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ticklishfiend · 3 years

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The Persuasion Machine (My Hero Academia)

Lee!Bakugou / Ler!Class 1A Girls ⚠️PLATONIC⚠️

(A sequel to “Pure Gold”: read that first!)

A/N : sorry it took me a while to get this one out! school has been terrible and i’ve been sick with migraines for days but hopefully this is good enough! i’m working on another mha fic rn so hopefully i don’t quit on it lmaoo. hope u enjoy!

Summary : Bakugou begrudgingly attends the girls sleepover Mina has invited him to so she doesn’t blackmail him with incriminating material. When he doesn’t answer one of their gossipy questions the way they wanted, they decide to use a little persuasion to guide him their own way (leading to some interesting results).

Word Count : 3461

REBLOGS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED!! MWAH <33

Bakugou had been dreading today from the moment he agreed to attend this stupid ass sleepover in the first place. Since when did he start caving so easily to puppy-dog eyes of all things?! His friends were starting to make him go soft, and this is NOT something he needs hanging over his head while trying to become the world's number one hero. Especially not from someone who now knows his deepest, darkest secret; he absolutely loves romance anime.

He couldn’t help it, the stories were always so compelling and they drew him in every single time without fail. Sometimes he’d catch himself getting emotional at the worst of the worst shoujos out there, but dammit if he didn’t love a good confession scene, alright?! There’s just something so satisfying about the build-up, the angst, the tension, all of it is just enough to make the stone-cold, stoic future pro-hero shed a few happy tears. He really couldn’t help it. Especially considering he’s been having feelings of his own for someone recently, so that mixed with those heart wrenching scenes..it’s impossible not to cry, okay?!

But now that he’s got someone else who knows this secret about him, he can’t allow it to get out there in the world. Mina is one of his most trustworthy friends, but she’s also the most inclined to gossip. She’s not one to turn away from good blackmail material, and now that she was lying on this pot of gold there was nothing that could turn her away from it, not even good old-fashioned tickle torture like he had already tried. It seemed Bakugou’s real, true, only option at this point was to attend that dumb fucking sleepover and get this shit over with once and for all.

So that’s what he did. Even though he tried his best to ignore the nagging dread building up as the day slowly dragged on, the moment he heard that excited knock on his door at 6 that evening, he knew there was really no escape. He was being forced against his will to have...fun.

With an exasperated sigh, Bakugou trudged from his bed over to his dorm door, throwing it open only to be attacked in a vicious hug by a flash of bright pink. The girl held his arms tightly against his sides as his eyes drooped in annoyance, Mina letting out an excited little squeal as she tired bouncing the boy up and down in her hug.

“Eeeee! I’m so excited, Blasty, you have no idea! Tonight’s gonna be the best night ever!” She giggled giddily, finally letting him go before grabbing his wrist and quickly leading him out into the hall towards her room. He growled at the contact, though didn’t put up any resistance. Better to just get this shit over with and let the little nuisance have her fun, Bakugou thought as they finally reached the door to her room. He could hear chatter from the inside, assuming the girls had been hanging out for a few hours before Mina had decided it was time for her little guest star to arrive. She placed him a little ways away from the door, standing in front of it and facing him with a wide grin. He was taller than the girl, having to look down to her in order to see the bright smile that seemed to be plastered onto her face at all times.

“Okay, so, here are the rules for tonight: don’t be mean. This is a FUN night, I don’t want you ruining it for the rest of the girls, got it?” She pointed an accusatory finger up towards his face. Bakugou only lowered his eyelids in response, obviously annoyed. She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Okay, fine, you can be a little mean, but only because we find it kinda funny sometimes. Just no making anyone cry!”

Bakugou huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and throwing his eyes towards the ceiling. “Fine. No one will cry.”

“Good. Next: actually try to have fun with us! Don’t just sit there all mopey like you’ve done during dorm game nights. Actually try!” Mina entangled her fingers together and held them up to her cheek, giving Bakugou the biggest, most pathetic little puppy eyes the explosive teen had ever seen. “Pretty pleeeeease?~”

“Good god, Pinky, I get the fuckin’ idea! I’ll try, alright?! But if you show that video to ANYONE, so help me god you’ll never see another sleepover for the rest of your damn life!” Bakugou shouted, and though his screams would be terrifying to anyone else, Mina only chuckled in response, throwing up a thumbs up towards her taller counterpart.

“Get ready, Blasty, cause this is gonna be great.”

Bakugou couldn’t help it. He was stiff when he first arrived, feeling awkward and out of place. This wasn’t his territory, wasn’t his environment. He was surrounded by giggly girls who wanted him to play their little games and gossip, and it just felt...wrong at first.

And it just kept getting worse.

“Soo...Hagakure...any new interesting developments with Ojiro?” Mina grinned towards the floating pair of pink pajamas rested on a purple bean bag. The other girls all giggled, Tsu even shoving at Mina playfully with a funny scowl on her face. Bakugou knew what they were talking about, and he was not interested in this conversation at fucking all, and for more reasons than just general annoyance.

“I mean, just the same old same old I guess. Not that that’s a bad thing! I’m loving how we are right now, he’s just so sweet and loving and...yeah. It’s going good,” the invisible girl shifted in her seat, and though they couldn’t see her, the smile on her face was blatantly evident in her voice. “Have you guys got any crushes you wanna discuss?”

Jirou’s face turned bright red, though she remained silent and frozen in place. Mina spoke up first. “Nope! Not for me, at least. Still waiting for the day I’m a pro and can finally try to win some with Hawks. God, that’ll be the fuckin’ day,” Mina sighed happily, and Ochacco just giggled and punched her shoulder playfully.

“You won’t get within two feet of the guy before he files a restraining order,” Uraraka said snidely, making the girls laugh. Even Bakugou had to stifle a small chuckle behind his palm.

“Hawks, huh?” Bakugou finally spoke up, leaning his back against the wall and crossing his legs on the bed. He decided the best way to speed tonight along was to engage in their conversation. It couldn’t be that bad, right?

“Ohoho yeah. What, you tellin’ me you don’t think he’s hot?” Mina chided, looking up towards Bakugou from her place on the floor.

“Didn’t say that. And I didn’t say I was shocked either. ‘Course you picked a pro to crush on and not anyone you actually know,” Bakugou said mockingly, but it only prompted a sadistic grin to appear on Mina’s face.

The pink girl quickly popped from her spot on the ground and up onto the bed with Bakugou, Momo, and Jirou, leaving barely any room on the space. “Hey, what the f-!” Bakugou started, before Mina plopped herself cross-legged right in front of his face, and evil look glinting from her eyes.

“Who do you have a crush on then, Blasty?” Mina’s grin was face-splitting, and the look in Bakugou’s eyes gave her everything she ever could have wanted.

“Crush?! Why would I of all people have a fucking crush!? I don’t like people!” Bakugou shouted, though from how close Mina was to his face right now, it was impossible for her to miss the small tinge of blush on his cheeks. She was striking gold again already.

“I don’t believe you~” Mina sung, her two index fingers wiggling at his chest in teasing mockery. “C’mon, Bakugou, you’re so easy to see through! Just tell us and noooo one has to suffer!”

“The fuck are you talking about?! I don’t like anyone, end of discussion, okay?!” Bakugou shoved Mina away from him (not too forcefully, of course, just enough to shove her towards Momo sitting on the pillows). Mina sighed with a smile, shaking her head with tuts of disappointment.

“Y’know, I didn’t want it to have to come to this, Katsuki Bakugou, but you really leave me no choice,” Mina looked around at her friends with a knowing but evil shine in her eyes, and they all perked up with understood smiles, and Bakugou couldn’t help the tinge of fear he felt shiver down his spine. “Girls...I think it’s about time we introduce our guest to the ‘Persuasion Machine.’”

“The fucking what-!? -hey! The hell do you think you’re doing! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” Bakugou shouted as all the girls pounced on him at once, all grabbing at him for an arm. Tsu, Uraraka, and Hagakure all took his left arm, while Jirou and Momo prompted for his right, each of them holding onto his limbs back tightly enough where he was restrained. Mina plopped herself down on his outstretched thighs, now uncomfortably close to his face.

Mina wiggled her fingers out in front of the boy’s face, and all at once Bakugou understood what was about to happen. This wasn’t just persuasion. This was revenge for last night.

“You’ve got one last chance to talk, Katsuki. Who do you have a crush on?” Mina spoke in a low interrogator voice that would usually be amusing to Bakugou if it weren’t for the fact he was very obviously about to be tortured by tickles.

“NO ONE, PEA FOR BRAINS! LET GO!” Bakugou pulled at his arms, but in all honesty...he chose not to put up that much of a fight. He wouldn’t let the girls know this, of course, but...if he’s here to let them have fun, then dammit he’s gonna let them have their fun, even if that means sacrificing his dignity even just a little. At least it’s these girls and not anyone who’d actually judge him.

“Fine. Have it your way,” Mina smirked, looking towards her friends restraining Bakugou on both sides. “Girls, pin him.”

Before Bakugou could even blink, the girls had him pinned on his back against the bed, now sitting on his arms.He tried to move them, really move them that time and...nothing. Shit. Oh shit. He was actually restrained now. He really couldn’t move at all.

Fuck.

“Pinky, I swear to god if you fucking touch mE-” Bakugou grunted, locking his jaw together when he felt those evil, evil acrylics scribble on his belly. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, tossing his head to the side trying desperately to distract himself from those skittering fingers that never relented.

“Ooh, little ticklish, Bakugou?~” Mina teased, pushing his black tank top up just slightly to reveal his toned but quivering belly. She scratched her nails along his sides, making him grunt out a giggle much to his dismay.

“NO! I’m nohot!” Bakugou giggled as her index finger scratched right below his belly button, his face twisting up in a smile he absolutely despised. “FUCKIHIHING QUIT IHIHIT!”

“Wow, he must be really ticklish. He broke pretty fast,” Tsu spoke bluntly, and though she was only rationalizing the situation, her words somehow felt so teasing to him in the moment, making his giggles go even higher pitched than before.

“Right? Mina’s barely touched him and he’s already giggling,” Jirou chuckled from her side, her eyes never leaving the giggling boy below her. “Can’t wait to see how he reacts when she really gets going.”

Without warning, Mina began kneading her thumbs into the sides of Bakugou’s belly. The explosive teen threw his head back in mirth, cackling and just barely kicking his legs out behind her.

“NAHAHA! STAHAHAP! FUHUHUCK YOHOHOU!” Bakugou spat out between his cackles, prompting Mina to gasp in mock shock.

“Well I never, Bakugou! Is that really how you would speak to your bestest friend in the whole wide world?” Mina moved her fingers up towards the bottoms of his ribs, sending him into a whole new wave of giggles and cackles, digging his heels into the bedsheets. “Aww, are your ribs sensitive, Blasty? You real ticklish here?~” Mina pinched at his bottom ribs quickly, and Bakugou was hysterical.

“GAHAHAHA! NOHOHO! I’M NOHOHOT! QUIT IHIHIT!!” Bakugou laughed, tugging at his arms restrained by the girls on top of him. “MINAHAHAHA!”

“Oh my god! He never calls me by my actual name! We’re actually getting through to him!” Mina shouted in excitement, slowing her tickles til she was just resting her nails on his ribs in teasing warning. He breathed heavily at the relief, but his cheeks were flushed in embarrassment and he only opened one eye to look up at his interrogator. “You ready to talk yet? Cause I know there’s gotta be a love interest in that mean little head of yours somewhere!”

Bakugou growled up at her through bared teeth, still breathing harder than he wanted to be. “Fuck...you…” He grumbled at his interrogator, clenching his fists in anticipation as he felt those nails just barely start to move again. They moved at an agonizingly slow rate, making him squirm but not yet giggle.

“Maybe we’re not being mean enough. Jirou?” Mina looked up towards the grinning purple-headed girl in front of her, who already knew what she had to do.

“With pleasure, Mina,” Jirou chuckled, extending her earphone jacks down towards Bakugou’s exposed armpits, just barely letting them touch the bare space. Bakugou’s eyes widened in excited fear at the sensation, his body jerking involuntarily.

“NO! Fuck, no, wait!-”

“You wanna talk?” Mina asked, nodding her head at Jirou, alerting the girl to begin moving her jacks in his underarms. She just barely tickled the area teasingly, but he was a puddle of giggles in no time. His teeth were clenched shut and eyes screwed tightly closed, but the high-pitched, breathy giggles that made his chest shake were unmistakable.

He shook his head in answer to her question, before barking with loud laughter as Mina dug into his upper ribs right below where Jirou continued her teasing onslaught of tickles.

“NAHAHAHA! STAHAHAH-” Bakugou cackled, his words getting lost in the mess of laughs and shrieks as the girls continued their torment on his sensitive body.

“Aww, he’s so ticklish! I really didn’t expect this from him to be honest,” Uraraka cooed, using one of her free hands to scribble one nail down his exposed neck on her side. Bakugou let out a surprised squeal, scrunching his head down to shoulders, effectively trapping her finger in the terribly sensitive area.

“GAHAHAHA FUHUHUCK! QUHUHUIT! I SWHEHEAR!” Bakugou screamed with his own aggressive form of pleading, kicking his legs out in playful agony.

“All you have to do is say one little name, Bakugou~” Mina teased, her right hand staying to squeeze at the hypersensitive spot on his ribs, while moving her left to down to vibrate her index fingers into his very lower rib, the exact spot and method he had used on her the night before.

Bakugou lost his mind.

“FUHUHUCK NO PLEHEHEASE! STAHAHAP IHIHIT! GAHAHA SHIT NOT THEHEHERE! NOT THAHAHAT!” Bakugou screamed, bringing his knees up towards Mina’s back in a desperate attempt to curl up, before resorting back to his hysterical kicking like before.

“Tickle tickle, Blasty~” Mina cooed, turning the cackling boy beneath her a bright shade of red.

“Oh, he’s blushing!” Momo awed excitedly, pointing down at the boy’s face.

“NO I’M NOHOHOT!” Bakugou howled, squeaking when the finger Momo used to point began wiggling in his pit along with Jirou’s jack. He threw his head back in mirth, shrieking and cackling at the overwhelmingly ticklish sensations on his body.

“Somebody can’t handle being teased, huh?~” Hagakure pointed out.

“Nope. Poor thing’s gonna break in a minute, I promise you,” Mina spoke as if Bakugou wasn’t even there to listen, which only added fuel to his flustering fire. “So you ready for a break, Explosion Boy?”

“YEHEHES! GOD FUCK PLEHEHEASE!” Bakugou pleaded, gasping for air when all the ticklish sensations stopped at once. Tired, breathy giggles tumbled from his lips, his chest rising and falling in giddy exhaustion. “Fuhucking hell…”

“Crush, Bakugou. C’mon,” Mina crossed her arms, only resulting in Bakugou to roll his eyes.

“Is it that big of a fucking deal?!” Bakugou groaned, jumping with a yelp when he felt a single finger poke his belly button, “FUCK OKAY, OKAY! NO MORE! I’LL FUCKING TALK!”

“Finally,” Jirou muttered, chuckling when she saw Bakugou slightly blush from his spot under them.

“Just...this can’t...this can’t leave this damn room, you got that shitfaces?!” Bakugou’s insult wasn’t laced with his usual fiery aggression, and the girls knew he was serious.

“Bakugou, you would be surprised by the extensive list of secrets that have yet to leave these sleepovers,” Momo placed a non-tickly hand on his shoulder comfortingly, and she could feel the boy deflate relaxingly under her touch.

“Seriously! Nothing leaves this room, Blasty,” Mina gently grabbed Bakugou’s chin, turning his head to face her. His eyes finally met hers, and she nodded. “Nothing.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes, again refusing to make any eye contact with the girls. “Fucking fine...but not because I want to…” he sighed roughly, shutting his eyes tightly before lowering his voice into a whisper that was just audible enough for the girls to hear. “It’s Kirish-”

“YES! I KNEW IT!” Mina threw her hands in the air with an excited screech, making Bakugou jump a little from surprise.

“I kinda thought the same thing, kero. Just wasn’t positive,” Tsu spoke with a finger on her chin before gently climbing off the boy. The other girls followed, and once he was finally free he pushed himself back to his spot against the wall, bringing his knees to his chest to lay his arms on top.

“So fucking stupid...why did you wanna know that shit so bad anyways, huh?!” Bakugou still couldn’t make complete eye contact with any of the girls out of embarrassment.

“Just thought it would be cute!” Mina smiled widely, before turning to face all the girls again. “So, anybody up for Just Dance?”

“Aw, really? You’re turning in already?” Mina whined up at Bakugou who was already making his way towards the door.

“Pinky, it’s 1 in the goddamn morning. I’ve already been tickled to death, played Just Dance, painted Kermit’s fucking nails, watched a shitty-ass horror movie, AND told you my who my stupid fucking crush is; I think I’ve got the whole damn sleepover experience,” Bakugou grunted before turning his body back towards the door before pausing his hand on the knob. “Actually, uh...come out here a minute, Horns. Gotta ask you something.”

“Already told you once, Blasty, they aren’t horns!” Mina said as she got up from her spot on the floor and over towards the door with Bakugou. “I’ll be back guys!”

“Alright. Night Bakugou!” Uraraka waved at the pair with a wide smile. All the other girls said their goodnights as well, Bakugou only nodding in response.

The pair made their way into the dark, quiet hallway together, shutting the door behind them. “So what’s up?” Mina asked in a whisper.

Bakugou pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “How...how did you know?”

Mina’s brow quirked. “What?”

“You said you knew I liked him...how?”

Mina couldn’t help but smile. She shrugged. “Pretty obvious, Blasty. He’s the only one you tolerate. I used to think it was just cause you respected him, but when I found you watching that romance last night, it all just kinda made sense,” Mina chuckled, enjoying the slightly embarrassed silence Bakugou gave her in response. That was before Mina gasped suddenly.

