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sinningwithoppa · 7 years ago

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Retrograde - Chapter 01

Description: Famously titled ‘The Grim Reaper’, you were one of Seoul’s ruthless assassins capable of entirely wiping a person’s existence without a single trace, since to the outside it seemed like you didn’t have an identity, to begin with. But just as you’d finally found your place in this world, it wasn’t long before you realised you had a target on your own back.

Pairing: Hoseok x Reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Word Count: 5.7k

Warnings: Violence, Mentions of Death, Swearing, Scars, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Mentions of Abuse, Light Smut kinda???sorta???maybe??? Filthy Descriptions

A/N: Here it is! Our very first fic! I’m so so happy with the direction this fic is going to go in, so I hope you will enjoy it too~

Masterlist || Playlist || Aesthetics || Ch 01

In an otherwise peaceful and ghost-quiet night only you heard the deafening thuds of your heart nearly beating out of your chest with excitement, having pinned one of your more unruly client’s henchmen against a wall in the shadows beneath a bridge on the outskirts of Seoul, not a soul in sight. You’d caught the bastard while he was heading back to their HQ, you assumed, not far away from where you’d intercepted him.

“You’re going to be a good boy for me and you’re going to tell me where your scumbag of a boss is hiding his sad ass, yeah?” you purred with a pleased smirk and hooded eyes as you hiked your knife up the man’s throat, pressing the blade a bit harder into his flesh. If it wasn’t your weapon or reputation that intimidated him, it was your eyes darkening with a practiced murderous glint. You knew he’d be capable of taking you out in the blink of an eye if you let down your guard and fear bubbled angrily in the pit of your stomach but for now, you had to keep up your fearless facade.

“H-He’s handling a deal at The Vibe,” he managed to choke out from his unfortunate position, glaring daggers down at you.

“Atta boy,” you relented and released the pitiful goon, returning his glare as you hid away your knife. His hand shot up to his neck, tracing the irritated skin with a grimace while stepping away from you, eventually turning away and muttering what you suspected to be some variation of the degrading terms you’d heard during the course of your career, before vanishing into the night. You kept your hand poised on the gun hidden on your person until you’d made sure he wasn’t following you. Now to collect what’s mine. You thought determinedly while making your way to one of the many nightclubs the infamous ganglord owned. God knows what less than legal and horrid things happened within their walls but it didn’t phase you.

At least you liked to think that none of it did anymore.

Out of the many millions of people that roamed Seoul, it had to be you, whose life revolved around gripping the cold steel of guns, relentless in taking care of your marks. You were unpredictable, merciless and possessed great prowess wielding a weapon, earning you the title ‘The Grim Reaper’ along with the pleasure of serving those willing to splash tens of thousands on eliminating rivals, occasionally even millions just to watch their backs.

It was just the way it was.

Society ran its cycle, the city bustling with people as they went about their daily lives earning a living and living on what they earned. It was normal, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing unexpected. And then there was you, slamming people’s heads into walls hard enough that tiles cracked on impact, wielding deadly weapons, knuckles dried with blood and fighting to live another day; the underworld hidden in plain sight. There were organizations after the exact same things, and with competition came rivalry, and with rivalry came your purpose; evening out the playing field for those affluent enough to afford it. Of course, you had your own personal share of enemies but they hadn’t proven to be anything more but bumps along the road.

What a shame for them that you worked with the best.

Ironically, you hadn’t chosen this life yourself, but you were forced into it, just like so many others. You’d lost your parents to crime and your new home had found you wandering the streets. A gang had taken you in as one of their own but definitely not from the goodness of their hearts. It had been more of an investment than anything. They trained you in combat to later use you to deal with rival gangs and send you on missions they didn’t dare to send more valuable members on, which you, unfortunately, excelled at. You needed to shine in order to live another day.

How disgustingly ironic.

The only benefit you reaped from it all was finding a purpose for your once meaningless life along with your first love, Jimin. He’d given you the affection you’d craved all your life and a reason to live. You’d piqued the ganglord’s interest and soon a passionate romance had blossomed between the two of you, lasting until that one fateful night. Now he was dead and your home had been destroyed. They’d all been killed. Living out in the open forced you to put your skills to use to survive but it lead to you creating your current reputation as one of the best assassins out there.

You grimaced at the suppressed memories of your early years. You didn’t have to scrape by anymore and you didn’t have to deal with people using you against your will. Not anymore.

Soon you’d arrived in the center of Seoul; all you had to do now was find The Vibe in the vibrant clubbing district. The distinct scent of alcohol and pheromones drifted through the air as you maneuvered your way around the drunk, lustful people outside either smoking, switching clubs or heading to their apartments with their one night stands. Something about the way human nature was lured out on nights and in places like these had always drawn you in. The best thrills of your life had taken place in these settings. Your sour memories were wiped away by a particularly bright one that had marked the beginning of a better tomorrow. Years ago you’d met the man that had revived your purpose in a milieu very similar to the one tonight.

With your spirits lifted and your mind refreshed, your eyes landed on your destination. The club looked as packed as ever with people waiting outside to get in, along with the scrutinizing bouncer, whom you specifically remembered despising, doing his job of checking IDs and turning absolutely wasted people away. Why is it never the nice one?

You completely ignored the now irritated clubgoers you’d cut in front of, tilting your head up as a silent greeting to the familiar figure. “I’m here to see Jay,” you muttered to which he responded with a curt nod. “In the back,” he let you in and you immediately started narrowing in on your target.

“Hey, Hoseok,” you smirked as you found him standing in the ambiently lit area outside the room where he liked to conduct business, looking as handsome as ever dressed in his usual tailored suit with perfectly shined boots. His bright orange hair stood out in contrast to his mostly black and white ensemble but not as much as his blaringly luminous smile.

“My my ___ I wasn’t expecting you so soon,” he glanced at you grinning his cheshire smile and drinking up your appearance before returning his gaze to his bloodstained fingers which he was in the process of wiping clean. Looks like I’m not the only one collecting debt. “How can I help you, my darling assassin?” he smiled almost innocently before soiling such an image by bringing your attention back to the bloodied handkerchief being slipped unphased into his suit pocket.

“We might be friends but I still expect to be paid on time,” you pressed, approaching his figure. His hands immediately found purchase on your waist, sinfully kneading the flesh beneath your dark shirt. You both savored the intoxicating sensation of being pressed so close together as the bass thumped in the background, distracting you two from your own pounding hearts. Fuck, he smells like sin incarnate. Even with the distinct odor of death wafting through the air, his signature aroma ravished you.

He leaned down to whisper in your ear, his words almost lost in the music blaring outside the secret room, “Ever considered the thought that I missed you and wanted to see your beautiful face more often?” he purred, his lips brushing against your ear as he spoke, drawing a pleased groan out of you. You hummed with satisfaction as you felt one of his hands lift from your waist and slip into one of his pockets.

“You could just ask, you know,” you sighed with a smug smirk as you felt his nose dragging along your neck, his stifled breaths making the hair stand up on your neck.

“Fair enough,” he murmured, bringing his lips back to your ear before placing a feather-light kiss onto your lobe. “I slipped in some extra to make up for my tardiness. Buy yourself something nice for our next job,” he cooed, breathing in your scent, which he found absolutely irresistible, and you could’ve sworn you heard him groan in the back of his throat as he slipped the wad of cash into the back pocket of your jeans, letting his hand linger a bit too long for your taste.

“I’m still not one of your whores, Hoseok,” you asserted with a breathy chuckle, pushing him off of you, cutting your shared moment of indulgence short. You were convinced that your relationship with him was controlled by baser desires more than anything. Over the years you’d grown to like his company in a strange way. He offered you the thrill that you used to numb the fear and let yourself go. Of course, it could prove fatal one day.

“Mm maybe… But it doesn’t stop me from wanting you,” he grinned at the double meaning, eyeing you with a suggestive glint in his eyes. “Such a shame that you’re so damn stubborn about joining Bangtan. We’d take really good care of you, princess,” he purred, cocking his head to the side.

Not much stood in the way of bending to his desires; you were close with a couple of the members, he offered you gratifying missions along with the undeniably intoxicating cocktail of chemicals released by having his tempting lips caressing your skin or his salacious tongue imparting a silent promise of bliss but truthfully speaking, the only way he could get you to join, was to hire you as a bodyguard or earn your loyalty. Problem was you’d most likely decline since you didn’t like to associate with specific gangs. Too risky. As for your loyalty; you found it difficult to give, especially to ganglords. The fewer ties you had, the safer you were. Everything could be ruined again by trusting the wrong people. The last time you’d given your trust blindly was when you had absolutely nothing to lose.

“You’ll take me up on the next hit I texted you about, won’t you?” he pouted, deciding to test the waters a bit by stepping in closer, biting his lip and looking into your eyes, knowing full well how he could play with your heart but you held the key to his. You couldn’t blame him for being so fond of you. You’d never let him down, so you became his favorite assassin. His wish was your command with the right price tag.

“If you keep paying me as generously, as usual, consider me at your disposal,” you smirked and nodded.

“Aahhh, that’s my girl. I’ll need you tomorrow,” he winked and licked his lips, “then on Friday for the job. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my guest. See you, sweetheart,” you barely managed to scoff at his racy advances before he had vanished into the room he’d presumably stepped out of for a moment, blood pooling beneath the door as he closed it.

You breathed in the fresh air as you relished in the tranquility of nighttime. You were in your element and you savored peaceful moments like these when you didn’t have to worry about work. Of course, anyone could attack you and many had reasons to do so, but the handgun hidden beneath your black bomber jacket brought you an extra sense of security. In your position close to the top of the food chain though, many didn’t dare touch you, in fear of you living up to your title. In addition, your services were sought after and crossing you usually ended in deals going bad and blood being spilled. You’d worked hard on creating your guise of a fearless killer along with building yourself from the ground up after losing what you’d called home. You had absolutely nothing. And now you were willing to fight tooth and nail to maintain the web of ties to various gangs employing your services and paying handsomely. As ‘The Grim Reaper’ you felt invincible.

[23:49] You: I’m on my way home

You smiled down at your phone, thinking back to a night similar to this one. Little did you know at the time, that your life would be changed forever by a boy initially sent out to kill you.

You’d left Busan, the memories of abuse and violence haunting you every step of the way. You decided to flee to Seoul, knowing you’d find opportunities to use your unfortunate ‘talents’. In the outskirts of the city, even the most dull-witted of people wouldn’t dare to put their lives on the line by going through an arms deal with a completely unfamiliar ganglord to whom you had absolutely no ties. You weren’t stupid, of course, but considering you had nothing lose at this point, there you were, pulling the hood to your jacket over your head and fixing your face mask to further conceal your identity as you silently left the gritty apartment complex with nothing but disappointment weighing down your shoulders. You’d been to the same guy countless times, and the countless times you’d been there’d fortunately never been a problem except him voicing his unneeded opinion about you being a young girl. The moment you realised he wasn’t there your instincts moved you out the door, your mind creating likely scenarios of his disappearance. You ended up at dead but didn’t bother to wonder how.

You didn’t mind the cold, no matter how much it threatened your muscles to stiffen because all you were thinking about was where you were going to spend your next night, just as you had so many nights before. You managed to convince yourself that the clothes on your back kept you warm enough and that you weren’t weak enough to submit to climate. The only thing you had to do was to find somewhere even remotely comfortable to sleep in, or on, and without the imminence of being forcefully dragged out of your slumber, and your eventful day would end.

It was a quiet evening as you walked aimlessly, mentally marking different places as you passed, and it wasn’t until the sudden rush of footsteps behind you that your mind suddenly went into overdrive. In normal circumstances, it could have been a normal citizen strolling behind you, but you were in a gang-infested area and a citizen strolling through here would be far from normal. Part of you told yourself to ignore them, but the realist in you told you to put your guard up while not drawing any unnecessary attention. You almost let out a sigh of relief when you saw a shop window coming up because it meant that you could see who was supposedly stalking you, how big they were if you could possibly take care of them or just accept your inevitable demise. Just as the window came up you discreetly tilted your head up.

Your eyes widened as you made eye contact with your now apparent stalker. Shit. Gotta find a way to lose—

Before you could finish your thought, he had lunged at you, covering your mouth with his palm to trap any sounds you might’ve dared to make. “Shhh…” he soothed mockingly as your hands flew up to grab onto the assaulting arm just as he wrapped his other arm around your waist before nearly effortlessly carrying you off into a nearby alley veiled by darkness to cover up whatever atrocities he was about to commit.

He twisted around and slammed your body against the wall, forcing your arms behind your back and holding them still with one hand, his fingers painfully digging into your wrists as he tore off your hood and gripped your hair with his other hand unrelentingly. You felt his body pressing against your own as he leaned in and whispered, “Awfully late for a girl to be out, isn’t it? You don’t seem to be going clubbing, babe.” He tightened his grip as a silent threat to keep you quiet. “Something tells me you’re who I’ve been looking for,” he hummed into your ear. To his unfortunate surprise, you weren’t going to give up so easily. With your head and arms immobilized, you had one weapon left; your feet, so before he realised it you’d rapidly brought your foot down onto his with all your might. He grunted in pain as his grip loosened enough for you to whip around and send your elbow straight to his nose, the space between the two of you opening up as he stumbled back. To your surprise, he just chuckled breathily while bringing a hand up to wipe away a bit of the blood that had started to trickle out of his nose. “Looks like you’ve got some fight in you. Too bad I need to take you out,” he cooed huskily while looking you in the eyes with a mischievous glint in his.

“Fuck you,” you spat with a smirk. Might as well put up a fight before biting the dust.

You’d always had no choice but to rely on taking down your opponents not with brute strength, but by using their weak points against them, so you lunged forward and aimed for his nose again, but he managed to block your attack and used the small window of time and his advantageous position to knee you in the stomach, causing you to wince in pain. Of course, his next aim was to smash your face into his knee but you anticipated it and it was your turn to block his attack, grab his leg and shove him off his unstable stance.

Both of you met the concrete but it was you who was on top and nothing but anger fuelled your punches as they rained down upon his face. You were breathing heavier, moving faster, and your face mask had become a hindrance at that point, so you elected to rip it off while elbowing him in the jaw. In the process of removing your mask, however, you’d slowed enough to give him an opportunity to catch your next blow and land his own on your cheek.

Pain spread throughout your entire face in waves of excruciating fire. It clouded your mind enough that it left you vulnerable to his hand curling around your throat. You’d been left in such a daze that you hadn’t realised that he’d managed to flip you over until you’d registered the concrete chilling your skin. Your hands flew up to his, trying to pry it off desperately as precious oxygen failed to reach your burning lungs but his grip was so incredibly tight that your eyes began to sting, and you barred your teeth to fight back your tears.

Something in his eyes softened though. Whatever it was, you felt his hold slacken a bit but not enough to let you breathe. Having you on your back with more light shining on your face revealed your features to him and something in him clicked. He suddenly collected your wrists and pinned them above your head, gazing into your eyes intensely, clearly fighting an internal battle while you heaved, trying to regain your breath and refusing to look away from his puzzled features. You were painfully aware of the extensive bruising forming on your face and neck, hell you didn’t even want to think about what you might’ve looked like at that point, but your pride nearly had you smiling. You marked him alright, his right eye swelling, nose possibly broken and still dripping blood and bottom lip split just as bad. Is that a light sheen that’s glossing his forehead? You, a walking shadow to most, were such a challenge that your attacker was sweating?

“Just kill me! End me!” you started laughing at the ridiculousness of your situation, your body practically trembling beneath him from the rush of endorphins engulfing you, “What’s stopping you?”

He hesitated for a moment before speaking, “What if I told you I could give you a place to stay.”

“And why the fuck should I trust you? You’ve been trying to kill me this whole damn time!”

He leaned in and whispered, “I’ve been tracking you for a while now. I know you don’t have anywhere else to go and nothing to lose. I’ll train you too just to sweeten the deal, babe,” before leaning back out, having the audacity to smile down at you almost admiringly. Unbeknownst to you, your face had revealed your secretive past to him and he couldn’t be more delighted. Given what you’d had to go through by trusting all the wrong people, you were still skeptical of his proposition but he was right. You had absolutely nothing to lose but your life at this point. You’d lost a lover, a home and at this rate, you’d eventually die in the streets.

“And where will you take me, hm?”

“With me,” he smiled sincerely, “to my apartment.”

You narrowed your eyes at him but strangely, you wanted to trust him. You desperately wanted something or someone to save you from this hell you’d ended up in. At this point, you’d had enough of life. With a gun on you that you hadn’t been mindful enough to use, though you knew that he likely possessed one as well and if you couldn’t take him out, at least you could end your own miserable, meaningless life. You worried your lip between your teeth for a moment before replying.

“Fine.”

He slowly released your wrists and to his and your surprise, you didn’t try to fight or escape. He carefully got off you and held out his hand for you to take, to which you obliged and he helped you up. Out of habit, you repositioned the facemask you’d left hanging by your ear. The fear of being recognized after leaving Busan ate away at you each and every day.

“I have a ride,” he spoke softly, almost as if to lull you into a sense of safety. “You don’t have to worry about anyone seeing us,” he assured you as he looked over to you lifting your hood back over your head to which you just nodded curtly, relieved that you’d be able to give your aching legs a rest. The effects of adrenaline were wearing off and your body burned dully from exhaustion. You noticed him limping slightly as you walked in silence for a moment before reaching a sleek black car parked in a secluded area. Damn bastard was probably gonna drag my body here. You snorted to yourself but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Ladies first,” he chuckled, opening the car door for you. You hesitated for a moment. If I’m going to escape now’s my last cha— “I promise I’ll take care of you,” you looked at him startled. “It’d be a crime to waste your talent,” he elaborated, smiling sincerely at you.

“Hand me your weapons,” you demanded, “then I’ll trust you.”

“If it’s that simple then here,” he took the handgun from within his jacket without hesitation and placed it in your now bruising hands. “You can pat me down too if I haven’t convinced you enough,” he winked and laughed when you scoffed and got in the car, shutting the door yourself stubbornly. You took off your mask and managed to catch a glimpse of the damage he had dealt you in the rearview mirror as he circled around the car. Not the worst I’ve seen. You noted as he got in the driver’s seat and started up the car.

“Here’s my proposition,” he said calmly as he pulled out of the alley, unphased by you taking the safety off of his gun. “I’m going to train you to be a proper assassin,” he took a turn and paused to think for a moment, “And you won’t ask questions,” he gave you a small but dazzling smile. Yet something inside you wanted to rebel against your suave abductor if only to test your luck. You were the one with the loaded gun after all.

“When do we start?” you smirked and a matching one spread onto his lips.

“Feisty, huh? I like it,” he cooed and stepped onto the gas, speeding up the car and laughing as you yelped in surprise.

Soon you’d arrived at his apartment close to the center and he’d given you a brief tour. It became evident that your exhaustion was catching up to you since he was yawning after every couple of sentences and your thoughts were slowing down. The open space which contained the kitchen and living room was the first thing you saw in the humble accommodation. There was a hallway which lead to what you presumed were the bathroom and his bedroom.

“I’ll go get you something to sleep in,” he murmured and headed to his room. He looked absolutely wretched with that black eye. Soon he came back with a stack of neatly folded clothes.

“Here,” he spoke softly as he handed you what you presumed to be one of his shirts and sweatpants. “Bathroom’s the door at the end of the hall. Take a bath if you feel like it and use whatever you want in there,” he looked into your eyes with more care than he’d care to admit and something inside you stirred at his genuine concern for you. Maybe it was your shared exhaustion but he was gradually chipping out a cozy little nook in your heart to settle in. Instinct kicked in and you couldn’t help but hug him. He smelled almost like lavender; a comforting and relaxing fragrance.

“Thank you,” you murmured before vanishing to the bathroom, leaving him stunned.

You’d drawn your first bath in weeks. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, you couldn’t help but study your worn body. Scars, and now bruises, littered your once smooth skin. What did it even look like back then? Some were from fights, some from the people you thought you could trust. But it didn’t matter now, you were safe from them.

