” Boris started to run around, to say yes. Levi sighed and pushed away from his desk, taking Boris out.

          “It’s been almost 3 days, where is your owner?” Levi grumbled. He wouldn’t admit anyone, but he did miss having ___ around, he did like and miss her.

          Boris started pulling Levi all sudden. “Boris, heel!” Levi tugged back on the leash, making Boris only pull harder. Levi glanced up, to see ___ walking towards them. He just let go of the leash, letting Boris run to her, knocking her down.

          “Boris! You’re not a puppy!” ___ giggled while hugging her dog who was trying to drown her in licks and lay on top of her.

          “At least you’re alive,” Levi grumbled.

          “Yeah, sorry about that. I couldn’t use my phone out of the country, forgot to tell you about that. Did you at least get my message last month, the one to your email?”

          “I don’t check my email.” Levi glared at her.

          “Well, that’s your fault.” She stood up, grabbing Boris' leash. “You want to go get a coffee, as sorry from me, business partner.” She gave him a sly smirk.

          “What do you want?” Levi was skeptical.

          “Nothing. I feel a bit bad is all, but if you don’t care we haven’t talked for months. Then I’ll just head home.”

          “Didn’t expect to hear that from you.”

          “What do you mean?”

          “Well, you were the one who turned down the last part of my conditions.”

          “You said you were serious about it. I mean, I don’t know if it’s a compliment or not. But you're the only man who's been able to piss me off and get under my skin a lot.”

          “Good.” Levi pulled her in for a sharp and quick kiss.

          “Goddammit, Ackerman, who do you think you are.” She glared at him, looking at her smudged lipstick on his lips.

          “You’re the fucking informant, you tell me.” He teased while grabbing the open sides of her jacket, pulling her closer to him.

          She stared into his eyes for a moment. Before giving him an actual smile. “You think you’re mine.”

          “That’s one way of putting it.” She pulled away from him.

          “Well, now you just have to work on making me yours.”

          “Oi, brat. Don’t you remember.” He grabbed her chin, pulling her close again. “You work under me now.” A shiver ran down her spine at his demanding and dominant tone.

          “We’ll have to see how long that lasts then.” She managed a feeble smirk, she was losing her nerve. He had gotten under her skin, yet again. Making her weak against him.

          “Considering you’ve already lost, I have a feeling it’ll be a while.”

Author’s Note: continued Even though I wrote this a long time ago, it’s still my personal favorite of my own works. Also, this is Modern AU, where Levi and a few others are mob bosses. Mafia, whatever you want to call it. Levi also runs a nightclub and is Eren’s adoptive father. Reader is an information dealer(sells information to people.) She’s used to being in power and is pretty headstrong.

[lilulo-12fanfiction]

Flicker, Fade Part 1

Here it finally is! So this is definitely going to be a multi-part story. I’m not sure if it’ll be 2 or 3 parts yet. We all know how wordy I like to get. I’m having fun with this one. I hope you enjoy it! I love writing OC characters because I like being able to describe their appearance. This story gives me the opportunity to do that, but still use it as a reader insert.

The word count obscene 15,000 even. I’m so sorry!

This is a combo of two requests.  @justkending​ requested a Steve Rogers x Reader with prompts: “I warned you about him, yet again you didn’t listen.” and “It’s 6am- you’re not having vodka.  @asgardiangurll​ requested a Steve Rogers x Reader with with  prompts:”I’m never going to stop protecting you.”“You are seriously like a man child”

As always likes, comments and reblogs are SO APPRECIATED. Requests are open (Avengers, Supernatural, TVD/The Originals. I do dabble in some Green Arrow and The Flash (DC TV Only please). Prompt list can be found here.

Please let me know if you would like to be added to this tag list or one of my others.

Avengers Tag List: @shreddedparchment @fanfictionjunkie1112​ @this-is-mycrisis​ @geeksareunique​ @mikariell95​

Avengers Masterlist

Fate is a funny thing. Your mother always used to tell you that everything happened for a reason. The idea that going through difficult times to prepare you for what was to come or to lead you to something better kept you going, even in your darkest of times. 

You grew up in New England with your mother, father and baby sister Ella. She had been the best surprise of your lives. You were 13 when your mother got pregnant. Everything happens for a reason and you were thrilled to have a sibling.

You were sassy and sarcastic just like your mother. You got your intelligence from your father and while things typically came easy to you; Your parents had made sure you were sufficiently challenged and worked incredibly hard. You had been granted the honor of Valedictorian your senior year in High School. 

As a graduation gift and an 18th birthday present, You, your parents and your sister took a trip to tour Europe. You had never been happier.l, you were one of those kids that would rather hang out with your parents than a bunch of friends. Spending time with Ella was the highlight of your day, every day. The day of your 18th birthday had been one of your happiest. You spent an incredible day at Brighton Beach building sand castles with Ella and enjoying the amusement park rides in the seaside resort town. Her laugh as you whipped around the tilt-a-whirl would be embedded in your soul for the rest of your days. Your dad had ridden with you on all of the roller coasters and rides deemed too scary by Ella. Your mom wasn’t much of a ride person, but damn did she love her carnival games. Once you were back in London, your life would be changed forever. One moment your father was driving the three of you down the street laughing about how strange it was to drive on the opposite side of the street and the next you were being T-Boned by another vehicle.

Your parents and sister had been killed on impact. You had barely survived. Someone had pulled you from the wreckage. You were rushed to the hospital and woke up 2 days later. Before you even opened your eyes you knew something was different. You were completely healed. No lasting injuries, no deficits except the gaping hole in your heart. The doctor there tried to calm your anxieties, telling you everything was fine and you were just lucky. Somehow you knew the doctor was lying to you about how you had been treated. That night you had gone into the bathroom to examine yourself and were shocked by what you saw. Your natural hair color had been transformed into a  liquid black that cascaded down your body. The most startling change was your eyes. Your once very normal eye color had been transformed into a shade of violet. 

You had been frantically studying your altered appearance when the little girl sharing your hospital room bad woken up crying after a nightmare. You had sat down on her bed to comfort her. That was when you knew someone in that hospital had done something to you. By simply placing your hand over her arm, the bruises she had from falling out of a tree healed. You had heard about enhanced humans, you had seen them on your TV. Someone had turned you into one. The doctors that healed you had no idea what they had created, they couldn’t have. They never would have let you leave. The fear of becoming a lab rat caused you to keep it to yourself and when they finally discharged you, you got back to the US as fast as you could. 

You had tried to dye your hair back to its normal state, but nothing would change the jet black that framed you. You took to wearing blue contacts to make your eyes appear a more normal color. You found out the doctor that treated, turned you into what you had become was looking for you. Once your family was returned home and buried you disappeared from everything you had known and loved about your home. You effectively erased Y/N Y/L/N from existence by faking your own death. People were led to believe you took your own life. After loosing everything you loved it wasn’t hard for people to believe. You had to leave everything about who you were behind. 

Three years later, with a new identity, you were living in New York City working as a freelance journalist. You had changed your name to Camille Ballard and were trying to live a semblance of a normal life pretending you didn’t have any special abilities when a man opened fire on a huge crowd. You had grabbed a nearby child, held them close to you to protect them. Without evening trying, you formed a purple force field around the two of you, saving both of your lives. As soon as you realized what happened, you rushed home and packed as much of your belongings as fast as you could and planned on making a break for it. If that doctor saw footage of what you just did, he might figure out you were alive and come looking again. 

Luckily for you, Iron Man had been there to help with the situation and saw what you had done. Before you had the chance to catch a bus, he found you and was set on recruiting you for The Avengers.

 “Mr. Stark...you’re mistaken. That wasn’t me. I’m nobody. I’m like a ghost.” You were desperate to convince him you weren’t who he thought you was. But he knew.

“Then why are you trying to bolt with almost everything you own? C’mon kid...you don’t have to live a life on the run. I can help you. You don’t HAVE to be a ghost.” He wouldn’t relent and he wouldn’t let you leave. 

Even though everything in your brain told you to run, your lonely heart was begging you to trust him, to let him in. He had saved the world more than once and here he was offering to save you. Your heart won and you broke down and told him your story. Tony Stark, with all of his bravado held you as you sobbed for your lost family, your identity and assuaged your fears of not knowing what had been done to you. 

“Cam...I can call you Cam right?” His kind smile put you at ease. He made quite a few promises to you. He offered you a home and a family of sorts. He promised that he would find out what had been done to you. He promised to give you a purpose. Just like you knew that doctor was lying to you the day your parents died, you knew you could trust Tony Stark. Your mother’s voice telling you everything happened for a reason echoed in your brain. You had been given a gift, it was your responsibility to use it to do something good in this world. It was the best way to honor your parents and sister.

Tony eased you into life at The Avengers compound. He insisted you see a trauma counselor to really deal with the loss of your family. You had protested at first, you didn’t want to open up those wounds. He brought you to meet Pepper. She was the one that convinced you to get the emotional help you needed. She told you about Tony’s PTSD and how it had affected both of them. She promised that she and Tony would be there for you as you dealt with all of the pain you had buried for years. You finally agreed.

Once you were settled, Tony and Bruce began running tests to see if they could figure out what had happened to you. Best they could tell, someone had injected you with a serum, they just couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. Clearly it had been experimental because neither of them had seen anything like your blood work before.  Bruce had been fascinated by your blood test results. Tony had been able to get his hands on old blood work from a well child visit when you were a kid to compare it to your blood today. 

“Whatever they gave you changed your DNA entirely.” Bruce had been entirely fascinated until he saw the look on your face. “I’m sorry Camille. I know you feel like a science project.” Bruce knew all too well what it was like to be changed to your core. You realized that day you had made the right decision by coming to the compound. For the first time in years, you didn’t feel alone.

6 months after you had gotten there Tony had taken to calling you The Protector. You could heal yourself and others. Your fight or flight response produced the protective force field that would encompass you and anyone close to you. After a few months of work you could create them on demand. Your enhancements also made you as close to a human lie detector as someone could get. It took intense concentration to be able to tell if someone was trying to deceive you. Your new abilities made it so you couldn’t be hurt by anything physically or emotionally by anyone’s lies.

Once you had handle on what you could do, you needed to be able to fight, protective force fields weren’t enough. Offense was just as important as defense. Tony had paired you up with Bucky Barnes for your training. He and Bucky had gotten past their differences and Tony was in a mission to help put the Sergeant back together again. Tony was good at fixing people. You were Bucky’s first real assignment. Tony had a feeling that you would help James Barnes as much as he would help you.

Tony had been right. You kept a wall around yourself built with bricks of sarcasm, sass and witty comebacks.  Bucky recognized this immediately and sought to dismantle your carefully constructed barrier to block anyone from getting too close to you. One night he had pushed you past your limits and you had broken down. Once the floodgates opened you couldn’t shut them. Bucky was the only other person you confided your full story in. Like Tony, you knew your secrets were safe with him. 

Bucky had experienced his fair share of loss. He had been experimented on without his permission. He understood, he could empathize. He used your training to help you work through your anger and grief. You excelled under his instruction. You were a hell of a hand to hand fighter and other than Bucky you had the best shot in the compound. Your aim and speed with a firearm was impeccable. Slowly, Bucky became your best friend.

After almost two years of hard work and training you had been officially made an Avenger and had been working mission after mission for almost 8 months straight. It felt great to be able to help so many people, including your teammates. But you needed a little break to recharge. You requested some time off and decided to let loose a little bit. You had spent the evening out with some of the SHEILD agents. You had become friends with a couple of the girls that were in the cadet training program. 

“Cami, I warned you about him, yet again you didn’t listen. You never listen when it comes to guys.” Bucky was giving you the once over. 6AM and you had stumbled back into the compound. You had stayed with one of the girls to sober up a little bit and were hoping to sneak back in unnoticed but Bucky was up early to train with Steve.

“I know...I know. But he was so cute, I was hoping he’d try to be a gentleman.” You pulled a bottle of Tony’s expensive Vodka out of the cabinet Bucky raises his eyebrows. “Just trying to ease into the hangover.” He grinned and shook his head. As you poured a shot, the bane of your existence stormed into the kitchen. Steve Rogers looked your tight jeans, heels and fitted black T-Shirt and scoffed in judgment.

“There you are Camille, I’ve been trying to find you since last night. Are you just getting home?” You gave him a deadpanned look. “Is there a reason why Agent Harrington is out of field work for two weeks with a broken nose and two black eyes and a concussion?” He had his hand on his hip and he was glowering at you.

“Well Agent Handsy was given fair warning” Bucky leaned against the counter. Watching you and Steve verbally spar was his favorite show. You said you hated Steve and his self righteous attitude. Steve said you got under his skin and didn’t appreciate your mouth and sarcasm. It was really a poor way to veil your mutual attraction. He saw how your eyes would linger on Steve while training. He watched Steve’s eyes soften on you anytime he thought no one was looking.

“What do you mean?” Steve’s voice dropped lower. First he was ready to rip you a new one, but he didn’t like the idea of anyone putting unwelcome hands on you. He rolled his jaw wanting to give the agent a few injuries himself.

“He thought that buying me two drinks gave him permission to put his hands on my ass. I told him otherwise. He did it again and I told him if he didn’t keep his hands to himself I was going to break his face. He thought that was an invitation to try and dip his hand down the back of my pants. I saw that as an invitation to bash his face into the bar. Maybe he’ll listen to the next girl and keep his hands to himself. Maybe if he apologizes, and means it, I’ll heal his pretty boy face.” It was out of character for you to lay hands on someone like that, but you couldn’t help but think of him doing this to some other poor girl who couldn’t stop him. He needed to be taught a lesson.

“That’s my girl!” Bucky laughed. The douchebag had it coming  in his opinion. He was proud of you for sticking up for yourself.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t reprimand your for defending yourself . “I’ll have a talk with him.” You raised both of your eyebrows at Bucky in surprise. It didn’t matter what you did or the reasoning, Steve was usually pissed at you. He took the shot from in front of you and dumped it down the sink. Your jaw dropped and you glared at him. 

“Hey!” You protested. It was Steve’s turn to roll his eyes.

“It’s 6am- you’re not having vodka.” You threw your hands up.

“What are you my dad? I’m on vacation.” You tried to reason, tone laced with sass, arms crossed in front of you. It was sometimes hard for Steve to believe you weren’t somehow related to Tony Stark.

“About that. I have a mission in South America and you need to come with me.” As much as your attitude pissed Steve off, you were a good teammate and excellent at what you did. You deserved some time to yourself, but he needed your skill set.

“What? No! C’mon! you promised me 7 full days off Freeze Pop.” Steve rolled his jaw at the nickname silently cursing Tony. His frustration with you was building up again. Why couldn’t you just do as you were asked, just once, without arguing.  