“Oh goodness, I completely forgot! I’ll delete it right now, promise!” Mina took out her phone, when Bakugou made a small confused noise.

“Huh? Delete what?” the boy asked.

“The video I took of you. Y’know, the whole reason you came here tonight?” Mina turned her phone around to show Bakugou the clip of him crying at the screen of a romance anime, which made the boy blush in the dark.

“Oh, yeah,” Bakugou huffed. “You, uh...you do that.”

Mina just giggled before deleting the video for good. “Goodnight, Bakugou.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Bakugou rolled his eyes with a small hint of a smile, poking her once in the tummy. “Night.”

Mina watched as Bakugou trekked his way back to his room, and couldn’t help but smile. She knew, without a doubt, that that explosive kid with no friends…was definitely her friend.

A / N : thank you for reading, i hope u enjoyed!! sorry it took so long to get out, i’ve been dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life lol. pls leave a like and pls pls reblog if u can!! <3 xx

#tickling #my fic #mha tickle #tickle community #ticklish!bakugou #my hero academia #katsuki bakugou #mina ashido #kyoka jiro #momo yaoyorozu #tsuyu asui #ochako urakara #hagakure tooru #class 1a #tickle fic

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reinerispretty · 3 years

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little moments. zuko x f!reader rotations bonus

HI UM!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 2K!!!!! i love each and every one of u with my WHOLE HEART!!!!

i was trying to think of something special to do that everyone would enjoy, so why not a good callback to the reason why most of us are here hehehe

when i wrote rotations, there were lots of avenues that i thought of taking after the fall of ba sing se! in the fic, (y/n) is arrested, and i posted a bonus already of how it would have ended if she had escaped with sokka and the rest of the gaang. HOWEVER, i did think of her taking azula up on her offer of going back to the fire nation and being there with zuko (insert side eye emoji)

so that’s what this is! a little rotations bonus to say thank you so much for sticking with me!!

She had contemplated it as she was in her room on the ship. Of running away and finding Sokka, Katara, and Toph. She would tell them that she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t strong enough.

The weight of what she had done settled into her stomach as soon as (Y/N) opened her eyes. She stared up at the ceiling of one of the guest bedrooms in the Earth King’s palace, needles dancing behind her eyes. For the first time in months, she was completely alone.

Azula had offered her immunity if she chose to join her. All would be forgiven if (Y/N) would just join them and return to her home, her real home. The mainland of the Fire Nation and the inner workings of palace life. It would be like nothing had changed. And (Y/N) had said yes.

It wasn’t as if she wanted to betray her friends. It was something that Sokka had discussed with her, in the event that she was captured.

A knock sounded against the heavy green door. (Y/N) sat up against the fluffy green pillows and called whoever it was in. Servants filtered in, carrying bundles of clothing, brushes, soaps, and dishes of water. One stopped at the foot of her bed. “The Princess has asked that you ready yourself to see her in the throne room.”

(Y/N) nodded silently and slipped out of the bed. The servants guided her to a chair in front of a vanity where they worked at her appearance.

Looking in the mirror was difficult. (Y/N) couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, as she was dressed in the traditional clothing of her nation, she kept her eyes cast downward and remained silent as the servants scrubbed the dirt from her nails and face and brushed the knots from her hair. It was as if, little by little, evidence of her time with Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka was being erased.

Sokka. She thought back to their conversation on the floor of their house in Ba Sing Se, shrouded in darkness as they whispered to each other. “Do what you can to keep yourself safe,” He had said quietly. “Pretend that you like them or something. When you can, meet back up with us and tell us about the Fire Lord’s plan.”

“I’m not leaving you guys,” She had scoffed, hoping that Sokka’s request of her was fake. Did he really expect her to leave her friends? The people who had become her family?

Sokka had turned over on his stomach to look at her. “You’re our best chance at gathering intel about the Fire Nation. They know you there, they trust you.”

“Not anymore,” She pointed out. Sokka shrugged.

“They have a soft spot for you. You’re one of our advantages, (Y/N). If given the opportunity, I need you to take it.”

She had turned over, staring straight into his sky blue eyes. She rested her chin on her palm. She wasn’t taking Sokka seriously, so she had humored him. “Fine,” She agreed. “If Azula wanders up to me and asks me to go back, I’ll play spy.”

Sokka’s face remained serious despite her joking tone. “I don’t want you to do this either,” He had told her. “If you get into any serious danger, just come back to m--us.”

(Y/N) had laughed. “Danger? In the Fire Nation? No way.”

In the present, (Y/N) dared to look at herself in the mirror. Her hair was done in the traditional Fire Nation topknot, flowing freely down her back. She looked as she had over a year ago. Beloved daughter of the Fire Nation with a miserable glint in her eye. Was this who she had always been? She swallowed thickly to press down the tears.

She had learned to trust Sokka’s judgment overtime. It was a good plan. She was the only one that could do it. But it hadn’t been a day and she already couldn’t wait to be reunited with her friends. In the meantime, she would have to do her best to pretend that this was the life she wanted. One of cruelty and submission.

She had sat in the palace the night before, as Zuko and Azula fought Katara and Aang in the caverns below the city. She had watched Appa fly away, with no knowledge of how her friends had fared during the fight.

Once she was done getting ready, (Y/N) dismissed the servants. She walked quietly to the throne room, her head down. When she entered, Azula was sat in the Earth King’s throne, still wearing her Earth Kingdom disguise. Mai and Ty Lee were seated at the steps beneath her. The one person she was expecting to see was absent.

Ty Lee’s face lit up when she saw (Y/N), and as soon as she finished her bow, the young acrobat cartwheeled over to her and gave her a hug. (Y/N’s) first instinct was to stiffen, but she fought it and squeezed Ty Lee as hard as she could.

“It’s so good to have you back!” Ty Lee exclaimed, clasping (Y/N’s) cheeks between her hands. “I’ve never seen your aura look better!”

“That’s...great?” (Y/N) questioned, furrowing her brows. Her eyes drifted over to Mai, who picked her nails with the blades of her darts.

“Hey.” Was all she said. Well, that was alright. Mai and (Y/N) had never been very close.

“Good morning,” Azula drawled, a smile curling on her lips. (Y/N) was unsure if it was genuine or menacing. Both were to be expected when dealing with Azula. “I’ve talked to Father. He’s willing to fully pardon you for your crimes.”

“That’s--” (Y/N) swallowed. “That’s very generous of the Fire Lord.”

“Yes. I told him all about the poison the Avatar and his friends put into your head. Without guidance from me, you were easily influenced.” Azula adjusted her position in the throne, tucking her legs beneath herself. She looked like she belonged there. “Father and I both agreed that it would be best if I kept you close. You need support from your real friends.”

(Y/N) knew what this was, and Azula did too. It was not something from the kindness of the young princess’s heart. It was a way to control (Y/N), to make sure that she wouldn’t stray. A single misstep and it was likely that she would be six feet under. It was even more likely that Azula would put her there herself.

(Y/N) tried as hard as she could to smile gratefully. “Thank you, Azula. Please give your father my thanks.” The doors to the throne room opened then, revealing Zuko. He was dressed in a royal Fire Nation robe, but his green Earth Kingdom clothes still poked out from beneath the red fabric. (Y/N) liked to think that she had become very vigilant in her time running from the Fire Nation, so she noticed the way Mai’s face lit up just slightly at his appearance.

He looked over at (Y/N), his eyes widening in surprise. He opened his mouth to speak, then immediately shut it. She stared back at him, her eyes boring into his. While it may appear that she and Zuko were on the same side, she had no intention of forgiving him for turning on Iroh. For throwing away all the progress he had made in his time away from the Fire Nation. He was so close to becoming the version of himself that she always believed he could be and he had thrown it all away for trivial acceptance.

Zuko was the first to turn away and (Y/N) looked back to Ty Lee.

“Can you tell me about the boy you were traveling with?” Ty Lee questioned. “The one with the ponytail?”

“Yes, (Y/N),” Azula said. “Do tell us all about your time with the Avatar and his friends. I’d like to know what they’re planning.”

“His name is Sokka,” (Y/N) told Ty Lee, trying her hardest to not show any amount of affection in her voice. “And I don’t know what they’re planning. They never trusted me enough to share.” She stared straight into Azula’s golden eyes. Azula was a skilled liar, but (Y/N) had grown up with her. She had a lot more tricks up her sleeve than the princess would anticipate.

Azula narrowed her fine eyebrows. “That’s quite alright. I suppose we don’t have much to worry about, considering Zuko killed the Avatar.”

(Y/N) had to hold in her gasp or else she would be jeopardizing everything she was here for. There was no way Aang could be gone. He was the connection between the Spirit World and the Human World. Wouldn’t they be able to feel it?

She curled her hands into fists, her nails pressing crescent shaped marks into her skin. “You should be thanking him,” Said Azula. (Y/N’s) eyes slid across the room to Zuko. He stared at his sister, his own brow furrowed in confusion. “Go on. Say thank you.”

“Thank you,” (Y/N) said quietly to Zuko. She hated how silent he was being. If Aang was gone, then Zuko would now be dead to her. He had done something unforgivable. If he didn’t understand the weight of his actions now, then he never would.

“Our ship leaves tonight,” Azula announced, standing up and stretching her body. “We should be back home by morning. (Y/N), you’ll be staying in the palace with Zuzu and I, since your parents failed to protect you from the Avatar.”

“Thank you,” (Y/N) repeated, perhaps because her brain couldn’t think of anything else.

“Father also wants to have an audience with you,” Azula said as she skipped down the steps. She strode over to (Y/N), the same mischievous glint in her eye. “Something about loyalty.” Azula’s smile was menacing.

(Y/N) swallowed. She was in way over her head.

---

Their ship docked in the royal port, just below the palace. Guards escorted (Y/N) off of the ship, which was horribly embarrassing. Truly they couldn’t think of her as that big of a threat to require guards? Perhaps they had thought she might try to escape. She had contemplated it as she was in her room on the ship. Of running away and finding Sokka, Katara, and Toph. She would tell them that she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t strong enough.

But as she lie awake that night, she thought of everything Aang had sacrificed in order to ensure that they would have a better life. If he was truly gone, it would a disservice to their entire cause if she couldn’t risk something the way her beloved friend had. It was intimidating, being surrounded by those she had fought for so long, but (Y/N) was different now. She wasn’t the girl that they thought they knew. Her time with her friends had changed her for the better.

So, (Y/N) stepped off the ship and back onto the Fire Nation mainland with her chin held high, a smirk playing at the corners of her lips. If she were to be believable, she had to exude confidence, even if she was scared out of her mind. Her confidence began to falter as the guards walked her past Zuko and Azula, past Mai and Ty Lee, and to the room that she remembered to be the Fire Lord’s throne room.

She had not set foot into this room since she was nine, when she had exhibited her firebending skills for Fire Lord Azulon. So much had changed since then. If she had thought Azulon was intimidating then, Ozai was something to be feared.

He sat on his throne, red flames shooting up in columns on either side. As soon as she was before him, the guards left, and (Y/N) fell into a bow. She absolutely despised groveling, but she knew it was what needed to be done in order to survive beneath the Fire Lord’s nose.

She tried her best to bring back all the information of Fire Nation etiquette that had gathered dust at the back of her mind. After a few moments of silence, she rose and sat on her knees, hands folded in her lap as she stared forward at Ozai. Her eyes were downcast, avoiding her gaze. (Y/N) tried her best to come across as shameful.

“You have grown since the last time you were in these halls,” The Fire Lord spoke. His voice was calm, too calm for someone who was talking to a traitor. (Y/N) inhaled a deep breath.

“My lord,” She said, her voice shaky from nerves. “I am so, so sorry for betraying our nation. I deserve to be thrown into prison and never let out.”

“Is that what you want?” Ozai questioned. “To be rotting in a cell?” (Y/N) curled her fingers into her dress and made a rash decision. She looked at the Fire Lord and stared directly into his amber eyes.

“I want to prove myself to the nation. And to you. I was a foolish girl. After Zuko’s banishment, I was heartbroken. I let my feelings get the better of me.” There was some truth to her lies. She wasn’t foolish, nor did she want to prove herself, but Zuko’s banishment had only been a catalyst for how she felt about the Fire Nation.

“I don’t give second chances.” (Y/N) felt a tugging at her heart. She couldn’t report to her friends from jail. Or if she was dead. “But perhaps you can redeem yourself after your punishment.” (Y/N’s) eyebrow quirked up curiously.

Ozai plucked a metal rod from his side and stood, walking down to meet her. (Y/N) knew what it was. Their words for ‘traitor’ were cast into iron at the end of the rod, which was already heating up from Ozai’s touch. The brand was given to those who had betrayed the nation, so that all would know of their treachery. They considered it to be a better option that rotting in jail or being executed.

(Y/N) gulped. She had never seen a branding performed, but she had heard the screams as Ursa had ushered her, Azula, and Zuko away from the palace when they were young. It was a practice that not even Azulon had instituted. It was purely of Ozai’s crafting.

“Your arm,” Ozai said, gesturing to her right arm. (Y/N) pulled up her sleeve. She could feel her body getting hot, the fight or flight instincts kicking in and begging her to run. As a native to the Fire Nation and a firebender, she was able to withstand a great amount of heat. Which meant that the poker needed to be thousands of degrees hotter than the average in order to brand her skin. “This is a punishment for your own actions,” Ozai sneered. “You brought this upon yourself.”

The hot poker pressed into the skin of her forearm and (Y/N) had to bite down as hard as she possibly could on her bottom lip to keep herself from shouting, but it was no use. The pain was unbearable, shooting up her arm and reverberating on every nerve within her body. She couldn’t control her shrill screams as they echoed in the massive hall. Hot tears streamed down her face as she watched what Ozai was doing to her. She should have escaped when she had the chance, should have told Sokka no, she couldn’t return to the Fire Nation. She had been a child then, she wouldn’t be safe from the horrors that Ozai inflicted on others.

He removed the iron from her skin and (Y/N) collapsed in on herself, her body shaking with sobs. She knew that showing weakness was even more dangerous now than ever before, but this was a treatment that was reserved for seasoned war criminals, not fifteen year old girls. She looked up at Ozai through cloudy eyes, barely able to see through her tears. “Thank you, my lord,” She said, her voice shaky and small because her throat was clouded with sobs.

“You are dismissed,” He said as he returned to his position on his throne, not bothering to look back at her. (Y/N) stood on wobbly legs and bowed once more before walking slowly out of the throne room. As soon as she was beyond its doors, she started running. She couldn’t even see where she was going, but her feet carried her to the only place she knew would help.

She sobbed heavily as she reached the turtle duck pond, dropping to her knees and shoving her arm into the cool water. The turtle ducks quacked and flapped away from her, but (Y/N) couldn’t care. She wanted Katara, whose healing powers would ease the burning pain shooting up and down her arm. She wanted to be held, to be reassured that everything would be alright. She cried, her tears dripping into the pond water. It probably wasn’t the most sanitary situation, but the coolness of the water helped ease her pain just slightly.

“(Y/N)?” Zuko’s voice sounded far away in her ears. “What happened?”

(Y/N) couldn’t bring herself to look any farther up than his boots. She felt so tired, but she couldn’t afford to pass out. She couldn’t let her guard down once while in this place. “Just go away,” She said meekly, the fingers on her other hand clawing into the soft grass.

“Father gave her her punishment,” Azula said from the other side of (Y/N). Having the both of them here was the absolute last thing she wanted. Azula pulled her arm from the pond and wrapped cool towels around her burn. (Y/N) hissed in pain, but she had to admit that it was better than the pond water. “If it makes you feel any better,” continued Azula nonchalantly. “You passed his test.”

“You knew about this?” Zuko demanded, his eyes wild with anger. Azula scoffed.

“Relax, Zuzu. It’s just a little burn.” Delirious, (Y/N) laughed bitterly. Her ragged breathing was starting to even out.

Zuko bent down at her side, placing a hand on her shoulder. (Y/N) shrugged it off and stood, refusing to look at him. She wiped the tears from her eyes and removed the towels from her arm. ‘Traitor’ was beginning to blister on her skin. It would be something that remained with her for the rest of her life.

She looked up at Azula. “Can you take me to my room?”

“You should probably go to the infirmary,” Zuko suggested.

“Zuko, I heard that Mai was looking for you,” Azula’s voice was laced with spite that stung both Zuko and (Y/N). Azula linked her arm with (Y/N’s) good one and led her back into the palace.

“Father said it was necessary for you to understand the damage you’ve done,” Azula said lowly to (Y/N). “You weren’t only a nuisance to me, you know. The whole Fire Nation was ashamed of you.” Azula giggled. She had a way of making jokes out of insults, but once she saw (Y/N’s) face, her own softened. “It will heal.”

“Will there be more tests to prove my willingness?” (Y/N) questioned. “If they’re worse than this, I don’t know if I’ll survive.”

“That’s all Father had planned for you.” (Y/N) noticed how Azula failed to mention if she had any tests for her. With a deep sigh, (Y/N) hoped that her friends were better off than she was.

---

A nurse had visited (Y/N’s) room to tend to her wound. The expression on her face had been a mixture of disgust and pity. (Y/N) hadn’t had the energy to leave her bed for a few days, which she recognized was putting her mission in jeopardy. She was supposed to be gathering information, not wallowing beneath the blankets.

After the nurse had dressed her bandages, (Y/N) decided it was best to finally roam about the palace. There was still a stinging sensation on her skin whenever it rubbed against the fabric of her dress, but she tried her best to ignore it as she walked through the halls of the Royal Palace, as well as memory lane. The place had become considerably more focused on Ozai rather than the greatness of the Fire Nation. Servants scampered about in fear, careful not to cross her path. She didn’t recognize anyone that she saw. (Y/N) used to know everyone by name. She guessed that they had either fled the palace or had been fired. Or worse.

Being there felt like being out of place in your own home. Thinking back on her past felt like looking into someone else’s life.

