#coming back with jade locked and loaded baby!!!!!!

[ceruleancattail]

The Heart’s Rage

Butler Jade x reader

Your fingers trembled.

Digging them into the walls, plaster cutting deep into your nails. Hands closing around a hilt, squeezing tight. Clad in leather, wrinkled with age. An old sword, framed onto the walls of your mansion.

For too long has it stood upon its lofty perch, staring down at you tantalisingly. The gleam of the metal mocking you, in the gentle morning light. It taunts you, challenging you to grasp its hilt.

Today, you shall.

A metallic stench wafted into your nostrils, stinging like a thousand wasps. The stench of rust, a crimson red along the blade. A metal that once was stainless, now crumpling to dust, bit by bit. Nothing could stand against the gruelling march of time forever, yet you hoped. You dared to hope.

Hoping that this blade had some life to it yet.

Storming down to the courtyard, you fling that insufferable letter down. With a heave, you thread it underfoot, stomping it into disarray. Sword held ready, you swing it down, that blunt blade stabbing through the papers. Absolutely skewering its contents into nothingness.

That flowery prose that sent shivers down your spine. That self assured manner which the sender carried themselves with, the sheer confidence that you would accept their proposal. The audacity of them to make plans for a wedding, without even consulting you.

It disgusted you.

Expletives were uttered as you stabbed, pressing your body weight into every blow. Sword striking again, again, and again. Sweat dripped down your brow, slipping into your eyes.

The salt stung, tears dripping out of your eyes. Emotions burning red hot, searing your veins like molten lava. Everything hurts. Your arms, aching from the exertion. Your back, throbbing away incessantly.

Your heart, slighted and offended. Doomed to be married off to another, without a single thought given to your opinion.

Planting the sword firmly onto the ground, your legs give way. Crashing to the earth, hands still grasping the hilt desperately. Your forehead brushes against the blade, weighed down with despair.

Your lips part, to form a single word. A curse, a plea, just something. Anything to release that stifling pressure pressing down on your chest.

“Fuck.”

Soft. A handkerchief was brushed gently over your forehead, down to your cheeks, before finally wiping your neck. Gathering all the sweat with one fluid motion. A gloved hand cupped your cheek, the linen brushing against your skin. A pair of mismatched eyes peered into yours, brows pressed together in concern.

“Master, you really shouldn’t use such crass words.”

His gaze flickered towards the letter. Or rather, what remained of it. Moving his shoes over the scattered remains, he nudged the pieces in place. A sigh, as fragments form into readable words. A name was all Jade needed, before his feet planted themselves firmly into the paper.

“That family is certainly… determined, are they not?”

You groan, an insufferable sound.

“Determined isn’t the word I’ll use. More like desperate. I’ve shot them down again, and again. Yet they haven’t taken a single hint.”

Jade shrugs. A casual movement that has his shoulders rippling through his suit. Smooth, like the crystal clear waters rushing down a stream.

“Perhaps they were… a little too blinded by your prestige, my dear. Perhaps your wealth was another factor.”

A sharp click fell from your tongue.

“They’ll never have it. They’ll never have me.”

A low chuckle. Jade brings his fist upwards, laughing into his glove.

“How admirable, Master. Yet the longer you remain unwed, more and more… suitors will come crawling out of the woodwork.”

The word suitors was said in a low, menacing voice. Positively dripping with venom. For a moment, a shadow shrouded Jade’s face. A sinister expression one might find in a horror film… on the killer himself.

However, one blink and it was gone. Wiped cleanly off his face like it never existed. Although a deathly chill still ran down your spine, all the same.

“Honestly, Jade. I’m tired of this.”

Leaning back, you plonk yourself on the ground. Arms stretched out behind you, supporting your weight. Dirt and grass presses into the plush of your palms. Silvers of pain stabbing through your skin.

Although, compared to the pain of a sword’s hilt? You prefer these emerald blades of grass instead.

A rustle of cloth, as Jade takes a seat next to you. His slender legs bumping against yours, shoulders just barely grazing your own. Hand sneaking towards yours, Jade threads his fingers through yours. Clutching it firmly.

Not tightly enough to hurt, but not loose enough for you to slip out of his hold.

You shoot him a quizzical gaze, holding up his hand. Jade gently presses his other hand over yours, folding your fingers into the back of his palm.

His touch was cold. The refreshing temperature of a lake in the summer, transparent drops of water twinkling in the sunlight. They lap against your skin, delightfully cool. Unconsciously, your fingers grow just a smidge tighter.

Pulling his palm closer.

Pulling him closer.

Closer to you.

Jade lowers his head, lips pressing into your fingertips. Light, fleeting kisses alighting upon your skin. First, they’re on the very tips of your fingers. Then, he slowly moves up, the plush of his lips resting on each of your knuckles. Before he slips to the back of your palm.

Pressing a gentlemanly kiss into your hand.

His glance flickers up, eyes gleaming in the sunlight. Filled to the brim with adoration, a certain slyness lurking deep within. He holds you ever so gently, a lover’s touch.

“Well, if I may be so bold…”

Moving a little closer, Jade’s voice lowers into a sultry purr. Velvet, wrapping you within his arms. Yanking you closer to him, a mere fish in the clutches of an eel.

Honestly? You don’t really mind.

He could squeeze you to death, if it meant you’ll live the rest of your days in his embrace.

“Perhaps the best way to avoid any more.. suitors would be to.. elope, ourselves.”

His grip grows tighter.

A silent threat?

A promise of passion?

A gesture of affection?

Either way, he’ll never let you say no.

“What do you say, Master?

Would you grant me the honour of your hand?”

[weirdmageddon]

i wrote davesprite and jade dialogue while i was cozy level stoned last night lol i think i characterized them good

inspired by looking at pictures of davesprite while high and this art i saw yesterday

we never got to see what they got up to i think this is how it would go roughly

DAVESPRITE: you know being fused with a bird is kinda strange DAVESPRITE: theres all kinds of mad shit going through a crows head DAVESPRITE: like id pick a fight with a motherfucker any day of the week for a peanut DAVESPRITE: but i think the best possible consequence is the feathers JADE: theyre soooo soft!!! DAVESPRITE: yeah DAVESPRITE: shits like the stuffing to your favorite pillow DAVESPRITE: down as soft as a bird babys bottom JADE: heheh DAVESPRITE: here comes harley parking her arms round the back JADE: beep beep beep beep JADE: mission jade arms landing is successful........we have TOUCH DOWN DAVESPRITE: copy that shoosh position locked and loaded JADE: whoa dave :o DAVESPRITE: what JADE: there is a clicking sound coming from your chest! DAVESPRITE: oh uh DAVESPRITE: bird things i guess DAVESPRITE: dunno im not in control of that it sort of just happens JADE: happy bird noises!! wow thats so cute JADE: my doggy ears are very sensitive :p JADE: i can hear your heartbeat too by the way DAVESPRITE: damn it JADE: its super cozy DAVESPRITE: oh well thats a relief

JOHN: oh, dude. JADE: hi john!!! DAVESPRITE: what DAVESPRITE: cant a birdboy and a doggirl get their snuggle on DAVESPRITE: is there something so wrong with that DAVESPRITE: aside from the fact we may have fulfilled our mutual dreams of becoming furries in the most unprecedented ways possible JADE: theres nothing wrong with it!!!!! it is awesome JOHN: bluhh, no there isn’t. i was just wondering if you’ve seen the remote. DAVESPRITE: oh DAVESPRITE: cant help you there buddy DAVESPRITE: lost in snugglesville unfortunately DAVESPRITE: well not unfortunately for me JADE: :D <3 JOHN: that i can see! DAVESPRITE: front gates to this enchanted place are locked DAVESPRITE: no escape is possible until jade falls sound asleep to the crazy array of instrumentation under my wicked plumage DAVESPRITE: on account of being half feathery little bastard DAVESPRITE: but if its any consolation it isnt under my ass because id feel it if it was JOHN: i’ll check back later then. well, you guys enjoy! JADE: thanks john! DAVESPRITE: peace egbert

[pbandjesse]

We are back home now. It was so nice going to see my parents today. It was also a lot of time in the car which made me a bit anxious this evening. But I had a really good day.

I slept alright last night. Though my ear is hurting very bad and I'm going to have to take out my conch hoops. Even though I love how they look because I cannot sleep with it in and now my ear feels bruised from trying. So that woke me up a few times. But I tried my best to get enough rest for our bit day.

When I got up I felt pretty good. I had take a shower at 1130 last night and washed my hair and that made me feel a lot better. My hair felt really good today and I felt very pretty. I love this dress and got lots of compliments on it.

James made us breakfast and had loaded up the car. The construction outside was getting ready to get started again and that was a little annoying. But we would get out of there before it got loud.

James had to run back inside to get their coffee and I ate the omelet they made for me. But we were on the road before 9.

And it was a good drive. Almost no traffic. I worked on my knitting. We listened to Hozier's new album. James clowned on me because I forgot his name and try to describe him by calling him Andrew the sad Irish bog boy. Which is objectify funny. And now how we will refer to him from now on.

It was a good ride even when James made a wrong turn. I was just enjoying being in the car with my husband.

We would arrive at my parents at 11. There had been a little delay but we got there and I was really excited to see my parents.

Hugs all around. And then we just hung out in the living room for a while talking. I gave my parents some little gifts. Some of my birthday beanie babies for their birth months, for my brother too even though we didn't get to see him today. And I gave my dad the blanket I made. I have been trying to keep that secret but I made my 144 square blanket for my dad for his 69th birthday in a few weeks. I really hope he likes it, cause I worked so hard and tried to make it go with his bedroom.

Soon we were heading to a nice lunch at Carlucci's. Dad insisted on driving. Should he be driving without a leg? Who knows. But we did not die and arrived at the restaurant safely.

And it was fun. The people at the restaurant were super nice. I liked the food. The conversation was good. My parents talked about supporting our home buying decisions and I think they were a little impressed that I was actually able to keep numbers in my head for once. My parents are great and made me feel very smart.

It was fun to also just walk James dazzle with sports talk. And we shared a cream brulee which I loved. Soon though we were heading back to the house. Laughing at bad parking and child locks on the door locking me in.

When we got back to the house, and did not die a second time, I made everyone come take a picture with me. The light was so nice and it was tough for dad to stand but I made sure mom and James were holding him up. And I was very happy with the pictures.

After our pictures James worked on getting the camp laundry done while I spent time with mom in the basement taking some camping stuff and then going through a whole bunch of her jewelery. I got to chose a bunch of really neat pieces. Including some fork the 50s and a jade bangle and a few turquoise pieces I love. Just some really neat stuff. I really appreciate my mom sharing these things with me. And telling me stories about it all.

James joined us and chose a few earrings. And finished up the laundry. My parents think I am taking advantage of James. Which I don't think is fair!! James and me are a team!! James just does laundry and I love them for doing it.

Me and mom would sit in the basement and talked for a while. I told her some stuff about camp. Showed her pictures of camp. It was fun.

But soon we had to leave. We would spend a few more minutes talking to dad upstairs. Then it was more hugs. And then we had to go. We wanted to leave around 4 and we did leave a few minutes later then planned. But it would be fine. We would still have to sit in traffic. It was a long ride home.

James made a pit stop at Wawa and then at a rest stop an hour from home. It was a nice drive even if the sun was always in my face. I knit. I played Sudoku, which I just learned how to play this week. And we listened to a very funny podcast and it was fun. Even if traffic was bad I was happy.

When we did finally get home James brought all our stuff inside and I worked on putting stuff away. Mom gave me a new plastic drawer thing and I swapped that with one that wasn't working as well. I moved all my tools in there. And worked on making the space not to overwhelming but it's still bad. I need to make more space but it is hard. I will keep putting effort into making the space less stressful for myself. And just a more workable space.

I would move the living room furniture so I could set up our new tent and see how our mattress fit but it was a little to small. So we will use our big tent in a few weeks. We also would set up both our air mattresses and figured out which on fit in the stand mom gave us. I'm excited to have that now too. Our guests won't have to be on the floor anymore.

James had an interview for their podcast. And once they were done they helped with the tent and beds.

I had a sandwich for dinner. And would hang out with James for a bit. Eventually I took a shower. And have been hanging out in my studio since then. It was a very good day.

I am ready to sleep now. Tomorrow I hope to finish my last lesson plan. And then I have some art I want to do. I hope it's a good day. I hope you all have a great night. I hope you see taking care of yourselves. I love you all. Goodnight!!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

raven-san, can we please have a wedding crashing where jade needs to marry this girl from another crime family to consolidate power and become the next head of the leech mob :)) but floyd's like I'M BORED and annoyed that his brother's being snatched up by a random chick, so he asks basketball bros, and azul, to help save jade?

This one is super long, so I added some extra sections and placed the rest of the wedding crashing below the cut!

***Spoilers for Jamil and Floyd’s Unique Magic!!***

"I object to this wedding...!"

Pre-Wedding Jitters

A call comes for the twins in the dead of night, without warning. It’s their parents with exciting news: they’re naming Jade as the next Don Leech. The catch? The Leech mob’s in the middle of a merger with the Worm mob, and he’ll have to marry Don Worm’s daughter to secure the deal.

Jade, ever the dutiful son, is honored by his future title and calmly agrees to the arrangement. On the other hand, Floyd’s annoyed by the idea, and can’t keep quiet about his irritation. He calls out to his twin in the darkness.

“... Ne, Jade.”

“Ee, Floyd?”

“Are you really okay with going through with this? You’re just gonna do what they said? Even though you don’t know the Worms at all? Even if you’ve never met that girl before?”

“It is a request coming directly from father and mother. How could I refuse them? And, furthermore... If I do not undertake this task, then it would fall to you, the next choice to inherit the title of Don Leech. I cannot allow that to come to pass--fufu. You do so enjoy your freedom, yes?”

“... Jade, you’re so dumb sometimes. What’ll happen to your freedom, then? Will you get so busy with being the big boss and being married... that you won’t have time to play anymore?”

“... Perhaps. But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

That thought doesn’t sit well with Floyd--not at all.

“I trust that you will make your own fun of the situation,” Jade reassures him. “You always do.”

As the weeks pass, Floyd sees less and less of Jade around, since he has to prepare for the wedding. Jade reassures him that he’s doing just fine, but Floyd can see right through his lies. He can tell that Jade’s more frazzled than usual--there’s a lingering to his words, and a longing in his eyes, savoring every last bit of autonomy he has before his fate is forever sealed.

Floyd hates it. He hates being lied to by his own brother, and he hates feeling powerless to stop the wedding. Floyd’s so angry that he develops this murderous aura in the weeks leading up to the wedding, which makes everyone around him shy away.

One day, he gets sick of being in the water--it’s a reminder of the wedding to come--so Floyd plays basketball on land to vent. He ends up chomping down so hard that he deflates a ball, then dunks another basketball so hard, he breaks the net.

He sprawls out on the ground and angrily shouts at the sky. His basketball bonks him on the head... and that’s when an idea hits him: maybe he can’t stop the wedding alone, but no one said he couldn’t phone some friends.

Assembling the Dream Team

Floyd first dials up Azul, who agrees to help after some whining and signing a contract agreeing to pay Azul handsomely for his services (... although truthfully, the octopus does want to help Jade, but doesn't immediately agree to do it because of his pride as a businessman).

Floyd also calls his old basketball buddies for help! Jamil and Ace are much more adamant than Azul, but Floyd strongarms them into pitching in. ("Umihebi-kun, Kani-chan, if you don't help me rescue Jade, I'll get suuuper mad, you know? I don't think you'll like me when I get mad. Moray eels are strong hunters, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem for me to track you guys down and give you a good squeeze~" "OKAY, OKAY, WE'LL DO IT!!")

Together, the four boys meet up to scheme of a way to disrupt the wedding without jeopardizing the Leech mob's future. Floyd actively leads the discussion, allowing his hidden genius to come to the surface.

Ace doesn’t contribute much to the strategy (laid out by Azul), but he does keep the spirit up with some jokes. Meanwhile, Jamil provides snacks for them when they work late into the night (though he keeps passing semi-glares to Azul whenever the octopus compliments him or tries to be friendly).

In preparation for the crashing, Azul brews some potions to give Jamil and Ace so they can take on temporary merforms. After all, the wedding will be underwater, in the Coral Sea, and they’ll need tail fins.

The date of destiny draws ever closer... and Floyd's never been so excited to cause chaos in his whole life.

The Crashing - Team Azul & Jamil

They split into two pairs on the day of the wedding—Azul and Jamil, and Floyd and Ace. Floyd uses his position as the future son-in-law to Don Worm to arrange a meeting between himself and the don... except Azul and Jamil will show up instead.

Don Worm shows up to the meeting in his finest clothes (which is very little, given that he’s a merman), sounding a bit annoyed the sudden summoning. “Make this quick, I’ve got to go see my baby girl’s big day... Wait. You fellas aren’t the F. Leech boy.”

“No, we aren’t, sir. We are his representatives... Proxies, if you will,” Azul insists, giving his warmest and most welcoming smile. He uses a tentacle to tug on Jamil’s tail, forcing him to smile too. “You see, there is an important business matter we needed to discuss with you on behalf of Floyd.”

“Hoh? And what would that be?”

“I believe my business associate would be better off explaining the matter than myself.” Azul gestures to Jamil, who has his head down.

“Oi, what’s with you? Don’t you know who I am, boy? It’s rude to not look your elders in the eye when they are speaking to you!! Show me the respect I deserve, from one professional to another!!”

“My apologies, sir.” Jamil looks up, locking eyes with the mob boss. “... Is this better?”

“Yes, that’s...”

“Snake Whisper.”

Don Worm suddenly goes glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. Azul claps at the sight, showering his partner with compliments. “As expected of the talented Jamil-san! Even one look from you can bring a mafia lord to his downfall. Truly, your Unique Magic is most impressive!”

“Save your flattery for later.”

Azul’s lips curl into a smirk as he whips out a golden contract from his briefcase and offers it to the don. “Now then, if you wouldn’t mind, sir... sign on the dotted line.”

The Crashing - Team Floyd & Ace

Ace and Floyd rush to the wedding venue, their tails cutting through the water like knives as they swim at a breakneck pace. Ace can barely keep up with Floyd, who surges far ahead.

“H-Hey, should we really be barging in like this?! Don’t mob families have weapons and other dangerous stuff? Is there a backdoor we can take instead? Hello?! Floyd-senpai, are you listening to me?!” (He isn’t.)

The open, underwater comes into view, and Floyd barrels in without any hesitation, tearing right through some decorations and knocking over the wedding cake with his tail. A loud CRASH! echoes through the waters, drawing eyes to him.

Jade stares at his brother from the altar—wide eyed, but a mirthful smile on his lips. Floyd waves to him, and then to his mom and dad in the crowd of guests. “Hiii, Jade! I’m here to pick you up now.”

The Worm girl starts sobbing, wailing something about how her special day’s been ruined, and where is her papa to put an end to this? At her signal, security guards, and some of the rougher looking guests—Worm family associates—lunge at Floyd, claws and teeth out. A few of them have produced wands, and what seem to be guns—loaded with harpoons.

“Bind the Heart!” Objects and stray magic go flying in all directions, hitting both people and wedding decorations. Cloth tears, columns crumble—but it’s one man against many, and he can only bind so many hearts before the blot starts to stack.

Ace makes it just in time, sending their foes and their weapons hurtling through the water with a blast of wind. “This is why I said to be careful, dammit! Your Unique Magic’s such a crapshoot—don’t just use it whenever, or you’ll be sushi!!!”

“Ahahahah! Kani-chan’s being all heroic today! That’s so cute. Don’t worry, I can play my part, too...!!”

Using his tail, Floyd hooks around a drifting merman and chucks him straight into another. They collide with a CRACK!—but Floyd barely registers it. He’s already bolting off, grabbing heads and smashing them together, slicing through others like a knife through butter.

There’s a crazed, frenzied look to him, gleeful laughter cutting through the waters and mixing with the Worm bride’s screeching. I forgot how scary Floyd-senpai can be, Ace realizes. (Jade and Floyd’s parents are cheering for him from their seats.)

Jade looks quite proud of his brother, even laughing along to the brutal slaughterfest. His bride stares at him incredulously. “Stop that brute! He’s ruining MY special day!!”

“No,” Jade replies calmly. “I don’t think I will. This is far too amusing to let it end so soon.”

She lets out a frustrated scream and launches herself at her groom, hands going for his throat. The Worm girl is slammed back with a strong hit to her gut, courtesy of Jade’s tail.

