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spctrsgf · 1 year

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mi luz

based off of this comment i wrote on tiktok: “he looks like he could use a hug and a shoulder to cry on.”

word count: 2.2k

warnings: nonspidey!reader, language, hurt to comfort fic (miguel needs a break. like a sabbatical or something)

a/n: ngl, i'm not too happy with how this turned out, probably because i wrote it all on a plane and it's not beta read, but i need more soft miguel fics in my life!!!

He’s tired.

He’s tired and he’s missing you. The boring, monotonous walls of his office harshly remind him of his place, the jubilant orange glow of his monitors tell him of just how much more work he’s got left before he can finally retire to your world.

Lyla, lounging atop one of his screens, watches him and his glossed over eyes, knowing exactly what the lazy flick of his fingers meant. She sighs, glitching over to bring one of his screens forward. “Miguel!” She yells, scaring the poor man out of his thoughts and momentarily extending his claws. “Lyla, what the fu- what the hell?” He growls, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“No kids are here, you don’t have to keep it PG.”

“Whatever.”

“Look, you got work to do, and if you don’t finish it soon, it'll be too late to get in some quality time with this lovely human,” she shoves the digitized photo of you up and into his face. “Before your next mission.”

He sighs, knowing she was right.

“Daydreaming about it isn’t gonna get you there any quicker,” she flickers to be right in front of his face, slapping a hand onto his nose as if she could actually touch him. “GET YOUR SHIT DONE.”

“Fine, fine! Get out of my face.” He grumbles the second sentence, swatting her away and strolling back up to his screens. His eyes catch on your photo, and he reaches to enlarge it in front of him, but—

“No,” Lyla dissipates the photo before he can even get to it, face twisted in disappointment. “No. Not until you finish working.”

“Hey! Who’s the boss here?”

“Me. Now work.” Lyla glitches out of view with a triumphant huff.

He huffs dramatically, pouting as he pulls himself together. He lets his emotions drop from his face and slides into his stoic mask, resuming the work on his screen. It’s hypnotizing as soon as he gets into it; Lyla must’ve done something to keep him focused, he supposes. She always does have a trick up her sleeve.

In what feels like no time at all, he’s done with his work. With a final, defiant tap to close down his screens, he spins on his heel, ready to leave and go home. Ready to hop in through your window— as much as you hate when he does that— and rest his head atop yours, caging you into where you’re surely stirring something on the stove.

But as he turns, he’s face to face with none other than Hobart Brown. A look to the left reveals his partners in crime; and Miguel knows he’s in for a ride. At least a ten minute detour, as it always is with the four of them.

“What?” His hands come to rest on his hips naturally, trying to become bigger to them as if it would make the next words out of their mouth more blunt and less angering. “We have a slight problem—” Gwen starts, before Pav butts in.

“It's not slight. It’s a pretty big deal!”

“Mate,” Hobie huffs. “That’s not helpful.”

“I’m trying my best!”

"Yeah, and that's going great-"

“Okay, stop it, all of you,” Miguel interrupts before they can go down the rabbit hole, trying to keep his already strung thin patience steady. “What’s going on?”

“There’s another fight going on.” Hobie gives the answer blunt, to Miguel’s satisfaction.

“Cafeteria?”

“Main hall. Sector D.”

The huff that erupts from his lips draws a colorful picture of his current emotions as he hops off of his elevated platform. “I’ll fix it.”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Miles brings himself to stand in front of the man. “We’re not gonna hurt anyone, right?”

“I can’t make any promises.” He brushes past the kid, dismissing him with a shake of the head.

“Miguel. Don’t take your anger out on them–” Gwen tries, but all it gets is his recoil and daunting stalk towards her.

“I will do whatever the–” the swear word is on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows it down. “I will do whatever is needed, but violence is not my first course of action.”

“Please be nice to everyone,” Pav says, peeking over Gwen’s shoulder. “It’s been a long week for all of us too.”

Miguel sighs and brushes past them, saying nothing. He brushes off their words in silent agreement. He didn’t really want to hurt anyone either.

By the time he reaches where he'd been informed the fight was, there was a mosh pit encircling the brawl, a mass of blue and red and spidermen. He approaches from behind, the tide parting for him as each person registers his presence.

When he meets the pearl in the oyster, the hotheaded spiderman hasn’t noticed him quite yet. He’s got the other spidey— one of the many spiderwomen— beneath him, gnarly fist raised to land another punch. Miguel sighs, grabs the back of the man’s elbow, and dragssss him off.

“Everyone get away now.” His tone squeezes the air out of the room and leaves no room for discussion, not that anyone would dare to object. The spidermen flee the scene before he can even finish his sentence, and by the time he’s turned back to the perpetrators of it all, they’re gone too.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, murmuring a low cálmate under his breath as he moves to regain his bearings. “Lyla,” he waves the said woman near. “Find those spidermen and remind me to get to them when I come back.” She sputters to focus in front of him, dipping her head in an obliged nod before sputtering off again to wherever she found herself needed.

Miguel shakes and unclenches the fist he’s made with his free hand and stalks back to his office, rubbing the palm of his hand where his claws had taken purchase amidst anger.

Sometimes, he regrets putting himself in charge of all of this… shit.

But… he’s the only one who can do it. No one had the vigor, the dedication, the understanding of why and what had to be done to keep the multiverses in line and make sure what happened to him never happened again.

It’s tiring. It takes his nights and his days and chips at his brain until he’s sure there’s nothing left in the expanse of his head. For someone who appears naturally angry, he’s quite good at keeping all the real anger in.

The downside of this: he bottles it all up. But the bottle isn’t big enough, doesn’t last forever, cracks at the seams, and then shatters in a explosion of tears. It enjoys crumpling him into the floor, loves the way his hands shiver in the cold breeze, shakes him to the core and, for all his confidence, makes him doubt.

Lyla’s only seen him like this once, when he couldn’t get away and instead had to sequester himself into his office, not quite getting to hardwiring her nosy personnel to do something else.

No, he doesn’t rely on her, as he normally would with other problems. He doesn’t trust her, he doesn’t even trust himself with post breakdown Miguel, no.

He goes to you.

You. The lovely, kind person he’s had the great privilege of calling his. His love, his support, his everything, or better yet; mi luz. My light. The light at the end of the tunnel, at the end of the world, when he feels like the walls are caving in and there’s really nowhere else to go and nothing more to lose.

You calm him, like you always do. Effortlessly caring, eternally so. Never afraid to give, to let him take and take until he’s stuffed whole. You know little things about him, take the time to learn them. Like where to get his favorite empanadas— much better than the ones in the spidey cafeteria— and that he loves when you press your fingers into his shoulder blades. He loves your massages.

He loves you.

Tapping insistently at the shitty gadget on his wrist, he mindlessly pulls up the coordinates for your dimension. Second nature. He’s walked himself into some obscure corner of the building, but he isn’t processing such mundane things at the moment. He can feel himself slipping, the mask fracturing. He can’t be left alone right now.

You.

The portal is up now, flashing and glitching in an assortment of colors, beckoning him in with its delectable light, like a halo. Miguel wastes no time giving in, diving into the portal and tucking himself tight like a torpedo.

Multiverses zoom by as he glides through hexagons and hexagons, thousands of people in each. Worlds that he keeps steady, safe, perfect. Normally, he’d stop to smell the flowers, observe and appreciate the sereneness of every special home in front of him. Pride himself in the fact that there was a special home for someone to come home to.

But not this time. No, this time he keeps his eyes screwed shut, he wouldn’t, couldn’t get distracted by the novelty. The bottle is cracking now, cracking into long and sharp spikes aching to slice across his chest. He’s so close, all he could get himself to do was focus on his breaths. In and out, in and out, in and out—

The abrupt warning of your multiverse approaching pinches his wrist, reminding him that this whole mess was very much real. He stumbles into your living room with a not so quiet thud, startling you. You drop the spoon you were stirring something with— smells like some sort of sauce, yum— and whip your head towards him.

He’s got his arms wrapped around you before you can even process that it's him, burying himself in your neck and inhaling the calm scent of you, a mix of your perfume and your detergent, so very you.

“Miguel.” You sigh into his shoulder, wrapping your arms around his waist as the initial shock of his intrusion wears off.

He slumps into you, only trusting himself to let out a low grumble of your name.

“What’s going— oh,” your brain puts two and two together. “Oh, Miguel, shh. It’s okay, I got you.”

And he breaks. Because he knows you mean it. He knows you have him. You always do.

The tears are bubbling over the rims of his eyes and splashing down his cheeks, his hands are twisted up in your loose shirt. He’s sure his claws have made an entrance too. One of your hands reaches to turn off the stove, the other rubbing incandescent patterns into his back.

You were always so careful. Never leave the stove on, Miggy. Don’t wanna burn the food. He loves that about you.

“Hey,” your voice wisps in through the fog of his mental breakdown, of the end of the world. “Hey. It’s me. Just me. Your absolute favorite person on this planet.”

“Multiverse.” He manages through sob induced hiccups.

“Multiverse,” You smile, breathing out a soft laugh as you toil him in closer. “Breathe, my love. I have you. Nobody is here but me, and I’m not going anywhere. Promise.”

He nods, lets himself weigh more onto you.

“That’s it, I got you,” you coax. “Get it out of your system.”

He gives all the tears he has to give. He’s sandwiching you between the counter and his stature, but you don’t seem to mind. Your spilling words, mindlessly, talking until he’s done and ready to attach himself to them, the soft baritone of your voice.

And it takes time, but he gets there. He’s in the tunnel, the walls are caving in, he’s believing he's given all he has to give, but you’re there, and you’re telling him no, no you have not. You don’t get to lose, because you have SO much more life to live.

His light.

The tunnel lets up, opens up the walls, lets him bathe in you, in the way your arms are still hooked tight around his waist and you’re going on about how there was a new episode of your favorite show that he had to watch.

And of course he would watch it.

He’d do anything for you, anything you asked whenever you wanted. And he knows, in turn, that there wasn’t a damn thing in this god forsaken reality that would stop you from doing the same for him.

You tell him as much. To his face, into his hair, with the dance of your fingers on his back, in the way you guide him to the couch, when you place down some food and a cup of water— you just cried out your backup supply— and again when you place yourself down next to him.

“I’m so beyond lucky to have you.” He murmurs to you, some fifteen minutes into the episode of your show, something about this dude with a metal helmet and a green baby? He can’t recall the name.

You turn, a smile gracing your features. “You deserve me. You deserve everything the multiverse has to offer and more. Dunno what I’d do without you.”

“You’d have one less person bothering you.”

“Ah, yes,” you laugh, swatting his cheek. “Like you’re such a nuisance.”

He laughs, actually laughs. It’s nice.

You tilt your head onto the girth of his shoulder, snuggling in tight as your attention is again sucked into the screen.

He smiles dazedly at you, finally feeling at peace.

Mi luz. My light.

is anyone else still obsessed with him or is that just me

#miguel o'hara #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara imagine #miguel o'hara x you #miguel ohara fluff #oscar isaac #oscar issac characters #oscar issac x you #oscar issac x reader #oscar issac imagine #spiderman: across the spiderverse #across the spider verse

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justagalwhowrites · 1 year

Text

Yearling - Ch. 11: Touch

Ellie helps you recover from your discovery in the wilderness. A continuation of Yearling ch. 1-10 found on Tumblr here.

Pairing: Joel Miller x Female Reader

Warnings: Mild violence. No use of Y/N. Minors DNI 18+ Only

Length: 8.5k

AO3 | Chapter One | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

The pounding on your front door broke you out of the daze you’d been stuck in for who knows how long.

You were in the closet under the stairs, curled up on the mattress, staring at the wall. That’s all you’d really done besides work at the stables since coming back from the run to find the feral horses. It had been just over a week. Or you thought so, anyway. Time had warped, condensed and extended and melted and combined. You’d worn the same clothes for at least three days at one point. Maybe longer. You weren’t entirely sure. Getting changed required time and effort and energy you just didn’t have. So did playing guitar and going to the mess hall for food and anything but working with the new horses, really. And that you only did because it was cruel not to, stealing wild and free things just to imprison and neglect them. They had to be trained and taught so you did. You just weren’t thrilled about it.

“Bambi!” Ellie called, pausing the pounding for a moment. “I know you’re in there, lemme in!”

You groaned.

“C’mon,” she called. You suspected she had her face pressed to the glass of your front door from the sound of it. “I’m not leaving until you answer!”

You shoved yourself out of bed and drew Joel’s shirt tight around your front, heading for the door. You were right, Ellie’s face was pressed against the glass. With a resigned sigh, you opened the door.

“About fucking time,” she said, pushing past you and into the house like she lived there.

“Oh excuse me for not running on your schedule,” you rolled your eyes, closing your door behind her and trialing behind her to your living room. “Look, Ellie…”

“Here,” she dropped her backpack onto your couch and rifled through it until she found a CD and she pressed it to your chest. “Educate me.”

“Um,” you took the CD and Ellie crossed her arms, her brows up expectantly. You looked at her for a moment before looking down at the case. The cover was cracked and the booklet warped and water damaged but you recognized it. “This is The Smiths by… well, The Smiths. They’re great, you’ll like them. This Charming Man is on this one, it’s one of my favorites.”

You held the CD out to her. She just looked at you.

You sighed.

“Ellie…”

“I could have just listened to it without you, you know,” she said. “Didn’t want to. Tell me about the music.”

“Well, Johnny Marr is amazing…” you trailed off, looking at the CD for a moment before looking back at Ellie. “Look, kid, can we do this another time?”

“No.”

“I’m just…”

“I haven’t seen you in like a week and a half,” she said, her expression oddly soft. “Not really, just at the stable where you say like three words to me and I thought maybe you were mad at me or something…”

“Oh, honey, no, I’m not…”

“I know,” she cut you off again. “Because I actually went and talked to Joel. Fucking Joel. And it turns out you’re just not talking to anybody right now, you’re doing that whole ‘Hi, I’m Bambi and I don’t need people I’m going to just hide in my house’ thing you do and you know what? It fucking sucks, OK? Because you have people who care about you now, you let us be friends with you and then you just decide to go hide and not tell any of us why and make us worry and it’s shitty. You’re being shitty. You’re supposed to let us help you.”

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose for a moment, your arm propped on the one around your waist.

“Look, Ellie,” you said, dropping your hand away from your face again. “You’re a kid, alright? You’re a really fucking great kid but you’re a kid. It’s not your job to deal with my shit.”

“Well, you’re my friend,” she stuck her small chin out, defiant. “And I don’t know about you but I help my friends.”

You shook your head.

“I’m old enough to be your mom,” you said. “It’s different.”

“Fine,” she said. “Don’t talk to me about it then. But we’re going to dance party about it. Because I want to. And apparently I’m a fucking kid which means I get what I want.”

You just raised your eyebrows, skeptical. Her face softened again.

“C’mon,” she said. “The dance party thing helps. You know it does.”

You sighed - a little dramatically, maybe, but purposely - and went to the stereo to put the CD in.

“I’m skipping to my favorite song then,” you said. “We’ll give you a full education on The Smiths and Johnny Marr another day.”

She smiled.

“Hell yeah.”

You hadn’t ever expected Ellie to be the one making you dance around your living room but it made you oddly happy that she wanted to, that she saw it as a solution.

Up until now, you’d been the initiator of the dance parties. The first time was after a movie night. You’d stayed at the back, next to Joel, and, at the end of the night, watched as Ellie’s face fell when her friend Dina leaned in and kissed her other friend, Jesse, on their way out of the hall.

“Oh, I forgot, I have something for Ellie,” you said, looking up at Joel. “Think I’ll drag her to my place. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Let me… let me know how she’s doin’?”

“I will,” you smiled a little and jogged to catch up with the teenagers, falling into step next to Ellie.

“Hey kid,” you said. “I have a CD for you, you free?”

“Oh, um…” She looked at Jesse and Dina, talking the way couples do, before looking back to you. “Sure. See you guys later?”

She said her goodbyes and followed you home, a little distracted the whole way.

“So,” you said as soon as it was just the two of you in your living room as you looked for a CD. “How long have you had a crush on Dina?”

“Only for…” She froze, eyes wide before looking up at you. “Wait, no, I…”

“What?” You asked, finding a Weezer album.

“Dina’s a girl.”

“Your observational skills are top tier, kid,” you said, turning on the stereo. “Should put you out on patrol as soon as possible.”

“I just…” She looked at the ground. “I don’t…”

“You like girls, right?” You shrugged. “That’s OK.”

She was quiet for a moment before she sighed.

“Doesn’t feel OK,” she kicked the ground a little. “Feels fuckin’ shitty.”

“Why?” You asked, putting the CD in. “Because people think you shouldn’t like girls or because you’ve got a crush on Dina?”

“Look, it’s not that big of a deal,” she said after a minute. “And it’s not like I’m Dina’s type so I should just get over it and move the fuck on.”

“Who says you’re not her type?”

“Uh, me,” she looked at you like you were nuts. “Because I’m a girl, in case you hadn’t fucking noticed. Dina likes boys, she’s made that very clear.”

“She can also like girls,” you shrugged. Ellie looked skeptical. “Kid, if you can’t like boys and girls, someone’s going to need to explain something to me and my ex boyfriends and ex girlfriends, alright? I’m not saying Dina will ever be into you. She’s an idiot if she’s not but that doesn’t mean she will be. I’m just saying don’t write her off because she likes boys.”

You pressed play on the stereo.