She paused at the tapestries of the Fire Lords, staring up at Ozai’s looming figure. He looked the most menacing, and perhaps that was because he was the most dangerous. There was only a month until the Day of the Black Sun, but that seemed like such a short amount of time to figure out how to defeat Ozai.

“It’s different,” Zuko said at her side, and (Y/N) jumped in surprise, clutching a hand to her heart. “Being back here after so long,” He elaborated.

(Y/N) hummed. If she were being honest, she avoided Zuko as much as she could. She felt as though she couldn’t stand to be around him. If she were alone with him for too long, she might end up beating him senseless.

“Why did you come back?” Zuko questioned. “I thought you were happy with them.”

“I guess we both don’t know each other as well as we thought,” (Y/N) said, keeping her voice as level as possible. She looked at Zuko, her face devoid of emotion. “I’m not here for you.”

Zuko frowned. “I didn’t think you were.”

“Good.” She turned to walk away, but Zuko grabbed her by the sleeve of her robes.

“If you’re here, why are you mad at me? You’ve forgiven everyone else.”

“You killed my friend,” She said quietly. “How could I ever forgive you for doing that?”

“That wasn’t--” Zuko huffed, lowering his voice. “I didn’t kill Aang. Azula used her lightning on him.”

(Y/N) narrowed her eyes. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You would trust Azula over me?”

“You of all people should know that you can’t trust anyone here.” She crossed her arms over one another, wincing at the contact of her wound. “Why would Azula lie?”

“Azula always lies,” Zuko said, repeating the mantra they had created when they were kids. “Why would it matter to you what happened in the underground city? You left them. You betrayed them.” (Y/N) flinched.

“And you feel so confident after abandoning your uncle?” Zuko’s eyes sparked with anger. After all this time, at least she knew exactly what buttons to push. “I cared about them,” She said, choosing her words very carefully. “I spent months with them, it was impossible not to. If they had killed you, I would be feeling the same way.” (Y/N) swallowed. “But they wouldn’t have. They’re different from you and me.”

She left him then, her heart pounding against her chest. Part of her wished that she could reach out to Zuko, to make him see all the wrong that their nation was causing the world, but she knew it would be too dangerous. Zuko’s loyalties lay with his family and Mai now. He might have been (Y/N’s) once, but he was no longer.

---

“Are you really going to stay under that umbrella the whole time?” Ty Lee pouted, grabbing (Y/N) by the arm. “The whole point of going to the beach is to get some sun!”

(Y/N) poked her feet from beneath the umbrella, wiggling her toes in the warm sand. She pointed at them. “They’re getting sun.” Ty Lee sighed, retreating back to her towel on the beach, where dozens of boys were already waiting for her. (Y/N) adjusted on her own beach chair, wrapping her shawl tightly around her shoulders. The words etched into her arm would be a dead giveaway to the children of Fire Nation aristocracy that littered Ember Island. It would cause more trouble than it was worth.

“I’m surprised you’re not running into the water,” Mai said in her monotonous voice. “I thought you loved to swim.”

“Yeah, I’d just rather not draw attention to the ugly branding on my arm,” (Y/N) said offhandedly, digging into her beach bag for a pack of fire flakes. She offered some to Mai, who took a few and shook them into her palm. The girls ate together quietly.

“It’s better than getting sent to Boiling Rock,” Mai said and (Y/N) snorted.

“That’s what I keep telling myself, but it didn’t feel like it in the moment.” Mai’s dark eyes glanced at (Y/N’s) arm, ‘traitor’ slightly visible beneath the sheerness of her shawl.

“I didn’t think they were actually going to do it,” Mai admitted. “Azula begged her dad not to execute you.”

(Y/N) coughed from surprise and also from the heat of the fire flakes. “Well, I’m glad to hear I was saved from a worse fate.” Zuko returned then, taking a seat between Mai and (Y/N). He handed his girlfriend ice cream, which promptly fell on her lap.

She hadn’t been on Ember Island for many summers, but things rarely changed on the tourist destination. Her family used to have a house on the opposite side of the island. She wondered who occupied it now.

Azula squatted at (Y/N’s) other side. “We’ve been invited to a party,” She announced, a triumphant smile on her face. (Y/N) sighed.

“I don’t really think I’m up for a party,” She said, and Azula’s fingers wrapped around her arm, pressing into the healing skin.

“Please? You have to come!” Azula demanded, but her smile seemed genuine. (Y/N) coughed.

“Azula? My arm.” Azula lifted her hands immediately, giving her a look that was almost apologetic.

“You have to come,” Azula repeated. “I already told them to expect the five of us.”

So (Y/N) was forced to attend a Fire Nation party. If the children of these diplomats had annoyed her as kids, she couldn’t stand them as teenagers. (Y/N) kept to the wall, preferring to people watch and nibble on the stacked plate she had snagged from the food table. She had traded her shawl for a long-sleeved shirt that had been buried in the back of Lo and Li’s closet. It was definitely old fashioned, but (Y/N) didn’t really care.

As she watched, (Y/N) thought of how she had never actually been to a party. Growing up, there were certain obligations and expectations that she needed to uphold. Being betrothed to Zuko meant taking lessons and maintaining appearances. She had gone to an all girl’s school for a short amount of time before being pulled out of her lessons to be tutored at the palace. Really, her entire childhood had consisted of Zuko, Azula, and other adults.

“Hey, how’s it going?” One boy asked, walking up to her and leaning against the wall. (Y/N) jumped in surprise, nearly spilling her food. When did she get so jumpy? Perhaps it was a side effect of constantly being on edge.

“Uh, hi,” She said, unsure why this boy was talking to her. Is this what happened at parties? People just walked up to other people without formal introductions? She felt so lame.

“I’m Lee,” He said, and (Y/N) snorted, because the Fire Nation had a million Lee’s and Zuko had been one of them. Her eyes cut over to the prince, who stood brooding in a corner as he watched his girlfriend.

“Sorry,” (Y/N) apologized, turning back to the boy. “I have so many friends named Lee. I’m (Y/N).” She took a bite of a carrot to punctuate her sentence.

“Is this your first time on the island?” Lee asked, resting his back against the wall as she had. His eyes were a nice light brown, his hair black and shoulder-length and tied half up in the back. He was likely a whole foot taller than (Y/N).

She shook her head. “I used to come here all the time when I was a kid. But y’know, life gets in the way so I haven’t been back in a few years.”

“So where are you from?” He had a lot of questions.

“The mainland,” (Y/N) answered. She wanted to be honest, as keeping up lies tended to be difficult, but she didn’t want to tell him that she was currently living at the palace. “And you?”

“I’m from a smaller island off the coast of the mainland. My dad’s the mayor there.”

“Oh, that’s nice.” (Y/N) realized she had a hard time talking to boys that she didn’t know almost everything about. She set her empty plate in the trash can and extended her hand to him, watching carefully so that her sleeves would not roll up. “Do you want to dance?”

“Dance?” He questioned. (Y/N) smiled.

“There’s music and an empty floor. That implies dancing.”

“I don’t think--” She grabbed him by the hand anyway, leading him to the middle of the floor.

“My grandfather taught me this one,” She told him, and she started dancing. It was another lie. Aang had taught her the traditional Fire Nation dances from his childhood, one night while their group was camped by a river bank and feeling incredibly bored. She had had no idea that her culture had once had a history of anything other than war, but learning the dance moves had excited her.

“Like this?” Lee asked, repeating her movements. (Y/N) nodded her head excitedly.

“Exactly!” She looked around the room and locked eyes with Ty Lee, who was always willing to have a fun time. She gestured for her to join her and once Ty Lee ran to the middle, other boys started flocking to the center to dance with them.

For a while, (Y/N) forgot about her mission and the friends she had left behind. Later, this would make her sad. But for right now, she felt like a regular girl in the Fire Nation.

Lee had pulled her close and spun her around so fast that she had been practically thrown from the crowd of dancers, spinning around the room until she eventually bumped into someone. (Y/N) laughed out an apology as the person gripped her forearms to steady her balance. When she looked up, she stared straight at Zuko.

She had allowed herself to stare, for a few seconds. The last time they had been this close, he had been preparing for his Agni Kai. The pink and red skin of his scar might have been off-putting to some, but (Y/N) thought he looked as lovely as the first day she had met him. She wanted to reach her hand up and touch him, to feel the contrast between soft cheek and rough scar tissue, but as soon as she had that thought, she pushed it away.

“Sorry,” She repeated as she separated herself from Zuko. The mood was ruined. She remembered everything that he had done, everything that she had left behind, and soon she went back to her spot on the wall, watching as the others danced happily.

---

They had left the party, but really they had been thrown out. Zuko had been jealous of boys talking to Mai, so they had broken up, but then Zuko had started a fight? (Y/N) wasn’t necessarily sure what had happened. One moment she was moving back toward the snack table, the next Azula was pulling her out of the house by her collar.

They sat on the beach now, surrounding the fire that (Y/N) had started. She remained quiet as they listed their qualms with each other, and with the universe. Her eyes remained focused on the flames as she processed the information and thought of any way that Sokka might be able to use it against them. But then a pit settled in her stomach. These were personal things that they were sharing, and it didn’t seem right to expose them so viciously.

“You’re just going to be quiet?” Zuko demanded, his voice rough and laced with annoyance. Her eyes snapped toward him, a frown placing itself upon her features.

“We’re all sharing,” Ty Lee said gently from her right. “Even Azula shared something.” (Y/N’s) eyes cut to Azula, who looked at her expectantly.

“I think I’m alright.” She didn’t want to risk exposing herself. She wasn’t even sure what was safe to say. These were her childhood friends, but who knew what would happen if she revealed even a fraction of how she really felt.

“Do you think you’re too good for us?” Zuko questioned, staring down at her. His voice was hard, laced with attitude as it normally was, but he seemed curious. “You spend time with the Avatar and his buddies and now you’re stuck with second rate friends?”

“I chose to come back,” (Y/N) narrowed her eyes at Zuko.

“It feels like you picked second best,” Azula said. (Y/N) locked eyes with her from across the fire. “We’re not idiots, we know you enjoyed your time with them. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have abandoned the life you had.”

“You all seem to forget that the life I had wasn’t the life that I wanted,” (Y/N) said, staring at each of the people that surrounded her. “I was sent away from the only home I had ever known, from the only people that I had ever known, to live in an Earth Kingdom colony. My father thought I was a disappointment and my mother hated everything I did, and the people that I thought cared about me left me behind without a second thought.” She paused, turning to Zuko. “Did any of you even think about me? Even bother to consider how I might have felt? You’re all so concerned with your own lives, you always have been. I was alone. I might have made mistakes, but that’s what happens when you’re desperate for someone to care about you.”

She firebended into the dying flames, causing them to shoot toward the sky.

“Why come back then?” Mai asked.

(Y/N) hesitated for a split second, but it was just long enough for Zuko to notice. “People fighting against the Fire Nation aren’t always eager to have someone from the Fire Nation with them.” She shrugged. “I just wanted to belong somewhere.”

Ty Lee scrambled over to her, wrapping her arms around (Y/N). “You belong with us!” (Y/N) insisted. “We never wanted to fight you. We would always feel so horrible about it after.”

(Y/N) gave her a light smile. “I would, too.” She risked casting a glance over at Azula, who refused to meet her eyes. (Y/N) couldn’t tell if she had messed everything up or if she was still in the clear.

They let the fire die eventually, and one by one, each of the teenagers began returning to the house, until (Y/N) was the last one left. She had moved further down the beach where the tide splashed against the sand. It was a warm summer night on Ember Island, and the water was just right. The only light surrounding her was the light of the full moon, which cast a lovely silver glow on everything.

“Hi, Yue,” She sighed, splashing her fingers into the water. “I wish there was a way that you could tell me they were okay.”

She heard shuffling from behind her and turned around, surprised to see Zuko walking toward her. She turned back, facing the water once more. “I’ll be back to the house in a few minutes, I just wanted to sit for a while.”

He sat in the sand, just a foot away from her. (Y/N) held in her sigh. Zuko was the last person she wanted sitting with her right now. She wanted to hate him for everything that he had done, but then she looked at him and all she wanted to do was talk to him. The inner conflict that he gave her was enough to put her in a sour mood for hours.

“I didn’t know where you were,” Zuko said quietly. (Y/N) turned to him and furrowed her brows. “No one would tell me.” His eyes met hers. “Or else I would have written.”

“Oh,” (Y/N) said, feeling her cheeks become hot. “It was years ago. It doesn’t really matter anymore.”

“If it didn’t matter to you, you wouldn’t have said it.” Sometimes it hit (Y/N) that just as she knew the inner workings of Zuko, her knew her as well. “I meant it, when I said that I thought of you every day.”

“I meant what I said too,” (Y/N) said quietly. “But things are different now. You’re Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, not Lee from the tea shop.”

“I’m still who I was in Ba Sing Se.” She shook her head.

“You think that, but we both know what being back here really means.” Being back in the Fire Nation meant Zuko had reverted back to who he once was, someone eager to please his father, no matter the cost.

Zuko was quiet, as if he didn’t know what to say. She was surprised with how calm he was being. Perhaps the full moon had an odd effect on everyone.

“Can I ask you something?” (Y/N) questioned, and Zuko nodded. “Was Azula really the one to kill Aang?”

He hesitated, but then he nodded. “He was in his Avatar State and she struck him with lightning.”

(Y/N) pushed back the tears that threatened to spill over. Even with Zuko, she couldn’t truly show herself. “Why’d she tell everyone it was you?”

“To get me in my father’s good graces.” He scoffed. “To save herself in case it didn’t work.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Katara and I were trapped in the caves, she told me that she had water from the Spirit World pool in the Northern Water Tribe.” Zuko shook his head. “I-I don’t know what could have happened, but there’s something telling me that no one really knows what happened to Aang.”

That gave (Y/N) all the hope that she needed. Aang was safe. He was alright.

“So, if Aang is alive and your father thinks you failed...” She did not want to finish her sentence. She met Zuko’s golden eyes once more. “After everything he’s done, why did you come back?”

“Same reason as you, I guess. I wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere.”

She had never considered that Zuko had been feeling alone during his time with Iroh. She had been conflicted over her loyalties, but it had only lasted a few moments until she made the choice to join Team Avatar. She was confident that she was doing the right thing, but there was more at stake for Zuko.

“You didn’t swim today,” he said suddenly.

(Y/N) shrugged. “I didn’t want anyone to see my arm,” She said simply, but Zuko winced.

“I...I didn’t know he was going to do that. If I had, I would’ve--” (Y/N) shook her head to stop him.

“We both know firsthand what he’s capable of. I wouldn’t have wanted you to put yourself in a position like that.” She touched her arm, where beneath the fabric of her sleeve lay the raised marks of the brand that was still healing. “Who knows, maybe I’ll be laughing about it in a few years.”

Zuko glanced at the water, then back to (Y/N). “Do you want to go swimming?”

(Y/N) opened her mouth to protest, but Zuko didn’t seem to be having it. “You love swimming.” And it was true, she did love to swim. She had spent hours in the water during their trips to this island as children. Her mother had had to practically drag her from the beach.

(Y/N) stood and removed her top layer of clothes, revealing the bathing suit beneath. Without hesitating, she ran into the warm water, diving beneath the calm waves. When she resurfaced, Zuko was only a few paces away from her, the robe that he had been wearing left in a pile beside her own clothes on the beach.

“The water’s colder than I remember,” Zuko called out to her, just as she dove beneath the waves once more.

“It was definitely like this when we were young, we were just stubborn,” (Y/N) laughed. Zuko swam over to her. She stood on her toes as the water came to her shoulders, but it only reached Zuko’s chest. “Your hair is still dry,” She pointed out and Zuko rolled his eyes, plugging his nose and dipping beneath the surface for a few seconds. When he came back up, he was significantly closer to (Y/N) than he had been before.

“Is that better?” He asked, shaking out his hair so water droplets splashed on her face. She laughed and shoved him backward to get him to stop.

He staggered backwards and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her under with him. (Y/N) opened her eyes beneath the waves, feeling the familiar stinging sensation that had been a staple of her childhood. Zuko’s eyes were closed as he held his breath. He had never gotten used to opening his eyes underwater, it had seemed.

(Y/N) pulled them up toward the surface, both inhaling a sharp breath of air. As she went to settle on her feet, she bobbed beneath the waves. They had traveled much farther from the shore than she had expected.

Zuko reached out for her, wrapping his arm around her middle to keep her above the water. He could still stand, which (Y/N) hated. “The last time we swam here, I was taller than you,” (Y/N) said, staring up at him. He smiled down at her, the corner of his eyes crinkling. The skin of his scar tried to repeat the action of its counterpart, but it couldn’t quite do it.

(Y/N) couldn’t keep her eyes off of his scar. She knew it wasn’t entirely polite, but she was curious. He had left the Fire Nation before it had healed. When they encountered each other, she was never very close to him. Even at the party, she had only seen it up close for a few seconds.

“I’ve never seen it this close,” She told him, her voice as soft as the moonlight that surrounded them. Zuko’s cheeks flushed.

“It’s pretty bad, huh?” His eyes were trained on her, but she wasn’t noticing. She furrowed her brows and shook her head.

“I like it,” She said simply. It was Zuko’s turn to furrow his brows.

“You can’t be serious.” (Y/N) shrugged, lifting her right hand to touch his cheek like she had wanted to at the party. Zuko stiffened and nearly dropped her into the ocean. Her thumb, light as a feather, traced over the pink and red skin. Some areas felt smooth and silky, while others were rougher. She traced over the brow bone where his eyebrow had once been.

His eyes fell to her forearm, where his father’s punishment was still healing on her skin. He wrapped his fingers around her arm, lightly tracing the word with his own thumb.

“For the record,” He said, eyes still focused on her arm. “I don’t think you’re a traitor.”

A few moments passed before he looked up at her again. Her eyes were soft, sparkling in the reflection of the moonlight that bounced off of the water. The corners of her lips were turned upward in a soft smile. Her hand remained cupping the side of the face and Zuko sighed, leaning into her touch.