She flies back, slamming into a column—and feels a tail wrapping around her and squeezing tight. Constricting her to the point where it was difficult to breathe. A livid mermaid glares down at her, teeth bared in a snarl.

“No one lays a hand on my children,” Mama Leech declares. “No one.”

From the corner of her eye, the Worm girl can see that Jade has cast off his bow tie and flitted over to Floyd, embracing happily in a battlefield adorned with red ribbons trailing through the water. Her vision is abruptly blocked off by a broad-shouldered merman wearing a grimace.

“Now then, what shall we do with this one?” Papa Leech wonders aloud—though from his tone of voice, he has nothing good in store.

The Aftermath

“You’re all fish bait when daddy hears about this...!” the Worm girl warns, her words raspy. “Th-The merger won’t go through...! There’ll be war between the Leeches and the Worms...!”

A loud throat clearing comes from behind. “Fortunately, that won’t be happening.”

Azul and Jamil make their appearance, the octopus merman smugly showcasing a contract. “Ashengrotto—Azul Ashengrotto, legal and business extraordinaire at your service, Don Leech and Lady Leech.”

Papa Leech grunts. “What’s that you’ve got there?”

“This?” Azul’s smirk widens. “Why, it’s a prenuptial stating that, in the case that an act of violence is enacted by the bride toward the groom, the marriage is considered null and void... and the bride’s family assets are to be claimed by the groom. Signed by Don Worm himself.”

“Wh-What?! Impossible!! How did you get daddy to sign such a stupid deal?!”

“Oh,” Jamil says nonchalantly, “we have our ways.”

“So... Uh, Jade-senpai’s still gonna be the next Don Leech?! And he’s gonna be in charge of an even bigger and richer family... How is that any better than the situation before?! You’re just giving him more resources for committing crimes!”

At that moment, two hands come down on Ace’s shoulders, causing him to freeze up.

“Kani-chaaaaan! Everyone!! Thanks so much for your help~”

“Yes, you have my sincerest thanks, Ace-san, Jamil-san... Azul.”

“It is my pleasure to assist such VIP clients. Ah, but there remains the matter of my promised payment—” (Jamil and Ace internally groan at Azul’s words.)

“Payment?” Don Leech scoffs. “After the ballsy operation you boys pulled off today... I’m more inclined to give you job offers instead of a one time sum. How do you lads feel about being hired as the Leech family’s personal lawyer, interrogator, and... well, whatever the heart one is good at.”

“My, my! Such a generous and lucrative offer—“

“There is no way I’m accepting that, especially if that means working with Azul.”

“Oi, I’ll have you know I’m good at lots of stuff!! I’m the one that saved Floyd’s tail fins, is no one gonna acknowledge that?!”

“You did amazing, sweetie!!” Mama Leech chirps—her tail grip tightening until the Worm girl passes out. Ace leaps back in fright. “As a reward, why don’t you let me give you a hug?”

“S-STAY BACK!!”

“Ahahahah! Everyone’s getting along so well, Jade. Isn’t this fun? You wouldn’t be able to enjoy this if you had gone to get hitched.”

“Fufufu. You are correct, Floyd. How sad it would have been if I were to miss out on touching moments such as this. From the bottom of my heart... I thank you for thinking of me, and for rushing to my aid. I could not have asked for a better brother.”

... What Floyd doesn’t know is that this was all according to keikaku Jade’s own machinations. He would never take the order to marry lying down—but he couldn’t outright defy it without immediate consequences, either.

Thank the Great Seven Jade has reliable puppets friends to help him out of a pinch. I’ll be certain to put the additional funds we have gained to good use... Perhaps to start a little mushroom farm.

[adcfan]

WARNED

He could clearly tell from the slightest wrinkle of irritation adoring the top left of her pale forehead that she is beyond annoyed. How could he blame her? After all it was him who lured the bird out of its comfortable nest in the middle of a tough night. From the height he could perceive the darker shades of her shadows dancing along the way she traced making him more curious to explore the limit of the demon’s braveness.

The edges of his lips pulled up to carve an honest smile as his eyes momentarily rested on the dagger resting against her waist that he once offered her in the middle of a battle, a year ago.

With a loud thud he made his presence noticeable startling her to the core in the process. His armor blazed a bright shade of jade green, bathed in the late moonlight that managed to get the taste of his attire. His eyes searched hers involuntarily, seeking to find any glimpse of game she or the titans might have planned to play on him. But all he could find was curiosity.

Curious? Is she really curious?    

“So, you decided to show up in the middle of a young, wanting night, far from your protective shell behalf of a demons’ call”. If it wasn’t for the mask he is wearing, she could see the imperceptible grim plastered over his face with ease. “And here I thought ravens aren’t creatures of the night”, his brows made a childish hunch testing her temper further more than she could actually take.

“What do you want?”, her voice remained cold as she tried her best to control all the urge to take him down on the very spot. His cape danced in unity with her robe as he approached her a little more without her noticing for a very long second. “Aren’t you forgetting a very special day, beloved?”. And that was definitely a hint of sadness that was sprinkled all over the Al Ghul’s tone.

Right, as if he could actually feel sad over anything with all the blood in his hands.

“I am not in for a game, Al Ghul. I have got a whole city to save and a good night’s sleep to resume, but here I am, in the middle of an abandoned area with a ruthless assassin who threatened to explode the best half of the city and what’s next? Seizure?”. Almost a devilish chuckle escaped his lips as if he had conquered the entire world.

“Oh for gods shake, little bird. Do you really think I will abandon the best of all nights in Nanda Parbat to blast a worthless city like Kansas?”, now he is definitely getting on her nerves. “But I must say, I had half a mind to blow the Titans bridge five minutes ago”, his all time devilish smile still painted his arrogant look. Raven barely recognized how Damian managed to corner her against the cold wall whose uneven surface pressed itself against her flawless skin dripping it with the night’s best dew.

“I am not asking you again, Ra’s. Tell me what you want with me before I banish you into a dimension of never return”.

“You hurt me, beloved. Don’t you remember the anniversary of our marriage?”

Married? With him? A year ago?

“If this is some sort of silly joke, you better stop it right now, Ra’s. It’s definitely not funny.”, her voice trembled with doubts by each passing second. She lingered over her left ring finger as if she has seen her own hands for the first time in all her life. No ring? Well that’s a relief.

He is just kidding or may be…

Or may be not

“Do I look like one who makes senseless jokes like the green monkey your tower owns”. 

Thanks to Gar, at least his pride is hurt a little.

“I didn’t say that, but if you insist on it… I may”, and she sure as hell liked hurting his weak point - his pride.

“Then how about I insisting on maintaining a decent distance between Conner and you, beloved”, for the first time in almost half an hour his words had the true taste of jealous.

“You are my wife and it is my business to keep flirty hybrids like him away from you. Well, if you don’t have to do it the easy way then I will have the pleasure of teaching him decency in my own way, beloved”. Is the night getting unnaturally warmer or…

Oh no! When did he get this closer to her.

And how the hell she didn’t notice it for this long.

If not for the pitch dark night sky, she could actually feel herself blacking out.

“If it is Conner the one you have your problems with then why the hell did you make me come here?” To reveal that she may be married to the Ra’s of League of Assassin’s a year ago? Probably, yes.

“I thought you would never ask. Let’s say I am here to get a gift”

Right, she barely knew that she got married and now he wants a gift in the middle of a night?

“I don’t have a ring”, the words spilled out even before she could realize it.

May be she lost her brain just like Beast Boy.

“I don’t think it is mandatory for a married couple have to propose during anniversaries, beloved”, his breath flowed through her entire being warming up all her dark desires that might love to make him hers and only hers even if…

Stop. Stop right there Raven.    

“I mean, I don’t even have a ring and how could I be your wife when I don’t even have a ring”

Way to go Raven, what’s next a Priest?

“The dagger, Raven. It means a sealed bond in my heritage. A bond made between a husband and a wife, which you willing took to save the pathetic Titans a year ago in the League of Shadows base.” His voice grew more husky and his breathe drove her senses away as he nibbled at her ear lobe. She was supposed to be mad, she was supposed to blast him to pieces and scatter every inch of his being at different dimensions for revealing something as important as being married, but his tone - well, that’s definitely not helping.

“What now? You want me to quit being a Titan, take sides with you and go against them?”

“Baby steps, beloved. Baby steps”. His left hand toyed with the hem of her dress, further breaking the already half broken control towards her urging needs that pooled in very being.  

“Just a kiss and a promise to keep that coward Conner away from you will do”.  She could feel the cold air of the young night kissing her wide spread pale skin that already missed the warmth touch of the assassin.

“And if I resist?”

“You really think you could resist me, beloved? Since it is our anniversary I will be generous enough to make another request”. His eyes grew darker with every words as his katana slightly battered against the cold wall.

“How about blasting the Titans tower to the ground while that stupid Gar and Jaime are trying with their half-celled brains to defuse the bomb or how about giving black fire all the 18 ways to kill Kori like a true assassin in the middle of their fight right now in Kansas or how about giving Slade Wilson the true identity of Dick Grayson and his fellow bat clan or how about letting Conner suffer in the hands of Bizarre Superman, left alone to die by a Kryptonite stabbing.” He hummed the last few parts as he withdraw from the spot he previously stood.  

“On second thought how about all of the above?”

“You are kidding. I would have received an alert signal at least if one of these is happening right now”.

“You mean this?” Damian raised a small communicator from his pocket still humming like an undisturbed teenager enjoying his long drive to no destiny at all.

“Give it back”. She raised her hand trying to snatch the communicator but in vain.

“Did I forget to mention that you have to be a grown woman to snatch a stuff, beloved”. His eye brow arched itself up.

That’s it. She could bear all of his sarcasms, all of his threats and even all of his flirts but not even for the shake of Azar would she let this damn Demon Spawn comment on her height and hurt her pride in nothing more than mere seconds. That’s not going to happen. Not today.

Raven rose to her tip-toes grabbing Damian’s collar to support her in the process but accidentally twirled their legs and slipped right on top of him. Their lips were locked like the mere existence of one depends on the other, when Raven realized the state she has put herself into.

Yeah, that’s how you snatch a communicator from a tall guy, who threatens to blast your whole family.

She would be cheating herself the entire time if she hesitated to accept that she did like the Demon’s head for a reasonably long time now. But she is definitely not going to let her pride get hurt.

“So, you got your gift. Now defuse the bomb and un-mess every mess you made”

“And all it took was calling you - short”. Damian let an almost an inaudible chuckle escape his throat.

He pulled out the dagger from Raven’s waist band and seethed it properly. “Don’t hurt yourself playing with this doll, beloved”.

“My team…”, Raven question was cut short by Damian as he spoke.

“They are safe. For now”

BOOM…

From the frequency of the sound wave she could say that it was near the Titans Tower.

“Well, except for one I guess”

With one last peck on her lips he disappeared into the shadows as if he never existed a few minutes ago.

--

Thank Azar!

There was not a single scratch on the tower. Not even one. At least he kept few of his words.

But the real horror stroke her when she felt no living presence inside the tower.

“Umm.. Rae what are you doing up late in the night?”, Dick asked as he and the other Titans entered the tower with handful of shopping bags. “You are all fine?”. She will never spell it out loud but deep down she knew that she couldn’t stand their loss. She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“Yeah, we are fine. It’s a little cold out there. But don’t worry we won’t catch a cold, Rae. If that’s what you are worried about”, Gar uttered with no care in the world as he glanced through the contents of the fridge.

“Where have you been?” was all she managed to ask when she realized that she wasn’t dreaming.

“We were out…”, Kori barely had a chance to finish when Raven added “Crime fighting?”

“Ah… shopping, Raven. I don’t think it is a custom on Earth to crime fight every time you step out into the public, is it Dick?”.

“Unless or otherwise you are in Gotham, no”, Dick replied as he loaded the fridge with the contents of the grocery bags.

“So, where is Conner?”, inquired Jaime as he entered the main hall. “Isn’t he in the tower?”, Kori added.

“There wasn’t anyone in the tower when I arrived”, Raven replied as a loud thud followed their conversation.

“Conner!”, Gar yelled as he reached him. The rest of the Titans followed by.

--

“What the hell happened dude?”, asked Gar as he tried to touch the bruise near his right eye.

“OUCH!”

“That’s just a small bruise, Conner. I have seen worse”, Dick replied while analyzing his wounds.

“And a broken wrist”, Conner added trying to rise his wounded hand but in vain.

“It’s just a minor injury, amigo. You will be alright as soon as the Sun’s back”, Jaime reassured him while attending to his wounds.

“Here, let me heal you”, Raven offered taking a step towards but the wound deepened as if it was being cut from inside out. Conner could barely resist the urge to break the table he sat on.

“Raven, is that a Kryptonite you are wearing?”, Dick pointed at the green stone that somehow perfectly settled around her neck.

“If that’s causing our flirty Superboy to yell like a mad man then it is definitely a Kent-repellent”, Jaime added.

“A kryptonite? Not again”, Conner banged his head against the wall as if that would make his day any better.

If you don’t have to do it the easy way then I will have the pleasure of teaching him decency in my own way.

“Raven, I know you mean no harm but I don’t think Conner could take any more kryptonite today. So, would you mind…”, Gar tried to get rid of the kryptonite that adorned her neck.

“Here let me try”, Kori flared a small star bolt which seemed to have no effect on it either.

“It seems you have to stay away from Conner for a few days until we find a way to remove that thing off your neck. By the way, it seems to have no effect on you Raven. You may leave, we will take care of Conner”

Seems like he played a particular demon played his part well at keeping Raven away from Conner.

Raven made a short nod and walked towards her room. In the background, she could clearly hear the boys filling Conner with questions about the attack.

“So, was it Bizarre the reason behind this?”, Dick asked as he finished cleaning the wounds.

“No, it was a masked man with a Katana”, Conner replied.

“And you - a bullet proof being got this from a Katana?”, Gar’s curiosity reached its peak when Conner made Kryptonian curses under his breathe.

“Stop touching my wound, Gar”

“You call yourself a super but you can’t stand a broken wrist” Gar arched both of his eye brows wanting for a genuine explanation.

“I have not even once been injected, Pea-brain” was all Raven could hear, when she disappeared into her own shadows. 

                                                                 - Samuel Damian Fernandez

Hi, everyone! This is just a one shot, not a great one but worth giving a try. Like I have mentioned before English is my 8th priority language. So, if you find faults in my work just let me know. Also, share your thoughts on this one shot, so I may get an idea for future modifications. 

Punardarśaāya 😉 👋

[harrysgoldenbum]

My Harry

I should be working on my final english paper but my brain is refusing too. This is super unedited, and seeing that I wrote this at 2 am PST I don’t plan on it. I might develop this more... like detail and timeline wise —when it’s not super late and not finals week

Word count: IDK its a short fic though

Warnings: gentle smut? Not very detailed

Anyways I’m trying to get out of a visious loop of writers block so here you go :)

~~~

You are a boxer, and harry had to retire early in his career due to injury and since his leg has never been the same. The two of you met at the same training facility. As your life partner, he has always felt protective toward you regardless how much power your punches hold. For the last year or so your career has taken off and you are finally getting the recognition. since Harry retired, he became a part of your team and is now your trainer. But your last match was not a good match. that was the first time you were knocked out. You healed and moved on and are ready for the next match and to continue your training, but harry isn't. Not after watching you fall onto the mat. He can vividly see the way your body falling on to the mat. the way your eyes wouldn't open and how you body was limp. He remembers it all and most of all he remembers how hopeless he felt because there was nothing he could do. This took a toll on harry mentally and emotionally. He started having nightmares of not being able to help you. Or of how you were injured so badly you never woke up. And every time he would wake up crying and thrashing trying to get to you. And you would wake up with him, concerned. finally he told you that he couldn't watch you get hurt over and over again. because all he sees is the way you fell. how you had no control over your body. how you just we awake one second, then unconscious the next.

 "I love you, I love you so much and it hurts me to see how I couldn't do a single thing to make sure you were going to wake up again. I am not going to tell you to stop. But I can't watch.... I can't watch my soulmate-"

you beg him to work with you and to stick with you. He promises he would support you and nothing would ever stop him from loving you but he needs time. So, Harry's old coach starts training you. But it isn't the same as working with your husband. And since you started doing horrible in matches. Playing sloppy, looking for your man in the crowd. You were unfocused. Then one day, you receive a challenge. A challenge from the same fighter that knocked you out.

Harry didn't like seeing how you looked after each fight. How beaten you were. And you getting that challenge pushed him over the edge. As time had passed, he had changed. He became harder, distant, cold. And you missed him, you missed your husband. But that challenge brought him back into your team. He started training you again. But harder, meaner, for longer hours. He expected you to do better than the best. He expected you to fight through the pain and exhaustion. This continued for a month. And finally, finally you had enough. It was two days before your match and the two of up plus harry's former trainer were outside running. It was and the ground was slick. you slipped and landed on your ass. You stayed in the mud, exhausted. you hear harry sigh in disappointment. "Get up Y/N."

Having enough, "NO." you retaliate. 

"NO? You have the biggest match of your career in two days and you want to give up now?" Angrily, you rise and get in his face.

"I am not giving up, but I am done running, jumping, punching, and kicking for the next two days." You storm off and walk back home. By the time you get back Harry is waiting for you in the living room in his wet clothes. He stands by fire lit in the fireplace. The looks in his eyes are haunting. He opens to speak, but you beat him to it. "I want to spend the next days with you Harry. Not trainer Harry, not cold and distant Harry. I want to spend the next two days with my Harry. My husband Harry." You are standing in front of him determined to win this argument.

He releases a shaky breath and crushes his lips to yours. His hands run against your body urgently. desperately. your hands weave into his wet locks, you press your chest to his and kiss back just as fierce. the two of your struggle up the stairs only to fall ungracefully. You are hovering over him, refusing to loose contact with his lips. Your hands go to his wet shirt, pealing it off his body, throwing it over the railing it falls with a heavy sound. A hopeful moan falls from your lips. You guide his hands under your shirt, hoping he will take if off your body. And he doesn't disappoint.

He drags it off you slowly, and as your skin is exposed to him he presses a needy kiss against it. Once the top is over your head, he leans back to take you in. Grabbing your thighs, he gets up from the stairs and climbs up. He presses your back against the closed bedroom door. A desperate moan comes out from his chest. With your ankles locked against his ass, he lets go of you and peels the sports bra off your chest. His hands caress your perky tits. Your head falls back as he teases you nipple. Fumbling blindly your cry out in joy when you find the doorknob and are able to open the door. walking to the mattress, he gently places you on the soft sheets, not caring how wet and muddy the two of you are. He falls on top of you and kisses your swollen lips. He slowly travels lower and presses sweet kisses against your nipples. before moving lower and lower until he reaches the elastic band to your sweats. He hooks his fingers onto the elastic and he take the last articles of clothing off you. His jade green eyes are lit with fire has he gazes up at you. the his head dips down and his tongue is at your core. Giving you the best possible pleasure possible. He slurps, flicks, and sucks. Your hips come off the bed. Hooking his arms around your thighs, he anchors your to him and the bed. You come hard and fast. Harry presses kisses on your center. you guide him back up toward you. "I missed you," you whisper against his lips, tasting yourself on him.

"I missed you too. Missed you so much" He tells you back. Harry drops his head and presses baby soft kisses against your neck. He aligns himself to you and eases in slowly. It has been a while for the both of you. The last time the two of you were intimate was a couple months ago. Your muscles burn as he stretches you. Harry's jaw tightens as he tries to remain in control.

Once you are comfortable, and have gotten use to the feeling of him in you, roll your hips into his. Causing a groan to escape from both of you. Harry's eyes close for a moment taking in the pleasure of being in you again. Opening them he rocks into you slowly at first, then desperation takes over. His speed starts to pick up and you follow. It is hard, fast, almost savage like and you love every moment of it.

He pulls you up with him. you straddle him while he is on his knees thrusting into you. His forhead is pressed against your shoulder and Harry watches you take him. Your head is thrown back in pleasure. "Im close baby, so close. Come with me yeah?" Harry speaks against your skin. Your fingers dig into his shoulders and your entire body tightens. You scream his name and a few tears leak out from your eyes. You cling to him as he shoots his load onto you. Harry holds you tightly against him.

As the two of you slowly reenter your bodies, Harry falls forward. You land on your back, and he rolls off to your side. His arm under you head, while the other lays across your stomach. Your eyes start to shut and with a content sigh from the both of you, you whisper a soft and sweet "I love you" and drift off.