“You speak Spanish fluently and I need a female agent with me.”

“So does Natasha. Last I checked she was also a female. Take her. I’m not really interested in pretending to be your significant other.” You knew the mission that he was referring to. The target was in vacation with his wife at some resort. The plan has been for a pair to pose as a couple on their honey moon to gain access to the resort and get closer and obtain as much intel as possible. 

“It’s a recon mission. We only have one working appearance enhancer so I won’t be recognized. Nat is too recognizable. Plus you also have an uncanny ability to sense when someone is lying.”

“Natasha is an ex super spy. She would figure it out!” You knew you were fighting a loosing battle. Steve didn’t know why you really had asked for the time off, and you weren’t about to share your deepest secrets with him.

“Look, Nat is with Clint and his family for the weekend. I’m not asking her to come back.” Steve was fighting the urge to yell at you. He just wanted you to be compliant, just this one time. The idea of being close to you and alone with you had him unnerved.

“Of course. We wouldn’t want to ruin HER time off. This is bullshit!” Your voice dripped with sarcasm. You knew you were acting like a brat. You wouldn’t ask Natasha to come back. You were hoping to get him to push the mission back. Bucky’s head bounced back and forth between the two of you. He watched as Steve’s jaw clenched one more time and the little vein in his forehead pop. You were one of the few that brought this side of him out. He had infinite patience for anyone but you.

“ENOUGH!l He finally snapped. “Agent Romanoff has more than paid her dues! She’s been at it for years! I’m not going to drag her back from time with what she considers her family so you can go on a bender.” You took a few steps back and recoiled. Steve immediately regretted it. “Camille...”

“No it’s fine Captain. I get it. My need for a break is less important because what? I’ve been fighting with you for less time? I haven’t paid enough dues for you yet? Got it. Let me go get some sleep so I’ll be refreshed enough to serve you. Send me the itinerary so I’m ready when wheels go up. I’m a B-Team Avenger. No one knows who I am so for once in your eyes it makes me an asset.” You turned quicker not wanting him to see how upset you were. He wouldn’t understand why you were so upset. You thought it better he see you as a selfish brat than a broken woman.

“Cam...” Bucky’s voice trailed and you avoided his grasp. 

“It’s fine Buck.” You quickly retreated. You’d be damned if you let Steve have the satisfaction of making you cry. If he knew the real reason you were brought to tears he wouldn’t revel in it. To Steve Rogers you were young, bratty and had a problem with authority. You’d like to keep it that way. It protected you. 

Bucky gave Steve a dirty look and threw his hands up. “I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.” Steve deflated. “She’s just so infuriating. Every time she rolls her eyes at me I want to throttle her. It’s not like she can’t have her time off after we get back.” Your reaction didn’t sit right with Steve. You gave him a hard time, all the time, that was true. But you never argued about a mission. 

“You know...if you dealt with your feelings, you might be able to keep it together with her." Bucky shook his head and started retreating from the kitchen. Steve cared about you, anyone that knew you could see you were funny, smart, caring and willing to put yourself on the line for anyone else. But you were afraid of letting too many people get close to you. Bucky knew you were afraid to really care about someone and lose them like you did your family. He knew you felt something for Steve Rogers too. So you kept him at arms length with attitude that drove Steve up the wall. 

"Feelings? I have no feelings." Steve's face clouded with confusion. Bucky dramatically rolled his eyes. Apparently everyone was spending too much time with Tony. He turned and headed to follow you. “I thought we were training?” Steve called after Bucky.

"I'm going to check on Cami and make sure she's alright.” Bucky pauses for a moment. “There’s a reason why she gets under your skin. Ponder that.” Steve groaned as he watched Bucky retreating down the hallway.

***

"Hey! Knock much?!” You yelled out covering your shirtless torso with your blanket as Bucky barged in. He wiggled his eyebrows at you. 

"That’s what you get for giving me the code to your room. Nothing I haven't seen before."

"Um...you haven't seen mine." He grinned at you and shut your door.

"Eh...you see one set, you've seen them all." you shook your head and rolled your eyes. 

“You are seriously like a man child. Stop ogling me or I’m telling Nat.” You grabbed your shirt and turned around to throw it over your body. Bucky and Nat had been dating for about 6 months. You had watched him pine after her while he had been training you. It had been a relief when she finally made a move because he clearly never would. They were an excellent couple. 

“Umm, hate to break it to you but Nat and I ogle you together behind your back. You’re hot and you have a killer ass. Plus she knows we’re BFFs and nothing is ever going to happen between us.” You felt your face heat up and  laughed out loud at the thought of Bucky and Nat checking you out together.

“What do you want Bucky?" you asked while laughing.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. He didn't mean it like that."

"I know. I'm just oversensitive and cranky because I only slept like 3 hours. I'll be fine after a nap."  You climbed into your bed and rolled onto your side, your back facing Bucky. You were oversensitive, but you weren't fine. You felt a melt down bubbling under the surface. You just wanted Bucky to leave so you could do so in peace. Not that he hadn't ever seen you cry before, you just hated an audience. Instead of hearing him leave, you felt the bed sink as he sat down next to you.

“He doesn’t know why you wanted this week in particular off. If you would open up to him or to anyone else a little bit more they would all be there for you, support you. C’mon Cam, look at me.”  When you didn’t respond, Bucky sighed, brushed the hair off the side of your face. “I wish you would talk to him. I think if you guys put your egos in check and opened up to each other you’d be really close. You should tell him it’s the anniversary of the accident. He’d want to be there for you. Steve is a good guy. The best guy I’ve ever known. You just needle each other. You’re the first person to really challenge him other than Tony. He doesn’t know how to handle it.”  You scoffed. Steve Rogers was a first class asshole to you ever since your first mission with him. You sensed the mission was a set up, your insides had felt like they were on fire. You tried to tell him but he pushed forward with the mission. Sam has gotten pretty hurt. After you healed him you had lost your shit on Steve. It had been downhill from there. It was messed up, but you got a rush out of giving him a hard time. 

You hated to admit it, but Steve Rogers was the most attractive asshole you’d ever laid eyes on. You often found yourself daydreaming about his hands. You had a thing for his hands. You got goosebumps anytime he touched you. He had gripped your hips one day trying to adjust your stance and it took all of your self-control not to throw yourself at him. And then there were his lips. His perfect pink lips that you wanted to devour just to shut him up. 

You were jolted from your thoughts as Bucky leaned over and kissed your cheek. “I’ll come back in a couple of hours to wake you up with coffee and some food. Then I’ll help you pack for your ‘couples retreat’. By the way, I expect hilarious text updates since I won’t be there to witness the shit show of this mission.” You didn’t need to turn to picture the stupid smirk on his face. You and Steve would be investigating a crime ring. Some rich white guy hiding in Buenos Aires. Illegal arms deals, drugs, and pretty much anything else nefarious was in this guys wheelhouse. That was why Steve needed a female agent that wasn’t well known yet. He would be expecting the Avengers. This guy would see Natasha coming from 29 miles away. 

“Thanks Bucky. In all seriousness you have saved me in so many ways.” you mumbled as he stood up to leave.

“Anytime kid, anytime.” He slowly retreated as you settled into your bed to go to sleep.

True to his word, Bucky came back with food and coffee a few hours later expecting to have to drag you from your bed. Instead he found you standing in front of the mirror on your closet door studying yourself. Freshly showered, your long black hair was fastened into a braid that served as your crown. It had taken one guy to grab you by the ponytail during a mission for you to change your hairstyle. That braided crown was now your signature look. 

Instead of your black body suit you wore on missions you were clad in denim shorts and a tank top with tropical flowers and a pair of flip flops. ucky had a feeling the short shorts were to get under the skin of a certain Super Soldier.t. The blase look on your face told him you didn’t even realize you were dressed to drive Steve Rogers mad. You would have a certain gleam in your eye any time you did something to torture the poor Captain. He had seen Steve staring at your ass many times. Bucky took pleasure in the deep blush on Steve’s face any time he called him out. Those shorts were going to drive him insane.

“No suit?” You looked up when he questioned you.

“Not needed. It’s packed but we’re going to the safe house first and then we’ll take a cab to the hotel to make it look like we came from the airport.”

“You look cute.” He grinned. You threw a sneaker at him that he easily dodged.

“South America in the summer is stifling.” Your voice was flat, missing the normal spark. 

“Doll, did you even sleep?” You looked over at him with a sad smile. It was jarring to see you so vulnerable. Bucky knew it had to feel good to let your guard down and just feel your feelings. You didn’t do it often. It was reserved for himself and Tony. He just hated that empty look in your eyes. 

“That shot of Vodka would have helped.” You took a long sip of the coffee he brought you. “I’ll be fine Sergeant. Actually maybe working is better than not working.” Bucky pulled you into a tight hug.

“I’m sorry Cam. I really am. I wish I could go back and change everything for you.” You pulled back and looked at him.

“No. Everything happens for a reason. I have to believe that my parents and sister were saved from something much worse. I can’t live in regret or in the past. I’ve always given myself these few days to wallow. Maybe it’s time I move on from that too.” 

“You’re so wise.” He grinned trying to lighten to mood. You groaned and pushed him away. He sat with you in a comfortable silence as you ate.

“When does Nat come back?” You finally spoke.

“Couple of days. She wanted me to tell you how sorry she was that she’s not here so you didn’t have to go.” You shook your head.

“You tell her there is nothing to be sorry for. She deserves her time with those kids. I know how much she loves them. I’m not mad at her and you know I really wouldn’t have let Steve call her back. He just caught me off guard.” Bucky picked up your bags and nodded to the door. 

“C’mon, I’ll walk you to the jet.” You followed Bucky out of your room, part of you dreading this mission with Steve and part of you excited at the idea of really being alone with him.

***

“Agent Harrington- I expect that you’ve learned your lesson and will be keeping your hands to yourself from now on.” Steve glowered over the young agent. He had been ripping into him for the past half an hour. 

“Seriously? Look what she did to me?!” He finally erupted. 

“You put your hand in her pants. And before you try to deny it, someone already corroborated.” 

“Of course they did.” Steve was appalled that he was showing no remorse what so ever.

“Something like this happens again and you will be discharged from this program, do you understand me?” He finally relented. 

“Yes Sir.” He dropped his attitude. As he turned to leave you stood there with Bucky wide eyed. You thought Steve’s ire was reserved just for you. You hadn’t expected him to defend your honor. Steve’s deep blue eyes met yours for a moment and the fire behind them made your heart clench. Agent Harrington gave you an icy stare as he walked past you, but you were too busy staring at Steve to notice.

“I’m just gonna put your bags in the jet.” Bucky rushed past Steve to give the two of you a moment.

“He touches you again...he even glances in your direction in an unsavory way and you tell me.” Steve’s voice was low. You could only nod as your mouth had gone completely dry.” You blinked back shock a few times.   

“Th-Thanks.” you finally managed to stutter. You couldn’t get over the way he was looking at you.

“There she is!” Steve watched your face light up at the sound of Tony’s voice, disappointed that he wasn't the one that caused the excitement in your eyes.

“I’ll meet you on the Jet. Take off in 5.” You nodded and turned to Tony.

“What are you doing here?” You didn’t think Tony was even on site today. 

“Well...Cap told me about the impromptu mission so I just wanted to check on you. I know this is a hard few days for you.” He had his hand on your cheek and was smiling down at you. Tony Stark was looking at you like his own daughter. It choked you up a little bit.

“I’ll be fine. It’s probably better I’m going to be busy.”

“You sure? I can put the kibosh on this whole thing. Rogers thinks he’s in charge but we all know it’s me.” You laughed and he hugged you. "Did you get a chance to read the case file?"

"Yes Tony. Martin Cobb. Top one percenter, runs a BioTech firm Cobb International and owns multiple properties. We've got tips that he may be smuggling street drugs and illegals arms through the southern border. We're going down to whatever the hell that resort in Argentina is called. We received intel that he and his wife will be there this week. We're going in just looking for information from any of his associates and to get eyes on Cobb and watch him interact."

"Okay, just wanted to make sure you had everything. Don't do anything stupid. If you can interact with him safely, great. If not, stay away from him. We just want info, we don't want to tip our hand just yet." You nodded at Tony and he hugged you again. "When you get back, we're celebrating your birthday." He held his finger up before you could argue. "Yes. It's been 5 years. You should be celebrated." As much as you wanted to argue with him, you knew it was pointless. You simply hugged him again, thankful that he came into your life when he did.

Across the hangar, Steve was watching you and Tony with intrigue. He looked over at Bucky.

“What’s going on with her? Why is Tony here.” Steve rolled his eyes as Bucky shrugged. Frustrated that he knew there was something deeper here, but that no one would tell him. “Look I know there are things about her that I don’t know. I know she’s confided in you. Tony found her, I don’t even know where, and he kept her hidden for months and then he’d only let you train her. Is there something I should be worried about? Is there something I should know?” Bucky put your bags down.

“I can’t share her story. That’s for her to decide to share. She’s fine. You know Tony loves her like she’s his own kid. She’s never gone on a mission that he hasn’t seen her off on if he wasn’t going. She’s been through some shit. Tony knew that she and I would be a good fit. And he was right. Just try and not to let her get to you. Try keeping your temper in check and maybe she’ll open up to you.“ Steve did have a short fuse when it came to you. 

“Rogers! Take care of my girl!” Tony yelled as you stepped towards the jet.

“Bye Bucky.” You gave him a quick side hug. “Ready Captain?” The mischief was back in your eye. He watched you walk onto the jet and groaned a little. You were going to kill him over these next few days if you were wearing outfits like that. Bucky clapped him on the shoulder but kept his comments to himself and headed back inside of the compound.

***

You were following Steve into the safe house from the jet. He was carrying 99% of everything. He’d only relented to let you carry your own bags. It must have been a 40s thing. He and Bucky would rather walk on hot coals than let you open your own door or carry more than them. You laughed when you entered the little cabin. While it didn’t look like much in the outside, it was very clearly a Tony Stark property.

“What’s funny?” He turned to you. It was a genuine question, you were used to his voice being laced with irritation

“I think safe house...I don’t think California King, high tech computers and what I’m assuming is a stocked fridge.” The one room cabin had a kitchen that led to a huge room with the large bed, a decent size couch against the wall and a computer station with dual monitors.

“That’s Tony for you.” You hummed in response. “So I just have to check a few things before we go to the hotel. You could uh, take a nap if you want. You look tired.” Your brow furrowed. Normally he would have lectured you about not getting more rest and being out all night. This must have been written across your face because he followed it up. "I know this mission wasn't planned."