“This is Weezer,” you said. “Which, as it happens is excellent dance party music.”

“The fuck do you mean dance party?”

“I mean,” you said, taking her hands and tugging her to the middle of the living room before shoving the coffee table to the side. “Sometimes there’s not a damn thing you can do about shit and, when that happens but you still feel like you want to do something, you dance party about it.”

“This sounds dumb.”

“It’s not. Stay put.”

You went back to the stereo and skipped ahead to Buddy Holly and started just kind of bouncing to the beat, just like Marisa had first done with you in your cabin almost a decade and a half before. She’d been trying to pull you out of your own head after a particularly bad day on both the trapping and horse training fronts.

“You carry that shit in your body, Baby,” she said as you hummed Tubthumping - because that was what Marisa wanted to dance to and you’d give her just about whatever she wanted. You rolled your eyes as she put her hands on your hips and made them twist in time to the song. “Gotta shake it out before it eats you up.”

But she was right, it did feel better when you moved your body. So you’d kept doing it, even after Marisa left. Though it was definitely better when you had access to electricity and a stereo.

Ellie watched you skeptically and you took her hands again, pulling her in toward you before stepping back out again. She made a face but started bouncing a little on beat.

“There we go,” you smiled, still holding her hands until she was fully into it. By the time you let her go, she was jumping and yelling along with the music. The two of you moved without any thought or plan to it until Ellie collapsed, breathless, on your couch. You turned down the stereo and flopped on the loveseat.

“Better?” You asked, a sticky sheen of sweat on your skin.

“Weirdly yes,” she said, sinking back into the couch. “Still shitty but… it’s better.”

Now, it was Ellie trying to get you to dance.

You pressed play and checked the back of the CD for the track number before skipping ahead. You turned up the volume and Ellie pursed her lips, nodding a little, analyzing it.

“So who is Johnny Marr?” She asked.

“Guitarist,” you said. “Obviously. Lead singer is Morrissey but he’s kind of a dick. Or was, I suppose, he’s probably long dead.”

“Or being a dick as an infected,” she smirked a little, taking your hands the same way you’d done with her the first time you were trying to get her to dance in your living room. You let her move your arms and you started bouncing a little to the music. She smiled and let your hands go and, for a moment, it was like your brain switched off. You jumped and moved your arms and let yourself go out of control, all this anger and hurt and despair that had been building and building inside of you since you’d found your home burned to the ground and lost any hope of finding everything you’d lost suddenly spilling out of you. You weren’t sure how long you were dancing like a maniac, just that, when you finished, you grabbed a pillow off the couch and screamed into it until there was nothing left inside you and you collapsed, body limp.

Ellie went and turned the music down before flopping next to you. You looked at her and she dropped her head to your shoulder.

“Better?” She asked, breathless.

“Yeah,” you panted, resting your head on hers. “Thanks kiddo.”

“Still not going to tell me what it is, are you?” She asked.

You sighed.

“I went back to where I used to live,” you said, picking your words carefully. “There was… I was hoping to find… I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s gone now and I hadn’t expected that and… It’s been hard.”

“What’d you lose?” Ellie asked. “I’m sure we could find it or something like it…”

You laughed once, a little darkly.

“Not really something you can replace,” you said. “But I appreciate the thought.”

“Shitty,” Ellie said.

You smiled a bit. She was a blunt little thing, you’d give her that.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Was life shitty before?” She asked. “Before the outbreak, I mean. Like I know shit wasn’t great all the time but…”

You frowned for a second.

“It had its moments,” you said evenually. “You still lost what you cared about the most sometimes. But it wasn’t like it is now, out there. Jackson’s better, at least.”

Ellie sighed heavily, sounding far too sad and almost guilt ridden for someone so young.

“Hey,” you elbowed her lightly. “Still want to learn more horse shit?”

“Yes,” she shifted so she was looking at you again. “Are they getting to the point that you’ll let me work with them?”

“Not quite,” you said and she visibly deflated. You laughed a little. “But if you want to come practice, help keep the horses we already have trained up in good shape…”

“Yeah?” She asked, her face lighting up a bit. “Can I come by tomorrow?”

“Sure,” you shrugged. “I’ve been focused on the new additions, anything you want to do with the rest of the group is welcome.”

She hung out for a little while longer, just talking. You had a hard time fully paying attention, you had to ask her to repeat a few things. It was like your mind was fogged, like you were trying to see through haze or hear through a dull roar. But Ellie didn’t complain, going back over whatever you asked.

When you walked her out, you felt exhausted but better than you had in a while. A low bar, but you’d take what you could get.

“You’re not going to like… run away or some shit right?” Ellie asked as she stood on your porch. You frowned and went to answer, but she didn’t give you the chance. “I don’t care about a lot of people, OK? But just about all of them have fucking died or left me and I’m really tired of losing fucking everybody. So if you could just…”

“I’m not planning to leave, kiddo,” you cut her off, smiling as much as you could. “You’re stuck with me.”

She nodded for a second before she was quickly, suddenly, hugging you. It surprised you for a second, her small, warm body against yours. There was a shock of fear for a moment but you put your arms around her, anyway, and the feeling faded. When she stepped back, she had her usual Ellie expression. Like nothing could get to her.

“Good,” she said, shoving her hands in her pockets and turning to leave before she turned around. “Right, I forgot, Joel said he missed you. And that he’d be at the mess hall early tomorrow for breakfast. Not that I really care but… I can count on one hand the people who are alive today that man gives a shit about and you’re one of them. So… Maybe go to breakfast tomorrow. Early.”

You smiled a little.

“Right,” you said. “Not that you care but… I’ll try. Really.”

“Cool,” she smiled a little. “Nice to actually see you again, Bambi. Try not to ditch me again.”

You were exhausted but had a hard time actually falling asleep. You hadn’t been this… conscious since you’d gotten back to Jackson. It was like Ellie had dragged you out of a stupor you hadn’t fully realized you’d been in. Now that everything wasn’t dulled and hazy, there was an ache in your chest that radiated out through everything. You tried not to think about what was lost - tried to remember that you hadn’t been there in years, nothing had really changed just because you’d seen it. Tried to remind yourself that it had been a long shot, anyway. That you hadn’t really expected to find anything useful, anyway. You’d gone on the off chance that you would.

It was still devastating.

You let yourself cry for a bit before your mind drifted to other things, things Ellie had talked about. That you had people here, people you’d all but abandoned in the last week.

It should have occurred to you sooner. You’d thought of both Joel and Ellie but you hadn’t really realized that they would think of you, too.

But a new shirt from Joel had shown up, wrapped in paper, on your porch a few days earlier. You’d barely taken it off since, the warm scent of him wearing off faster than usual this time around. It should have at least crossed your mind then that Joel was still thinking about you, even as you’d been actively avoiding him. Not because you didn’t want to see him or be near him but because you were worried it would hurt too much, that he’d see right through you and call you on your bullshit.

You owed it to Joel to at least talk to him, you realized now. He’d made it very clear that he cared about you - all but shouted it, really - and you’d just cut him off. Ellie was right, you were being shitty.

It was still dark when you went to the mess hall, the town still sleeping. You headed there slowly, kicking rocks in the dirt and fidgeting with the sleeves of Joel’s latest shirt as you walked. You leaned against the wall of the hall, near enough to the doors that you could see them but far enough away that it was unlikely anyone would come talk to you, and you waited, arms crossed over your chest.

You tried to not think about it, still adjusting to the new level of consciousness as you emerged from the fog. Instead, you looked up at the constellations, the twinge of sunrise on the horizon.

You heard Joel before you saw him, his heavy footfalls on the rocks oddly loud in the quiet of the early summer morning. You found him then, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slumped, turning down the road you were on. He looked almost sad and you hated that you might have something to do with that.

You pushed yourself off the wall and stood there, arms crossed, watching him. He noticed you quickly and, even from a distance, you saw him smile a bit, walking a little faster. You met him in the street in front of the mess hall, lips drawn into a tight, awkward smile.

“Hey,” you said, shoving your hands in your pockets.

“Hey,” he smiled wider, standing so close to you that you could feel the heat of him on the morning air. It was alluring, magnetic. You wanted to fall into it and be absorbed by it. “How’ve you been doin’? Missed you.”

“Missed you too,” you said looking at his chest instead of directly at him. “Joel…”

You trailed off, not really sure what to say or how to say it.

“S’OK,” he said gently. You looked up at him. His eyes were tender and soft, crinkled at the edges. “Really.”

You nodded and swallowed past the pinch of tears at the back of your throat, leaning forward until you were against him. He didn’t even hesitate, his arms wrapping around you, one hand on the back of your rib cage, the other cradling your head to his chest. You pulled your hands from your pockets and clung to him, fingers clutching onto his broad back and a sob slipped free, one that made it hard to breathe.

“I’m sorry,” your voice trembled and he stroked your hair. “I didn’t think and…”

“I said it’s OK because it’s OK sweetheart,” he said softly, his hand keeping a steady, grounding rhythm over you. “As long as you’re alright, that’s all I care bout.”

He held you like that for a while, until the edge of the sky was pink with a cotton candy dawn and you broke away from him, wiping your eyes on your shirt sleeves.

“Think I soaked your shirt,” you sniffed, laughing a little. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t mind,” he said, voice a little rough. “Just… glad to see you again.”

You nodded and sniffed again.

“You too.”

Things were a bit easier after that. Your life had been strangely off kilter without Joel in it, you were just still so accustomed to weathering it alone you hadn’t fully realized why. It was a natural pattern to fall back into, being next to him again, talking to him again, touching him again. When you went by his house that night, he brought out the guitar but you didn’t take it. Instead, you sat next to him on the porch, your head on his shoulder as the crickets chirped and the wind rustled in the fullness of summer leaves. He played Blackbird and you sang quietly along, relishing making something with him, being a part of something with him.

It was better because of Ellie, too. She came by the barn every night for the next two weeks and dove right into helping with the other horses, taking a different one out every day to give it a work out, focusing on ones that hadn’t been on patrol in a few days.

She even liked watching you work with the other horses. The stallion, Ares, was feisty. He was pushing back on you every step of the way, reminding you of Triton on your father’s ranch when you were a girl.

He was taking a lot of work and you were having to coax him to where you wanted him to be. You knew better than to try and force him. He was like a teenager in that way, he’d push back on something you required just because you required it. He seemed to resent captivity, seemed to resent you. You had to wear him down, bit by bit.

You got him to saddle broke and decided to try him with a rider, something Ellie was especially interested to watch.

“You cannot do this,” you said sternly as you got in position to mount him. “I mean it, Ellie, do not even think about tryin’ this, you hear me?”

“Yeah yeah,” she said. You could hear the eye roll in her voice. “And how old were you when you broke your first horse?”

“That’s different,” you said.

“You say that a lot.”

“Because it’s true,” you said, offering Ares your palm. He sniffed it and huffed for a moment before he pressed his velvet muzzle into your hand. You curled your fingers gently over him and gave him a scratch. “I was on a horse before I could walk. This guy is dangerous. Do not - and I mean do not - go anywhere near him without me. Say you understand.”

“I understand, Jesus,” she rolled her eyes again. “I swear, Bambi, sometimes you feel like my fucking mom…”

“That’s because I’m old and I’m bossing you around,” you said, climbing the fence post and putting your hands on his saddle. “Don’t come in here while I’m workin’ with him, get ready to jump on the other side of that fence.”

“I heard you, damn.”

You nodded and took a deep breath, a new appreciation for the grief you’d given your family when you’d started climbing on the backs of unbroke horses as a child. You jumped on Ares’ back and he whinnied, immediately trying to buck you off. You got a good hold with your boots, heels dug low in the stirrups, and you let your hips go loose while holding on with your legs. He got a good jerk in and the hand not holding the reins flew down to the back of the saddle, holding on tight as he stomped and hurled his massive body through the air.

He tried to throw you for what felt like forever but, eventually, he started losing steam. You took advantage of the lull and moved the reins down into a one rein stop, forcing him to circle, his feet still stomping impatiently.

“There we go,” you said soothingly, gently, loosening your legs’ grip on his ribcage. “You’re doing so good, Ares. Just my best boy, that’s what you are…”

It took a few minutes for him to calm entirely but he did, still tossing his head periodically as he walked around the outer edge of the paddock. Every now and then he’d think he had you, try and buck again, but you were getting better at reading him. You could tell when you needed to hold on, when he was going to act out. He wasn’t heeding real commands yet, but he was at least starting to tolerate you on him. You’d take that.

“Is it OK if I go get Shimmer?” Ellie called after a few minutes.

“Should be safe,” you said, staying focused on Ares. “By the time you get her saddled, I’ll be wrapping up with this guy, anyway. Don’t wanna push him too hard.”

You stayed on the horse, letting him control things for the most part, starting to try to nudge him this way and that with your legs and by shifting your weight, when you heard raised voices inside the barn. One of them was Ellie.

You got off Ares faster than you should have considering his lack of training. He stomped and bucked as you moved, making you fall off him and land with a thud in the dirt. You scrambled to your feet, dodging his massive hooves and left him to run the paddock alone, racing for the source of the noise.

“Fuck you, motherfucker!” Ellie was yelling at Simon. The man towered over her but she didn’t seem to give a shit, hurling her little body at him, shoving him back and before advancing on him again, getting in his face. “You don’t get to just say that shit…”

“Hey!” You snapped, grabbing Ellie and putting her on the other side of you so you were between her and the man who stood there, his eyes narrowed at her. “Want to tell me what the fuck is going on here?”

“This little…” Simon began but Ellie cut him off.

“He was saying some bullshit about you to his stupid friend,” she jerked her chin at another man who was in the corner, looking like he wanted to stay out of it. You were pretty sure his name was Ben but you weren’t sure. He was relatively new to town, the man Tommy had been patrolling with while Joel was with you. “He can’t just say that shit!”

“Ellie,” you said gently. “Don’t need you to pick fights over me…”

“I didn’t pick shit,” she snapped, lunging for him again. You caught her, throwing your arm out across her stomach. “He called you a stupid cunt, fuck him!”

You looked at Simon, brows raised.

“I’m a stupid cunt?” You asked. “Love to know where you got that idea, especially since I doubt you’d know what a cunt looked like if one smacked you in the face.”

There was a twinge in his jaw. You waited for him to talk. This wasn’t anything new for you, though it had been years since you’d had to deal with this kind of shit. You’d been the only woman on the ranch you worked on and none of the men ever wanted to listen to a damn thing you had to say. You always had to make them. But by the time you were done with them, they listened. Whether they liked it or not, they listened.

“It’s bullshit you’ve got some fuckin’ kid in here working with the animals,” he bit out. “She doesn’t know jack shit, I ran this stable for years before you showed up and you’ve got me in here mucking goddamn stalls when I’m working here instead of…”

“Instead of you fucking up my fucking horses?” You finished for him, crossing your arms and stepping closer to him. “If you don’t like the way I run this goddamn stable you can get the fuck out. Any idiot can muck a stall, that’s why I’ve got you doin’ it. Can’t trust you with fuck all else, you proved that. These animals are my responsibility and I’m not about to entrust them to someone who can’t tell his head from a hole in the ground. When you’re here, you do what I fuckin’ say so you can either get with the program or drag your sorry ass over to Maria and explain why you’re not allowed in the stable anymore. And I swear to God I hear you raise your voice to a kid again I will put my boot so far up your ass you’ll be tasting leather for a week, do I make myself clear?”

He looked like he wanted to hit you. You planted your feet.

“Try it,” you snapped. “I’ve killed bigger assholes than you.”

He glared at you, grinding his teeth, before he stomped off, the other man trailing behind him. Ben caught your eye as he passed and you frowned, watching him. It was the first time you’d been close to him at all, the first time he’d made eye contact with you, and there was something familiar about him but you couldn’t place why. You shook yourself mentally before looking back to Ellie.

“You OK?”

“Fine,” she was watching the doorway, her eyes narrowed.

“Next time, just get me,” you said, dropping your arms and trying to release some of the tension in your body. “I’ve been dealing with idiots like that since before you were born, it don’t bother me.”

“He shouldn’t get to just say that shit,” she snapped. “He’s a dick.”

“He’s a dick,” you agreed. “But, in the grand scheme of things, some asshole calling me a cunt is nothing. Not worth you getting hurt over, alright? But I appreciate the thought.”

Ellie shrugged.

“He should just be thankful Joel didn’t hear that shit,” Ellie laughed once, darkly. “He’d be dead.”

“And that’s definitely an overreaction,” you smiled a little. “You saddle up Shimmer, I’m going to bring in Ares before there’s any more trouble here today.”

Joel met you at the barn to go to dinner and Ellie was still there, putting Shimmer’s tack away. You were prepared to try to run interference but, it turned out, it wasn’t necessary.

“Hey Kiddo,” Joel said, giving her a soft smile.

“Hey,” she said, taking the bridle off the horse. You glanced at Joel, your brows up, trying not to freak out. It felt like she might startle if you spoke too fast or reacted too big, like she was a wild animal who needed coaxing.

“How’ve you been doin’?” Joel asked, voice almost disturbingly calm, all things considered.

“Alright,” she shrugged. “How about you?”

Joel was quiet for a moment, clearing his throat. When he spoke, his voice was thick.

“Oh, you know,” he shrugged. “Doin’ OK.”

“Good,” Ellie nodded. “That’s… that’s good.”