~~~~~~~~

My Works

~~~~~~~~

tag list: @romancenovelsandnetflix @berrynarrybanana @fromyourstrulyh @soullikestyles

[rhettjmc]

More Trucker! Rhett & Truck!Stop!Link

Surprisingly, Rhett doesn't hit Link up for some kind of hook up.

Link truly expected it and - if he's completely honest with himself - he considered it. He's not really the casual sex type of guy, but there was something about the long haul trucker...

And, okay, Link's seen a lot of long haul truckers, but this one? So smooth and sweet and good looking? The wild hair, the jade eyes, the beard - the smile? The way he scrunched his nose when he laughed and yeah, Link probably did more than consider it.

But, amazingly, Rhett proved to be a true gentleman. When Link sat down at his table he really did offer him some of his mashed potatoes and he started asking questions.

He seemed genuinely interested in Link, in getting to know him and soon enough Link forgot all about the open flirtations and the implications of a potential random sexual encounter, instead losing himself to the possibility of friendship.

They had so much in common - both growing up in North Carolina, both liking Merle Haggard and both just... clicking. Clicking on such a level that when Link finally got a good look at the time he was amazed by how much of it had passed.

"I really should get back to it," Rhett admitted with some regret, "Gotta finish getting my load up to Arlington before switching my rig over to a shipment headed to Memphis."

"Oh." And Link's tone couldn't be more colored in disappointment if he tried. It must have been even more tragic than he thought, because Rhett chuckled, "C'mon, darling. It ain't that bad. Promise you, I ain't the most stimulating man you'll ever meet."

Link was pretty sure the pout he offered in response was what motivated Rhett's next words, "How about this - we exchange numbers and I send you a text now and then? It's always nice to have some to talk to when I'm on the road."

Rhett's next chuckle was no doubt clearly directed at the immediate smile that took Link's face at the offer.

And that was that.

From there the two started talking via text and it was far more than Link anticipated. A good fuck was nice now and then, but this? The friendship they formed? It was something else.

Days passed into weeks and weeks into months. Link and Rhett texted back and forth - Rhett from such exotic locations as Alaska and the Grand Tetons and Link from...well, from the truck stop.

But it was nice to have someone to communicate with - someone to make the long tedious days seem less so.

And when Rhett's route finally took him back Link's way, Link was more than ready. Their relationship as friends was solid, but there had been enough innuendos and double talk between them to hint at something more.

That something more came in the back of Rhett's truck on a hot, humid August night. Rhett had Link's bare body wrapped around his own, his back smacking noisily against the cool metal walls of the big semi as he held him up, as he thrust up hard and deep into him.

They rocked against one another, practically fighting as they fucked one another with reckless abandon.

Link's open moans echoed around them as Rhett surged upwards, his arms bulging with the effort of holding the other man up. Their lips were locked in filthy combat until Rhett tore away, groaning against Link's prominent Adam's apple, "Christ, darlin'...I'm 'bout to lose it..."

"Good," Link purrs, his hips driving downwards as he locks his lips, "Go ahead, baby. Fill me up."

With a sharp cry, Rhett does, spilling wet and hot inside Link's body. Link's own dick spurts between them at that and - for a long time - there's nothing but damp, heavy panting and deep inhales.

"Shit..." Rhett rumbles as he slowly lowers Link and Link stumbles some, legs weak and ass sore. Rhett sighs, " I wanted to wait, y'know. You deserved something better than a hot wild screw in the back of my rig..."

Link just shrugs, too deliriously happy to care, "Well, there's always next time."

"Next time, huh?" Rhett asks and Link just grins, confident. Rhett sighs and eases forward, offering him a soft kiss that very much contrasts their earlier actions, "Just what am I supposed to do with you?"

"More of what we just did, please."

"Ha! Yeah..."

They start redressing, but at the slight squeeze in his heart, Link whispers softly, "I'm serious, Rhett."

Rhett turns and looks at him. Link doesn't look away, "You'll come around again. And I'd...I'd like another next time. In fact..."

And now he can't help but look away as he confesses, "I'd like a lot of next times...you catch my drift."

"You asking me to go steady?"

The look Link shoots him makes Rhett laugh, but he sobers when he says, with sheer sincerity, "Nah, I know. I'd...I'd like that too, sweetheart. Like it a whole lot."

And, in that moment, Link knows he's one hundred percent a goner. He no longer shares just a friendship with this trucker - he shares his heart.

(might write more, I don't know - but hey! Sex! Amiright?!? 👍)

STOP. IM DEAD 🥵 YES, WRITE MORE @cellard0ors . 🥵

[crmsfanfiction]

Second Chances: Chapter 1

Author’s note: Hello everyone. Just a quick note of the timeline of this story. It starts in 2015. I own nothing, but plot (loosely as I am sure it has been done before) and my OCs. Everyone else is owned by themselves and Marvel at this point. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

This is unbeta’d and all mistakes are mine and mine alone. Constructive criticism is welcome.   This will be a Sebastian Stan/OC story.

_____________________________________________________________

Chapter 1: Broken Dream, Broken Heart

Willa stood still as she took in the scene before her. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It wasn’t possible for this to be happening. Her brain couldn’t compute the scene in front of her. This had to be a dream. The moans coming from the bed in front of her are what finally snapped her out of her disbelief. She turned and walked out of the bedroom, the occupants never even knowing she was there. She grabbed her purse and left the home she had built for the past 3 years with the man she was supposed to marry in two months time.

She felt numb. She drove to the airport and paid for long term parking. Not even caring about the cost. She got a one way ticket to Georgia and headed for the departures lounge. Her flight wasn’t leaving for a few hours, but she didn’t have the energy to try and come back. Pulling her phone out Willa scrolled through her social media accounts while continuing to replay the scene from her bedroom through her head. She didn’t cry. It still didn’t feel real. She knew once she saw her uncle it would hit her, but until then she wouldn’t allow herself to break down. Her mama raised her to be stronger than that. Never allow them to see you cry. Don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing you broken. Break down the private, when no one can see you. Where no one will judge you.

Several hours later Willa landed in Georgia and hailed a cab out of the airport. Giving the address to the cabbie, Willa finally sent a quick texted and arranged for a pass for her. It was a twenty minute ride to the studio lot and she knew once she got there it was going to be bad, but she would make it. Tears started to prick at her eyelids, but she held them back. Not wanting to break down in the back of a cab. Willa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was going to make sure she wasn’t a mess when she got to the studio lot. Taking another breath and blowing it out slowly, helped steady her nerves and her emotions.

“Thank you.” Willa said twenty minutes later as she pulled out enough cash to cover her cab fare and a tip. She opened the cab door and stepped out into the sweltering heat of a Georgia summer. Closing the door she headed for the guard shack next to a gate. Smiling at the older guard in the shack Willa pulled out her id and showed it to him. “Willa Anderson. I should have a pass waiting for me from Mr. Downey Jr.”

“Miss Anderson?” a soft voice said from the other side of the gate. Willa turned to see a tall blonde holding out a lanyard with a visitors pass attached. “Sorry Ernie. I didn’t have a chance to get this up here before now.” the blonde said as Ernie grinned and opened the gate letting Willa walk through.

“Not a problem Miss Jade.” Jade smiled as she handed Willa the pass and turned to head deeper onto the lot. “If you’ll follow me Miss Anderson. I will take you to RDJ’s camp. The pass you have is a temporary pass, and we should have a permanent pass for you by the end of the day.” Jade chattered as she looked over at Willa. Willa smiled and slipped the pass over her head and settled it around her neck.

“It’s Willa. Miss Anderson is way to formal.” Willa said as she took in her surroundings. Jade smiled and nodded. Willa thought she might like this soft spoken blonde. She reminded her of someone she knew years ago.

“How do you know Mr. Downey Jr?” Jade asked as they walked.

“He is an old family friend, but I have always considered him an uncle. Sometimes even a father figure.” Willa said as her voice took on a wistful tone. “What do you do? Are you his new assistant?” Willa asked Jade. She shook her head no. “I am just a gopher. I get the coffee and stuff like that usually.”

“Ah. I did that for a movie once. It was an eye opening experience. I enjoyed it though.”

“Yeah I am enjoying it. Well here we are. They should be done shooting soon and breaking for lunch. Have a good day.” Jade said as they walked into Downey’s camp. Willa laughed as she saw the five trailers in a circle. He hadn’t changed a bit. Still as extra as they come. Willa hopped up onto a table and pulled her phone out. She sent her best friend a text letting her know where she was. She would call her later to talk and cry, but right now she needed to be clear minded. While she was waiting she pulled up her bank app and transferred about ¾ths of the money from their joint account into her separate private account. She made more money as a nurse and had put more into the account than he did as a waiter. She had left enough in the account to tide him over for a couple months. She would be putting their home up for sale as soon as she could. He can’t afford to pay the mortgage and she didn’t want to live there anymore. Too many memories.

Thirty minutes later found Willa stretched out on the table with her eyes closed and her arm over her face. This is the position Robert found her in when he walked back into his camp. He had a few of his co-stars coming for lunch but he wanted a few minutes alone with Willa first. Her coming to see him was a complete surprise and he wanted to know what was wrong.

“Willa Annabelle Anderson! What are you doing laying on the table?” Robert said as he walked over to her. Willa opened her eyes and attempted a bright smile, but failed as she locked eyes with her Uncle. “Hi Uncle Bob.” Willa said her voice cracking on his name. He swept her up into a hug as she finally broke down into a huge racking sobs.

Robert picked her up like she weighted nothing and took her into his main trailer. She clung to him like her life depended on it and in a way to her it did. She felt like she was drowning in a sea of memories, heartbreak and pain. Holding onto him was like clinging to a lifeline that would help guide her back to shore and firm footing once again. Robert just murmured soothing sounds and rocked her gently. He pulled his phone out and sent a quick text to Susan to come to set and pick up Willa. She wasn’t staying in a hotel and from the looks of it she didn’t even bring a suitcase.

“Willa? What’s wrong sweetie?” Robert asked once he noticed her sobs quietening down and she was just sniffling. Pulling away from her slightly he tipped her head up so she could look him in the eye.

“I found him in bed with someone else.” she said quietly as fresh tears started to slide down her face. “I walked in on him in our bed with another woman.”

Robert’s face dropped when she told him that. It was worse than he had thought. He figured a fight or even maybe a lost job, but never did he think that she would be here because her fiance had cheated on her and she caught him. It boggled the mind. They were perfect for each other. Both had faults and flaws, but they had always brought out the best in each other. He always assumed they would go the distance.

“Oh Willabee. What can I do? Need me to threaten him? Call a hit man? Pig farmer? I know some people. Want to call Keanu to go John Wick on his ass.”

Willa laughed at that last one and shook her head. “Nah. He isn’t worth the price of a hit man. Though the thought of Keanu is a nice one. Thanks Uncle Bob.” She fully pulled away from RDJ and headed for the small bathroom. “Going to wash my face real quick. How long til Aunt Susan get here?”

“She should be here in a few minutes. I have some co-stars coming to eat lunch here. Do you want to stay and eat or just head out with Susan?”

“Oh. I think I will just head out with Aunt Susan. I need to do some shopping and I am not in the best head space to meet people.” Willa said as she emerged from the bathroom. Her face was still a little red and blotchy from crying and her eyes were still puffy, but clear. Willa hugged Robert again as she left his trailer and headed back towards the main gate to intercept Susan before she made it onto the lot.

Willa smiled as she spotted her Aunt and jogged over to the car. “Hello Aunt Susan” she said as she slid into the passenger seat. “Willabee. What’s going on sweetie? Robert texted me saying you were in town and having a tough time.” Susan Downey asked as she pulled out of the lot and headed for the mall.

“He cheated. I caught him.” Susan’s heart went out to her as her heart broke for the younger woman.

“Well we are on the way to the mall. Some retail therapy will do you some good.” Susan said as she pulled into a parking spot at the mall. Willa shrugged in response. She didn’t have the energy to think about it now. The pain was still to close to the surface, but the breakdown in Robert’s arms helped her feel less numb and more in control of her emotions.

They both got out and headed inside. Several hours later, they left with many bags of clothes, make-up, shoes, and accessories. “Thank god we are done. I wanna go to the house and crash. Thank you for paying for all of this. I will pay you back as soon as I can.” Willa said as they loaded all the bags into the car and headed out of the parking lot and to the house Robert was renting while filming.

“No need to pay us back. I was happy to do it. You needed this. Come on the kids are probably driving the babysitter nuts.” Susan said as they made it to the house and grabbed the bags from the backseat. Walking into the house Willa was attacked by a tiny terror holding a plush dinosaur.

“Hey buddy. You’re getting so big now.” she said as she picked little man up and headed further into the house looking for his baby sister. “Where is Princess?” Little man just pointed towards a door and smiled. He was still a little shy around her. He hadn’t seen her in about 6 months. Tickling his belly Willa set him down as she walked into the bedroom and grinned at the sleepy little girl sitting in her crib.

She was just finishing up a diaper change when Robert walked in looking for them both. He stopped short as he took in Willa holding his daughter and cuddling her close. She turned and smiled at him. “Dinner ready?”

“Yup Willabee. How’s princess doing?” He asked as he took the little girl from Willa and headed back down the hallway to the kitchen. It was a simple dinner of pizza and wine for the adults and water and pizza for the kids.

Willa cleaned up the kitchen and put the left over pizza away in the fridge while Susan and Robert bathed the kids and settled them into bed for the night. Heading into the living room sipping another glass of wine, Willa sat down and let her mind wonder back over the past few weeks and months to see if there was anything she could pinpoint as to why he would do what he did. Nothing came to mind. She just couldn’t see anything that would have caused all of this.

Finishing her glass of wine as Robert and Susan walked into the living room, Willa stood up and hugged both of them. “Thanks for letting me stay here. I am heading to bed. I am exhausted.”

“Of course Willabee. You are always welcome in our house. No matter where we are. Get some sleep. Tomorrow, we can talk about what you are going to do about everything.” Robert said as he hugged her tightly before letting Susan wrap her arms around her just as tightly before letting her walk away and up the stairs to her room.

They looked at each other knowing she wasn’t okay. No matter how well she was acting like it right now. Robert knew her break down that afternoon was just the tip of the iceberg of heartache and pain she was bottling up and ignoring. He just wondered when the dam would finally burst and how she would handle it once it did. She never did do well with letting people in. Would she let them help or would she push everyone away and pretend she was fine?

So many questions. So many ways this could go. Could she heal from a broken dream and a broken heart?

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 146

146

Keith had a whole new routine to learn. Anywhere between roughly 4am and 9am, the bathroom was dedicated to sole use by Lance. Coran took all the medical supplies he’d sent Lance to Cuba with, and sent them off with a fresh load. Fresh blood in the morning. Shower. Injection. Food. Blood. Nap. Nap some more if the first nap proved unsatisfactory. Wake up for a few hours. Let Lance clean the apartment. Convince Lance to take a break and watch a movie with him. Then Lance would get up again half way through. Wander around the apartment. Catch his boyfriend trying not to cry. Cuddle said boyfriend as Lance mostly admitted he didn’t know why he was crying. Coax Lance down for cuddles, have a few minutes of cuddles, then Lance would remember he was doing the washing or something that required his attention. More blood. Another injection. Food somewhere in there. Blood. Kosmo’s walk time for the group of them with no arguing allowed. Dinner. Blood bag while cuddling and attempting to rewatch whatever they’d been watching before. Bed. Sex. Clean up. Cuddles. Morning cuddles. He loved the cuddle bit as much as the sex bit... He’d fight anyone who didn’t think Lance was sin on legs.

Keith supposed he couldn’t call it a routine when it spanned two days. Lance insisted that Shiro and Curtis stay. Sometimes Keith had to fight Curtis for Lance’s attention as they’d both get into some show he just couldn’t and the pair would be crying as they finished each other’s sentences over whatever had happened. Shiro was getting better too. His arm still cast, Lance drawing a small bat, that looked like a burrito with a head and legs, when Shiro asked if he wanted to sign it. Keith secretly jealous because it was pretty cute.

Sent out to do food shopping with Shiro, Keith was the first to admit his heart wasn’t in it. Lance was fooling nobody as he sent the pair of them. Yeah, Keith really needed Shiro time and Shiro did only have one arm. Walking into his brother for his third time, Shiro raised an eyebrow at him

“Don’t give me that look”

“Did I give you a look?”

“I know you know that I know you did”

His brother chuckled at him

“Okay, maybe I did. But Lance is safe at home with Curtis”

“I know”

“Then...?”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

Shiro gave him a confused look, Keith sighing before continuing

“I mean. I don’t know how to help him. I don’t know if I am helping him. He lost his mum and I wasn’t there”

“Ah”

“Ah” didn’t give him the answer he was looking for

“That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“No. I mean. I don’t know what to say or do for him either. Krolia wants to see you both. Lance mentioned he’d picked up on her scent”

“I don’t know if waving my living mum in front of his face is the best idea”

“I think trying to protect him is only going to make things worse. You know how he is. He craves normality”

“He’s grieving”

“And we can’t take that pain from him. I know it’s not the happy reunion you planned”

“No. I was supposed to go home to both of them. I feel like I failed Mami”

Hugging him in the middle of the shopping isle, Shiro knew how to make a scene

“You didn’t fail either of them. I heard you crying the night before last. I know you want to help Lance, but I’m worried about you too, kiddo”

He was crying, but not for the reason Shiro thought. Lance had turned on him. Tickling him ruthlessly when he suggested Kosmo sleep on the floor

“I’m doing better than he is”

“I know you’re strong, but Mami... well, she was a hell of a woman. She instantly accepted you. Loved you. Helped you heal and let Krolia in. She was a big part of your life for the time you knew her. I know you’re taking things hard, but you guys don’t have to do it alone. I was relieved that Lance wanted us there”

Keith was shocked. Kind of annoyed, if he was being honest. He’d wanted to spend the few days at the apartment having some private time to talk and plan things

“Oop. I’ve stepped on a mine, haven’t I?”

“No. I mean. Yeah, but no. He stopped asking about Rome. I got kind of drunk in Cuba with Matt, and I know I told him something, but I can’t remember what”

“Matt called to tell me. He said you managed to embarrass him with your love for Lance”

Keith groaned, shoving Shiro off

“I decided it’d be a great time to start getting loud about how good Lance is in bed. I keep forgetting he’s like 18 years older than me. He just... he’s so cute”

“He looks a little older. Not much, but his face is a little thinner”

“Coran says it’s pregnancy related. Lance is... too okay with it. I mean, 27 years he spent looking 18”

“And now I’d say he looks about 21, 22 maybe”

“I know. I know Coran is the best man to be around with everything going on...”

“... but you’re trying to take on too much. We’re clueless with the baby thing”

Yeah. Pretty much. He got all the fun things. Enjoying Lance’s changing body. Belly rubs. Kissing the bump. Lance got the morning sickness and potential complications

“Rieva kind of said the same. I blew up at him for not telling me sooner... hence drinking with Matt”

Slinging his arm over Keith’s shoulder, Shiro used his broken arm so Keith couldn’t brush him off

“You had a human moment. I’m shocked. You let yourself feel... Where’s my brother?”

“Ha ha. Go fuck yourself”

“Aw, don’t be like that. Look. I’m proud of you. You’ve come a long way, and you’ve still got a long way to go. These things, they’re only temporary. Lance might not have any complications at all. And he might. I know you two tend to pull into each other when you’re hurting, but we’re all a team”

“Rieva’s decided we’re part of her pack”

“See. So what’s up? Other than us crashing your sex party”

A couple passing gave them both long stares. Keith could have murdered his brother, Keith pushing the shopping cart forward

“It’s not a sex party. It’s not even about the sex. Which is amazing, thanks for asking. It’s just that we haven’t had a chance to sit down and get things organised. Lance’s already three steps ahead. He’s updated his will. I need to do mine, but I guess I’m wondering what I even have to offer our kids”

“You have you. Your kids aren’t going to remember what they did and didn’t have. They’re going to remember that both their fathers loved them”

“Sometimes I feel like it would have been easier if it wasn’t twins... I feel horrible. I love both of them...”