“Can’t sleep.” You simply stated. You saw concern lacing his features. “I could use some fresh air. I’m going to check out our private beach if you’re sure you don’t need me?” The idea of a private beach for a "safe house" was hilarious to you. 

“I’ll come get you when we’re ready to go. You nodded and headed to the back door. You paused before opening it and looked back to find Steve still staring at you. You gave him a small smile, still unnerved and slipped out the back door.

The warm briny air assaulted your senses, bringing you back to the last day with your family so many years ago. You sat down in the sand far enough back so were you were seated was dry, but just close enough to the water to where the waves washed over your feet and ankles as you extended them out. The tide was strong, you assumed that storms would be headed this way within a few days. Hopefully you and Steve were back home before that happened. 

"Y/N! Y/N! Look at my sand castle!" Ella's excited voice flooded your memories. Her vibrant face and brilliant eyes laced with happiness as she pulled you to the little mound of sand she had created. 

"Wow Ella, that's beautiful. What do you say we make a mansion for all of the little sea creatures here?" You sat down in the wet sand and grabbed her shovel and pales and began building your masterpiece. 

Ella's giggles rang through the air as the tilt-a-whirl spun you around and slammed her little body into yours. "Again! Again!" She yelled as she dragged you off of the ride and back into the line.

You watched from a distance as your mother and Ella pointed the water guns at their targets, trying to get Ella a bigger, better prize as your father stood with his arm around you in line for the roller coaster. He pulled you close to him for a side hug. "I'm so proud of you Y/N. You worked so hard. You're an amazing sister. We're all going to miss you so much when you're at college in the fall. I can't wait to see the amazing things you do with your life. Happy Birthday sweetheart."

Metal crunching. Screams. The smell of copper assaulting your senses as you felt someone grip you by the waist and pull you out of the back seat. Flashing lights and sirens.

Your brain was assaulted with memories you often pushed down, but when you felt the foamy water hit your toes....you couldn't stop it. You didn't notice anyone approaching, not realizing you had been outside for almost an hour. After sitting for a while, you had stood and slowly strolled along the shore trying to push out the horrific memories of the accident and replace them with the happy ones of that day. You defensively smacked a hand away that gripped your shoulder your brought your foot down in a sweep to knock them down and spun, ready for a fight. The man sitting in front of you had Auburn hair and hazel eyes. You had no idea who he was, but then you gave yourself a second to notice his other features. That jaw line was unmistakable and you would recognize his hands anywhere. It took you a moment to realize who you were looking at and what you had done.

"Oh my god, Steve I'm so sorry. You scared the hell out of me. I’m- I’m not wearing the contacts so I couldn’t see through the appearance changing thing. I didn’t  realize." You felt your face heat up in embarrassment. You put your hand out and helped pull him to his feet. 

"It's okay. I didn't mean to scare you. I called your name but you didn't hear me. I forgot I looked different. Great reflexes by the way. Wait...are you crying? Why are you crying?" You quickly wiped the tears from your face, looking away.

"I'm not...it's, it's nothing. I'm fine." you stammered, cursing yourself for not being more self aware. Steve took a tentative step towards you, when you didn't flinch back, he put his hand on your cheek and turned your face back to him.

"It's not nothing. You wouldn't cry over nothing." He wiped a stray tear from your cheek. The way he was looking at you made you want to break down and tell him all of your secrets. Instead, you steeled yourself. Steve could literally see something change in your eyes as you pulled yourself together.

"You know I'm dramatic Steve." you adverted your eyes again. You felt his body deflate as he sighed.

"Camille...please don't do that. Please don't. Please don't cheapen your feelings and act like it's trivial." You felt your defenses building.

"Why do you care Steve? You hate me." You felt guilty as you saw a look of hurt pass his eyes.

"I...I don't hate you. I know I give you a hard time. But I don't hate you." 

"Can we please just drop this? Please?" He dropped his hand. 

"The cab will be here in a half an hour. It's about a 15 minute walk from the cabin through the woods where we're being picked up so no one is tipped off to the safe house. Meet me out front in 10." He turned to walk back to the house, not waiting for your response. Life was easier when you thought Steve Rogers hated you. You put your hand on your cheek, it still tingled from where he touched you. 

***

You were going to die, you were certain of it. It was almost July in Argentina and it was a balmy 105 degrees. The air was thick with humidity. You had been walking for 10 minutes and were certain you were going to pass out.

"Steve...we have to stop for a second." You were so irritated with his Super Solider perfection. He had both of your bags thrown over his shoulders, heavy jeans and a t-shirt on ad was barely breaking a sweat while hiking through the woods to get to your destination. You, on the other hand were wearing barely any shorts and a tank top, your face was bright red and you could feel sweat dripping down your back.

"Cam...we're going to miss the cab. We're literally like 5 minutes from where we need to be." He was trying not to be irritated with you. When he saw you, leaning over with your hands on your knees he wanted to just pick you up and carry you too, but he knew you were to proud to ever allow that.

"How are you not dying in those pants?" You gestured at him.

"It's the serum. It regulates my temperature better than your body allows you to." 

"I kind of hate you right now." You gave him a crack of a smile.

"I can carry you." He offered, knowing you'd say no.

"I'd rather die. Though I may die anyway." You were thankful that your hair was off of your shoulders.

"We're almost there. I promise." You nodded and stood up straight again after wiping your face on the inside of your shirt.

"I have dibs on the shower as soon as we walk into that room." Steve laughed and nodded in agreement. You managed the last few minutes of the trek. You had gotten there just at the right time for the cab to pull up. Steve piled all of your belongings into the trunk and you were on your way.

You were murderous when you pulled up to the resort. The cab that had picked the two of you up had been rickety and run down. The air conditioning in the car was broken and even with all of the windows open, all you could smell was the cab drivers BO. Steve could sense your mounting irritation and without thinking took your hand and squeezed it to try and calm you down. He felt you stiffen for a moment and then relax without making any eye contact with him. After a 45 minute drive you arrived at the front of a ridiculous resort. You hopped out of the car trying not to gasp for fresh air as Steve paid the driver and grabbed your things. He put his hand on the small of your back to lead you into the hotel. It was time to put your game faces on and play the happy couple. 

Cold air blasted you in the face and Steve felt your whole body visibly relax from where his hand was rested. He led you over to the front desk as you looked around at the exorbitant display of wealth in front of your eyes.

"Mr. & Mrs. Buchanan checking in." Steve smiled kindly at the woman at the front desk. You had to hold back a snort. Clearly we were reaching the bottom of the barrel for cover names. Steve could see the twinkle in your eyes. 

"Ah yes...I see right here Mr. and Mrs. Grant Buchanan." It took all you had not to roll your eyes at how your identity was lost at your supposed marriage. "Congratulations! I trust your wedding was wonderful." you stuffed your left hand in your pocket to dig out the faux engagement ring and wedding band and discretely slipped them on. Steve had already placed his on before you left. You were afraid the sweat dripping from your body would make them fall off.

"It was. We actually eloped. Rather spend the money on a great trip." You felt yourself lie. You really didn't want to have to come up with fake wedding details. As a little girl, you had dreamed about a wedding of your own, but that all changed. Now you couldn't even imagine letting someone close enough to your heart. The front desk girl seemed disappointed.You tuned her and Steve out as they finished chatting as she checked you in. 

"Now I expect we'll see you both down here for dinner tonight. We have a wonderful band playing."

"Of course, we'll see you later tonight."  You both declined having a bell hop escort you to the room.

“I thought this guy wasn’t supposed to be here until tomorrow? Why do we have to go to dinner tonight.” Steve gave you a pointed look.

“Because we need to blend in. Participating in their activities is necessary. I don’t want to stand out for showing up only when he’s around. Plus maybe we'll be lucky enough to get some intel from his associates.” 

Steve opened the door for you to the room. You paused in the doorway. The rug what a deep red. The bed in the middle of the room was the largest bed you’d ever laid eyes on. It was on a massive gold head and foot board. The bedding was a rich cream. Mahogany night stands stood on each side. In front of the bed was a large cabinet with a huge flat screen TV. To the right was a matching desk with a brown leather chair. To the left led to a small living room area with a large brown plush couch and a table with two chairs against the wall. You could only imagine what the bathroom looked like. “This is...extra.” Steve shut the door behind you and carried your bags over to the couch. Your eyes flickered over to the closet at the garment bags hanging. You furrowed your brow. “What are those in the closet?”

“Tony apparently sent some items down, not trusting us to dress ourselves.” You laughed at the thought.

“Well he wasn’t wrong. I look like a hobo compared to the way some of those women were dressed.” 

“You don’t look like a hobo.” You felt Steve’s gaze on you as you turned to look at him. “You just don’t need to try that hard.” You felt your breath hitch in your throat. 

“Thanks.” What the hell was happening? Where was the Steve that cut you no slack and had something to say about everything you did? This was unexpected. You were prepared for the other Steve. “Hopefully Tony didn’t pack any dresses that make me look naked.” You turned as Steve scoffed.

“Tony would never send anything like that for you. He’d rather put you in a garbage bag that covered you neck to toe.” You pondered that and laughed.

“That is true. I’ve gotten the ‘you’re not going out like that’ lecture from him before.” 

“Go take a shower. I’ll check in back home.” You grabbed your bag to bring into the bathroom with you. You paused before you closed the door.

“Thank you Steve.” You shut the door quickly before he could respond. You felt yourself blushing again. You had to get control of yourself.

You looked around and immediately fell in love with the bathroom. There was a huge whirlpool tub and large shower stall with multiple shower heads. Your planned on requesting a bathroom upgrade when you got home.

You studied yourself in the mirror. All of the makeup had essentially melted off of your face. Though still braided, your hair was frizzy from the heat and humidity. You looked hideous. But Steve had looked at you like...you couldn’t finish the thought. You looked at your eyes. Tony has made this pair of contacts especially for you. They changed your purple eyes to a bluish grey color. 

You had wanted to open up to Steve on the beach. You wanted to tell him everything, mostly because you felt so damn lonely and you just wanted someone to hold you. No, you wanted him to hold you. You rolled your eyes at yourself and got yourself ready to shower. You couldn’t drag anyone into the mess that you were, especially not Steve Rogers.

A few hours later Steve was stepping out of the bathroom dressed in beige dress shorts and a cobalt blue linen shirt. Tony has sent loafers for him and these weird socks that only covered half of his feet so they couldn’t be seen. He looked around the room but didn’t see you. He didn’t think you would venture out on your own. He felt a little panicked, but then he saw you. You were standing out on the balcony looking out at the ocean. Your dark hair in waves down your back. You must have sensed him approaching because you turned and smiled at him. He wasn’t used to that. Normally you scowled at him. But that smile did something to him and he felt his heart rate speed up.

“You definitely don’t look homeless now.” He cracked. You tipped your head back and laughed. Tony could pick out clothes, he’d give him that. You were wearing a light teal silk dress that had white polka dots on it. It was a thin strapped v-neck wrap dress with a ruffled hem. You paired it with white strappy sandals.

“I don’t think I have ever seen your actual legs.” He felt a little self-conscious as you looked him up and down. “Are you wearing socks?” You scrunched you’re face up.

“Yes. You just can’t see them.” You roared with laughter.

“He packed you no show socks?!” You were stunning when you laughed. Steve only wished he could see your real eyes. They glowed magenta when you used your powers, but if you were laughing really hard they would show little sparks of the glowing color. The contacts covered that up. “That alone was worth the trip. You better watch it Captain. He’s going to make you high maintenance yet.” They way you called him Captain did things to him. 

“You’re hilarious.” He deadpanned. You grabbed his hand and pulled him outside.

“Look at this view.” Your room faces the ocean. The sky danced with pinks, yellow and oranges as the sun set. “Do you see how harsh the waves are. There’s a storm coming. It’s a few days off, but it’s brewing.”

“How do you know?” When you looked over you expected him to be challenging you, hoping to prove you wrong. He looked genuinely interested. Not a hint of sarcasm in sight.

“I, um, I grew up near Cape Cod. I learned how to tell when a storm was coming.”

“No accent?” He was perceptive, but you knew that. He was trained to be.

“I worked hard at hiding the accent. Stops people from asking questions.” He nodded and took the hint. That was the first real piece of information you had ever told him about your past. He didn’t want to push his luck.

“Ready Mrs. Buchanan?” He offered you his arm. You rolled your eyes.

“Bucky made the reservations for you, didn’t he? Such a narcissist."

"Actually, it was supposed to be Bucky and Nat that did this mission, but she ended up having to leave." Steve chuckled as you linked your arm through his, leading you down to the dining room.

You and Steve were at the bar waiting to be seated. It reminded you of a wedding cocktail party the way they had everything set up. They had waiters walking around with appetizers. They would be opening the dining room in an hour for everyone to be seated for dinner service. 

Playing Steve’s significant other wasn’t as hard as you thought it would be. You had to tell yourself that his comforting touches were an act. You forced herself to remember what he was really like. The “that’s not the way we do things agent” “you’re reckless, those force fields won’t be able to protect you from everything.” And so on and so on. You tried to march the criticism and the snarky comments through your brain, but with the way he was looking at you, the marching band refused to play.

He was sitting on a bar stool and you were standing in between his legs. Your insides were screaming for you to run away from the Captain, to say something hateful to annoy him you her heart wouldn’t allow you to form the words. You felt him put his hand on your lower back and pull you close so it looked like he was holding you in an embrace. 

“These three men behind me are known associates of Martin Cobb, I recognize them from some of the intel. I've heard them mention Mr. Cobb a few times, but they're speaking to fast,  I can’t understand what they’re saying.” You tried to concentrate on the words coming from their mouths but Steve was making it almost impossible. He had run the tip of his nose from your shoulder languidly up to your neck. You swallowed. You could sense the eyes of some of the resort employees on you and Steve. He was definitely putting on a show.

“They’re-“ You had to pause and clear your throat. “They’re discussing his arrival tomorrow. They are to proceed with caution as his wife will be here. He’s coming to see a shipment. They aren’t saying what it is though. The way they're talking, it has to be some sort of drug.” You felt Steve press a kiss to your shoulder, silently hating him for being so good at his job. He brought his lips up to your ear.

“Are you okay? Is this too much? I just, the people that work here seem to be rather interested in us. I'm starting to think they're on his payroll.” Steve Rogers, always the gentleman even when what he’s doing is part of the job. He pulled back to look you in the eyes. You nodded. 

"I was thinking the same thing. I may not be as inconspicuous as we originally thought."