You slowly dipped into the water and were enveloped by a comforting warmth you hadn’t felt in ages. You took your time bathing, savoring the warmth your body had craved yet your mind was riddled with questions. What will happen to me after this? Will I stay here forever? Will my heart still be beating…? Will he keep his promise? You tilted your head to the door, staring at it blankly, knowing that he was somewhere on the other side. Waiting. With either malicious intent or tender compassion. It could all be a facade he had set up.

You sank down in the tub, letting the surface of water reach your cupid’s bow, and exhaled through your nose, the surface rippling as you closed your eyes and shoved aside your fears. What do I have to lose? Absolutely nothing. It’s all gone now. You pulled the plug and watched the water drain with dull, glossy eyes. The air felt cool against your heated skin. You reluctantly braced your hands on the edges of the tub, wincing from the sharp throbbing in your knuckles and shakily stood up, stepping out of the tub carefully. If you were going to die now at least you’d had one pleasant experience before it and the two guns you’d taken with you. You dried your hair slowly, fixating on your refreshed features in the mirror. His clothes felt like a protective embrace wrapping you in his now strangely comforting scent. You silently opened the door and padded your way down the hall. He wasn’t in his bedroom.

“In here.”

Ah. You padded your way to the living room, finding him making a makeshift bed out of his couch. He had changed into a large cotton shirt and sweats, looking almost identical to you and admittedly more adorable and innocent than before, though the dried blood on his bottom lip and ice pack he was holding to his eye clashed with his appearance. “You’re sleeping in the bedroom,” he chuckled as he noticed your dazed state and offered you his hand which you took with less hesitation than before.

He quietly led you to the bedroom you’d passed on the way to the living room, never easing his gentle hold on your hand. They still ached.

“Get some sleep will you?” he whispered as he pulled you into the dimly lit room, tossing the ice pack onto the bed and he turned around to face you. A small lamp enveloped the room in a warm and soothing glow. You averted his gaze and nodded faintly. “You have nothing to be afraid of, okay?” he spoke as he gingerly brought his hand to your chin, avoiding the bruising, and tilted it up so he could see you, the corners of his lips lifting up slightly. He looked like an absolute mess yet he was still smiling.

“Use the ice pack to ease the swelling. Good night,” and with that, he was gone.

You’d slipped into the most peaceful slumber you’d had in a while when he’d silently slipped back into the room, unable to sleep as thoughts raced through his mind.

[00:37] You: Thought this one would be more useful alive rather than dead

[00:38] You: (JPG.1)

[00:38] You: Put up a strong fight too

[00:38] You: Beat my damn ass up pretty badly

Looking over at your sleeping figure, he smirked softly as he touched his split lip. “You’ll be the death of me,” he muttered with a smirk and shook his head, his phone eventually vibrating with a notification from his boss.

[00:51] ₩bag: Definitely.

He’d hired the assassin to deal away with you since you’d been disrupting business in his territory by roughing up some of his members, yet something inside the ganglord stirred as he struggled to believe his eyes. You’d been very advantageous to him after all.

[01:04] ₩bag: Oh and Jeon

[01:04] ₩bag: Take good care of her.

You finally arrived at the condo in the center of Seoul you and Jungkook had managed to purchase with the income from the empire you two had built together. He had kept his promise and let you live — no, thrive. You pulled out your phone and unlocked the smartlock with it and soon the gate clicked, letting you step onto the grounds. Following the small paved path, you reached the entrance to your extravagant home. You paused for a moment before unlocking the door; you still didn’t know exactly what prompted him to take you under his wing that fateful night and he refused to tell, but frankly, you didn’t mind; you kept your own secrets from him. You had found salvation in Jeon Jungkook and that fateful night had been the first since leaving Busan that you hadn’t had a single nightmare and a proper night’s rest. Your ‘apprenticeship’ quickly grew into something much more valuable to both you and him.

Unlocking the door, you were greeted with the smell of takeout and Jungkook’s head turning your way, a toothy smile stretching onto his lips at the sight of you. “About time, ___. I was getting worried, you know,” he chuckled, tilting his head to the side with his grin stretching even further.

“Geez, don’t get your panties in a twist,” to which he snorted. “I was dealing with Hoseok’s habit of paying me late,” you smirked as you shrugged off your jacket and made your way to the living room, where he had sprawled out boxes upon boxes of takeout on the small coffee table, presumably waiting for your arrival. In many ways, Jungkook had become almost like a brother to you. He always had your back and he’d helped you put yourself back together from the tattered state you’d met him in. You’d speculated his generosity to stem from both curiosity and reverence. You’d managed to deal your fair share of damage to him that night after all.

“Still doesn’t mean you can run around the city at this hour without telling me where you’d gone,” he pouted playfully and tilted his head to the side, earning a chortle from you.

“Gah, you’re so needy, I hope you know that,” you grinned as you sat down on the floor with him. He scoffed and looked at you with his hand on his chest, pretending to be offended.

“You’d treat me this way after all these years?” he pretended to wipe away a tear and you snorted, leaning over and grabbing a lamb skewer from the container in front of him.

“Sorry, babe. Should’ve gotten used to my candidness a long time ago,” you laughed and gave him a smug look as you took a bite, causing him to drop his facade and snicker.

“You win this time,” he narrowed his eyes at you as he picked up a skewer of his own, “but mark my words, I will have my revenge, babe,” he quipped while motioning at you with the skewer.

You scoffed and it was your turn to express your faux distaste yet you couldn’t help but mirror the grin spreading on his lips and with that, you two began eating dinner and summarizing of the day’s events to each other. You discovered he’d carried out the mission posed by a longtime client; a millionaire who got tired of one of his mistresses. Clean shot too apparently. You yourself had discussed the logistics of your next operation with Kim. He said he’d hand over the prospective weapon for it tomorrow after your workout with Jungkook. Ah, shit, I should get the outfit— After the meeting…. You couldn’t help the yawn that slipped past your lips and had you stretching your now stiffened body while you brought a hand up to stifle the involuntary action.

“Bedtime?”

“Bedtime.”

#hoseok x reader #bts x reader #bts fanfic #bts scenarios #bts angst #sinningwithoppa #retrograde #can't spell assassin without ass sass and sin #jimin x reader #jungkook x reader #yoongi x reader #namjoon x reader #fasten your seatbelts and get ready for one hell of a ride

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abliafina-18782 · 3 years ago

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something to come home to

After living and working in San Diego, you meet the handsome pilot Rooster at a bar one night.

Pairings: Rooster x Reader

Author’s Note: Watching Top Gun: Maverick pushed me out of writer's block hell, so I thought I'd try my wings on writing an "x reader" story. I've tried keeping it compliant with the movie though some things might not be accurate. I don’t consent to this being used or republished anywhere. Please fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride~

Warnings: mostly fluff but it has some elements of angst. Friends to lovers trope.

Word count: ~7k

You left your office in a huff, barely saying goodbye to your coworkers as you headed straight for your car with only one destination in mind. The Hard Deck. You rarely went to the bar on a weeknight. Hell, it took a lot for you to go on a regular Friday after work, however today had just been one of those days that required - or more like demanded - a drink. The day had been a cluster of meetings (and frankly most of them could probably have been summarized in an email) and you hoped Penny had a drink ready with your name on it.

You worked as a team leader at one of the local call centers in San Diego. You had started out as a customer service agent, rotating between answering incoming calls and emails from the company’s different clients, and had quickly climbed the ranks and been promoted to team leader. You managed a group of about 15 agents and they all depended on you. They came to you with questions about the routines and it was your responsibility to provide them with the support they needed, except sometimes you felt like a single mother struggling to find time for her kids. You loved your team and they also simultaneously made you want to rip your hair out. This wasn’t exactly your dream job or what you had set out to do with your life, nonetheless for now it paid the bills and kept a roof over your head.

On any other day you would’ve made it to the Hard Deck before the worst of the evening rush, yet the hectic work day had delayed you. Once you finally arrived in the parking lot, you could hear music coming from inside the bar. Somebody was playing the piano and, by the sound of it, had gotten the entire bar to sing along to whatever song they were playing.

Annoyed, you ran a hand through your hair and debated whether or not that drink would be worth it. The last thing you wanted right now was drunken idiots trying to interact with you, you dealt with enough fools at work, and on the other hand you knew there was nothing waiting for you at home. You didn’t want to admit it to yourself, but you hated coming home to an empty apartment. You knew no one in the city since you'd moved here for work and hated that there was nothing to come home to. You'd considered getting a pet at some point but, living the busy life that you did, there was no time.

“Just one drink and then I’ll go home.” You said to yourself while looking in the rearview mirror of your car, your tired eyes reflected back at you. You sat there in silence in your car for a moment, almost as if you were waiting for someone to tell you what to do. With a sigh, you exited your car and headed for the Hard Deck.

The place was packed, everyone seemed to be buzzing with excitement. A group of khaki dressed people had gathered around the, usually empty, piano and were singing along to "Great Balls of Fire". It was a song you hadn't heard in ages and there was something contagious about everyone's cheerfulness, you could feel your mood had started to improve just a bit. Even though the place was crowded, the bar's owner Penny still spotted you and waved. You liked Penny a lot, she always made it a point to get to know her customers and had a tendency to memorize everyone's usual order. Almost as if on cue, Penny held up a glass towards you and gave you a knowing look. You smiled and nodded as you pushed your way to the front.

"Something tells me you're gonna need more than one of these if you willingly came in on a weeknight." Penny laughed and placed the drink in front of you. The glass felt cool against your skin from the condensation and you gulped down almost half of it in one go. "If only you knew." You sighed and put the drink down, mindful of the other customers around you, "though some of us have work in the morning so anything more than one drink is a bad idea."

"Come on (Y/N)! Someone already paid for a round so you might as well live a little." Penny gave you a nudge as if to encourage you to order another drink.

"Oh really? Did this 'someone' buy a round out of generosity or did they put their phone down on the bar?"

"Both. He also wanted to know when I got off work, so you better drink up now or else his 'generosity' will go to waste."

You laughed, the first genuine one of the day, and downed the rest of your drink. "No point in arguing with that, get me a new one then when you can." Penny smiled and left to tend to another customer and you took the opportunity to turn around and look over the people in the bar.

It wasn't unusual for the Hard Deck to be busy like this, but most customers tended to come in on weekends. Your gaze landed on the khaki dressed group by the piano, and now you recognised them to be a part of the Navy. You saw a lot of soldiers in the city even though you didn't know any of them personally. The only one who wasn't wearing the khaki uniform was the man playing the piano. His skin was nicely tanned from the sun and he was wearing a white tank top with a beige Hawaiian shirt on top of it. He had a cleanly shaven mustache and a pair of golden and black aviators covered his eyes. This time he was playing a song you didn't recognize, nonetheless he and the soldiers around him sang along just as happily as before.

"Hey Penny, who's the pianist?" You asked as she came back to you with your drink, "I haven't seen him before." You turned back around to face Penny (you didn't want it to seem like you had been checking the guy out). She looked over at the group to find the one you'd asked about. "Oh him? That's Rooster, he likes to play the piano whenever he's here."

"Rooster?" Penny must've realized the confusion, before you could even question it she added- "His name is Bradley Bradshaw and he's also in the navy with the rest of that group. I'm pretty sure they're all pilots. Don't quote me on it though!" She shrugged before returning to serving the other customers drinks, so you were left standing there with your second drink in hand.

Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw, what a name. There was a part of you that was curious how a piano playing pilot could end up with a nickname like rooster. Maybe on a different day you would've gone up to ask however now was not the time for unnecessary social interaction. You just wanted to finish your drink and be out of here before it got too late. You had meant it when you told Penny you had work in the morning. A new song had started and people were still singing, with the exception of that you couldn't hear the piano accompanying it. Curiosity got the better of you, and you were in the process of turning around when-

"Did you want something Penny?"

Shit.

It turned out that Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw was a lot taller than you expected, because there he was standing right in front of you. From the way you'd leaned across the bar, you came almost face to face with Bradley's chest when you turned around. You couldn't help but to give him a once-over. Not only was he taller than you expected, he was also stronger. You could see the outlines of his toned body under the tanktop, and it better have been because of the alcohol that you felt your cheeks heating up.

"No, sorry Rooster. (Y/N) was just curious who my new pianist was" Penny called out over the bar, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. Sometimes you wondered if Penny liked to play matchmaker with her customers. You’d noticed before how she would encourage people to talk to each other and now it seemed to have been your turn.

It took everything in your power not to reach over the bar and give Penny a piece of your mind, except then you'd have to buy another round for the lot and then you definitely wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Even with the aviators on, you could tell he looked you over just like you'd done with him moments ago.

"Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw at your service (Y/N)" He gave you a mock salute and that brought you back to reality. "Really lieutenant? Did you run out of energy playing the piano?" I may be a civilian but come on." You tutted and shook your head in a fake disapproval. That definitely wasn't the reaction Bradley had expected and that didn't really surprise you. Humor and sarcastic comments was your natural way of deflecting awkward situations.

You must've come across as confident, nevermind the fact you clutched onto your drink for support, because Bradley straightened up and saluted you properly like you'd seen other soldiers do. You mustered a small laugh at the silliness of the situation.

"At ease soldier, maybe you can tell me how you heard us talking from all the way across the bar." It really had been a question on your mind. You could barely hear your own thoughts because of the noise level and it had been even louder before when Bradley still played the piano.

"It's quite simple, captain." You raised an eyebrow at how Bradley addressed you. It seemed like the bantering was going to continue. "-as a lieutenant I have to pay attention to every detail in my surroundings, just like I do when I’m up in the air. Additionally, someone shouting 'rooster' in a bar is quite hard to miss." He gave a professional, salesman looking smile, however couldn't contain it for very long. He burst out laughing and joined you next to the bar.

Shit, he was right. With the bar humming from all of the different conversations going on, you must've been way above the normal conversational tone (and with a nickname as unusual as 'Rooster') it probably wasn't hard for Bradley to take notice. "You've got me, I admit defeat lieutenant." You held up your drink, "Cheers to your brilliant detective skills."

It was your own way of trying to round up the conversation. Of course, you wouldn't have minded to stay and talk some more with this rooster guy now that you had his attention, still work was work and your alarm would ring at 6:30 tomorrow no matter how long you stayed.

"Captain, if you want me to toast with you, you better get me a drink." Bradley said and interrupted your thoughts. It seemed like the nickname was going to stick. This time though you definitely blushed because you could've sworn he winked at you. Sure you'd offered in the past when you wanted to make a move on someone and yet no one had ever asked you so bluntly (and confidently) to buy them a drink. Your immediate instinct was to say no and wrap things up, but remembering the earlier conversation with Penny, you decided to let loose and live a little.

"Sure thing, I'll get you a drink if you explain to me why Penny called you 'rooster'." Bradley smiled in what must've been agreement. You waved Penny over and he asked for his usual, which turned out to be a beer, then he motioned you over to join him by one of the few tables that were still free.

"I'm a pilot, so rooster is my call-sign. It’s how my colleagues refer to me when we’re up in the air." He explained as he removed his aviators. He hung them on the front of his tank top and had a sip of his beer. "Suppose that's easier than yelling 'Bradley Bradshaw' over the radio." You chuckled and had some more of your drink.

It earned you another smile from Bradley and he held out his drink. The two of you properly toasted before returning to the conversation. "So your call-sign is like a nickname, got it, but how did you end up being called 'rooster'? Wouldn't 'Brad' make more sense?"

"Ah, we don't really get the call-signs from our names. Usually you get your call-sign based on a mistake you make when you start training and then you're stuck with it." Bradley turned around in his chair and pointed towards his colleagues, the khaki dressed group. "See that tall blonde guy over there?"

"The one who looks like he's a contestant on 'the Bachelor'?"

Bradley choked down a laugh. "Yes, him. His call-sign is 'hangman' because he always goes off on his own when he's in the air and leaves the rest of us hanging. It’s a big no to do that as a pilot. The guy next to him is called 'coyote' because of a weird howling he did on his first flight."

He went through all of his colleagues' call-signs and their origin story. A lot of the stories made you laugh, mostly because of how absurd they were, like how one compliment led to a man being called 'fanboy' for the rest of his career.

"- and last but not least we have 'Bob' over there. I don't really know him, he's a RIO pilot as well and I'm pretty sure he got the call-sign because his name is Robert."

"Wait so you mean to tell me your whole group ends up with a bunch of cool and fun nicknames, and he just gets Bob? That's so unfair!" You weren’t serious of course. Talking to Bradley had brightened your mood, to the point that the crap work day you had felt like ages ago, and you felt at ease with him "Why not call him Rocky or something like that?"

"Does he look like Sylvester Stallone to you?" Bradley had a look of surprise on his face, almost as if he pondered on the new call-sign for his colleague. You looked over at Bob again. "I’m sure I’ve seen a pic of Stallone with glasses on, however that’s besides the point.” You waved your hand dismissively before pointing a finger at Bradley, “This might as well be Bob's underdog story where he rises to the top and surpasses all of the other pilots!"

"I'm not really sure how he would do that as a RIO pilot, but hey who knows? Maybe all he needs is a training montage." That made you laugh again and you noticed the smile spreading on Bradley's face. It was full of warmth and highlighted his face in a different way. Maybe it was because of your weakness for a good smile, you wondered if your laughter was the reason for it

"So.. you still haven't told me how you got the name rooster." You fiddled a bit with your, now empty, glass. You felt nervous under Bradley's gaze and you weren't sure how to continue the conversation.

Now it was his turn to feel nervous. He focused his eyes on his drink, as if the information there was the most interesting thing he’d read all day. He smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "They call me rooster because when we’re flying in the air, I sit around and wait before I do something. It's.. it's not necessarily a bad thing but… It’s definitely not the origin story I would've wanted for my call-sign"

His hesitation spoke volumes to you. He finished the rest of his beer in one swig and frankly he looked like he wanted to leave. You felt guilty for bringing it up and you wanted to reassure Bradley that it wasn’t that bad, except you knew far too little about aviation to even make an educated guess…

“Hey, what do you think my callsign would be if I was a pilot?” Without really thinking, you reached out and touched his hand. It was warm and calloused, probably from all of the time he’d spent up in the air or working on airplanes. The touch was definitely unexpected because you could’ve sworn Bradley looked a little flustered. His eyes went from his hand back to you. “Considering how you bossed me around moments ago, ‘Captain' is pretty fitting.”, You saw the smile return to his lips, “But I guess I would have to get to know you before I can answer that properly.”

And he had gotten to know you. The two of you had been talking until closing hours at the Hard Deck and even after that you still didn't want to say goodbye to Bradley. You'd connected with him in a way that neither of you had expected. You shared a lot of common interests and had similar tastes, except for pineapple on pizza that he so willingly admitted to enjoy. He'd asked a lot of questions about you though so you were willing to look past the questionable culinary choice.

Bradley had also been curious about your job and asked you about it. He even expressed admiration when you explained how you dealt with particularly nasty clients. Honestly it had felt bleak to talk about, knowing that he was a pilot and probably got to see a lot of exciting places around the world. He'd surprised you though when he said: "Seeing the world isn't that special when you have no one to share it with."

It reminded you of your own feelings. How you worked long hours and had to come home to an empty apartment every day. You weren't lonely exactly, you were becoming friends with your colleagues, but it didn't compare to the companionship of sharing your life with someone. You hated feeling this way but you didn't share it with Bradley.

Eventually Penny had to shoo the two of you away so she could close. You'd been lingering outside of the bar with him and it didn't seem like he wanted the night to end anymore than you did. After exchanging phone numbers and agreeing to grab dinner together some day, you'd finally parted ways.

The days progressed and you and Bradley kept in touch frequently. It started with you sending him a fun meme about the US military and continued with him texting you every day after work to make sure you made it home okay. You'd told him multiple times that you didn't live far from your office, so it really wasn't necessary for him to always check in, but that didn't stop him. All you knew about his work was that he was back at the TOP GUN school to train after being called back from the VFA-87 Golden Warriors. He wasn't allowed to tell you more than that so you didn't bother asking for more information.

Along with the regular texting, Bradley often sent you pictures of the different sceneries he saw while flying. The images were always beautiful and you felt an extra sting of jealousy when he sent you photos from the beach while you were stuck in the office. You responded with a pic of yourself smiling through gritted teeth, typing "not at all jealous", and he answered with a photo of himself that almost made your heart skip a beat.