“School goin’ alright?” He asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded slowly. “Been reading some cool stuff so…”

“That’s good,” he replied. “You should tell me about it sometime. If you want. I’d like to hear about it.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she said, hanging the last of the tack on the wall. She looked at you. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yup,” you nodded. “See you then.”

She looked at Joel again.

“See you,” she said, not waiting for him to reply before leaving the barn. Joel just stood there, watching where she’d walked for a moment, almost like he was waiting for a ghost to return.

“Joel,” you said after a moment, pulling him out of it.

“Sorry,” he said, clearing his throat before looking at you. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” you said, going and standing close to him. “You?”

“Didn’t think she’d actually talk to me,” he said, looking back toward the door again. “I’m gonna keep tryin’ even if she never does but… Damn, it was nice to actually get somethin’ out of the kid.”

You put your hand on his back and ran it over him gently. He took a deep breath, one you could feel below your palm. You rested your head against his arm, hoping that having someone close was a help and not a hindrance.

“C’mon,” he said, slipping an arm around you, his hand finding the curve of your waist as he squeezed you against him. “Let’s go.”

At the mess hall, it was business as usual with Ellie. She was sitting with her friends - including Dina - and ignoring Joel. The two of you sat with Tommy, Maria and William and you were laughing at some smart ass comment Tommy made when Ben ran over to the table. He put his hand in the middle of your back, making you stiffen.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said quickly, his eyes wide. “Went back to the stable, left something there earlier, and there’s something wrong with that new stallion, he’s thrashing something fierce, I’m worried he’s going to hurt himself…”

“Shit,” you said, jumping up. Joel went to follow you but you waved him off. “No, stay put, I’m the only one he knows, you won’t be any help. I’ll see you later.”

You didn’t wait for a response, just running for the stables, Ben at your heels.

It was quiet when you got there, dark. You frowned. Ares might have calmed himself down but that seemed unlikely.

“What…” you began but the stable door closed and latched, the sound heavy behind you.

You spun quickly, heart pounding, suddenly sharply alert.

“Hello, cunt.”

***

Joel felt uneasy. He couldn’t put his finger on why but something wasn’t right.

“Joel.”

Tommy snapped him out of his own head.

“Sorry, yeah,” Joel said. “What was that?”

“Next week, you and Bambi, overnight patrol,” he said. “Think that’ll work?”

“Yeah,” Joel nodded. “Yeah, that’ll be fine, she’s more than ready for it, so long as she’s not too exhausted from the extra shit at the stables…”

“I’ll check in,” Tommy said. “See if things are at a point where she can take a few days, I know she’s been going pretty non-stop over there.”

“Yeah,” Joel said again, looking back toward the door you’d ran out of.

Tommy sighed.

“Yo, space cadet.” Joel looked at him. “You’re literally on another planet. Just go find her before you pull your fuckin’ hair out. That’s the last thing you got goin’ for you, can’t afford to lose it all to stress.”

Joel just nodded, looking back toward the door, too busy fighting off the growing anxious feeling in his chest to give Tommy shit back.

“See y’all later,” he said, not even looking back at Tommy and Maria. He had to try not to run through the mess hall. Something was wrong. He could feel it, the thrum of it in his body, on the air.

Once he was on the street, he ran the short distance to the stables. When he got there, the door was closed and locked but he could hear something on the other side of it, the cadence of voices and a quiet yelp that belonged to you.

“Hey!” He slammed his shoulder into the door, the wood jerking forward just an inch under his weight.

“Joel!” It was the first thing you’d said that he could understand, followed by another strangled cry before you voice lowered to something he couldn’t make out. He threw himself against the door again and it budged another inch. His heart was in his throat. Something had happened, you were in trouble just feet away and he couldn’t get to you. He threw himself against the door again and again and again before it finally gave way and he stumbled into the barn.

Simon and Ben, a man who was new to Jackson, both looked surprised to see him there, like they hadn’t expected him to get in. They were standing by the gate to Ares’ stall, the horse thrashing and mad inside of it.

It took him a second to realize what was happening, to recognize where your voice was coming from. He hadn’t been able to understand you before because you were using the voice you used with the horses, soothing and gentle, trying to ease the animal to calmness, but he couldn’t see you. Your voice was coming from the stall but he couldn’t see you.

“Fuck off, Miller,” Simon snapped. “Not your business.”

“Joel!” You called and the horse reared back. He realized where you where then. He couldn’t see you because you were on the ground, below the angry, 1,500 pound animal.

“Not your fuckin’ business!” Simon yelled this time. There was blood at his temple, Ben’s lip was split.

Joel felt it before he fully realized it, the rage that was spilling through him, flowing out from the core of him through his whole body. These men had put their hands on you, hurt you. He needed to kill them. Once you were safe, he was going to kill them.

“Move!” He didn’t wait for them to listen, going for the door to the stall. Simon was stupid enough to try to block him and Joel punched him, hard, across the face. “I will kill you right here, fucking move!”

Ben took Simon’s shoulder and pulled him back and Joel could actually look down into the stall and see you. You were on your back, arms up in front of you, saying “It’s OK, it’s OK” over and over in that calm voice of yours.

“Bambi,” Joel fought to keep his voice calm, not wanting to risk alarming the horse any further.

“I’m OK,” you said quickly, rolling to dodge a hoof. Your voice was still almost disturbingly calm. “Open the gate and the go block where ever you came in through, make sure he can’t get out. I can get him back in if we can contain him but he’s too dangerous to let out.”

He looked back behind him but Simon and Ben were both gone, apparently smart enough to take his threat seriously.

“I got it,” he said, unlatching the gate and opening it. Ares charged forward and Joel ran for the downed door, blocking his path, going to reach for him before you cut him off.

“Don’t touch him!” You were on your feet, already scrambling to get to the horse. “I’m the only one he knows, I got him…”

You got in front of the horse, gently soothing him until you could get ahold of his bridle and guide him back to the stall, closing him in.

The second the stall door was closed, Joel ran for you. You slumped against the nearest wall, panting for breath, your eyes shut tight.

“Bambi,” he said, fighting to not touch you.

“I’m OK,” you leaned forward, your forehead pressing into Joel’s chest and it was a relief when you did, his body relaxing. He pulled you against him, holding you close. “I’m OK.”

“What happened?” He asked, resisting the urge to go and beat Simon to death with his bare hands. The fact that you were in his arms was the only reason he wasn’t.

“Got into a fight earlier with Simon,” you winced when Joel’s hand skimmed over your ribs. “Apparently didn’t take too kindly to that, decided to take shit into his own hands.”

“I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him,” he growled.

“Not worth it,” you said, pressing yourself closer to him. “Leave it alone, Joel. I’ll tell Maria and the council in the morning, don’t do something stupid.”

“Protecting you ain’t stupid,” he muttered, pressing his nose into your hair and breathing deep. “Not supposed to have people like that here, that’s the whole fuckin’ point. Gotta take ‘em out when we do.”

He pulled back from you enough to look you over. From what he could see, you’d landed more blows on Simon and Ben than they had on you.

“You hurt?” He asked. “Can take you to see the doc…”

“I’m fine,” you said. “Just gonna have a nasty bruise on my side where they slammed me into the stall door. Had worse.”

He pulled you back against him and you melted into his body. Touching you, holding you was a grounding force.

Joel hadn’t felt anything like this since he’d traveled with Ellie, this burning drive to rip and tear and hurt and kill. Someone had hurt you, tried to do worse to you and he hadn’t been there to protect you. “That’s why men like you and me are here.” Bill had been right. Joel had a job to do and not even God could help the motherfuckers who stood in his way.

“C’mon,” he said, giving you a gentle squeeze. “Let’s get you home.”

You insisted on checking on Ares again before you left. He’d calmed and you got an apple, feeding him from the palm of your hand as you scratched his head. Joel tried to not think about how close you’d been to dying because of that horse.

He kept an arm around you on the walk back to your house, looking and watching for any threats along the way. He wasn’t sure where Simon and Ben had gone but he sure as fuck wasn’t about to let them anywhere near you. He tried not to think about how he’d handle leaving you alone that night, considering setting up on your front porch to keep watch because his chest got tight at the thought of going home while leaving you vulnerable and alone.

“Can I ask a favor?” You asked when the two of you reached your front door.

“Not going to leave them alone if that’s what you’re askin’,” Joel said gruffly.

“No,” you shook your head and shoved your hands in your pockets, looking at his chest instead of his face. “Would you… would you be OK staying here tonight? I don’t…”

“Course, Bambi,” Joel cut you off. “I’ll do whatever you want me to.”

He didn’t just mean tonight.

“Thanks,” you looked relieved and unlocked your door.

You went in first and Joel hesitated a moment before following you. He’d never been inside your house before. It almost felt like he was stepping into a sacred space, something there worthy of worship and protection and adoration. He moved slowly, could sense the tension in your body. He put his hands in his pockets.

“It’s probably dumb but…” you clenched your jaw for a moment. “When I’m… when it’s a bad night, I sleep in there.”

You nodded toward a closet door tucked below the stairs.

“It’s smaller so it feels safer, I can run easier if I need to, don’t think anyone would start there if they came in lookin’ for me…”

“Not dumb,” Joel said gently. Thinking of you sleeping there, alone and afraid, made his heart ache. “That where…”

“For tonight, yeah,” you said quickly. “If that’s OK.”

“Course it’s OK.”

“Right,” you nodded once. “Right, thank you.”

You went to go get cleaned up and Joel tried to absorb as much of you as he could, moving slowly through your space. There was a book on the side table, something Joel didn’t recognize, some kind of historical thing. When he opened it, he found that you’d made notes in the margins. There was a stack of CDs by the stereo, a mix of artists and genres he couldn’t find much rhyme or reason to besides that they were just good. The music collection in general was huge, something that made him laugh a little. It was like you’d always been meant to live here, the house just waiting for you to move in and call it home. He was just trying to figure out how you had it organized when your voice appeared behind him.

“By genre and then artist,” you said, all but reading his mind. “Genre’s by preference, though. But I kinda like everything.”

It was more of your skin than Joel had ever seen, your legs bare below a pair of cotton shorts, arms and collarbones exposed in a matching tank top. The shorts made your legs seem long and he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to ghost his hand over your skin, how soft and smooth you would be below his touch. There were scars at your wrists and ankles but you didn’t seem worried about hiding them, something Joel only just realized was probably purposeful.

“You’ve got good taste,” Joel picked up the top CD, The Smiths. You smiled.

“Ellie brought me that one. Conveniently ‘forgets’ it when she comes over. She’s a good kid.”

Joel smiled a little, too.

“Yeah, she is.”

He looked you up and down again, reassuring himself that you were whole, that they hadn’t hurt you.

“You’re sure you’re alright?” He asked.

You nodded and lifted your shirt to your ribs on one side, your skin already changing color.

“Just that.”

Joel was moving for you before he fully realized what he was doing, his hands gently taking your waist and back where it didn’t look like you were hurt. You jumped but, before Joel had a chance to take his hands back, you leaned into his touch.

“Sorry,” he said softly, bending to examine you.

“It’s OK,” you sounded almost breathless. “It’s… it’s nice actually. You have nice hands.”

He ran his thumbs over your damaged flesh, your skin somehow softer than he’d imagined it to be. Maybe it had just been too long since he’d properly touched a woman and he’d forgotten or maybe you were just that much softer than anyone else he’d ever touched but it made the want in him grow and rage inside him worse. You were softer, more delicate than you appeared. He was supposed to protect you and someone had hurt you, tried to kill you, and he hadn’t stopped it. He would stop it now.

“I’ll be fine,” you said quietly after a minute, voice still breathy. “Just tired.”

He brushed the bruised skin with his thumbs again, tracing the outline of your injury, before he straightened up. You lowered the shirt.

“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s get you to bed.”

You led the way to the closet and turned on the light. It wasn’t as bad as Joel had been expecting, more cozy than cramped. But the mattress was small, just a twin.

“If you’d rather take the couch or the bed upstairs…” you looked up at him, your eyes wide again. Not with fear so much as hope this time.

“Rather be close to you,” he said. His voice was rougher than he meant it to be. “In case they decide to try somethin’ stupid.”

Joel’s accent got stronger when he was worked up. It was strong now.

You nodded, the edges of your lips turned up in the barest hint of a smile, eyes relieved.

There wasn’t much room in the closet outside the bed but you stood on one side of it and Joel on the other when you turned the light out. It was pitch black and Joel could only feel or hear your movements, but he could tell when you lowered yourself to the bed. He followed, as carefully and delicately as he could, trying not to accidentally hurt you. But once he was on the bed with you, everything seemed natural, simple.

Your body curved - slowly at first and then all at once - back into him. He stretched the arm below him out and your head settled against his bicep, your hair damp from the shower. He didn’t mind. His other arm curled around you, gently pulling you back into him. He felt the tension leave your body, your limbs going soft and pliant, your breaths deep and even. He pressed his nose into your hair and took you into his lungs, absorbing the smell of you and your shampoo, floral and clean and slightly wild.

Joel tried not to think about kissing you. Tried not to think about slipping into your warm, soft body, about how close he would be to you if he were inside you. How no one would ever be able to hurt you if you were that close.

“Joel,” you said his name so softly he wondered if he imagined it.

“Hm.”

He felt you take a deep, shaky breath before you slid your hand over his arm that was draped over you, your palm brushing over him until you reached his hand where it rested on the mattress, lacing your fingers with his own. Your hand trembled as you took his and brought it, slowly, to your stomach, slipping his palm beneath your shirt and pressing it gently to your warm, soft skin. Joel’s breath caught in his throat and he was hyperaware of your every move. You held your hand there, intertwined with his, before you eased your hold on him and pulled your hand away, leaving him touching your skin with nothing to hold him back. He tried to relax without getting hard against you, without letting his hand reach further up your body to feel as much of you as he could reach. He managed to let his arm and hand loosen, his elbow in the gentle curve of your waist, his fingers spreading wide over your bare skin, so soft below his callused touch.

“Bambi,” he breathed, voice shaky.

“I…” your voice broke. “I want you to touch me. I like when you touch me. Anyone else and… But I like when you do.”

You pressed yourself back against him and Joel closed his eyes tight, like it would somehow ease the desperate, clawing want building inside him.

“I’ve got you, Sweetheart,” he whispered instead. “I’ll take care of you. I have you.”

He kept his hand on you, kept your body against his own with his nose pressed into your hair, until he felt you drift off.

Joel gave up then, just for a moment. His hand on your body, your frame curled against his own, the scent of your soap and your skin. He gave in and pressed his lips against the crown of your head, his fingertips sinking into the softness of your stomach, his legs curving up against yours. He kissed your hair for what felt like a long time but not nearly long enough, your quiet, sleepy breaths and the way you felt against him and the way you smelled the only things he could think of.

He settled for holding you close all night, settled for keeping you safe.

Joel had failed at that before. He failed with Sarah. He failed with Tess. He’d even failed with Ellie and now with you. He wouldn’t fail again. If all he did for the rest of his life was protect you and Ellie it would be a life well lived. And he would protect you. If it was the last thing he did, he would keep you safe. God help any motherfuckers who stood in his way.

Next Chapter

A/N: Y'all. When I say this was like... the smuttiest touching I've ever written where the touching was all G-rated?

The slow burn is burning but I promise I PROMISE the payoff is on the way and it makes sense for all the characters and it's coming pretty soon. As is some Feral!Joel because we all need a little Feral!Joel in our lives.

I have a taglist you can join if you really want BUT I now also have an updates blog, @justagalwhoupdates . I'll only share each chapter only one time so you're not spammed when you subscribe for notifications.

Thank you so much for being here for Joel and Bambi!! It means so much that you're reading this story and loving these characters so thank you. Love you all!

Taglist: @ashleymsnodgrass@planet-marz1@kalea-bane @juneswonderlust@ilovepedro @h-annahayy @starstruckmusiciansartghost@beccerjune@mumma-moonchild@netonetoneto@mellymbee@purplelye@n7cje@flugazi@evyiione@randomhoex@aliengirl99@orcasoul@reds-ramblings@pedropascalsbbg @fupoola @tinypotatothing @knopes-waffles @lilmizmoz @ayamenimthiriel@jenispunk@panda-pascal@sarap-77@flugazi@your-slutty-gf@daniegraceg@partyofone3413@cumberpegg@noisynightmarepoetry.@fifia-writes@grumpygrumperton @srmacaroni @txlady37 @bigboiseason123

#fanfic #joel miller x female reader #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #yearling #joel miller x original character #slow burn

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jungle-angel · 11 months

Text

Two Boys and a History Class (Bob Floyd x Reader)

Summary: Normally you and Bob would leave Auggie with your in-laws, but since his mother is having surgery, you officially welcome him into the classroom family

Tagging: @bobfloydsbabe Helena I couldn't help myself with this one because the thought of Bob with a baby does things to me that I just can't explain (lol). I hope you're ok with me including Auggie in some of these and I apologize in advance, the baby fever is out of control at my end (lol).

Warnings: Mentions of a breeding kink, Bob popping off on a visiting teacher who's clearly beneath him etc.

"Alright, so does anybody have any clue as to what the most important part of Erik the Red's reign was?" Bob enquired.

"Not only was he an explorer but didn't he found the first settlement in Greenland?" Deshawn asked.

"You would be right my friend!" Bob declared proudly. "Erik the Red was indeed an explorer and did also found one of the first Viking colonies in Greenland...."

He was suddenly interrupted by the click of the door handle and the creaking of the classroom door before Mrs. Hess, the painting teacher, stuck her head in the door.