“Your table is ready Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan." Steve stood and took your hand to lead you as he followed the hostess to a table in the middle of the restaurant. You looked around hoping for something more private. You didn't want anyone overhearing your conversation. It was like the hostess could read your mind. “I’m sure no one will mind a little PDA. Mostly everyone here is newly married or celebrating their relationship.” Steve pulled out your chair and helped you sit down. Once the hostess left, Steve reached across the table and took your hand. You couldn’t discern what was real and what was him putting on a show, but the roughness of his hands was intoxicating. You found yourself not wanting him to let go. “You okay?” He broke your trance and you looked up and smiled.

“I am, I just feel a little on edge. But there are a lot of people here. You know, Bucky is going to be disappointed we haven’t almost killed each other. He wanted stories.” Steve threw his head back and laughed.

“Of course he does.”

“This, um, trip, was more suited for him and Nat I think.” You didn't want to call it a mission and have anyone overhear.

“I think we're doing okay." You couldn't look away from him. "Clint called and said Laura was having a hard time and they could use someone to distract the girls. The baby has colic." You shuddered, you remembered how helacious your sister's colic had been. 

“You know I never would have let you call her back right? I shouldn’t have acted the way I did.” Steve, who was still holding your hand squeezed it.

“It’s forgotten. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. You have to know I don’t think of you as a secondary team member. You’ve saved so many people, including people on our own team.”

“Thanks Steve.” You were happy the lighting hid the blush on your cheeks. Your internally cringed at the amount of times you felt yourself blush. You felt like an idiot. The way Steve was looking at you, you felt like you couldn’t breath. He let go of your hand as the waiter approached. You took 3 long sips of your drink. You needed to shake Steve Rogers and his perfect eyes from your brain. 

The rest of the evening had been uneventful in regards to Martin Cobb intel. Soon after you were done eating, the men left. You had suggested going back to the room to try and get a jump on the next day, but Steve shook his head.

“I need to show you something first." Steve led you outside onto the beach. You took your heels off and carried them so you could walk with him. He had his arm around you as he led you further down to the other side of the resort.

"Are you taking me somewhere to kill me? Where are we going?" He snickered lightly. He stopped when he got to a path that led to a wooded area. 

"This is important. If you take this path right here, it cuts through the woods to the safe house. It's a short cut from. If we need to make a break for it...you go this way."

"You made me ride in that smelly cab for almost an hour when we could have cut through the woods? What is that building over there?" You saw a grey concrete building with a flat roof. It couldn’t have been more than two rooms on a single floor.

"I think someone would have noticed if we didn't arrive at the front entrance and were sneaking through the woods." You snorted when you laughed.  You were about to make a smart ass comment when Steve grabbed you by your waist and pulled you to him. Your eyes went wide as he pressed his lips to yours. After a moment, you kissed him back, wrapping your arms around his neck, running your hand up the back of his hair. You were so focused on how his tongue was tracing the your bottom lip and how it felt to have his hands gripping your hips that you almost didn’t hear the man that was barreling towards the two of you.

"HEY! You two! You can't be over here!" one of the workers was running towards the two of you. Steve pulled back and you let out an involuntary whine.

"I'm so sorry sir. We just started walking down the beach and got a little carried away with each other, I didn't realize how far from the resort we had wandered." He saw the guy coming, that was why he kissed you. You felt disappointment creeping in.

"This area is closed off to guests. Please, head back towards the resort." Steve took your hand and started leading you back the other way.

"Right. We're so sorry." You were still stunned. Steve hadn't even warned you that someone was coming. You glanced back towards the little building you saw. There was a reason why they didn’t want you over there. You were sure that building was important. Steve pulled you along. 

"It's alright...I know how young love is." The man chuckled as he followed you back. He didn't leave until the two of you were back in the hotel lobby. Your heart was pounding in your chest. Steve didn't say another word to you as he led you to the elevator or the entire ride up. Once you were back in your room and the door was shut behind you, he gave you a sheepish smile.

"I'm sorry. I just saw that guy almost running at us and I didn't want to blow our cover, I didn't have time to warn you." 

"No...it's...it was fine. You just surprised me. I'm going to go change." You quickly grabbed some clothes out of your bag. You felt yourself get brave and you turned back to Steve who’s eyes hasn’t left you. “You know...for being a century old, you’re not a bad kisser.” You gave him a small smile and then shut the bathroom door behind you as his cheeks blazed red. You leaned your back against the door and put your fingers to your lips. Not ever before in your life did a kiss make you feel like that. You took a few moments to compose yourself after you changed into a pair of spandex shorts and an over-sized Stark Industries T-Shirt. 

As you exited the bathroom, Steve was standing near your bag with a strange expression on his face. You looked down and saw the picture that you brought with you everywhere in his hands. You took a few strides over to him and yanked it from his hands.

“It- it fell out of your bag. Is- Is that you?” You looked down at the picture. It was at breakfast the day you lost your family. There was a birthday candle sticking out of your waffles. Ella was sitting on your lap as they sang to you, the waiter had taken the picture. You couldn’t remember the last time you looked that happy. Your face was exactly the same, but it had been a long time since you had seen your natural hair and eye color. It was almost jarring. You turned away from Steve and he could feel you bricking up the wall he started knocking down.  “Camille...talk to me. Please. Who is that?” For all Steve knew, that could be your sister. You didn’t look like you anymore. You wiped a stray tear.

“I haven’t been that girl in a long time. She’s a ghost Steve. She’s no one.” He pulled you back to him.

“Don’t do that. Please don’t do that. You can trust me. Don’t shut me out.” You cleared your throat and pulled your arm away from Steve so you could hug yourself.

“That was me, 5 years ago. 5 years ago to this day. My parents and sister were killed in a car accident while we were in a vacation in Europe. I should have died too, I sometimes wish I had died too. They injected me with whatever made me like this. I think whoever made me was looking for lost causes, people near death so that if their formula backfired, no one would suspect anything. But here I am. They were a success. But the girl in this picture is dead and gone.”  Before you could walk away from him, Steve pulled you to him in a bone crushing hug. He didn’t say anything, he just held you as you felt hot tears fall down your cheeks. 

***

You didn’t remember falling asleep. You felt like there was a heavy iron curtain hanging over you. You slowly blinked your eyes open and you were in bed, laying on your side facing the huge glass doors that led out to the balcony. You felt Steve’s body pressed against your back as he snored lightly. His arm thrown over your body. You stayed there for a moment enjoying the heat of his body and the safeness of his embrace. You slowly slid out from his grasp and grabbed your phone as you slid your flip flops on. You needed some air and some coffee.

You scrolled through your phone and saw a handful of missed calls and messages from Bucky. Did you guys get there okay? Have you driven Steve crazy yet? Why aren’t you answering me? Did Steve kill you already? And then the final one- Steve called me after you fell asleep. Call me when you get up.”

You closed the door slowly behind you so it wouldn't wake Steve and headed downstairs. You slipped through the lobby and headed out towards the back patio where breakfast was set up, in desperate need of caffeine. After you poured yourself a generous cup, you found a secluded table in the corner of the deck. You moved your chair so it was facing the railing and looking out over the ocean. Once you were situated you pulled your knees close to your body and dialed Bucky's number. It rang a few times before his gruff and sleepy voice answered.

"It's 5am Doll." Was all he said.

"Well good morning to you too." 

"It's 7am there. What the hell are you doing up already?" You listened as his voice slowly became more alert. "Are you okay? Steve told me about the picture, and you breaking down, and....I didn't think you'd ever tell him." You took a drink of your coffee.

"I"m fine. If he hadn't found that picture I probably wouldn't have, and I didn't tell him much. It was kind of cathartic. And Steve on this mission is much different than any other Steve I've worked with. And what was I supposed to do? Tell him it wasn't me? Believe me, I tried to not tell him. He just looks at you with those stupid blue eyes and you want to tell him all of your secrets." You had his full attention now.

"Stupid blue eyes huh? Exactly how well are you and Steve getting along?"

"Shut up Bucky."

"I KNEW IT! YOU LIKE HIM!!" He yelled into your ear. 

"You're insufferable." You looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, and also to make sure Steve wasn't sneaking up on you to hear your confession. "I can't keep anything from you, even if I should and want to. I may have a little crush." You rolled your eyes in defeat. Bucky Barnes would never let this go now.

"Little crush huh?"

"Okay fine, a huge one. But it's this mission. Pretending to be newly weds...all the fake affection, the kissing. It's messing with my brain."

"Wait...hold up. You kissed him?"

"Technically he kissed me. I just kissed him back." Bucky was making some sort of celebration whooping sound when you followed it up. "It's because we were sneaking around the property and got caught. He was trying to blow it off as us getting carried away."

"Was there tongue?" She could see him wiggling his eyebrows in her mind.

"Shut up. I hate you." She clenched her jaw as he laughed at her expense.

"Well that's a yes. I mean...I always knew your hatred for him was just a veil of your feelings."

"There are no feelings. It's a crush. I'll get over it." You said the word feelings like it was a curse word.

"Sure you will. Listen...I'm going back to sleep now that I know you aren't going to jump off the deep end. And maybe explore the possibility of feelings for Steve." Her shook his head when you scoffed. "And Cam?"

"Yeah Buck?"

"Happy Birthday." And with that he hung up the phone. You shook your head as you set your phone down on the table and took another sip of your coffee. The wind was whipping through your hair and you saw the dark clouds slowly approaching. The rain would start soon. The idea of a heavy storm trapping you on the island made your anxiety kick up. Then you thought about being trapped on the island with Steve and you settled into your thoughts.

"Well you look lonely." About 15 minutes later a voice yanked you from your daydreaming thoughts of Steve Rogers. You slowly turned to see a beautiful middle aged woman standing in front of you. She had beautiful curly dark hair, deep dark eyes, full lips and a gorgeous smile. Age barely marked her face. "Where is your other half?

"I'm sorry....do I know you?"

"Oh I'm sorry dear! I'm Maria Alvarez Cobb." you heard the alarm bells going off in your head. This must be Martin Cobb's wife. "I'm just surprised to see a lovely young woman like yourself sitting alone outside at a couples resort." 

"Oh! My husband is still sleeping. I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep, but I didn't want to wake him, so I came down for some coffee and to get some fresh air before it gets so warm later today." 

"If you don't mind me saying, you look rather young to be someone's wife." She took an uninvited seat at your table.

"Newly weds. I look young for my age." She wasn't being dishonest. You would know if she was, you would sense it. But something about her was off, you were sure of it.

"I didn't catch your name." You frantically tried to remember the name that was on the reservation. No one had called you by your first name. 

"Ainsley...Ainsley Buchanan." How you plucked that out of the back of your brain, you'd never know. 

"Stark Industries? Do you work for Tony Stark" she motioned to your t-shirt. You silently cursed yourself. Rule number one was never, ever let anyone associate you with anything Avengers or Stark related when on an undercover mission."

"Oh no...my brother Peter has an internship with Mr. Stark. A perk is plenty of free T-Shirts." She smiled.

"It must be nice to be close to a sibling." It felt like everything she said was an accusation. You simply smiled at her. 

"Well, I think I'll go and see if my husband has decided to wake up yet." You stood to walk quickly away and she grabbed your hand.

"Ms. Buchanan, my husband and I are inviting all of our guests to our anniversary party tonight at the resort. I do hope you'll be able to attend with your husband. I'd love to meet him. I try to meet all of our guests when we come down to stay here."

"Your guests?"

"Oh dear, my husband and I own this resort." You tried to keep your face as neutral as possible, on the inside you were screaming.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't even realize!" you feigned embarrassment. 

"Oh don't apologize. I wouldn't expect you to know. Will we see you tonight?"

"We wouldn't miss it for the world

As soon as you were out of anyone's line of vision you moved quickly to the stair well and ran up the stairs, not trusting yourself to be on an elevator with anyone else. Your hands were shaking as you tried to unlock the door. You cursed as you dropped your phone and it hit the bottom of the door. Steve must have heard you because he opened it before you could even put the key card in the door.

"Camille, what in the hell?" He looked at your disheveled appearance, panic spread all over your face.

"Shhh...let me in and shut the door, NOW" You yelled at him in a whisper. He moved so you could rush in and shut the door. He turned around waiting for an explanation for your frantic behavior.

"Steve...I fucked up. I fucked up BIG time." 

"It's 7:40 in the morning? How could you have possibly messed up?" You internally rolled your eyes at his refusal to use the same curse word you had. You took the ends of your shirt so he could read the logo. He squinted his eyes and shook his head to indicate he wasn't following your train of thought. "Okay I need you to say actual words."

"I woke up early and didn't want to wake you. I didn't even remember falling asleep last night to be honest. I felt foggy and I wanted some fresh air and coffee. I'm so sorry for breaking down like that. I'm such a fucking baby." Steve grabbed you by your shoulders.

"Camille...I need you to focus." You closed your eyes for a moment and when you opened them, he was looking at you with more concern that you had ever seen on his face before.

"Sorry. I went downstairs to call Bucky because he left me like 1800 messages. I didn't even think to change my shirt. When I got off the phone with him, this woman came up to me. Maria Alvarez Cobb." 

"Shit..." Steve let you go.

"I know. She was asking why I was alone. I told her my "husband" was still asleep and I wanted to enjoy the weather with my coffee. She mentioned the shirt. She asked me if I worked for Mr. Stark. I told her my brother Peter interned for him."

"So you covered. It's not that bad." 

"Steve. It's bad! When are you going to realize I can sense when something is off? It's more than just knowing when someone is lying. Lately...it's like I can sense the negative energy in the air. I felt off around her. She wasn't lying to me. But the warning bells were ringing in my head. She was definitely suspicious of me. She invited us to their anniversary party tonight. Actually, she said she was inviting all of their guests to the party. She and Martin Cobb own this place."

"What? That's not listed anywhere."

"I KNOW!" You threw your arms up. "I'm such a fuck up. I should know better than to even bring this shit with me on a mission."

"Cam...stop. It's okay." 

"You're not going to yell at me?" You jolted back, looking at him in shock.

"No...it was an honest mistake." Your drew your eyebrows together.

"You're not so calm because of you feel sorry for me, this isn't pity Rogers, is it?"

"Oh my God will you stop?" You crossed your arms in front of you glaring him down. "It's not pity. But it's already done. So now we just have to tread lightly from here." You nodded, relaxing your posture. 

"You put me to bed last night."

"I did."

"You held me."

"I did. You needed it." He waited for you to say more, but he could tell you couldn't find the words. "We all have baggage Camille. We all have scars. You don't have to bottle them up. We're all here for you. Not just Tony and Bucky. If you talked more, you might not feel broken. I'm here for you. You needed someone to be there for you last night. I'm here for you, any time you need someone." You nodded.

"Thank you. I'm not ready to talk more just yet. But thank you." 

"You're welcome. Now let's order some room service and get to work researching this woman and try to figure out what shipment they're expecting." 