Bradley had his aviators on and smiled widely at the camera, but what caught your eye was the fact that he was shirtless. You saw the sweat that had gathered on his skin and it made him look radiant in the sun. The selfie was only from his chest and up but that, and the tiny wisp of chest hair, was more than enough to make you flustered.

Roughly two weeks passed until you saw Bradley again. For once, he didn't text you when you arrived home from work. You figured he must have been busy at the base but that didn't make you feel any less disappointed. In the little time you'd known him you had started to look forward to his check-ins, it made coming home feel less lonely for you.

You waited a while after coming home, to see if he'd text you, but you heard nothing from him. You debated whether or not you should send him a message anyways. On one hand you didn't want Bradley to feel pressured (because he really wasn’t obligated to check in with you) and on the other… maybe it would let him know you appreciated his check-ins…

"I'm home, safe and sound😊" You typed out and sent the message quickly. You immediately put your phone down because it embarrassed you how long it had taken to choose a smiley. This could go either way and you felt nervous as well and hoped that Bradley wouldn't take it the wrong way.

To distract yourself, you headed for the kitchen to figure out what to have for dinner. You looked through the fridge and there really wasn't much to offer. Work had been more busy than usual lately so grocery shopping hadn't been at the top of your priority list. Before you could make a decision on whether or not dinner would be another grilled cheese sandwich, your phone rang.

It was Bradley. He was listed as "Lieutenant Rooster" in your contacts and you'd used his selfie from the beach as the contact picture. You fumbled with the phone as you tried to answer, surprised and nervous over the fact that he had decided to call you. "Lieutenant, to what do I owe the pleasure?" You'd continued to call him Lieutenant, you just couldn't bring yourself to refer to Bradley as 'Rooster'.

"(Y/N)! Hey, I'm sorry for calling, but I just saw your text and…" Something was up, you tell by his tone. His voice was slightly pitched and he almost sounded a bit out of breath, like he was in a rush to get the words out. "-and I thought I'd give you a call! Hi."

"Hi." Silence fell between you. You smiled awkwardly to yourself, you weren't entirely sure if you should ask him if he was okay. "What's up lieutenant?"

"Not much Captain-” Just like you had continued to call him ‘lieutenant’, he had continued with calling you captain, “-I just finished up for the day and I… look I was thinking about that dinner we talked about before. You still up for that?"

"Oh- of course! When?" You paced around in the kitchen, the suggestion had come out of the blue and you were also anxious since Bradley still sounded off. Was he nervous about asking you out to dinner? Surely that couldn’t be it…

"How about now?"

A billion thoughts went through your mind at once. You'd wanted to see him again ever since that night on the Hard Deck. You loved the idea of going to dinner with him, but you also felt worried since something seemed to be bothering Bradley.

"(Y/N)?" His voice was cautious, like he was wondering if you were still on the line with him.

"Yes! Sorry, right now works fine.” You laughed awkwardly as if to ease the tension. “I'd barely gotten through the door anyways."

"Great!” It sounded like he sighed a breath of relief, “If you text me your address I can come pick you up in my Bronco, do you know any good places?"

"I do, there's a really lovely restaurant not too far from where I live."

"Okay I'll come pick you up. Should be on the road in about 20. I'll- I'll see you then Captain."

"Looking forward to it, Lieutenant!" You caught yourself saluting even though Bradley couldn’t see you do it. You slapped yourself mentally and were about to hang up the phone, before finally asking: "Bradley… is everything okay?"

He went quiet for a while. You wondered what had happened during the day for him to seem so off. "Yeah I'm fine, I just… I just need to get off base for a while. Change of scenery, you know. I'll see you soon "

You texted him your address and he answered right away with a thumbs up. Luckily for you, you didn't have to get ready since you were already in your work attire. The office had a business casual dress code, so your wardrobe consisted mostly of slacks and shirts in different colors. Today you had on a pair of nude coloured slacks and a white sleeveless blouse.

It didn’t take long before Bradley arrived. Once you settled in the Bronco and you were on the way to the restaurant, you joked with Bradley about him violating traffic laws to not keep you waiting. He laughed but you could tell he wasn’t really into it, his head was somewhere else. You totally understood the need for a change of scenery but you also doubted it warranted such strange and standoffish behavior.

The restaurant’s main theme was comfort food, they served everything from mac and cheese to pies or breakfast burritos, and you loved going when you had the time. Even though your friendship with Bradley was strong and on the rising, you honestly had no clue what types of food he enjoyed. He seemed like the type of guy who would eat anything as long as it kept him fueled.

Once the two of you had been seated and gone over the menu, you ordered your usual and Bradley ordered a bacon and cheeseburger, silence fell between you. He looked at everything except you and seemed really uncertain with himself. You wanted to ease the tension and ended up blurting out the first thing that came to your mind.

“Did you know that all foods can technically be divided into four groups? Sandwiches, salads, soups and ravioli. Means that you’re really only eating a sandwich for dinner.”

He was reaching for his phone but stopped and gave you a skeptical look as he processed this new information. Bradley was so silent that you thought he was about to call you weird, but all worries were swept away when Bradley's lips widened into an earnest smile. “You know I want to say that you’re wrong but it actually makes sense.”

And that was all it took for the tension to ease between the two of you. You went over the restaurant's menu while waiting for the food and debated which dish belonged to what group. Bradley argued that the pies belonged to the sandwich category due to its many layers, while you argued it could be classed as a ravioli since it was all wrapped in crust. The discussion continued even after the food was served.

"I get that my burger would be labeled a sandwich, I mean it's bun, meat, condiments, bun, but what about my fries?" Bradley held up a single fry, "you've argued that if it's in one piece, it's a ravioli, but since there's so many fries wouldn't that make it a salad?" As if to emphasize his point, he ate the fry that he was holding.

It was like you were back at the Hard Deck again. Conversation flowed so naturally between you and Bradley, that you lost track of time. It wasn't until the restaurant staff informed you they were closing soon that reality came back to you. You had even ordered dessert just so that you'd have an excuse to stay longer and talk to him. When the two of you were leaving, Bradley wouldn't hear any of your protests and insisted on paying for both of your meals since it was his idea to go out.

He drove you home in a much better mood than when he’d first arrived. He cranked up the radio and loudly sang along to whatever that was playing. You enjoyed a lot of Bradley’s features, but his voice had to be one of your favorites. It was full of warmth and had a pleasant raspy tone that really came through when he sang. Watching him sing filled you with a joy you couldn’t even begin to describe, the music faded out around you and you only had eyes for Bradley. Mixed emotions ran through you and in your daze you began to wonder if maybe… maybe you had a chance with Bradley? Maybe you wouldn't have to continue coming home to an empty apartment…

"Hello?" Bradley waved with his hand in front of your face, "You with me Captain?"

You had been so lost in your own thoughts that you hadn't noticed that you'd arrived home. Bradley had parked next to the sidewalk of your apartment complex and was trying to get your attention.

"I'm with you, Lieutenant." Your cheeks heated up and you felt a bit embarrassed, "just disappointed that the night is coming to an end. I had fun."

"Sounds like an opportunity for you to invite me in for a drink" Bradley had the audacity to wink at you and immediately you had one foot out the car, but he stopped you before you got any further. "I'm just messing with you (Y/N)! We can save the apartment tour for another day." He was smiling from ear to ear and you sensed he probably didn't want the evening to end anymore than you did. You tried to put on a serious face but it was hard to maintain it when Bradley looked at you with his playful grin. "You're such a smooth talking stud lieutenant, do you do this at work as well?"

Bradley's smile vanished almost as soon as it'd appeared. His brows furrowed and he looked lost in thought again, like when he picked you up earlier. He mumbled something that was barely audible, but you were able to make out: "that's what mom used to call him."

Oh. He didn't speak much about his family, he'd only mentioned in passing that neither of his parents were alive. Of course you wondered what had happened to them but you were not going to ask unless Bradley wanted to tell you himself. "I'm sorry Bradley. I… I didn't mean to upset you."

Hearing you speak snapped him out of his daze. "No! You didn't, I just… it reminded me of them. What you said." He fell silent again and when he didn't elaborate, you dared to ask a question. "Do you think about them a lot?"

"Yeah. It's hard not to these days…" It took a lot for Bradley to admit that. He was tense and wouldn't look at you, his voice was strained and he struggled to find the right words. "Look, I'm gonna be honest with you, Captain. Some things happened today at work and it affected me, more than I thought it would…"

He shifted in his seat and turned slightly towards you. "Can I ask what happened? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Lieutenant." Maybe the nickname would make him more at ease. As a way to encourage him, you reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Phoenix and Bob nearly crashed today. They're fine but they could've gotten really hurt and it just-" While he spoke, he'd braided your fingers together and you noted how warm his skin felt against yours, "- it reminded me of how fragile life is. My dad died when I was 4. His plane malfunctioned and…" His words trailed off and he looked away.

You wanted to offer him words of comfort but nothing you thought of felt good enough. No one should have to go through that, especially not a child so young. "I'm so sorry Bradley, I… I'm glad that you told me." You realized how it sounded and quickly corrected yourself, "I mean I appreciate that you feel comfortable enough to tell me, it can't have been easy."

He turned back to look at you with those beautiful brown eyes of his that you could get lost in. It was dark out by now, so he wasn't wearing his usual aviators, but the streetlight lit up his face and cast a soft glimmer over his iris'. "I'm being deployed soon and I couldn’t leave without seeing you again."

It shouldn't have come as a surprise but it upset you nonetheless. You remembered he'd mentioned being called back to train for a mission, so you assumed the deployment was it. You let go of his hand and looked down at your feet. A punch to the gut probably would've hurt less. There were a thousand things you wanted to ask, but the only thing you mustered up was: "Why?"

Even though you were happy that he wanted to see you again, you worried that this was goodbye. Bradley had told you before that he moved around a lot due to his job and you didn't even know if he would come back to San Diego after his deployment. His friendship filled a certain void that you had dreaded for so long.

"Why? The same reason you agreed to go out with me." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Your eyes met and your heart nearly leapt out of your chest. Being with him felt like coming home, you realized. Bradley made you feel safe and you would be lying to yourself if you said you didn't have any feelings for him.

A look of determination came across Bradley’s face as he brushed a few strands of hair away from your face. His fingers lingered on your cheek, years of being a pilot had made his hands rough and calloused, yet it surprised you how delicate his touch was. It reminded you of how he played the piano with such assurance and grace. Luckily the streetlight didn’t illuminate your face because you were pretty certain your face must’ve been tomato red by now. His gaze fell to your lips and so did yours in response. A shy smile spread on your lips as you wondered whether or not his mustache would be in the way. There was only one way to find out.

Bradley shifted in his seat and leaned closer to you, his hand still resting against your cheek. There was a need in his beautiful brown eyes, a need that you were certain shined from your eyes as well. You wanted to feel those lips pressed against yours… and yet when you were only inches away from each other, you hesitated and pulled away.

“No… not like this.” Bradley’s hand dropped from your cheek and he immediately moved away to give you some space. “What’s wrong?” He asked, concern showing on his face. “Nothing, I just… I don’t want our first kiss to be like this. ”When he didn’t respond, you elaborated.

“You’re about to be deployed, Lieutenant. I don’t know how long you’ll be gone and when I'll see you again. It could be weeks, it could be months. Besides, TOPGUN pilots don’t exactly have the best reputation in the city”

It was true to an extent. Several of your coworkers had talked about hooking up with pilots, only for them to be ghosted afterwards and never hear from them again. You’d even seen some of it in action down at the Hard Deck, how some pilots would come in with a different girl every night. Bradley had shown no signs of this behavior, but your anxiety got the better of you and you were worried he’d be like all of the other pilots… You liked him, you realized that now, and you didn't want to get hurt and lose that feeling of safety Bradley gave you.

"I don't want to be mean but if you want this… if you're serious about me, I'll be waiting for you when you're back from your deployment." It was hard to tell what Bradley was thinking. His brows had furrowed and he seemed to have turned inwards and wasn't looking at anything in particular. You leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before exiting the car. "I mean it Bradley, if you're serious about this I'll be there when you come home."

After that night you didn't hear much from Bradley. He checked in like usual to make sure you made it home, then he sent you a text a few days later to inform you he was leaving and that he couldn't be reached while he was gone. You didn't know if everything was okay between you two after the dinner, but you answered with a few words of encouragement and that you'd miss him.

"I'll miss you too Captain." He answered and that was the last you heard from him.

You weren't sure of how much time passed after that. It could've been days or maybe even weeks. Life returned to what it had been before you met Bradley. Every day felt the same and your dread of coming home alone worsened. You worked a lot of overtime to make the time pass but it didn't help sort out your conflicted emotions.

The what if scenarios played on repeat. What if you'd let Bradley kiss you? You'd wanted it and so had he… In an effort to protect your own feelings you'd also managed to make them worse in some aspects, but you knew you also would have regretted the kiss if he ghosted you afterwards… "I'll miss you too Captain" The text echoed in your mind like a curse.

After waking up to the sound of raindrops hitting your window on your day off that week, you decided to stay in and order some takeout for lunch. You placed an order from your favourite place and the app said the food would take about an hour to be ready and delivered. In the meantime you did some chores around the apartment, you did the dishes, vacuumed the living room, and watered your plants. The mundanity of it all felt reassuring to you after doing so much overtime at work. You were about to start a load of laundry when the doorbell rang. A quick look at the clock told you that only 40 minutes had passed, you assumed it was your order since you didn't expect anything else, so you were happy to receive the food earlier. You opened the door to greet the driver but the hunger was quickly forgotten though when you saw what was outside of your door, or rather, who.

Bradley. The world came to a halt before you when you opened the door and in this moment, only the two of you existed. You couldn't believe your eyes but there he was, alive and well, aside from a few new scars on his throat. He was wearing his usual jeans and Hawaiian shirt combination, even though the weather was terrible. His hair laid almost flat to his head from the rain and the sheepish look he gave you reminded you of an awkward teenager about to pick up their date. You were so caught up in looking at him, admiring his every feature, that you didn't notice he was holding your takeout order.

"Delivery for Captain (Y/N)." He smiled and held out the bag for you, "I met the delivery driver on my way up." That broke you out of your spell and you smiled back and threw your arms around him, overjoyed that he was back. If he hadn't said anything you probably would've remained in the same position for hours. You dragged him into the apartment and closed the door behind him.

"You're back!" You practically clung to him due to the small space of your hallway, and Bradley had to be careful not to drop the food, "why didn't you tell me? I could've ordered something for you as well. How long have you been back? Are you staying? You haven't told me about your deployment!"

The excitement of being together with Bradley again made you ramble like a nervous teenager. You'd missed him terribly and the anxiety of if the two of you had really parted on the right terms kept nagging on you. What if he didn't want to see you again after insinuating he was some sort of a player? All of your worries escaped your mind though when he swooped in and captured your lips in a soft, sweet kiss.

He wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you close to him, and with his free hand he reached out to cup your cheek. The takeout was long forgotten by the both of you. As your lips moved together, his thumb stroked the skin of your cheek gently, reminiscent of the night when you almost kissed. You smiled, both from the happiness of finally being reunited and the tickling sensation that came from his mustache. There was a natural rhythm between the two of you and you knew that this was the right moment for your first kiss. You draped your arms over his shoulders and pulled him to you, needing him close after being apart for so long. Kissing Bradley was nothing like you ever could've expected. His lips were soft and he kissed you with a confidence that reminded you of heroes who rescued damsels in distress. Not that you were a damsel in distress. When you eventually had to let go to catch some air, you saw how Bradley's beautiful brown eyes shined with nothing but pure adoration for you, making you feel warm and fuzzy inside. To him you were nothing less than his equal. His reason to come home.

"You have no idea what I had to go through to do that, Captain." Bradley said with a small laugh, arms still around your waist. The hairs that formed his mustache were out of place after the kiss, you cupped his face with both of your hands and used your thumbs to adjust the strands of hair. "Something tells me I don't want to know." You said and smiled, "this is a nice moment, let's not ruin it lieutenant."

This earned you another smile and a lighter kiss. Bradley lifted you up in his strong arms, without breaking the kiss, and carried you bridal style into the living room. A small giggle escaped your lips, amazed that Bradley still managed to surprise you. He laid you down on the chaise part of your sofa and kneeled next to you on the floor. If you didn't know better it looked like he was about to propose.

"I thought of you every single day when I was away. What you said… it stuck with me, not in the way you think!" You'd been about to protest and apologise for ever doubting him but he stopped you before you got the chance. "You were right in what you said... I've been going from city to city for so many years now, I don't really have a place I call home. I never cared about making any connections outside of the Navy and when I was away… I couldn't stop thinking about you and I realised how much I wanted someone to come home to."

It was like listening to yourself speak. You had struggled with the same emotions and hearing Bradley speak about it made you speechless. You sat up and clasped your hands over his, pressing a soft kiss to his knuckles. He gazed into your eyes, he looked like he wanted to say a million more things but you stopped him this time. Nothing else needed to be said, except:

"Welcome home lieutenant."

#rooster x reader #rooster x you #rooster imagine #rooster fluff #rooster topgun #top gun fanfiction #top gun fanfic #top gun fanfics #top gun x reader #bradley bradshaw #bradley rooster bradshaw #Bradley rooster Bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw imagine #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw fluff

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diyahatnight · 2 years ago

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Rich love - going on blind dates

scaramouche x gn reader!

prev - next

As you’re getting ready for your date you hear obnoxious beeping from outside your window. It was obvious who it was so you didn’t have to check if it was Childe but you did anyway.

You grab your bag and keys, then slip on your shoes and hurry your way downstairs and out the door. You’re greeted by your orange-haired friend inside his orange car.

“You and your car are twining so bad.” you make a joke giggling

“get in or you’re walking,” he says staring at you

You hop inside the passenger seat and fasten your seatbelt, and he speeds off without giving you time to think.

You guys make it to your destination and he drops you off and drives away without saying goodbye.

You open the door to the restaurant and boy is it fancy. Luckily you can afford it. Shoot you can buy the building, the workers, and the customers but that’s not the point.

You call Childe because you don’t know who the hell you’re looking for.

“Go to table 13 and look for a purple-haired boy,” He says to you on the phone

“ok…- wait purple?” Mouth dropped to the ground when you locked eyes with your “blind” date.

“Hey.” He says nonchalantly.

“what the hell is this? where you in on this?” You take a seat putting your stuff down.

“I’m just as confused as you are y/n,” he says like it isn’t a big deal.

“It’s not that big of a deal. Not like I want to go on a date with you, but since we are already here we might as well.” Scaramouche says with a tiny smile

You sat there for a hot second “You’re scaring me. What the hell did you do to my Scara?”

He doesn't react he just looks at you in your eyes completely ignoring what you just said “let’s order”

You slowly nod and open the menu as he does too. As you two are looking through the menu, the both of you sit in complete silence.

You wave the waitress over and place the orders. While waiting for the food you two just talk about life and how things are going.

“This is the most I’ve seen you in one month,” you say with a smile

He nods “I agree”

You look at your glass of wine “hey do you want the rest of this? I’m kind of a lightweight.”

He grabs the glass and finishes it for you. You couldn’t help but notice that he placed his lips where you placed yours, an indirect kiss?

Your food arrives and you are excited because you haven’t eaten since breakfast.

You grab your fork and taste your food. It looked great but it didn’t taste great. Scara noticed that you made a face at your food.

He asks “hey what's wrong?”

“This does not taste the best” you reply as he gestures to you to hand over the bowl.

He tried some of it too “oh. Have some of mine.”

He splits his food and puts it on one of the extra plates they provide and he passes it over to you. “thank you!” you say all smiley

After your meal, you guys clean up the table and you grab your stuff. “hey, Childe says he can’t pick me up, can you give me a ride home?”

“Sure,” he says nonchalantly as usual

He leads you to his car and opens the passenger side for you. Like a true gentleman, don’t think much of it.

On his was taking you home he tells you “I’m going to take you to a place with better food and drinks”

he basically asked you out on another date “I’d be honored”

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Masterlist | prev | next !