"Mr. Floyd might I borrow you for a minute?"

Bob signaled for the class to wait a minute before he followed Mrs. Hess out into the hallway. "I'm so sorry to bother you Bob," she apologized. "But your father came by with the baby."

"Is everything ok?"

"Oh yes," Mrs. Hess assured him. "Auggie's fine but he said that your mother's surgery was moved to later this afternoon and they won't allow him to take him."

"Shit," Bob hissed.

"My thoughts exactly," Mrs. Hess said. "Your wife said she's going to get him but I think she also asked about combining classes."

"Perfect timing," Bob said. "We do that every Friday afternoon."

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Hess said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I'll tell you right now too, if that detestable visiting teacher says anything to you or to (y/n) I'll have him shipped to my neck of the woods and see how he deals with the folks in Chatham County, Georgia."

Bob had to laugh. Just like Mrs. Reyes, no one dared to mess with Mrs. Hess. She was a Southern lady through and through and always had a good quip for anyone who got on her bad side. The high schoolers even had their own slogan for kids coming fresh out of the lower school......"don't mess with the Hess."

Bob waited patiently for you to come down the hall with baby Auggie. "Alright guys, it's looking like it's that hour!" Bob announced once he was back in the room. "And this time Mrs. Floyd brought a little guest this afternoon."

All of the students collectively gasped when they saw you walk in with the baby. Any time you brought Auggie in, the grew excited beyond words. Nobody in the entire school could resist his cuteness, let alone the fact that he looked so much like Bob.

"Everybody put the desks together," you announced, carefully picking Auggie up out of his carseat.

"You want me to take him sweetheart?" Bob asked you.

"Do you mind?" you asked Bob.

"It's not a problem at all," he told you. "We made him together and it means I help you shoulder the duty together."

"You're right," you told him. "But lest you forget mister, that part of the reason we made him was due to that fiery breeding kink you keep buried until we're home alone."

Bob chuckled and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Don't even start," you laughed, warning him. "Let's get back to business."

You and Bob wrangled together your students to continue the lesson while Bob kept Auggie safe and secure in the curve of his arm.

"Now in Mrs. Floyd's literature block," Bob continued, touching up his notes on the chalkboard. "We're at a point where the Fellowship has reached the woods of Lothlorien and left behind the mines of Moria. What sticks out to you guys most in this part? Any major themes? Elements? Justin."

"Um, I'd say the biggest one is kinda that darkness turning to light," Justin Daly answered. "I remember picturing the scene in the films where the mines were like really deep darkness and then you get to the woods where at night it's all brightly lit."

"That is an excellent point," Bob told him, adjusting Auggie so that the baby rested against his chest. "We come across alot of that throughout the books, but also vice versa, right?"

"Right!" the students responded.

A knock at the door suddenly had Bob rolling his eyes. "We're not to be disturbed!!" Bob announced loudly.

"Mr. Floyd, it's Mr. D'Nadi," answered the male voice on the other side of the door.

Bob groaned and rolled his eyes. All of the students fell quiet as Bob opened the door to find the pretentious visiting teacher from another school standing before him.

"You're not wearing dress slacks but jeans?" Mr. D'Nadi asked.

"In some cultures I'd be considered overdressed," Bob informed him.

"Yes well, I um.....I came to enquire about that proposal you're working on for the school?"

"Yes," Bob said flatly.

"I cannot stress enough that the proposal is what's able to allow your students to go on these field trips that you plan every year," D'Nadi explained rather sharply. "If you plan on taking these kids to Norway....."

"Already done," Bob told him.

"Mr. Floyd....."

"Listen dipshit," Bob interrupted. "We all know that you're only here as a visiting teacher......keyword there....visiting. You are merely here to observe and then go home. Under no circumstances were you to tell anybody in this school what to do or how to implement their lessons."

"Listen I know it's more responsibility but...."

"Do not lecture me on responsibility," Bob told him sharply. "As you can see, Mrs. Floyd and I take care of our students who are like our own family and if your observation skills were up to par, you'd see that we've got a baby to take care of as well. Now if you'll please remove yourself and your foot from the door, that'd be great."

"You do know that protocol doesn't allow you to bring your own children to work?" D'Nadi tried to tell him.

"Fire me," Bob told him before shutting the door right in D'Nadi's face before he could say anything else.

Bob pressed a soft little kiss to Auggie's cheek before turning back to the students who were trying not to giggle.

"Shall we keep going guys?" he asked them.

Both you and the students cheered and applauded Bob, without a doubt proving that he was the best history teacher in the entire school.

#top gun maverick #robert bob floyd #teacher!bob #teacher!bob x teacher!reader #teacher!bob floyd

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invisiblefoxfire · 4 months

Text

I was recently reminded of early-90s Canadian absurdist sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall and was delighted to discover that they have made all the episodes of their show available for free on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@thekidsinthehallkith

They had one openly gay member (Scott Thompson), which was a big fucking deal in the early 90s. And they made plenty of jokes about it, making fun of homophobes in various ways and reclaiming slurs left and right.

So I've been working my way through each season of the show, and while some things haven't aged well (it was the early 90s), most of it is as flawless today as it was back then. I keep thinking "certain parts of tumblr would absolutely shit their pants over this show" because they were masters of using all the "wrong" and "offensive" words to make really anti-racist, anti-homophobic, generally very progressive points, all while being fucking hilarious.

Anyway this moment had to be GIFd, so I have GIFd it. The quality isn't perfect because the footage is from 1990 and there's only so much you can do with old footage. But I know you glorious queers will make good use of it. 🏳️‍🌈🫡

#kids in the hall #the kids in the hall #scott thompson #queer #lgbtqia+#gif

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whiskeynwriting · 1 year

Text

MBFD - Chapter Ten: Even When Apart

Dave York x Female Reader

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Word Count: 5.9k

Warnings: 18+ (minors DNI)

Mentions of separation/divorce, reader descriptions, dirty talk, sexting, male masturbation, spanking, praise kink, mentions of oral (m and f receiving), unprotected vaginal sex.

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A/N: soooo we planned out this chapter a hot minute ago, and expected it to be way longer. But I hope you enjoy it anyway my babies <3 I feel like having 14k chapters and then 6k chapters is a running theme in this series lmao

Also, sorry for the late post lovelies. But if you know me, you should know it’s a regular thing 😂😭

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My Best Friend’s Dad Masterlist

Join My Taglist!

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“John,” He nods, walking down the hall. Just barely, the coffee in his to-go cup swishes inside, the contents still boiling.

His coworker returns the friendly gesture with a smile on his face, asking briefly, “Dave, how’re the kids?”

All he does is shrug, putting on a brave face. “Can’t complain.” But that’s the end of it.

As he expected, life’s been shit since you left again. But he understands, he can’t exactly live at your apartment forever. At least, not yet. He has considered it, though. Over the past few days, he’s been researching homes, mainly condos and townhouses. It’s not likely that he’ll be sharing a home with Carol and his daughters for much longer, and maybe you’d be willing to move with him. But Dave’s waiting to bring all of this up. He thinks it will be best to do so toward the end of your trip. Which is in about… shit, three days. He can’t fucking wait.

David is well aware that he’s living in a fantasy land. The two of you living together? Officially? It blows his mind to even think about it. At that point, Molly would have to know. There’d be no hiding it. But for now, he’s ignoring all of that. He’s choosing to bask in the peace you bring him.

Settling in at his desk, he releases a heavy breath. Honestly, he doesn’t need to be here this early - he hasn’t needed to stay so late, either. But it gives him time away from the anxiety surrounding his family, and in turn, helps him relax. He’s good at his job and truthfully, figuring out how to quietly and expertly remove people from their own lives is easier than dealing with his current familial stress. It does, however, have one downside. It takes time away from you.

“Oooh, who misses you?”

Immediately, you’re snatching your phone out of Angela’s hand, staring down at the screen to see the text Dave sent. Eyes widening, you feel a sense of heat run through your cheeks, and Molly notices, too.

“It’s probably just Anthony.” Rolling her eyes, she moves into her next stretch, preparing for today’s warm-ups.

“No, it’s not. I told you I’m done talking to him.” Trying to dull your annoyance, you turn back to your screen, smirking ever so slightly. He misses me?

Frowning, Molly leans upright once again. “Well then who the hell is it?”

The quiet that follows seems to infuriate your closest friend, because she’s immediately trotting over to snatch your phone from your hand.

“Molly!”

“Miss you, princess.” She reads out loud, raising a brow. “How come I don’t know about this?” It’s easy to see now that Molly isn’t angry, she’s sad. She assumed you’d tell her about your next relationship. And all at once, the guilt you’d been pushing down for weeks bubbles into your throat again.

“I, well, I just… I’m…”

“That’s funny,” She cuts in, staring at the screen. “My dad’s name is Dave.”

At first, you feel like an idiot. You really couldn't have changed his name? But as soon as Molly starts giggling, you release all your anxieties in one breath.

“That’s so weird, is he my dad’s age, too?” She jokes, tossing your phone back to you while returning to her position.

Chewing on the corner of your lip, you close your phone, shoving it into your backpack. “Maybe.”

“Wait, really?” Spinning on her heels, she darts back over, sitting on the floor in front of you. And a few other girls scooch in, too.

“Of course you’d be the one to go for older men.” Nora chimes in, causing you to turn your head.

“What? Why?”

“Maybe it is Molly’s dad.” And now, everyone is turning to Lexi. “What? It could be!”

“Yeah, right.” Molly snorts, rolling her eyes. “Like that would ever happen.”

“It’s not her dad!” God damn, this is frustrating.

“Whatever,” Molly groans, patting her hand on your knee. “Just tell us about him!”

Side-eyeing her, you grin, quickly glancing down at your hands. You almost can’t keep it in, your relationship with him. Not when everyone is so eager to know. Hell, you can do this, you can still keep this a secret.

“Well… he is older. And, I don’t know… we’re still kind of… new.”

“Have you said I love you?”

“Well, yeah…”

“Awe! Wait, who said it first?” The girls seem ecstatic, but you can tell Molly is still pretty hurt.

“Um… he did.” Your heart beats a little harder, thinking back to that night.

“So it’s definitely not new.” Lexi adds with a few of your girls agreeing.

“So, his name is Dave?” Molly inquires further, trying to ask the important questions. If you’re telling this guy that you love him, she should know more about him. “How did you guys meet?”

“Oh my gosh, what does he look like?!” Angela unexpectedly butts in.

“We have a… a mutual… friend.” It’s all you could come up with. “And he’s tall, way taller than me. He has light brown hair and dark brown eyes…” Trailing off, you find yourself caught up in the thought of him. “He’s pretty strong…”

“You said he’s older, right?”

“Mhm,” Nodding, you shake yourself out of your thoughts. You just had an overnight trip with him not too long ago, you should be able to focus on your personal life.

“Does he have a dad bod?” She’s grinning wildly, and now, every head is turned toward you. “Is he big?”

“Angela!” You scoff, still smiling. “Yeah, he has a dad bod…” Replying with a laugh, you turn away.

“And?”

Raising a brow, you turn to face your teammates. “You think I’d be with him if he wasn’t big?”

Everyone is giggling like little school girls, but Molly still can’t shake the feeling of being lied to. Why haven’t you told her about this? Are you not as close as she thought?

“Go stretch!” You demand with a grin, shaking them off. “We have warm-ups in ten.”

On the other side of town, Dave smiles down at his phone. Once you’d gotten a moment to yourself, you responded to him. I miss you too.

He hasn’t seen your pretty face in days, not in person, at least. But he’s been thanking the lord for SnapIt. Wait, no… Snapchat? Whatever it is, it’s been his only way of actually seeing you. At home and in the office, he can forget about personal calls and video chats. But cute selfies and quick videos easily make up for all of that.

“Jesus,” Giving his head a quick shake, he sighs, staring down at the video you just sent.

You’re in the bathroom, the camera fixed on your reflection in the mirror. That smile lights up his entire life, and prompts his own to form, too. And while the short clip might seem sweet, it’s less than innocent. What you’re wearing immediately sets him off.

“Remember this, daddy?” Comes your cute, girly little voice.

With one hand on your phone, the other finds the edge of your skirt, twirling it slightly. Of course he remembers it, how could he not? The last time he saw you in your cheer outfit was when he came on it.

His response is pretty simple, a picture of his work pants. Well, a specific spot on his work pants. With his hand holding his semi-hard crotch, he captions it with, think I’d ever forget?

“Hey,”

“Shit!” Nearly jumping out of your skin, you turn, seeing Molly. “Oh, h-hey, hey Goof.”

She smiles sheepishly, “Texting Dave?”

For a split second, your eyes widen. But then you remember, she now knows your boyfriend’s name. How… strange.

“Um, yeah.” It comes out as an awkward chuckle, quick to close your phone and put it away.

“I… I was wondering.” Staring at the floor, she swallows, unsure of how to start this conversation. “Why haven’t you told me?”

“About Dave?”

“Yeah.” She nods, finally returning her gaze to you. “Did I, I mean… have I done something wrong?”

“What? No! No, not at all, Molly!”

“It’s just… I don’t know. You’re already saying I love you to each other, and… I just don’t know why you wouldn’t tell me about it.”

Jesus Christ, what the hell are you going to tell her? Is this when it happens? When everything just comes out? When your insides spill out of your mouth like word vomit? Every single secret you’ve been hiding, now rushing to the surface?

“Honestly,” Laughing away your anxieties, you shrug. “I thought you’d think it was… too fast. After Anthony.” Okay, that was good. That was smooth.

“Really?” Raising a brow, she shifts her stance. “I hate that guy. You being with literally anyone else is better than you being with him.”

You chuckle, eyes wandering. Not anyone else.

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide things from me.” Shrugging, she steps closer to you. “That’s all.”

Offering your best smile, you wrap her in a big hug. “Thanks, Goof.”

And you want to stay true to your friendship, you don’t want to lie to her. There are days where you’ve thought about the outcome of your secret relationship, and it’s really torn you to pieces. In the end, you figure it’s best if she doesn’t know. Maybe it’s best if she never knows.

A few buzzes from your phone end your brief moment, with Molly now back away. Pulling out your phone, you glance down, watching the screen light up with Dave’s name.

“Well… I guess I’ll let you get back to it.” She chuckles, acknowledging the notifications.

It’s weird, her finally knowing about this. And although she doesn’t know everything about this, her knowing some of it sort of… normalizes it. But you’re not exactly sure that’s a good thing.

Before you can get a response out, she’s walking away. “Tell Dave I say hi.” She grins, shutting the door behind her. Now that comment, makes your insides twist tight.

Doing as he says, you open the app, seeing another notification from him. And inside, you’re already full of butterflies, thinking about what he’s sent.

This time, it’s a video. It starts out in the same position as the photo he sent, directed at his covered lap. But now, his hand is moving, slowly undoing his belt before pulling it open. Thick fingers then move to his zipper, pulling it down to reveal the pretty periwinkle underneath. But then it abruptly ends. Frowning, you close the app to message him, wondering if he’d intended to send more. But just before you can, another video loads.

Groaning, David sighs, pulling himself out of his light purple boxers. He’s red, already dripping down the sag of his foreskin. Pulling it back, you can hear him gasp, a quiet noise as he holds himself in hand.

“I miss you, baby.” His voice is low, but sweet. Gliding his thumb over the tip, he sighs again. “Miss the way you feel around me…”

You’ve already spent at least ten minutes in here, so you’ll need to do this quick. And be creative. It’s not like you can just get naked in the middle of the bathroom, and you definitely don’t have the time for that. But Dave isn’t exactly a hard man to please.

“Fuck me.”

He thought the two of you were just having fun together, sending these messages back and forth. Sure he’d touched himself in a video for you, but he had no real intention of actually getting himself off. That is, until you sent an upskirt picture of yourself to him.

Your cheer uniform is clearly visible, and with your panties tugged to the side, he can see you perfectly. The smooth pinkness of your skin, just barely glistening for him. Jesus, he misses that, misses how it feels and tastes and smells. Fuck, he’ll have to convince you to give him your panties again, especially if you’re not sure when you’ll next see him.

Making sure to screenshot the image, he pulls it up in his photos, no longer having the Snapchat timer on it. Spitting into his palm, he stares at the screen, at the beautiful picture of your sweet, tiny pussy. It’s his, it’s all his, the entirety of your body. Your gorgeous tits and smooth thighs, the plumpness of your ass. All he wants to do is touch you, feel and grab on your most sensitive places. He loves your hips, loves digging his fingers into the thin skin, especially when he’s fucking you. Jesus Christ, it’s all he can think of, bending you over and taking you from behind, fucking you in his car, in the basement lounge of his home, anywhere secluded enough for him to have you.

Tugging on himself, he releases a rough sigh. Even though he has an entire office to himself, he still wants to keep quiet. He has absolutely no idea who could be walking the halls. Truthfully, though, it’s hard to do so when he has a woman half his age sending pictures from between her thighs.

His head tilts back, resting on the upper portion of his chair as he spreads his legs further. Thrusting up into his palm, he gasps, continuously brushing the flat of his thumb over his leaking head. He just loves how you play with it, how you tug his foreskin back to suck and lick on it. The next time he sees you, he’ll demand it, shove you down onto your knees until you’re gagging on him. It’s what he’s wanted for days, it’s what he needs.

Spit isn’t enough to be an adequate lubricant, nowhere near as slick as your cunt. It’s amazing to him, just how slippery you get, just how desperately you want for him. And he knows if you were here, you’d be doing this for him.