***

Your nerves were shot. You and Steve found out next to nothing about the Cobb's. Maria was even more of an enigma than her husband Martin. As far as they could tell, Martin Cobb ran a BioTech company. There were none of the usual "drug front" businesses under Cobb International. Martin and Maria bought the resort 6 months ago. You were standing near the glass door staring out at the whipping wind and the heavy rain.

"I mean it makes sense why we didn't know they owned the place. I just can't figure out what it is that he's selling. We thought it was drugs and arms deals. Maybe we're wrong." Steve fixed the tie around his neck. You had been pacing all day. Pacing back and forth in front of the door. Pacing around the room. You couldn't sit still. "Camille, you're making me dizzy." You spun and looked at him and gave him a sheepish smile. You were wearing a black sweetheart neckline dress. It was chiffon with a small embellished belt and a high-low hemline; the shortest part of the dress just long enough to hide the thigh holster for your weapon. You paired it with flat gold gladiator sandals. You didn't want to have to fight, or run in heels. Your hair was in it's signature braid wrapped around your head. 

"Steve...I just have a bad feeling about this. Maybe we should call this mission and re-group. This storm is going to get worse. If we get into trouble, we wont be able to fly out of here."

"No...we're here. It'll be okay. They aren't going to do anything in a room full of people. C'mon, let's go down there for a while, see what's up and if you still feel like this, we'll leave and go to the safe house. I already have Tony and Bucky on standby." You nodded. He put his hand on the small of your back to lead you out of the room, he’d been doing it for the past two days and you didn’t think you would ever get sick of it.

Waves of anxiety passed through you as the two of you made your way into the ballroom. . Gold and crystal chandeliers hanging throughout the ceiling. Everything else in black. Black chairs, black table cloths. Then the gold and black plates. You grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. 

“I don’t know if getting drunk is our best play.” Steve whispered into your ear. You rolled your eyes.

“Oh grow up. A glass of champagne isn’t going to get me drunk. It’s going to calm my nerves.” You watched Steve’s jaw tick as you rolled your eyes.

“I swear to God if you roll your eyes at me again I’m going to roll them back for you. That drives me insane.” He whispered harshly in your ear. So it was the eye rolling that got to him, you did it often, which explained why he was always so triggered by you. You narrowed your eyes at him.

“Now is not the time or the place to threaten me with a good time, Captain.” The snarky comment came out of your mouth before you could stop it. You both stood there awkwardly for a moment staring at each other until Steve cleared his throat. 

“We should probably head that way.” Steve pointed you towards the back corner of the room. You nodded and let him lead you there. Here you were, probably walking into your deaths and you were flirting. You internally chastised yourself and thanked God no one else was on this mission. You’d never live it down. 

The two of you tried to eavesdrop on whatever conversations you could but got no information. Whatever was happening was deep under wraps. Martin Cobb didn't want his dealings around his wife, the men you had listened to last night made that clear. You should have known you wouldn't have been able to pick up on anything.  You could feel the electricity and anxiety coursing through your body. You felt Steve’s hand on your thigh to stop you from bouncing your leg. He had just gotten back from making another round of the room.

“I haven’t even seen the Cobbs.” You commented.

“I know. Let’s get out of here. We’ll pack our things and head to the safe house and see what to do next.” You were about to agree with him when you froze cold in your spot. “What? What is it?” You spotted a man across the room. You hadn't seen him in 5 years, but you would recognize him anywhere.

“That- that man over there. That’s Dr. Yablowsk,  the doctor that treated me after the accident.” He was tall and slender. Balding with white hair. He actually reminded you of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. Steve saw a variety of emotions pass through your eyes.

“You mean- he’s the one that made you the way you are?” You nodded.

“He has to be. He was the only doctor that I saw the day of the accident. This can’t be a coincidence. Screw going back to the room, we’re leaving now.” You grabbed Steve’s hand and were about to drag him out of the room when you saw Maria Alvarez Cobb approaching you.

“You must be Mr. Buchanan. I met your lovely wife Ainsley this morning.” She shoved her hand at Steve and he graciously accepted the hand shake.

“Yes ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Ainsley told me she met you this morning and you personally invited us. Happy Anniversary.” Steve watched as the color drained from your face.

“Such a gentleman too. Hold on to this one Ainsley, good men are hard to come by.” Her smile seemed genuine, but she kept saying your name like it was an accusation. She knew you weren't who you said you were. You could tell by the way she was looking at you.

“I need to use the restroom.” You quickly slipped from the two of them and rushed outside. You felt sick. Your head was pounding and you had to get away from that woman. Once you were out of their line of vision, you headed outside. The rain soaked you as you you slowly started to make your way to the edge of the woods. You were hoping Steve would meet you there when you weren't by the restroom. You were banking on his uncanny ESP to know exactly where to go and what to do at all times. You paused when you got close to that little concrete building. The lights were on and you heard two men arguing.

“I need to get to the party. My wife is there and she’s trying to keep her at that party.”

“Martin- this isn’t a good idea. Just let her go, we have more. We can make more.” 

"NO! She's the first. She was our first successful case. She slipped from my grasp back then. I finally have the opportunity now!" You stumbled back.

They were talking about you. They had to be. You quickly slipped between two bushes and squatted down before you could be seen. You watched as Martin Cobb stormed out of the little building and headed towards the resort. You felt your hands shaking as you pulled your phone out of your small purse to text Steve. You warned him this was a trap and described where you were hiding.

The warm rain was making your dress stick to your body and the wind was almost knocking you over. You kept looking at your phone to see if Steve would answer you, but he hadn't said a single word back. You were squatting down trying not to hyperventilate and saying a silent prayer when you saw Steve coming  about 20 minutes later.

“What the hell is going on?”

“We need to get out of here. I’ll explain at the safe house. We are NOT safe. They know who I am.” Steve gave you a questioning look but accepted that you would explain when you were out of danger. The two of you moved as silently as you could. You were about go into the woods when you saw someone step out of the building.

“Y/N YLN” Your head snapped over to him as he called your real name. Steve looked at you in confusion. No one knew what your real name was except Tony Stark, not even Bucky knew.

“Who the hell are you?” You couldn’t get a good look at him, but he was tall and muscular with a shaved head.

“My name is Nick Webster, I’m the man that pulled you from the wreckage 5 years ago. I’ve been helping Martin and Dr. Yablowski look for you. It was smart, faking your suicide. But then Tony Stark found you and I knew...I just knew it was you. We didn’t realize how much your appearance had changed. You became a completely different person from when I saw you to when the doctor saw you. You know what gave you away?”

“Meeting Maria this morning.” The man laughed.

“Well that certainly didn’t help. No, that made us suspect something was off with you and your husband, that and the report that you were wandering a little to close to the woods. But it’s how you wore your hair tonight. It’s your look. “The Protector” always wears her hair like that. Don’t you realize that Martin Cobb is the one that sent all of those tips in to The Avengers? He's not dealing illicit drugs or illegal weapons. He's too smart and sophisticated for that. He wanted you here. I don’t know how he got so lucky that you were the one that came. You were his first creation. What’s shocking to me is that Tony Stark would send his Little Orphan Annie all by herself. Don’t you normally have that Super Soldier by your side? The ex assassin that is excellent at murder? The Winter Solider is it? Instead they send you with some B-List agent?“

“Actually, they sent her with me.” You and Nick Webster turned to where Steve Rogers was standing. You watched as Steve reached behind his ear and turned off his appearance enhancer. While you couldn't see his transformation because of your contacts, Nick saw the auburn hair melt into his normal dirty blonde rocks and his hazel eyes transformed into his piercing blue that were narrowed on Nick Webster. 

“Oooo Captain America! You must really be important to Stark.” Before you knew what was happening Steve took a few strides towards you and shoved your out of the way as Nick charged at him. You tried to get the comm that was in your bag into your ear as the two men fought. You knew Tony and Bucky were standing by waiting to hear from you and Steve. It was the quickest way to get a distress signal to them. You dropped your bag when you saw Nick pull out a blade and he was inches from stabbing Steve in the spine. You heard Tony’s words in your head. “C’mon kid, I bet if you concentrate hard enough you can throw a force field at someone to protect them if they aren’t next to you. Let’s try.” You had been working at it for months with Tony. You had come close a few times, but it never worked. "Maybe you just need the right motivation. It took a while for you to be able to create them on demand. We'll keep working at it. We'll get this." 

You felt power surging through your body as your hand shot out  towards Steve. You watched with slight awe as a purple orb few from your hand and surround Steve Rogers. The force almost knocked you over and took a lot of your strength. You were leaning against a tree to support yourself when you felt Nick’s blade pierce through your abdomen. You cried out in pain and fell to your knees. You held your hand to your stomach and tried to heal the wound, but nothing was happening. You watched as he stalked towards Steve and you quickly pulled the gun from your holster.

“Hey Nick!” You called out and as soon as he turned you put a bullet between his eyes and you fell to the ground. You silently thanked Bucky Barnes for making you an excellent shot.

“Cami...why didn’t you heal yourself?” Steve had ran over to you and dropped to his knees. Tendrils of your jet black hair had slipped from your braid and were sticking to your face. The pelting rain washing off the wet sand stuck to your face. Steve was frantic and trying to see the wound. He watched as you put your hand over where the blade had sliced through your body. Your eyes glowed the shade of magenta he had been enthralled with since the day he met you and he watched as it quickly flickered out. When he looked down at the wound it was still bleeding. 

“It’s not working. I don’t know why.” You mumbled, barely discernible.

“There must have been something on that blade that is affecting your healing ability. If Martin Cobb is the one that made the serum, he may have made something that can hinder hurt you.” Steve pulled his jacket and pressed it to your wound.

“I can still feel my powers below the surface. They’re just not strong enough to heal myself. He didn’t take them away.” Your voice cracked as you spoke.

“Dammit Camille, why did you throw that force field? Why didn’t you protect yourself?” Steve was pushing the wet hair off of your face and forehead. You gave him a weak smile.

“The team needs you more than they need me. You’re our leader. Besides, I’m always going to protect you.” You were starting to feel light-headed, and your vision was blurring.

“Cami…you don’t have to protect me. There isn’t anything that man could have done to me that I would survive. I’m a Super Solider. Getting beaten half to death and falling out of the sky didn’t kill me. You should have protected yourself instead.” Steve was saying more things to you, but you couldn't focus on everything that he was saying. Bits and pieces came through. He was yelling at you and begging you to stay with him when you felt a warm blanket of black fall over you. 

[asamlambung]

Gush about your fave DR character! ♡

WVJHKHKHKHK anon whoever you are please know that youre unleashing a beast but also thank you im….. 

(actually i made a tierlist for this though it might not be as accurate since it was a few months ago)

(also sorry for the characters that are in the lower tiers i swear even if i don’t like them most of them are still good memes. and the ones in “c” and “b” i’d definitely like more if there’s some good art/fics that explore their characters better though i might not actively look for it.)

OK so just to preface i havent seen most free times and most of my impression came from joseph anderson’s playthrough sooo i might be biased but im definitely planning on rewatching at least v3 in its entirety with all of its ftesO i guess it’s best if i start chronological and lemme just say. SAKURA OOGAMI IS BEST GIRL

it’s easy to say that im weak for big stronk gal who can lift me easily. and there is /definitely/ that point.

this is gonna sound weird but i really like the level-headedness she brings to the trials. i wouldnt say she’s the smartest but she rounds up the whole cast in a way that keeps the trials from being too absurd and non-sensical. there are other characters that also do this but seeing it come from her makes me happy somehow? maybe it’s because she also balances asahina in that sense and also that she’s the fourth trial stronk person who’s the most level headed compared to gonta and nekomaru. not saying those two are bad either, they’re great characters in their own right but i feel like their function is more on the side of entertaining rather than weighing in on the discussion. i especially think nekomaru’s whole thing with shitting is funny and it’s kinda a shame that sdr2 cut him from trials starting from the third.

speaking of sakura, yes i ship her with hina. no, duh. they’re good together. but i was also kinda touched when she talked about kenshiro. idk, sakura has two strong beefy hands and she can hold her girlfriend and boyfriend at the same time ok.(pretty sure kenshiro appears in udg but i havent experienced that game outside of seeing a few cutscenes so i wouldnt know)

also the fact that we get a callback to her in the strawberry house was. idk if i should say cool or if it was funny but it was something. and yep, her death was the saddest out of the fourth trials the games had. nekomaru’s death was more respectful for me and i felt more sad about gonta during his trial than his death. it’s more gruesome than sad, to be honest.(and ok the smoothskin joe gives to sakura is also kinda funny)

with other dr1 characters i like most of them are usually because of my friends’ (who got into dr years before i did) influence like kyoko and celeste. there are some others i laugh at but it’s more because of the inside jokes of the streamer i was watching.

.

ok so with sdr2 komaeda is easily one of the top. but tbh the reason why it is is bc a few years ago i read this (illegally distributed) doujin that had written his character really well. tbh i feel kinda bad now knowing that the doujinka stopped circulating their doujin bc of that and some of the subject matter of their doujin is… a bit too much for me. but the ones that are good are really good and when i came into canon i was like, “oh, this is the fingers in ass guy who got memed to death" nowadays, i see him more as pickle nagito though. i am interested in seeing how his character can be… well, not redeemed but i want to see him heal. whiiich might never happen in canon bc his hope bagel personality is too infamous now.

also i know everyone hcs nagito’s voice as smth along the lines of nico’s voice or john’s voice but like consider jph’s stoner voice. please. it’s so fucking funny with the fucking pickle komaeda meme. maybe it’s bc although im not obsessed with hope or despair, i related to his way of seeing karma. 

after experiencing sdr2 thoough, lemme just say that johnny yong bosch did a great job voicing hajimmy hinata. like im not even kidding i really like that voice and if i was ursula i would steal that voice for my own use. buutt i cant do that. unlike komaeda, i’m pretty indifferent to his character arc and enjoy his one on one interactions with the characters more and how he reacts to the immediate events that happened over the course of sdr2.

soo yeah komaeda and hinata are literally opposites in my head, ain’t much of a surprise that i ship them i guess. but!! i like a lot of the gals in sdr2 surprisingly.

like, ok. maybe i’m biased but the designs for the gals in sdr2 are so goddamn adorable. like okay there’s the obvious ones like chiaki and sonia. and i don’t know why sonia’s personality is so goddamn adorable. like not in the “awww you’re so fucking uwu” type of way but more in the sense that she’s funny? it feels like even through all her weirdness that she still manages to make genuine connections with the characters.

with peko, it’s hard to dislike her considering her whole arc with the second trial. of course liking her goes in hand with liking fuyuhiko’s character too but i just like.. how stoic she sounds??? it’s adorable????? and with mikan yeah she kinda went… off in the third trial but consider???? her voice when she snaps was so goddamn hot?????????????? sdr2 has the best voice acting cant change my mind.

and i don’t know why, gundham is so goddamn funny and if i wanna show how absurd sdr2 can get i show my friends gundham’s scenes. he’s fucking funny, ok. and alongside nekomaru i can respect his death in a way. i goddamn saluted when i first watched his execution (with the full context of the trial) because i just really liked the conviction he carried with his murder.