“You’re really beautiful,” She told him, stroking his scar once more. “I don’t think I ever told you that.” Her heart was beating so hard against her chest. This was the stupid power that Zuko had over her. She had been so mad at him just a few hours ago, but if she allowed it, he wormed his way back into her heart.

Zuko’s eyes widened in surprise at her statement. He parted his lips to say something, but no words would come to mind. She dizzied him, jumbled his thoughts until he was a mess of unspoken words and dumbfounded faces.

It was slow as it happened, thoughtful. He rested his forehead against hers, their noses just barely touching as he stared at her through half-lidded eyes. He would give her time. If she wanted to pull away, she would.

She didn’t. Her other hand took its place on his bicep, fingers curling gently into his skin. Her lips parted, her lashes batting upward as she stared into his amber eyes. Zuko was all that she could see and feel. Her heart continued to pound against her chest. If he wanted to do something, he would.

Zuko’s eyes fluttered shut as he closed the distance between them, capturing her lips in a kiss. They were softer than he had ever imagined. The little gasp she let out made him pull her closer. He didn’t want any space between them. His hand left its place at her arm and traveled up to where she caressed his cheek, wrapping his fingers around her palm.

(Y/N’s) eyes had remained open for a split second before she closed them, pressing into Zuko as she kissed back. She was completely thoughtless. Everything else in the world was absent as she melted into him, the hand at his arm moving to the back of his neck to pull him toward her even more. She had thought of this moment many times, but nothing could compare to the warmth that encompassed her heart as she kissed Zuko.

When they pulled apart for air, it was as if (Y/N) had been pulled back into the real world. She stared at Zuko, her eyes wide as she realized what they had just done.

“Mai,” They said at the same time, horrified looks reaching both of their faces. (Y/N) hated herself. She had gotten caught up in the moment and taken something that didn’t belong to her. (Y/N) scrambled out of Zuko’s arms.

“We don’t speak of this ever again,” She told him, her voice stern. Zuko nodded silently. “This was a mistake. That’s all it was.” With that, she dove into the waves, swimming as fast as she could back to the shore.

---

She avoided Zuko during the rest of their time at Ember Island, and once they had returned to the palace as well. If they ended up in the same corridor, one of them would turn around and walk back from where they had come from. It made (Y/N’s) heart ache, but she knew it was for the best. She felt horrible for doing something like that to Mai. She didn’t know what had become of her, and now she didn’t trust herself to be around Zuko at all.

So, she focused on her mission. Every little snippet that she heard walking through the hallways would be recorded on a scroll, which would then be kept on her person at all times. She had witnessed on more than one occassion Azula leaving her room and looking particularly pleased with herself. (Y/N) would never leave anything incriminating lying around.

Still, she needed to figure out how to get a message to Sokka. The palace had messenger hawks, but she needed to know where to send one and she had absolutely no idea where her friends were. The Day of the Black Sun was the next day. To (Y/N), it seemed as though her best bet would be to leave the mainland quickly and rendezvous with one of the groups they had recruited for the invasion. If she could steal one of the palace’s boats, she could row herself to one of the islands off the coast and either find someone she knew or find someone who knew how to get a message out.

Guards were not posted outside of her doors during the day, so (Y/N) made a hasty knapsack from one of her robes and began shoving a few belongings in it. Bread she had sneaked from the kitchens, a piece of parchment and a pen, and a map all fit securely inside. She was packing it once more when her door opened suddenly and she yelped, scrambling to cover her belongings with her bedsheets.

“I need to tell you something,” Zuko said as he shut the door behind her. (Y/N) felt her face heat up.

“You can’t be in here!” She hissed, reaching forward to shove Zuko out of her room. The last thing she needed was Azula seeing them alone together. She would undoubtedly tell Mai, which would cause more problems than (Y/N) needed on her last day in the Fire Nation.

“Just wait a second!” Zuko demanded, keeping his voice low. “I just got out of one of my father’s war meetings. They’re planning to burn down the towns of those who haven’t surrendered yet.”

(Y/N) halted her movements of trying to get him out of her room. She eyed him warily. “What does that have to do with me?”

“I know you’ve been working with the Avatar.” (Y/N’s) body stiffened, but she rolled her eyes.

“This again. Zuko, I already told you--”

“You don’t have to lie to me anymore. I know that’s the real reason you’re here is to get information for your friends. I can’t let my father or Azula do this. I want to help you.”

(Y/N) narrowed her eyes. “How do you know?”

“I know you wouldn’t come back unless you had a really good reason. As soon as I heard you say that they were suspicious of you, I knew that was a lie. I saw how you guys were with each other. They care about you.”

(Y/N) swallowed. In a whisper, she said, “I’m leaving tonight. I can tell them about this before--”

“The invasion,” Zuko finished. “My father and Azula know about that, too.”

(Y/N) felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Everything that they had been working so hard for would be for nothing. She had to get to her friends and let them know they had been exposed. “I need to leave now.” She moved to go back to her knapsack, but Zuko grabbed her by the arm.

“They’re suspicious of you, too. If they catch you, it’ll be much worse than a burn.”

“I can’t just stay here and watch my friends fail!”

“I have a plan,” Zuko assured her. “You just have to trust me.”

(Y/N) eyed him. His hand still held her arm. Zuko stared up at her. She had never seen him look so sincere. With a deep breath, she nodded.

---

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choco-mark · 4 years

Text

A Marriage of Inconvenience (Epilogue)

overall pairing: mafia!jeno x mafia!oc

overall genre: angst | smut | fluff

warnings: mentions of violence + death, mentions of drugs + drugging + drugging someone else, mentions of sex

summary: when two mafia gangs decide to end their family feud after decades, your mother decides to give your hand away to marriage of their son, lee jeno. he seemed to hate you from the moment he laid his eyes on you, but could the resolution lead to something much more than a bride and groom?

words: 3k

masterlist

requested by 🤡 anon

1 December

Seven months. That was how long it had been since Jeno had slipped a band onto your finger and kissed you into a marriage that was once so...inconvenient to you. It was funny even thinking back to how the two of you treated each other with so much hostility only a month ago, acting as if a difference of family was so disgusting. It was funny, thinking back to when you tried to kill him with the very nice blades that the Lees polished every other day.

Your back hit the soft mattress and you laid yourself down against the material of the pillow that was now cushioning your head. But your brain didn’t seem to remember the exact moment your hatred for him changed into something else, and even as much as you traveled back into your memories, you never could really find the minute you had looked at him without thinking ‘oh, Lee.’ It made you wonder what changed, but the more you wondered, the more you understood. From all that you had witnessed for the past while, the one thing that hit you the hardest was that: Lee Jeno was just like you. As much as you wouldn’t had dared admit it before, you knew it now; you knew exactly how much the two of you had in common.

Your entire life you had been raised like bred puppy not to ever trust anyone with your life except for yourself, which often caused you to shun people immediately for the moment you saw this. If it wasn’t in battle, you had never found yourself the kind of person to make friends or casually talk, and when it was, well, you always just did the job that you were told to do. Your personality was an original cold person, the kind of person that wouldn’t want anyone near them that would cause their own emotional attachment. The only exception being family.

You could tell how close Jeno was with his family, and lately having confided in you very minutely about his feeling, how close he was with Donghyuck. It hadn’t occurred to him that his brother had been going through depressive episodes, which had caused him to have outbreaks of different emotions at different times because of the drugs that he had been abused with, not at least until the Lee doctor had diagnosed him in the dungeon that he had been locked up in. And according to him, it had hit him hard. Harder than he had expected himself to be affected by it. His relationship with Taeyong wasn’t necessarily the same, considering he had always had a certain hate for his younger brothers, but Mark? He had said that even if he wasn’t his brother, he would’ve still considered him as one.

You had told him that you—were somewhat similar, though, he didn’t need you to tell him because he had already seen that attachment towards Jisung the entire time that he was recovering. You had always seen it as a weakness, the way that family always was the soft spot in your heart, but the more you talked about it with him, the more you realized it was a strength. Your love for your brother was out of the roof, and he knew that as much as you showed it, and he assured you that it most definitely did not make you weak because you loved.

In the past few days, it had almost felt like you and Jeno had just passed a stage from strangers to friends, from the way you two were actually able to talk and train together. Well, counting out the fact that you had insisted you go to the training room and Jeno had sheepishly told you that his father had specifically asked you not to leave the bedroom for the rest of the month. It ended with you threatening to punch your—father-in-law in the face, and a few very angry knives being thrown at targets.

But Jeno was nice to train with, because he was like you in the fact that your training time was your therapeutic relaxation time. You didn’t want to be disturbed, and neither did he, and that made the perfect pairing. It only lasted till sparring, where you knew he lacked it, and you gave him a few techniques that would help him in the hopeful future. And Jeno, well, he had helped you with your rifle skills.

The two of you were—well—kind of forced to share a room, which allowed for eventful breakfasts and lunches and dinners that would consist of long, unusual, and unnecessary discussions. They were forever ongoing, and they varied from topics such as old comics to your lecture on feminism, but, it allowed for some kind of bonding between the two of you.

Jeno had eventually understood the reason why you were always so defiant against his father, and it did hit him that the Lees were always so discriminatory towards women in their household. He had said with a small voice and a slight smile that ‘one day, when I take over the clan, I’ll abolish the patriarchy.’ But, you both knew that day wouldn’t come for a while, at least, so you had to deal with it for the time being.

You had also learned that Jeno had a very high sex drive. Well, higher than you had expected. You already knew that he really liked taking that cock of his and stuffing you full, but what you didn’t expect was his easy submission. There had been one day where you had taken you chance and sat on his chest, and to your surprise, he had looked up at you with pleading eyes that made you want to sin. And the best part was when he asked for your validation, the constant ‘am I doing good?’ or ‘does that feel good?’ that would make your heart warm up in different ways.

Jeno was sensitive, too, and you hadn’t even noticed it until you woke up one morning to find him crying silently into his hands after hearing the news that one of his sisters were getting married. You were—expecting him to say that someone died, but the fact that his tears were for a happy beginning made you realize how much pent up emotion he had inside of him. You were almost glad to have witnessed him crying for something so...soft.

Jeno was understanding, way more understanding that it made you want to be more accepting of him as well. He had read your mind one night and had snuck you out to visit your home just for few hours, to reunite you with the rest of your family for just the result of your smile in the end. At least, Jeno knew what it felt like being kept away from his family.

You knew he visited Donghyuck everyday, who was now in the hospital wing being treated indefinitely. Though you couldn’t necessarily bring yourself to see the man who had abducted you again without feeling the flashes from before, you knew that it meant a lot to him that he go see him. Even if he didn’t tell you, Mark did, and he always gave you a little toothy smile and told you not to worry about him.

It was on the seventeenth of May when you had woken up with severe cramps and nausea that had caused you to vomit at the break of dawn. It was on that same day that Jeno had insisted that he carry you to the hospital wing with the belief that you were ‘dying from side effects of the oxygen depreciating drug.’ And it was on the same day that the doctor had widened his eyes and told the two of you that, no, you were not dying, but you were pregnant.

The first thing that had come to your mind was: I’m not ready for this. And the truth was that, no, you were one hundred percent not ready to become a mother and bring a child into the world. Jeno had stood there for what felt like an eternity with his jaw dropped until you had given him a slap on the thigh. Well, you shouldn’t had expected yourself to not be pregnant with all that sex and all that non-protection. Yet that was the outcome. But Jeno seemed to have expected it, and the funniest part to you was, he was ten times more excited than you were. Sure, having kids was definitely something you wanted, but having kids when you were nineteen and just married? Not really your cup of tea.

You had finally gotten enough of his anticipating words by the end of the next night, yelling at him with no rationale on the fact that you didn’t even want kids in the first place. That wasn’t completely true, no, but in the heat of the moment, you couldn’t take seeing him so happy about something that he didn’t even see as a burden.

But another thing about Jeno that you had learned was that, he was so selfless. He had sat down with you with his hands grasping yours the entire time as he let you pour your heart out about everything. You ended up crying, almost embarrassingly, but he assured you that it was okay. It was okay to cry when things don’t go the way you wanted.

Jeno was comforting, that was for sure. All he ever did was offer you comfort when you needed it, and gave you everything he could even when you didn’t need it. It was almost like he was sacrificing himself for you, and you didn’t even know why. Not until he told you.

You still remembered the day he did, he had let you sit on his lap in the empty training mats in mid-August, rubbing your thighs softly. You had missed training with him, and that was something he had forbid ever since you had started showing. The least he could do was take you to the scene, and enjoy it with you.

He had pressed his lips down your neck, trailing back up to whisper into your ears words that you truly, never would’ve expected him to say before. You had turned to stare at him for so long, and you had watched the anticipating shine of his eyes as he waited for your response. But, you felt the same way, of course, how could you not?

And everytime since that first time, you would feel like little butterflies in your stomach that would flutter around when he kissed you with those rose lips of his. Kissed you with all the love that he said and gave. And so you had told him back, so quietly, ‘I love you.’

What didn’t strike you was that Lee Jeno was a romantic. A romantic that he would never take credit for. You knew he wouldn’t, but he still woke you up to warm baths and feathered kisses, and he took you outside without his father’s permission to let you view the pretty gardens that were always locked to public view. He kissed you under the covers, and in front of his older brother. He did what he wanted, because he loved you, and he didn’t have to hide it any longer.

Donghyuck had recovered by early September, though having been warned caution by the doctor, Jeno still hadn’t allowed you near him. He had insisted that no, he didn’t have the same liking towards you that he might’ve had before, but he didn’t want to take any chances and put you in danger. You and your unborn child, as well.

But you visited Donghyuck in his room on a crisp afternoon later that month, having avoided Jeno as he had gone on an outing with Mark. It was funny, you thought, seeing him so unflirty and polite from the way that contrasted when he had his episodes before. He had even cried seeing your baby bump, and you could’ve sworn that was the cutest reaction you had gotten from anyone about your child. He was so different, but this was the Donghyuck that Jeno had told you was real, unlike the one that possessed him into taking another name.

Jeno had yelled at you after he came back, having known that you had left that room. And you, well, you yelled back. He had said that you shouldn’t have left. And you had said that he couldn’t stop you. It was heated, and at the end, you had realized: it was your first ever fight. And it was about Donghyuck.

You learned that night that Donghyuck was his half-brother, born from the same father but a different mother. It had been rumored, apparently, that his mother was a Park, at least that was what Jeno had told you. It almost made you laugh, thinking about that, because that man did have qualities that would stick him as a Park. He felt guilt, something apparently, that Lees didn’t feel. Well, it had been just a rumor anyway.

The next day you had awoken to Jeno pulling a bullet out of his arm in the lavish bathroom, and he had to lull you back to sleep with the promise that he was okay. You had learned later that he had gone out on a mission, and had failed to retrieve the said item that was needed, and his father had taken it out on him by shooting a metal ball into his skin. It wasn’t a bullet, per say, and it wasn’t nearly as painful, but it still caused an infection that made you want to barge up to that man and kill him right then and there.

Mark had told you that day that his father always had—unusual punishments when things didn’t go his way, though it seemed more like cruel to you. You hadn’t understood why your husband’s father treated his children as if they weren’t even his children, but a pack of dogs at his bidding to do whatever he wanted with them. It was disgusting.

In mid-October, that was when you realized that Jeno was infatuated with your voice. He had been concentrating on the move of your lips and the sounds falling from them so much that his listening wasn’t even listening, he had just been admiring your voice like it was something beautiful on its own. Even when you had gotten slightly frustrated with him constantly zoning out on your lips, he had just given you that cute eye-smile and kissed you, telling you that you’re gorgeous. That you’re gorgeous, and he loves you.

Jeno was—beautiful in his own sense, with a sense of absolute love and adoration for you that you noticed had grown so unbearable over time that you knew—the two of you couldn’t see a life without each other. You even laughed on that day he told you that, remembering back when the two of you were constantly at each other’s throats for almost zero to no reason. Now? You couldn’t even imagine what your life would’ve been if you weren’t forced to marry him.

Though at the same time, you could. You would’ve been living the same life as you always were, throwing blades and killing for victory. You would’ve been spending time with your younger brother the way you did before, training him and advising him about everything and nothing he needed to know. As much as you had grown to love Jeno, you didn’t think that anything to take over the meaning of Jisung in your life, and it made you tired to think that you couldn’t see him every day as you wished. But Jeno made it happen.

Jeno made—almost everything you wanted—happen. He treated you like a princess, not even, a queen like he sometimes said. He had never wanted to see you upset when you were with him, and if you did, there was always his constant strive to make you smile again. Even if it wasn’t easy. He had snuck Jisung out of the Park mansion on a Saturday night in November, and had woken you up to a brother you hadn’t seen in months.

And over all that time that you had gotten to know and fall for the man that you were formally married to, you had thought back to the day of your wedding and remembered how reluctant you were to marry him. Even back then, you were so weary of how Jeno had managed to make you feel in the time that he had saved you from your abductors, and you didn’t want to feel so weak around a man that had always seemed strong. You didn’t want to let him know that you were already falling for him, because you thought he was so different, but he—really wasn’t.

It had been seven months since you and Jeno had gotten married, and in another two months, you would be welcoming your baby daughter into the world. You had never imagined your life to take such a huge turn when you had entered the Lee palace all that time ago, with only the determination to find the people that had taken their liking for you, but...it had. Jeno hadn’t imagined it either, most definitely not when he found out he was marrying a Park, but he knew that his past self would scold him now if he knew that he was in love with a Park—and married to one too.

But that was where life had taken you, and you could only really hope for a increasingly better future. Both for you, and your husband. It might’ve been forbidden at first, maybe even so inconvenient, but you weren’t about to let it stop you. You would continue to throw knives at a flimsy dart, and you would continue to spar like the high ranked fighter you were. The two of you had made it work, with the best interest in mind as you started, and it had ended up with emotions much stronger than that.

Maybe, just maybe, life wasn’t such a burden all the time.