I don’t re-read these i probably should but I don’t feel like it

Synopsis: You are a model and a Youtuber with no love life, you and Scaramouche who also has no love life have been friends for a while now because he’s also a model and a streamer. You sometimes join his stream to play random games with him but you never had the thought of dating him? Maybe instead of being friends you 2 were meant to be lovers? Just a guess.

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twistnet · 3 years ago

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through the tunnels [ chapter two ]

SUMMARY ─ going for a drive was supposed to clear your head; instead it makes for a night seemingly full of headaches and horrors

WARNINGS ─ angst [ mentions of arguments ], tw [ injuries + blood mention ], slight horror, + mature language

the sun had just begun to set when you had awoken from your sleep -- something you hadn’t intended on doing, but seeing how exhausted you were after the course of the day's events, it made sense. sparing a glance towards the clock seated atop your bedside table, there was only an hour later left until jodi would be pulling up to your house to coax you out for a fun night of partying.

at the moment, you weren’t all that jazzed about going out. at least, not like you had been earlier this morning when you were picking out the outfit you were going to wear. the articles of clothing laying neatly over the wooden chair placed in the corner of the room. you eyed them for a short moment, thinking you’d be in a better mood to go out if you got dressed and ready.

yet, now that you stood dressed up and ready for the night, a sour mood still hung in the air. you huffed, crossing your arms over your chest. it was probably too late to call and cancel with jodi, knowing even if you had managed to get through, she’d manage to convince you to come regardless. stating that the ride over would lift your spirits, if nothing else did.

then, it hit you. the ride over. sparing another quick glance towards the clock, there was still about forty-five minutes left before jodi would be coming to get you. eyeing your keys, you grab them and your bag, before rushing downstairs.

you locked up the house, sliding the garage door shut before heading for your car. turning the engine over and backing out of the driveway, heading out toward the edge of town. a few turns from the town center and you had turned onto the dirt road.

dirt crumbled under the weight of the tires, slowing as you made the corner towards the middle of an old farm patch that grew pumpkins during the fall. it was usually vibrant then, but with the summer heat, everything had slowly rotted away.

it had been the choice destination during the fall. with pink surprising you with a few trips out to the property for dates or impromptu make-out sessions that lasted into the night. seeing as the edge of the property was never really used for more than parking for pumpkin picking.

you smiled gently at the memories before shaking your head, throwing the shifter into park and turning off the ignition as you settled into the seat. you rolled the windows down, catching the familiar sounds of the frogs that resided in the nearby lake.

you take a deep breath, letting the tension fall from your shoulders as you let your head fall back against the headrest, eyes closing. you thought over the argument, mind still reeling over what he had said, in his small moment of heated anger.

part of you was still upset, knowing that pink was never one to lose his cool -- even after the two years you had been together, this was the first time you had seen him get bothered over something.

but the reasonable part of you knew there was a reason for pink’s outburst -- and the possibility of the reason being the weight of his position as quarterback starting making sense the more you turned it over in your head.

sure, talking about relationship issues at a party wasn’t the smartest thing to do, especially when the idea was to have a worrisome free night. so, you figured you’d make the most of the night, see how pink reacts around you and take it from there.

reopening your eyes, you catch the time. cursing to yourself as you realize you stayed past your own allotted time, meaning jodi had shown up twenty minutes ago and was probably wondering where the hell you had disappeared too. you sit up, turning the engine over again, flipping the lights back on.

you’re were just fastening your seatbelt when your ears perked up at the sounds of screaming, a sense of dread shooting down the length of your spine as it grew closer to where you had parked. letting the seatbelt retract back, you leaned towards the window, confusion overcoming your features as you took in the scene before you.

before, the land had been flat -- aside from the divets in the field that had been used to plant the harvest seeds. now, mounds of dirt were piled around in a circle, sloping down towards the middle. from your seated position, you couldn’t see over the edge, but knew that given the amount of dirt, there had to be a sizable hole.

you shook your head, getting ready to back out of the field and just forget what you saw when something flashed across your high beams. you froze, thinking maybe your brain was making things up to understand the situation, but something -- a hand, flashed across once more, this time accompanied by screams of help.

eyes widening, you exited the car, rushing towards the mounds of dirt only to stumble seconds later as you neared. the hole was much larger than you had expected, but the time to dwell wasn’t on your side as a person -- face covered in goggles and a bandana, was losing their grip and slowly sliding back down.

you dropped to your knees, extending your arm down to grasp at their wrist, stopping them from slipping any further. goggled eyes shot up at your touch, almost releasing a scream before you hauled them up and out. guiding them onto stable ground before another hand appeared seconds later.

you pulled out four more people, all dressed similarly with their faces covered by cloth and plastic. those items were discarded minutes later, allowing you to finally get a good look at their faces.

before you stood four children, three boys and a girl -- all around the age of twelve and an older boy, who looked to be around the same age as you.

“who the hell is this?!” the older boy called, pointing his bat in your direction as a quick protest was made, “she pulled us out! she helped us! if it weren't for her, we’d still be down there!” the group of children around you nodded, much to the displeasure of the older boy, who sighed before removing his own bandana and goggles.

“is... that your car?” he gestured over at the vehicle lighting the area, watching as you nodded slowly before settling his hands over his hips, shooting you a sheepish smile, “we need to get out of here, mind giving us a ride?” you nodded, following the group back towards your car. letting the kids pile into the back seat as the older boy took the passenger. their gear quickly thrown to the floorboards.

“billy’s camaro isn’t here...” the girl observed from the backseat, causing you to turn and throw her a confused look, “there never was one... “ you trail off. to the best of your knowledge, you had been the only one out on the edge of property for the past hour.

“uh, miss.... i think you better go... like now.” the black-haired boy called from the back, directing attention towards the hole. watching in horror as something else clawed its way up the embankment. the form of a hairless dog with a distinct yellow patch running down it’s back stepped forward, “what the hell is that?” you questioned, yet before any clear answer was given, the dog’s pointed face opened -- much like that of a flower, before emitting a bone-chilling roar.

screams filled the car as panicked voices urged for you to move. throwing the car into reverse, all before stomping on the gas, sending the vehicle flying backwards towards the access road. quickly changing the gear into drive, tearing down the dirt road and away from the beast -- now chasing after the car.

you didn’t slow down, not even after seeing that the dog had stopped a few moments back. losing sight of it the minute you turned onto the main road of the small town. and you didn’t stop until you pulled back into your driveway. the shutting off of the engine snapping everyone out of their stupor.

you turned to everyone, eyes flitting over each one of the kids before trailing over to the older boy sat in your front seat, “where did you bring us?” one of the boys -- light curls peeking out from under a cap with a headset. “to my house... my parents aren’t home... and i figured it was safe.” you watched carefully as the group nodded, exiting the car moments later and walking up toward the front door.

you quickly followed, unlocking the door and ushering them in and locked the door behind you. the kids had settled around the dining table situated in the kitchen, “you can eat anything you’d like. pantry is behind that door there.” you pointed to the closet door located at the end of the counter.

they nodded, standing from their seats to start digging through your food, noticing that the older boy lingered back, eyeing you curiously.

“i’m alex.” you introduce, shooting them a comforting smile as the older boy steps forward, “steve. this is dustin, mike, lucas and max.” he gestures to each kid as he states their name, each one giving you a small wave or greeting before turning back to grabbing food. your eyes flit over to steve, who’s standing awkwardly against the frame of the door, taking quick note of how beat up he looks.

“what happened to your face?” you gesture to the bright blue bandaid sitting across his eyebrow and the split lip. steve chuckles awkwardly, opening his mouth to answer when max cuts him off, candy spilling from her mouth, “my stepbrother kicked his ass.” steve huffs, nodding in agreeance with slight embarrassment.

he watches as you nod, disappearing for a short moment before returning with a first aid kit in hand. smiling softly as you hand it over to him, “bathroom is down the hall and on your left if you need it.” steve nods, taking the box with a smile as he excuses himself down to the bathroom to fix himself up a little better.

you glance between the kids, taking note how they all seem to direct their attention towards you as they eat. slightly weird, if you were being honest, but you clear your throat gently before speaking, “so... what were you all doing down in that hole?” watching flickers of hesitation move about the group. lingering glancing on whether to tell you about everything that had led up to this point. however, there seemed to be a general consensus that you had, in fact, seen the demodog emerge from the hole behind them and that itself warranted an answer.

dustin stepped forward, “that hole led into a series of tunnels running below hawkins, it’s how the demodogs -- that thing that crawled out behind us, were able to move around unseen.” he paused, looking to the others to aid in explaining. lucas stepped forward with a sigh and shake of the head, “we were helping close a gate that leads to an inter-dimensional universe called the upside down, which is controlled by a shadowy creature we’re calling the mind flayer. he’s trying to gain access to this world so he can overtake it.”

max nodded, “we were almost swarmed by demodogs before we could reach the main hub, causing us to leave. which led us to meet you.” she shot you a smile, which you returned.

steve rejoined a second later, looking better than he had moments ago. he thanked you quietly before joining back with the kids he was watching over. dustin quickly brought him up to speed on the decision topic.

“okay...” you trailed off as you gathered your thoughts, “you called that thing.... a demodog?” you question, the name rolling off your tongue in a weird way. dustin nodded, “yeah, it’s basically a young demogorgan.”

mike caught your look of confusion, his quick muttering to dustin about keeping the story straight as you questioned, “a what...?” mike sighed, answering in place of dustin, “it’s the bigger version of what you saw tonight. like dustin said, it’s a young one, but still just as dangerous.”

you nod, smiling as parts of their story start to click together. and you’re about to ask another question like, how do you know about all of this when something catches your eye, “and what's that?” you asked, pointing down at the radio attached to dustin’s belt. he glances down, a frown forming across his features, “it’s a walkman?” he states as if it’s the most obvious thing, which draws quick attention to the conversation.

you, however, don’t pick up on the tone and tilt your head to the side in confusion, “what does it do?” the question stumps the rest of the group as they share a look. “it plays tapes.” mike answers with a look, “how do you not know what a walkman is?”

to his side, lucas pipes up with another fact, “yeah, it’s like early eighties tech.” this answer now has you confused as you look over the group in front of you with a concerned look, “what do you mean ‘early eighties’? it’s 1976.”

series navigation ⇢ [ series masterlist | chapter three ]

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princess-of-inarizaki · 4 years ago

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So, as I promised, Inarizaki New Year request. Inarizaki boys and manager make party at her place, they prepare dinner, decorate the Christmas tree and her home (twins hang the mistletoe everywhere, but manager-chan is clueless so she doesn't know about kissing tradition), exchange gifts, have sleepover etc. Next day they all go together to the shrine and all boys ask to marry her. And they are EMBARRASSED when manager asks them what they ask.

Ahhh Tilli my love! I'll finally use this as a Christmas and New year one combined (eventho they've both passed a long time ago :) and this will be the final addition to the Inarizaki December series!

Once again, thank you so much for supporting me through it all, and showering love on every day's imagine. I didn't expect to get 100-200 notes on some days, but I did!! And I'm really ever so grateful. I hope you'll stay tuned :D

Inarizaki's manager-chan day 25!!

Late merry Christmas!! 💖 (And happy new year)

☃️

It was finally the seventh day of Christmas.

The day everyone looked forward to, filled with so much cheer and joy. The boys couldn't wait to spend it at your house. (They couldn't spend the actual day of Christmas with you, due to clashes in the schedule), but that's okay. They were here now.

It was unorthodox, to decorate the tree and give gifts days after the 25th, but it didn't matter to you, and if it didn't matter to you, it didn't matter to the boys either.

The house was warm, and you were busy baking cookies. The smell of gingerbread and peppermint floated in the air. Suna snuck up behind you and took a dab of the cookie mixture. “I rate this a 10/10”

Kita glared at him. “Suna that wasn't very hygienic” which only caused you to laugh.

Christmas carols were playing from the small Bluetooth speaker near the tree, and you suddenly felt like dancing. After wiping your hands dry and shutting the oven so the cookies could bake, you pulled Kita to you and placed your hands on his shoulder.

“Dance with me, Kita-san”

His eyes sparkled as his cheeks heated up.

“Of course, my lady.”

And the rest of the members watched enviously as you spun around with Kita in tow. You looked gorgeous, and so undeniably happy.

“My turn!” said Atsumu indignantly as he replaced Kita. He pulled your waist closer to him as he picked you up and twirled you around. Your squeals made his heart beat faster as he gently let you go.

“That's enough dancing for one day, now go decorate the tree or something. These cookies will be done soon and me and y/n need to decorate them.” said the gray haired twin.

The boys nodded as they made their way to the big tree in the living room, whilst you were left alone in the kitchen with Osamu.

Osamu swiped a bit of frosting on your cheek and laughed, as he put on the oven mitts, readying himself to take the cookies out of the oven.

You laughed and licked the frosting off.

Damn. Osamu's brain almost short-circuited, but he pushed such thoughts out of his mind and instead focused on the cookies.

“How shall we ice them?”

You mixed food colouring into the frosting bowls and explained you wanted to ice them according to each of the members.

“We'll use white for Kita! Since he's so dedicated and wonderful, white suits him best. And green for Tsumu, because he makes me feel happy and fresh inside.”

Osamu nodded with a small smile. “And what about me?”

“Purple for you, because I feel comfortable with you, you're basically my home. And red for Rin, because red is a sleepy colour, and I just love napping on his lap.”

“Oh and blue for Aran! He makes me feel safe inside. Orange for Akagi, he's such a cheerful person, he's like my very own sunshine.”

Osamu blushed and stroked your cheek gently. “You're my little home too, ya know that? I'm icing yours pink.”

Pink for the way you make me blush, my love.

You beamed at him and began icing the cookies, delicately and carefully, whilst Osamu iced the other half.

The rest of the boys finished decorating the tree as they took a step back to admire their work.

Suna gently adjusted the baubles, before taking a few pictures. He wanted to capture this moment forever.

Suddenly, you and Osamu came to the room with a mixture of cookies and a few mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Akagi smiled as he placed a kiss on your cheek before snagging a cookie. “Aww you guys are the best, thank you!”

The snow slowly fell outside, as the tree sparkled proudly in the center of the living room.

“Hey we still need to put the angel on top!”

Atsumu jokingly picked you up in his arms “we have one right here, shall I put her on top of the tree?”

The boys laughed as they passed you the tiny angel figurine. “we can't reach it anyways, why don't you put it instead?" Said Aran with a small smile.

Atsumu lifted you up gently as you placed the angel on the top of the tree, completing the decoration process.

“Thanks, you guys are amazing. I'm so lucky to have you.”

Your words were met with a chorus of "I love you's" and "me too's"

And you laughed, as Atsumu pulled you closer to him.

“Tsumu, you can put her down now” said a disgruntled Osamu.

[ 2 hours earlier ]

Osamu: have you placed the mistletoe in random spots?

Atsumu: yes, what about you?

Osamu: yeah, but I've kept one in my pocket. I'll just put it up whenever we're alone and it show to her.

Atsumu: damn that's so smart, why didn't I think of that? :(

Osamu: cuz yer' stupid.

Atsumu: >:(

[present time]

You and the boys play tons of games in the living room, and stash their gifts underneath the tree too.

“Let's open then tomorrow morning! We'll sleep in here too, and it will be fun to open them as soon as we wake up.” you say happily.

Suna leans on your shoulder throughout the evening, and soon his head makes its way to your lap, as usual.

You laugh and ruffle his hair, as he looks up at you breathlessly. You're so beautiful to him. So undeniably gorgeous. Atsumu wasn't lying when he called you an angel.

Suna's pupils dilated as he stared into your eyes. “I love you, y/n”

Not hearing the sincerity and hidden meaning behind his words, you replied with a quick “I love you too, Rin-rin”

And frankly, even if you didn't know how much he truly meant it, it didn't matter. He'd make sure you did, someday.

The plate of cookies were left with only crumbs and the mugs were all empty.

The next part of the night was dinner, and since Kita was the only one who could drive, he'd take you out to pick it up.

“Let's go Y/n-san” said Kita, as a tired Suna whined when he had to lose your lap-pillow.

You nodded and followed him, fastening the seatbelt in the passengers seat as you winked at the boys. “Be good while we're gone, okay?”

Kita turned up the radio. It was a song he didn't particularly like, but you seemed to love. However, you switched the radio off.

“Y/n-san, don't you like this song? Why did you change it?”

“Because you don't like it, Kita-san, and I want to talk to you. Your voice is better than any song.” was your simple reply.

No beating around the bush, you were ever so straightforward, and yet it made Kita's heart beat faster.

“so what would you like to talk about?”

And it started from there. A car-ride filled with the voices of the both of you.

At the traffic light, Kita gave you a sideways glance as he saw your excited expression talking about the cookies you baked.

But frankly he wasn't listening anymore. he was admiring the way your eyes shone in delight, and your cheeks as they were pink from the cold. He smiled at the way your face seemed to light up, and at the beautiful smile etched into it.

And Kita found that beautiful.

“It was delicious, right? And the frosting was beautiful too?” you finished excitedly, by asking him.

“she really is beautiful” said Kita in a trance, as the light turned red and he snapped out of it.

“I mean, yes, the frosting was beautiful!”

After picking up a bucket of KFC, as it's traditionally eaten to celebrate Christmas, the boys greeted you at the door.

“Mom and dad are home” joked Akagi.

“Oh my, so that means y/n's our mommy?” said Atsumu seductively, which earned him a sharp kick from Osamu. “Hey Tsumu, shut the hell up.”

The table was set and filled with cheer and banter from all sides, as Akagi sat next to you, and plated everything out.

You sighed happily. Truthfully, you weren't aware of traditions in Japan, since you were new to the country, but the boys taught you every day. It was Osamu who informed you that people in Japan ate their Christmas dinners at KFC.

“It's kinda like a tradition here” he said, with a small shrug. And you were determined to stick to those traditions.

“Are there any other traditions you practice, here? During Christmas?” you asked, in between bites.

Atsumu smirked at you and held up a small plant. “This is called mistletoe, but I won't tell you what the tradition related to it is”

You were confused, because all the other boys had suddenly turned red, and no matter how much you asked them, they refused to tell you what the significance of mistletoe was.

“Hmm, weird” you said softly, as you finished dinner, and brought your plate to the kitchen to be washed.

As you walked out, you noticed a small sprig of mistletoe above you, and a tall presence looming over you...

[ hello!! This is route time!! There are six members which I have written mistletoe routes for, and the corresponding colours will be for each member, so read whichever you want to!!]

(pink is the general route. no matter which route you choose, the new year's day story will continue with the general route, so please keep that in mind.)

Kita

Osamu

Aran

Atsumu

Akagi

Suna

You looked up and saw Akagi, and he had a bunch of other dishes in his hands. “I've lost a bet, so they've made me wash their dishes”

Atsumu's gleeful voice could be heard as he egged his senpai on. “make sure they're spotless, Akagi!”

You took half of the plates from Akagi kindly and assured him you'd help him.

“my hands are wet anyways. It'd be a bother to dry them after washing only one plate”

“T-thanks” he stuttered softly.

As you and Akagi washed the plates side by side, he felt a slight tug in his chest. It felt so domestic, to come home to you, hug you in his arms, and do the most mundane of tasks with you, like washing the dishes like this.

He wouldn't mind anything, honestly. As long as he was with you, the most grueling of chores would become fun.

And as he saw your brows furrowed in concentration, he sighed. You looked ever so adorable like that.

“Y/n-chan, I don't know if I've told you this yet, but you look very beautiful today.”

It took a lot of courage. Everyone saw him as a jokester, a perpetually happy person, but with you he wanted to be different.

He wanted you to know that when he complimented you like that, he wasn't joking. Not the least bit.

A soft tint could be seen on your cheeks as you continued washing the plates. “why thank you, Akagi. You look really nice too ”

And somehow, with that one compliment, you made Akagi happier than he had ever been.

The kitchen was filled with comfortable silence, and you appreciated the presence of the tall raven-haired libero who stood next to you, as he swore this scene would repeat itself in the future, someday, but with you as his girl.

The late dinner left everyone in a lazy mood, and although the Bluetooth speakers played more music, it became softer, more calm, and everyone felt ready to sleep.