.

aand with v3…

miu’s one of the funniest character ever!! i swear. i know some people look at the sex jokes and go, “ugh” but im a manchild so i ended up enjoying her moments so much. though i’m kinda a bit meh on the fanservice side, i like how she’s one of the characters who sticks out more. in my language we call her “pentolan” i guess.

tenko’s kinda an easy character for me to like considering… stronk lady. would love for her to carry me. the misandry can get a bit too much but she’s also a pretty funny and genuine character on top of that so she came out with me liking her.

kaede and tsumugi are characters i grew to /love/ after i thought about them a lot.

with kaede, the point i started to relate to her… was with her thirst with girls. i swear im not joking. but. okay. i like her position as the protag and all her ideals. one thing i was surprised that didn’t manage to make me relate to her was her passion for piano considering i’ve also studied it for like, around 12 years. maybe it’s because i kinda fell out of it around 2 years ago because reasons. despite of that though, i like how assertive she was in her time as the protag. and her execution was goddamn beautiful.

tsumugi, though, i wouldn’t grow to love as much if it weren’t for 郁十‘s works. like. please. go watch all of their videos it’s all so good. i think someone else talked about this, but tsumugi’s position as the mastermind feels a lot more “human” than what we got with junko enoshima. compared to kaede, i feel like we could’ve gotten so much more with her as a villain and i just want to see more of her outside of her “plain bread” facade.

it might also be due to my own hcs for them so they’re on my head a lot more than most of the other v3 characters are. even more than my two actual favorites!!

ok, ok. kochiki and shuichi are definitely my favorites of the bunch. like, the toppest tiers of fav actually. it’s kinda hard to talk about these two separately tbh. maybe it’s because before danganronpa, my previous otp in my previous fandom had these two’s dynamics as well. and like, there’s a certain pairing to a fandom i haven’t caught up to in years who also have a detective/phantom thief dynamic. aaand also persona 5 and that one pairing that i don’t have to name for people to know which is my otp.

yeah i’m a sucker for these types of characters. it’s kinda typical that they’d be popular in the fandom. which i’ll  h a p p i l y  eat up.

soo it’s kinda easy to start with kochiki. i think i don’t have to go into every minute detail and go all meta on why i like him as a character because a lot of people have articulated better on why his character works. he’s fun to watch when interacting with other characters and figuring out his motivation put my brain on work. i’ll say this though, i actually enjoy kokichi better when he’s not being woobified. he’s a rat through and through and i will enjoy this possum boi for that.

(oh wait, possum boi is rantaro. nvm.)

and now mr. detective himself. so i loved his character at first. didn’t love him more than kochiki but. liked his arc, he was a fun protag. then the fan content came and he became very moe in my eyes so i guess it’s easier to say that i uh, like fancontent of shuichi better but i like canon kokichi better. and also how is it that the majority of ousai e-rated works has shuichi as a top SHUICHI IS NOT A TOP um yeah anyway. i feel like out of all the main characters he’d be a pretty nice person to hang out with.

also his eyelashes are nice. im totally not embarrassed while typing this out. im literally physically restraining myself from typing out more so i can not embarrass myself even further.

.

okay congrats anon here you are i hope you enjoyed this embarrassing mess it took me more than a day to type this out because i don’t know where i should stop myself regarding some characters. but uh yeah. i have gushed. now i shall return to the abyss.

(unless anybody asks me to gush about my ocs which might actually be thrice as long as this)

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

The Thief and the Samurai Episode List + Summaries

So I got carried away with this fictional show I made up to save some of my OCs, and decided to type out a full episode list with brief summaries.

SEASON 1 – THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Beginnings, Part 1 - Sakura’s early life and origins are shown.

Beginnings, Part 2 – Sakura’s time training under Master Ishida is shown.

Beginnings, Part 3 – With her training complete, Sakura goes off into the world to begin her goal of protecting the innocent. Soon enough, she meets the wily thief Michelle Kitt, and the two decide to travel together.

A Helping Hand – Sakura wishes to help a village being tormented by bandits to prove herself; Michelle on the other hand just wants to get paid for ridding the town of its problem.

Without a Paddle – Michelle and Sakura decide to take a river boat to their next destination; unfortunately, they get mixed up in a smuggling attempt and must face off with dangerous criminals.

Darke Rising – After yet another misadventure, the two girls run in to Freya Darke, a cyborg who seeks vengeance against Michelle in the name of her master.

Blackmore – Horatio Blackmore makes his grand debut, attempting to pull off a complicated plan to kill Michelle and Sakura.

Framed – Blackmore frames Michelle for the theft of a precious jewel, leading to her and Sakura having to evade the law while trying to get the jewel back.

The Triad – Sakura and Michelle encounter Serenity, Hope, and Faith as they seek out the jewel to clear Michelle’s name.

With Catlike Tread - The two must sneak through Blackmore’s mountain factory, all the while being pursued by the Triad.

Afraid of the Darke – Freya appears once again, this time accompanied by a cyborg attack wolf named Echidna, a prototype of a line Blackmore wishes to mass produce. Jewel in hand, Michelle and Sakura must escape the factory with these two pursuing them now as well.

Hanging Judge – Upon returning the jewel, the two find that none other than Blackmore himself was the owner of the jewel, having lent it to the museum it was stolen from for the sole purpose of framing Michelle. Michelle is then put on trial.

Objection – Ridiculous courtroom antics are brought to a halt when the Triad attacks the courtroom. Sakura and Michelle escape; now fugitives, the two argue, with Sakura very upset about the path her life has gone since meeting Michelle, and Michelle irritated with Sakura and her attitude. The two bitterly part ways at episode’s end, which is all observed by the mysterious Man in Black.

Stop and Stay a While – With the authorities after her, Michelle holes up in an old, out-of-the-way inn. Unfortunately, the inn turns out to be run by cannibals, and she is forced to fight her way out of a deadly situation. Ultimately she decides not to rob the folks but instead turn them over to the proper authorities, noting that maybe Sakura was a bit of a good influence on her after all.

Seeing Green – Sakura encounters a rude, snobby upper class young man who enlists her aid in acting as his bodyguard for an event at his university; he soon reveals himself to be a hypocrite, a liar, and a thoroughly unpleasant individual who abuses others. Sakura determines that he needs to be taken down a notch, and shames him in front of his peers before robbing him blind. She notes, amused, that perhaps Michelle did have the right idea sometimes.

The Man in Black – Michelle ends up chased by the Triad, who nearly kill her in battle. She ends up having a meeting with the Man in Black, who claims she has cheated him and that he has come to collect his due, describing the Triad as his personal band of debt collectors. Before Michelle can find out what exactly it is she did to him, he is fought off by Sakura.

Memories – As Sakura nurses Michelle back to health, she opens up about her past, telling of her life before becoming a thief and the death of her family at t he hands of a twisted serial killer who had the power to turn his blood vessels into barbed wire and attack with them.

The Canyon – Pursued into a canyon, the two decide now is the time to make a final stand. However, not confident in their ability to take them out, Blackmore uses his airship to fire on the authorities, killing them to frame Sakura and Michelle. Freya is noticeably disturbed by this.

The Hounds – Using the supposed terrorist actions of Sakura and Michelle as a bargaining chip, Blackmore gets funding to begin the mass production of his cyborg hounds. Soon amassing an army, he overthrows the queen of England and begins to rule London with an iron fist.

Dirty Work – Sakura and Michelle sneak through old sewer tunnels in an effort to get into Blackmore’s London factory and shut it down. There they encounter the Rat King, a man hired by Blackmore to guard the sewers with the ability to control and mutate rats.

London Calling – After their battle in the sewers, the two emerge into the city proper and begin to fight their way to the factory.

Devil Factory – The true extent of Blackmore’s wicked technology is shown in his factory and the torturous cyborgification process. The two must face the deadly assassin Kirk the Killer here, who may or may not be as competent as he seems...

Fight or Flight, Part 1 – Blackmore attempts to escape on his ship, his factory destroyed and his cyborgs falling to the combined forces of Sakura, Michelle, and the authorities. Sakura and Michelle pursue, and are aided by the Triad.

Fight or Flight, Part 2 – Blackmore finally confronts the two head-on. In a battle of wits, cunning, guns and swords, Blackmore almost emerges victorious, until Freya turns on him and attempts to toss him off the airship. However, prepared for this event, he activates the self destruct and flies off on a jetpack. The ship veers off course, crashes, and explodes; however, Freya, Sakura, and Michelle escape.

Heroes – Returning to London, Michelle and Sakura are praised as heroes and given a full pardon, as well as a large sum of treasure. The two spend much of their time unwinding and figuring out what they’re going to do next, and if the two should part ways. Michelle lets slip that she actually had sold what she stole from Blackmore to a mysterious individual, and Sakura, determining it to be too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands, decides they must find this man. Michelle agrees; however, before the two can venture off, they are confronted yet again by the Triad.

No Escape – After a brutal fight with the Triad, the two women are faced yet again by the Man in Black. He reveals that he is actually Death, and the Triad are his personal angelic entourage who help him hunt down those who cheat him in the game of chess he offers to those who cling desperately to life one way or another. However, after talking with Michelle it soon comes to light that she never actually cheated, and that whoever attempted to kill her had a powerful dark aura to him to muddle Death’s perception so much. He apologized for the miscommunication and considers all debts balanced, before saying they will likely cross paths again. After he leaves, Michelle sighs, wondering who or what her killer actually was. Sakura promises that whatever else, she will help find the killer of Michelle’s family and bring them to justice. Their friendship solidified, the two venture off on their next journey.

SEASON 2A – STRANGE EONS

With Strange Eons – After searching in vain for who Michelle sold Blackmore’s plans to for months, the two come across an ad for the Strange Eons Science Expo in Strange Eons, Maine in three days. Seeing one of  the guests pictured on the poster makes Michelle realize he was the one who bought Blackmore’s work off of her, and so the two decide to head to Maine. The two get aboard a ship, but on their way the ship is attacked by what appears to be a zombie sea serpent. The two end up shipwrecked in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The Beast in the Bay – The two are begged by the residents to defeat the creature somehow, as it has been attacking ships for well over a year. The two decide it’s the right thing to do, and find a way to end its life. After killing it, they discover that someone had experimented on it to bring it back to life. The residents speak of a scientist there who had shown up to conduct strange experiments before vanishing. Showing off the brochure, they find that the man they are looking for is the man from the rumors.

Clowning Around – As the two travel through New England towards the science fair, they are waylaid by a clown with the power to use their fears against them so that he can siphon their energy. Neither Michelle nor Sakura takes him seriously, much to his chagrin.

Asylum – The two are asked to rescue teenagers trapped in an abandoned asylum; while there they discover the place is overrun with reanimated corpses.

No Fair – Arriving in the town of Strange Eons, they make a shocking discovery: the town is already overrun with zombies. They soon discover the reason: Hojo Doboro, a mad scientist who performed experiments to reanimate the dead. He sics a giant zombie on the two and makes his escape.

Life and Limb – The two slice their way through the town and find their way to the university. There, the faculty and students holed up in there shed some light on Doboro: he was once a teacher there who was kicked out for sneaking in to steal cadavers for experiments. He vanished for years, recently returning with an army of the undead he created with his own experiments as well as the item stolen from Blackmore. Said item is revealed to be an item known as a Keystone, which is described in ancient death cult texts as being able to call forth beings known as Old Ones from a world beyond to do their bidding. If all five were gathered, then the summoner could command the Old Ones to do anything they pleased. Realizing the danger such a power would pose, Michelle and Sakura use the notes they found to locate the other four Keystones before Doboro can get them. However, after finding the notes and attempting to leave, they are attacked by Gemini.

Lost and Found – The girls find the first Keystone in an old burial ground’s secret crypt; however, Gemini arrives and uses Doboro’s re-animation gel to resurrect the bones in the burial ground into a giant bone monster that Michelle and Sakura face down.

The Lighthouse – The third keystone is tracked down to an old lighthouse; however, this time Gemini takes the keystone.

Road to Ruin – The girls try and make haste to the next keystone. Meanwhile, Doboro is preparing his army, and Gemini is beginning to feel uneasy about all of this.

Two of Hearts – The episode focuses on Gemini and her origin, as well as her successful capture of the fourth Keystone. In this episode she begins to waver in her support of Doboro, even if he did create her.

The Gathering – The girls manage to get the final keystone, and then make haste to the old mansion Doboro has holed up in to steal back the others.

Arisen – The girls confront Doboro, only to discover he was counting on them coming all along; the stones needed to only be in the general vicinity of one another. With them all together, Doboro uses the power to call forth an Old One; however, Gemini knocks the Keystones out of balance and thus the summoning is botched, instead merely summoning a powerful demon for a moment before the ritual is shut down. Enraged, Doboro unleashes his ultimate weapon: Viscera, the reanimated amalgamation.

Even Death May Die – After Sakura, Michelle, and Gemini deal with Viscera, Gemini catches up to the fleeing Doboro and injects him with his own reanimation fluid before kicking him down into the cellar and locking him up. Gemini says she will stay behind to try and clean up the mess made, and helps the girls destroy the Keystones so that they cannot be used for evil ever again. Satisfied, the girls head home, unaware that the demon whose summoning they interrupted, Camazotz, is now plotting vengeance against them.

SEASON 2B – WRATH OF THE DEMON KING

Camazotz – The episode focuses mainly on the demon king forming his plan, as well as Sakura and Michelle’s trip home. When they arrive in London, they have a feeling they are being stalked.

The Terror – While making their way through town, they are attacked by a large, lizard-like demon who proclaims he will destroy them in the name of Camazotz. After winning the ensuing battle, the two decide to figure out who Camazotz is just in case this was more than just a fluke.

Lunacy – After entering the countryside, the girls find their way to a strange church run by a man named Brother Moon, who may or may not be an alien. He offers advice on how to deal with demons as well as an old tome that details who Camazotz is. He offers the girls the chance to stay the night. However, an unwelcome guest sneaks in to their room...

Incubus – The Incubus Thot sneaks in to the girls’ room and, rather than do what is expected of him, instead causes general mischief and just acts like a real jackass.

Hell House – The girls must exorcise a possessed demonic house with the help of Brother Moon.

Sleepless Nights – The demon Hypnox attempts to kill the girls in their dreams.