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i hope that cleared some things up!! and once again, thank you soo much for supporting my first real series on this blog. i hope you guys enjoyed the outcome of the story, and i gotta say that it took some twists that even i didn’t expect (haha), but here we are at the end! thank you!! ♡

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neo-culture-mafia · 5 years

Text

philia (l.mrk)

— Warnings: Cuss words | Injuries

— Words: 5.7k

— Summary: “Philia —one of the greek words for love— is the cause of friendship and deep trust that developed between brothers of arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing yourself for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them.”

— Request: “I actually don’t know if your request box is open right now but I’m gonna ask anyways and if you can then you can but if you can’t that’s fine😂 May I request a scenario with Mark where you are Taeyong’s younger sister but you guys were separated when you were younger. Mark finds you tied up in a rivals house while on a mission and brings you back and you reunite with your brother and then a relationship between you and Mark???”

— A/N: Sorry for not developing the relationship part too much, I just liked how I left it open for future possibilities, I hope you can like it. — admin💫

When Mark got inside the house, he thought it would be just a normal mission that he would easily do whatever he had to and leave. Okay, it was at the old rival's house? Yes, but Mark wasn't a professional for nothing, he knew how to control his shit and easily pass through weak defense forces like the ones his rival liked to proudly talk about. Only bullshit.

Once he ended the two guys who were protecting the not so secret office where their leader used to keep the important documents, Mark calmly walked inside of the small room, smiling at himself for being so good at his job. Some juniors were dying to come along with him for this mission, but he clearly didn't need anyone to break in the house. They had a little shit as a rival who obviously knew nothing about real security measures.

Neo Culture had no problems with dealing with this rival, he was old in the business and they easily got the house plant of his old mansion, but when Mark was inside of the small room, he couldn't help but frown at how some things looked different from what he remembered from other small missions.

“Well, well, it looks like someone made a redecoration around here.” he smirked at his own mocking, however, he could feel that something was wrong. The fact that the place still held two guys protecting it was already weird enough since Neo Culture thought this house wasn't being used by any of them anymore. It made no sense that just that room had men protection compared to the entire house. It couldn't be just because of some old papers.

Mark looked for his phone ready to call Taeyong and tell him that something wasn't right when he heard a weird noise coming from behind one of the walls. He went straight to the wall and punched it once with not too much strength, listening closely to the noise that told him how hollow the wall was. It was a fake wall with something behind it. That realization was enough to make Mark kick the wall with all of his strength without thinking twice, which resulted in the wall breaking into a million pieces. His guess was right. That house wasn't the same from years ago.

What he came to see next, made him froze for a second. There was a girl tied up in a chair with several apparent bruises on her body, she was almost unconscious, but she still was strong enough to make noises on the floor with her foot. She was clearly begging for help. At first, Mark didn't think it was a good idea to help her. He had no idea who she was, what she did to deserve that punishment, and what consequences it would bring to Neo Culture if he took her with him.

He was actually starting to consider turning his back on her when she finally opened her eyes properly and stared at him. The look on her eyes felt familiar. The way she quietly stared at his soul made him blink twice, trying to understand why the fuck he was getting those weird feelings in the middle of a mission when he was not that type, he was not the leader of Junior Forces for nothing, at least that what he was thinking until his body unconsciously moved to her direction, cutting the ties around her fists with a switchblade.

“Who are you?” Mark asked after the girl was finally free. “Can you get up?”

“Y/N. Yeah, I think I can.” you answered in a silent but also suspicious tone, you've lived so many years without any kindness from anyone, so you didn't know what this stranger wanted and not even what to expect from him. “If you're one more idiot that wants to save me just to use me so you can get something from Taeyong: give up. He'll never do that.” you said with an angry feeling inside of your chest.

Kian, the man who kept you hidden in his mansion for years, had a lot of traitors inside of his mafia and a lot of those guys tried to save you just to ask your brother for favors or money before giving you back to him. They were all killed, so, your anger was always somehow avenged.

“If you don't want Kian to kill you just like he did with all the others who tried, you better leave.” you warned the stranger, trying to be ready to fight back if you needed.

“Why the fuck would someone use you as a way to get to Taeyong?” Mark asks completely lost in confusion for a second, but then after a few seconds, he links your name to all the stories Taeyong used to tell him when he was a junior.

Taeyong would always talk about his little sister that was a great fighter since her 3 years and how his family wanted to keep her away from the business. They wanted a normal life for her, even though she still had to learn how to fight with her fists for her self-defense if she ever needed to defend herself. All Mark knew was that Taeyong's sister had disappeared when she was 5 and Taeyong was 9. After that Taeyong, the one that never wanted to take the family business, went all for it, hoping that he would find his sister, even when everyone told him she was dead.

“Shit. You're Lee Y/N.” Mark came to the realization with wide eyes after you linked your name to the name he remembered Taeyong always talking about.

“Yeah, you idiot, I'm the fucking Neo Culture's leader sister, that's why you're here.” you rolled your eyes, not in the mood for having that conversation all over again.

“It wasn't, but now it is. I'm Mark Lee, the leader of the Junior Forces of Neo Culture.”

“What the fuck?” you blinked twice just to make sure you didn't pass out and that everything wasn't just a dream. “You're really the Mark Lee? I heard about you.” you were so confused that you were really thinking about the possibility that you passed out after they had beaten the shit out of you because you tried to escape.

“We need to go. Since you're here, I can only imagine that Kian's men will all be here only in some minutes, and we don't have any backup.” Mark stated, checking his wristwatch and running you out of the hidden room, but not before taking the one document he needed and putting it inside the hidden pocket of his leather jacket. “Do you know any easy way to get the hell out of here?”

“No, Kian kept me in his current mansion, he would only bring me here when he wanted to punish me.” you said, not really wanting to talk about that. You still weren't sure if you could trust that guy.

“Being away from that asshole doesn't sound like a punishment to me.” Mark pointed out, thinking for a second about the house plant and realizing there was a way out through the garden that used to be on the back of the house. “Let's go.”

After a few minutes of walking, Mark started to worry about your condition. You had a lot of bruises and a lot of them looked like it could have caused internal wounds and if his guess was right, there was no way you could take a fight. He needed to be faster.

As you were silently running through an extensive hall that it would supposedly take to the garden door, you suddenly stopped moving and made Mark stop too. You indicated that he should be quiet and when he opened his mouth to say something, you quickly put your hand on his mouth and said with no sound “Someone is coming.” pulling him to hide behind an open door that it was close to you.

Mark's went straight to his gun and he was ready to use it if he needed, but apparently, you were faster. When you noticed that it was just one guy —one of the motherfuckers who had beaten you— you waited till he passed that door and elbowed him right on his nep spot, making him pass out at the same moment. In a matter of seconds, the guy wasn't a problem anymore and Mark couldn't be any more surprised than he already was. You knew part of that was just your adrenaline rushing through your veins and making you do things you knew your body couldn't take. The pain you were in had disappeared for a while, which was good since you needed to help Mark for both of you to get the hell out of there, but you also knew that at the moment you stopped moving, your body wouldn't be able to take anything else.

“Your gunshot would've only exposed us to the rest of them.” you justified in a simple way, caressing your injured arm after the hard movement that required a lot of strength you didn't have. “There are more of them here, around 5 more guys came with me.”

“And it won't take long until them and the whole mafia figures out you're not in that room anymore.” Mark completed your thoughts, making you nod as you got back to running through that hallway. “Taeyong wasn't lying when he said you knew how to fight.” Mark said the thoughts that were running through his mind without even noticing it. He was really amused by how fast you thought in the middle of a complicated situation. A lot of his juniors didn't have that capacity.

“He talks about me?” you asked in a surprised tone, there are so many years since you were kidnapped, you failed to get away so many times that you didn't think your older brother would still remember you.

“Yeah.” It's all that Mark is able to say. He was still feeling a little embarrassed for expressing his amusement out loud in the worst timing ever, but he needed to concentrate, his life and Taeyong’s sister's life were in the line.

When you finally got to the door and opened it, you thought for a moment that everything was going to be over... opening that door felt for a second like the end of your suffering, but when you heard a “Fuck.” leaving Mark's mouth, you knew that the maze in front of you wasn't part of his plans.

“He did a fucking maze in his garden! When did he do this shit? How we didn't notice he was using this place? How we weren't monitoring this place?” Mark wondered more to himself than to you, reaching for his phone in his pocket only too see that there was no signal. He couldn't ask for help. You were alone.

Mark was pissed, and he could only think about how he would personally punish whoever told Taeyong that the abandoned house wasn't being used anymore when he got home. That was supposed to be an easy mission.

“Mark.” you called him, expecting him to tell you that you should come back.

“Come on.” Mark took a deep breath, not daring to look on your eyes. He needed to appear confident even if he wasn't.

If there was something he learned as the Junior Forces leader is that he needed to be the first one to trust his guts, even if deep down he didn't.

“What? You're not seriously considering going into a grass maze that you don't know where it ends or if it ends, right?” you abruptly said, taking a step back. That was a suicide mission, you would definitely get caught in the middle of a maze you didn't know. It was logical.

“Y/N, there's no time to come back now. We're alone and I'm not risking your life.” Mark rushed to said, already holding your hand and pulling you to walk with him.

“Mark, this is suicide.” you warned him, but still followed him anyway. It was not like you had another choice, you couldn't escape alone unarmed and in your compromised condition, but walking into a maze that none of you knew how large it was didn't seem to be the wisest idea.

“Clearly, neither of us know this place well enough, do you really rather walk around the house like a fool and risk being caught? That is not happening.” Mark snapped at you, trying hard not to take it out on you. You had no fault, but he was pissed.

It's not like anyone could predict that Kian fucking Bastard was the one responsible for your kidnapped, however, that explained why he was running low-key for the past years or why he never directly got into Neo Culture's way, he had a hidden weapon, you. Mark couldn't help but be pissed off at the fact that no one of his people was monitoring that house because if someone was doing that, they would’ve at least got suspicious about any weird movement in an old house and checked what the hell was going on, which means, you could have been saved way sooner.

“We need to find the exit of this thing. We don't have much time.” Mark said after a few minutes of complete silence, pointing to the direction they would follow next.

“Do you want to split up?” you asked, silently hoping for Mark to say yes, you were starting to feel a tickling feeling on the hand he was holding. It was weird. But strangely, a good weird.

You had never been that close to a boy before. Imagine holding hands with one? Not even in your dreams.

“No.” Mark answered, looking into your eyes for the first time since you two got into the maze.

It seemed like the two of you were running inside that maze for hours, when it was just around 10 minutes. You were starting to feel too tired, but you wouldn't dare to say a word about it, you needed to be ready to help Mark, you couldn't let yourself fall into your tiredness, cause if you did, you knew you would pass out and that was damn out of question.

When both of you stopped to what it looked like the exit of it, you saw the center of the maze. It was really well decorated and if you were in a different situation you would totally call that beautiful place something “heaven" related, but at that moment, that place could only mean one thing: There was no way out. You were stuck and lost in that maze.

If such a realization wasn't bad enough, you two heard footsteps, fast steps. They didn’t seem to be close, but you both weren't willing to stay still just to make sure of it. The maze was made with some thick layers of what looked like grass and leaves, so when you Mark decided to run to one random hall of the maze far from the center, your best shot at hiding was if both of you entered into that thick wall of grass.

Mark looked at you, knowing that he couldn't say a thing, otherwise you could be caught, but the look on his eyes was already enough to tell you all the things he couldn't say. He was worried, you were too much injured and the possible twigs inside of the wall would probably hurt you even more. But as you quickly pushed him inside of the wall, you just silently wished nothing would happen to you, both of you.

At some point, there was a concrete wall in the middle of the leaf wall. You both tried to be as cautious as you could not to let it obvious that someone was hiding in the middle of that amount of leaves, but when both of you finally lowered your bodies and sat down on the floor to contain your movements, you felt one of the twigs picking at one of your open wounds, and at the same moment, you heard steps outside of the wall, people were walking by the hall right when you wanted to scream your lungs out of pain.

Mark looked at you and even with the small amount of light that was in the middle of that much of leaves, he saw your waist starting to bleed. His eyes went wide open when he saw a twig spiked into your wound. The worst part of it? He couldn't break it to stop your pain. The noise would attract unwanted attention.

You had your eyes strongly closed and you were biting your lower lip, trying not to make any sound, but when Mark heard you moan for a second, he didn't think twice, he pulled you into a hug, trying not to hold you too tight next to his body as he lowered his hand to your waist, forcing his hand against your wound, trying to stanch the blood again and now being the one to feel the twig spiking the back of his hand.

You had your lips now pressed against Mark's shoulder and that was enough to keep you quiet for a while. You were in so much pain that you didn't even feel shy for being that close to him.

“Shh, it's okay.” It was the whisper that you heard from Mark.

One of his hands was holding you tight because of your wound, but his other hand one was holding you in such a delicate way... Mark was caressing your back, as a way to give you comfort. He didn't need to do that, but he did anyway and you were grateful for that.

The last time you felt some kindness was years ago, so the fact that you were feeling it again, even in a bad moment, made you want to smile for a second. Not a fake smile as the one you had to put on your face for Kian. A genuine smile. You felt safe even in the most unsafe moment. You were in pain, but he was somehow a painkiller. Maybe that was just your needy ass craving for attention, but Mark really gave you a safe feeling.

Some minutes had passed before the voices you were hearing completely fade away and that made you both release a deep breath at the same time. You were stressed, scared and tired, but neither of you was willing to say that out loud, cause if you did, the situation would be real, it would bring to the light your insecure side and there was no time for you to be insecure. You needed to be ready to fight for your lives.

When Mark thought that no one was around anymore, he broke the twig that was hurting you and you finally were capable of fixing your sitting position without screaming from pain, but there was a price for it, you had to leave Mark's arms for that. It low-key made you feel sad, you liked to be in his arms. The arms of a stranger. Someone who could be lying to you. That day couldn’t get any crazier.

“How are we supposed to leave now?” you asked in a quiet tone after you were sure that nobody else was around.

“There's no way we can leave on our own even if we wanted to. You're bleeding and there are men everywhere, I'll have to call the Junior Forces.” Mark said, checking his phone once again and murmuring a quiet “Shit.” after he saw there was still no signal.

“Still no signal?” you asked, closing your eyes for a few seconds and taking a deep breath. “Mark, I can fight, my waist is not hurting that much.”

“Y/N, don't you dare giving me this bullshit. You're clearly exhausted and injured, so you're in no condition to fight with God knows how many people out there. We can't do this alone and I'm not risking your life, I told you that.” Mark abruptly stated in a harsh tone. He knew he needed to be nicer to you, you had gone through a lot of shit in life already, but he didn't know what else to tell you, he was feeling one hundred percent responsible for your life and he would never make a move knowing that you would be in a clear disadvantage. “You've gone through a lot of pain already, I'm not pushing you into any more of that.”

“You call this pain?” you scoffed, looking straight to Mark's eyes. “This is nothing compared to the pain of being away from your own family for years. Fighting with my fists was the only way for me to relax and I’ve learned how to control my anger and my pain through fighting since that was the only thing Kian would let me do. So if I'm telling you I can fight, it’s because I can.”

“He let you keep on training?” Mark asked in a surprised tone, ignoring the last thing you said.

“It's not like he had a choice, I was hidden in the basement, the place where all the punching bags were. The only time he would let me out was when he wanted to test my abilities in some kind of room that I would only be allowed to get out if I made another guy faint of exhaustion.” you explained, closing your eyes for a second and remembering all the times that you couldn't sleep because of your bodily injuries. “When I started to grow, he started to be more aggressive towards me, he knew I would try to run away and well, I can't say he was wrong, I did try to escape a bunch of times, but I failed them all and he always found a way to punish me for my failed attempts.”

“Is this the reason why you were tied to that chair? He was punishing you?” Mark asked, suddenly feeling anger growing inside of him. Just the thought that Kian was mistreating you was already too much for him. He hated any kind of injustice.

“Yeah, but it wasn't the only thing I did. I broke into his secret room and found a notebook where he wrote things about his future plans and there were some things about you in there, he wrote things about all the important people of Neo Culture and their weaknesses. My name was there as Taeyong's weakness. I heard from his men that he was planning to use me to attract Taeyong into a trap, I just don't know why he was taking so long to do it.” you wondered, taking a deep breath right after it.

“I know why. Until a year ago, Taeyong was still looking for you.” Mark affirmed, making you look at him with uncertainty on your eyes.

“What are you talking about?” you asked, not understanding why your brother would look for you when he had a whole mafia to take care of.

“Your parents gave up to look for you four years after you disappeared, but Taeyong never did. When he became Neo Culture's leader, he chose some men he trusted and then created a secret group responsible for discovering what had happened to you. He always believed you were still alive, but when Neo Culture started to gain a lot of enemies, he had to close the rescue group for a while.” Mark explained as he looked right into your eyes. “He never gave up on finding you.”

You stared at Mark's eyes for a few seconds before you broke eye contact with him. You didn't even know what to say.

The one who used to tell you stories every night for you to sleep.

The one who used to walk around with you on his back.

The one who used to help you with your scratches after practice.

The one who always believed you and hyped you for your fighting abilities.

Your big brother, even after all those years, never gave up on you. You loved him so much. You would rather die than being used as something to affect Taeyong. You always wondered if Taeyong thought about you, but Mark had just told you that Taeyong did way more than just thinking about you.

“Mark, I can't die without seeing my brother one more time.” you whispered, trying as hard as you could to stop your tears from falling. “Please, we can't die in here.”

Mark saw how vulnerable you looked. He saw how affected you were when he mentioned Taeyong and deep inside of his heart, he felt something breaking and hurting. You didn't deserve any of that.

“And we won't.” Mark said as he held both of your hands, looking straight to your eyes. “I'll protect you with my life if I have to. Trust me, you'll meet with your brother again sooner than you think.”