The sleeping bags were arranged in the living room, in a small semicircle as you laid yours next to Atsumu.

“I didn't want to be alone in my room, knowing you guys were just outside, so I hope you don't mind if I slept here too” you said with a small blush.

The boys were overjoyed and eagerly made more space for you.

“I hope it won't be uncomfortable for you, y/n-san.”

You shook your head and settled into the sleeping back. “thank you for the concern, Kita-san, but you guys are here! how could I possibly be uncomfortable at all?”

You laid down in your sleeping bag as Aran leaned over to switch the lights off.

“Big day tomorrow. Let's all get some rest.”

A silent exchange of "goodnight's" was all you could hear, before complete silence, signalling their exhaustion.

But Atsumu, who was laying down next you was far from asleep.

He turned to the side to face you, his eyes reflecting the moonlight beautifully.

“I'm cold” you whispered, as you shifted in your sleeping bag uncomfortably. Atsumu's heart started beating uncontrollably as he made space in his own sleeping bag for you.

“Let's cuddle. Body heat is still heat, right beautiful?”

You smiled gratefully as you slipped in next to him, and his arms wrapped around you protectively.

His mind began to wander, and like Akagi, he wondered if he could get used to this. To coming home after a hard day and slipping into bed with you.

To keeping you warm on cold nights, and holding you if you had a nightmare.

As his fingers gently stroked through your hair, you sighed softly and cuddled closer to his chest in a dream-like state.

You had fallen asleep in his arms, just like he had dreamt for so often, and he couldn't wait till he'd be able to have you with him every single night.

Every single night for the rest of forever. Atsumu wanted to spend every single one of them with you.

He smiled softly as he observed your sleeping features before pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead.

“You'll truly be the death of me, y/n”

You awoke many times in the middle of the night, but with Atsumu's firm grip on you, and his comforting body heat, you had no trouble falling back asleep again.

Soon, sunlight began to stream through the windows and the small beams of light slowly caused you to wake up.

The boys were all still asleep, so you gently pried yourself off Atsumu, gave him a gentle kiss to his cheek, and tip-toed to the kitchen, to make breakfast.

Aran, who had incredibly sensitive ears, heard the shift of the fridge door, and woke up. In a groggy-like state, he walked over to you and hugged you from behind.

“good morning” he whispered softly. “can I help you with breakfast?”

Although he wasn't naturally a cook, your patient instructions and kindness proved to be all he needed, and the two of you made a pile of pancakes, drizzled in maple syrup.

By now, the rest of the boys were also awake, they were better than greyhounds when it came to sniffing out food you've made.

But as Aran helped you around the kitchen, he couldn't focus on the others. He couldn't focus on anyone but you.

You, with your messy hair and half lidded eyes. With your low morning voice and small smile. You were so comfortable being yourself, and he really was glad.

Morning-y/n, the y/n only they got to see this morning, was pretty darn adorable. And he wanted her to know that.

“you're so cute when you're still half asleep, ya know?”

Although his voice has a teasing edge, a ring of laughter behind it, Aran wanted you to know that.

“aww thanks Aran, I like your morning voice too” you said with a dopey smile, as your flipped another pancake.

Suna stole one from off the plate and nibbled on it “I rate this a 10/10 too”

“Oh no Kita's glaring at me. I never tasted it in the first place”

After breakfast, presents, tons of hugs, and an outfit change later, the Shrine came into view. It was the first day of the new year, and as per the tradition of praying at the shrines for good luck, you and the team were heading there to welcome the new year with hopes and dreams.

“So, you have to clap twice, and wish for whatever it is your head desires for this year” said Akagi with a smile.

The rest of the boys had their eyes screwed shut, as they prayed for their deepest desire; to marry you someday.

Your wish was not so different either. “I wish to be able to be by their sides forever. For their good health, happiness, and safety. I love them.”

As you laid your eyes on their figures, hunched over the shrine, you swore you would do anything to make your wish a reality.

“I love you guys. Happy new year.!!”

taglist : @raychii @dai-tsukki-desu @k-sakusa-old @pocket-of-anxiety @sunasthing @thatthangwasthangin @daydreamingtetsu @ignorantsock @ohrintarou @tilli-san

The professor's note: 😭broooo so I'm like finally done?? This was so long I hope you guys enjoy it <3 (it took like 3 days to perfect it, so likes and reblogs are very much appreciated uwu)

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procrastinatorimagines · 5 years ago

Text

Worry

Fandom: One Chicago

Pairing: Connor Rhodes x Reader

Warning/s: car crash

Word Count: 2,595

Request: Hi! Can I get a Connor x reader? She is Jay’s partner and she gets in an accident during a car chase (Jay isn’t in the car) she gets hurt pretty severely. Kelly is the one who gets her out of the car. Lots of worried fluff from all 3 guys but eventually she ends up being okay.

You and your partner Jay pulled up outside the house, hands on your sidearms, ready for whatever you might find. The stolen vehicle you’d been tracking on the otherside from where you’d parked. This was one of three potential locations of your murder suspect, so Voight had split the unit up to check out each sites. Slowly getting out of the car Jay motioned for you to check out the front while he went to the back. It may have just been the two of you, but you weren’t worried, you were a good team.

It wasn’t long before you reached the front, moving carefully up the steps and peering in the window through a gap in the curtains. You couldn’t see any movement inside, but someone had tossed the place. The house was unoccupied, so you didn’t need a warrant to enter, trying the door when Jay radioed to tell you he was already inside.

That’s when you heard the noise, a loud rustling in the bushes behind you on the side of the house. Turning around you saw a man dart out, he must have climbed out an upstairs window. He tripped a little when he saw you but kept running for the street. “50 21 Sierra, I’ve got eyes on the suspect heading north from our location,” you radioed as you ran, practically jumping down the front steps and engaging in pursuit.

He’d crossed the street by the time you realised that he wasn’t going to be on foot much longer, climbing quickly into the drivers seat of your car as he was already starting to peel of down the road in the stolen car. “Halstead if I don’t go now I’m going to lose him,” you radioed quickly, “he’s no longer on foot, I’m going to pursue.”

“Go, I’ll catch up,” he told you as you were already taking off after your suspect, radioing on the city wide that you were engaging in a high speed pursuit and would need back up as you turned on your lights and siren.

You barely heard Jay radio too, requesting a pick up from his location, too busy making sure you didn’t lose the suspect as he made a sharp turn, radioing in all his moves as you made them. You matched him with ease, not only was his car much older than yours, you were also a pretty damn good driver.

Making your way onto a busier road you watched him frantically swerve in and out of different lanes, dodging cars as best he could in the mid day rush. You were just catching up to him at an intersection, your focus single as you saw the distance between your cars close, hearing the sirens of your back up in the distance. He’d be blocked in soon, you just needed to keep on him...

You didn’t really know what happened next, one second you were mere feet from him, coming up to a set of lights, he’d started to put his foot down and so had you, both realising that the lights were very much green for you.

Then... It was like the world had been flipped over and your senses had been knocked out of your body. Everything was spinning, you couldn’t breath, couldn’t tell what was going on. As soon as it had started, it had stopped, and everything had gone black.

You came to a world upside down, or maybe it was just you, you realised as you cracked your eyes open, trying to make out your surroundings through the broken front window of your car, your hands still gripping the steering wheel. Your head was pounding and you were acutely aware of a warm sensation getting larger and more worrying creeping up your midsection. Oh, you’d crashed.

It was probably the shock, but your first coherent thought was about your suspect, worried that he’d gotten away. You tried to will yourself to focus, to at least assess your person. Sirens sounds were getting closer and closer as you pried your hands off of the steering wheel, your arms heavy as you felt your abdomen, not trusting yourself to move your neck. Your hand felt wet, and as it travelled slowly further down you were met with a hard object, it felt like glass...

Why would there be glass there? You thought, had you been hit? You couldn’t feel it, well, you couldn’t feel the pain, but when you brought your hand up to your face it was slick with blood. That wasn’t good.

The sirens were loud now, and when they shut off you realised that they must have arrived. “Y/N! Y/N!” You heard a voice shout, it sounded like Jay. You were glad he hadn’t been in here with you.

“No! Jay you can’t, it’s not stable, let us pull her out,” another voice said, and was met with arguing and yelling from your partner. Kelly... 51 must have been here. Footsteps approached you as you took shallow breaths, your vision was getting blurry but you tried to stay awake.

“Y/N,” Kelly said cautiously as he reached you, crouching almost completely down to see you through the remains of the front window. You tried to tell him you were still with him, but it came out as incoherent groan. Good enough, you decided, he seemed relieved enough by it. You were alive.

He looked back and shouted something to the others that you couldn’t quite make out before turning back to you. “Hang tight, we’re going to get you out okay?” He tried to sound reassuring as he disappeared, probably to get some equipment to cut you out. ‘Hang tight’, yeah, you quite literally were, there was no where else you could go.

You focused on the sound of saws, they were trying to cut through your door to get you out. It was slow going, something about the structural integrity, but you were feeling more lightheaded by the second and the words were starting to lose meaning. You were aware of Sylvie nearby, she was worried about your injuries, they needed to get you out quickly.

Then you blacked out again. It couldn’t have been for long, because you were still in the car when you came to, but the door was gone and a c collar was being put around your neck as they were trying to figure out how to remove you without and keep the glass in your side stable. It was killing you, but it was also keeping you alive right now.

It smelled funny, you noticed as they grabbed something to secure the glass, beginning to wrap something around you and fasten it in place. You could barely feel it anyway, but you knew as soon as the shock wore off it would hurt like nothing else.

“Hold on Y/N,” Kelly muttered, inspecting the seatbelt situation. If you hadn’t have been wearing it... well you weren’t sure, but you were pretty sure it had saved your life, even if it had apparently sliced your shoulder. Huh, you hadn’t even noticed.

You wanted to tell him that you were trying, but you couldn’t say anything as that smell got some prominent. Were you going crazy? As it turned out no,

“Severide!” You heard Casey yell, “we got to move, the car’s going to go!” He called for everyone else to fall back. Gas.

“I need more time to get her out!” Kelly yelled back frantically, refusing to leave your side. “If we move her too fast-”

“Severide!” A deeper voice, more demanding and in charge, Boden. There was a light forming behind you, fire.

Kelly froze for a split second before meeting your eyes, worry clear as day, before he started quickly cutting you free from the seat belt.

Now, now you felt the pain. As Kelly hauled you out of the wreck of the car by the shoulders, you wondered if the fire had already reached you, because you felt like you were burning. Moments later the car blew, and Kelly shielded you with his body, muttering how sorry he was as the pain took you from your waking state yet again.

“Stay with me Y/N, oh god stay with me,” he called for help as you heard people rushing towards you, but you couldn’t, not for long, no matter how hard you tried.

The last thing you remembered as you were loaded on to a back board, Slyvie and Emily doing there best to keep you alive until you reached Med, was Jay yelling at Kelly. “What the hell was that!? You could have killed her!”

“What else was I supposed to do? The car was going to blow! Any slower and she would have blown with it,” Kelly snapped back. “You know what, you want to start this, why was she alone in the first place huh? Aren’t you supposed to be her partner?!”

Boden and Casey broke them up and Jay insisted on riding with you to Med, climbing in as you were loaded into the ambo and the doors were shut. Emily hit the gas, driving you to Med as quickly as she possibly could.

You met Jay’s eyes barely as Sylvie tried to give you oxygen, shakily grabbing his hand and smiling at him softly as everything went black. “Y/N? Y/N!”

The next thing you saw was figure above you, silhoutetted by a bright light, but as your eyes slowly focused you realised who you were looking at. Your boyfriend, Connor. You smiled weakly, your head fuzzy, but your pain was now a dull ache. They must have given you some pretty heavy pain medication, you realised.

Connor’s face flushed with relief and his whole body visible relaxed, a hand going to lightly cup your face. “You’re awake,” he breathed, putting his forehead against yours. He’d been crying, you realised, noting the slight red around his eyes. It must have been bad.

“Hmmm,” you got out, your mouth and throat impossibly dry. Connor offered you some slow sips of a drink out of a straw. “Connor...” You croaked out.

“Hey baby,” he smiled, “you gave us quite a scare.” Although his tone was light, you could hear the genuine fear behind it as he flashed a torch in your eyes, examining you.

He seemed satisfied, you could move your toes and squeeze his hand. “What... happened?” You managed, still so unclear on the whole situation. Or, you realised, how long you’d been in the hospital. You needed answers.

“An SUV sped through a red light, crashed straight into you,” he explained, anger slipping into his voice, “51 managed to get you out, but...”

“Car blew up,” you finished and he nodded, taking your hand.

“They had to get you out quicker than they should, you took a large piece of glass to your side, lost a lot of blood. Y/N, you’ve been in the ICU the last couple of days, you’ve been in and out of surgery, you...” his voice caught and he squeezed your hand, “you coded in the ambulance on the way to Med, then again on the table. I thought we’d lost you, it’s been so touch and go-”

“Am I okay?” You dared ask after a pause, looking down at yourself. Well, you still had all of your limps, you could feel them too, Connor had seemed especially relieved about that.

“You should be,” he answered honestly, “well, you shouldn’t be if we’re talking about odds, but you pulled through. God, Y/N I was so worried.” Oh, it had really been that bad.

“Well you know me,” you cracked a half grin, “I like to keep you on your toes.” Connor chuckled in disbelief, shaking his head at the fact that you could joke about the situation. You laughed a little too, stopping when you felt a sharp pain. Worth it, you thought, to see him smile.

“I love you,” he said with earnest, meeting your eyes. You swallowed hard, humour gone as you took in the severity of the situation.

“I love you too,” you told him, like a promise that you were going to be okay.

“Jay and Kelly have barely left since you arrived, been at each other’s throats a little about the whole situation,” he told you as memories of their fight after the incident came back to you.

“It’s not their fault,” you said, your voice coming back to you more even though it still hurt a little to talk.

“I know, so do they really, I think they’re blaming themselves more than each other anyway,” he admitted. You knew how they felt, you’d felt guilty when Jay had been shot and you hadn’t been there.

“They care,” you smiled. You and Jay had been partners for years, and Kelly was one of your closest friends, they were bound to worry. They also always felt like they had to save everyone, and you knew how much they hated being helpless to do something, so this must have nearly killed them Well, not in the same way that it had nearly killed you, but still.

“Should I be jealous?” Connor joked and you laughed again, lightly swatting his arm.

“Ow, stop,” you lightly put a hand to your side, feeling the bandage.

“There was a lot of internal bleeding too, but we managed to get it under control, it took a long time but you should make a full recovery, a slow one Y/N,” he said pointedly, knowing that you were probably already thinking about the case. You were.

Before you could reply there was a soft knock at the door, Jay poking his head in slightly and smiling when he saw you awake and alert. You gesture for him to come in, and see Kelly entering behind him too. Both men look like they haven’t really slept, and you could tell by how carefully they were surveying that they were checking if you were alright.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Jay asked tentatively.

“Better than ever,” you told him and he rolled his eyes.

“Really, Y/N,” Kelly pushed. It wasn’t entirely fair to them, you knew how much they cared about you, but you didn’t want coddling.

“I’m fine,” you insisted, though neither of them looked entirely convinced as they glanced to Connor, who gave them a slight nod to let them know that you would be.

“Didn’t know if you were going to pull through for a minute there,” Kelly said, not meeting your eyes, “I should’ve-”

“It’s not your fault-” you told them, firmer when you could tell they weren’t convinced, “it’s not, either of you, okay?” They nodded and shrugged, which would have to do for now. “Did we get him?” You asked Jay.

“Yeah we got him, squad picked up, but right now you should be focusing on recovering, not work,” he replied, knowing you too well.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her, she needs to focus on taking care of herself right now,” Connor said pointedly and you smiled, shaking your head.

“Why would I do that when I have the three of you to do it for me?” You joked, trying not to laugh, “you guys really need to stop worrying about me.”

“Never,” they all said at once, exchanging amused glanced with each other as you pretended to get annoyed.

You were going to be okay, they’d make sure of it, you didn’t know how you’d gotten so lucky to find people who cared about you so much.

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malfoys-demigod · 5 years ago

Text

Turbulence - Draco Malfoy x Reader

requests: Hi i don't know if you take confession, but Hufflepuff! and muggle!Draco has been flooding my mind in recently. Love your writings by the way, keep it up! 😳👌💕💖 // Hi if you're open for requests, can I request a post-war draco x reader in which they are going for their honeymoon or sumth and its her first time by plane. So when a turbulence strikes she gets really scared and thinks they're going to die so she just keeps hugging him till it ends? Sorry if it's too much :[]You didn't ask, but lemme share something i thought bout with you

A/N: I decided to combine these two requests since one wasn’t as specific. I hope you enjoy!

requested by: @sycathorn-slush @amiiretto

@the--queen-of-hell

Draco had always fancied you. It was really astonishing to believe honestly. You were two things he tried either despising or avoiding, which were being a Hufflepuff muggle. So it was astonishing for the entire school to believe. You fancied him as well of course but you structured your mindset to think differently.

Knowing that you were things that Draco did not like, you told yourself that you and him would never happen in a million years. But it did not stop you from constantly watching him from afar or watching his every Quidditch game he had. You just never knew that the idea of him actually liking you would be possible.

The first actual interaction with him was when it was during your third year. You were spending your free period in the hospital wing being taught the basics of healing by Madam Pomfrey when all of a sudden, Hagrid bursted into the door, holding Draco Malfoy who seemed to be in some sort of pain as he was yelling at Hagrid things that were hard to decipher since he kept rambling.

All lessons about healing fractures and bones were at a pause as you and Madam Pomfrey rushed straight away as Hagrid placed Draco onto the nearest hospital bed. You couldn’t believe it. You were about to help heal Draco Malfoy. It was insane to believe that you were actually going to talk to him instead of avoiding him in order to not be called a ‘Mudblood’ in front of people. Besides, there was no way he was going to call you that in front of two respected authorities of the school.

“What happened, Mr. Malfoy?,” Madam Pomfrey asked as she examined the arm.

“Hagrid’s bloody chicken is what happened!”

“Buckbeak is a kind and loving creature!” Hagrid protested in a pleading voice.

“Looks like a minor injury that Ms. Y/L/N can perform,” Madam Pomfrey said after analyzing Draco’s state, “Have a go with Episkey while I look for an arm sling, dear.” she said, looking at you with a motivating look.

Draco looked at you with disgust as he watched you pull out your wand. You were already expecting an insulting comment from the pureblood but he surprisingly said something different.

“You think you can pull this off, Y/L/N? I think we can all agree that I’d need my arm back in the game for my next Quidditch match.” he asked calmly.

You gave him a small nod since you were a little unsure if you could actually pull it off. “Episkey!” you said, fixing Draco’s small injury. You wanted to jump for joy because this was the first time you assisted someone and it was Draco Malfoy!

He looked at you with a stunned expression as he started moving the joints of his arm slowly, feeling that there was no pain.

“Why are you here, Y/N? Shouldn’t you be off with your muggle friends doing muggle things?” he asked, trying to avoid showing thanks and gratitudes to you.

“I really value hard work and helping others in need and what better way to take interest in being a healer?”

“Huh, such a Hufflepuff I see.,” was all he said since Madam Pomfrey came back to assist him in wearing a sling.

When everything was all finished, Draco simply turned around and started making his way out of the Hospital wing.

Even if Madam Pomfrey gave you the thanks and acknowledgement for being an excellent healer, which was something you were praying for, it all suddenly did not matter. You were now craving for the thanks and acknowledgement of Draco’s as you were surprised he did not say anything bad about your blood status.

Nevertheless, you had to be grateful that he did not trash talk you about anything. You had to thank Helga Hufflepuff for giving you a decent small talk with Draco Malfoy.

Later on during the afternoon, you were entering the Great Hall as you were on your way to meet up with your friends by the Hufflepuff table until suddenly, your tracks had stopped.

“It comes and goes,” said a familiar voice.

You turned to see Draco Malfoy from the Slytherin table talking to his group about his injury.

Pansy was sitting so close to him, examining the injury as Draco continued the conversation.

“Still, I consider myself lucky. If it wasn’t for Madam Pomfrey and her apprentice Y/L/N, another minute or two, I could have lost my arm. Couldn’t possibly do homeworks for weeks.”