The Evil Within – Kirk the Killer returns, this time getting possessed by the demon Akuba. The girls must find a way to remove the demon from his constantly regenerating body. They get help from a new ally: Lady Kali.

Lady Kali – Lady Kali assists Michelle and Sakura in fighting off a horde of shadow demons that are attacking a village on the moors.

When We Were Young – A demon transforms Michelle, Kali, and Sakura into children; overwhelmed by being able to see again, Sakura is taken out of commission for the e pisode, leaving Michelle and dKali to fight the demon. However, in their exhaustion they end up being caught by Thot after defeatting the other demon.

Prisoners of Love – Sakura and Brother Moon work together to rescue Lady Kali and Michelle from Thot. After Thot is defeated, he comes to realize he is absolutely smitten with Michelle and vows to win her heart. Michelle is absolutely not impressed.

It Lives! - Doboro returns, this time as a hulking reanimated monster, warped by his reanimating solution. Having found out who is after the girls, he uses black magic to summon Camazotz into the material world.

The Wrath of the Demon King – Camazotz appears to finish what he has started, and he along with Doboro attempt to kill the group. Gemini, Kali, Michelle, and Sakura distract them long enough for Brother Moon to cast them back into hell. However, at the last second Doboro attempts to drag Brother Moon into hell with him; Gemini ultimately sacrifices herself and falls into hell with her creator. In the aftermath, the group mourns the loss of Gemini, Kali returns home, Brother Moon returns to his church to recover, and Michelle determines they need a vacation. Sakura decides they should perhaps visit her father in Japan.

SEASON 3 – SAKURA AND MICHELLE’S WORLD TOUR

Cherry Blossoms – Sakura, Rhiannon, and Michelle arrive in Japan and reunite with Sakura’s father, Hiro. Hiro shows them around and shows how much things have changed in the time since Sakura set out on her journey. The episode is a simple yet pleasant intro that hints at what’s to come, with Orochi Overlong appearing in the final minutes and realizing Sakura and Michelle are likely a threat.

Overlong – Orochi Overlong reveals himself, saying he has heard of Michelle and Sakura’s exploits. After a battle showcasing his sorcerous abilities, he teleports the two across the ocean to America and makes the oceans utterly impassable. He then gives them an ultimatum: defeat his agents that he has scattered throughout the world within 44 days, or Rhiannon and Hiro will die. Having supplied them with a map of where his henchmen reside but no other details, the two set out across Aamerica to begin their quest.

A True American, Part 1 – The two arrive in a midwestern town, stopping for rest at the tavern of Kurtwood Armstrong, a man with fists who hit like iron and who is loud and patriotic. He bemoans the relentless cruelty of the preacher Cyrus Lovelace, who rolled into town recently and began stirring people up into a bigoted fervor. Sensing that this man might be one of the first of Overlong’s minions, they team up with Armstrong to fight him; however, they soon find the whole town has been whipped into a bigoted frenzy by Lovelace’s own power, and so they must proceed with caution, as they do not wish to hurt the innocent people.

A True American, Part 2 – The team confronts Lovelace and ultimately defeats him.

The Hunger, Part 1 – Taking a detour to Mexico, the two are met by Ernesto Banderas, a man with the power to amplify sound into powerful concussive blasts; naturally, he is a guitar player.  He asks the two if they are here to stop Elvis Chavez, a would-be dictator who rolled into town and has begun wasting all the resources.

The Hunger, Part 2 – The group confronts Elvis, who is a massive mountain of a man with the ability to consume anything safely. Determining him to be Overlong’s minion, they attack him. After his defeat, the girls part ways with Ernesto, but not before he has a bit of a romantic moment with Michelle.

Clowning Around, Again – The girls pass through New England and find the evil clown, this time working for Overlong. Yet again, the two absolutely refuse to take the clown seriously.

Falling Down, Part 1 – Returning yet again to London, the girls try to find Overlong’s minion, and instead run afoul of Freya, who decides now is a great time to start a fight with the two. Their battle is interrupted by an attack on the London bridge.

Falling Down, Part 2 – Going to the bridge expecting to find Overlong’s latest assailant, they instead find the minion apparently already dead – Blackmore killed him to lure the two for his revenge. Michelle and Sakura do battle with him, but ultimately he escapes, taunting them that he has wasted their time and that the real minion is still out there, and he only wished to divert their attention so that they would lose precious time in the quest to save Rhiannon and Hiro. Now having fled the city, the girls are at a loss for what to do, but Freya decides to help them track down the minion.

Horse on the Moor – The group confronts the minion on the moors, a man known only as The Rider, who can conjure up a spectral horse made of psychic energy to ride upon. After his defeat, Freya parts ways with the two.

Erin go Bragh, Part 1 – The two venture to Ireland, where they meet Rick and Bailey O’Brien, twins with electrically charged speed that increases the closer the two are to each other. The two say there have been strange disappearences in their town lately, and so Sakura and Michelle help investigate.

Erin go Bragh, Part 2 – As it turns out, the disappearances were caused by Overlong’s minion, a man with dwarfism who dressed like a leprechaun to lure unfortunate souls into his grasp. With his power to turn everything he touches to gold, he attempts to kill the group; however, they manage to defeat him and free his gilded victims. It is believed these two episodes are what got the series banned entirely in Britain.

It’s Personal, Part 1 – The girls head to Italy next, where they meet the irritable dwarf Vinny, who is out for revenge against his family’s killers. Sensing something of a kindred spirit, Michelle asks Sakura if they can help him; reluctantly, Sakura agrees, and they seek out the trio of killers.

It’s Personal, Part 2 – Finally confronting the killers, they discover that they are in fact minions of Overlong.

Heart of Darkness, Part 1 – The two travel to Africa, where they find the woman Lesedi already tracking down a cannibal witch who has been a legend among her people for years. Sensing this may have something to do with Overlong, they offer their help.

Heart of Darkness, Part 2 – The group confronts the evil cannibal witch Morrigan Maro. The witch is soon defeated, and the two move on to Egypt, where they meet the local girl Talia Ishtar, who is looking to plunder a tomb. Ecstatic at the opportunity to do what she does best, Michelle volunteers her help and Sakura goes along with it.

Pyramid Scheme – As it turns out, one of Overlong’s minions had been in the tomb as well. After defeating him they discover hieroglyphics apparently depicting Overlong in ancient times. Not yet knowing what this means, they bid Talia farewell and continue on their journey.

The Perilous Pass, Part 1 – Returning to Europe, the two make their way through Germany. There, they meet Kristopher Cross, who needs help getting through a dangerous mountain pass so that he can retrieve medicinal herbs for his sick boyfriend. Sakura, unwilling to allow someone to suffer if she can help, offers to escort him through the pass. As it turns out, though, the pass has another of Overlong’s minions waiting to ambush them.

The Perilous Pass, Part 2 – The minion, Shepard Starbuck, has the power to easily climb the steepest and most dangerous cliffsides, and tries to split up the group with rock slides. It is revealed here that Cross has magnetic powers, but has been too afraid to use them since he accidentally was responsible for his boyfriend’s current condition. With a little motivation, he manages to control his powers and help defeat Starbuck, and get Sakura and Michelle through the pass. He parts ways with them and returns to his boyfriend through the pass, much more confident and brave than before.

Bloody Tears – Entering Romania, the girls are confronted by an exhausted, miserable Kirk the Killer. He mentions that his country has been taken over by one of Overlong’s minions, and that he will be grateful if they could help him. Reluctantly, they do so. The group confronts the minion, a man who can generate spikes from his body, in a dark old castle. Said man lets slip that Overlong is not just biding his time to kill Sakura’s parents; rather, he is trying to regenerate his body, as he is Yamata no Orochi of legend. Horrified, Sakura determines they must move ever quicker if they are to stop Overlong.

Holy Protector, Part 1 – Arriving in India, the two meet up again with Lady Kali, who is having trouble driving demons out of her homeland. Apparently the reason so many demons aare appearing is because of a man named Raktabija, who can conjure up hell portals.

Holy Protector, Part 2 – Raktabija fights the heroes, but is ultimately defeated when one of his Hell portals frees a familiar face: Gemini. Lady Kali ultimately tosses the man through one of his own hell portals, and after a reunion Gemini joins Michelle and Sakura to take down Overlong.

The Serpent Reborn– Arriving in China to fight the last of the minions, the three soon discover a horrifying truth: Overlong was counting on them defeating each of his minions so that he could harvest their powerful spiritual energy upon defeat so he could obtain his true form. Overlong appears before them to taunt them about this fact before assuming his true form.

Orochi, Part 1 – The girls take their fight to Japan, where they begin the final confrontation with Orochi.

Orochi, Part 2 – The fight against Orochi seems hopeless, and the three are seemingly done for. However, as it turned out the Man in Black decided to step in, as much like him Orochi was a supernatural being of great power. He could not directly help, as that was not his right, but he did aid by calling forth all the friends Sakura and Michelle had made along the way so they could lend their power, as well as allowing the Triad to fight. With the combined might of all their friends from round the world, Sakura was able to land the killing blow and defeat Orochi, killing him and saving her parents. Sakura decides at the end she wishes to return to her master and inform him of her adventures, and Michelle and Gemini decide to go along with her, while the rest of her friends return home, determined to keep in touch somehow.

SEASON 4A – GHOSTS OF THE PAST

Master Ishida – The girls arrive at the mountain school where Master Ishida teaches his students. Happy to see Sakura, he decides to allow her to instruct a new class. She also fills her master in on all of her adventures so far. Things seem well until episode’s end, when two men walk into the hall: Jet and Chicken Wire.

Jet – Sakura is shocked at Jet’s return. He reveals that the fall that supposedly killed him nearly did so, but he was saved by a witch… a witch who then cursed him and took something from him. Bitter, angry, and miserable, he had been taken in by a teacher named Black Phoenix who helped him hone his rage so he could get vengeance. Chicken Wire, whose mouth was wired shut, was someone he had found along the way and who his master had taken in as well. Jet declares that unless Master Ishida surrenders the temple, there will be dire consequences. Obviously refusing, Jet leaves, and Sakura and friends begin to formulate a plan to protect the temple.

Berserker – The next day, the consequences come to light: Rika Ainia, another student of the Black Phoenix who also became cursed, attacks the school, wounding several in her attempt to get to Ishida. After a hard-fought battle, she is apparently taken down.

The Next Day – The group helps repair the school and tend to the wounded, while Sakura tries to find out more bout the Black Phoenix; Master Ishida refuses to speak of it, as it is his greatest shame. Just when Sakura thinks she may get some answers, an attack is launched… from Rika Ainia, who had been killed the day prior. Shocked, they once again fight her, but this time she successfully kills a student in the crossfire of the battle. Coming out of her rage and in a state of shock, she has a complete breakdown. In the chaos, Master Ishida is captured.

Cursed – Rika is interrogated, and a lot of details about her life come to light. She says she was sent as a distraction so that Chicken Wire and Jet could kidnap Master Ishida. Taking her as a hostage, they journey off to find Jet.

Legend of the Black Phoenix – While passing through a mountain village, they try and find more info about the Black Phoenix. However, most of what they find is merely urban legends and rumor, and nothing totally concrete.

Chicken Wire – Chicken Wire tries, and fails, to lure the group into multiple traps as they work there way ever closer to where Jet has Master Ishida.

The Escape – Rika breaks free and runs off, with the group giving chase.

Crossed Wire – The group splits up to try and find Rika, Jet, or Ishida; Gemini finds herself victim of Chicken Wire’s tricks and traps, though eventually she does defeat him and begin tailing him back to his hideout.

Cursed – Michelle finds her way into a shack in the mountains that contains a variety of odd objects, including a large mass of spiky wires, a broken staff, and more. She soon discovers it is the home of a witch, and makes her escape to tell the others.

Reunion – Sakura and Jet meet face to face; Sakura tries to appeal to the good in him and tries to get the boy she once loved to return, but instead the two fight, leading to him being wounded. Michelle and Gemini catch back up, and they track Jet to his hideout via a trail of blood.

The Cave – The group finds the cave where Jet has been hiding, and tracks him deep inside to where he has kept Master Ishida imprisoned.

Phoenix Rising – After finding Master Ishida, he finally explains the truth: That the Black Phoenix was a student of his who he had expelled for violent tendencies ages ago, and who had gained reputation since then as powerful evil. He had no idea that he had been training his own set of students for years. Before they can escape, they are confronted by the Black Phoenix himself.

SEASON 4B – HER MASTER’S KEEPER

The Black Phoenix – Akuma Kokuho introduces himself, and says that he is not going to kill Master Ishida yet; he wishes to humiliate and demoralize him first by proving to him that he is a far greater teacher. To this effect, he has decided to put forth a set of combat challenges to see if Ishida’s students can best his own.

The Challenges – Kokuho’s students and Ishida’s students begin battling and competing in deadly challenges, with Ishida’s students ending up dead. Jet begins to grow ever more disturbed, while Rika grimly accepts all the brutality fate throws at her. Jet’s resolve sways even further when he watches  Chicken Wire get brutally beaten down to the point of near death before intervening.

Disgrace – Disgusted by Jet’s weakness, Kokuho determines the only solution is to put him into combat against Ishida’s greatest student: Sakura. The fight is to the death, and if Jet refuses to fight, Kokuho will kill her himself. The two fight, but seem at a stalemate; Sakura does not want to kill Jet, and Jet does not want to kill her while at the same time he must put forth effort to seem as if he is not throwing the match. The match ends when Sakura, sensing the problem, impales herself with her own blade.

Betrayal – Having angled the sword in such a way it did not harm any of her organs, Sakura is injured but otherwise okay. Irritated, Kokuho demands that she be prepared to fight again the next day; disgusted, Gemini and Michelle go off to spy on him. They catch him abusing Jet and, strangest of all, they find him sneaking off to the hut of the witch Michelle previously visited. It turns out the witch is Kokuho’s daughter, and she curses people by taking away things precious to them so that they have no choice but to turn to Kokuho so that they can find any semblance of peace. They try to escape and bring this information back, but they are caught by Kokuho.

To the Pain – Rika, sensing something is amiss, wanders off into the woods, finding herself at the shack. There, she witnesses Kokuho fighting Michelle and Gemini, and though they fight valiantly, Kokuho bests them. Before his daughter can curse them, Rika leaps in and maims the daughter, only to be beaten to a pulp by Kokuho. This does, however, give Michelle and Gemini time to escape.

The Hero Within – Gemini and Michelle return, and try and warn all of Kokuho’s students of his treachery, but only Jet and Chicken Wire seem very interested in the truth, with the rest threatening them. When Kokuho makes his way back, Jet stands up to him and fights him to a standstill, injuring him and stealing medicine to heal Sakura.