Slamming the phone down on his desk, he finds his breaths becoming ragged, using his now free hand to cup his scrotum. He fondles the softness of it, imagining it to be you while he jerks off into his hand. Internally, he’s thinking about your mouth, about the way you swallow him. Even when he cums, you’re sucking it down, urging it to the back of your throat and Christ, just the thought of it is enough for him.

It’s incredible how sensitive he gets, especially when he cums. He has to bite into his lower lip to keep himself at bay, to keep those whimpers from slipping out. Thrusting up into his own hand, he groans, eyes pitching shut with his brows furrowing just above. His mouth hands agape, unable to think about anything other than your pretty face. He can feel it oozing down the side of his hand, seeping into the cracks between each fingers, leaking over his knuckles. He never used to cum so much before you.

“F-Fuck,” He grunts out, eyes shooting open to look down.

Slowing his pace, he takes a breath, staring at his mess. Some of the warm, white goo is on his boxers, even his work pants, too. But he’s not frustrated about that. He’s annoyed about something else entirely.

“Should’ve filmed that.”

It’d be for the best that you accept her offer, you want to reassure her that your friendship is as strong as ever. But you just can’t bring yourself to. Dave’s presence is nowhere in that house, but Carol sure as hell is. She’s always complaining, whether it’s about Dave, or her work, or her friends, it’s always something. It’s never-ending. And you just don’t feel like dealing with that right now.

“I think I’m okay today, but thanks for askin’.” Is your final response, alongside a grateful smile.

“You sure?” Molly inquires, shifting her bag on her shoulder. “You don’t want to hangout today?”

“Not today, babe. But we will sometime this week, I promise.”

Honestly, you’d like to get home and eat. It’s been a long day, with an early practice and then another after your classes. You’ve barely had time for a latte and some crackers, and you’re starting to feel woozy from it.

“I need to get home and eat. Talk to you later!” And with that, you’re hopping in your Jeep.

Some days, it’s easy to get caught up in the world around you. With school and work and cheer and pom, Dave occasionally falls to the wayside. Even though you’ve been missing some classes and practices lately… But while these days come and go, he always wiggles back in somehow. Today had been busy, you weren’t able to respond to him after your flirty morning messages. But now that you’re driving home, finally on your way to relaxation, your head is full of him again.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey!” You’re giddy all over again, just hearing his voice. You’d decided to call instead of text, you missed his voice. “How are you?”

“Tired,” He groans, staring down at the paperwork he’d been tasked with. “How are you?”

“Tired, too. But I'm finally on my way home, think I’ll take a day off tomorrow. This week has been draining me.”

“Just remember, we’ll get a break soon.” Smirking, he traces an imaginary shape onto his desk, sighing.

“What do you mean?”

“Our trip, we’re leaving on Thursday.”

“Holy shit, I completely forgot! Fuck, I need a break.”

“You’ll get one soon, princess.”

The way he says it makes you sigh, releasing the stress of your day. His voice is smooth and reassuring, deep and just a little bit gravely.

“I miss you.”

“I know, honey. But I’ll see you soon.”

“Tonight?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I’m pretty busy, I’ll probably be home late.”

Immediately, you have the thought of visiting him. You’ve never gone up to his work, you haven’t really had a reason to. But maybe you could surprise him today.

“Okay, babe. Just get some rest, okay?”

“Sure, baby.” He chuckles, checking the time on his wrist. “We can talk more later, okay?”

“Okay,” Pouting, you pull into your parking lot, wishing the call didn’t have to end.

“I love you, sweetheart.” He says it with intention, like he’s apologizing for your time apart.

“I love you, too.” And while your response isn’t said as sweetly, he accepts it, promising to text you soon.

As soon as the call ends, you’re scurrying inside to see what food you have. Instead of just visiting him, you figure you’ll bring him some dinner. He did say he was busy, maybe he hasn’t had the chance to eat yet.

Thinking back to the first time he stayed in your apartment, you remember one of his favorite meals. Easily enough, you find noodles and alfredo sauce in the cupboard, and some frozen chicken in the freezer.

“Who?”

“Dave York… does he, does he not work here?” It’s the third time you’ve had to ask for him, and everyone’s been acting super strange.

“No, he does, he does. I just… are you one of his daughters?” And now, you freeze up. “I haven’t seen you before.”

“I’m… a friend. Can you just tell me where to find him, please?” Did it have to be that big of a deal?

Though, you suppose it should be a big deal. This isn’t just any office, it’s the office for the Central Intelligence Agency. Maybe you should’ve thought this through.

“Sure… just let me give him a call. What was your name?”

Sighing, you hand your ID to the man at the front desk, watching him eye it while picking up the phone. He dials a quick number, Dave’s voice heard on the other end almost immediately.

“Yeah, I’ve got a younger woman here that’s asking for you.”

At this, he sounds flustered, though you can’t quite make out what he’s saying. But then this man is repeating your name, and he goes silent. Shit, is he upset that you’re here? Maybe this was a bad idea. Shit, shit.

“Ma’am?”

“Hm? Yes?” Startled out of your worried haze, the man says, “You can go in. He’s right down that hall, and to your right. Office number twenty-nine.”

Raising your brows, you feel a surge of adrenaline burst inside. “Oh… okay, thank you.”

You’re very suddenly intimidated by your surroundings. Everything looks so… professional, monochrome colors and sleek lines, engraved name cards and security surveillance at every turn. Regardless, you make your way down, albeit with timid steps. And when you’re at his door, you take in a deep breath. Gulping, you lift your hand, knuckles knocking shyly against the door.

“Come in.” His voice is deep, loud, demanding that you enter.

Slowly, you twist the knob, urging the hunk of wood forward. Peaking your head inside, you’re met with an abundance of dark wood and grays. Wooden side tables and shelves, and further in, a dark wooden desk, too.

“H-Hey, hi.” Grinning sheepishly, you fully make your way in, closing the door behind you.

“Hey…” Standing from his desk, you’re not quite sure how to read his expression. Both hands fall to his shirt, fiddling with his buttons. “What…” Walking toward you, he exhales a nervous breath. “What’re you doing here?”

“I, well…” Lifting the tupperware in your hand, you glance down, explaining, “I wanted to bring you dinner.”

As soon as he sees it, his eyes are wide, lips parting slightly. “You… brought me dinner?”

“Mhm, I made it. It’s chicken alfredo, I… I thought you’d like it.”

“Baby,” And the way he says it prompts your eyes to return to him. “Thank you.”

He takes the container so gingerly that you’d assume it was glass if you didn’t already know better. Spinning on his heels, he sets it on his desk, just as quickly turning back to you.

“Oh!”

“Thank you, baby.” Reaching out, he pulls you tightly into his arms, heart beating out of his chest. You can feel it against your own, your hands sliding up to wrap around his neck.

“Of course,” You’re flush from his reaction, beyond happy to see him this way. “I’m so glad you’re happy to see me.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He asks, loosening his grip to kiss your forehead. And then he’s turning, walking back to his desk.

“I don’t know, I’ve just never been here before and I got… nervous.”

“You’re cute when you’re nervous.” He’s chuckling, opening up the container and grabbing the silverware you brought with it.

Slinking into one of the chairs before his desk, you grin, watching him dig in. And in this brief lull, you take a look around his office, having wondered what it’d be like in here. All the lights are warm-toned, his shelves full of novels and his desk incredibly clean. Usually though, it’s quite messy. He’s lucky his secretary called first, it gave him time to hide a few things before you came in.

“Did you eat?”

“Yeah, I ate at home. Don’t worry about me.”

All he can do is stop and stare at you, smiling sweetly. No one’s ever been so thoughtful toward him before. In all their years of marriage, Carol never thought to do this. And if she did, she never followed through on it.

“You’re so sweet, honey.”

“Yeah well I try.” You respond, rolling your eyes with a grin.

With an ounce of confidence, you stand, making your way behind his desk. Wrapping your arms around him from behind his chair, you lean down, kissing his cheek.

“I was a little bit nervous, if I’m being honest.”

“Why?”

“Well, everyone knows I’m married, baby.” He laughs, thinking that was obvious. “And now I have some young girl bringing me food.”

Shrugging, you grin. “Maybe they’ll be impressed.”

Setting down his fork, he grins, turning a bit. “C’mere.” Grabbing hold of your hips, he pulls you into his lap, your back pressing against his chest. “I’m impressed.”

“With what?” You giggle, feeling his lips dragging over your neck.

“How caring you are, baby.” Kissing your neck, he grins, hands unwilling to move from your hips. “I’m lucky to have you.”

Tilting your head back onto his shoulder, you sigh. “I’ve missed this.”

“I know…” Dave groans, “I can’t wait to take you on this trip, do whatever I want with you for days.”

“You could do whatever you want with me right now.” You return, eyeing him from the side.

As if the sound was meant to directly ruin your moment, his work phone rings. And then, a notification pops up on his laptop. A work meeting.

“Yeah, not while talking to my bosses.”

Frowning, you release a pouty huff. “Could I maybe… stay? I’ll be quiet, I promise!”

At first, he’s inclined to say no. He isn’t sure what this meeting is about, but… he could always take it on his AirPods, too.

“Sure, baby. Just keep quiet, okay?”

Your face lights up at his words, nodding enthusiastically. Darting to the side, you grab a chair, pulling it up beside him. It takes all but two seconds for him to connect the call, popping in one of the small, white earbuds.

It’s cute, really, how sweetly you cuddle up to him. But can you help it? Going days without him feels like a fucking crime. And since he’s not on camera, you really can snuggle him, looping an arm around his and nuzzling into his shoulder.

Smiling, he enters the chat, happy to hear it’s about the upcoming trip. “Yeah, the tickets are set. Resnik checked into the hotel already, I’ll be meeting him early Friday. Yep, leaving Thursday night.”

He’s going through the facts, just running over the plan, but even though the conversation is mundane, you couldn’t be more entertained. The smooth melody of his voice lulls you into relaxation, that baritone sound rumbling in his throat.

Something about laying on the sturdiness of him, listening to him converse nonchalantly with his coworkers, it’s healing your inner child. Even though he’s at work, clearly busy, he still wants you here. He still does his best to make sure you know you’re loved.

“Come here.”

“Sh!” You giggle, moving with him. “We have to be quiet!”

“I know that.” Dave grunts in response, pulling you into his body again.

It all happened so quickly, him waking you up before leaving the office. You’re shocked that you fell asleep in the first place. Thinking back, you weren’t even that tired. Maybe he just made you that comfortable.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t have my fun with you.” He finishes, biting into your neck.

After he woke you up, he suggested that you come back to his home. Truthfully, it’s become far too easy for this to take place, for you to fuck Molly’s dad just down the hall from her bedroom. Coming home past midnight, he’s certain that his family will be asleep. And as long as you’re out before six the next morning, you’re in the clear. And anyways, he’d missed having you in his bed, beneath his body and hands. There was a point where you’d told him that you wanted a home, a home to share with him. And after that, he kind of lost it.

At first, it was innocent, the two of you snuggling in your undies together. He locked the door after you were both inside, releasing a contended breath once he finally got to hold you. Dave wrapped the covers around the two of you, settling into his bed. But then you were shifting, trying to get ‘comfortable’, all while grinding back against him.

“You know what I can’t stop thinking about? Your gorgeous fucking mouth,” Reaching up, he covers it with his palm, hissing into your ear, “And all the sexy sounds it makes.”

He’s holding you from behind, having shoved your panties to the side. Slipping himself out of his boxers, he slides along the slickness of your sex, grunting hot breaths directly into your ear.

“Jesus, baby, you don’t understand. You can’t do that to me, you can’t grind that perfect ass against me. I just, fuck, I cum so fucking easy with you.”

And while he’s talking, only riling himself up, you’re still doing it, shoving yourself back against him. Both of your hands are clinging to his forearm, lungs doing their best to release quiet breaths.

“Every time you leave, I think about you, baby. I think about you every goddamn second of the day. Think about your beautiful lips, tapping the head of my dick against them.” And that’s when you release your first, true moan, eyes fluttering just above his hand. “You want it, princess? You want me?”

It’s a smile whine, one accompanied with a nod, that you give in response. And with one small slip, barely adjusting the angle of his hips, he’s sliding in. It feels like it’s been forever since you felt him, the thickness of him splitting you open from behind.

“Talk to me,” He finally gives in, taking his hand away. “Talk to me, baby.”

“Baby,” You nearly squeal, feeling his hips thrust into you. All at once, he’s forcing you to take him, every inch. And it burns but it feels just right. “Fuck, I need this.”

“C’mon,” Dave grunts, teeth dragging along your neck. Sliding one hand down, he smacks your outer thigh, demanding, “Grind yourself against me.” And like always, you give in.

“More, daddy.” Already, your breaths have turned heavy, feeling his hips rotate against your ass. The sting of his slap still radiates along your skin, his fingers now pressing into the plump muscles he can’t seem to get enough of.

“I can’t wait to give you more, I’ll give you everything.” He promises, huffing out a deep moan. “When we’re on our trip, I’ll taste you everyday, every goddamn day.”

“David,” He’s pumping himself into you, meeting the smooth rotation of your hips.

“Fuck, I can’t wait to have your mouth on my cock again. Shove it down your throat and make you look up at me while you swallow.” He can’t even begin to tell you about the fantasies he’s dreamt up about this trip. “I can’t wait to take you with me.”

“I…” Sighing, you smile. “I can’t wait, daddy.”

“Daddy’ll give you whatever you want, okay, baby? Whatever you need, it’s yours, it’s yours, princess. Fuck.” Sliding his hand down, he fondles your chest, gripping you in hand. “Maybe I can show you off, take you to some beaches and clubs.”

“R-Really?”

“Fuck yes, you think I’d pass up that opportunity?” You hate to say it, but feeling like a prize to him is making you drip. “Let everyone see the sexy little thing that’s with me… Fuck, you can be so dirty, can’t you, baby? Sending me pictures of your pussy, huh? Letting me see up your cheer skirt?”

“I, I want that. Want you to do that.”

“I already have.”

“No, baby…”

“What?” Pressing his nose into your cheek, he groans. “What do you need?”

“Want you to do that at our next game.” And you almost can’t help the wicked smile that forms on your face.

“Yeah? At halftime? Just like how we first met?”

“Yes, baby.” The feeling of his cock dragging along your walls is almost too much when coupled with his words. And before you even realize it, your hips are stuttering in their motion.

“Did I tell you to stop?” Another harsh spank, one loud enough for you to worry.

“Daddy,”

“You like that?”

“You know I do.”

You can feel his stubble scratching along your jawline and cheek, his lips insistent in their kisses. But then he’s lowering himself, finding and then sucking on your neck.

“Do you like it, daddy? You like being inside me?”

“Fuck,” It’s a growl, one vibrating over your throat.

At this point, he’s slapping his hips against you, diving deeper every time.

“I loved sitting in your lap, daddy. Maybe I can do that more often at your office.”

“Maybe you can do a little more than that.”

You’re pulsing around him, trying to quiet your shrill gasps. Molly and Alice are just down the hall, and so is Carol. And to think you’re fucking their dad makes you hot all over again. It’s become so exciting. Hell, who are you kidding? It’s always been exciting.

“I love you, sweetheart. You were meant for this, you were made for me. Even when apart, I still want you. I still need you.”

“I need you, David.” Clinging to his forearm, you release a soft moan, feeling his tip punch against your most sensitive spot. “I love you.”

“B-Baby,” He suddenly stutters, holding you tighter in his grasp. And you almost can’t breathe from it, can’t think of anything else but him.

“I know, daddy. Will you cum inside me?”

“Jesus,” Eyes rolling back, he grunts. “You’re perfect for me.”

The sloppy sound of your meeting sexes makes your face burn, and if it weren’t for the loud fan in David’s room, you’d be worried. It makes you grateful for the times you get at your apartment, where you can be as loud and sloppy as you want. And you’re sure this vacation won’t be any different.

“I’m gonna take you with me,” He promises breathlessly, eyes pinching shut. His tongue is laving over your neck, lips kissing your jawline and cheek, moaning sweetly, desperately into your ear. “I can’t wait to take you with me.” In less than three sharp thrusts, he’s spilling into you, feeling the hot liquid rush out of his tip. It shoots into your center, the gooiness of it coating your insides white. His muscles turn to jelly, his once steady breaths now faltering, especially when you shove your hips back against him.

“I love you,” He proclaims through his high, his voice and chest straining as he speaks to you. “I love you, sweetheart. You’re mine.”

“I know,” You promise in return, nuzzling back into his barely-covered body. “I know, baby. And you’re mine.” Reaching around, your fingers find that soft, light brown hair, finding gentle purchase with it.

“You’ll always be with me, I promise.” Kissing the shell of your ear, David sighs, basking in the sensation of your fingers in his hair. “Princess, I’ll take you everywhere.”

#Dave York #MBFD #MBFD Series #My Best Friend's Dad #My Best Friend's Dad Series #Dave York x you #Dave York x reader #Dave York x female reader #Dave York smut #Dave York fluff #Dave York series

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imaginesforeveryone · 3 months

Text

The Leader of the Peaky Blinders (part 7)

Pairing: Thomas Shelby x Y/N Summary: You are from one of the most notorious families in Chicago and you were about to make deals with the most notorious families of England. Warning: smut,loving!Thomas, short, drinking, swearing,

You decided to take a stroll through the halls of what you would call a castle, to get acquainted with your surroundings. Your men were probably quickly asleep in their given rooms, which was fine. You were more than capable of protecting yourself. Walking down the stairs passing quite a few of beautiful painting and decor. Making your way into the dinning hall you were sat in with the Shelby company not to long ago. You stopped in front of the painting that showed Thomas with a large white horse.