Your knees started to weaken as you heard Draco acknowledging you. This was impossible to process as this was probably the first time he’s ever talked good about you. This was put to the test when Pansy looked at him with a bad look.

“Y/N Y/L/N? The muggle? I thought she was useless!”

Draco removed her hand from his arm as he leaned away from Pansy in an instant. “I’ll have you know,” he said, “her dedication and loyalty to being a healer saved me. Like I said, if it wasn’t for her, I could have lost my arm. What part of that don’t you get, honestly?” he snapped.

As he was looking away from an irritated yet ashamed Pansy, his eyes met yours, as you were still standing in the middle of the Great Hall like a lost puppy. You wanted to run away from the situation you were in or at least walked away and pretended you did NOT lock eyes with the person you should have been avoiding your entire life.

But no, taken by surprise yet again, Draco Malfoy gave you a small smile, nodding at you then turned back to his friends. You wanted to look behind you and assume that it was for someone else but you had to be serious, there was no possible way it was for someone else. The table behind you was Gryffindor’s and it would be highly unlikely that he just smiled at the golden trio who were also listening to Draco’s conversation.

From there on, a friendship with Draco started to grow. It took time for you and him to actually be friends. It started out with small talks initiated by Draco, which confused most of the students witnessing something they never thought of happening. Then it moved on to being seatmates and partners in every experiment or academic sorts. And finally taking the role of star-crossed lovers.

Nobody knew that this would ever happen but it did and some people were for it while some weren’t. You and Draco proved to society that your relationship did nothing but become stronger over the years.

Despite being a part of Dumbledore’s Army while he was a Death Eater, your relationship was complicated yet still strong. You knew in your heart that he was someone born without a choice concerning the situation. If he fought back or left the Death Eater’s there would be serious consequences including him, his family, and possibly you. That was why you brought your relationship to the “under the radar” stage in your life. Some people thought you finally broke up while some might have suspected that you were keeping things low.

It was true. Once the whole war ended, you brought your relationship back to life, back to the public’s eyes. Draco remained the same: he was madly in love with you while his parents changed their outlook on you.

At first Draco kept your relationship a secret from his parents. He only revealed to his parents that he was seeing you when things started mellowing after the war. He brought you to his home to meet the changed Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy who were actually pleased to meet you. The remarked you for being the “loyal Hufflepuff” by their son’s side and welcomed you into the family.

It only became official when Draco popped the question a year later. When things started getting better after the war, Draco was finally ready to take the relationship to different heights.

When he asked Lucius if he could receive the blessings of asking for your hand in marriage, Lucius was more than happy to finally hear that Draco wanted to marry you. As he agreed to bestow his blessings, he also wanted to show Draco his deep gratification of having someone like you in his son’s life by taking care of the expenses of the wedding and honeymoon.

After finally tying the knot, there came the honeymoon. The Malfoy’s wanted to openly open their arms of Muggle customs by paying for travel expenses for the honeymoon.

You were really excited to hear that Draco was open to the idea of traveling through an airplane.

“First class?,” you asked, “Really?,”

“Of course, love. I only want to give you the best.,” he said, kissing your forehead as you finally took your seats.

There was something you’ve been meaning to tell him. Surely it wasn’t something serious to anyone else if they have heard, but to you, it was a little serious since it was personal.

As you fasten your seatbelt, you looked down at your shoes with hesitation as you were bottling up the thoughts you had to let out.

Draco took notice of this immediately and placed an arm on your shoulder, tilting his head to look at you.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Did you forget something?”

“I have a confession, Draco.”

He looked at you with an eyebrow raised. “What is it, Y/N?”

“You’re not the only one whose never rode an airplane before.”

Draco exhaled in relief as he was thinking of many worse ideas in mind. He let out a small laugh as ruffled your hair, “My dear, you scared the bloody hell out of me. I thought of so many scary ideas in my mind.,” he replied, “Well, may this first experience we have together be the first of many airplane rides.,” he cheered you up.

You happily nodded in response as your head leaned on his shoulder, holding his hand with high hopes, only for these high hopes to turn upside down an hour later.

When the pilot asked for everyone to fasten their seatbelts to prepare for incoming turbulence, you were slightly concerned since you were unfamiliar with the experience of turbulence.

When the plane had its first shake, you felt as if your soul was about to leave your body as you held a tight grip on your arm rests.

“Huh,” Draco let out a small laugh, “Never knew airplanes could do that.” as he started looking around to see if there were any panicked riders. So far you were the only one spooked.

It only got worse when turbulence started striking again and again. You felt like you lost count of the number of shakes that the plane had encountered as you were focused on trying to release your fear by venting off the weirdest things you could think of to Draco.

“I swear,” you yelled, “WE ARE GOING TO DIE!”

“Dear-“

“Bloody hell, what if we don’t ever make it to our honeymoon?!” “Did you ever hear of what happened to Amelia Earhart?!? She was lost at sea after a bloody plane crash!! That could happen to us RIGHT NOW!”

Draco places his arms on your shoulders as he was sitting in an uncomfortable position since his seatbelt was tightly fastened. “Dear, I do not know who this Amelia woman is but I assure you, we are not going to die. If you were listening to the few stewardesses who came by, they assured us that turbulence occurs in almost every plane ride and it is not the cause of plane accidents.”

“What in Merlin’s beard do I do then?!”

Draco opened his arms, showing invitation to a hug, “Let me comfort you. Come and hug me and I promise I won’t let go of you until we reach our destination.”

You looked at him with fear but with his heart warming smile, the tension in your shoulders started relaxing as you finally inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Promise?” you asked.

“Honey, we just made vows recently. And aside from that, have I ever let you down?”

“I suppose not.” you said with a small smile.

“Now come and lean on my shoulder. Let me prove to you that I am a man of my words.” he softly said as you started placing your head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm on your waist.

Feeling his warm body made you feel extremely comfortable as you started resting your eyes, which eventually led you to falling asleep and forgetting everything about the turbulence.

He was definitely a man of his words.

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introvertguide · 4 years ago

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Misquotes from Movies

Our current movie under review, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre (1948), is known for having the very famous quote, "We don't need no stinkin' badges!" In truth, though, this exact quote was said in Bugs Bunny cartoons but never in the movie. The exact quote was "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" I have heard many people misquote movies and books over time, so I looked through the 400 AFI nominations for the most famous film quotes to see if there were others that I thought were something else and I came up with this little list:

"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." - All About Eve (1950)

This statement is in reference to Bette Davis having an unwanted guest at her party who is accompanied by a new young actress (played by Marilyn Monroe) and she is referring to how awkward the evening was going to get. This statement was changed slightly to a "bumpy ride" in a number of movies, once as recently as one of the Harry Potter films. The phrase doesn't make sense out of context so it is no surprise that "night" is often changed to "ride."

"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By." - Casablanca (1942)

This quote is often attributed to Humphrey Bogart as "play it again, Sam." It seems like more of a thing that Bogey would say and he would say it in a much slicker way. I remember watching the movie the first time and waiting for the phrase that I thought the movie was famous for and it never came. The correct phrase didn't even come from the person I thought it would.

"The dingo took my baby!" - A Cry in the Dark (1988)

I had always thought the phrase was actually "ate my baby" because of Elaine from an episode of Seinfeld. This is actually a pretty crazy movie about parents in Australia that claimed that they lost their child to wild animals. The couple, however, are so cold in emotion and hazy on the details that they were accused of killing or deserting their own child. It was a media circus in the courtroom and this quote was fascinating because the actual accused mother said it with almost no emotion. By the way, that horrific haircut is spot on to the real life woman. Frightening.

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" - Dirty Harry (1977)

To make this quote shorter and catchier, it has often been reduced to simply "Do you feel lucky, punk?" It really gets to the point of the somewhat sadistic nature of Dirty Harry, but it robs the character of depth since it omits the philosophical nature of Dirty Harry's rampage. Also, this quote comes from very early on in the movie so viewers don't even know what he is about yet. He is a vigilante police investigator with morals, but that is not what people generally know about the movie.

"If you build it, he will come." - Field of Dreams (1989)

I remember the quote as is, but most everyone I asked thought it was "they" instead of "he." It is in reference to the ghost of an old baseball player, but many think of it as building a baseball field bringing fans. Because the phrase is so short and involves only pronouns and an homonym for completing a sex act, it was parodied in many different ways. The film is old enough and the quote has been misused enough that many have forgotten what the actual phrase was.

"Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" - Hell's Angels (1930)

I cannot remember the number of times a woman in a film has referred to "slipping into something more comfortable" as preparing for sex. When I was young, I assumed that all women had sexy clothes that they wore for intimate occasions and wouldn't do anything without their gear. Kind of like firefighters wear a fire suit for work, but for sexy times. This was a great phrase to use to imply physical sex without saying it or showing it, so it was used in many forms to get passed ratings systems. The original is far to long and was forgotten by most in favor of a shortened version.

"Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" - She Done Him Wrong (1933)

This quote was shortened to "come up and see me sometime" by cartoons and was the subject of some contention between MGM and Warner Brothers. Both studios put out their own version of their main animated character being attracted to a mechanical girl version of themselves that was some form of trap. In the case of MGM, Tom the Cat got a mechanical lady mouse that repeated the phrase "come up and see me sometime" to lure Jerry out of his hole. As for Warner Brothers, they had Elmer Fudd lure Bugs Bunny out of his rabbit hole with a mechanical lady rabbit that also said "come up and see me sometime." The two studios fought over plagiarism for decades because the base ideas for their cartoons were often eerily similar. No matter who did it first, that is the catch phrase that most people think of for Mae West.

"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." - Sunset Boulevard (1950)

I am not really sure how it came to be, but I thought that this phrase was "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille." It could simply be that I misremembered, but some of my other cinephile friends also remember differently from the original, so I am pretty sure it was misused someplace publicly. Many quotes that use pauses and inflection are shortened for easier delivery. Also, some quotes are changed enough not to invite a copyright lawsuit. This could be one of those situations.

Anyway, there are a lot of misquotes because it is difficult to perfectly remember an exact line out of hundreds. So, the next time you utter the words "and I quote," make sure it is in fact the actual quote.

#quotes #movie quotes #misquotes #introvert #introverts

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prettywordsyouleft · 5 years ago

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10 Dates | The Prepared Date

Summary: Kim Junmyeon was the epitome of a perfect catch - he was successful, handsome and everything you currently didn’t want in a man. Yet after agreeing to his request to give him 10 dates in total to change your mind, you realised you might have been looking for someone like him all along.

Pairing: Kim Junmyeon x reader

Genre: dating au / romance

Warnings: none

Preview | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

“Where are you off to?”

Kelsi looked at your appearance and then at Ayla’s quizzical expression. She grinned. “Y/N has another date.”

“What number is this?”

“The fifth one,” you admitted with a smile, searching in the small dish on the kitchen counter and letting out an aha when you found the missing pair to the earring you had put on before. After fastening it, you turned to your roommates and blinked expectedly. “Well, how do I look?”

“What’s the theme of this date?” Ayla enquired as you smoothed down your floral dress.

“Junmyeon has invited me over.”

“Over to where?” Kelsi suddenly asked as Ayla stood up and approached you.

“To his home?” You nodded at the guess and your friend whistled. “What happened to the woman I was praising for not needing a man?”

“She fell in love with a handsome prince,” Kelsi declared, kicking her legs about before narrowing her gaze on yours. “Does he have any hot friends, do you know?”

“I uh, haven’t met his friends. And it’s just for dinner; don’t get too hung up on it.”

“Never mind that! Did you prepare yourself?”

“What for?” you wondered and after examining Ayla’s expression, you nodded softly. “I’m ready for anything that might come my way.”

“Well then, why are you asking us what we think? You should be proposing that question to Junmyeon.”

“I’m not going to suddenly blurt out over dinner if he wants to see my lingerie,” you mentioned with a roll of your eyes, though you couldn’t deny the flutter in your stomach either.

After the heated kissing session in your office during the week, you couldn’t get the man off your mind. Now that you were free for the weekend, you were more than ready to see where all that kissing could lead to.

“Don’t leave out a single detail for us when you return,” Kelsi called as you felt the buzz of your phone letting you know Junmyeon was waiting downstairs and started to head to the front door.

Ayla smirked. “Tell us tomorrow morning. Don’t you dare come home any earlier than that!”

Laughing as you headed down to meet with Junmyeon, you stopped to compose yourself when you saw his vehicle up ahead. However, it didn’t last long. Junmyeon was leaning against the side of it, his smile evident from where you stood. Eager to get to him, you dashed over the grass verge and straight into his arms.

Junmyeon chuckled, holding you affectionately all the same. “Well hello there!”

“That wasn’t very ladylike of me.”

“But it was the real you, right?” he offered and after looking up at him, you nodded happily. “It’s a nice feeling to know you missed me that much.”

“As long as the feelings mutual,” you concluded and with the way he brushed his lips over your temples, you didn’t need a verbal answer. Staring up at the man, he then silently reached behind him for the door handle, swinging it open and assisting you inside. He even did up your seatbelt which made you giggle.

“What?” he asked when he was finally seated beside you, humour evident in his voice. “Was that too cliché for you?”

“I feel as if I stepped into a Korean drama just now.”

“Does a CEO who is naturally romantic and not overdramatically making the female lead’s life a living hell until he realises this is love actually exist in those?”

“You’re well-versed in kdrama?” you enquired and Junmyeon bit at his lip as he tried to navigate the early evening traffic. Leaning towards him, you held onto his arm. “You watch them?”

“We could watch one together after dinner if you like?” he offered and you laughed heartily.

“Don’t make me guess, you’re excellent in cooking and cut food like a culinary chef too?” you continued and it was his turn to laugh.

“I mean, I know how to cook. I can’t say I have major marks for presentation though.”

“I’ll help you. We can cook together!”

He darted his focus from the road to your face and then slipped his arm out of your hands, reaching to hold one instead. Your excitement eased, staring at the gesture. “You’re meant to be my guest tonight.”

“You’re the one trying to convince me we’re meant to be,” you pointed out and Junmyeon glanced at you again. You watched as his lips curled up in satisfaction.

“Is it working?”

“Maybe,” you confessed and then cleared your throat. “But cooking together is a must.”

You wished you could go back to the car ride where you had sounded so confident. Instead, you stood back as Junmyeon took the pot from the stovetop and dumped it in the sink, the sizzling of the temperature difference filling the room along with an awful stench.

You groaned loudly. Trust you to burn the potatoes completely.

“I ruined it,” you announced dejectedly and Junmyeon looked over his shoulder, shaking his head before dealing with the mess. You stepped forward, scrunching up your nose as you further inhaled the burnt smell. The potatoes had well and truly boiled away all their water and you clasped your head in your hand.

Arms wrapped around you. “We don’t need them, we still have the rest of the meal.”

“It’s my fault though. I wanted everything to go so smoothly for our dinner tonight.”

Junmyeon shook his head, tugging at your chin so you were staring up at him. “If we’re going to point fingers, it should be at me. I was the one who had you otherwise distracted up against that wall there.”

You tried not to smile, but the edges of your mouth shifted upwards. Junmyeon chuckled. “It’s just potatoes.”

“Did I lose brownie points in the kitchen for my less than stellar cooking skills?” you wondered and he shook his head, leaning in to kiss you briefly.

“You made the kitchen more interesting than it ever has been.”

“Surely I’m not the first to come home with you,” you breathed with a laugh, going to step around Junmyeon and turn off the running tap. However, he held you there, his eyes unrelenting in their gaze. Your mouth fell apart. “I am?”

“I haven’t really made the effort to date much,” he explained softly.

“Then why did you choose to go out for dinner with me back then?”

For a moment, Junmyeon simply stared at you; searching your face for something you couldn’t quite comprehend and then blinked rapidly when the oven timer went off. Stepping aside from you to turn off the tap and then reach for the oven mitt, Junmyeon smiled. “Dinner’s ready.”

Junmyeon was subdued over dinner. Although he was still laughing and conversing well, there was a guarded wall within his eyes ever since that moment in the kitchen. You couldn’t decide if you were more intrigued or concerned and thus, your own mood dampened, both of you eventually falling silent over your empty plates.

“Do you want to head outside for some fresh air?” he offered and you nodded, picking up your dishes and took them into the kitchen before following Junmyeon outside. His house was already rather impressive and to find he had a decently sized garden out back made you smile.

“Oh wait here,” he instructed once on the patio, dashing back inside for a moment. You gasped when hundreds of fairy lights lit up around the backyard, turning it into a fairytale dream.

You really hoped that when you woke up from all of this, it wasn’t too painful to let go.

Junmyeon sensed your conflicted emotions and sought out your hand, squeezing it gently. “You okay?”

“I’m just thinking about all of this,” you admitted and he nodded in agreement. “You too?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, I often wonder if I made the right decision back then.” You gauged his expression before tugging him out onto the lawn, turning so you were facing him. “I was so adamant that we were too alike and dating you would lead to complacency.”

“Is that what it was?” he murmured, smiling with the solved puzzle. “I thought you weren’t attracted to me.”

“Are you kidding?!” you replied with a laugh and Junmyeon grinned momentarily before it fell off his face again. You stepped closer, running your hands up his chest before linking them behind his head. “Wanna tell me what’s on your mind?”

“It’s too soon,” he whispered and you blinked, your mind travelling to the three magical words you expected him to say. However, the moment passed with him simply staring at you and you waiting for something, anything.

Water shot up suddenly and you squealed, leaping into him with surprise before turning to see the sprinklers in the grass turn on all around you. After sharing a look with Junmyeon, you started to laugh and he joined you, not rushing from the spot you stood in as you should have.

Instead, when the laughter ceased, urgent kissing began, the heat of the kiss contrasting the chill to your body with the water soaking you through.

You realised then, you hadn’t been as prepared for tonight as you thought you were. Nothing had gone to plan. Whilst you still didn’t know what was on his mind, you decided to stop pressing for the serious moment.

It was too soon to lose the spark just yet.

_________________

Part 6

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the-darklings · 5 years ago

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—𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅;

pairing: john wick x f!reader x santino d’antonio

word count: 7.9k+ (missed 8k by like 20 words welp)

summary: Is it possible to hate and miss someone in the same breath?

warnings: swearing, violence/blood, angst.

notes: Well, we have arrived at canon events soldiers. This is going to be one bumpy ride so fasten your seatbelts ladies, gents and others. And enjoy!

children of ares series: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | . . | 07 |

OPEN CONTRACT:

JOHN WICK

2 MILLION USD

BY: VIGGO TARASOV

The light emitting from your phone screen is the only one in your room, and you breathe in and out slowly, thinking.

Of course, the team was going to fail. Five years or not, John is still…

He’s still John Wick.

It almost makes you wonder what exactly Tarasov was thinking sending such an insulting number to his front door. But you wouldn’t have known about the dinner reservation John rang in if it hadn’t been for Winston who shared the information with that accepting, knowing air about him.

There’s a storm coming.

Seems like the Bowery King was right to say such a thing. Because Iosef—that cruel, stupid, petulant moron—has now unleashed hell upon his own family and himself. If there is anything of the old John still left inside, you know that he will tear New York to shreds to uproot the young idiot from his hiding spot. There is no hole left in this city where John will not eventually find him.

You swallow, locking your phone, and run your hand harshly over your face.

This—you don’t need this right now. Not when you have yourself to think about, and especially not when there are clearly individuals out there gunning for you and Santino, too.

John belongs in the past, and it makes you wonder if it’s some cruel joke that life keeps pushing him back into your path.

2 million contract though.

It won’t surprise you if it’s money Tarasov took from Santino for your own job. The sum feels too deliberate and Tarasov knows that the news will reach you soon.

Rising from your seat with a jerk, you grab your jacket and walk towards the door. You can’t focus on work right now less you mess up, and this waiting for the axe to drop is starting to drive you insane.

Winston is out, you know that much, but the bar is always open.

Slumping in the elevator, you close your eyes, trying to imagine what all this could mean.

A war, for one. A bloody one.

John has never given up on anything and you recall the empty look in his eyes the last time you saw him. For Iosef to come into his home and to take that very last shred of peace and hope from him—

The elevator rattles to a stop and you pull the door to one side, stepping out.