Rage of the Phoenix – Kokuho attempts to kill Sakura and friends, but a now fully healed Sakura fights him off. The group manages to beat a hasty retreat so that they can form a concrete plan on how to stop Kokuho and his witch daughter.

End of an Era – After attempting to retreat to Ishida’s school, the school is destroyed by Kokuho.

Her Master’s Keeper – Ishida, worn out and tired from the running and his failure, decides to stand up to Kokuho. He fights valiantly, and though Sakura leaps in to protect him, he is ultimately slain, but not before passing on his greatest secret to her.

The Secret Technique – Sakura and Kokuho do battle once again, though this time she uses the secret technique that Ishida taught her: the Strike of Ages. This allows her to astral project into Kokuho’s mind and sift through the evil to defeat his innate dark spirit.

  The Fog of Ages – Sifting through his memories, Sakura learns about Kokuho’s past. Eventually, she duels him in the center of his mind, defeating him and rendering him comatose.

Phoenix Down – The group manages to find their way to Kokuho’s daughter, who puts up a great fight but is ultimately defeated. Upon her death, the cursed objects all disappear, returning what they stole to their owners. All seems well, with Rika promising to find a way to atone for her sins, perhaps by remaking the school and leading Kokuho’s students to a peaceful way, and with Jet determining he wants to confess his love to Sakura. However, Chicken Wire too is freed from his curse, and with his barbed veins and muscle mass restored and his mouth free once again, he kills Jet and reveals himself to the group. In a shocking cliffhanger twist, it is revealed to Michelle’s horror that Chicken Wire had been her family’s killer.

[zarinthelwrites]

Blooming from the Mud Pt. 6 (Bleach/ DGM)

“I’m pretty sure that this is not okay, Kanda-sama--”

“Call me that again and you won’t be okay, pipsqueak,” Kanda snaps. “You know how to read, correct?”

“Yes! But--”

“Then read these.” Kanda shoves three quarters of the stack over to Hanatarou.

“You have to be at least Lieutenant level! To even touch these!”

Kanda jammed Hanataro’s hand down onto the paper.

“There. You touched them. Now read them.”

Hanatarou screamed a little then started scanning through the pages.

Kanda went back to his own part of the pile, which consisted of Missions sent to the 11th Division that no one had taken, for some reason. A lot of them appeared to be joint missions with the 6th Division.

“What’s with the 6th division?” Kanda asked Hanatarou, scowling as he scanned through another ignored mission dated.....”And what year is it?”

The pipsqueak buries his face in his hands.

“1403 F.G.,” he mutters. “Approximately. Depending on who you ask.”

Kanda stares at the mission report, which had been assigned approximately a decade ago.

“Right,” he says, and makes a separate pile.

“The 6th Division...” Hanatarou trails off awkwardly. “They don’t associate with the 4th much. They’re very proud to serve under the Kuchiki Clan.”

“Stuck up suck ups,” summarizes Kanda. Not that bad, then. He’ll sign himself up for one of the backlog missions and then see what happens. He reaches over and scratches Fishbone’s ears.

He finds another one, dated for 13 years ago. If the Black Order operated on this level of efficiency the world would likely have ended before Kana made it to 13. This one’s addressed to....Captain Kenpachi Kiganjo? Whoever the fuck that is. He waves it in Hanatarou’s face.

“This one is somebody else’s problem,” he says. Finally.

“Actually--”

“Somebody else’s problem,” Kanda repeats. Lizard bumps his cold nose against Kanda’s unbandaged leg.

“He’s dead,” The pipsqueak blurts out.

Kanda looks at spirit across from him straight in the eyes.

“Dead, dead. Really dead. Moved on into the cycle of reincarnation. Bled all over himself. Gored by a raggedy sword edge. Never coming back,” Hanatarou rambles. “Good riddance,” he mumbles under his breath.

“You kill a captain to take their spot?” says Kanda, now mildly interested.

“No,” says Hanatarou, waving his hands around wildly in horror. “No, no, that’s just the 11th Division! Only the 11th Division does that.”

Kanda shrugs dismissively. He was just checking.

“So when can I get out of this bed,” he asks. He’s not yet willing to risk Captain Unohana’s wrath by leaving, but give him one more day cooped up in here with this squeaky toy shinigami and that might change. Yumichika poked his head in once yesterday, saw the paperwork, and fled. Coward.

“Tomorrow,” says Hanatarou promptly, looking just as relieved as Kanda feels. “Captain Unohana will do the final check over and then you’ll be free to go.”

“Quit that, Fishbone,” Kanda growls at the dog. “This isn’t food. It’s worthless.”

“I’ll just...come back later,” says Hanatarou, trying to edge towards the door. “I really have other things to do today! Toilets to scrub! Sewers to clean!”

Lizard lifts his head from where he was napping directly in front of the sole exit.

“Paperwork to do,” says Kanda.

He doesn’t smile. Not even a little.

Though Kanda had been waiting impatiently for Captain Unohana’s arrival, he might have just plain escaped if he’d realized how thorough she was going to be.

“You’re reiatsu is still fluctuating,” she concludes. “You’ve never had enough to eat that you could sustain the full weight of your own soul.”

So reiatsu is soul energy, and what makes the food taste weird. Good to know.

“You may have noticed Kenpachi’s reiatsu blankets the whole of the 11th Division and all of the Southeastern shop districts,” she continues, smiling. Yes. He had noticed that, actually. “Most captains chose to exercise control over their auras so as to not do that, but that is their prerogative.” She clasps her hands together. “Kanda,” she says. “You’re aura is still stabilizing, with stabilizing meaning that none of my unranked Division members are willing to enter this wing of the hospital because they think you’re going to eat them. As you are not a Captain, I am going to exercise my right to tell you to get that under control before you are next injured, or the consequences will be severe. Any questions?”

The smile when one couldn’t see her eyes were somehow scarier than any that had come before it.

“How old are you?” Asks Kanda. Next to him, Hanatarou faints

“You should never ask a lady her age, Kanda,” says Captain Unohana. The air in the room gains crushing weight, and Kanda gasps for breath.

“I’m looking for someone,” He says. “Not from Japan. Do you know where I could find them?”

The pressure disappears as if it were never there.

“Would you do anything to find them?” she asks him. Her eyes are open, now, but they are flat and cold, as uncaring as fate’s terrible wheel.

“Yes,” says Kanda. This cold, strange world is no replacement for Allen.

“Would they do the same?” She asks, and Kanda hesitates.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says, finally. “It’s not good for him to be alone.” And he would be alone, even in a world full of souls. Especially then.

She watches him, and there is no smile traced across her face.

“Kanda,” she says. “Have you ever looked inside the shadows?”

Kanda shakes his head.

“This is Soul Society,” Captain Unohana tells him. “The world where souls come after their mortal lives come to an end. There is only one Soul Society, but not all of the dead souls are here. Not even a quarter of them. Not even a tenth of them. Not even a thousandth of them. Look inside the shadows, Kanda. What do you see?”

Everything has a shadow. Kanda lets his gaze drop, keeps going until he is looking at the shadow of his own bed. First, all he can see is the tatami matted floor. But he keeps looking, deeper and deeper and deeper until he could see worn stone, and an endless sea, and wooden planks, and compact dirt, and--”

“That’s enough,” says Captain Unohana, stepping forward to block his view as he blinks at her, dazed. “There is only one Soul Society. But there are thousands of Soul Societies. Your someone could be in any of them.”

“So how do I get to him?” Kanda cut in impatiently, heartbeat racing.

“You can’t.”

The world dimmed around him.

“Not without an anchor, at least.”

“An anchor,” Kanda repeats, trying not to black out from the sudden adrenaline rollercoaster.

Unohana nods, the braids twined under her chin following the motion.

“The shadows...are not a pleasant place to be,” she says. “You’ll need someone with a strong connection with your soul on this side of the transition to make sure the shadows don’t rip you apart.”

This time, her smile flashes teeth.

“You need to make friends, Kanda,” she says. Then she leaves with a flourish, haori flapping behind her.

Kanda ends up putting on his brand new shinigami uniform by himself, and thus decides that being barefoot is infinitely better than figuring out how to walk in socks and clogs. Now fully equipped with clothes and his sword, Kanda leaves. If Hanatarou wants him to have the paperwork that badly, he should bring it over himself.

Kanda stops a random shinigami that was hurrying down the street. “Where’s the 6th Division?” He asks. Is he be avoiding any further duties or responsibilities by taking it upon himself to go Hollow hunting? Of course not. He’ll kill anyone who says so.

“Are you talking to me?” The shinigami responds, flipping his shoulder length black hair. The strands fall right back across his eye the minute he stops.

“Yes,” says Kanda shortly.

“I’m the sixth ranked officer of the 3rd Division!” The man huffs.

“So you don’t know.” Kanda sighs. Useless. He walks forward--

“Of course I know,” says the shinigami. “But why would I tell a lowly peasant like yourself?”

Kanda looks back at him, bored. Fishbone and Lizard both growl, low and rumbling.

“I don’t know,” he says. And he doesn’t care. He’ll just keep stopping people until someone tells him.

The shinigami grits his teeth.

“The 6th Division headquarters is in the North,” he sneers. “Ambitions of rising above your station, street rat? The Kuchiki clan doesn’t accept just anyone.”

“Did they reject you?” Kanda asks.

The shinigami splutters, raising his chin above the white collared shirt he wears under his uniform.

“Of course not!” He snaps.

“Okay.” Kanda turns to head north.

“That’s the wrong way. By the Hallowed Halls, I’ll take you there myself!” The shinigami barks, before taking a deliberate, deep breath and calming himself. “This way,” He says, now doing his best to ignore the dogs that are weaving in between his legs.

“You still won’t be able to join the 6th Division,” the shinigami says, once they’ve traveled a few streets in silence.

Kanda rolls his eyes.

“I’m already in the 11th Division,” he says, dryly.

The shinigami trips on air.

“The 11th Division hates the 6th Division,” he murmurs, dazed.

“Yes, I am aware,” says Kanda. “That’s why there’s a seventeen year backlog of Hollow killing joint explorations with them.” He’s brought three of them with him, all for the same District. Fun and efficient, his favorite.

a/n: it has come to my attention that a lot of the people reading this have only the vaguest knowledge of bleach. if you don’t understand something, bring it up and ill have kanda learn more about it. 

also, if you don’t recognize a character: im using lots of characters that are basically one off mention canon characters that are for most intents and purposes basically my ocs. 

last: ive recieved a lot of wonderful comments, and 2 pieces of fanart! i’m overjoyed with the reception this fic is having!!!!! thank you so much, everyone

[boetie]

@moonlightmaia tagged me in a thing and I'm too lazy to copy and paste and tag other people and whatnot but I'm s u f f e r i n g so I'll answer the questions 1. Any pets? If not, dream pets? My two main boys are Chief and Lou. Chief is a 15 year old fat piebald horse who is my sweet lil baby boy and my best friend and I love him. Lou is a baby dumbo rat (he's not gonna be a baby for much longer because he's four months old) whom I rescued from the snake cage and he's such a sweet lil baby. As far as the snakes go I have a corn snake named Rocky, a hognose snake named Pete and an albino milksnake named Sherbet and they're all gay and cuddle under the log together and are all dating each other. I also have an old ass leopard gecko named Chunk who just chills and eats mealworms and lays on his heating pad. 2. Dream home/ place to live? Ideally I want a huge ass ranch in some sort of mountain valley with an indoor arena with attached stalls and runs that in turn attach to a pasture and I can live withy pones and all of my other animal (and human pals) but I'd also settle in a small house somewhere rural with my friend and our pets. 3. Favorite book/book series? The Mysterious Benedict Society Books are so good!!! And so pure!!! Literally there's no violence or forced heterosexuality or anything else it's just, pure books about kids living up to their potential and finding friends and family and saving the world and it's,,, so good. 4. Favorite article of clothing? Probably my Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirt because 1) cozy 2) pisses bronco fans off 3) has my horse's name on it 4) is baggy and with my binder I can look almost flat in it 5. Favorite place in your house to chill/relax at? Probably where I am rn or directly above it. So basically I have a bunk bed and the bottom bunk converts into a couch which is where I am now. The top bunk is my bed and it is so cozy and has all my blankets and stuffed animals and I love 6. Go to favorite superhero? Aquaman because he's gay (the ocean is gay which makes him gay) and also because he's cool and deserves love (I actually know nothing about him or any other superheroes so sorry if he's like, problematic or something I mean this is Tumblr ya never know) 7. Go to comfort character? Are we taking like, actual characters from actual media because in which case uhh, Milligan from Mysterious Benedict Society is really good and I love and during finals last year I p much only survived by going back and reading the parts with him in the books. As far as ocs go my comfort dudes are currently Vincent, Auburn and Kaleva. Vincent is just a gay dork I love him, Auburn is a PIRATE for gods sakes and it makes me smile to think about them, and Kale is just a lil gay who married a tree. 8. Fave dream that you had that you can remember? Okay so this was like uhh, I think spring or something last year idk but, Lio lived like, down the street from me and we were hanging out and went to the zoo together and there were these tiny rhinos running around and they were really cute. And then we went to a concert and they said that their hands were cold so I gave them my tiny ass child gloves and somehow they fit their much larger hands. And then we went back to my house and laid on the couch together and my friend Toni was sitting on the floor with her back to the couch and we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas together and with one hand I was petting Toni's hair and with the other I was petting Lio's and it was so good and I wish with every fiber of my being that that dream was real because it's 100% the type of good friend love and platonic physical contact that I need. 9. Do you consider yourself to follow emotions or follow facts? I'd say neither?? Mostly I go by intuition or go by the thing that is going to give me the least conflict 10. Fondest memory? I have a few, one is also my earliest memory which is when my brother came up with the name of my stuffed polar bear (Arizona) while we were walking into our preschool. Another is of Chief and I had a really bad day at school and I was peak depression and when I went to get him out of his run he looked at me with those big old horse eyes and he knew something was up and when I hugged him he hugged me back by like, putting his head over my shoulder and I cried on him and we were like that for like five minutes and it wasn't a good time for me in general but at that moment with my horse it was just,,, so good because he's so sweet and knows when I'm upset and he looks at me with those big ol horse eyes or licks me and he just makes me so happy I love him so much. And of course just, general memories of late night conversations with Lio bc they're like,, my best friend and I have too many good memories of them to count 11. Patronus? Tbh probably Chief. Like he literally Ioves and protects me and safeguards my wellbeing like, sometimes he just gay up charges my depression with his head down and his hooves flying and I love him so much he's my heart horse and he's so good Anyway this has been your latest edition of Boe rambling hope u enjoyed