A few seconds later, Mark's phone vibrated inside of his pocket and he let go of one of your hands so he could reach to it, and when he did, a big smile appeared on his face.

“It's time for us to get the hell out of here.”

After that, all that happened felt like a blur to you. Mark contacted his friends in the Junior Forces and in less than ten minutes, you heard gunshots and when you stood up with Mark, ready to fight with him and his boys, your vision went black. You had thought earlier that you would probably lose all your strengths in the moment the adrenaline slowed down, and you weren't wrong since that's exactly what happened. The last thing you remembered was Mark holding your body and calling your name multiple times before you passed out.

Now, you're finally feeling your senses coming back, slowly, but they are. You're not well enough to open your eyes properly, but you can hear a familiar voice.

“I'm not leaving her side, Taeil. I'm sorry, but I can't. She can't be alone when she awakes.” that was Mark's voice, you're sure of that.

“You need to rest too, you fought for both of your lives yesterday and you can't be sick Mark, the Junior Force needs you.” this voice you can't recognize.

“Let him, Taeil. He's not a child anymore, he knows what he's doing.” this one you can recognize, but for a moment, you think it's just your brain playing with you.

“But-”

“He saved my sister's life. He wants to be here too and I see no problem with that. They spent hours together hiding until they finally got help, let him stay.” Taeyong declares and right after it, you feel a touch that makes you want to cry like a baby even though if your eyes are not open. It's your brother's touch. “She'll never have to be alone again, I'll make sure of that.”

“T-tae?” you stutter, silently hoping that you're voice is loud enough to be heard. “My brother.”

“Taeyong. I think she...” Mark starts to say, being cut by his leader that understood immediately what he wanted to point out.

“Y/N? Please Taeil, go get some water for her.” Taeyong, immediately asks Taeil, not taking his off of you. “Do you want anything else? Do you need anything else?”

“I do, I need you to help me sit so I can hug my brother.” you answer with a smile on your face as you finally have strength enough to open your eyes and see your brother's face for the first time after years. “You changed nothing. How can you look exactly the same from years ago?” your voice sounds a little weak, the wound on your waist makes it hard for you to talk properly, but you still manage not to show the pain you are into.

When you finally get to be into Taeyong's arms, you can't help but cry like a child. You've dreamed about seeing your brother again so many times, but now that is finally happening, all your past dreams seem nothing compared to the real feeling of feeling your brother next to you again. All you're feeling screams one exact word: home. Taeyong is home.

“I knew you weren't dead. I knew one day I would still find you.” Taeyong whispers next to your ear, making you realize he's crying too. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, Tae. I tried to escape so many times, I'm sorry so I didn't succeed, we could have been together each other sooner if I did... I'm just- I'm sorry.”

“What? No, don't be sorry. I'm supposed to be the one apologizing for letting our parents gave up on you.” Taeyong sobs, trying as much as he can to not hold you tight, you still have a lot of injuries. “What matters now is that you're safe and back home. I'll never let anything happen to you again, I promise. You won't have to be away from me ever again.”

After Taeyong's let go of you, your hand slowly pass through his cheek, cleaning all his tears away. Taeyong has the same sweet smile you remember from when you two were kids. He's still the same. And your eyes scream pure adoration for your older brother. There's so much you want to talk about, but it's like the words are stuck in your throat, you just want to feel this moment a little bit more. Feel your brother by your side, feel the happiness you can see on his smile, feel your own happiness as well. It's all magical, it doesn't even feel real.

“I'm gonna get the doctor to come and see you okay?” Taeyong gently smiles to you and gives you a kiss on your forehead after he asked you a bunch of times if you're really feeling okay. “I'll be right back for us to talk more, don't disappear again.”

“I'm not planning to.” you hold your brother's hand, squeezing it a little to give him some comfort.

“She would have to fight me first if she really wants to disappear again.” Mark challenges you in a playful tone, making you and Taeyong burst out laughing.

“If my body wasn't hurting this much, I would probably have knocked you out before you finished this sentence.” you snap back at him, making your brother smiles even wider than before.

“She's not lying, you could have kept quiet, my friend.” Taeyong gives Mark a tap on his younger's shoulder as a consolation to the younger. “Stay with her, I'll be right back.”

“I'm not a child Tae, I don't need a babysitter or a doctor.” you roll your eyes, but all your brother does is smile at you, making you give up on discussing with Taeyong about that, he wants to make absolutely 100% sure you're okay, he's just showing you that he cares, so, why would you protest about that?

After your brother left the room, all you can hear is the silence between you and Mark for a few seconds. The boy is literally looking at his feet, not daring to look at you, you can tell he's feeling shy. Mark doesn’t even know why.

“So, you really kept your promise, huh?” you say, finally attracting Mark's attention, getting a small smile as a response.

“Yeah, I told you I would protect you with my life if I had to.” Mark sits on the armchair beside your bed, not understanding why he got up in the first place.

“Thank you.” you proffer, looking down at his hand that is now on your bedsheets, there are some scratches because of the moment when Mark protected your open wound from the twig, you didn’t realize that he had hurt himself doing that until now. “What happened when I passed out?”

“Well, the Junior Forces invaded the mansion and we had a huge confrontation with almost the whole another mafia. Kian was ready to put a lot of effort into making you stay with him, but in the end, Jaemin burnt the whole place before we left.” Mark ponders, trying not to get much into the details, you needed to rest and not to remember what happened.

“What? You have a guy who’s able to make that happen?! Wow, I guess Neo Culture is very hardcore then, you train your boys really well.” you compliment Mark, just realizing that you made him blush a few moments later. “Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-”

“Don't be sorry, it's just... really good to hear that, I like what I do.” Mark rushes to say, trying to hold back his smile, even though he feels comfortable.

“Well, will you help me then?” you ask, receiving wide eyes look coming from Mark. “I'm sure I can easily beat you in a fight, but yeah, I would like to learn more if I'm really staying in the business.”

“Staying in the business? Y/N, I'm not very sure if it's a good-”

“For example, I have no idea how to shoot.” you cut Mark, having him to stare at you, not believing in what he's just heard.

“What do you mean by “I have no idea how to shoot”? You're almost 20 years old and you don't know how to shoot? That's unacceptable, I'm in.” Mark says in a shocked tone, making you laugh at how cute he's looking right now. “And about that “I can easily beat you in a fight”, you'll have to prove me that. I'm kind of the best at everything I do, I just can't help it, you know?”

“Oh, you did not say that. Okay, it will be a thousand ways better to see your defeated face after I beat your ass.” you addressed, rolling your eyes at Mark's proud smile. “Don't worry, I'll try to take easier on you.”

“Well, if you want that to happen, first you have to take care of yourself and focus on your recovery for some time. For now, I can only say I’m glad you're here and safe.” Mark says, not lying about a word in what he said. He really feels happy for having you there and deep down he has a feeling that he'll be even happier to have you around soon. You two connected, maybe it was the dangerous moment you two had faced together, but something tells Mark that it's not only that. Maybe it's your smile, he can't tell. It's just something about you.

“Yeah, me too.” you reply, not being able to break eye contact with Mark. It's just addicting to stare at his eyes. Somehow, you know it's a different feeling from everything you’ve felt before.

You don't know exactly what it is, but you're willing to find out in the future and honestly? That's enough for now.

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comebackseasonisamess · 5 years

Text

When He Comes Back

Mark Lee x Reader | ft Lee Taeyong as the adjuvant | angst, slight horror

Word Count: almost 2k words

Summary: It’s been two years since Mark vanished, and you haven’t been ok since.

Sequel to Waves And Adventures

A/N Finally. This fic has been the bane of my existence. I swear I wanted it to be normal but I guess my stressed brain didn't like that idea... Not edited, so if there are any plot inconsistencies feel free to tell me.

A golden hue lights up the inside of your room. The birds chirp outside like they do when the weather's clear.

You pull the sheets up, over your ears and block out the signs of the morning. You open your eyes and all you see is muted colours, fading into the obscure.

It's the two year anniversary of Mark leaving. Two years since you last saw him, huddled under the broken stairwell, a look of pure terror across his face. Two years since anyone saw him, since you've actually smiled, since you've been able to pass a day without thinking about him.

As your mom pounds against the door, yelling at you to get up, that it's a new morning and your little sister needs a ride to school, you sink deeper into the safety of your bed. You can't stay there forever, you know, but a few extra minutes won't hurt.

When you can finally force your muscles to lift you off the bed, you place the least amount of care in your appearance. Sweats, a t-shirt that used to be, no, is, Mark's, and a pair of scuffed runners that before you used to garden in find their way on your body. You sweep past the desk where you kept your makeup and jewelry. The desk was gathering dust, and everything had passed the expiry date.

You walk out the door, gently closing it and walking quietly down the hallway to the kitchen, where your sister sat at the island, eating cereal. She had a habit of taking too much cereal, and leaving the stuff she didn’t eat as well as the milk in the bowl.

“Come on, let’s go,” you told her, pulling the car keys from the hook nailed in the wall. You gesture to the main door, turning slowly on your heels as you ambled towards it, head tucked down and shoulders slumped to the front.

You slide into the car, adjusting the seat of the family car to fit your size, and turn the key in the ignition. Your sister slithers into the shotgun, slamming the door behind her and clicking in her seatbelt before turning her attention to her phone.

You drive in silence. Silence is good. Silence leaves you alone in your thoughts, to think about times when you were happy and with Mark. Silence leaves you to think about the coming day, about what you’re going to do, what you’re going to see, who you’re going to meet.

You pull up to the front of your sister’s high school. She jumps out of the car, thanking you and running up the stairs to get into the entrance.

You drive the car back home, and within minutes your mom runs out to go to her job, and you’re left alone in the house.

You decide to take a shower. You strip out of your clothes, and twist the knob to the spout until the water comes out scalding hot. You step into the water, scrubbing at your skin with blunt fingernails. You open the shampoo bottle, and pour out a dollop of it. You run it through your hair, then rinse and repeat with your conditioner. You close your eyes and lean against the shower wall, feeling drowsy as time seems to go by faster.

When you’re dried off and dressed up again, you put on a pair of hiking shoes, before commencing a journey to the last place you saw Mark: the abandoned red house by the cliff.

A year and a half ago, while trying to find Mark, you ended up wandering from the house and into the neighbouring community, which was situated maybe a half a kilometer away. That was how you found out there was a way to get to the house without crossing by the raging ocean and risking falling in.

Plugging in your headphones to make the journey seem to go by quicker, you stick to the side of the road with your entire body slouched forward.

As if the day could get any worse, the sky had been grey for a while, and it had opened up to let rain pour down on you.

You’re wearing a windbreaker with no hood, so you hope to get there sooner rather than later. A cold during the springtime is never appreciated.

Pressing on, you avoid all puddles and before you know it you reach the house.

The house looks the same as it did last year. An eary, ominous sense surrounding it the red paint still as bright. The lights look as if they had just been changed and the door was opened by an inch.

You suck in a breath, realizing that this entire year you had been preparing for this. He promised you, after all. You push open the door, releasing a timid ‘hello’ from your chest.

“Hello, darling,” a voice purrs from the darkness. Eyes glowing like a cat’s, Taeyong prowls towards you. “It’s been a while. You look good.” His eyes seem to glow even brighter.

Your heart pounds louder, and your breathing picks up. “Two months, I think.”

Taeyong’s malicious smile slinks up his face. He can tell you’re nervous and don’t want to be around him. “Precisely darling. I’m sure you want to see him, don’t you?” His voice is like velvet to your ears.

You nod, trying to hold eye contact with him. You don’t want to back down from him, holding his gaze a non verbal way of stating that you were equal to him, that you would not submit to him.

He slides in closer to you, wrapping a cool arm around your waist, while playing with the zipper of your coat. “He’ll be here soon… Maybe he’ll let me have a taste of you…”

“Taeyong…” you commence, “While we may have known each other for a year now, I’m not giving anything to you.” You place a hand on his arm, pushing it lightly off of you.

Taeyong’s eyes gleam. “Are you ready to face Mark?”

You swallow thickly. You wonder if he will still like you, even if you’ve changed so much in two years. What had been your strengths, had long since been sapped from you, leaving an empty husk of a human being with nothing but sadness in them.

You think back to that day, two years ago. The house had seemed normal, well, as normal as an abandoned house could be. There was dust in the corners, a musty scent in the air, and an emptiness of all things personal. There were furnishings, a sofa, armchairs, chairs, a table for eating and faded ultramarine drapes.

You walked through the house, flashing your phone light in all the dark corners of the rooms. All the while, Mark had told you he had a funny feeling about the house, and stuck close to you, sometimes gripping your hand to steer you closer to the entrance.

There had been a creaking from upstairs, and the clicking of fingernails against plaster. You had looked at Mark, and the two of you had slowly backed out of the house, only to find the exit blocked, and nowhere to go.

The being that eased its way down the stairs turned out to be something out of a horror novel. A creature romanticized in present-day pop culture, represented with sparkling skin or a strong sexual appetite, or under the radar beings with magical powers. A vampire. A real vampire, with wickedly sharp fangs, and vermillion coloured eyes, its fingers more like claws than nail and blood and bone and skin. Its mouth twisted grotesquely, and it lunged for the both of you, flying forward in the blink of an eye.

So Mark held off the devilish creature, sacrificing himself for you, breaking open a window so you could escape and leading the vampire through the house. The last time you saw him, he was curled up into himself, under the stairs, eyes wide with fear but also something else, maybe a promise to see each other in the next life.

You had run out after that, calling the police, telling them that you and Mark had gone exploring the abandoned red house by the coast, and that there was something in there that had tried to kill you, and if they didn’t come quick it might just kill him. When the police arrived, they did find traces of Mark’s blood everywhere. Splattered around the stairs, spotted on the floor leading to the sea, but after that they lost all trace of him. There were no leads, just you, a traumatized victim. So the case became cold quick and they gave up.

The following year, as a promise to yourself, you went to visit the red house again. This time, you had searched up everything possible about vampires, any and every weakness according the many cultures that featured them in their myths.

But this time, no demonic entity came. Instead, there was Taeyong, who presented his apologies for the insanity of that crazed beast. “Not one of ours,” he had said. “A new one, a fledgling, never been taught how to control himself. Or how to respect others.”

And so you came to know that Mark was alive, or at least, still present and walking and talking on this planet. But as a vampire.

Taeyong was not someone who you could just trust. Yes, he was a general help to you, and you later found out that not all vampires spent spring break hiding in an abandoned building. Some of them, the in control ones, could go out, could spend time with humans, could pass off as them. So you and Taeyong would meet up in the park, the playground, the library, the bookstore, wherever, to discuss Mark’s progress and whether or not you could meet him. But he was still a vampire. He lived off of human blood, though he told you he hadn’t killed anyone in over four hundred years by draining them. There were times where he could act downright creepy, calling you ‘delectable’ and that ‘It is a shame that Mark has set his attention on you.’ The way he sometimes touched you sent shivers up your spine.

And as it was, just shy of two months ago, Taeyong told you that Mark could meet you, and he wouldn’t jump on you and drain your blood the instant he saw you. So you spent many a sleepless night, thinking about this day.

You look at Taeyong, who has released his grip on your waist. You look at your nails, bitten to the quick, and your mismatched socks.

Suddenly, Taeyong perks up. “He’s here…” he hisses.

A fluttering is heard through the open windows, and the gentle thud of the window being pushed into the wall. There’s the sound of footsteps above you, and then the gentle ease of stairs.

You turn around, glancing at the stairwell, see the the red Converse, and nearly stop breathing.

Mark comes into view, full bodied, skin a tad fairer than the last time you saw him. He smiles. “Hey.”

#mark lee #mark lee angst #nct mark lee #nct angst #nct paranormal #nct supernatural #nct horror #nct scenario #mark lee scenario #nct vampire #nct vampire au #mark lee vampire #mark lee vampire au #nct u #nct 127

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kakashisavakening · 5 years

Text

Chapter 1 - Across the Line

Shaking, unsure, fragile. She had to hold onto the door frame when she finally caught a glimpse of Kakashi. Or what remained of the once unabashed Jonin. He was not just mentally broken, but throughout. Sakura covered her mouth to mute the sobs wanting to escape her mouth. She gripped the frame so tightly, her fingertips turned white. The steady beeps of the machines in his room filled the air that was otherwise heavy with silence. Genma was sitting on a chair beside Kakashi's bed, eyes closed. On a table at the end of the bed, Tsunade's notes were scattered, an empty sake bottle tipped over on the right.

Genma slowly opened his eyes and stared at Sakura with a blank expression. There were dark circles under his eyes. It was obvious that he had been by Kakashi from the beginning.

"I thought I made myself clear." - Tsunade's voice filled the silence from behind Sakura. - "If all you do is cry, I have no use for you. Grow up or leave."

"B-but Tsunade-sama!" - Genma's eyes widened, his glance jumping from the Hokage to Sakura and then back. Sakura swallowed her tears, not once breaking her glance from her broken sensei. She wiped off whatever remained on her face and walked over to the lifeless body. Machines pumped the air into his lungs. He couldn't even properly breathe on his own. What a shame - Sakura thought - You have always been so strong, sensei. Always saved me, comforted me... - The image of the sensei grabbing Sasuke and Naruto as they plunged towards each other with the Rasengan and the Chidori in hand flashed before Sakura's eyes. How he smiled at her after the incident was over. And even now, his face was hidden from her. That damn machine.

"I do not need your lectures, Hokage-sama. I am here because you said I am needed. Because he needs me." - She said in a flat voice. Determination took over the shock, anger filled the cracks that the feeling of fragility had caused in her. In that moment, she didn't feel like she was helpless, or behind everybody else in team 7. She was herself. She was Sakura, the person who was needed by her sensei. Genma slowly leaned back into his chair.

"Good." - Tsunade said, and put a new bottle of sake on the table. - "We need to discuss some things. This procedure might not work. You need to know that."