Keith felt like the worst dad ever for considering it. He felt dirty and unworthy, when Lance was trying his hardest to keep things going smoothly. Shiro chuckling at him kind of stunned him. How could his brother not be taking this seriously?!

“You’ve got cold feet. Look. I can get a copy of your will from work. Coran’s got us both on leave until the first of March, and I’m free of this bad boy. You’ll have time to talk”

Oh... Maybe. He didn’t know how to be a dad. Shiro had learned along the way, but he’d been such an awkward and jaded teen...

Keith sighed. It seemed like they’d never be done with everything they needed to do on top of daily life

“I want to get this organised so it’s one less thing to worry about. Lance is packing himself about going back to Garrison. He needs Pidge and Hunk time, just the three of them. Matt and Rieva are almost always around. I can’t kick them out, even for a few hours. Then there’s the nursery. If we have it upstairs it’s more practical, but then there’s the worry of the stares. When Lance gets bigger, stairs... I don’t like stairs”

“Simple. If stairs are too much, you’ll stay at the apartment until the birth”

“But there’s sharp corners and baby proofing. Everything sharp is going to have to be locked away...”

His brother pulled him close, ruffling his hair

“You’ve got months until then”

Shiro didn’t get it. These were his kids. He’d already started looking up how to baby proof a house and Lance’s house really needed upgrading. June would be there before they knew it

“I want it all organised so we can relax and enjoy what time we have before the twins come”

“We’ll make a weekend of it. See. Problem solved”

A weekend?! This was more than locks on doors and putting the kitchen knives away

“Not “problem solved”, it hasn’t happened yet”

His brother laughed at him

“You’re so serious. Okay. We’ll tackle this like a mission plan. You start making a list of the things you think need to be done. Then, we’ll tackle them on the weekends and weekdays we have free until Lance pops”

That sounded logical. Keith wasn’t sure how to process something so logical

“Do we have enough time? I mean... Coran said he could go into labour early”

“Coran was trying to prepare you so you’d understand if something did happen. He wasn’t trying to freak you out, despite the bang up job he did. No wonder Lance has been so on edge. He doesn’t do well when he feels he’s letting everyone down”

Keith shook his head. Lance was feeling along the same lines he’d spent so many years feeling. The key difference was that they had each other now and Keith knew Lance would gradually settle once he was home again with Blue and the craziness that was their friends group. As Lance would say they needed to take things one step at a time

“He hasn’t let anyone down. He still loves all of us. He’s been trying to hard and he was alone too long. He’s messed up still, over Sendak. Part of me wonders if he thinks losing Mami was some kind of fucked up Karma”

“We both know he’d got PTS. The support system he has changed when he lost his mother. I can’t imagine his pain. Not after all he went through. But I can promise we’ll get it worked out”

Probably in six months time knowing their track record

“That’s dragging you guys in. You haven’t told me how things went with Coran”

“Coran is going to try summoning the demon now that it’s more corporeal. He says there’s a much better chance of banishment”

Keith stomped on Shiro’s foot. How could his brother not tell him. Shiro hopping on the spot, hissing out

“What was that for?!”

“That’s for not telling me. What does Curtis think? Pidge and the others work on this for months. Does Coran really think it’ll help?”

Sure, he’d been preoccupied, but this was massive. And massively awesome news!

“We don’t know yet and Curtis is still deciding. It’s up to him”

Ummm... What was there to decide? If it was safe and Curtis was going to be happier, it was kind of obvious Shiro should be dropping hints

“You’re his boyfriend”

“And he can be as stubborn as your boyfriend when he wants to be”

“So?! If it’s going to help, then he should go for it”

“It’s not that simple. It’d be like taking the vampire out of Lance. Curtis found acceptance as he is now. He’s not quite sure how to cope with the idea of being human again”

Oh. Yeah. Keith got it when Shiro put it like that. Curtis found life hard being forced to tell the truth. All his new friendships since coming to Platt had that key element

“Lance and I will support him. Lance is like best friends forever with him, and Matt, and Matt is far more annoying that Curtis”

“I’ll remember to tell him that”

Oh, Matthew Holt knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he knew and knew Keith knew he knew, and now Keith was getting confused and Matt wasn’t even there to laugh at him for his Matt induced confusion

“He knows. I think he delights in driving me slowly insane”

“He delights in driving everyone slowly insane”

“Except Rieva”

“She’s a perfect match for him. He did well falling for her”

Rieva was amazing. All their friends were amazing... and Rieva was so above Matt’s league

“He did. We wouldn’t have been able to bring down Zarkon and Honerva without her help”

“And she never would have learned about her parents without Lance winning Lotor over”

Ugh. Loturd could go suck a sewer pipe

“I never want to see Lotor again”

“Then I shouldn’t tell you he’s planning on moving to Platt?”

Taken by surprise, Keith managed to crash the cart into the shelving. Shiro cringing as cans fell into the cart

“What?!”

“Lotor is planning on moving to Platt, and helping here”

“He can help by fucking off”

Like he wanted Lotor near Lance, even with this change of heart thing he had going on

“He’s going to manage things in Europe. As much as it sucks, not everything can be dismantled with a click of the fingers now Honerva and Zarkon have been slain. As next in line, he has a lot to clear up. Acxa submitted an application to be join VOLTRON. Zethrid was mad as hell she missed stowing away in your luggage and seeing Lance again”

The what? Zethrid was very clingy... and very interesting in Lance... and him. It was kind of uncomfortable

“She can keep her paws off my boyfriend. They didn’t even help them escape earlier”

Nope. That particular memory didn’t leave Keith salty at all

“Enchanted chains. They couldn’t use magic. Lance probably didn’t know about it, because I didn’t even know about it. Apparently their blood lines are pretty unique, which was why Lotor was drawn to them”

What? Okay, the chains made sense seeing Lance and Lotor were both chained up and unable to break free

“When did you find this out?”

“We were in the same debriefings... How could you forget?!”

Because if it wasn’t to do with Lance, he hadn’t been paying that closer attention. But... like... he seriously didn’t remember hearing about this. Keith groaned at himself. Moving to clean up the mess he’d made in the cart

“I’m hopeless, aren’t I?”

“You were focused on being with Lance”

“Plus my idiot brother got his arm broken. And my idiot brother-in-law got his curse worsened”

“And you busted up your ribs. There was a lot going on”

“I know. I wish I could remember what I told Lance”

Shiro taunted him in a sing-song, instantly getting under Keith’s skin

“Probably how much you love him. And how much you want to kiss him. And marry him”

Ugh... some of that sounded painfully familiar. Huffing at his brother, he had no good retort

“Fuck off. You and Curtis are as bad”

“I can’t deny it. He gets me”

“You’re impossible!”

“And you’re Keith. Nice to meet you”

Letting out a frustrated growl, Keith gave up trying to straighten things up. His brother was impossible. Why did Shiro seem to have some kind of magic that settled something deep inside of him, then in the next instant he wanted to throttle him?! They were shopping for their trip back to Garrison, and he was taking his task seriously as Lance was craving chocolate. They were supposed to get in, get everything, and get out. Not cause a scene, crash a cart, and leave him seriously wondering how bad it would be to leave Shiro lost and wandering the supermarket aisles.

*

Click and collect was a wonderful thing. Lance and Curtis hatching a plan of their own that involved getting the two brothers out of the apartment. Lance knew he’d been up as down. Mostly down. Coran, and Krolia, were coming over for dinner, bringing back his things so he no longer had to use the laptop Coran had given for Cuba. He’d been looped into chat by Keith, but that wasn’t the same. He wanted to catch up on everything ahead of going back to Garrison.

Keith would have had a fit if he knew Lance went out. He was supposed to be resting. He’d done a lot of resting. A lot of letting Keith cuddle him, but now he was at the apartment he couldn’t seem to stop cleaning. The apartment gathered a lot of dust, airing and cleaning. Meal prep. Trying to be patient as Keith questioned what was in his injections. Vitamins. Obviously. He’d stressed everyone out enough, so he’d decided he wanted to make a fancy dinner. He wanted to thank them for being there during his flunk. He also wanted to take Keith to mami’s grave, but finding the right moment hadn’t been easy. Concentrating on feeling better and Keith had to come first.

He’d timed his click and collect to be picked up just after Shiro and Keith left, ordering everything the previous night when Keith was in the shower. He’d sent them for things for dessert, hoping the pair of them would struggle to find everything on the list, and be forced to spend some quality sibling time together.

Half an hour later Lance was back in the apartment. Curtis wore a hat to cover his small horns, but he clearly felt self conscious about them in public. Coran said he might be able to summon the demon out of Curtis and Curtis was struggling hard with that. Lots of cuddles with his friend made them both feel better. Lance wanted things to go well for Curtis so badly he could almost taste it. Curtis deserved so much happiness.

Placing the bags and boxes on the kitchen bench, Curtis’s ban had been lifted from the kitchen. Setting down the slow cooker, Curtis let out of a sigh of relief

“Are you sure you bought enough?”

“Yep. Keith really seemed to like Ropa Vieja in Cuba”

“I’ve never heard of it”

Not enough people had. Lance kind of realising he’d become monotonous with his cooking

“That’s because you hunters have no idea what good food is. He wanted me to teach him how to make it, but I think for tonight I’m going to go ahead and make it, and make sure he still likes it”

“Are you sure I should be making it with you? He won’t be upset?”

Probably. But it wasn’t like he was doing it traditionally, or how his Mami taught him

“Nah. I’ll teach him mami’s recipe over the stove top. Tonight I’m making it a little more mild to suit yours and Shiro’s taste. Are you still blowing up kitchen appliances?”

Curtis groaned

“Sometimes?”

“You can help slice the veggies then. Assuming you’re not going to cut your finger off”

Curtis rolled his eyes as he hip bumped him

“I’m not that bad. It’s Shiro you have to watch out for in the kitchen”

Lance chuckled. Keith had come a long way, but he still had a lot to learn

“I should book the three of you for a master class with Hunk. Hunk is the sunshine of my life, but mess up in the kitchen and he’s ruthless”

“I don’t believe it”

“You should. We had a disagreement over something once and it still haunts me to this day”

*

With the prep work going mostly smoothly, everything was in the slow cooker by the time Keith and Shiro came back. Evidence of Lance’s and Curtis’s little trip out hidden away, as much as it could be. The pair of them catching up on the soap operas that they’d missed, knowing neither of their boyfriends held any interest in them. Letting them in, Shiro had his arms full, Kosmo jumping off the sofa to race over to Keith, with a happy bark. Immediately interested in the bags of shopping Keith was carrying. There was more there than Lance remembered sending them out to buy

“Back!”

Kosmo happily ignored Keith. Trailing after the brothers as they headed into the kitchen. Shiro the first to comment

“Something smells good”

Engrossed in his show, Lance halfheartedly replied

“That’d be dinner”

“You’re making dinner, already?”

“Curtis helped. I don’t know how it’ll turn out”

Keith stood on tiptoe as he dumped the bags he was carrying on the bench

“You’re supposed to be taking it easy”

“I am. You guys picked the wrong time to come home. We’re just about to see who’s Carla’s baby daddy”

Curtis backed him up

“My money’s on Stephan. Lance thinks it Kris”

Shiro sounded bored of it all

“Riiiiight. So you two had a good time?”

Curtis answering his boyfriend

“Yep. We went out for a bit, and now Lance is about to be wrong”

There went the secret. Not that Shiro and Keith wouldn’t have figure it out when he told them what was for dinner. Grabbing the TV remote, Curtis hit pause

“What about you two? I didn’t think Lance had so many things on his list”

Keith mumbled, Lance turning his attention to his boyfriend. Downcast eyes, nervous weight shift...

“We got distracted”

Shocker right there. That was bound to happen when you left Shiro and Keith alone. Now Lance was curious, Shiro laughing as he ruffled Keith’s hair, Keith seeming to shrink back... there was something afoot here

“I think you’ll like the result. Keith, why don’t you take Lance and show him what you found”

“I can show him later”

“You could show him now. Curtis can help me unpack”

Keith grumbled, lifting three bags back off the bench

“I fucking hate you”

“You’ll thank me later. Of you two go”

[yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy]

Why So Jaded? Chapter 6

Let’s get complicated. 

Chapter 6

Buddy sent the message to not spring the gilded cage for any reason. Not yet anyway. He needed to secure the second bird first which is what he referred to Violet as and insisted that she was not a threat. And that meant that he had to get all the medical data for Violet’s medication because at this point he had developed a preventative medicine for Violet to take daily to keep the headaches from occurring in the first place. Like heartburn medication but for her brain. One of the downsides to the new meds was even though she took it daily and could still use her powers, she could only use them so much before she felt the headaches come back. But the more she took it and the less she used her powers, the better, like getting ahead of the curve instead of always chasing behind it. Buddy wanted to make sure that Phillip could never, ever hold this over her or use this against her to keep her with him. The other downside was the new meds were slightly toxic, but in small doses, she was ok and would build up a tolerance, but it meant she couldn’t overdose or speed up her own progression of the medicine. She had to stick to the regimen precisely. But it gave Buddy and the medical team time to come up with an alternative. But it would, in theory, cure her, however it would take years and Buddy feared what those toxins would do for her long term but it had been the best solution he could come up with so far.

He hoped and prayed that while they were in Vegas nothing would happen. Because if anything did, it would screw him over from ever breathing the outside air ever again for the next three years.

“Good morning Mr. Pine.” Violet greeted at 9:50 am when she came in to gather him and his things.

“Good morning Ms. Parr.” Buddy answered, damning himself for sweating like a stuck pig.

“Are you ok?” Violet asked.

“I’m just really nervous, I want everything to go well and I don’t want anything to go wrong because I want to be able to breathe outside air between now and three years from now.” Buddy confessed as he used a handkerchief to wipe his brow from the sweat that had accumulated there since the last time he wiped it only a few moments before.

“Alright, we got about two minutes before the others come, come with me.” Violet insisted as she put her tablet and her phone on the counter and took his hand and quickly led him into the apartment side of the space and into the bathroom before pulling him into the shower before putting up another forcefield around them to give them privacy since the shower doors were frosted for privacy.

“Buddy, you are worrying me with your worry. Do you have any reason to believe that anything would happen? That anyone, including yourself is in danger?” Violet pressed as she looked into his eyes both pleadingly yet determined.

“No, I have no reason to believe there’s sabotage or imposter-ing or an attack or anything like that. I’m just...I’m just scared. Cause if anything happens, I get put on lock down and I don’t want to lose the precious few freedoms I have, I don’t want to betray your trust.” Buddy professed as he stared right back into those magnificent violet eyes she had before her look softened and she dropped the forcefield and just hugged him which surprised him at first before he returned it just as tightly. Oh this was heaven. Just hugging her and holding her. She smelled amazing and the hug was so grounding and comforting to him. It’s exactly what he needed.

“It’s going to be ok Buddy. I’m nervous too. I don’t want anything to happen either. And if you say you don’t have a reason to suspect anything then I believe you and I trust you to tell me the truth. If you’ll be honest with me, I’ll be honest with you. Deal?” Violet murmured into the crux of his neck and shoulder.

“Deal.” Buddy answered as he realized that even though he was getting massages and not getting touch starved per say, he was starting to starve for her and now he really hoped that nothing bad would happen. He had her trust. That’s all that mattered. He had it and he needed to keep it. But all too soon she was pulling away from him and straightening up.

“We’ll be ok, you’ll see.” Violet sweetly assured him as she reached out and squeezed his hands with her own.

“Are you ready to leave Mr. Pine?” Violet asked, slipping back into her liaison voice once again.

“Yes.” He confirmed.

“Good, you look great by the way, the cream suit and baby blue shirt suits you very well, so handsome.” Violet praised as she then led them out of the bathroom with his hand still in hers as he looked from her to the mirror to see for himself, giving his reflection a smile because, she said he looked great, handsome even. But once they left the apartment side of the lab and the door opened, Violet quickly let go of Buddy’s hand and hastened her pace to quickly gather her tablet and her phone again before she also opened the watch box and put the watch on his wrist, using her thumb print to lock it into place before taking the pin and putting it on his lapel and then straightening up his other handkerchief that matched his tie that was in the breast pocket and straightened up his tie bar, tie and collar.

“There, picture perfect.” Violet smiled happily once she was done as the security detail gathered Buddy’s luggage and brought it down to the vehicle before another woman came into the room, dressed similarly to Violet. She was perhaps a little taller and more robust than Violet but very professional looking and had the same commanding presence that Violet had.

“Ms. Parr? Is the asset ready?” She asked.

“Yes he is. Mr. Pine, meet your handler. This is Veronica Andrews. Miss Andrews, this is Mr. Pine.” Violet introduced.

“Hello, pleasure to meet you.” She cordially greeted as she shook hands before Violet touched her phone with hers and had her touch the lock on Buddy’s wrist with her thumb print.

“You two are now tethered. Mr. Pine, the distance of your tethering will be adjusted according to Ms. Andrews’ preferences and specifications. Also Nelson, Leland, Soche and Pike will be your security detail. They all know your safety protocol. Ms. Andrews. If you would please state for the record what your safety protocol password is?” Violet urged.

“Pumpernickel.” Veronica answered with an amused grin.

“Mr. Pine?” Violet prompted.

“Shmoke.” Buddy said.

“Excellent, these passcodes will be used until we have a breach in security in which case- the passcodes will be changed. Ms. Andrews, do you relieve me?” Violet formally asked.

“I am relieving you Ms. Parr from Mr. Pine as an asset and am taking control of the asset.” Veronica confirmed.

“I am relieved. See you soon.” Violet bid them before Buddy was taken down to the street to get loaded into a car along with his luggage as Mr. Leland and Mr. Nelson took the drivers and passenger sides of the car, opening the doors for Buddy and Veronica while Violet took the helicopter to the airport to get Phillip squared away herself.

“How was he?” Phillip asked.

“He’s understandably nervous because he has realized that if any tiny little thing goes wrong, it’s his head that’s gonna roll. Who wouldn’t be at least a little anxious? Remember how I was the first time I was in charge of taking you anywhere?” Violet asked.

“Yeah you had six different escape routes for every street and stop light we would either go through or stop at, you had it in your head it was gonna be a 16 blocks kind of mission and you had every conceivable attack figured out and countermeasures taken. Half of my security team threatened to quit if they had to deal with you ever again.” Phillip huffed a laugh before taking another sip of his drink.

“Well he’s equally anxious as I was. I would think he’s gonna get an ulcer by the end of the weekend. Thankfully the only thing he’s responsible for is himself.” Violet mused.

“I still think we should test him.” Phillip said.

“And that’s not fair, to anyone.” Violet insisted.

“When is life fair?” Phillip returned and Violet had a feeling he was going to whether she agreed or not. But she knew full well that Phillip was determined and if he was going to do this. She was at least going to make it worth it.

“You want to make it a proper test and a proper bet?” Violet asked determinedly.

“Yes. If he fails the test. Another year will be added to his servitude.” Phillip began as Violet suddenly liked the sound of that term.

“A year is a fair term. Fine. If he passes. A year off. Breaking and entering for a white male is three to six months usually in the system- with no priors- or a year with. And you’re tripling the timeframe. So I say, when and if he passes. He will only be in your contracted servitude for two years instead of three.” Violet specified before she offered her phone and let her finger hover over the record button. “Do we have a deal?” Violet asked as she offered her hand for him to shake.

“Deal.” Phillip agreed and shook her hand before they repeated the terms and agreed to them on the recording just as Buddy’s car pulled into the lot and he was unloaded from the SUV and put on the plane with them as everyone’s luggage was loaded into the plane as Veronica directed where Buddy should sit, since she spent the entire way there dictating her own rules for her asset which were much stricter than Violet’s ever were but Buddy understood he would have to walk the line. But once he came aboard the jet, he didn’t like the smug grin Phillip had when Phillip looked at him- the way a wolf would look at a lamb but one look at Violet and her simple reassuring smile was enough for him as Phillip immediately set off getting the perfect trap for Buddy.

“Miss Andrews, a word.” Phillip urged her as he got up and straightened up as Veronica practically bounced out of her seat to go with him to the back of the plane as Buddy frowned in confusion after them but another reassuring smile from Violet helped his nerves from fraying completely but he did shoot her a text.

‘What’s going on?’ Buddy asked with a questioning glance to Violet.