“I apologise, Mr. Wick,” Charon’s smooth voice reaches your ears and your head jerks towards the reception desk. “But I cannot give out information about other guests.”

John stands facing the concierge, his back to you, and seeing him in his old suit takes you back five years. It’s both devastating and chilling to see him back here. The lobby may look different but this moment is like watching a memory loop.

“I just need to talk to her.”

He sounds—

Charon’s expression doesn’t ease. “I apologise, sir Wick, but we respect the individual privacy of those that stay with us. Even if you were once…associates.”

The slight edge in Charon’s voice surprises you. It’s not the kind of thing you would expect from him, especially considering that Charon and John have always had an amicable relationship. But that’s in the past, you remind yourself. It’s been five years since they’ve last seen each other.

“It’s okay, Charon,” you interrupt, walking up to the reception table and ignoring the many curious stares that you can feel drilling into you. “I’ve been expecting him.”

John turns upon hearing your voice and you meet his stare evenly.

Scraps and bruises mar his face, and you bite back a sarcastic comment about how he must be losing touch. But the time of teasing and ease between you has long since passed.

John doesn’t say anything to you but you see everything you need to know in his eyes. That, at least, hasn’t changed. He’s only guarded when he wants to be.

“Only Winston can reach me,” you remind the concierge without breaking eye contact with John, and incline your head towards the elevator.

You turn without waiting for a reply and start heading back, your eyes sliding over the curious onlookers with a clear warning. Most drop their eyes but a few brave enough still hold your stare, gaping openly. John follows behind you silently and comes to stand at your side, both of you waiting for the elevator to arrive down without a word.

The journey to your room is deafeningly quiet and little by little you keep adding to your armour. This will be a storm to weather, and you need to be ready.

“Same room,” John notes calmly. “Some things don’t change.”

“And some do,” you remark pointedly and invite him inside. “Water?”

He shakes his head, and you gesture for him to sit down, which he does.

John is rigid. As always his features are calm, but an old, familiar tension lines his frame and you drop down on the seat in front of him. The very same chair that Santino sat in only a few days ago. If you inhale deep enough you can still pick up faint traces of his cologne.

John gazes at you for a long moment but you don’t rush ahead. You simply sit there, already knowing what he wants, but hearing it from his mouth is a whole other matter. So you wait, expectant.

“He killed my dog.”

You stare at him flatly, still silent. John, seeing no reaction, leans closer and it’s hard to look into his dark eyes. You’ve spent so much time looking up to him—at him—that it makes you feel caught between two different times in your life. The past with him in it, and the present where there’s just you and a sparse few individuals you consider your own.

“Where is he?”

Your smile is slow coming before you chuckle, shaking your head as you lean back in your chair, staring at him through narrowed eyes.

You understand his grief and anger and need for revenge. That’s all perfectly fine with you. Those things are familiar, safe. Those emotions embody you both in different ways—always have.

But—

“Do you have any idea what you are asking of me?” you wonder idly, softly, gazing at him pensively.

John’s lips press together and his head lowers for a moment though you don’t miss the flash of guilt there.

So he is aware, at least there’s that.

For a minute, you’re both silent; he with his head bowed as if repentant, and you with an icy, hard stare that won’t let him escape now. If he wants this, if he really believes he has any right to ask it of you, you will hear it directly from his mouth.

“I know it’s a lot—”

“No,” you cut him off immediately, rising to your feet and your hands clench into fists as you round the seat, not looking at him. That bitter, cold hurt floods your veins once again and your teeth grit harshly. “You have no idea what you’re asking of me. Even if I knew where the hell Iosef Tarasov spends his time—which I sure as hell don’t—do you have any idea what happens to me if I tell you?”

John looks up at you, but his voice is calm as always when he speaks. “No one will ever know that it was you—”

“You are asking me to throw away seven years of hard work,” you whisper but the quietness of your words slices through the room like a scream. Your eyes meet John’s and you wonder if your wariness and disappointment are as clear to him as they are inside your chest. “Seven years of murdering in that man’s name, and now that I am a breath away from freedom, you ask this of me? Tarasov will know that it was me because he knows you would go to me first. Even if he doesn’t get to me himself, you already know what the High Table will do to me for such a betrayal.”

“After Helen—” he begins and his voice catches, his low baritone trembling. He blinks, his head lowering and you swallow weakly, turning your head away from him. His pain is too raw and you don’t want it to soften your heart, to drive you to him again. It’s no longer your job to comfort him. “After she died. That dog is all I had, (Name). My only hope. I was no longer alone. I know you understand that better than anyone.”

You do. You did.

Once you would have waded through a river of blood for him with a smile on your face. Once you thought you understood him better than anyone, and him you.

“We were close once, John,” you admit even though it sounds like a hilarious understatement of what you had. “But that door closed a long time ago. I can’t help you.”

John’s lips part to reply but the shrill ring of your phone fills the air and your eyes flutter closed before you pull it from your pocket.

Your heartbeat jumps at the name reflecting back at you.

Santi.

Not looking at John, you answer, lifting the device to your ear. It’s an effort to force your voice into neutrality. “Hey, grumpy,” you greet with a slight smile. “How is Vancouver treating you?”

A chuckle sounds on the other side and your smile widens. “Ah, cara mia. Rather cold,” he notes pleasantly though still manages to sound petulant about it. “And very boring without you here to keep me company. Business is good though.”

“Good,” you say, and stare at your dark carpet with dread coiling your stomach. “Listen, can I call you back later? I’m kinda in the middle of something.”

“I’ve heard about John. I assume you have as well.”

You go still. For a second, you think even your heart skips a beat. Except it’s the exact opposite of a happy sensation.

“Yes.”

There is a pause. In the distance, you think you can hear the sound of rushing water. Santino likes being near water. It reminds him of home—of his childhood and his mother. For a moment, you almost wish you were there with him instead of here. Here in this room with the personification of your heartache and lost love sharing your breathing space.

“Have you talked to him?”

Even though it pains you to do so, you can’t force yourself to lie to him. “Yes.”

You know he gleans as much from your tone and answer as you do from his silence. The suffocating, dreadful silence that is so unlike him—especially with you.

“Is he with you right now?”

His voice is quiet, his accent heavier as if the words take substantial effort to get out, and you work your jaw restlessly.

“Yes.”

The silence on the other side is an endless, ugly thing and you feel oddly helpless. You don’t like how this is making you feel. You don’t like the fact that you are forced into this situation in the first place.

“I see,” he says, at last, his voice stilted. You don’t miss the switch to Italian either. “Do look after yourself, cara.”

“Santino—”

From the corner of your eye, you spot John’s head snap in your direction, his eyes full of surprise.

But the line goes dead. Your hand lowers and you stare at the phone for a second, your fingers tightening around it. It doesn’t ring again.

“Santino?” John wonders and his quiet voice is loaded with things unsaid.

You don’t look at him when you answer. “He’s my friend.”

It feels hollow saying it. Because he is that but—

I am a patient man. I can wait.

“Santino doesn’t have friends,” John points out neutrally, and you feel your head slowly turn in his direction. Whatever he sees on your face seems to give him a pause.

“He does now.”

This time the silence between you is different. For the first time since your reunion at the cemetery, John seems to be looking at you with different eyes. Fresh eyes that finally understand the passage of time. Eyes that note the difference in the way you hold yourself. In the way you no longer lean into his shadow hoping to make it your home.

You are your own shadow now.

“What I said earlier still stands,” you tell him flatly, finally putting your phone away even though it sits like a heavy weight in your pocket. “I can’t help you. I understand, I do. But I’m not going to forfeit my life for this.”

John stands, coming closer. “(Name)—”

You turn away from him, heading towards the door. “But I’m not the only individual residing in this building with the power to help you.”

Glancing over your shoulder, you see him straighten, understanding shining in his eyes.

The bar is a buzz.

It’s Friday night so you suppose that should not surprise you that much.

The stares that follow you and John even more so.

For most, seeing you together is either a novelty or a call from the past. You’re unsure how it makes you feel. It’s as simple, as comfortable, by John’s side as it's always been. But you lack the ease you once carried around him. Back then your trust in him was so absolute but now only pieces of it remain.

Perkins spots you, her pretty lips twisting into a sneer when you wink at her, her expression relaxing only when she sees John next to you. She salutes him with her drink and it makes you smirk.

Aiming high as always.

Envy and jealousy have always been easy for her. She’s never been able to let go of the knowledge that she’s in your shadow; her accomplishments always being compared to what you have achieved in the past. You’ve never intended for there to be bad blood between you but it seems that you both carry a natural dislike for one another.

After Santino, however, she no longer approaches you as brazenly as she once did.

Remembering that confrontation still makes you grin.

Winston sits in his booth as per usual when you approach him, working; a drink and a cigarette in front of him. You smile despite yourself.

“Martini kind of night, is it?” you call as you come to a stop before him, and his head lifts at the sound of your voice. He registers the sight in front of him and leans back slowly, taking you both in while you stand side-by-side. “Brought you a guest.”

“Winston,” John greets, and the warmth in his voice is genuine. It doesn’t surprise you though. These two men were friends once. Perhaps not the same level of friendship as you and John but there’s still enough history between them. “Good to see you.”

“Well, well,” Winston begins, pleased, a smile lingering on his face. “This is a sight I never thought I’ll get to see again. The Boogeyman and the Viper, together again. Reunion of the century, if I do say so myself. Sit down, Johnathan. You as well, dear,” he adds when he notices you eyeing the bar.

You hesitate but sit down after both men fix you with an expectant stare.

Your eyes track the people inside the room, most either openly staring or whispering under their breaths when they look towards your booth.

“Have you really thought this through?” Winston’s question brings you back to the present, and his voice carries a note of something almost patronising. Like John is already in too deep and has no idea how much worse it can get. “I mean really chewed it down to the bone. You put so much as a pinky back into this pond, and you may find that something latches on and drags you back to its depths.”

“I just want his son.”

You click your tongue before Winston can answer and give John a sideways look. “Let me tell you something interesting about Viggo and Iosef, John,” you say, your voice forcefully calm as your fingers drum against the pocket where your phone sits. “Iosef is a spoiled, rotten little bastard who’s going to run his father’s empire to the ground because he lacks the drive and the spine to carry his work through. Viggo knows this too. That being said, make no mistakes. If you go after his son, Viggo will unleash hell upon you. Do you really think he will let his only son’s killer live on in peace? You know what kind of man he is.”

A man like us.

Tarasov is a different side to the violence and the hardship that has forged you and John. He’s the power, the influence, the order. You and John are the cruxes, the foundation, the bricks he used to achieve those things with.

Winston takes a small sip of his Martini, his gaze both amused and pointed. “She speaks the truth. And I would encourage you to listen.”

You blink, shooting a brief look of surprise Winston’s way but the man only smiles faintly.

John looks unhappy but knows better than to argue. Despite his silence, you know that he will not drop this. He can’t. He doesn’t have it in him; the capacity to let this go.

John Wick is only a hurricane you can weather and hope for the best.

“You are amongst friends here, Johnathan,” the manager states and you know from his tone that he means you specifically. Old, sly bastard. “Now might be the perfect time to sit down, have a drink, and relax. Work through old problems to gain fresh…perspectives.”

It’s an endeavour to stop yourself from rolling your eyes.

“I need a drink,” you mutter instead, rising from your seat and wandering towards the bar.

Then, somewhere between the booth and the bar, it hits you. Like a brick to the face and you practically collapse onto the small chair.

John is back.

Back here in your atmosphere again. Till now it’s been like some surreal illusion with the added benefit of his presence never fully sinking in.

But he’s back.

Your muscles tense when he comes to a stop behind you, hesitating, before slowly lowering himself down beside you.

He’s come back to this world, just like the Bowery King said that he might, but not for the reason you might have hoped.

When the King said he might come back, there had been a tiny hope in your chest that if—if—he really did come back that it would be for you. Because, perhaps, if nothing else, he wants to be with you as a partner if not a lover. That perhaps he wants to try and mend the deep-running hurt between you.

But no.

John is not sitting beside you because he wants to be with you. Not even because he wants to be back in this world.

He’s back because he wants revenge. Because his wife’s dog was killed—his last connection to her—and now he has nothing.

Perhaps, it could have been different if you’ve stayed that night of the funeral when he asked you to.

But, perhaps, you would have also lost whatever little of your old self still remained if you did.

I will never abandon you.

Your heart clenches at the sudden, unbidden memory. Santino.

“You really have changed,” John speaks up suddenly, glancing your way. His eyes focus on your hands and he visibly hesitates. “You don’t wear it anymore.”

Your fingers curl loosely at his observation and you stare at the bar blankly. It’s true that his viper ring no longer lives on your hand but you wish it were that simple.

“I survived,” is all you offer in reply; an echo of his words from seemingly a lifetime ago now. “I survived.”

Without you, goes on unsaid but you know he gets your deeper meaning by the way he looks away from you. As if ashamed.

Addy brings your usual and you observe her open delight at seeing John again.

“Hell, it’s so good to see you both together again,” she exclaims with a bright grin. “Just like old times, huh?”

John dips his head in a nod with a discreet look in your direction. You don’t say anything.

“Compliments of the house,” she announces as she places a drink in front of him as well.

Something scribbled on the napkin catches your eye and you suck in a sharp breath.

Red Circle.

You both turn around almost immediately, looking towards Winston’s booth. The man smiles slightly, enigmatic as always, and raises his glass to you in a silent cheer.

John’s heavy stare moves to rest on you, but you keep eye contact with Winston for a moment longer. You’re not sure what exactly the look in his eyes means, but when you finally do look towards John what you see there surprises you.

He looks hopeful.

So hopeful that for a moment it clenches your stomach and heart like an unyielding fist.

In that look, you see years of partnership, of protecting each other, of being a team. A lethal, harmonious duet of death.

But you’re not that anymore.

You are you, and John is John. A grieving husband.

Not yours—never yours—and you’ve accepted that a long time ago.

And yet.

He still calls to you.

Even through the pain and the rage, there’s still an ember of something.

But even so.

Your head turns back towards the bar, your drink, and you force out a choked, “Happy hunting.”

He lingers for a breath, his disappointment palpable before he walks away without another word.

You don’t look back at him as he leaves.

Your steps cut a tight line. Back and forth, back and forth. Agitated.

“I’m surprised.”

“Don’t be. Playing coy doesn’t suit you.”

A laugh. Amused. “Then I shall exercise patience.”

“You do that.”

You don’t wait for an answer.

The line crackles on the sixth ring. Not that you expect anything else. He likes to keep you waiting.

Silence greets you.

“I need your help.”

“You,” is the soft disbelieving murmur. “Need my help?”

“I’m not going to ask you again.”

You hear a sigh on the other side, reluctant but open, and don’t bother holding back your victorious smile.

By the time you stagger out of the bar, you have come to two conclusions.

One, you did the right thing by not getting involved.

Despite the feeling of guilt that has tried to drag you from your seat and after John, you’re glad that you stayed in your spot and chatted with Addy for hours instead. You might have felt Winston’s stare burn into the back of your head a few times but he didn’t call for you and you certainly didn’t go to him either.

The second conclusion is that you need to talk to Santino. As soon as possible.

Address everything from start to finish. Plan your next step. Find whoever knows about Chicago. That’s where your priorities now lay. Tarasov can ring the dinner bell for the last job whenever he feels ready to do so, but as of right now, there are more pressing issues on your plate.

John’s appearance may have caught you off guard but your life doesn’t just stop.

If Iosef is not dead yet, he soon will be and you can’t imagine John coming back. Properly this time.

You certainly can’t imagine him coming back and actually staying. Not for you, at least.

“(Name).”

“Jesus!”

“Not quite,” is the wry, laboured reply.

John staggers on his feet and you move on instinct, wrapping your arms around him. He looks like he’s just been through a war zone, covered in blood and clothes ripped. His raven hair sticks to his sweaty forehead and he gasps when you press too hard on his no doubt many bruises.

“What the hell John?”

“He’s gone,” he breathes harshly, not answering you. The look in his eyes is difficult to pinpoint but it’s not happy that’s for sure. He leans into you willingly when you help him walk towards the reception desk though. “I didn’t get to him in time.”

Iosef.

Unease coils your insides.

You had hoped that John would succeed on his first attempt. Now, there’s no telling what’s coming. Or where the brat is, for that matter.

“Miss Vipress,” Charon greets, his expression vacant before his eyes move towards John and his eyebrow cocks slightly. “Mr. Wick.”

“Call Doc, please,” you request, awkwardly fishing out a golden coin and dropping it on the counter. “Tell him I have first aid covered.”

“Certainly,” the concierge answers, nodding his head. “Anything else? Some bourbon, perhaps?”

He directs the last part towards John who grunts and nods, making you roll your eyes. Shooting a grateful look at the man, you half walk, half-stumble John towards the elevator. The ride up consists of you mostly poking holes in his clothes and checking his vitals.

John, as always, stays upright by sheer will alone. Some things, perhaps, really don’t change after all.

His room lacks the lived-in touch your own has when you enter. It’s cold and clinical. You spot his bag neatly placed in the corner but otherwise, not a single particle of dust seems to be out of place. When compared to your own room full of vials, notes, and odd-smelling plants and herbs, this place is like a hospital.

“You’re a pain in my ass,” you grunt without thinking as you help him sit down, huffing from the strain of his weight. “Sincerely hope you know that.”

John glances up at you, his eyes brighter than they were moments before, and a slight smile twitches his lips. The first you’ve seen since your reunion.

“I know,” he replies and there’s that wry humour to be found in his tone that makes you glare at him in annoyance. “You’ve told me plenty of times in the past.”

Your lips part to reply—a jab ready to go—but there’s a knock on the door and you move towards it, your hand hovering over one of your blades.

“It’s me,” a familiar voice calls out and your hand drops down as you pull the door open.

“Doc,” you greet the elderly man with a nod. “Good to see you. You were quick.”

The older man shuffles into the room right away, his bag in one hand and a bottle of bourbon in another. He places the drink on the coffee table, his disapproval clear, but starts setting out his tools without commenting.

“I was in the area,” he shoots back, casting a look at John and then back at you. “You did not work together?”

The silence his question births is an awkward one, and you pointedly look away when Doc asks John to start removing his clothes.

“No, we didn’t,” you confirm calmly, carefully so, and grab an empty glass to use. “Got my new shipment yet?”

The older man looks up at you with a shake of his head and you dip your head in understanding. John observes the exchange, seemingly confused, and it’s yet another reminder that he has no idea how your relationships have changed in the past five years. Because he hasn’t been a part of your world for five years.

“You could have done this yourself,” the man comments lightly, shooting you a quick look. “I passed my knowledge on for more than poison making.”

You walk up to them, offering the glass to John who takes it with a grateful nod but don’t miss the way he focuses on your exchange with Doc. Curious and more than a little confused.

“Yes, but poison making is so much simpler,” you shoot back with a slight smile. “And you’re better at stitching than I am. Your hands are steadier.”

The old man shakes his head, clicking his tongue, and gives you a reproachful look over his shoulder. “Your hands are plenty steady, girl,” he notes, and you don’t miss the slightly chiding note in his words. Your eyes lock with John’s and you bob your head from side to side mimicking Doc’s words, a joking smile on your face. “What you lack is the belief that those hands are good for something other than bloodshed.”

Perhaps.

No, definitely, but neither of them needs to know that.

“Whatever you say, Doc,” you mutter, passing him some bandages without looking.

A tiny, barely-there smile lingers across John’s face, and despite being half undressed and bruised from head to toe, he looks more at ease now than he has in a while.

You know why.

Because despite everything unsaid and things long since passed, this is familiar. This is safety. This has been your bread and butter for years, and you feel the warmth of this simplicity sink back into your bones with every inhale.

It makes you as happy as it makes you sad.

John peers at you over Doc’s shoulder, and you at him, neither of you speaking while the man between you works. He’s methodical and always takes his time but his hands are the best you can hope for in New York.

“Just like the old times,” Doc hums under his breath after a lull of silence between you. “Hopefully better fortune will follow you from now on, Mr. Wick.”

It does feel like before. When it was just the two of you against the world.