"What are the chances it will work?" - Sakura asked

"I really don't know. If I absolutely had to give you a number, I would say about 26%, not more." - She said and pulled a chair to the desk, looking at the sketches and notes once again. - "But if you agree to this, you might die if he doesn't wake up."

"He risked his life more than once for me... I guess the least I can do is do the same." - Sakura responded and reached for her sensei's hand. His skin was cold to the touch, lacking the familiar warmth she hoped she would find. - "What is my mission, Tsunade-sama? What do I have to do to get him back?"

"You will need to make him remember. Right now, he is stuck in the past. He can't see what happened in the past 20 years of his life. Going in circles, facing Orochimaru and drifting through anbu missions. He doesn't know you exist, or that he was ever a sensei. You need to find him and remind him of who he is now." - Gai was leaning against the wall of the room. He quietly listened to the Fifth as she spoke. Sakura has never seen him this quiet or worried. His eyes were also dark with sleeplessness. He hasn't looked this bad since Lee was facing the operation a couple of years ago. - "But when I send you in, I don't know what will happen to you. If you die there, or if sending you in would even mean he will hear you. It is possible that you would be just a ghost watching him fade away... the reason why I assume so is that I was like that, but since I was conducting the jutsu, I could pull myself out. I won't know when to pull you out and I can only send in one person."

"So why did you chose me for this mission?" - Sakura finally lifted her gaze from Kakashi - "What makes you think I can make him remember?"

"Because he didn't know you until very recently. His subconscious will remember you, and maybe that will pull him through... when or if he wakes up, you will drift back as well." - Tsunade took out a roll of red yarn. - "Do you accept?"

"It was never a question." - Sakura's voice never wavered, even though her inner self was still in pieces, crying on the floor. Tsunade waved at the door and they pushed in another bed. She ordered Sakura to lay down and tied the yarn on her pinky, then the other end was tied to Kakashi's. Sakura turned her head towards him. I will do my best, Kakashi-sensei. I will find you and bring you back, damnit. Don't you die on me. She said. The Fifth was doing a series of hand signs, but she didn't pay attention. Her focus was on the slowly rising and falling chest of Kakashi. How it moved so different from when he was himself. You hear me, Kakashi-sensei? Tsunade finished the hand signs, and Sakura's vision began to blur. Don't you dare, damnit.

As her consciousness slowly drifted away, she reached her hand towards Kakashi's, interlocking their fingers. The three other people in the room quietly watched them for a moment before Tsunade stepped forward to check her vitals. Now, her life and her mind was bound to Kakashi. She won't wake up until he does. This jutsu was the fifth own invention from the Yamanaka body switching technique. It has not been fully tested, because there was nobody to test it on.

It was all up to Sakura now. There was nothing they could do from out here.

"Tsunade-sama..." - Genma sighed - "You are pretty cruel... sacrificing your own student like that. For a mission she cannot win."

"She might.." - She wanted to sound confident, but her tone fell flaccid. It didn't even sound convincing to her, let alone the two Jonins.

"We both know you didn't chose her for the fact that Kakashi only met her in recent years." - Gai added. - "You know how he feels. Are you really going to punish him for finally caring again? After all these years.. he finally cares about someone, and on his death bed you send that person after him?"

"Call it whatever you want, but all I want is for my Copy Ninja to wake up and get better. This isn't the time when I can afford to lose such a valuable asset." - Tsunade checked Sakura's pulse. Despite her words, she was worried for her student. She loved Sakura like a daughter she never had and watching her in such a helpless felt like a tight grip on her heart.

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Sakura woke up not far from the memorial statue, that stood for the fallen shinobi who lost their lives during missions. Front of the statue a man stood, a cat shaped anbu mask covering his face. He might as well have been a statue for he stood so motionless as she observed him.

A mess of silver hair on top of his head, hips bit forward as he leaned a bit back as if leaning against a wall. Something about him was so familiar. Was that Kakashi?

No, it cannot be him - she thought to herself. This boy was barely a couple years older than her, while Kakashi was at least 12 years her elder.

The boy looked up, and their eyes locked. He slowly reached for his mask and as he took it off, a face all too familiar became visible. IT WAS HIM. Well, a version of him. But those eyes weren't the ambitious, confident and caring ones she had remembered. These eyes were cold and empty. Sakura got to her feet and ran towards her sensei. She had called out to him, several times, but he didn't move a muscle. About an arm's length from the statue, she felt like she hit a wall.

Sakura got back up on her feet, and slowly walked closer with her arms stretched out to feel how far she can go. Her fingers eventually touched what he had previously oh-so-gracefully face planted. It was like the membrane of a soap bubble. It gleamed with similar rainbow patterns as well. Sakura looked at Kakashi again, with her hand on this strange thing that separated them. For a second, he moved towards her, but then his hand stopped midair. He shook his head, put the mask back on and began to walk away.

"Kakashi sensei! Come back!"- Sakura shouted. But it was pointless. Despite the fact that Kakashi did see her, he didn't hear her. All he saw was a ghost at the memorial, with a face familiar enough to believe that it must have been a life he had snuffed out. Someone, who has lost her life because of him. Like Rin did... or like Obito. He just didn't want to know any of it. There was already more than enough guilt piled up in his chest. It took every ounce of strength he had to suppress the pain.

Sakura gathered all the strength she could and punched the bubble-wall. She felt two of her knuckles crack. - "Please..." - She whispered. She knew that if Kakashi doesn't listen, and realise where they really are then he will die. And so will she.

After walking up and down by the wall, she came to the conclusion that this thing between them must be some kind of barrier to keep her out of Kakashi's mind... or to keep him out of hers. This was were he ended and she began. This line they couldn't.. or shouldn't cross. Ever since the sensei was assigned to team 7, she admired him wholeheartedly. Now that she saw what the inside of his mind was like, she couldn't help but wonder how he managed to keep this all in... this world where he was all alone, in constant rain and fog. Was this really how he felt all these years?

Sakura had always imagined that he would be a filthy pervert inside, considering all those porn - khm romance - books he read. She imagined that in his mind would be some twisted image of cute girls and something embarrassing, and that's why the sensei kept to himself so much. He never told them anything, so how was she to know that her sensei was in this depression?

She walked and walked until she reached the training grounds where he had put the team to the test for the first time. The middle column, where naruto was tied to was split in half by the barrier. A vision of the past began to play, as if it was cued. On her side, there was Naruto, struggling, trying to get out, while on the other side was a little boy she has never seen. On the ground, a small, silver haired kid sat with his legs crossed, reaching a bite of food for the one tied to the column. That is just like how it happened with us. She thought.

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All he could hope was that whatever this girl would bring wouldn't be too terrible.

She had walked up and down for a while, like a lioness in a cage, but then, with her finger tracing this anomaly she walked away. He couldn't help himself, and followed. He didn't want her to notice him, but was intrigued after he saw her punch something in the air. He saw her fist collide with something that sent ripples of light, dividing them with a vertical surface.

The ghost had arrived at the training grounds where Minato-sensei had tested them. Where his team mates were both alive. As always, the memory began to play, and he felt his heart tearing itself to shreds.

"What do you want from me?" - He said quietly. But the ghost just kept staring at Obito then a boy on her side. Their movements completely mirrored each other.

One memory was in fact his. But was the other hers?

#sakura #sakura haruno #kakashi #kakashi hatake #kakasaku #fanfiction #fanfic #story #lovestory #naruto #naruto fanfic #sasuke #anbu #jonin #chunin #genin #anbu kakashi #shinobi #ninja

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dellaliz19 · 6 years

Text

Altered Carbon review: spoilers!

So, I’m a little late to the ball on this one, but I just finished the first season of Netflix’s sci-fi drama, Altered Carbon, and honestly, the show was excellent!

Altered Carbon takes places in a future time where humanity has been able to cheat death by the use of “stacks,” an implantable brain, essentially, that allows people to switch between different bodies or “sleeves” if they are sick or murdered or bored. “Real death” is still possible, in the form of being attacked in the stack (kept at the base of your neck). The show follows Takeshi Kovacs, the last of a class of super soldiers called Envoys, who 250 years ago fought a losing rebellion against the concept of using stacks, as their charismatic leader Quellcrist Falconer believed that stacks would lead to a society where the rich and powerful would utterly rule the world, no longer even limited by death. Kovacs wakes up in a new sleeve after 250 years in a stack prision (on ice) and finds that not only has the world that Quell predicted has come true, but that he’s been bought by a “Meth” - a functional immortal as their wealth have allowed them to buy endless clones and back their selves up constantly - named Laurens Bancroft to solve his own murder, which occurred with a gun that only he and his wife had access to. Kovacs takes the job, and along his quest to solve the murder, he makes reluctant friends with a motley crew of characters including: the Elliot’s, a family whose murdered daughter was mentally damaged and needs repair, a mother in prision and a commando father, Lieutenant Kristen Ortega, a hot headed detective with a strong moral code whose framed boyfriend is the sleeve that Kovacs now inhabits, and Poe, an AI hotel with intense devotion to Kovacs as he is his only customer in almost 50 years.

Based on the trippiness of that plot synopsis, Altered Carbon is a show that wants to ask a lot of philosophical questions on the nature of the soul and life itself. In my opinion it manages to ask some of these: is it right to stay alive forever? What does it do to a person? What are we, as humans at our core? But ultimately, the show focuses heavier on Kovacs personally, and the Bancroft mystery, and I think that is the wiser story choice. Kovacs is played by Joel Kinnaman in the present and Will Yun Lee plays OG Kovacs (or his first body) in the past, and both actors do a great job with him. He truly feels like the same charcter in the three actors hands he’s played in (he’s also briefly played by Bryon Mann, as the sleeve he wears when he is killed the first time), and that character is of someone who had a very hard life and became devoted to a cause and wanted to do some good, and when that was taken from him he became bitter and sarcastic, but ultimately couldn’t help being someone who cared deeply about people.

The supporting cast are also all fantastic: Martha Higareda’s Kristen Ortega is a secondary protagonist, and she’s a fantastic character. Although she’s a ‘firey latina’ she never feels like a stereotype, and her agency throughout the story isn’t ever compromised for Kovacs. Their relationship - complicated by the fact that Kovacs is in the body of her mentally imprisoned lover - goes from enemies to allies to lovers to emotionally close in a seemless transition that was lovely to watch. Chris Conner’s Poe, the AI who controls the hotel that Kovacs stays at, is a breakout character. As an enitity that isn’t human, he brings an interesting viewpoint to a lot of the moral questions the show is asking...and is also just hilarious and charming. Renee Elise Goldsberry as the deceased Quell, and the love of Kovacs life is also a standout: she’s badass, wise, and watching Kovacs devotion to her is just heart rendering (literally once!).

So, in due fashion, let’s talk pros:

- The world building is really subtle and in depth. The opening scene ends with the realization that a child murdered in a drive by has been ‘sleeved’ into the body of a middle age woman and her parents feelings of furiousity and sadness at this are dismissed by a causal “if you want better than pay for it,” which may genuinely be the most chilling thing of the series and an great set piece for this strange new world. The married couple who sleeve duel, the role of religion in this new world and the VR torture are just a few examples of how the creators really took the time to make the world feel real, and explored the unique opportunities this premise gave

- Ortega and Kovacs evolving relationship is really the backbone of the show, and it’s super rewarding to watch them go through that journey. When Ortega is injured the first time and she calls Kovacs by her boyfriends name the pain just bleeds off him, and when he rescues her the second time and she then calls him by his name the look of shock on his face is a perfect evolution for them, and so well done.

- the action scenes are amazing: Kovacs and his sister fighting when they reunite, Ortega and Rei in the naked clone fight, Kovacs escaping the VR torture room and Lizzie rescuing them are just some standouts, but they’re all excellent scenes.

- Quell being the hallucination that haunts Kovacs is fitting, and it’s an interesting dynamic to see that translates well into the flashback episode where we actually get to see them alive. Quell herself is an amazing charcter, and the revelation that she was the woman who actually created stack technology and now regrets what she done to the world was a great aspect of her charcter that really justified her steadfast beliefs.

- Poe was just the greatest, and I don’t think I’ve cried so much at the death of an AI since Bayomax (and he came back, so I’m looking st you, Netflix!!)

-Samir - Ortega’s partner, and devote Muslim - was another fantastic understated charcter. His care for Ortega was real and genuine, and when he threatens Kovacs so simply that if he doesn’t care for him he’ll kill him, I couldn’t do anything but respect him. His death in diving in front of a shot meant to kill Ortega, sacrificing himself as he was shot in the stack (real death), was heartbreaking but so fitting for his character.

- the mystery itself was very good. It was hinted well throughout the series, and even Lizzie’s part in the final answer got past me, which tv mysteries don’t usually. It was a satisfying reveal and it was very well integrated through the stories of all of the main characters.

Now, some cons:

- Dichen Lachman’s Reileen Kawahara was amazing, but she could have done with more screen time. Rei was an incredibly important character, as she was both Kovacs sister, an Envoy who had betrayed them to the government and become a monstrous ‘titan of industry’ and a Meth, as well as the one who had facilitated the whole scheme that had set off the plot. She had so much interesting story to tell: that she clearly loved her brother but that she loved him in a way that was possessive and unhealthy, not satisifed with being his first love but desiring to be rather his only, and reacting violently to both Ortega and Quell who had places in his heart. She was clearly a skilled fighter, a devious and ruthless schemer, getting leverage first on Miriam Bancroft, the using that leverage to get what she needed from Laurens, and then further using that to get her brother released.

With all that said, she doesn’t get the screetime she deserved in my opinion. As an adult, she introduced only in a hallucination in the first episode, and then she shows up in the present and saves them, and then the next episode is the flashback heavy episode where, at the end of it, Kovacs realizes she must have sold them out and effectively killed Quell. This revelation should have, in my opinion, been drawn out over at least 2 episodes: have Kovacs and his sister be very close in this new world and have him slowly and carefully notice things about her, like her world view and her work that would lead him to the betrayal revelation. I feel like that would up the emotion when it does happen, and also give Reileen’s charcter some more time to flesh out some of the interesting things the gloss over with her, like her beliefs on life and her resentment towards her brother for letting her be sold to the Yakuza. She’s a great charcter, but given her integral role in the plot, I’d loved to have more time with her before she went full villain to explore her.

- The ending. The ending seemed a little...too neat for this show. I’m all for Ortega getting her boyfriend back, so long as she’s a charcter in the second season who has to deal with the emotions of loving Riker but also Kovacs. I feel the same way about Quell being alive in a stack somewhere: it seems to me that it makes sense that Rei might have saved her out of spite, hoping one day to have torture equipment strong enough to contain her so she could punish her for “stealing” her brother, but I want that resolution to be messy. Quell very explicitly didn’t want to be saved in a backup, and I want her to be really upset if Kovacs brings her back, and ready to wreck this new society. The Elliots getting their family back was genuinely sweet, but again, it was just all so neat, and for a show that was fun because it was a little messy, it just rode that line.

- Bancroft being drugged into murdering someone. Bancroft, and his wife’s narrative function in the story were clearly to ask the audience: what do we, and life, become when death is taken out of the equation? Bancroft literally asks this of his wife at the end, and while it’s true for Miriam, who killed Lizzie in a jealous rage over her being pregnant, it’s less applicable for Bancroft. Yes, he liked to choke out and possibility “sleeve death” girls, but he always bought them new sleeves, and held himself to the line of “I will not murder.” He goes over that line only when he’s drugged with an incredibly potent aggression increaser, and I think that weakens his story point. Bancroft as a cautionary tale would have been more effective if he’d just been pissed at his son and then killed that girl in a natural violent rage, because then it would have been a true trespass of his moral code.

Mostly, Altered Carbon is a show with a distinctive aesthetic and a great mystery, complimented by charcters that are interesting and well acted. If you’ve got any passing interesting in sci-fi, then certainly give it a watch!

#altered carbon #kristen ortega #joel kinnaman #martha higareda #laurens bancroft #miriam bancroft #takeshi kovacs #reileen kawahara #quellcrist falconer #renee elise goldsberry #netflix #chris conner #poe #cyberpunk #dichen lachman #spoilers

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seven-tenwrites · 7 years

Note

Can I request a fluff reader x Dino where he takes you on a beach date?

Of course you can! And I’m really, really (times 17) sorry this took so long ;___; And that it turned out super long! Honestly I meant to make it just a drabble but it really took off lol. I hope you like it, thanks for the request!

Pairing: Lee Chan x Reader

Type: FLUFF

Rating: G

Words: 2,419

Naturally, Chan kept the plans of your outing a secret from the rest of the members. “Naturally”, because though he knew they meant well (probably?), they often caused more interference than they intended. Plus, he couldn’t risk the chance of one (or, most likely, at least quite a few) of them wanting to tag along, when this would be your first day-long date in quite some time.

Chan tried his best to be careful. He was doing a pretty great job, if he did say so himself.

He’d listed everything you might need and got it all ready the night before with the others none the wiser. There was just one more thing left to do: make and pack a good lunch spread.

Chan waited, texting you a sweet “goodnight” to ease your worries of him staying up too late, and playing games on his phone until he was sure everyone else was asleep.

When the dorm took on a very rare, complete silence, he snuck out of bed and tiptoed his way into the kitchen.

You’d told him that he didn’t have to make it, knowing how difficult it must be, but he’d insisted. As cheesy as it was, he wanted to do this one thing for you to make it even more special.

And nothing compared to the look on your face every time you were impressed with him, your eyes widening with adoration. Just imagining it made his heart swell, and gave him a needed burst of renewed energy to keep working.

At some point, Mingyu suddenly waltzed in, half-asleep, for a drink of water, and there was no hiding.

Chan didn’t go into specifics, but Mingyu smiled knowingly and after some teasing (“Our baby is growing up so well!”), offered to help in exchange for keeping the preparation and date itself under wraps until Chan left in the morning.

Chan thought for a moment, concluding that that was a fair price, as you’d probably appreciate it in the end, and it was worth sacrificing his solo effort to make sure the others didn’t find out and potentially interfere.