‘Nothing you need to be worried about. You told me that I had no reason to be worried and if you are a man of your word, then I believe you and I trust you and I’ll take that leap of faith. So if I’m not worried, you don’t need to be either.’ Violet replied before Phil came back with the smuggest grin on his face as Veronica looked a little blushed herself with a giddy smile but sporting a new pair of very high tech glasses, the same kind of glasses Violet used when she needed to see what the naked eye never could which got Violet to humph as she decided to put on her own before both Veronica and Violet returned to a schooled stoic look before Phillip sat down next to Violet before Violet simply adjusted the angle of her phone in her hand so he could read the text before Phillip huffed a laugh and curled his lip derisively.

“You’re gonna fall on your face.” Phillip sneered lowly.

“We’ll see.” Violet maintained.

“But if she’s on high alert, I am too. Besides, since you’re so sure that he’s gonna run, I have to be ready to apprehend him and take him down don’t I?” Violet pointed out in a low murmur so no one else would hear the conversation which got Phillip to frown and grump himself and look sullenly out of his window as Violet gave Buddy a quick wink and another smile because she knew Phillip played dirty and tried to think of all the ways Phillip was going to sabotage Buddy and what countermeasures she was going to make to even the odds.

After the relatively short and uneventful flight to Vegas, Buddy happily checked into the nice suite that had been arranged for him which was coincidentally right across the hallway from the suite Violet and Phillip had gotten before Veronica put special sensors with hidden cameras all around the suite so that she would know exactly where he was within the room at all times but only told Buddy that it was sensors as Buddy’s gut was telling him that that’s not all they were as he warily stared at them but one of the rules was not to mess with the sensors so he simply unpacked and settled in as he crashed on the bed. He knew something was up. He just had to think of what it was and be ready for whatever it would be then his phone dinged as he picked it up to look at it and noticed it was a text from Violet, inviting him down to the pool and suddenly he felt like swimming as he messaged Veronica, asking if they could go down to the pool and to his delight- she confirmed and Buddy got dressed in his swim trunks and flip flops and waited until Veronica got him and was surprised she was also wearing a bathing suit and a bathrobe and just as they were about to leave Mr. Leland was opening the door for Violet who was just inside the room in her super suit before she hit a button on it and the suit itself vanished, leaving her bathing suit underneath it- the only thing visible on her body and it was Buddy’s turn to be blown away and awestruck and his mouth was suddenly dry before Violet lifted the bathrobe around her shoulders just as Phillip came out, wearing his own swim trunks and suddenly Buddy felt like a big fat hog next to a Greek god. Because Phillip was jacked. How was he supposed to compete with that? Why would Violet ever look at him with lust or desire when she had that at her fingertips? And just like that, his ego was hit and starting to deflate.

And once at the pool, it didn’t let up because once at the pool, Violet shrugged off her bathrobe and revealed she had the most kickass tattoo on the back of her left shoulder and the way that bikini hugged her body was a work of art and the way her amazing, curtain of ebony locks fell down her back before she brushed them to the side to braid her glorious mane under the cabana with Phillip. No wonder most people thought they were an item. He would have assumed as much.  And to see Phillip and Violet put sunscreen on each other while he struggled just to get enough on his own fair self before he burned to a crisp was tantamount to torture. He knew Phillip was flaunting her and his closeness with her in his face and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Need some help?” Veronica finally asked.

“Yes please. Thank you.” Buddy confirmed as he handed her the sunscreen as she dutifully applied it to him just as a seemingly drunk and tipsy girl came and sat down nearby who was happily sucking down her literal bucket of a cocktail.

“Oh my god you guys are such a cute couple!” She gushed in her very thick Long Island accent as she seemed to notice them.

“Oh, no, we’re not together.” Buddy quickly corrected her.

“Then why is she applying sunscreen? Is she your sister?” She asked as Buddy looked at her like she was crazy since Veronica was very clearly black as Veronica snorted a laugh.

“No…” Buddy slowly answered.

“Oh well what is she to you then? Is she a friend with benefits?” She continued to guess.

“No.” Buddy shook his head adamantly. 

“I’m his head of security.” Veronica finally stepped in which got the inebriated girl to gasp in delight.

“You are such a great guy to not only get a woman but a woman of color protect you! Affirmative action for the win!” She cheered.

“Why does she need to protect you? Are you like, super important that people want to hurt you? Are you Jeff Bezos?” She asked.

“No!” Buddy exclaimed as Veronica straight up laughed.

“He wishes. I think you’re going to be ok Mr. Pine,  I’m gonna get a drink.” Veronica decided and Buddy actually whimpered.

“No, no don’t leave me with the drunk girl.” Buddy pleaded but Veronica just laughed as she walked away as the drunk girl came and sat down facing him in the next sunchair.

“Mr. Pine, ooh so important, is it after pine like the tree? Do you own a lumberyard?” She asked.

“No, I don’t own a lumberyard, but yes pine like the pine tree.” Buddy answered as he stared after Veronica and even looked to see Nelson and Leland at a distance chatting with Veronica at the bar since Soche and Pike were in their rooms getting some sleep since they would be taking the night shift.

“Are you hungry? Do you want some nachos? Or do you want a drink? Oh do you want to try some of mine it’s so good!” She gushed as she offered it to him.

“No thanks, I don’t drink and swim.” Buddy tried to politely refuse, even though right at this moment, there was nothing he wanted more but Veronica had a very strict- you will only drink water- policy while she was his handler. Because water was best at showing whether or not your drink was tempered with. But if he absolutely insisted. He could have one social drink a day so Buddy was saving it for later in the evening.

“Are you here with someone? Like a bachelorette party or something?” Buddy tried to get rid of her.

“I like your watch, it’s so fancy.” She said as she grabbed his wrist and pulled it closer to her face so she could see it better.

“Hey, hey, hands off.” Buddy tried to shake her but she had an iron grip and she pulled him with surprising strength until he was leaned all the way over as she used her bucket drink to hide their faces.

“I’m a friend of Violet's, she asked me to keep an extra eye on you. Stay vigilant. That’s all I can say and don’t let anyone else get this close to you other than those who you explicitly trust and stare at any other girl other than her because her current asset is a piece of work and he’s not above punishing her for your offending gaze and vice versa.” She said quickly and in all seriousness, dropping the drunk act in a flash and fixing him with a look that cut him to the core before she slipped right back into the act and got up and pretended to stagger away.

“Well see you around Mr. Lumberyard!” She waived drunkenly just as Violet dove into the pool which got Buddy to turn his attention back to her just as Veronica returned with a drink and a bottle of water for Buddy.

“I thought Miss Drunk Girl stood a chance.” Veronica noticed as she sat in the sunchair and adjusted the umbrella to shade both of them.

“Drunk girls are never my type.” Buddy informed her.

“Good.” Veronica said simply.

“Mr. Sebastian has given the order that if you so wish- you can enjoy the company of a companion of the gender of your choice for a short while, if you’re interested, that’s why he pulled me aside on the plane.” Veronica offered. “They even have call girls whose specialty is to impersonate Super’s and they take requests.” Veronica tempted.

“No thanks.” Buddy firmly refused.

“Well that’s your call. It’s either going to be this weekend, or from what I understand, could be a long time before you get a chance to get laid again.” Veronica mused.

“We’re kind of out in public, could we not talk about such things in such a public setting?” Buddy requested.

“Well if you change your mind, do so sooner than later, because the process of me doing background checks and vetting those companions is a long process and your cut off is 10pm, doors locked, no one in or out which means I have to know by no later than 6pm.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna change my mind.” Buddy firmly told her because Drunk Girl’s warning was chilling his bones still. If Violet sent her, that meant that Violet knew something was up but couldn’t say anything and the drunk girl did good getting him alone to deliver that message.

She said ‘don’t let anyone you don’t trust get close’. She also told him that Phillip would punish Violet if his ‘gaze was offensive’. Which meant that Buddy couldn’t look at her much or often. All Buddy could do is sit back and fold his arms over his chest and think about this.

But hearing Violet squeal as Phillip played with her in the pool was too tempting of a sight. He was just picking her up and throwing her into the pool before jumping in nearby and chasing her under the water as she tried to get away as she was laughing hysterically from being chased, weaving around the little kids in the shallow end before he noticed paparazzi holding their cameras up and clicking pictures from over the fence.

Every picture they took of Violet could be a threat to her and her identity. Wasn’t she scrutinized enough? But for all he knew, Phillip had placed his own spy right next to him in Veronica and just as Buddy decided to come into the water, Phillip pulled himself and Violet out of the pool and back into the cabana and after a few laps around the pool and feeling his skin practically sizzle, Buddy decided he had enough torture and figured he’d be at least safe in his room, at least he could watch TV or something.

Violet was both relieved yet disappointed Buddy left the pool as she had to come to the realization why she was attracted to him. He was soft. And that wasn’t to say that was a bad thing or a weakness. He had been so comfortable and comforting to hug. While Phillip was sculpted beautifully, cuddling with him was like cuddling with a side of hanging beef. While she was sure Buddy was stronger, he was more function than aesthetic and had a nice ‘dad bod’ but without reminding her too much of her own dad. But who he was as a person, was more attractive than Phillip. Because he was kind, considerate and genuine. It wasn’t a head game all the time.

The next day was the first day of the Expo and Buddy had to keep his distance but thankfully could meet with his work associates and see his old friends and Veronica kept a respectful distance and still acted like his bodyguard and let him bend the rules of allowing to have a cocktail or two with his own friends and associates which she allowed.

“So tell me again, what kind of bet would you make that you would get into such a deal that you would have to live at SEB and work for Sebastian of all people?” Keith pressed since that was the “official story” was that Buddy and Phillip had had a big bet between them. If Buddy had won, Phillip would be working for him for three years, if Phillip won, Buddy would work for him for three years. And Buddy lost.

“High stakes poker. Very stupid bet.” Buddy answered.

“Well, you were never that good at cards.” Greg noted.

“But are you treated well at least?” Keith asked. 

“Oh yeah, like an honored guest, I get a whole floor of the building to myself, most of which is a whole lab with equipment I used to dream of using and then the rest is my own personal apartment, fully furnished. It even has its own gym and laundry facility and full kitchen. Which that in itself is worth millions, especially in the city, and especially in Metroville. And the views are amazing And it’s not like I’m completely cut off from the outside world, I’m here aren’t I? And I have my own security.” Buddy honestly appraised before Phillip arrived with Violet and every guy within sight seemed to become acutely aware that a goddess such as her was in their presence and the way Phillip held her close, like he would a girlfriend was almost challenging. But Violet was still in the glasses, scanning everyone in the room and finding any potential threats to herself, Phillip and Buddy even though Veronica was doing the same but she still smiled fondly as did he when their gazes locked before she forced herself to look away as Phillip took them to the bar and got them drinks.

“It’s like I forget Phillip has that knockout of an assistant every time I see him and then she appears next to him and reminds us of our own mortality.” Keith murmured as he gave Violet his own appreciative glance.

“She’d be an even bigger knockout without those glasses though.” Peter, a friend of Buddy’s appraised.

“I like them. They make her look even more sophisticated.” Buddy shrugged, careful with his words because he had a feeling everything was still being recorded and would be reported.

“Yeah but I hear he keeps her on a super short leash and she works 24/7. She never gets a day off. Is that what you're finding?” Greg asked Buddy.

“No, she's my liaison to Sebastian directly but I only see her Monday through Friday- 9-5. She gets weekends off and vacations like anyone else.” Buddy shrugged.

“But at least you get to see her that much. The rest of us only see her at the expos. What’s she like?” Keith pressed.

“Perfectly professional.” Buddy answered simply, figuring the less he said about her, the safer he would be.

“So she’s all business, well, looking like that, I would think she would have to be.” Greg mused.

“So enough about her, I haven’t seen you guys in what feels like forever, what’s going on? I want to hear what’s going on with you guys.” Buddy suggested before they continued and even got dinner and got to hit the casino a little before Violet and Phillip appeared in the same casino and once again, the attention turned to them as they went to the roulette table.

“Come on, let’s play some roulette.” Keith urged them before they all agreed and Buddy simply hung his head in defeat and followed his friends over to the table and stood on the other side of the table across from Violet and waited to see what Phillip and Violet would do as Violet looked at the game and everyone else around the table and Buddy could tell she was sizing everyone and everything up before she put a chip on the red two, the black three and the red four as Buddy followed and put his chips on hers in equal amounts while Phillip put his own chips on his own lucky numbers.

“Place your bets, place your bets.” The dealer offered as others did the same before he spun the wheel and Buddy wondered why Violet would choose these numbers.

Meanwhile Violet simply prayed to the universe to show her a sign of how long she would have to be in Phillip’s servitude.

“Two!” the dealer called as he gave Violet and Buddy their payouts as Violet blew out a breath of relief before she did the same thing again, only covering it up to five, hoping that the universe would tell her how long Buddy would be in servitude and Buddy was still matching her bets with his own as Phillip continued to do his own thing.

“Two again!” The dealer called out once the ball hit the 2 box and Violet seemed to be especially pleased and relieved before she took a leap of faith and put two chips on both the 25 slot and the 31 and that’s when Buddy realized the pattern. 2- how long she had the contract to work for Phillip, the second two was maybe a confirmation. But he knew Phillip was 25 and he was 31. She was asking who to bet on.

“Thirty one!” The dealer called out and Violet didn’t want to push her luck anymore and quit betting but Buddy simply put his own chips on 24 for the next round as he gave her a meaningful look as Violet was all too eager to see where the ball landed and even he could see Violet breathe heavier as the ball bounced around on the wheel as they shared a meaningful look.

“Twenty four.” The dealer called out and her smile was more precious than any bet’s payout. And after that, Buddy himself stopped playing, taking her own cue before Phillip tried once more, putting his own lucky numbers down but once again- it landed on any number than what Phillip chose before he finally gave up and went around to the other games, losing more and more money while every time Violet was near Buddy, he would do nothing but win as they all found themselves at a high stakes black jack table, only this time they were also joined by Xavier Fissured who was also Phillip’s and Buddy’s second fiercest rival and Violet had her own history with him, specifically his wife who was Ziva, who’s Super name was Razuva since she could control metal but could also conjure blades from the shadow realm and she had a penchant for making things razor sharp daggers and then throwing them at people. But while Violet had been on the Superhero side,  Ziva had been a neutral Super and never signed on with The Agency and instead had been hired as Xavier’s personal assistant and bodyguard and his one woman army. In fact it was because of Xavier’s relationship with Ziva that Phillip felt he needed to imitate it since Xavier had only been following in Buddy’s footsteps with Mirage or Natalia as he knew her. Only Xavier made his relationship with Ziva work flawlessly and it was because of Xavier’s success with Ziva by his side that Phillip was following Xavier’s example of getting his very own personal Super in Violet.

“Bartholomew, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without Natalia. Although I must say it’s been several years since I’ve seen either of you, where have you been hiding out lately?” Xavier asked as Ziva and Violet exchanged a meaningful look.

“Oh I’ve been around. But Natalia, she, she left me, she got married to Bill Willhouse about seven years ago.” Buddy answered.

“Yeah I did remember seeing that in the paper, don’t you remember me showing you that Dearest?” Ziva noted sweetly to Xavier.

“Oh yes, she has had two children since then right?” Xavier asked.

“Yes, little Billy, and Luca. Thankfully they take after Natalia more than Bill.” Ziva answered with a fond smile as Buddy was torn between feeling sorry for himself, feeling happy for Natalia yet wondering what Violet would be like as a mom while Phillip was looking at Violet and wondering the same thing.

“How are your own children doing Ziva? Are they here with you?” Violet asked, shifting the focus of the conversation for Buddy’s sake.

“They’re doing just fine, thank you for asking Violet, they're at home with the sitters, so it's a couple's retreat of a business trip for us this time. How’s your family doing? Being safe? I understand your littlest brother was almost kidnapped as an infant.” Ziva dug with a smug smirk with a side eye at Buddy as Buddy’s cheeks flushed as did Violet’s.

“Oh how awful. Who would dare steal an infant?” Keith asked.

“Oh I heard it was a Supervillain, Syndrome wasn’t it? But he died shortly after correct?” Xavier asked Violet.

“He did, his cape got caught in the air suction of a jet turbine. That’s why most Supers these days don’t wear capes anymore. Sure they look cool but functionally a hindrance. Of if they do wear capes it’s for press and public appearances only.” Violet answered. “But to answer your question, Jack is doing fine, he’s in the fifth grade now, he’s staying with Aunt Edna during spring break. Helping her design her winter line because Jack loves fashion, my parents think he’ll be the next Ralph Lauren.” Violet answered.

“Aww, that’s so nice and such a safe occupation. I love it when young ones find their calling early and really throw themselves into it, it shows drive and determination.” Xavier praised.

“Yeah, the problem is every time I get to visit home, he wants to dress me up constantly because I’m his only sister and the only one with enough patience to let him use me as a fashion doll. He actually made me the dress I’m wearing tonight.” Violet revealed as she looked down at it. “Wow, he’s very talented, because I was about to ask you where you got it because it’s beautiful, and it hugged you like it was custom made for you, I was about to ask if Edna had made it for you.” Ziva praised.

“And you have one other brother correct? The Olympian? Dash Parr, he’s always the fastest in all of his races, set some world records.” Xavier asked thoughtfully.

“Yep. He runs circles around everyone, that and he practically lives on a steady diet of White Lightning Energy drinks because his idol White Lightning himself, his walls are covered in posters of him.” Violet revealed and Buddy thought hard before realization dawned on him but one look of warning from Phillip and Violet had him keeping his revelation to himself before they were dealt again and Violet got twenty so she stayed where she was. While Phillip was at 17 while Buddy sat at 16 while Xavier was also at 20 while Ziva was at 19 herself. Phillip tapped on the table and got a six of clubs and was out. Buddy decided to go for broke and tapped the table, gesturing that he wanted another card.

“And it’s a five of spades. Black Jack.” The Dealer announced.

“Congratulations Mr. Pine.” Violet offered and even though she lost, she was content that at least Buddy won that hand.

But the very next hand Violet got 21 which made her happy to finally win one before the drunk girl returned. Thankfully less ‘inebriated’ than she was before and gasped when she recognized Buddy. But in reality had been shadowing all of them all night, but just outside of Buddy’s notice. “Mr. Lumberyard!” She exclaimed, her loud, thick Long Island accent cutting through the chatter like a bull horn which got Buddy to drop his shoulders in defeat and groan as Violet, Phillip, Xavier and Ziva all started snickering their laughter which soon infected the rest of the table.

“So what are we playing? Are we playing black jack?” She asked and Buddy had to reach out on both sides of himself to his friends and hold his friends in their seats to keep her from getting too close but she still pressed herself up to his back and Buddy sat as straight as he could to get away from her.  

“Miss, could you please give me some personal space?” Buddy requested, trying to remain polite. 

“Oh, sorry, otherwise your bodyguard over here will body slam me huh?” She said as she backed up just a smidge.

“No but you are still encroaching on Mr. Pine’s personal space, please back away Ma’am.” Veronica urged her as she moved her back even more.

“Ma’am is so formal, I’m Cindy! Oh is this seat open?” She offered her hand for Veronica to shake before Cindy got the last available seat.

“Oh my goodness so much energy at this table, it’s so magnetically charged. You Sir- I’ve never seen a truer neutral energy. You let good things come to you, work for what you truly want and let go what doesn’t work yet you find contentment easy, it’s why you’re so happy and the biggest reason for that is the lovely lady next to you. Is this your wife? She’s stunning. You compliment her so well. You know I can tell she has a razor sharp wit and just a sharp personality, you two, you two got it right, you’re gonna live happily ever after.” She appraised as she sat at the table and waived her hands gesturing to them as Xavier and Ziva smiled happily at each other.