"Graces Secret" You heard Tommy say from behind you. You turned to look behind you. He walked towards you with 2 glasses in his hands, and handed you one once he had reached you. He worse the same white shirt he did earlier, without his vest, and coat, and the sleeve rolled up.

"The horse?" You asked looking back at the painting and sipping your drink.

"Yes. Grace's secret. After my late wife." He explained further.

"Oh, yes. I remember this. Grace's secret, trained by May Carleton, after you had learned about her affairs with the man from New York, then found out she had been impregnented by you." You explained showing that you did your research in him before coming in contact with him.

"You really did do you research, aye?" He asked looking over at you with those icy blue eyes that you just couldn't get out of your head.

"Mr. Shelby. I'm a business women. I do research on ALL of my allies, and on all of my rivals." You said turning to him with a grin.

"Well, what is it then? Allie, or rival, Miss. Capone?" He asked turning to look at you and sip his whiskey without losing eye contact.

"I'm not so sure. As of right now, a good fuck." You said turning and continued walking through the house, reaching a sitting room, that had a beautiful brick fire place, with a fire lit inside of it.

"You aren't wrong about that, sweetheart." He said as he followed you into the room and stopping in front of the fireplace looking over at you as you stood looking out the tall window.

"So, Mr. Shelby. How is it that kid from Small Heath, that served his country, came back and started a backyard razor gang, and has this empire now?" You asked walking towards him, and stopping inches from him.

"Come with me." He spoke plainly and walked off to a door that was set on the side wall and going in. You walked into a large, dimly lit, office, that also had a fire place lit in it. He walked to the couch that sat in the middle of the room, and motioned you to come sit next to him.

"Beautiful office." You spoke out as you went and sat on the same couch as he did.

"Yeah, worth a shit load, so I sure hope so." He spoke looking around.

"Small heath is a rough town to grow up in. All you knew growing up was guns, women, drugs, & sport. Maybe you get lucky to be able to kick around a football in the alleys without being approached by men who wanted to hurt you. So, after my brothers and I got back from war and all we did was violence, and killing over there, thats all we about knew. So we had to make money some how, but I won't get into how we did so, because, well, as you said, I'm just a good fuck." He explained actually opening up to you a bit.

"Well, Mr. Shelby, you've shown me the family room, the dining hall, your office, and my room. How about we skip over everything else and you show me your room." You spoke up, only being about to focus on the knot that began to form in your stomach as you watched him speak, sip his drink and softly lick his bottom lip. He finished his drink and sat it down on the table, and you did also.

"After you?" He said standing. You stood before him and turned to walk out. Letting him walk next to you s you followed his footsteps up stairs.

"Also, We never thanked you for getting Lucca Changretta off of the bored." You said breaking the silence as you walked side by side, down the hall.

"Well, Miss. Capone. Here's the thing." He said stopping in front of a door and opening it and motioning you in. You walked in looking around, there was a large bed sat in the middle of the room, with plenty other furniture in front of it. There was pretty much a whole other room where the bathroom sat. The room was huge to say the least.

"I didn't do that for just your family." He spoke shutting the door behind him and walking up behind you.

"I did it for my business, and my pleasure." He spoke again laying a hand on your hip, and brushing hair off your neck. Placing a soft kiss on it, making you breathe out.

"Unlike, what what I'm about to do right now." He spoke again moving to the other side of your neck, and push your long hair behind you and placing a soft kiss there also.

"And what's that Mr. Shelby?" You asked leaning your head back.

"I'm doing this for yours and my pleasure." He said spinning you around and wrapping your legs around his torso and instantly attaching your lips to his. You felt yourself moving, but didn't care to open your eyes to see where you were going. Feeling yourself being placed down very softly, surprisingly, on his bed.

"Mr. Shelby, I'm forced to think you way have a little more respect for me, treating me so softly." You said with a giggle under your breathe.

"Maybe so, I guess well find out." He said as he opened your robe ip to look altho the nightgown wore.

"Miss. Capone, did you wear this just for me?" He asked standing up and looking down at you. Smiled sitting up stripping off your robe and throwing it across the king sized bed.

"Maybe so Thomas." You said standing to your feet in front of him taking ahold of the buttons on his shirt and unbuttoning it all the way down and stripped it off, exposing his naked chest.

"I'm lead to believe you may be getting soft on me to then. You wouldn't have gone out of your way to get all dressed up for me back in New York." He said looking down at you. You kissed his lips softly, but quickly spinning him around and pushing him down on the bed.

"There she is." He spoke sitting up on his elbows. You grinned down at him, and then unbuckled his belt, unbuttoning his pants, and unzipping them. He pushed them off of his thick legs and let them fall to the ground and watching as is length popped out saying hello.

"Already ready for me huh?" You said getting on your knees in front of the bed between his legs. He sat up looking down at you in said position.

"Hard not to be ready for you, when you're dressed like that." He said taking your hair in his hand and yanking your head backwards to look up at him completely.

"And there he is." You said smiling up at him. He took his pointer, and ring finger and putting them in your mouth. Making you gag on them making them wet with your saliva. Taking them out of your mouth he reached down, lifting your nightgown up to attach his fingers to you already swollen bud. You jolted from the sensation, but he held you in your place by your hair.

"Fuckkk." You whined out beginning to buck your hips at his fingers to get more friction. He slowly slipped a finger inside of your folding and then into your wet, tight hole.

"Oh fuck. So wet for me already, love?" He said looking down at you. You couldn't get any words out, just moans and grunts and your hole was being intruded, by the beautiful man that sat in front of you. His movement became quicker and harder.

"Oh, Tommy, don't stop." You breathed out almost unable too. He released your hair making you fall back, but you caught your self with you hands behind you and stayed there, careful not to loose the feeling you had building in your stomach.

"Yes, yes, right there. don't stop." You said bucking your hips up at him. He took his other hand and pushed down right above your pubic bone giving you more pressure and pushing you closer to the edge.

"Yes, love. Release it. Give me everything you have." He whispered leaning forward, taking your lips to his and with that, you released all over his finger deep inside of you, not being able to breathe from the intensity of the orgasm. After catching your breathe, you got to your feet, and pushed him back on his back and taking his thick cock in your hand. You spit on it and rubbing the spit up and down his shaft, then quickly taking it between your lips.

"Fucking 'el." You heard him breathe out. You continued bobbing your head up and down on his length slowly taking more and more into your mouth. He grabbed your hair again and making you take the whole thing down your throat. You gagged out, causing spit to come out of your mouth. He held you there for a fee seconds then pulled you up to look at him. With a string of spit dangling from you mouth down your chin, he put his lips to yours, and picked you up off the floor and to straddle him.

"I can agree, you are a great fuck also." He spoke up to you as he slid himself slowly inside of you, allowing you to adjust to his length and girth.

"Tommy... " You breathed our softly.

"Yes, love? Is it good?" He asked hiking up your night goal over head, exposing all of your skin to him. He took a breast into his mouth as your began to bounce up and down on his cock, taking all of it in you.

"the best, to be exact." You smiled down at him. That's when he held you in place above him, and began pumping up into you fast and hard.

"Yes, yes, yes. Harder Tommy." You said and he obeyed and began pouring faster and harder into you.

"Ah, fuck, you're going to make me cum again." You said as he kept hitting your soft spot every single time he thrusted into you. He reached between the two of you and rubbed gently circles on your sensitive bud.

"Shiiiiiiiiittt" Was all you could get out as you clenched harder around him and released everything you had in you. The room filled with heavy breathes between you and Thomas, and the wet sound of him inside of you. After you came down, he flipped the two of you over so you were now in the middle of the bed, and Thomas between your legs.

"Thank you ." You breathed out to him.

"I should be the one saying thank uoiyou for letting me enter that tight whole of yours." He said as he pushed himself into you again. His head falling into your neck as he gained leverage to start pumping into you.

"Yes, Tommy. Right there. Use me to milk yourself of your seed. Give it all to me." You whispered into his ear, and then taking his lips onto yours.

"Ah, fuck, love. It's so good. So tight" He said between kissing trying to catch his breathe.

"All for you Tommy, use it. You're going to make me cum again." You breathed out.

"Im right behind you Y/N. Let it all out." He spoke out as he picked up speed. Entangled with in each other. Limbs wrapped around each other in somewhat of a loving embrace. His thrusts began to get sloppy and you felt the knot in your stomach begin to release.

"I'm summing Tommy, YES, YES! Keep going." You screamed out not being able to hold it in anymore.

"I'm cumming too, love. Giving you all of my seed." He said shakily, and seconds later you felt his hot seed inside of you, filling you up. You both rode out your highs still entangled in each other. A minute passed and Thomas rolled off of you on his back.

"Fuck. that was amazing." You spoke out in amazement.

"Of course it was. Look at us." He spoke up cockily. He took a cigarette in his mouth, lighting it, and giving it to you. Then he did get one for himself.

that didn't seem like normal sex. that felt passionate. soft. like there was some kid of love involved. does he feel something more for you now? He was never that soft with you, in bed, or out of bed. what is going on here?

#thomas shelby x y/n #thomas shelby x reader #thomas shelby #cillian murphy #peaky blinder #imagine #imagines

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ofkithandmckinney · 10 months

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Me: happily ignoring my trauma

Some seemingly innocuous irritation: *smack*

#dealing with my shit through kids in the hall gifs #trigger #ptsd #trauma #kith #kids in the hall #the kids in the hall #mark mckinney #bruce mcculloch #kevin mcdonald

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agent-barnes40 · 10 months

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Fantasy And Fun

MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS, mention of child-murdering No ship, just friends. Reader insert! Getting my feel for all the characters, this will also not make sense if you have not seen the movie.

You saw that little girl enter Freddy's. That's all it was, saving a little girl. You weren't going to get involved with the rumors flooding that place. You weren't going to be running from an animatronic fox, yet here you were, staring down the fox. You could hear the little girl screaming, and a man yelling out a name. "She's with Chica!" You yelled, before taking off down the curved hallway. You could hear the thundering steps of the fox coming after you and then suddenly, it stopped. You heard the little girl, Abby, screaming and you took off to grab her. "Oh shit! Is that Mr. Cupcake?" Abby suddenly jerked and looked over at you. "Who are you?"

"I followed you in here, now go!" You went to reach for Abby and she turned to face the guy on the floor, his leg being nommed on Mr. Cupcake. "We can't leave Mike!" "Okay, kiddo. I get it. I'll deal with the cupcake, you take off." You gently pushed her farther into the hall and immediately grabbed the cattle prod-looking thing on the floor. "Get ready, Mike!" Mike immediately shook his leg and you jammed the prod into an open spot of the mouth and shocked the hell out of the rabid cupcake. Mike looked up at you, and you kneeled to help pull him up. "What the hell is happening?" "Where's Abby?" Mike asked and you looked around the corner. "I told her to run." You and Mike immediately took off in Abby's direction. The two of you ran through the kitchen door, you holding the door open for him from behind. "You find Abby, I'll see if the door is clear." You told him and turned to head toward the main entrance. The two of you both stilled as you saw what looked like Bonnie coming at the two of you and you immediately turned to Mike. "RUN! Go find Abby!"

The rabbit stomped closer, hunched over as you stood to block the path any further. "Please, please be a nice one." You whispered as the glowing eyes neared. "Not friendly." The bunny garbled as it neared you. "Fuck." You cursed and immediately started to step backward. The rabbit tisked and wagged a finger, humanlike. "There are children here." "How the hell are you responding?" You asked, trying to stall enough to give Mike and Abby time to find a secondary exit. You could hear Abby let out a short scream and feared the worst, and immediately turned to look, only to get aggressively body slammed and the force shot you to the floor a foot away. Your head bounced on the floor and you just lay there, stunned.

"Seems another body to dispose of." The rabbit spoke as you attempted to gain your bearings, trying to sit up. You turned your head to see the rabbit nearing and struggled even more. "I'm just here to save a kid! Please, I'm trying to do the right thing." "And the right thing led you to your death." The rabbit garbled out and you tried to meet the eyes of the rabbit. You watched as it pulled out a knife and got ready to plunge it into your body. "That's enough!" You sharply turned your head and saw a blond-haired woman holding a gun and aiming it at the rabbit. You immediately started to scramble away and try to get up. Mike came running over to pull you up, Abby glued to his side. "I'm okay. I'm okay. Get out of here."

The three of you heard a sharp gasp and a thud and saw the head of the rabbit had been replaced with a human head and the face you saw made you pause. "Mr. Raglan? W-What's going on here?"

Steve was your next-door neighbor. He was nice and liked the food you offered him. He turned to face you. "Symmetry, my friend. I get to kill Micheal Schmidt and his little sister, just like I did his brother." You held your arms out over the two. "You'll have to go through me, Mr. Raglan."

His face contorted into a smile and he started to walk towards you. "Mike get the hell out of here with Abby." You snapped and suddenly you saw Abby running towards where Foxy was and scrambling to pull something out of her bag. Steve turned to the animatronics, who were watching with flickering eyes. "Are you ready for some fun children?"

#Sorry for ending it here. I couldn't make my brain write more.#fnaf movie spoilers #fnaf movie x reader #Cade’s Fnaf writing

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garbinge · 1 year

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Misdirection

Happy Lowman & Daughter OC Scarlett Lowman

From these August Prompts: Misdirection A/N: Forgot to post yesterday, so here's yesterday's August fic!

Words: 1.9k

Warnings: Angsty. Mentions of hospitalization, hurt, broken arm, worry, etc.

SOA Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics

“Scar.” Happy’s voice rarely sounded worried, unsure, or defeated but right now it was a mix of all 3.

“What’s wrong?” She knew to ask immediately.

“It’s Lex. She got hurt at the clubhouse.” Now that was a typical Happy response, little information, but just enough detail to have Scarlett’s heart drop to her stomach.

“What happened? Where is she?” Scarlett was grabbing her keys, eager to get wherever her daughter was.

“We’re at St. Thomas, Tara’s got her, she’s checking her out.” Happy said that as if that was going to solve everything, like that would make his daughter's anxiety completely disappear.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Dad.” She was now leaving in the middle of her shift at work, no notice, just calling out to one of her server friends that she needed her to cover her tables.

Scar was going to stay on the phone, pressure Happy for more information but she knew it’d be a waste and just get her worked up more so she hung up. She began speeding down the Charming roads on her way to St. Thomas, cutting through backroads and shortcuts, anything to cut down on the ETA. She didn’t bother parking, she handed the keys to valet and knew she’d make Happy pay for it.

Before she could make it to the front desk she ran into Jax, literally.

“Oh shit, my bad, Scar.” Jax steadied her.

“Where’s my kid, Jax?” Her hands practically threw Jax’s off of hers.

“Woah, relax, she’s up in pediatrics, Tara’s checkin’ her out.” Jax spoke like it wasn’t a big deal, like he wouldn’t rip down walls and bulldoze over people for his kids.

“Don’t tell me to fuckin’ relax, Jax. What the fuck happened?”

“She climbed on top of the playset, jumped down, fucked her arm up. Pretty gnarly jump for a kid her age.” Jax was smiling again like this wasn’t the most serious situation to Scarlett.

“You saw her?” The rage was about to be pouring out of Scarlett.

“Yea a group of us were by the garage, when it happened.” Jax was so oblivious to what was happening.

“None of you said anything? Told the fuckin’ kid to– I don’t know– maybe not do that? Jesus, are you all so far up your own asses? Do you not get what the fuck could of happened, or did happen, I don’t even know because no one is telling me anything!”

“Hey,” Jax held up his hands and stepped back. “We all called out, Happy was right there telling her not to do it but she didn’t listen, must be a Lowman family trait.” Jax’s eyebrows raised as he referred to Scarlett. “If it was super serious I wouldn’t be here bullshitting with you, I would be up there with everyone else waiting for you. So don’t misdirect your anger on me.”

“Get out of my way.” Scarlett was pushing past Jax.

As Scarlett entered the pediatric wing she saw Gemma, Bobby, Tig, and Happy.

“What room is she in?” Scarlett wasn’t in the mood to have another ‘bullshitthing’ conversation with anyone.

“201.” Gemma was immediate to answer, understanding what Scar was going through, mother to mother.

Scarlett was moving quick past the waiting room and down the hall in search of the room so she could find relief or some sort of answers. She stopped in her tracks when she saw her daughter with a bandage wrapped around her arm, her face was stained with tears but currently her face was all smiles. There were so many things floating in Scarlett’s head right now as she stared through the window of the room Lex was in. Her baby was okay, she was hurt, but she was there smiling and okay. But that guilt was still eating her alive.

“Hey, she’s alright.” Tara’s voice alerted her to turn around and face the doctor. “Her arm is broken, we’d describe it as an acute fracture, she’ll wear a cast for a month and then a split, but it’ll fully recover, no surgery needed.”

Scar let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much, can I go in and see her?” She was turning her head and already starting to go into the room.

“We still need a couple more x-rays just so we can see progress as time passes with the cast and splint.” Tara explained hoping that Scarlett would get it.

“Alright, I’ll wait out with the club, you’ll find me when I can see her?” Scarlett sounded eager.

“Right away.” Tara smiled and touched the side of Scarlett’s arm before moving into Lex’s room.