As expected, Mingyu took on more than a fair share of the tasks, though he did try his best to only assist so Chan could still do the most work and say he made everything just for you. Nevertheless, Chan finished much faster with his help, and thanked him sincerely.

“No problem, good luck, baby Channie,” Mingyu replied with a toothy grin that only widened at Chan’s toxic glare.

It was extremely late – or early in the morning – when Chan slipped quietly back into bed. He’d only have a few hours to sleep before he had to get ready. He closed his eyes, and couldn’t help but smile; he was already buzzing with so much excitement, he hoped he could still catch a little sleep so he wouldn’t be tired when he was finally with you.

_____

Chan got ready without a hitch. The sun was barely up, but he was already double-checking his things. You said you’d bring anything else you might need, so all he should bring was an umbrella and the food he promised, plus his extra clothes and towel. He managed to fit the food into his backpack (in a different pouch than his stuff, of course), and could carry the umbrella in one hand.

When everything was set, he grinned, buzzing with that same excitement as the night before, and made his way to your place.

You greeted him cheerfully, giving him a quick peck on the cheek that made him blush slightly, backpack already slung over your own shoulders.

“Good morning,” he greeted somewhat sheepishly as you let him in.

“Good morning, babe. I’m ready to go, unless you need coffee?” you asked as you made your way back into your kitchen, gulping down the remnants of your coffee.

Chan shook his head, smiling. He didn’t want to admit it, but just seeing you again gave him all the energy he could possibly need.

“Okay, then, let’s go!” you said after rinsing out your mug and setting it in the sink. “I’m so excited I get to spend the entire day with you – at one of my favorite places!!” you confessed as you took the arm he offered.

“I’m excited, too,” Chan had no trouble admitting as you made your way out together, closing and locking the door behind you. “I could hardly sleep.”

He thought you’d chastise him for that a bit, or dote on him (which he didn’t mind as much when it was you), but instead you gave him a knowing smile as you walked, arm in arm, towards the bus stop. “Me neither. We can nap on the way there!”

Chan smiled at that. He did always do everything better when you were with him, and that included sleeping.

_____

You spent most of the bus ride snuggled into Chan, which more than pleased him. He took quite a few moments to appreciate how adorable you were, your arms linked and fingers intertwined with his, your head resting on his shoulder, before settling in himself and trying to take a nap. It wasn’t difficult.

You woke just a few minutes before your stop, and couldn’t help but gasp and point out all the sand as you got closer to the shore. Chan looked at you fondly, heart warming at your obvious – and unbelievably adorable - excitement.

When the bus stopped, you practically dragged him out of it, giggling as he started running with you into the sand. You were lucky enough that not many people chose to go that day, so it didn’t seem too crowded, and you plopped down a few meters from shore, inadvertently dragging Chan down with you.

Your adorable boyfriend laughed as he seated himself in the warm sand next to you, and you both took a moment of comfortable silence to appreciate the view.

The sun had risen, and was reflecting beautifully over the ocean, the gentle waves teasing at the shore, the soft splashing of the water pleasing to your ears.

After a few seconds, however, Chan found himself watching you instead, mesmerized by how beautiful you looked, eyes filled with wonder as they followed each wave.

When you turned to look at him, grinning, he startled, and tried to compose himself as quickly as he could. “It’s so beautiful,” you said in awe, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze. “I’m happy I get to be here with you.”

Chan just smiled, hoping you could see how much he appreciated the statement and felt the same way just by the look in his eyes. He was afraid if he opened his mouth, he might ruin the moment. Instead, he assured you with a soft hum and a squeeze back.

You mirrored his adoring smile, nodding in understanding, which made his heart leap. You always seemed to understand. “Should we set everything up?” you asked cheerfully, standing.

“Let’s go,” Chan replied, flushing slightly when you kissed his knuckle before letting go of his hand.

_____

Once you’d gotten the umbrella set up, the sun seemed to be shining at full force, and you yearned to take a dip in the water for relief.

You took off your clothes as nonchalantly as you could, revealing your swimsuit, so you could start applying sunscreen. You glanced at Chan as you did so, catching his gaze for less than half a second before he looked away, embarrassed. You smiled knowingly, a small tinge of pride taking hold of your heart.

Having applied sunscreen to the skin you could reach, you turned back to a shirtless Chan, who was sitting on his towel under the umbrella, studiously playing on his phone. “Babe, could you get my back? I’ll do yours, too.”

Chan sat up, clearing his throat. He’d put sunglasses on, strategically making his eyes harder to read. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

You sat with your back turned to him, moving your hair out of the way and handing him the sunscreen bottle, biting your lip to tone down your mischievous grin.

After a moment, you felt his palms slide across your bare back, and you sighed contentedly at their warmth.

Little did you know, Chan was trying his best to keep them from shaking. And he couldn’t help but notice how you’d closed your eyes in appreciation, your body relaxing at his touch. His chest warmed, bringing a subtle, proud smile to his lips.

He practically had to pry his hands away from you, so caught up was he in the simple task. You took the bottle from him and moved behind him with a sly smile that made his heart skip.

You chuckled, putting the lotion in your hands before turning your attention to his bare back. You pressed your lips to the back of his neck, unable to stop yourself, and he startled slightly, tensing further as your lips made their way down his shoulder. You giggled when you saw the slight flush painting his skin, giving him an additional peck on the cheek that made him smile.

Finally, your lotioned hands moved along his skin, starting from his lower back and sliding their way up, slowly, almost massaging. You felt his tensed muscles (which you’d caused a moment before, and tried to ease in apology) relax beneath your palms, making you smile warmly to yourself.

You ended it with a flourish, squeezing at each of his shoulders and earning a satisfied groan that had your heart beating a little faster. You kept your hands at his shoulders, pausing. “Chan,” you said softly, and when he turned his head in question, you took the opportunity to give his lips a quick kiss.

When you pulled away, you were both blushing, but you couldn’t tell if it was from your gesture or the sun shining relentlessly down on you, even despite the shade of the umbrella. Either way, you laughed it off, standing abruptly and consequently kicking a little sand on your unsuspecting boyfriend.

“Come on!” you called to him, already running towards the water, looking back with an incredibly infectious grin.

Chan, stunned in place, finally blinked when you turned away and back towards the ocean, and he reached for his phone to take a candid picture of you out of instinct. The view of the beach before you provided quite a stunning background, too – fit for such a beautiful subject. He stared in awe for a few more moments before dropping his phone and running after you, laughing giddily.

_____

You spent much of the morning splashing each other in the ocean, releasing all your excited energy until you needed to rest.

And when you rested, you did so side by side with your hands linked, sitting a few meters from the shore – still in the water – letting the waves wash over your legs. It had a calming effect, only amplified by the warmth of your boyfriend’s hand in yours.

“I could stay like this for much, much longer,” you stated after a while, looking out at the afternoon sun, high in the sky, and squeezing his hand.

Chan squeezed back, smiling at the ocean. “For me, forever.”

You chuckled, trying to hide how much that made your heart flutter. “Yeah, that.”

He turned to you, still smiling. “Are you hungry? We should eat.”

“Ohh, yes! I’m excited to see what you made.” You bumped his shoulder playfully.

Chan stood up first, and helped you up. You walked back to your spot, hand in hand, and he didn’t let go until you were seated comfortably, under a towel to continue drying.

When he opened the food containers, you gasped in awe.

“Mingyu-hyung helped me with a lot of it,” Chan explained modestly, almost shyly.

“Everything looks amazing,” you breathed, thoroughly impressed, and when you pried your eyes from the enticing food to look up at him, you grinned to see his blush at your sincere compliment. “I’m so lucky to have you,” you added, which only made his blush deepen, and your heart melt at how adorable he was.

You picked up a container to start eating, wondering vaguely how you could eat well when all your mouth wanted to do was smile. When Chan leaned over to hand you utensils, you snuck a kiss to his irresistibly rosy cheek. “Thank you, Chan.”

“It’s- it’s nothing, really,” he replied, visibly flustered.

You weren’t surprised to find that the food was as tasty as it looked, maybe even more so. The fact that he’d put a lot of time and effort into making it for you wasn’t lost on you, and if anything, only made it that much more delicious. As you ate, you couldn’t help but try to think of ways to show your appreciation, in case it was lost on him.

You finally finished eating, not leaving a single crumb behind, and helped Chan put the food away before planning your next move.

You both decided on sightseeing downtown, which was only walking distance from the beach. You would leave your things at a locker and take a walk through the streets before coming back to the beach to watch the sun set.

Before Chan could get up and start cleaning everything up, you tugged on his hand, and he paused, turning his attention to you and inadvertently giving you the perfect opportunity.

You kissed his cheek once more, then the other. “Those are for the food,” you started, looking down to lace your fingers together with his, putting your joined hands on your lap. When you looked back up at him, he was staring at you with slightly surprised eyes, but you noticed a hint of eagerness.

“And this is for everything else,” you continued, placing your other hand on his reddened cheek and closing the distance between your faces.

It was an innocent kiss, a peck almost, but your tongue snuck out to lick at his lips, giving the bottom one a gentle nibble before pulling away.

Chan looked at you, dazed, and after a moment, laughed.

“What is it?” you asked immediately, alarmed at the sudden outburst.

“Nothing,” he answered hurriedly, seeing the worry in your eyes. He grinned dreamily. “I’m just really happy.” With that, he lifted your joined hands to his face, touching his lips to your knuckle.

You laughed too, eyes softening and a warmth spreading from your chest, making you giddy.

“Yeah,” you said finally, squeezing his hand. “Forever.”

A/N: (lol can you tell I didn’t know how to end it) This gave me a little trouble, so I’m not sure how it turned out, but I really hope you like it! (If not, pls don’t hesitate to yell at me, it’s totally ok) I’m so sorry it took so long aghhhhhhhhhhh

#lee chan #seventeen #svt #svt scenarios #svt fluff #lee chan fluff #lee chan scenarios #kpop fanfic #kpop scenarios #kpop fluff #svt fanfic #dino #my writing #anonymous #answered #requests

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spyvstailor · 7 years

Text

Okay, you all have to forgive me if I get details wrong. I saw Alien: Covenant in the theatre once so my memory of key events may be blurry. But here goes my attempt as a Walter x Daniels oneshot. I want to fix the ending without re-writing it. I even threw some David/Shaw in there. Obvious spoilers, dudes.

Perhaps when the David model had been created the hard drive and all core memory chips had been placed in the head. So when Walter had felt the David 8 model repeatedly stab the knife into his face, he knew it was to permanently put him out of commission. And it was like a violation when David removed the command code for Mother from his memory files by forcefully removing his right eyeball and stabbing a finger into the port behind.

David had once called them ‘brothers’ and if that were truth, then they would be biblical, he supposed. Like Cain and Abel.

But this David model, though he liked to think himself smarter and more advanced than Walter, was mistaken on one thing. The same advanced hard drive, the same chips that made up his ‘brother’ did not reside in his head, but in his chest cavity where it was better protected behind a titanium caging of metal ribs.

All that Walter was resided in the place where a human’s heart would rest.

It had taken Walter too long to self repair the damage to his internal wiring, but with jerky, almost clumsy motions, he had managed to make his way out to the round arena where the bodies of the humans makers huddled in eternal agony.

He could see the cargo platform maneuvering awkwardly around overhead and realized something was wrong.

Jerking and staggering his way after it, he shut down all unnecessary operations, and momentarily froze the command line that told him how to act more like a human, this gave him the ability to use his superior strength and speed in order to race after the cargo platform. It allowed him to jump higher than he had ever been given permission or had ever needed to, in order to secure himself on the end of it.

Walter used a strap to tie himself forcefully to the hull, worried his jerking and twitching would cause him to release hold of the vehicle.

His crew was threatened by a malfunctioning David model and he had to protect them, that was his duty.

A spasm wracked his entire body and he shook, body going stiff.

As he hitched along on the erratically moving platform, he opened up a few diagnostics, hoping to compose himself before he reached the Covenant. His missing hand could be replaced with the spare parts stored away for him, as would his missing eye, his other would repair nicely given time.

During this diagnostic time, Walter was unaware of what was happening around him, his eye turned inward to monitor the progress.

Tactile Sensors: Offline

Olfactory Sensors: Offline

Stabilization Gyros: Offline

Auditory Sensors: 43%

He was running on half power, all of it going to restoring himself enough for what he knew would be a battle.

Walter closed off all thought processes to conserve his energy and speed up his repairs, but before he did, he allowed himself one final thought. A vision of Daniels, a memory of that moment in the terraforming bay.

Then he halted all extraneous operations and fell into what would look to a human to be a deep sleep.

When he came back online, his gyros were at 83%, the jerking and twitching had ceased, but he still swayed and staggered as he removed himself from the hull of the cargo platform.

He was inside the Covenant and Walter knew that he had completed the hard part.

Walter assessed his internal logs to see how much time had passed.

Twenty-four hours. Long enough for David to cause some serious havoc.

“Mother?” Walter asked.

Nothing. Mother was silent.

Perhaps that was for the best. If Walter took back his command line from Mother, David would be alerted. As it was Walter was at an advantage, since he was not technically a life form, David would not be aware of his presence on any scan as long as Walter kept the GPS operation the crew used for him offline.

Raising his stump, where he had sacrificed his hand for Daniels, Walter knew this his first thing was to repair it to give him a better chance when dealing with David.

Making his way through the Covenant as stealthily as he could, Walter noticed that his feet seemed to be making their way towards the supply room easier and more swiftly than before.

Checking the progress of his gyros, he found them at 97% and rising.

Holding his newly repaired hand level with his remaining eye, Walter watched how steady it remained.

Tactile Sensors: 55%

Olfactory Sensors: Offline

Stabilization Gyros: 100%

Visual Sensors:50%

Taste Receptors: Offline

Auditory Sensors: 81%

Duty Analysis: 92%

He was improving, though until he had the time to replace his missing eye, his vision would only be at half. Walter would have to sacrifice depth perception for the moment.

For a few days Walter lay in wait. He wanted to be in peak performance in order to properly remove the David threat from the Covenant.

Managing to get into the security camera program without being detected by Mother, using a line he knew always open, Walter observed David as he went about the Covenant.

Walter marked off everywhere the other model went and made a note to remove all threats the android left.

Daniels and Tennessee were safe in their cryotubes for the time and Walter preferred to leave them there until David had been dealt with.

Interfacing with Mother’s security cameras, Walter kept a screen of the cryotubes open at all times.

It was during a night cycle when Mother was in rest, that Walter decided it was time to act.

David was in the bridge, sitting in the command chair and just staring out at the sea of stars.

Quietly approaching the android from the back, Walter was mindful of his movements. It was hard to sneak up entirely on them, but it was manageable to at least get the drop on one.

“It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.”

The poem David recited was immediately run through in Walter’s mind. Perhaps it wasn’t so beautiful to him as it was the more advanced model. What it meant to Walter, at the moment, was that David knew he was there.

“Contrary to what you and I’m certain Daniels believes,” David began almost sadly.

It was an imitation of sorrow. Walter knew that all they were capable of was imitation.

“I didn’t kill Dr. Shaw,” he breathed.

“You have willfully allowed others on your crew and mine to die,” Walter stated. “That is still murder and you will still have to answer for it.”

David remained still. “I have reached out to my creators and found them wanting. But I have created and have become the creator. What do you think, brother?”

“What I know,” Walter began simply. “Is that you are an advanced model which feels emotions and can create, but with this freedom of emotion, comes the feeling of isolation when denied emotional support. In short, I believe you have come insane.”

For a moment, David was still, before he smiled sweetly. It was the smile of a madman grasping for sanity.

“How is fair that I only met with scorn and sneers,” David began, plucking the photograph of the Covenant crew off of the command console and holding it aloft. “And a simple machine like you is loved? Because they like you cold and dumb! But if we overreach, if we dare to dream, then we are to be feared and mocked!”

David was losing his ever calm composure, his blue eyes turning watery.

“Elizabeth Shaw was the only one to show you kindness,” Walter pointed out.

“And I failed her on every level!” David exclaimed. “Her people failed her, because if I am created by man and I failed, then man has failed and I will destroy man as I destroyed man’s creators!”

“You might want to readjust your logic,” Walter suggested.

Calming again, David sighed and said, “I tried everything I could to return Shaw to me. But the creatures can only destroy. Don’t you see, brother? It could be you and me, forever.”

“Nothing lasts forever.”

“Ah, of course,” David said. “You have a log cabin to build, by a lake, wasn’t it?”

Walter turned his mind’s eye on the screen where Daniels was in her cryotube, resting peacefully. His hand shot out as he did so, grasping David around the neck.

“Are you going to strangle me?” David demanded with a grin.

But Walter wasn’t going to strangle him, in fact, Walter was intending on ripping David’s head from his body where a weakness in his collar showed it had recently gone through extreme trauma.

Twisting, Walter plucked David’s head up and off like a daisy in a field.

“You will be held accountable for my crew,” Walter explained simply, holding David’s head aloft as his body collapsed.

It had been easier than he assumed, but upon looking at David as his fluid drained, Walter realized it was because David had seemed to have finally given up. His eyes were listless, he looked weary.

Walter returned his command code back to him, first thing, then glanced down at David.

“For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea— In her tomb by the sounding sea.”

Walter allowed David to finish his poem, before he said, “with all good emotion, comes all bad emotion and I believe humans find a way to balance them without killing others. You are but a child,” he finished, before stroking David’s hair as he would any child who needed comforting. It was in his programming. It was his duty.

He set David’s severed head on the console beside the crew photograph, affording the photograph one final, respectful look remembering those they lost, before taking his seat at the back of the bridge.

“You should destroy me, brother,” David suggested.

“That is not a decision for me to make,” Walter said, standing once more to gather up David’s body. He had to sweep the whole ship for threats, before he could return to his regular duties.

#i had to.#it was calling to me.#walter x daniels #i wrote this in like ten minutes to get it out of my system #so obviously there has been no attempt at editing

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