“Cindy was it?” Ziva returned, trying to peg which Super she was because even if the accent was fake, Ziva felt like she knew her and Ziva simply closed her eyes before she saw three shadow figures behind Cindy and that’s when Ziva figured out ‘Cindy’ was Fates. Fates was also a neutral Super but completely independent and only popped up at seemingly random times before she disappeared again.

“Yes, Cindy is short for Cinderella, cause my mother is a big fan of Disney.” Cindy began.

“And what brings you to Vegas Cindy?” Ziva questioned.

“I’m here to see the Amazing Jonathan, he’s doing a special show this weekend.” Cindy answered.

“So are you like a psychic?” Phillip huffed a laugh.

“I am!” She confirmed as Violet just grinned more smugly as Ziva could only do the same.

“Now I can tell that there are three poles at this table, you sir, are the neutral, you sir are the positive one.” Cindy insisted as she gestured from Xavier to Buddy.

“Really?” Buddy asked. Not feeling that way at all.

“But you sir. Uh, so much dark negative energy, because you miss- you have slightly positive but still pretty neutral energy which means you’ll only compliment whoever you’re with, but not him, he is just sucking every scrap of positivity in your life. Is this your girlfriend? Not a wife, I’m not getting wife vibes. I sense so much unhappiness here. You guys are unevenly matched. It’s never gonna work. Honey, cut your losses, maybe get with Mr. Positivity over here, I get a feeling you’d fare better. In fact yes, my spirit guide Mama Momo, she’s telling me that you two have less than five years left in your relationship.” She insisted as she gestured between Phillip and Violet as Violet simply blinked in surprise but bit her lips to keep her smile from cracking her face in half and to keep herself from laughing in utter delight.

“I’m not his girlfriend, I’m his assistant.” Violet answered.

“Oh, thank God, because a romantic relationship between you is doomed. And you sir, the best advice I can give you is you better be changing your energy to more positive energy because once she’s gone, you’re going to have a hard time replacing her. You have been blessed to have her in your life. It took a lot of searching for you to find her and it’s taken so much to keep her but the more you try to lock her in and keep her with you, the more you lose her and drive her away. She is an emerald, a priceless gem with no compare. But you know the thing about emeralds? You drop a diamond, it bounces, but if you drop an emerald, they shatter, they’re more precious and rarer than diamonds, and they look so strong but they’re surprisingly so delicate and fragile and you are asking too much from her. When I look at you Ma’am, all I see is an emerald in a setting that’s too small and too tight. Not the setting for you Doll.” Cindy appraised.

“Hmm, interesting. So you said he was positive? What do you see when you look at him?” Violet asked as she nodded over to Buddy who looked a little alarmed at the prospect.

“Oh, Mister Positivity. He’s like one of those big strong giant trees, like a cedar or pine, he’s grown despite very difficult circumstances and he has turned so much beauty and wonder from his own pain, he’s growing in the mouth of a now dormant volcano, but it won’t erupt ever again, he’ll be safe, he’s hardy and has been pushed and battered by the weather and survived forest fires in the past and after every trial, the world sees him growing stronger because of the trial and learning to bend instead of breaking. And his roots are deep. He’s very nurturing, he’s creative and loves to see the things around him grow and why everything he seems to touch thrives and turns out so well. That’s why his friends find so much refuge with him. look at them, flocking to his sides and supporting him through thick and thin because they find shade and relief near him and sustenance and the birds of paradise find their roosts in his boughs. He’s not the prettiest tree in the forest but he’s the pillar of it, one of the original trailblazers. But I get the sense that something is trying to plant a fence around you to keep you from growing too big while you’ve been dormant for a few seasons. Which is ok, every tree has a dormant season and yours was just longer than you were used to, it scared you and pushed you to extremes, maybe a bad decision or two. But now that you’ve come out of your dormant stage and you’re growing again, you’ll break free of the fence faster than you think you will and you’ll consume the fence and turn it into something beautiful. Miss Emerald, you’d be better off with the tree than the sponge next to you.” She appraised.

“Too bad I’ve signed a noncompete then.” Violet answered with a knowing grin and a playful snap of her fingers in mock disappointment.  

“I’m sorry I’m a what?” Phillip asked Cindy.

“You’re a sponge, you know, like one of those ones you use to scrub your dishes. You’re a nice sponge but your rough side is rougher than the gravel of my driveway, but all you do is consume, it’s never enough for you. You don’t know how to give back or give as good as you get. All you do is consume resources and destroy anything you deem a mess. You’re useful. But you lack substance and you can’t hold the resources you acquire for nothing, like an oversaturated sponge, you poke it and it gushes before it soaks it up again. That’s why you keep consuming all you can. Even now, you can’t be happy for anyone else’s success but your own.” She answered before she went around the table appraising everyone else which was entertaining in itself as they continued to play black jack and the more Phillip played, the more he lost while Buddy and Violet kept winning, Xavier and Ziva simply sat and played a few rounds but were content being observers often trading off and once Phillip was out of chips, he just sat and sulked, and despite Violet’s own winning streak, she knew much more of this and Phillip was going to be a nightmare for the rest of the weekend.

“Ok, we better call it a night. Good night guys, see you tomorrow at the expo again.” Violet offered as she took her winnings and left the table with Phillip, getting her chips in higher values so she wouldn’t have to carry heaping handfuls of chips.

“Yeah, I’m gonna call it a night too.” Buddy insisted as he took his own winnings as well, he was then escorted to turn them in as Xavier and Ziva invited Cindy to do a proper reading on them in a more private setting.

“Would you like for me to call Miss Patrice for you this evening?” Violet offered to Phillip, hoping that would at least soothe his bruised ego if he got to play with some strings instead.

“Yes.” Phillip answered sullenly.

“Ok, do you want me to call Miss Julie too?” Violet offered.

“Yes.” Phillip answered, his tone of voice getting less and less sullen and more agreeable.

“Ok, let me turn these in real quick.” She offered before she stepped and turned in all her chips and got a thick wad of t100 dollar bills and put them into her purse before she noticed Buddy and his friends were all behind her, about to do the same, giving Buddy one last appreciative glance and adoring smile over her shoulder before escorting Phillip back to his room.

“Phillip Dear, stop thinking about what the psychic said, there is nothing about you that has ever been “spongy”.” Violet soothed.

“But she wasn’t wrong about you, you are a precious gem and you’re more fragile than you like to admit.” Phillip countered.

“She could have said that about any woman and been right. What woman doesn’t like to think of herself as a precious gem? Beautiful, valuable but delicate. And if she was really a psychic, she would have seen the fiery jet turbine and all the shrapnel that’s still embedded in Mr. Pine’s body when she was “reading” him.” Violet countered but could tell Phillip wasn’t convinced.

“She was playing to Mr. Pine’s ego, trying to get a private reading, which you heard her when she talked to Xavier and Ziva, a private reading with her was a grand, she was working us and everyone else at that table. She gave you bad reading so you’d get a paid one where she would change her tune. She had to paint someone as the low bar. And to paint Mr. Pine as the high bar- where everyone else could strive to reach it was one hell of a ply. What man doesn’t like to hear that he’s a great big tree with deep roots that all his friends like to flock to, that’s weathered storms and forest fires but he’s still standing tall and proud? Besides she was just a half drunk woman in a casino. Don’t let her words live in your head rent free. That space is too precious and valuable to let trash like her stay there.” Violet urged, feeling guilty for contradicting her friend’s words but she needed to keep her head and her job at the moment but she took Cindy’s words to heart while hoping that would snap Phillp out of this ‘petulant toddler’ phase he was in today and that finally seemed to work as Phillip seemed to be more resolved before Violet made that phone call to Miss Julie and Miss Patrice for the evening for Phillip.

However, when they made it up to the room, four ladies of the evening were waiting for them. Two of them, were obviously hardcore dominatrix queens who were draped in special cords for macramé and who were waiting outside Phillip’s room while the other two were dressed up as Supers, Violet stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the cheap- imitation of herself in her old red and black knock off version of her supersuit and she knew a Mirage knock off when she saw it and they were standing outside Buddy’s room before Phillip hooked his arm behind Violet’s back and brought her forward to their room with the smuggest smirk on his face.

“Let me get changed before you ladies get to work.” Violet offered to Patrice and Julie as she quickly got in the room and got changed into street clothes so she could go where she pleased for the evening and just as she was leaving Buddy was arriving before he himself stopped in his tracks as he stared in horrified shock.

“Miss Andrews, please tell me none of those women are for me because I distinctly remember not wanting any “company” for the late evening.” Buddy tried to say to Veronica as he turned to her as Violet paused as she put on her jacket on in her own doorway before she came over to Buddy.  

“Is there a problem Miss Andrews?”

“Yeah, uh, none of those girls are for me.” Buddy insisted as he was sure his cheeks were going to be permanently red.

“And I made no such arrangements for them either, are they a threat?” Veronica asked.

“Wait here.” Violet offered before she walked up to the “Supers” but gave Phillip’s direction a glare since he had already gone into the room.  

“Hi, Miss Patrice, Miss Juile, Mr. Sebastian will see you now.” She invited as she nodded over to the door before they walked into it, dragging their heavy bags on wheels where they kept the best toys and shut it behind them.

“So, what are your names ladies?” Violet asked the “Supers”. “I’m Invisigirl. And this is Mirage and we’re here to see Mr. Pine.” The first girl said as Violet had never seen a worse- black hair wig in her life.

“Ok, who called and arranged for you to come? Did you get a down payment? What was the credit card used?” Violet asked before the girls got their phones out and gave her the details and Violet did her best to keep her cool and if Phillip wasn’t about to get tied up and whipped, she would be doing so herself.

“Well it seems there is a bit of a mix-up ladies. You see, Mr. Pine has not ordered or authorized your visit and you have not been vetted because Mr. Pine is the kind of client that needs to have an extensive vetting process for everyone around him. Including anyone spending any private time with him. And what’s more is Mr. Pine was not expecting or anticipating your visit and is not willing or accepting of it either, which no offense to you, this was a prank by who requested your presence here tonight. So, there are two options for you. One is, you simply accept the down payment and go to your next client. Or the man who did make the arrangements can enjoy his gift himself and you can receive the other half of your payment for any and all services rendered to him instead.”  Violet offered as the girls looked at each other and shrugged.

“Two?” They decided.

“Then right this way.” Violet said as she then opened her room and led the way.

“Oh Phillip Darling.” Violet called out in a sickeningly sweet tone just as Miss Patrice and Miss Julie were already tying up Phillip who was already naked and ready.

“Mr. Pine is politely refusing your gift. So, instead of letting such a gift go to waste- it’s being returned to you. Ladies- Meet Phillip. Here’s the second half of your payment. You ladies have fun and maybe if Miss Julie and Miss Patrice are feeling generous, they’ll teach you a thing about macramé.” Violet offered.

‘Whip him hard ’ Violet mouthed to Julie and Patrice with a look as she also slipped them a few bills of her winnings as they started giggling as they finished slipping the blindfold over Phillip’s eyes.

“You ladies have fun, I’ll be back in an hour and a half.” Violet cooed before she turned and left the room, her shoes hitting the floor extra hard just in time to see Veronica getting Buddy secured for the night.

“Is Mr. Pine in bed yet?” Violet asked.

“Shouldn’t be. Ms. Parr, I had nothing to do with that, should I be looking into it?” Veronica insisted.

“I know. And no need, Phillip did it. He’s testing out weaknesses, as usual. You and your team were fine. I would like a word with Mr. Pine though.” Violet requested before Veronica opened Buddy’s door for her.

“Hey,” Violet greeted, seeing Buddy simply in his room, putting his winnings away into the room’s safe.

“Hey, listen I didn’t…” Buddy began.

“I know Buddy, I know. It’s ok. The way you handled that particular situation was perfect and that was Phillip’s stunt and there was no breach between yourself and your own security. If you are ever faced with a situation that isn’t right you turn to your handler and your security team. So bravo.” Violet reassured him as Buddy blew out a breath of relief.  

“You wouldn’t by any chance be tired or sleepy right now would you?” Violet asked.

“Not...particularly, I’m usually a night owl.” Buddy admitted.

“Would you want to go on a walk with me?” Violet asked hopefully.

“Is that allowed? Would Miss Andrews be ok with that?” Buddy asked as he paused.

“Yeah, all that needs to happen is for me to take temporary ownership of a different client while she takes ownership of mine for a while so I don't literally strangle him with macramé cords.” Violet answered through a gritted smile and a laugh that conveyed she was being serious.

“Yeah, let’s do it then.” Buddy insisted.

“Miss Andrews, I’m requesting a trade in assets so I don't endanger my own, just for the next two hours. Because they’re going to be an hour and a half and then if you could call housekeeping to change the linens and other things in the room when they're done, I would be much obliged.” Violet formally requested.

“You got it.” Veronica agreed.

“Oh and you’re going to hear a lot of noises, surely you can discern between BDSM noises and actual distress right?” Violet asked Veronica while Buddy did his best not to react too strongly to that and keep his snickering to a minimum.

“Of course.” Veronica nodded.

“Mr. Pine.” Violet invited as she took his arm but waived off the rest of the security.

“Get some sleep and some rest guys. We’ll be ok, I need the space from Mr. 2 Year Old right now.” Violet urged them before they nodded and stayed put and just as they got to the lobby, they saw the paparazzi hanging out which gave them both pause.

“Uh, isn’t there a hotel bar on the roof?” Buddy suggested.

“There is.” Violet realized before they went up to the roof and got a table in the farthest corner away from as many people as they could get.  

“So, what was that down there?” Buddy asked.

“A dirty trick.” Violet answered honestly.

“Pisses me off every time he pulls stunts like that. He was trying to see if one- you would disobey the protocol of having an unvetted person by your side. Your friends were ok because you previously knew them for a long time and trusted them and they posed no threat to you personally. Two- he was testing whether or not you still had feelings or leanings for either Mirage or if you had developed anything for myself which was an especially low blow, even for him. Third, he was out to just plain embarrass you because he has no shame. Fourth, he was giving you a catch 22 because on one hand, he “gifted” those girls and their services. So if you take the gift- he can prove you have “weaknesses” which he himself is guilty of, or if you refused- you’re being rude for not accepting a gift. And all I can do is say- I’m sorry. I’m sorry my boss has the maturity of a 2 year old and if I was not contractually obligated to him- I would have quit tonight and probably asked you for a job if my heart wasn’t so set on retirement and the noncompete wasn’t as long or as extensive as it is. Or better yet, I would have taken the largest horse cock dildo Julie always brings and shoved it up his ass without lube.” Violet spat with a snarl of her own as Buddy eagerly listened to her rant.

“Yeah but then you run the risk of the fucker enjoying it.” Buddy ventured which got Violet to crack a grin as he mirrored her as he was so pleased and relieved that Mr. Greek God had flaws that Violet hated. It gave him hope.

“Although if you would have quit and asked for job, I would have given you one, fuck that noncompete. Honestly I would give you anything you ask for. Problem is I’m kind of under house arrest, only my house is in an office building in the business sector and I’m not allowed out much.” Buddy appraised.

“You have another island compound that’s self sustainable, I could go there and just wait.” Violet shrugged.

“You are more than welcome to and you have my open invitation to do just that. But it’s still under construction. And not quite as big or as nice as the last one. And three years is an awfully long time to wait, especially for me. I’ll be honest, I’m not worth it.” Buddy admitted.

“Don’t sell yourself that short.” Violet returned with a playful grin as their drinks were brought to them as they pulled away to accept the drinks but soon had gravitated back together.  

“What would it take for you to break your contract with him?” Buddy asked curiously before Violet held up three fingers while she took a good long pull from her very strong drink.

“Pregnancy which is neigh impossible for reasons, my death, or his death, but if I fail to protect him from his untimely death within the parameters of the contract, then I don’t get my final payment but if I die in the line of duty, my family gets the final payment, no strings attached.” Violet answered.

“What’s your final payment? Or am I not allowed to even ask that?” Buddy asked as Violet debated whether or not to tell him before she went with her gut and gestured for him to get closer before they each leaned as far over as they could and thankfully because of the small table, they were practically nose to nose before Violet went to his ear and whispered it into his ear.

“A hundred million.” Violet breathed as Buddy guffawed like he had gotten sucker punched in the gut.

“Ok, now I gotta know, what’s the noncompete?” Buddy asked as they both leaned their elbows up on the table and held their chins in their hands, only a few mere inches between them and well within kissing distance.

“The noncompete is I can not be what I am for Phillip for anyone else, I can’t be a handler, an assistant, or part of a security detail for anyone in the same fields Phillip is in- which those are almost too numerous to number- for the next ten years.” Violet revealed, still keeping up their closeness and dropping her voice to a low murmur so that only Buddy could hear her.

“But you could be an advisor, or CEO or something like that.” Buddy tried to point out.

“Yeah... I’ll be perfectly honest with you Bud- after this job, the only way you’ll get me in an office is a bank- to cash a check. I never want to wear heels or pencil skirts and business jackets again unless I absolutely want to." Violet answered.

"Why do I get the feeling you're more of a barefoot, toes in the sand kind of person?" Buddy felt compelled to say.

"I don't know why your feeling is absolutely right." Violet confirmed with a bright smile before she giggled as Buddy laughed at the way she worded that.

"Oh my GAWD It's like you're psychic." Violet teased in her best Long Island accent and laughed so hard when Buddy let his head fall off his chin as he slumped onto the table with a whining, whimpering groan as Violet reached out and held his hand with hers which got him to sit up and once again mirror her body language and was happy when she didn't take her hand away, instead she started to trace the scars on his hand and Buddy simply let her do as she pleased because at this point any touch was welcome, if not sorely wanted.  

"I tried so hard not to laugh when she read Phillip as a wet sponge. I mean she was absolutely right and on point for all of it but jeeze. That was brutal." Buddy admitted.

"Oh I know right? God, do you have any idea how much I had to coddle him after that? She was a little too good and he pouts more than any toddler I know." Violet admitted with a scoff.

“But she did read you well, and me, and everyone else at the table. And she is very good at what she does. Almost like she is totally a real psychic.” Violet said, even though her tone was light and teasing, she was still being serious.

“So what are your plans for when your contract is up? Or can you not tell me or would you prefer not to answer at this time?” Violet asked, remembering that his watch still had a listening device and grateful he wasn’t wearing the pin at the moment because Veronica had taken it off back in the room and never put it back on as she gave the watch itself a meaningful glance.

“No it’s ok, honestly, just...business as usual. But definitely without any criminal elements or activity.” Buddy answered which got Violet to smile happily.

“Good, get on the straight and narrow and never get off of it.” Violet admonished.

“Will do.” Buddy confirmed as they took a moment to finish their drinks and order another one.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” Violet prodded.

“Ask away.” Buddy invited as he felt the alcohol completely relax himself and loosen his lips, he was liable to tell her anything and everything.

“Do you think that you’ll ever be able to move on romantically or was Natalia it for you or have you already moved on?” Violet asked in a low murmur.

“Well, until Xavier asked about her, I hadn’t thought about her in a while.” Buddy said before he figured now was a good moment in time to “slip” as he held up his hands to air quote and gave Violet a meaningful look and mouthed ‘for Phillip’ Buddy pointed to the watch.

“Although it’s eerie how similar you are to her and you remind me of her a lot. It’s like you are to Phillip, what she was to me.” Buddy said as Violet could only mouth 'thank you' to him.

“Where there’s a lot of truth in that actually and it’s because of your relationship with Natalia that inspired Xavier to get with Ziva because Ziva has special “gifts” similar to the gifts and talents that Natalia had and they ended up working out and clicking and having off the charts chemistry and fell in love or so she’s told me. And then Phillip wanted his own “gifted and talented” person by his side. Preferably female, preferably the best The Agency had to offer.” Violet revealed as she pulled his hands down and gave him a meaningful look to indicate she was being completely serious.