Scar knew standing there and watching from afar would be tortuous so she quickly moved back to the waiting room. For a few moments she stood back, looking at everyone in the room but specifically her father. Happy was nervously standing against the wall where the waiting room began to open up. Nervous was a feature that Happy didn’t show very often. To be fair, he wasn’t showing it too much, but Scarlett clocked it right away. The stoic face had more of a frown to it, and his leg was lightly tapping up and down, he had his eyes focused on one spot on the floor, he was fixated on it probably thinking about all the potential possibilities, all the things that could have happened mixed with the anger that there was nothing to do, no one to blame, no one to fight to get payback unless he was going to punch the play set to pieces.

Scarlett knew exactly what he was thinking because when she broke her arm when she was just slightly older than Lex, Happy went and threatened the parent of the kid who pushed her off the gym stage. It took 30 minutes of her begging for him not to threaten the child themselves before she negotiated him down to ‘talking’ to the parents. She should have known better, even at that age.

“She’s gonna be fine.” Scar reached her hand up and touched Happy’s shoulder.

His gaze immediately broke and turned to his daughter. “Can we see her?”

“Not yet. Tara’s doing more x-rays, progress shots. She’ll be in a cast for a bit.” Scar’s hand was still resting on her father’s shoulders. “You’re not mad. I thought you’d be mad.” Happy said now standing up straight and staring down at her.

“I was mad. You’re lucky I ran into Jax down the hall first, I yelled at him and now I feel better.” She smiled.

“I told her not to jump.” Happy still had his stoic face on.

“What can I say, she gets her listening skills from you.” She pushed her hand against his shoulder before letting him go.

“She gets that daredevil spirit from you.” Happy turned a smirk now.

“And I wonder where I got that from.” Her eyes rolled and she turned to the other people who had begun approaching. Bobby, Tig, and Gemma. “She’s alright, gonna have a cast, that she’s probably going to ask all of you to sign, so please no inappropriate shit. Or cursing. Or SOA colors or markers please.” Her eyes moved to Tig specifically. “Why are you lookin' at me?” “Because when she asked you to sign her field trip form you signed it with the anarchy A.” Scarlett crossed her arms. Everyone turned to look at Tig as if to ask that was seriously what he did.

“It makes the A in trager look better, what can I say.” He shrugged.

Before anyone could answer, a little voice was getting louder from down the hall.

“Mommy! Mommy!”

Scarlett turned around and squatted to be eye level with her little girl. “Hey baby!”

“Look I broke my arm!” She was grinning from ear to ear despite the tears being stained on her face. It was such a Lowman thing to do. “Its pretty cool, right?”

Scarlett was going to answer, but it truthfully wasn’t the right time to reprimand her, she had been through enough and she’d talk to her at home about listening and making better decisions. “The coolest, but I’m just glad you’re okay. I was scared.”

“So was Pops.” Lex pointed to Happy. “Pops, look at my cast! They let me draw on it and look I did a smiley like the tattoos you and the one mom has!” She raised her arm to Happy.

The silence between everyone was very prominent, the tension rose. Some eyes looked over at eachother, some looked at Scarlett to guage her response, guage Happy’s. Tig was the first one to speak with humor in his voice, a shrug falling off his shoulders and the sentence he spoke earned him a look from everyone.

“Well at least it wasn’t one of us that did something inappropriate.”

#SOA #Sons of anarchy #SOA fanfic #SOA fanfiction #Happy Lowman #Happy Lowman x OC #Happy Lowman & OC #Happy Lowman Fanfic #Jax Teller #Tig Trager

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morning-357 · 2 months

Text

Camp Log 2.2

me at my kids today:

bard animal speaks to the spider holding the lil lizard boy (official nickname) hostage

turns out mama spider is just trying to protect her babies (she says something criptic about how to go up means to go down so they listen to the ranger-lizard)

on watch i give them a random chest which suddenly appeared. the fighter fire-breathed it, burning it to a crisp:

“Finders keepers, I saw it first so I get to burn it.”

they get to the basement where they read another story

lore to be continued in detail but tldr; there once was a child named bastille who had everything he needed. he was never told "no." no one ever truly connected with him. so he took and took and took. first money, then books, then a child, then a dog... all gone.

so if anyone who reads this also completed the poll from yesterday, you will probably think: what the heck is bastille??

benn (and jerry) became an amalgamation of nightmares

quick break for quote as they approach and hear footsteps at the end of the hall!

(up till this point, I told them there was gold flowing in the walls so everyone's impression was that there would be a dragon which... oops.)

Fighter: Im excited to meet my father!

*team approaches the monster*

Druid, shouting into the shadows: are you [fighter]'s father??

Monster: uhhh... yes?????

Cleric: *rolls well on an insight check*: he's lying!

Fighter: You're not my daddy!!! >:(

Ranger: Are you my daddy?

*team group huddles and make a plan where this interaction occurs*:

Cleric: Go say hi to your daddy. (sacrifice)

At this point I realized the only sane person in the group was the bard.

ranger goes to hug the monster and gets enveloped in a BIIIIIG hug :)))))))

and then... the creature starts to grow and change and morph, hundreds of faces, thousands of arms, eyes popping everywhere...

combat begins. i did NOT make this easy (5 attacks, plus 7 to hit, can deal over 50 damage per attack and nearly killed three pc's)

eventually they figuire out three things:

this is bastille

freely giving deals a shit-ton of damage

the only thing that does more damage is teamwork

they wittle his HP down through a series of lighting bolts (ouch), group vicious mockery (had to stop them from being insensitive and rude but they were quite funny overall), and basketball which 5 children destroyed me in

in the end, they are let with a small child made of smoke -- non corporeal. the cleric gently takes the crystal (the thing they need for the quest) and says that being able to give and take is healing.

im so proud of my children. they did good.

sooooo plan/poll for tmr: gotta get/make a monster based on vanity or self esteem (lack of + dragging people down). I need to get them on the track of compliments. i dont give a flip flop if they say this is mlp-core. the power of friendship is real <3

#d&d camp #me: there is a meaning i want you all to take from this #fighter: yeah. *looks at ranger* dont hug stragners.#i think these children would have fun as stranger danger warning officers

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seraphimixm · 1 year

Text

lucifer battles for florida charmin toilet paper

So I made this (couldn’t find the human world Lucifer that was already transparent and I’m too lazy to edit clean like that anymore so deal with it)

I’m rooting for mephistopheles but I feel he won’t win. 😭

Thirteen: What are you doing here Solomon!

Solomon: *pushing a cart filled with mechanical repair things like wrench’s and a lot of stuff saying “fixes washing machine” blah blah and of course the detergent he needed*

Solomon: Trying to make sure Purgatory Hall still gets clean clothes…?

Thirteen: Ah I don’t care…but why’s purgatory hall altogether here!

Solomon: I didn’t take them with—

(Behind the bikes there were three sets of familiar blue eyes slightly declining in height through the small cracks you could see)

Solomon: Me. Get over here you three.

Luke: Hey! I didn’t even want to come here…he did! *points to Raphael*

Raphael: MC always talks about this Florida so I wanted to come also.

Simeon: And I do too!

Thirteen: Oh boy…lemme guess you came mainly so Raphael doesn’t fuck anything up?

Luke: Language!

Simeon: *Stares at Raphael who’s now emptily staring over at the office supplies across from them and then back at Thirteen and nervously nods*

Raphael: I could see that in the corner of my eye.

Mephistopheles: Are me and Lucifer suddenly just specs to you, Thirteen! When will we get this competition going?

Lucifer: Calm down, Mephistopheles, you may make this all much more foolish than it already is.

Mephistopheles: Says the same demon who shouted at the sight of seeing absolutely no charmin like a little girl!

Lucifer: I’m sorry, I’m not the same person who ran around Walmart in stilettos!

Mephistopheles: Why you…

[Out of literal no where a portal opened and Lord Diavolo, Barbatos, and Beelzebub came out. Lord Diavolo having his swimsuit on (with actual pants) and same for Barbatos] Diavolo: Hellooo Lucifer!~

Mephistopheles: And Mephistopheles!

Diavolo: Of course. Hello to you also Mephisto!

Luke: Hello, Lord Diavolo!

Barbatos: What are you all doing here?

Lucifer: Well. *inhale* Mephistopheles’ wanted to cause drama.

Mephistopheles: Me?! I saw that charmin first!

Lucifer: You and the lice in your hair!

Mephistopheles: How dare you!

Beelzebub: Why do you respond so generic…

Simeon: Why are you two fighting for toilet paper…

Solomon: Because humans are shitting more during the lockdown and there’s only one charmin in this whole Walmart.

Raphael: Pardon?

Luke: He means that all of a sudden people need to use the bathroom two times more than before.

Raphael: Humans are so strange.

Beelzebub: I second that.

Thirteen: Anyways. The first challenge is to get someone to help you get something out of one of the locked cabinets.

Lucifer: You mean all of the shelves? Their all locked!

Thirteen: Not from the cabinets out here I mean in the beauty section.

Mephistopheles: But they take literal hours getting over to the beauty section, even the person at the cashier register there!

Thirteen: You want charmin or no?

Lucifer and Mephistopheles: Y e s.

(They both race over to the beauty section, the rest of them following. Mammon on the other hand was stuck on the top shelf of the toilet paper)

Mammon: Help...guys?

Raphael: *looks up and sees Mammon, but decides to just walk away*

Mammon: RAPHAEL PLEASE!

Simeon: Who's doing all that yelling? They sound like Mammon!

Raphael: No one important.

Mammon's trust in Raphael: 💔

Thirteen: Anyways. Hope you guys have fun *pulls out popcorn and foldable chair*

Diavolo: I'm so glad I decided to come here, this is so fascinating!

Raphael: They're just repeatedly pressing the assistance needed button.

Diavolo: So intriguing.

Raphael: 💀

(Mephistopheles was standing at that one aisle thats legit right by the cashier buzzing the button while Lucifer was in the one before that, where the moisturizer cream stuff be at usually)

Little kid: Mom whys that guy pressing the button when the cashier is right there.

Mother of said kid: I don't know, Jimmy, but don't look at him.

Mephistopheles: Huh?!

Lucifer (other side of the wall): Haha.

Some other little kid: Woah sir your doing this for charmin?

Lucifer: Yes...sadly.

Some other little kid: I'd say what would you do for a tootsie pop but dang!

Lucifer: 💀

(Eventually after 2 hrs of waiting someone came to Lucifer)

Employee 1: Hey there sir what do you need?

Lucifer: ...My dignity and charmin.

Employee 1: What-?

Lucifer: A break.

Employee 1: Wh-

Mephistopheles: *storms over there* HEY! Your supposed to come to me first before Thirteen notice-

Thirteen: One point for Lucifer!

Mephistopheles: GOD DAMMIT LUCIFER!

Lucifer: Why are we in the garden section when it's 12 am.

Thirteen: I wanted yalls to find the biggest bird.

Solomon: That's a joke right.

Thirteen:

Solomon: RIGHT?!

Diavolo: *hiding on those high ass shelves somehow* Hehe they'll never figure out im the actual big bird *has big bird costume on*

Beelzebub: If their finding a bird wouldn’t it be inside by the poultry?

Thirteen: An alive big bird.

Beelzebub: Ooohhhh

Mephistopheles: But I’m wearing my favorite tie!

Thirteen: You want charmin or no.

Lucifer: He doesn’t he’s indecisive.

Mephistopheles: EVERYTHING I DO IS FOR DIAVOLO SO I DO WANT IT.

Lucifer: God dammit.

Luke: What type of bird lives in the garden section of Walmart.

Thirteen: The biggest bird.

(Diavolo seemed to have forgotten he needs to be quiet to not be seen so they could hear his goofy ass laughter echo in the many rows of garden shit)

Mephistopheles: Lord Diavolo is the biggest bird?

Thirteen: I wish Lord Diavolo could have kept quiet for longer.

Lucifer: Say goodbye to the charmin, Mephistopheles. *Lucifer soon jetted off looking through the shelves*

Mephistopheles: Oh no you don't! *Just picture this man struggling with those stilettos*

Luke: All for charmin.

Raphael: All for charmin. 💀

(Soon these idiots were tied 45-45)

Mephistopheles: Certainly I deserve charmin right?

Lucifer: I think we all can agree he can just buy rich people toilet paper.

Lord Diavolo: I can buy it for--

Lucifer: No.

Thirteen: If any of ya two can get the charmin first it's all his.

Mammon: YALL AIN'T GETTING THE CHARMIN!

(They all turn and see Mammon at the bike stand thing--holding the charmin)

Mephistopheles: You put that down, idiot!

Lucifer: You'll make him hold onto it, fool.

Lucifer: MAMMOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN PUT THAT DOWN AND GIVE IT TO ME BEFORE I STRING YOU UP FOR THE NEXT FIVE CENTURIES!

Mammon: 💀Nah.

Raphael: Give it to me, Mammon. Now.

Mammon: No >:c

Solomon: Why can't we just go somewhere else for charmin.

Mephistopheles and Lucifer: THIS IS A BATTLE BETWEEN US NOT YOU, HUMAN!

Solomon: Tsk. Okay.

Beelzebub: Hey is that MC.

Everyone but Beelzebub: WHERE?!

Beelzebub: False alarm...where'd the charmin go, Mammon?

*Somehow it sjust fucking gone*

Mammon: WHAT?!

you'll never know what happened cause i didnt have the balls to finish this >:)

#obey me #obey me mammon #obey me thirteen #obey me raphael #obey me mephistopheles #obey me diavolo #obey me lucifer #obey me beelzebub #obey me simeon #devildom.on.lockdown #nxhmir.obeyme

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outpost51 · 1 year

Note

Happy WBW!

Tell me one of the details of your world building that makes you the most excited! What do you want to talk about the most?

Happy WBW!!!!

Well, I’ve talked about the vampire council — how about where the vampires came from?

When a mommy bat loves a daddy bat very much—

Just kidding, follow me!!

SO!! Vampires were Oopsied into existence by angels — “But Kobbl I thought angels were Life’s children!!” You are correct! But pobody’s nerfect in this world, not even the goddesses, they all live and love and fuck up and sometimes they do a bit of all three.

If you recall I’m being so pretentious asdfasds, there are four “levels” of fallen: parvia, mediocri, indigni, and nefasi. And as I’ve said before, only three angels have ever become nefasi, and only one has survived getting booted off the Edge (hard to fly when they’ve ripped off your wings): Phada, one of the vigilisi. She was patrolling the Veil when she came across what she thought was a half dead human woman being dragged through the Veil by imps — angels aren’t supposed to interfere with living humans, humans get burned or sick or worse, but it was Phada’s job to prevent Abominations from crossing the Veil, and a human dying on Their Side was a surefire way of making one, so they could… forgive this interference, right? Her mother is curatori, so she’s bound to have some of that healing in her, just enough to get the girl back on her feet so she can run.

Fun fucking fact. You know how when indigni (violent offenses, third “worst” fallen, subjective) are cast out, their wings are shredded and they’re left for dead at the border? They look pretty damn human when laying on their backs.

Fun fact numero second. Ever wonder what happens when a fallen drinks from an angel? BAD SHIT. BAD SHIT HAPPENS, PHADA.

Isri (the indigni in question) got her wings back! Oops!! And then went on a rampage! Double oops!! And then Miss Bleeding Heart, in an effort to fix her fuckup, went after her! Triple oops!! She’s not supposed to leave her fucking patrol!! She’s supposed to call the praesti!! So Isri has herself a fucking FEAST in a nearby village, and Phada — y’all know Phada, our “hero” — manages to behead her with a shovel stop her just in time to leave one (1) person mostly alive.

Fun fact letter 3. Remember how angels aren’t supposed to interfere with living humans? How they get burned or sick or worse? Yeah, this falls under “or worse”. So the girl — Josseline, if you’re wondering — “survives” her injuries thanks to Captain My-Mom-Is-Curatori and gets elevated to not-quite divinity, hovering somewhere between angels and Something Else.

Of course, being a good little cloudbaby, Phada went home and fessed up, hoping that admitting what had happened would—

Yeah, she got about halfway through “so the body was an indigni” when the Seven (imperatori, they’re the angel judges) were like:

… and dragged her kicking and screaming to the Edge. Her wings hang above the central seat in the hall of justice as an example — Altael (imperatori primus, that’s his chair her wings hang above) loves telling that story.

Phada survived her fall and vanished into the Wilds (the place where even Outlands residents refuse to go).

Josseline found herself a town to rule over, Tagnan, and unintentionally Turned the governor’s wife, Sophie; Josseline didn’t quite drain her all the way, because Sophie fought back and got Josseline’s blood in her mouth.

Friends, Romans, countrymen— that is our first bloodline. Sang-d’origine.

“But what about the other twelve bloodlines!!” Haaaaa about that.

See, angels are busy making New Shiny Souls and keeping the Holy Holding Tank and patrolling the Veil, someone has to deal with the Icky Nasty Corrupted Souls that get stuck on the humans’ side. Enter Death’s cleanup crew: demons. They eat the Icky Nasties. But angels got to make a new Thing!! What if we made a new thing also!! Well one of ‘em figured out the Vampire Formula and made the Phystrokhi — our first daywalkers. (Lightsiders, they call themselves).

The Fae are just greedy little shits. Some Unseelie asshole worked out the Vampire Formula and made the first Darksiders: the Shadow Watch. And if the Unseelie get something, the Seelie are petulant until they Also get that Thing. Enter the Midnight Descendants.