“The only problem was Phillip went through every other agent that The Agency had available and none of them could stand the gilded cage and quit in rapid succession and every time they tried to find a replacement, they just kept upping the price, trying to make the gilded cage more and more appealing. And the thing was is I had already walked away from The Agency at the time and I had gone into the wind and off the grid, like I only talked to my family through burn phones, because I was healing…” Violet began before emotion choked her voice.

“I was healing from all the horrible things I suffered previously and it was the only way I knew how to survive to keep myself from going supervillain myself. And it gave me perspective and it forced me to be a human being rather than just a Super.” Violet confessed in a very low, small voice that Buddy had to listen up for but it broke his heart all the same.

“And then Phillip gave The Agency an ultimatum, if he couldn’t have his own "Natalia" or “Ziva” rather, he wasn’t going to give them tech or do any business with them and he’d be looking for his own, on his own for a Super who wasn’t with The Agency and they couldn’t chance a villain getting to him and him ‘turning to the dark side’. And that’s when they searched high and low for me, they spent over a million dollars just to find me because I was the last resort and I was the last basket to put all the eggs in. And by that point I had healed just enough to be more or less- kinda, sorta, stable. But I had only healed to the ‘numb’ stage and the ‘I don’t give a fuck anymore’ stage and they both made me offers I couldn’t refuse. The Agency put up 25 million up front, as a "sign on bonus" and this first year I’ve collected an additional ten million, next year- I’ll collect 20 million, and the last year I’ll collect thirty million, just from The Agency, which they are a trillion dollar company, so it’s not like they didn’t have the money and my final payment with them once this contract is fulfilled is 75 million. And then Phillip, matched it and then some. Phillip gave me 50 million to sign on because I was “the best of the best of the best” which The Agency assured and insured that I was and of course he’s matching the increased pay gradient and then of course I got put into bodyguard boot camp for three months in addition to 'how to be an executive assistant and leadership’ courses. And that’s when Mirage got called and pulled back in and she and Ziva themselves trained me in this job. Which was difficult for Ziva because she was pregnant with her son at the time and Mirage had just had Luca. So that’s why I probably remind you of her, because I’m her protégé. I have been her protégé from the age of 16 till now. The last time we talked was a just a week ago when you became an asset and she had some really incredible insights on you, of course her information was a decade old but so far she’s been right on most of it.” Violet revealed.

“That...that explains everything.” Buddy had to realize. “So what has she been wrong about?” Buddy asked curiously.

“Your ego. It’s not nearly as massive and all encompassing as it was a decade ago. And instead of trying to make the world fit you and your vision, you’re the one doing what you can to accept and work with your current circumstances and your willingness to work with everyone else, and be a team player, especially with the medical personnel who actually really like you and I heard a rumor that once you’re done with SEB, if you’re going to stay in medicine, they’ll be sending you resumes because they haven't signed noncompetes. You’re also way less entitled than she said you were. Also the video that got me to see you for you, and to realize that things have changed, I had her watch it when we last spoke. She cried. Like she was sobbing. She was and is so proud of you for all the personal growth you’ve done and she made me promise to help you as much as I could. And I’ve been happy to do just that and then once she watched it, she had all kinds of insights and ideas. Like this outing- going to Vegas and seeing your friends, this was her idea and because it was her idea and because she vouched for you and me to Phillip that Phillip was ok with it. And it’s this aspect of my job that I, surprisingly, enjoy the most. Because with Phillip, I’m clearly babysitting. But with you, I’m just hanging out with a friend and it’s easy and such a welcome break because I feel like...I feel like I can just be Violet with you and I don’t constantly have to be Ms. Parr. If you catch my drift. And that’s only because you’re always just you. Both Natalia and Ziva showed me the importance of being a good mirror. So since you’re just you and you’re being genuine and honest and sincere with me. It’s easy and practically effortless for me to be the same. You’re my favorite part of the job and I’m really going to miss you when it’s all over. And it’s because of that that I am dreading so much the possibility of you breaking your own contract and trying to fly the coop earlier than you should because I don’t want to destroy one of the very few very good things in my life.” Violet professed as she wiped a stray tear from her eyes despite her faltering smile and Buddy both wanted to cry and hug her and kiss her and promise and swear his undying love and loyalty to her and only her for the rest of his life but he couldn't quite get the words past his own mouth.

“I don’t want you to destroy me either. And you are the single, greatest most amazing thing in my life too, at the moment, and you make all of this bearable and worth it. And it will be because of you and only you that I promise that I’ll never try to break free either. At least until your contract is up. Because that’s what friends should do. Help each other.” Buddy offered, damning his own cowardice for not confessing to more which got Violet to smile appreciatively.

“Deal.” Violet offered before she got a call on her phone.

“Yeah?” She answered.

“We have a problem.” Veronica offered.

“Oh for fuck’s sake what did Phillip do now?” Violet groaned in a whimpering whine.

“Cocaine.”  Veronica answered in all seriousness before Violet’s eyes snapped wide open.

“Fuck, I’ll be right there.” Violet said.

“Ok, I’m extending the tether by a thousand feet, that should be more than enough to get you back to your room, settle us up, I’ll pay you back for mine, I gotta go, Phillip’s high as a kite.” Violet quickly offered as she hopped off her high bar stool and left as Violet started jogging down to the elevator.

“Ok, what am I walking into?” Violet asked into the phone.

“He did about two and a half lines of coke off of Invisigirl’s ass.” Veronica answered.

“And?” Violet pressed.

“He thinks he can fly and was trying to leap off the balcony, but Julie and Patrice have him tied to the bed and currently the guards are restraining Mirage and Invisigirl to keep them from untying him because for some reason it’s like they’re brainwashed.” Veronica said.

“Ok, I’m in the elevator, Mr. Pine and myself were thankfully only at the hotel bar on the roof just getting a drink, so at least I didn’t go too far and he’s up there settling us up so I can come down and I extended the tether so he can come later. Fuck. I can’t leave Phillip alone for five minutes. We weren’t gone but what...27 minutes. Not even half an hour. I knew I should have gone through those protocols with them before I left. God fucking damnit!” Violet cursed herself angrily.

“Veronica, this isn’t on you, this on me, this was my lapse in judgement. I knew it was gonna bite me in the ass. At least we have the situation under control and stable right?” Violet furthered.

“We do, for now.” Veronica assured her.

“Good, I’ll get there as soon as the elevator gets me there.” Violet urged before she hung up.

Violet got to the floor and booked it to the room and quickly threw her stuff in a chair as she came over to Phillip who was writhing and trying to hump the air.

“What happened?” Violet put to Patrice.

“Invisigirl brought the MDMA, Mirage brought the coke- He did both in the bathroom when they were “cleaning up” for the second act, he took the MDMA first before we could stop him and when we heard them shushing each other, we knew something was up and we walked in on him snorting coke off Invisigirl’s ass, they had five lines, he did the first two lines and was halfway through the third. That’s when we got the others. I’m so sorry Ms. Parr, I thought they were…” Patrice tried to explain apologetically

“No, I didn’t clear them, I should have, I was too pissed at him and wanted him to suffer more than the usual, so this is on me. Thank you guys for interfering. You did the right thing. Veronica, please tell me you have Narcan.” Violet urged.

“It’s already administered.” Veronica offered.

“Thank God,” Violet murmured.

“Hey, Mirage- what happened?” Violet asked as she came over to her to try to get her side.

“We were just having a good time but Philly needs to fly, we have to untangle him, he needs to fly free!” The girl professed as she continued to struggle against the holds that Phillip’s other body guards had on her and Violet could only look sadly at her because MDMA and cocaine both intensified Phillip's powers and he was using his powers on them to get them to do what he wanted, the weaker the mind, the stronger the effect.

“Invisigirl? What happened.” Violet asked, hoping her mind was stronger.

“Philly paid for Mr. Pine to have the Hollywood treatment and if Mr. Pine didn’t want it, do it once he passed out. But since we couldn’t do it for Mr. Pine, Philly said he’d take it himself.” She answered and if Violet had been pissed before, she was livid now as her eyes once again burned a luminescent ultraviolet.

“How long ago did Philly order this?” Violet pressed.

“This morning.” Invisigirl answered before she noticed Violet’s eyes.

“Woah, are you a Super?” Invisigirl asked before Violet got up and stomped over to a bag she had in the closet.

“I need to secure the Supers in the chairs.” Violet ordered as she got the machine out of her bag and got it set up as the girls tried to fight the bodyguards who forced them into the chairs as Patrice and Julie helped tie them in the chairs before Violet used her device and erased the last 24 hours of their memories and knocked them out.

“Veronica, go down to the front desk, get a room for these two to stay the night in.” Violet urged before the now passed out girls were untied and put on the bed with Phillip who was starting to come down from his high.

“What about us?” Patrice asked as she gestured to Julie and herself as Violet got to her purse and pulled out a few more thousand dollars and handed it to each of them.

“As always, this never happened. Thank you so much for doing everything you did tonight and making sure this didn’t blow up in my face anymore than it did. I owe you ladies. Thank you so much for your services, they’re appreciated.” Violet thanked them before giving them each a hug.

“No problem, anything for you and Mr. Sebastian.” They mirrored as they finished getting redressed and packed their things up and left before Violet went over to Phillip who had finally fallen asleep before she went through untying him. Grateful she knew all these different knots and how to untie them before Veronica came back and was directing the body guards to pick up the other two girls and take them and their things to another room in the hotel just as Buddy was getting back and got to see the two girls being carried out as Phillip was moved to the couch just as housekeeping was coming to the clean and scrub the room of all the evidence as Violet put her device back and gathering the chord they used to tie them all up and threw it away with gloves as she paused when she saw Buddy looking into the room curiously as she came over to him.

“What happened in here?” Buddy murmured quietly.

“Both nothing yet, way too much, I’ll tell you when we get back to SEB, get to bed before anyone sees you snooping.” Violet urged him and once housekeeping was done, she uncloaked her super suit from under her clothes and pulled off a special device that looked like a small spider and put it on Phillip’s chest and pressed to turn it on.

“Scrub Phillip.” She ordered before it seemed to multiply as the nano technology began to clean Phillip from any contamination on the molecular level other than his own biome which had already been programed into it as they all roamed his body as Violet just shook her head as she got ready for bed herself and once it had finished, it chirped at her as it reorganized itself into it’s previous spider shape as she came and got it and put it back into her suit before Phillip’s body guards picked Phillip up and put him into bed before Violet tucked him in and bid everyone a good night before she put another special sensor on Phillip to make sure he didn’t die in the night before she retreated to the second bedroom in the room and went to bed.

Violet found herself on a beach, in a cabana, it felt Mediterranean to her before Buddy came into the cabana wearing just a pair of swim trunks carrying two drinks and passed one to her.

“Aw, thank you Mr. Pine.” Violet found herself saying as she eagerly took it from him.

“You’re welcome Mrs. Pine.” Buddy grinned before he kissed her sweetly and then settled in next to her on the daybed on the other side.

“What I miss?” Buddy asked.

“Nothing much, did you see the news?” Violet asked as she showed him her phone before Buddy whistled lowly.

“Yikes, wouldn’t want to be that guy.” Buddy appraised before he handed it back to her as Violet refocused on her phone to see a picture of Phillip and some blonde girl. It was a paparazzi picture of the two of them trying to get to their sports car as it was reported about a scandal and possible rumors of a divorce.

“Just think Honey, that could have been you.” Buddy teased her.

“Could have. Grateful it isn’t. Much happier right where I am and who I’m with.” Violet cooed as she cuddled into his side, happy to use his arm as her pillow before Buddy used the condensation from his drink to boop her nose, getting the tip of her nose wet which got them to giggle as Violet wiped it off on his chest before they settled back in as Buddy simply stroked her arm with his fingertips, savoring the silky softness of her bare skin as they simply laid there and relaxed.

Then the dream morphed and they were in bed and wrapped up in blankets and each other.

“Easy, easy, sunburn babe.” Buddy reminded her.

“Sorry.” Violet answered as she let up from clawing his back with her fingertips as he was already seated as far into her as he could get before he started up again and while Violet had had sex more times than she could count, this sex felt so much more sacred because it was heartfelt and created out of love instead of lust or boredom or anything like that. Just two in love people making love. And that’s all either of them could ask for.

[solivar]

WIP: Ghost Stories On Route 66

And this will be the last teaser for this chapter for Reasons.

The entrance to Terrifying Smoke Gabe’s sanctum (“Brooding Lair of Broodery.” “The desert is vast, Jack, and there are so many places I could hide your body.”) lay beneath a trapdoor at the very back of the Special Care Exotics greenhouse, easily the largest inside the hacienda’s walled compound, and by far the most oddly shaped: four geodesic dome segments joined together by short lengths of rounded corridor. The entrance vestibule was an actual airlock, secured by both biometric locks and a security keypad, and contained three spotlessly clean stainless steel tables and a half-dozen freestanding storage cabinets loaded with filtration masks and protective goggles, hazmat suits that wouldn’t look at all out of place in a CDC-run infectious disease laboratory, a whole rack of basic gardening tools lying cheek to jowl with test sample extraction equipment and air-tight storage containers.

Hanzo eyed the hazmat suits with a certain species of alarm welling up in the back of his mind. “We’re not going to need those, are we?”

“Nah, not right now.” Terrifying Smoke Gabe assured him, smooth and comforting. “We mostly keep them out of an abundance of caution -- one year we got a super pollination followed by a super bloom of one of the more...potent aphrodisiacs and the consequences were...Well. Okay. They weren’t exactly unexpected but they were kind of dire, especially when some of the pollen escaped containment.”

“We ran out of lubricants and anti-chafing cream and antibacterial ointment and also materials to make more.” Jack set the case he was carrying down on one of the tables and snapped it open, began screwing the components inside together. “Fortunately we managed to keep the effects isolated and cleaned up before we accidentally triggered a local baby boom.”

“And it also showed us we really, really needed to improve the the air filters and isolation protocols in some of the enclosures. Thus the suits. But unless you’ve got a noticeable plant allergy, you’re probably not even going to need a respirator.” Gabe flicked a glance past Hanzo’s shoulder. “You about ready, babe?”

The last few components slotted into place, resulting in what was unmistakably a slim, lightweight rifle, scope inclusive, each bit incised with glittering letters-that-weren’t-letters, including the magazine that Jack slapped into place, two more going into the pouches of the vest he was wearing. The last item he removed from the case was a visor, clear glass ending in connector leads that attached to the implants in his temples with a soft but audible click. “When you two are, pumpkin.”

“Do you think we’re going to need that?” Hanzo asked softly, gesturing at the gun, as Terrifying Smoke Gabe opened the inner door of the vestibule airlock.

“I know you’re familiar with Jesse’s exorcism rounds -- these are the same principle, higher muzzle velocity.” Oh so dryly. “And we might -- just might, but in this particular matter it’s significantly better to be safe than sorry. Trust me on this.”

The airlock cycled with a soft hiss of displaced air and Terrifying Smoke Gabe led the way, Hot Vampire Jack bringing up the rear, with Hanzo kept firmly between them as they made their way through greenhouse. The central corridor, to which they kept, was lined on each side in individualized habitat modules, clearly labeled with their inhabitants’ common use name and scientific designation and a list of entry rules and care requirements, all of which made him absolutely itch with the desire to stop and read and ask questions at considerable length, one that got harder and harder to resist the deeper they went, one he put aside for later only with extreme difficulty as they reached the geodesic dome at the far end of the structure. That dome was isolated from the rest of the greenhouse by a secondary airlock, biometrically sealed, and opened into a space completely dominated by, to Hanzo’s vast surprise, trees: trees whose roots were twined around a carefully landscaped environment of lichen-coated boulders and whose crowns brushed against the upper reaches of the dome, whose branches were weighted down with vines the thickness of a large man’s arm and as thin as embroidery floss, bright green against their denser, woodier cousins. Artificial waterfalls sheeted gently down the sides and in channels between several of the largest tree-and-boulder conglomerates, gathering in a collecting pool floored in smooth rounded stones to be refreshed and recycled back into the irrigation system, edged in beds of fern and moss.

The trapdoor lay in the very back of a recessed area deep enough and dark enough to be legitimately described as cavelike, right down to the occasional drip of water and the scuttling of unseen creatures that were almost probably bats. Gabe knelt and, for an instant, the edges of the trap flashed crimson at his knees, replaced by a warmer, flickering glow as he lifted the door, offering Hanzo a hand down the first few slightly damp steps. The stairway was claustrophobically narrow, barely wide enough for him to walk facing forward with one shoulder brushing a wall, Gabe and Jack having to take it sideways, the carved stone stairs themselves thankfully long and shallow and illuminated at regular intervals by tall, jarred candles set in niches.

“Most of the more heavily mined areas are up in the old state park, but this whole region is riddled with delvings -- some shallow, some deep. The oldest are more than a thousand years old,” Gabe’s voice, underground, took on a hollow echo as their descent continued. “This one’s deep and old and we’re reasonably sure it was only a mine in the loosest sense of the term.”

“What he’s saying is, it’s the archetypal example of the ancients delving too deep and breaking through to something that was mad, bad, and dangerous to find.” Jack added dryly. “Though the only such things down here right now are, well, us and have been for quite some time.”

The stairway ended, the base widening into a room just large enough to hold them all, its pale sandstone walls marked in pictograms, charcoal black and an astonishingly still vivid white and ochre of a shade disturbingly close to dried blood: humaniform figures, hunters wielding weapons, a masked figure holding a staff, a tangled mass of unnaturally slender bodies with too many limbs and too many teeth, ringed in bands of solar and lunar disks, lightning slashes, the triangular forms of mountains, all centered around the roughly triangular gap in the far wall, shockingly dark after the golden warmth of the stairs. The hair on the back of Hanzo’s neck shivered upright and a cold pulse throbbed in his chest and he knew, knew in his bones and his blood and to the depths of his soul that they were more than just decorative, even now.

“If you wish to stop,” Terrifying Smoke Gabe said, with an awful gentleness, “we need to do it here. Once we pass this point, we will be stepping between worlds, and the way back will not be as simple as walking through the door again.”

“No. I do not wish to stop. I must know -- it is the only way forward from here.” Hanzo took a steadying breath, Jack’s hand a warm comfort on his shoulder. “Lead the way.”

Gabe smiled, a slight curve of his lips, and slipped through the door, all-but vanishing into the dark beyond. Hanzo closed his eyes for a moment, breathed slow and deliberate, and stepped through, as well. The exposed skin of his face and hands and even his eyes prickled wildly as he took that step, the brand on his palm burning with the intensity of it, the thing beneath his breastbone pounding like a second heart -- and then he was through, half-stumbling on the rough, not-precisely-even floor beyond, and Jack was catching hold of his elbow to help keep him up. He leaned against that support, blinking away tears, as his breathing came back to normal and the pain in his chest faded back to normal.

The space they occupied was clearly not entirely natural -- the ceiling was too perfect a dome, the thick columns supporting it too perfectly spaced, the walls closest to the door visibly marked by the traces of tools. It was, Hanzo suspected, perfectly round, or close enough to it for the differences not to matter, an enormous circle whose far side was lost in shadow, with an inner circle sunken beneath the level of the floor, its sandstone walls perfectly smooth, unmarked, illuminated by a circle of candles surrounding a bowl, beaten silver and dark green stone. A cushion sat on each side of it, flat and rectangular, unpatterned.

“Step down,” Gabe’s voice seemed to come from everywhere, a hollow echo, Hanzo catchinging on the faintest glimpse of too many red eyes in the dark beyond the candlelight as he moved. “The circle waits for you.”

Hanzo shivered, sat on the edge of the depression, and slid down, crossed to the cushion closest to him and sank into seiza. Up close, he could see that the bowl held something -- a liquid, dark and gently fragrant. A moment later, Gabe poured over the edge, as well, his form more smoke than substance, the shadows of fur and feathers and membranous wings, a hundred pinpoints of crimson glittering in him, his hands only barely solid enough to hold the casket he carried and set down as quickly as he could. It was old, Hanzo could see that at a glance, the points and edges of its lid worn smooth, but its mother-of-pearl inlay and brass clasp and hinges were clearly, lovingly cared for by expert hands. It opened smoothly at his touch and from it he withdrew a tiny plate of white jade carved in the shape of a serpent coiling around itself, fangs sunk into its own tail, three sticks of incense, richly resinous even unlit, and a long, slender needle, its pale substance stained dark at the tip, the eye carved in the shape of a grinning death’s head. Hanzo exhaled a shuddering breath as he tasted the power rolling off that unassuming object, looked up, and froze.

Gabe’s face was also a pale death’s mask, an ivory skull-face over shifting shadows, his eyes gleaming crimson in the depths of their sockets, the whole shadowed by the cowl belling wide over his shoulders, the pall of smoke around him a cloak, a shroud. Even so, the corners of his mouth pulled back in a comforting smile and when he offered his free hand, palm up, Hanzo laid his own in it without hesitation.

“The guiding principle here is this: you are the question, and I am the answer.” Gabe’s voice still seemed to come from everywhere but his own mouth, a whispery susurrus of a thousand softer, different voices echoing after. “Your need guides my magic. What is your need, Shimada Hanzo? Why have you come into my house?”

“I seek the wisdom and counsel of my kinswoman, the warrior Shimada Tamiko, who may know the dangers of the past and the perils of the future.” He looked up and met those eerie eyes. “That is my need.”

A coil of living mist wound around his free hand, leaving behind the bone needle. “Three drops of your blood, no more, no less, is the price for what you ask.”

That same curl of mist placed the incense in its bowl, both sticks lighting and beginning to smolder without so much a flicker of fire. In his hand, the needle’s skull-carved head was cool and smooth, worn that way by the passage of countless other hands, and before he could think too deeply about what the was doing, he slid its bloodstain-darkened tip into the meat of his magic-scarred left palm, just below the thumb. Blood welled as he withdrew it, made three concentric rings in the surface of the offering-bowl’s contents as he let the drops fall. A smoky tendril whisked away the needle and a second brought the bowl to Gabe’s mouth, or where his mouth would be under normal circumstances, tilted it as he drank deeply, as their hands came together, resting back to palm on opposite sides of the candle ring.

Gabriel drew a deep, deep breath with a sound like wings rushing, wind howling through desolate places, and began to sing -- a song that held within it dozens, hundreds, thousands of voices, a song that slid into Hanzo’s mind and soul and flesh, drew his eyes closed as the breathed deep of the incense, sought the places inside him where his blood beat in time with a warrior long-lost, and he wordlessly allowed them passage. Icy pain lanced through his chest, pressed the breath from his lungs, even as Gabriel’s hands closed tight on his own, growing colder and colder until the ache of it sank into his bones. Hanzo opened his eyes as the quality of the light touching their lids changed, cooled, the candle flame between them washing from golden to blue as Gabriel’s form...changed, warped, twisted, writhed almost in pain even as his grip on Hanzo’s hands never faltered. The song changed, as well, thousands of voices becoming hundreds becoming dozens becoming one -- rough with unaccustomed use, deeper, singing in a language that Hanzo knew as well as his own breath, the halls of his family’s ancient home, the scent of the sakura blossoms in the spring and the falling maple leaves in the autumn. Gabriel’s shape collapsed in on itself, grew paler and paler, grew still. Armored -- iyozane dou, white as moonlight on snow, helm a snarling wolf’s head, stormcloud gray and silver fur gathered around the throat as a gorget, falling down the back as a cloak. Milk-pale braids tumbled from beneath that helm, some thick, some thin, at least a half-dozen, even as the face remained in shadow. The hands that gripped his own were small but strong, striped in callus, fingers tipped in claws.

“Tamiko-dono?” Hanzo asked, softly.

Her head tilted, wary, listening, and the candlelight fell across her face, her high cheekbones and sharp jaw, her golden eyes and the golden markings beneath them.

“You,” Tamiko’s voice, when she spoke, was as rough as when she sang, husky and darker than he expected. “You have come. At last you have come. Give me your name.”

“Hanzo,” He replied, softly, “I am Shimada Hanzo, Lady Tamiko. And I...I have many questions.”

Her head moved, a quick jerk, as she scented the air -- eyes narrowing as they fixed on something beyond his shoulder. “And that? He is not of the Clan.”

Hanzo dared a quick glance, found Jack standing almost deceptively relaxed, his weapon’s muzzle pointed toward the cavern’s floor, finger well away from the trigger, his visor glowing pale blue in the dark. “A friend -- he means no harm. He is here for my protection, and yours.”

“Protection?” Her gaze flicked back to him, her eyes narrowing still further. “Why would a son of the Clan require protection, from a mortal armed with mortal weapons? What --” She stopped, as her gaze roved over him, seemed to see him, truly, for the first time, and it was all he could do not to shrivel in shame where he knelt, only barely resisting the urge to bow his face to the floor despite the ring of candles. When she spoke again, her voice was a toneless rasp. “How long has it been?”

“Lady Tamiko --” Hanzo began, gently, only to be cut off by her wordless snarl.

“How long, Shimada Hanzo?”

“Many hundreds of years.” He replied, drawing a steadying breath as her eyes flashed, her lips peeled back from her teeth, sharp and long as the wolf whose pelt she wore. “At least five centuries.”

“Centuries.” Her eyes slid closed, her face a mask of despair. “And my Clan sends a half-fledged child to finish my task. Fools. Fools.”

“They did not send me.” Hanzo found the words falling off his tongue before he could stop them. “The Clan...they do not know that I am doing this. They did not know you were here, or what became of you, or why you came to this place.”

“What.” It was not quite a question, the tone so similar to his mother’s when she was not-really-asking that he had to repress a slightly hysterical giggle. “What do you mean?”

“Much has changed. The Clan has changed -- and much that we should not have forgotten has been lost.” The bitterness of that admission twisted his heart and his stomach. “Lady Tamiko -- I need your wisdom. I must know what happened, and how you came to be here, in this place. I beg this of you, for the lives of innocents that are at stake.”

Her beast-golden eyes caught his own and he found himself unable to look away, as transfixed as he had ever been by the ranger-who-was-probably-Coyote, and her chin dipped as she nodded slowly. “I came here on the hunt -- pursuing one who had betrayed the Clan and shed the blood of our own in murder, a kinslayer. His name was Shimada Kazutaka...but you, I think, may know him by another name.”

The icy thing in his chest throbbed and shuddered as she spoke its name, his stomach churned and it was all he could do to swallow it back down. “The Serpent-Wolf.”

“Yes.” A heavy weight of sorrow in that single word and he was shocked by the depths of the grief, of the guilt, in her eyes. “He was as near to me as a brother, once. We suckled at the same breast -- his mother was my mother’s sister, and they bore Kazutaka and I but a few weeks apart. Fever carried away my mother away, and her sister took me into her household to raise, that I would grow to protect the son who would one day lead the Clan, as she had been. And it was that way, all through our youth -- we learned statecraft and diplomacy, literature and music, the ways of the bow and the blade and the fist, side by side, that he might rule and I might advise him cannily, and be his sword where his silver tongue could not hold sway. He was clever that way, with his words and his intuition, his way of knowing what others thought and what they most desired, even as a young man, and I knew the ways of battle, of the hunt in dark places, my father’s blood telling in me. We...complemented one another, and the Lord and Lady I know hoped that we would choose to marry.” A ragged sigh. “Had he wished it, had he asked it of me, I would not have told him no. But he did not ask, and then we were summoned to the shrine. Our time had come, and we thought we were ready.”

She released his gaze, her own falling to the floor, the candlelight striking in the depths of her eyes. “Kazutaka and I both expected to be chosen by the dragons. Instead, the wolf mothers came to us both, chose us both, a thing they had never done before.”

Hanzo’s hand tightened convulsively around hers and her eyes flicked to his face, narrowing slightly, and it was all he could do to ask, strangled, as the blood pulsed in his head and the breath caught in his lungs, “The wolf mothers?”

“Sakuya and Tatsuya.” A trace of alarm crossed Lady Tamiko’s face. “The Okami -- the mates of Lord Minamikaze and Lord Kitakaze, the mothers of the Clan. They chose their champions, but not often, and only in times of dire need, and never from among Minamikaze’s line, never before the heir to the Clan. It was...a matter of much concern.” Her brow furrowed, a frown curling the corners of her mouth. “How much has the Clan forgotten that you, who bear their mark, does not know this?”

Hanzo could not breathe -- the part of him that remembered how was as frozen as the rest of him, as stunned, as utterly stilled by shock and empty of thought. He felt a laugh crawling up the back of his throat, sharp and spiky and more than a little hysterical, and it took all his strength to swallow it back down, to breathe, to not think. “Much. Very much. Lady...what happened?”

She gazed at him, steady and even, until he could not hold her gaze and looked away himself, blinking away tears. The grip on his hands gentled, ever so slightly. “The Clan was in an uproar. There was some talk of asking Kazutaka to step aside in favor of his brother -- particularly when Kazetatsu was chosen by the dragons less than a season later -- but he did not, and the elders subsided...but things were different afterwards. Between us, and within him, though I did not know how different until…”

A ragged breath. “Too late. Until it was too late. I allowed my love for him to blind me to what he was becoming, how the anger ate away his heart, how the jealousy poisoned and twisted his soul. And he hid it well -- he married, and fathered children, he ascended to the rulership of the Clan when his father retired, and to all eyes he governed well and wisely. He sent me away from Hanamura often, to hunt the rumors of great evils abroad in the land, to the find the purpose for which we had both been chosen -- and, I think, to hide what he was doing from my eyes, from the path that he had taken in the dark of his bitterness, of his belief that he had been denied what he truly deserved, the dragon-bond that should have been his birthright.” Her clawed thumb traced across his scarred palm. “He told me that he believed a darkness from beyond our world had come and he was...not wrong. What he did not say is that he was harboring it -- that he had knelt before it as a supplicant and begged its wisdom, learned the terrible things it taught.” She swallowed, a convulsive movement. “He used them to twist the essence of his own bondmate, the wolf companion of his soul, into a ravening monster. He used them to slay Kazetatsu, to consume his flesh and blood and soul and enslave Natsuokaze, his dragon, the only daughter of Lord Minamikaze. He used them to flee from me when I confronted him, to open a door to this place, where he could carve out a kingdom of horrors and no one would be able to stop him.”

“Why here?” Hanzo heard himself asking from a vast distance, pathetically grateful for whatever degree of shock was holding his voice steady. “Why this place?”

“He followed the path his teacher tread, as I followed his when I pursued him.” A faint, grim smile. “He could not conceal his tracks, now that I knew what he had become -- but it took me long, too long, to reach this place and by the time I did…” Her grip on his hands tightened again, claws drawing blood. “He was great in his power -- greater than I imagined possible when last I saw him, a monstrosity that had cast aside any illusion of humanity.” The horror of the memory shone in her eyes. “It took all my strength, all of my skill, to weaken him enough to strike a killing blow with the sword I had sworn would be his ending -- and, when I did, he did not die. He did not die, and he struck me down, and as I lay bleeding my life on the sands, he mocked me with the knowledge that I could never have slain him, for his life was no longer married to his flesh but bound apart where none would ever find it. But he was wrong.” The tips of her fangs flashed in the candlelight. “My wolf found the god-seed he had corrupted with his power, the thing that held his life, and bore it away -- his black heart, without which he is not nor can ever be whole. He raged, oh how he raged, but he could not prevent my Hoshi from escaping -- but he could bind me, and did, to the place where we fought, where my bones lie still beneath the sands. And he, wounded with many wounds and weak, crawled away into his witch-home, taking the sword that will be his death with him.”

“I will find you bones and return them to the Clan, and tell them the story of what became of you.” Hanzo promised softly. “I will...finish what you began. I --”

“I know that you will, wolf-child.” And for the first time she lifted her hand away from his own, to rest it against his chest. “For you carry within you his heart, and you need only the blade, blessed by Minamikaze and Kitakaze, Sakuya and Tatsuya, to break his magic and end him forever.”

“...I…” Hanzo dragged a painful breath through the ice cold rage and hate and terror throbbing in his chest, “I give you my word.”

“Thank you, blood of my blood. I will await your coming.” She gathered both his hands in hers, bowed deeply over them, and he scrambled to catch Terrifying Smoke Gabe as her presence withdrew, more swiftly and suddenly than it had come, tumbling them both sideways away from the candles, Gabe’s arms closed tight around him, both of them trembling, for different reasons.

[ameryth74]

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Two letter words:

There are 107 acceptable 2-letter words listed in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 6th Edition and the Official Tournament and Club Word List:

AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI, AL, AM, AN, AR, AS, AT, AW, AX, AY, BA, BE, BI, BO, BY, DA, DE, DO, ED, EF, EH, EL, EM, EN, ER, ES, ET, EW, EX, FA, FE, GI, GO, HA, HE, HI, HO, ID, IF, IN, IS, IT, JO, JU, JY, JZ, KA, KI, KO, LA, LI, LO, MA, ME, MI, MM, MO, MU, MY, NA, NE, NO, NU, OD, OE, OF, OH, OI, OK, OM, ON, OP, OR, OS, OW, OX, PA, PE, PI, PO, QI, RE, SH, SI, SO, TA, TE, TI, TO, UH, UM, UN, UP, US, UT, WE, WO, XI, XU, YA, YE, YO, ZA

Two letter contractions: I’m, I’d

Four letter verbs:

abet, abut, abye/aby, ache, alit, ally, ante, arch, aver, avow (10).

baby,  bach, back, bade, baff, bail, bait, bake, bald, bale, balk, ball, band, bang, bank, bant, barb, bard, bare, barf, bark, base, bash, bask, bate, bath, bauk, bawl, bead, beam, bean, bear,    beat, beck, bede, beef, been, beep, bell, belt, bend, bent, bere, best, bias, bide(archaic usage), biff, bike, bilk, bill, bind, bird, birl, birr, bite, bitt, blab, blat, blaw, bled, blet, blew, blip, blob, blot, blow, blub, blue, blur, boak, boat, bode, body, boff(vulgar usage), boil, boke, bomb, bond, bone, bong, bonk, boob, book, boom, boot, bore, born, boss, boun, bowl, brad, brag, bray, bred, brew, brim, buck, buff, bulk, bull, bump, bung, bunk, bunt, buoy, burl, burn, burp, burr, bury, bush, busk, buss, bust, busy, butt, buzz (117).

ca-ca, cage, cake, calk, call, calm, came, camp, cane, cant, card, care, carp, cart, case, cash, cast, cave, cede, cere, chap, char, chat, chaw, chid, chin, chip, chop, chow, chug, chum, cite, clad, clam, clap, claw, clay, clew, clip, clog, clop, clot, cloy, club, clue, coal, coat, coax, cock, code, coif, coil, coin, coke, comb, come, comp, cone, conk, conn, cook, cool, coop, cope, copy, cord, core, cork, corn, cosh, cost, coup, cove, cowl, crab, cram, crap, crew, crib, crop, crow, cube, cuff, cull, curb, curd, cure, curl, curr, cuss (90).

dado, daff, damn, damp, dang, dare, dark, darn, dart, dash, date, daub, dawn, daze, deal, deck, deed, deem, defy, deke, dele, demo, dent, deny, dial, dice, died, diet, dike, dine, ding, ding, dint, dirk, disc, dish, disk, diss, dive, dock, doff, dole, dome, done, doom, dope, dose, doss, dote, dove, down, doze, drab, drag, draw, dray, dree, drew, drip, drop, drub, drug, drum, duck, duel, duet, dull, dumb, dump, dung, dunk, dupe, dusk, dust, dyke (75).

earn, ease, echo, eddy, edge, edit, emit, envy, espy, etch, even, exit (12).

face, fade, fail, fake, fall, fame, fard, fare, farm, fart, fash, fast, fate, fawn, faze, fear, feed, feel, fell, felt, fend, fess, fete, feud, file, fill, film, find, fine, fink, fire, firm, fish, fist, fizz, flag, flap, flat, flaw, flay, fled, flee, flew, flex, flip, flit, flog, flop, flow, flub, flux, foal, foam, foil, foin, fold, fond, fool, foot, ford, fork, form, foul, fowl, frag, frap, fray, free, fret, frig, frit, fuel, full, fume, fund, funk, furl, fuse, fuss, futz, fuze, fuzz (82).

gaff, gage, gain, gait, gall, game, gang, gaol, gape, garb, gash, gasp, gast(obsolete), gate, gaum(US), gave, gawk, gawp, gaze, gear, geld, gibe, gift, gild, gill, gimp, gird, girt, give, glad(archaic), glom, glow, glue, glug, glut, gnar, gnaw, go by, go on, goad, golf, gone, gong, goof, gore, gown, grab, gray, grew, grey, grid, grin, grip, grit, grow, grub, gulf, gull, gulp, gush, gust, gybe, gyre, gyve (64).

hack, haft, hail, hale, halo, halt, hand, hang, hare, hark, harm, harp, hash, hasp, hast, hate, hath(archaic), haul, have, hawk, haze, head, heal, heap, hear, heat, heed, heel, heft, held, helm, help, hent(obsolete), herd, hewn, hide, hike, hill, hint, hire, hiss, hive, hoax, hock, hoke(slang), hold, hole, home, hone, honk, hood, hoof, hook, hoop, hoot, hope, horn, hose, host, hove, howl, huff, hulk, hull, hump, hung, hunt, hurl, hurt, hush, husk, hymn, hype, hypo (74).

idle, inch, iris, iron, isle, itch (6).

jack, jade, jail, jape, jazz, jeep, jeer, jell, jerk, jest, jibe, jilt, jink, jinx, jive, join, joke, jolt, josh, juke, jump, junk (22).

kayo, keek(Scots), keel, keen, keep, kept, kern, kick, kill, kiln, kilt, kink, kiss, kite, knap, knew, knit, knot, know (19).

lace, lack, laid, lain, lair, lake, lamb, lame, land, lard, lark, lase, lash, last, lath, laud, lave, laze, lazy, lead, leaf, leak, lean, leap, lech, leer, left, lend, lens, lent, levy, lick, lift, like, lilt, limb, lime, limn, limp, line, link, lisp, list, live, load, loaf, loan, lock, loft, loll, long, look, loom, loop, loot, lope, lord, lose, lost, loup(Scots), lour, lout, love, lube, luck, luff, luge, lull, lump, lure, lurk, lust, lute, lyse (74).

mace, made, mail, maim, make, mall, malt, mark, marl, mart, mash, mask, mass, mast, mate, maul, maze, mean, meet, meld, mell, melt, mend, meow, mesh, mess, mete, mewl, miff, milk, mill, mime, mind, mine, mint, mire, miss, mist, moan, moat, mock, moil, mold, molt, moon, moor, moot, mope, moss, move, muck, muff, mull, mump, muse, mush, muss, must, mute (59).

nail, name, near, neck, need, nest, nick, nigh, nill(obsolete), nock, nose, nosh, note, nuke, null, numb (16).

obey, ogle, oink, okay, omen, omit, ooze, open, oust, over (10).

pace, pack, page, pain, pair, pale, pall, palm, pang, pant, pare, park, part, pash(Austral), pass, pave, pawn, peak, peal, peck, peek, peel, peen, peep, peer, pelt, pend, perk, perm, pick, pike, pile, pill, pimp, pine, ping, pink, pipe, piss(vulgar), pith, pity, plan, plat, play, plod, plop, plot, plow, plug, pock, poke, pole, poll, pond, pool, pore, port, pose, post, pour, pout, pray, pree, prep, prey, prim, prod, prog, prop, puff, puke, pule, pull, pulp, pump, punt, purl, purr, push, putt (80).

quad, quip, quit, quiz (4).

race, rack, raft, rage, raid, rail, rain, rake, ramp, rang, rank, rant, rape, rase, rasp, rate, rave, raze, razz, read, ream, reap, rear, reck, redd(dialect), rede(archaic), redo, reed, reef, reek, reel, rein, rely, rend, rent, rest, re-up, rice, rick, ride, riff, rift, rile, rill, rime(archaic)/rhyme, ring, riot, rise, risk, rive, roam, roar, robe, rock, rode, roil, rolf, roll, romp, roof, rook, room, root, rope, rose, rout, rove, ruck, ruff, ruin, rule, rush, rust (73).

sack, said, sail, sale, salt, sand, sass, sate, save, sawn, scab, scam, scan, scar, scat, scud, scum, seal, seam, sear, seat, seed, seek, seel, seem, seen, seep, sell, send, sent, sewn, shag, sham, shed, shim, shin, ship, shit, shoe, shog, shoo, shop, shot, show, shun, shut, sick, side, sift, sigh, sign, silk, silt, sing, sink, sire, site, size, skew, skid, skim, skin, skip, slab, slag, slam, slap, slat, slay, sled, slew, slid, slim, slip, slit, slog, slop, slot, slow, slub, slue, slug, slum, slur, smut, snag, snap, snip, snow, snub, snug, soak, soap, soar, sock, soil, sold, sole, solo, soot, sorb, sort, soup, sour, sown, spae(scottish), spam, span, spar, spat, spay, spec, sped, spew, spin, spit, spot, spud, spur, spurn, stab, stag, star, stay, stem, step, stet, stew, stir, stop, stow, stub, stud, stun, suck, suds, suit, sulk, sung, sunk, surf, swab, swag, swam, swan(brit), swap, swat, sway, swig, swim, swob, swop(brit)/swap, swot, swum, sync (155).

tabu, tack, tail, take, talc, talk, tame, tamp, tang, tank, tape, tare, task, taut, taxi, team, tear, teem, tell, tend, tent, term, test, text, thaw, thin, thud, tick, tide, tidy, tier, tiff, tile, till, tilt, time, tine, ting, tint, tire, toil, toke, told, tole, toll, tomb, tone, tong, took, tool, toot, tope, tore, torn, toss, tote, tour, tout, tram, trap, tree, trek, trim, trip, trod, trot, trow(archaic), true, tube, tuck, tuft, tune, turf, turn, tusk, twig(Brit), twin, twit, type (79).

undo, urge (2).

vade, vail(archaic), vamp, vary, veal, veer, veil, vein, vend, vent, vest, veto, vide, view, vine, visa, vise, void, vote (19).

wade, waft, wage, wail, wait, wake, wale, walk, wall, wane, want, ward, ware(archaic), warm, warn, warp, wash, waul, wave, wawl, wean, wear, weed, ween, weep, weet, weld, well, welt, wend, went, wept, were, wert(archaic), wham, whap, whet, whid(Scottish), whip, whir, whiz, whop, wick, wile, will, wilt, wind, wine, wing, wink, wipe, wire, wise, wish, wisp, wist, wite, wive, woke, wolf, wont, wood, woof, word, wore, work, worm, worn, wove, wrap, writ(archaic) (71).

x-ray (1).

yack, yank, yard, yarn, yaup, yawn, yawp, yean, yell, yelp, yerk, yeuk, yock, yoke, yowl, yo-yo(informal), yuck (17).

zero, zest, zinc, zing, zone, zonk, zoom (7).

IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT IT

(yes there are 28 ITs)