And shit spiraled from there!! There was a fucking vampire-werewolf war!! There are dhampires now!! This is why we can’t have anything nice!! PHADA.

#and we haven’t seen the last of her ;))#or josseline. or sophie. :)#worldbuilding wednesday #the arsonist chronicles

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portaltothevoid · 2 years

Text

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Chapter Six - Warning

Pairing: Eddie Munson x OFC (Kat Ramsay), sequel to Foolin’

Summary: As Eddie tries to focus on things like Hellfire club, Kat is still dealing with headaches. Chrissy seeks her out, needing to talk. This leads Kat to unblock more of her memories.

Warnings: stress, anxiety, mention of death

Word count: 3.7k

Chapter song: Warning by Queensrÿche

Tag list: @madaboutmunson2 @munchabunch @prettyboyeddiemunson @mickkmaiden333 @michele131 @riffcrusader @idiot-parade (As always I’m so appreciative of everyone who interacts with and takes the time to read my stories. I see you guys and it really does make my day. Please feel free to leave a comment or send a message if you’d like to be added to my tag list!)

At school the following Monday, everyone was buzzing about spring break next week. After this, the seniors were pretty much in the clear. It wouldn’t be long until graduation. To distract himself from Kat’s situation, Eddie was focused on passing the torch to the next leader of Hellfire. This would be his final session as Dungeon Master before he would set his sights on California, so he was determined to make it one they would never forget.

He spent study hall keeping to himself as he drew up character sheets and outlined the story. During class, he would draw the game’s villain. He immersed himself in the fantasy world he had total control over. Here, he was the one that called the shots. Here, he had the power and the bravery to finish any quest that was set before him.

In between classes, he stood outside smoking a cigarette. A younger boy, probably a sophomore, stood near him. He kept looking over at him awkwardly as if he was going to approach Eddie, but then decided against it. “You, uh, need something, man?” he asked.

“Um, maybe. I heard you were the one–”

“How much do you need?” He cut the kid off, sparing him from the fearful look in his eye.

“A half.”

“That’ll be $20,” he said as he opened the lunchbox under his arm. The kid scooted over to him, digging in his pocket for the money. Eddie looked around, making sure none of the teachers or staff were in view. Seamlessly, he went in for a handshake where he put the half ounce of weed in the boy’s hand while taking the twenty dollar bill in his own. “You might want to put that in your lunch bag or something so it doesn’t smell,” he advised.

“Oh, good idea. Uh, thanks,” he mumbled before rushing away.

He shook his head as he finished his cigarette. First timers were always scared of him. He had to laugh at how ridiculous it all was. Everyone talked so much shit, yet he was always their go to guy for a fix. Sheer irony.

As he went back inside someone in a letterman jacket bumped into him. “Watch where you’re going, Satan Spawn!”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “I was, Bench Warmer,” he retorted before he slipped through the crowd of students and out of the oaf's reach. There were days, much like today, that just exhausted him as insults were hurled at him randomly. In no time at all, this would be a thing of the distant past. That’s what he kept reminding himself.

On his way to the cafeteria he passed Ms. Kelley’s office. He was surprised to see Chrissy Cunningham rushing out of there, wiping something off her cheek. ‘Maybe Hawkins royalty isn’t as perfect as they appear…’ he thought to himself. Someone of her status would never be caught dead being involved with the school’s shrink. He wasn’t one to judge, but he always thought she had it in her to be different. At least, that’s what he hoped after he spent brief time with her at their middle school talent show. He knew better than to hold onto that though. She was always destined to be a cheerleader.

All thoughts of the social chain of command in Hawkins left him, when he felt a slender arm link around his and faintly heard The Cure blaring from the owner’s walkman. “Care to escort a lady to lunch?” Kat asked, smiling up at him.

“T’would be an honor, m’lady,” he said gallantly in a voice that made her giggle.

“How’s your day been?”

“Got called Satan spawn today. That’s a new one.”

“Ooh, bonus points for creativity!” she laughed.

“What about you? How’re you holding up?” As much as he wanted to, he could never hide the concern from his voice.

“Raging headache,” she sighed. “But I’ll live. Stop worrying about me! I know that look. You have Hellfire to worry about,” Kat tried to reassure him.

When they were all seated, the fourth member of Corroded Coffin spoke up. “Um, Eddie… I have some bad news. My, uh, family is…” He spoke slowly at first, but when Eddie gave him a look he rushed his words to lay everything out in the open. “My family is going away for spring break and we are leaving right after school so I won’t be at–”

“You. Are. Missing. The final session?!” Eddie shrieked.

“I tried. I really tried. You know how my mom is! She didn’t care!”

“Who am I going to get to fill your place?!” he spat.

“I’ll do it?” Kat volunteered, causing the whole table to look at her in disbelief. “What! It’s the final one. Dustin will help me level up my character. Right, Dustin?”

Eddie looked at her like she just sincerely asked him if the sky was blue.

“I– I– yup! I can do that. Sure, sure, sure.” Dustin agreed immediately hoping it wouldn’t send Eddie into a rant. Instead, he just rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Kat I have been trying to get you to play this, for the whole year. And now? Now you volunteer?”

“I mean, I can go support Robin doing her thing in band, if you don’t need me,” she said slyly as she inspected her nails.

“No. No. If we lose one more player, the game won’t work. Dustin, she needs to be at least at level five. Do not let me down!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” he said nervously.

“Alrighty, Dusty. I’m your ride home this week.”

“We’ll start tomorrow! But, uh, do you… even… know what kind of–”

Kat interrupted Dustin with an insulted scoff. “I am an elf sorceress and my name is Kat the Magnificent. Oh and Eddie made me take that quiz that one time. I'm a chaotic neutral.”

“Kat, you can’t be a sorceress at level one. You’re just a magic-user,” Dustin sighed.

“Okay, well, I’m a chaotic neutral elf…magic person. Thank you very much. Now, start rolling the dice and see what level I am!”

Eddie had a proud twinkle in his eye even if Kat clearly had no idea what she was talking about. Dustin hung his head as he shook it and sighed again. Mike actually reached into his backpack and shook his bag of dice, “We could start now and at least see what spells she has?” he suggested.

“Let’s do it, in case I have to change anything,” Eddie said with a huge grin plastered across his face.

They all spent the rest of lunch teaching Kat about the basics of D&D and rolling the dice to see what level one spells she had. She was even serious enough about it to start writing it down. There was no way she would remember all the details about shocking grasp or protection from evil. She let out a whoop that caused people to stare at them for a moment when she rolled a ten, allowing her to pick whatever miscellaneous spell she wanted. Naturally, she picked find familiar and the die revealed she had a black cat, which, of course she did. Eddie knew she barely had the mental capacity to add this onto her plate, but the effort she was putting in to try made his heart swell, especially watching her just have fun. For her, it was a welcome distraction and escape if only for a moment.

Kat found her mind often drifting to this new character she was creating for the rest of the day. It was especially helpful when her headache really started to act up. Despite all that, her thoughts somehow ended up straying towards Chrissy quite often. In Chemistry, she felt nauseous almost the whole time. It subsided when Chrissy left the class early for whatever reason. The whole situation sent alarm bells ringing for Kat. She made it a point after that to seek her out to check in with her and make sure she was doing okay. It was only a matter of time before something had to give.

At the end of the day, Kat made a quick stop at her locker. Lost in her own world, as she turned the corner to head out the main entrance, she didn’t even notice someone barreling towards her and collided right into someone. When she realized who it was, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Chrissy, we gotta stop meeting like this,” she spoke lightheartedly.

“Thank god it’s you, Kat. I was actually looking for you,” she said almost breathlessly. Her expression was riddled with anxiety, which Kat noticed immediately. She grabbed Chrissy by the wrist and brought her into the nearest empty classroom. The contact made her stomach lurch and her head throb, but she did her best to ignore this.

“What’s going on? You look a little… Well, you look a bit worse for wear,” her voice was apologetic, but sincere.

“I just… I don’t know who to talk to who will really get it. Ms. Kelley thinks it’s just stress, but…” She shook her head in an attempt to focus. “I’ve been having headaches since Friday and nothing I do helps, really. Then there’s the nosebleeds and– and the nightmares. It’s like every night. They’re just… They’re so horrible. I– I don’t know what to do.” She was almost in tears as she confessed everything to Kat.

“Alright, this is going to sound completely crazy, but I know exactly what you’re going through. Since the beginning of this month, I’ve had nightmares that have felt real. And they’ve been horrible. My headaches are back again, so I’ve got that too. It feels like…” Kat sighed. She didn’t want to go into full detail knowing that Chrissy was in no way prepared for the truth, but she did the best she could to lightly dance around it while she explained what she could. “It’s like there is something constantly scratching at the back of my mind. I just… I feel like something horrible is going to happen? And I don’t know why both of us are sort of going through the same thing.”

“So it’s not just me? It’s so hard to concentrate on school. I left… I left Chemistry early to see Ms. Kelley. I mean, it feels more than all this stuff I go through at home.”

“Like with your mom?” Chrissy avoided eye contact and stared at the floor, but she nodded. “This is gonna sound weird, but leave the radio on when you go to sleep. It might help. And… Look, weed helped me for a little while. I really think it could help you, Chrissy. I’m never gonna force you to do something you don’t want to do, but depending on how bad it gets… It’s an option. I’ve been dealing with this for…for a long time now. Just if you feel like there’s no other option, it might be worth a shot, okay?”

Chrissy nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot… There's just the championship game at the end of this week. I just need to make it until then. I can’t– I don’t want to deal with people questioning me about things on top of everything else… They don’t understand.” She was fidgeting with the hem of her jacket as she spoke. Kat’s heart was breaking for her. Chrissy wasn’t someone she was close with, but she knew enough that this was taking an enormous toll on her. If this was connected at all to the lab or to her own past, she almost felt personally responsible. She wanted to take it upon herself to put a stop to this, to her pain. No one deserved to go through this kind of torment.

“No, most people wouldn’t. But I know exactly what you’re going through. It’s not easy.”

Chrissy gave Kat a sad smile, acknowledging the comradery between the two of them. She quickly glanced at the clock and gasped, “Oh my god, I’m going to be late for practice. I’m so sorry, I gotta go.” She tried to quickly pull herself together and headed towards the door. “Thank you for listening, Kat.”

“Always. Whenever you need anything, just let me know.” She tried her best to appear strong and confident for Chrissy. On the outside she appeared to as Chrissy gave her another half smile before she hurried towards the gym. When she was out of sight, Kat let out a shuddering sigh.

Eddie was still waiting outside of Kat’s car to talk to her before they left school. Immediately he noticed the concerned look on her face. “Hey, what happened?” he wondered as soon as she was close to him.

“Eddie, this is really bad. Chrissy just talked to me about how her headaches won’t go away. She’s had nightmares every night since Friday and now, she’s getting nosebleeds on top of everything else. I just… I don’t know what to do. I need to figure out what to do.” He pulled her in for an embrace which she desperately needed at that point. She needed some form of comfort or reassurance. He was the only one that could give her that. One way or another, he always knew what she needed and she was so grateful for that. “It’s not like I can force her to try weed or carry a walkman around,” she continued, her voice flustered. “That isn’t like her. And she even said she can’t handle people noticing things like that and commenting about it, on top of everything else she’s dealing with.”

“Kat, you can’t blame yourself for what’s going on with Chrissy. You don’t even know how everything’s connected. It’s awful as shit to have to wait, but she’ll come around when she’s ready,” he tried to reassure her.

“Yeah, no. You’re right,” she sighed. “Maybe I can… Maybe there’s something from one of my memories that I don’t remember. Maybe I can find the connection there.” She pulled away to kiss him goodbye for the day. “It’s worth a shot. I can’t just sit here and wait.”

“Do you want me to be there with you?”

“No, I’ll be okay. You have Hellfire to prepare for. I don’t want to distract you from that.” She gave his hand a squeeze before she opened her car door. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

He nodded as he turned to head back toward his van. She was too stubborn to let him help her with this, he knew that much. He just had to focus on his own stuff. At least for today. Tomorrow was another story.

– – – – – – – – – –

Kat’s mind was reeling. The answer to her connection with Chrissy was right there in front of her. Perhaps she would find it tucked away in her memories.

She hadn’t worked on figuring out her past since Hank was here last month. Of course there was some huge breakthrough at his job and he had to rush back to Nevada. This was the first time she actually wanted to remember.

“You need to know what you’re capable of,” Hank’s words echoed in her mind. What could he have meant by that?

After she got home and changed into her bathing suit, she turned on all the space heaters once she got in the garage. She uncovered the pool and agitated the water. The water was freezing, but Kat was too determined to let that stop her. She pressed play on the recording, picking right back up from where her and Hank had left off.

She got into the pool and began to float. Focusing all her energy on listening to the surveillance footage, the stinging cold of the water didn’t even register. Instead, she found herself back in a lesson room.

The whole lab was practically desemated. When there was almost silence, save for some voices talking down the hall it seemed, she moved her still body off the cold tiled floor. She looked around, trying to make sense of what happened. What she found was Dr. Brenner lying on the floor, blood running down his face.

She was too stunned to rush to his aide. She had felt the energy that caused the door to fly off its hinges. Papa was probably as good as dead. Above her, the lights flickered. Slowly, she got up and her feet started to move her out of the room. There were two other powerful sources of energy nearby. It was all she could feel and she was heading towards it like a moth to a flame.

As she neared the rainbow room, her stomach lurched. Whose power she was sensing, it was truly immense. Just like she did in the lesson room, she made herself invisible, cloaking herself in her own energetic field. She peered through the crack in the door.

She recognized Peter, the orderly. The sinister look on his face, the evil in his eyes… It should have made Kat run away right then and there. But she saw 011.

The lab wasn’t very conducive for making friends. The older kids above her, they had more of a sense about socializing. Kat did too, seeing as how she was raised here. This environment made her want to keep to herself and much as possible. She had shared a room with 011 and as much as two children could in that place, they did form some kind of bond. Kat always looked out for her, putting those who dared to bully her in their place.

Immediately, she could feel something was off about Peter. She could feel the double-edged sword he used when he spoke. He knew the things he said weren’t always as they seemed. She had warned 011 that there was something dark lurking beneath his words.

All her suspicions were proved right. When 011 was slammed into the door, she used that as her chance to slip into the room. From the power Peter possessed, she knew this was 001. She watched as he tossed 011 around like a ragdoll. She was frozen in place, not by 001, but from fear.

Watching was all she could do. She watched in horror as 011 began to float, as 001 had her in his grasp as if she was a balloon. It was when her limbs began to distort, to crack, and bend in ways they shouldn’t, she knew it was then or never to even just try to save the closest thing she had to a friend.

Throwing her arms out in front of her, she put all her energy into 011. She counteracted 001’s by essentially throwing out her forcefield, the energy that kept her safe, around 011. Of course, in doing so, she wasn’t able to hide herself anymore. 001 didn’t even notice Kat until it was too late.

011 took control of her body again. After letting out a primal scream, she used every ounce of energy she could to throw 001 back, pinning him against the wall. She landed kneeling on the rainbow floor.

Kat still had her arms outstretched, also focusing her energy to keep 001 pinned. She began to walk over to 011’s side. The lights dimmed and she rose onto her feet. Kat saw the tears of blood that stained 011’s face. They exchanged a knowing nod. Kat dropped her hands to her side while one hand took hold of 011’s. Together they walked toward 001. They stood in front of the two way mirror that he had broken through.

Anger courses through Kat. This room, the halls, in other rooms, it was all littered with dead, innocent bodies. 001 had lied to 011, to both of them. She remembered him telling her she wasn’t powerful enough. That he needed to focus on 011. He would still help her escape too so that she could get back to her family, but she would never compare to 011. If it wasn’t for her help, 011 would have been another body to add to the count. And as much as Kat wanted to get back to her family, she knew they were the reason she was here in the first place. They dropped her off and never looked back. Always told she was never enough, always made to feel alone… Kat was done feeling that way. She didn’t have to do this alone and neither did 011. Her rage ignited the energy that coursed through her.

In synchronicity, the two snapped their gazes toward 001. With a guttural scream, they extended their free arms and sent a surge of unbridled energy toward the monster in front of them. She could hear his muffled cries and struggle as he squirmed under the weight they had on him to hold him in place.

Their energy shone as a bright light in the center of his chest. It grew brighter and brighter until he began to break down. He let out a scream of pain. The energy burned him. It looked as if he was turning to ash and every particle danced around him as he continued to disintegrate. Kat screamed again as she gave one final push of energy. He faded into this red portal until all that remained were the cracks on the wall from when.he was thrown against it.

They dropped each other’s hand and stood there breathing heavily, watching the spot where 001 had been. The door opened. Kat turned around to see Dr. Brenner standing there. It was then she felt the blood dripping from her own eyes and also from her nose and ears.

“What have you done?” The doctor whispered in terror. “What have you done!?” he asked again in a more demanding tone.

“What needed to be done. What you wouldn’t do.” Kat spat back.

Kat became present in her own body again as she gasped once the tape had ended. She splashed around in the water trying to regain her bearings and sit upright. Panting she got out of the small pool and tied a nearby towel around her.

The orderly, the man she saw, the person she and 011 obliterated or sent somewhere… That was who she saw in her nightmare. The first horrific one since she had returned to Hawkins. The man who morphed into the monster that continued to haunt her while she slept.

The only thing this did for her was leave her with more questions than answers.

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