You rise to your feet abruptly, making both men look over in your direction.

“I’m going to get you something for the pain,” you inform them hurriedly, and you can see the worry in John’s dark eyes, and attempt to smile convincingly. “The Doc is almost done anyway. Try resting.”

“But you are coming back?” he checks and you offer him a tight smile.

“Of course.”

Your words sound faint, almost distant in your ears, and you close your eyes for a moment, trying to keep your composure.

It’s an effort to keep your steps steady and slow before you close the door behind you.

It takes you longer than necessary to get the vial of pain remedy you’ve made for yourself a while back.

That’s because the journey back to your room is a blur, and when you do get inside the familiar walls, it takes you several moments to pull yourself together.

Is it possible to hate and miss someone in the same breath?

Is it possible to turn a blind eye to years of struggling and pain just for the sake of having something good back?

Rubbing your forehead harshly, you stare at the vial in your hand, a heavy throb quaking your heart.

Everything has a price as Santino is so fond of reminding you, and it makes you wonder what price this will demand of you.

Locking the door to your room, you approach the elevator, ignoring the buzzing of the phone in your pocket. Frankly, you’re not in the mood to talk to the Pope himself right now—much less anyone else.

The elevator grinds to a halt and you push the partition to the side but the moment you do, a crash greets your ears. A cool blade slips into your palm and you tense. Across the corridor, John’s room door is wide open and you spot Perkins of all people crawling closer towards you.

She looks bruised and bloodied as she tries to get away and you move towards her.

The blade almost takes off her ring finger as it sinks into the carpet in front of her face and she freezes.

“Now whatever are you doing here?” you question coldly, grabbing your gun from underneath your jacket. “Late night tryst?”

Perkins glares up at you, her expression livid before she tries to grab the blade in front of her but you react faster by stomping on her hand and levelling the gun in front of her face. “Please try,” you state lightly, almost pleasant.

John staggers out of the door, looking in an even rougher shape than before. His side is dark with fresh blood, the stitches Doc has so meticulously sown clearly torn, and he leans heavily against the door for a second. Your eyes meet and you finally understand exactly what has happened.

Perkins has tried to complete a hit on John inside the Continental. Tarasov is scared enough to allow such a thing to be associated with his name, regardless of the consequences. Scared enough to allow for one of the unbreakable rules of your world to be broken in his name.

John stalks closer towards you and you move back, still keeping the gun on Perkins. She’s a slippery one and you would rather not take any chances.

“You okay?” you ask, not dropping your eyes from the furious woman on the ground.

The assassin grunts with a nod and grabs Perkins, pulling her up till the muzzle of his gun presses into her cheek. The woman squirms but John’s grip only tightens. He’s done playing games and you can tell this will not end well for Perkins unless she gives him what he wants.

“Where is Iosef?”

Perkins snarls, twisting inside his hold, but still winces when John pushes the gun deeper into her skin; a silent warning. To her credit, she doesn’t falter, which is not something you can say about many. “I’m not telling you shit.”

“Please don’t,” you input with a mocking little smile that you’ve seen Santino use so many times in the past, effectively catching her attention. A perfect trick to heat someone’s blood and get them to slip up. “I have means by which to make you talk.”

The woman grunts under her breath, more blood smudging across her lips, and shoots you a venomous look. “Fuck you. You know what will happen to you—”

John jerks her to the side roughly, silencing her, and your arm lowers at his chilly whisper, “Give me something, Perkins. This is not worth dying for.”

She swallows, a flicker of healthy fear twitching her pinched expression at last. You step closer, the silent threat obvious, and her glare sharpens.

“He’s going to hunt you both down like dogs,” she spits instead, meeting your stare with a wide grin. Her bloodstained teeth make for a gory sight and you feel your expression harden at her words. “He will get this entire city searching for you. He—”

“The church,” you interrupt her little rant, and her mouth snaps shut at your blunt statement. “Tarasov keeps his personal stash of blackmail there. As well as a lot of money. You want him? Take him through that.”

Both Perkins and John stare at you. One in disbelief and one in silent understanding. John knows what this means but, predictably, it’s Perkins that reacts outwardly.

“You traitorous bitch!” she snarls, her eyes wide as she trashes again. “When Viggo learns about this he will destroy you—”

John drives the butt of the gun against her temple and she slumps to the floor, unconscious. For a moment it’s so still that your breathing seems like the loudest sound in New York City.

“Do I know you?”

You jerk to the side, your gun flying up as you point it at the man standing in the doorway of one of the rooms. But your arms lower a moment later when the familiar features register.

“I think so,” John speaks slowly, carefully twisting around to look at the newcomer too.

“Harry,” you greet the older man and he nods at you with a smile. “How’s the shoulder?”

“Better,” he answers and his attention goes back to your old partner. “John. Good to see you again. For a moment I thought you were getting into trouble with D’Antonio again, V.”

Purposely turning your head away from them, you slot your gun back in its original place, giving them a clipped, “Not this time.”

You feel John’s focus on you for a moment before his scrutiny lets up and he stands.

“You still up for earning a coin, Harry?”

The church looks peaceful in the early morning light.

John stands beside you, his warmth a faint brush in the chilly New York air, and you find yourself shivering despite your best effort not to.

The silence between you is—despite what you first assumed would be the case—heavy. John wants to ask you, and you don’t want him to. When faced with the question of why you are doing this, placing yourself in danger for him yet again, it always comes back to a simple fact.

For yourself.

Not for him. At least, that’s what you have to convince yourself of.

You and Tarasov have your own unfinished business.

Things always come full circle. Finally, after all these years, you are starting to understand Santino’s philosophy. Things always have a way of following you, never allowing you a moment of peace. You can run from them, but ghosts have a way of clawing their way back into your life.

You will always make the same mistakes, viper.

You shiver at the memory, shoving it away harshly.

“He has a vault under the church,” you break the silence between you, and feel his head turn in your direction. “The security is minimal because not many go to a church with intention of breaking into it, and he doesn’t want to draw attention. That’s its genius. But if you want Tarasov’s attention this is the way to get it.”

“You don’t have to come,” he states mildly, though sounds almost reluctant to do so. You don’t look at him, still focused on the building before you. It seems to loom now; a tall, frightening skeleton of your past. “I know the risk you’re taking right now. I—”

“Don’t,” you interrupt him, and finally look towards him. “This is not the time for this conversation. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for me.”

John hesitates and turns to face you fully. His eyes catch the light and you’re unsurprised to find that they still reflect amber in direct sunlight. The brightness strips away at his dark demeanour and leaves only a man behind. A good man, despite his flaws—despite his grief and thirst for vengeance.

“If this goes badly,” he begins softly and pauses for a second as if searching for the right words. “I want you to run. Promise me you will.”

Even though your hands are buried in your jacket pockets, your fingers still clench tightly at his words. It’s impossible not to miss his concern for your wellbeing.

“Run,” you repeat slowly, rolling the word on your tongue, tasting it. “You know I did a lot of that in the beginning. Running. It’s all I did. Just to stay alive. But then I realised that I shouldn’t be the one doing the running. So I don’t anymore.”

He knows what you’re referring to. Those five years are splitting you apart like a bottomless chasm even though there’s less than a footstep between you. The five years in which you had to defend yourself while he lived his happy life with his beautiful wife.

“Let’s do this, shall we?”

You take a step forward but John’s hand halts you, resting against the crook of your elbow. On instinct, your own arm snaps out, striking his wrist to get rid of his touch. You suck in a sharp breath when you realise what you’ve just done, heartbeat galloping, and John’s expression creases with worry, sadness, understanding.

“Don’t touch me,” you force out because it hurts. His touch burns and it’s not the kind of pleasant warmth that once soothed you. “Just—don’t.”

Pivoting, you march towards the church, your jaw set and lips pressed in a tight line. Your heartbeat still betrays you though; a fluttering, tiny bird trying to escape its own cage of bones.

Despite your exchange only moments prior, you still wait by the door for John who catches up with you quickly. He falls to your side—an old, familiar routine you’ve done dozens of times even if it’s been years—and sharing a glance, move inside on his signal.

The door creaks open and you note the usual suspects sitting in their pews as you stroll inside.

Much like you predicted, and told John earlier, the priest falters upon seeing your face. There’s a moment of fleeting panic there, and you know that he’s wondering if Tarasov himself is a step behind you. You only ever come to the church if the man demands it of you, and it effectively sows doubt and confusion when you notice more eyes look towards you. But the priest doesn’t know who John is so, as per instruction, he plays the role assigned to him.

“My children, can I help you?”

“Yes,” you state amiably and pull out your gun, pointing it at him. “You can.”

You then shoot him in the leg.

It’s a flurry of who can pull the trigger faster. The guards, caught unaware and panicked, are nowhere near quick enough. You count four that drop to the ground dead, and John shoulders his machine gun calmly, looking unruffled. The old lady continues sitting inside the pew, staring at you wide-eyed, and you give her a small wave when you pass her by.

“I always wanted to do that,” you comment offhandedly, tilting your head to observe the squirming man. “He’s a shit priest.”

John nods his head a little, considering, and the priest shoots you an enraged glare.

“Do you have any idea who you’re fucking with?” he splutters, clutching onto his bleeding leg. “You traitorous trash! Viggo will—”

You kick him in the leg. The man lets out a strangled little yell, curling in on himself. John gives you a look as if to say he understands what you meant earlier, and grabs the priest by the scruff of his neck.

“Yeah, we do actually,” he replies dryly in Russian and shoves the priest ahead of you. “Take us to the vault.”

“N-No.”

You pull out a blade, twisting it between your fingers. “Do disagree with him again. Then I get my hands on you.”

The priest stumbles back, his frantic stare switching from you to John, clearly trying to find a way out of his predicament. The assassin gestures with the barrel of his gun and the priest swallows, stumbling in the direction of the staircase.

Just as you recall, there are two more guards downstairs, and disposing of them is easy; a bullet each. Tarasov’s vault stands like an indestructible gate between you and the women inside who scream upon seeing you. The destructive sound of gunshots split the air and then it’s quiet again.

“Open it,” you demand, gesturing at the keypad. “I know Tarasov gave you the code.”

The priest lays on the floor, shivering, as beads of sweat cling to his brow. Though his lips are trembling from both pain and terror, he still musters up a half-hearted glare.

“But not you,” he hisses in Russian, knowing and accusatory. “Viggo must have always known that you will try to betray him.”

You chuckle, and lean closer, patting him on the shoulder with a patronising smile. This, too, is a familiar motion. The priest cringes back and you see the naked fear in his eyes. “Oh, I don’t doubt that,” you admit coolly with a faint hum as you glance towards the trembling women inside the vault. “Guess I’m just done playing nice. Open it, or I’m going spill your guts all over this shiny, reflective floor that Tarasov gets you to scrub every night.”

The priest shudders, staring at you in dismay, but still moves to do as you told him. Ignoring John’s burning, silent stare you wait for the code to be input.

John enters the moment the beep sounds and you stay silent as he dismisses the women inside—ever the gentleman—and starts tearing the vault apart. You watch him do so, and it gives you a wicked surge of satisfaction, knowing just how much this all means to Tarasov. A lot of it is your own work; different blackmail that you have painstakingly collected for him over the years. Despite that knowledge, it doesn’t upset you to see it go up in smoke.

The flame rages, angry and hot, and you linger for a moment, observing years of servitude disappearing in front of your eyes. It makes you feel strangely empty, almost numb.

You’re dead to the world, Kishi’s voice reminds you and you feel your eyes lower to the floor.

John doesn’t try to ask you questions while you wait for Tarasov’s arrival and you’re grateful for it. Right now, you don’t think you’re capable of any kindness. Right now, you think you would tell him everything, and if there’s anything of his heart still left, it would simply break all over again.

With the priest alive, the news reaches Tarasov quickly, and his familiar black SUV pulls into the churchyard only ten minutes later. The priest, predictably, doesn’t survive past telling his side of the story in choked, weak stutters.

“Let’s finish this,” John tells you calmly, deadly so, but your gaze lingers on Tarasov who is like a caged animal moving with clear fury in his every step. “After today we’re both free.”

Your head snaps in his direction but he’s already walking away and you peer at his back for a moment.

Free.

Shooting one last glance towards that churchyard, you follow after him.

Coming to a stop beside him, you both wait, silent and focused as you hear Tarasov and his party approaching. John looks up at you, serious as always, and you simply peer at him for a moment. All this time, hoping that he will be back and he finally is. He’s a step away, a hand reach away but—

John opens fire first. He always believed in best defence being a strong offence and the guards scatter, replying in kind with their own weapons drawn. Exhaling slowly, you steel yourself for what’s about to happen, and round the corner, opening fire yourself.

As always, you work as a seamless machine. With John at your back, there are no blind spots, no ways to get caught off guard. You cover each other perfectly, a well-oiled death machine that churns out bodies left and right.

John reloads, and you cover him. You duck to do the same a moment later, and John takes your place, covering you with his back to you. Your eyes flicker over him and towards the car behind which Tarasov is hiding. From this far, you can just barely make out his hat as he rises to peek at the situation.

You rise to your feet smoothly and slam the back of your gun against John’s head.

The bullets cut out immediately and John staggers, turning around hurriedly, but you spray fine mist—one of your fastest, most viciously effective formulas—in his face, kicking at his shins for good measure.

He stumbles to the ground, looking up at you wildly, gasping, “(Name)—”

His stare is lost, frantic. Almost like what he’s seeing and what has just happened are two things not connecting just yet, leaving blind confusion in their wake.

“I told you,” you remind him gently, coldly, as you approach him. “I’m doing this for me.”

You don’t wait for the paralyser to kick in.

Your gun slams against his temple one last time and he drops to the side, unconscious.

The churchyard is once again peacefully tranquil.

. . .

an: *shocked Pikachu. jpg*

I feel like the first half of the chapter was Team John going “Yay!” and Team Santino going “Boo!” and then by the end that switched lol.

Loved it? Hated it? Any predictions? Let me know and, as always, I love you all. I’ve had a rough week but all your COA messages just brighten my day guys ;-; thank you so much!!!!

#john wick #john wick x reader #john wick imagine #john wick fic #santino d'antonio x reader #santino d'antonio #keanu reeves #riccardo scamarcio #winston #fic: children of ares

546 notes · View notes

tobin-heaths · 5 years ago

Text

Don’t touch her (NSFW)

request: Would it be alright to request a Krashlyn imagine? Where they have a small bean sweetheart of a gf who they are very protective over. Maybe during a game someone says something incredibly disrespectful about her and Krashlyn which upsets/enrages R to the point of tears. She end up being red carded after defending herself and punching the other player. Her gfs comfort her after almost beating the ref and player. Maybe comfort sex?

pairing: Ashlyn Harris/Ali Krieger x Reader

words: 2388

"How are you feeling, babe? Ready to rock the second half and whoop their asses?" Ashlyn asked, wrapping an arm around your shoulder, pulling you into her side.

Ali was walking behind you laughing at how cute you both were.

"With you saving our asses in goal? For sure! I'm ready to kick some ass!" You replied and giggled.

The three of you were walking back onto the pitch to prepare for the second half against North Carolina. Thanks to your late goal in the first half Orlando lead with a score of 2:1.

Ash's hand went down to slap your ass playfully but you grabbed her arm before she could reach it and pushed it away.

"Ash, what the hell? There's cameras!" You whisper hissed.

"What? Can't I appreciate my girlfriend?" She laughed shrugging her shoulders.

"I swear you're a child sometimes." You groaned.

"Y/N's not wrong," Ali said joining the both of you. "Ash, don't distract her." She winked at you.

You wished them good luck before jogging over to your spot getting into position. On your way there you passed Jaelene Hinkle.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, dyke." She mumbled but you clearly heard her.

Stopping in your tracks you whirled around faster than the wind and faced her.

"What did you just say?" You mockingly held your hand behind your ear.

"You heard me, dyke. Shame on you for bringing your sick romance onto the field in front of all those kids." She looked at you with disgust. Oh shoot, it's only mutual.

Anger rose in you upon hearing her homophobic words.

You pressed your forehead against hers even though you felt the urge to disinfect that spot and stepped forward while she walked back.

"Watch your mouth, Hinkle. One more word from you, I swear to god." You clenched your jaw so hard it started to hurt.

"Gurl, please. You're all talk and no bite. Same goes to this chaos you call a team. Orlando is barely holding itself in the league and I now know exactly why." You stared at her in disbelief.

"Don't you dare bring up the team, you homophobic fuck." Narrowing your eyes your patience was running thin.

You had never been in a situation like this before. No one had ever negatively brought up the relationship you had with Ashlyn and Ali.

"One isn't enough for you, huh? Tell me, are they as disappointing in the bed as they are on the field? Lord, forgive me for even asking such thing." She shuddered.

All you saw was red as your body lunged forward punching her square in the face. Yelling out in pain she dropped to the ground.

"What the– Are you crazy?" Quickly standing up she slapped you in the face.

The scene escalated quickly. The ref came running full speed and so did both teams, not to mention the crowd who was either dead silent watching in shock, yelling, confused or trying to boo Carolina.

Tears gathered in your eyes, you had never felt so disgusted and betrayed before. To share a game with someone as homophobic as her made you wonder why a club would ever want to sign her.

The ref waisted no time raising the red card above her head pointing towards the exit.

"What?" Your jaw dropped to the floor as all color drained from your face. The card felt like another slap to the face.

The stadium protested and booed. So did half your team with Marta and Alex in the front.

Ashlyn ran past you and went face to face with Hinkle shoving her away from you. "Bitch! Don't you ever lay a finger on her again or I'll make sure to break it!" The blonde goalkeeper was more than ready to throw hands, especially when it was you that has been threatened.

Alex had to pull an outraged Ashlyn away before the ref would notice and card her too.

"What is this? Why was she carded but Hinkle doesn't get anything? She literally hit her too!" Ali was furiously arguing with the ref pointing between you and an equally angry Hinkle.

"Y/N!" Turning to your left you saw Ash hurrying over to you. "Babe, are you okay?" She asked worriedly, taking your face into her gloved hands.

"I swear to god, if she hurt you in any way I'll rip her to shreds!" She gently inspected your face and sighed upon seeing your slightly red cheek.

"I'm just a little shook. I don't care about the things she said about me but about you guys? She crossed a line and got no card for it?"

"What! What did she say?" Ash asked clenching her hands to fists.

"Called me a dyke and insulted our relationship with some disrespectful comments." Meanwhile the medics checked Hinkle for any kind of injury.

Ali threw her hands up in the air as the ref now pointed a yellow card at her, obviously fed up with her constant arguing.

"She did what?" Alex couldn't believe her ears, her eyes widening in disbelief.

Ashlyn was furious now, joining Ali's side and giving the ref a piece of her mind. You had never seen such a mess, it scared you to be honest.

Hinkle appeared to be fine enough to continue the game, something that couldn't be said for you. You decided enough was enough and left the pitch in frustration and sadness.

You had to sit and wait for at least another 50 minutes all alone in the locker room, drowning in your thoughts and frustration.

Once the game was finished and all the girls started coming back into the locker room you finally got your chance to talk to the staff and coach, explaining your side of the story.

The red card wasn't even on your mind anymore, if that's what you get for fighting homophobes then so be it.

"Ready to leave, baby?" Ali came over and sat down next to you, her fingers playing with a strand of your hair.

"Yeah, please." You mumbled and pulled her up with you. Your eyes searched for Ash who seemed to have disappeared.

"Where's Ash?" You asked in confusion.

"She went ahead, don't worry." Ali laughed and kissed the top of your head. Together you finally walked out of the stadium and over to the car.

"My my, if it isn't the world's most beautiful girls and they're all mine." Ash smirked leaning against the hood of her car, sunglasses on her face.

"She's the prettiest though." You giggled and jumped out of Ali's arms as she poked your sides.

Opening the door you climbed onto the backseat and fastened the seatbelt, dreading the talk that was coming now.

"Alright. What happened on that field?" Starting the car Ash turned the radio off and drove away.

"Do we really need to?" You sighed.

"Yes. This is important, honey. We're just trying to understand." Ali spoke, watching you in the rearview mirror.

"Fine." You rolled your eyes. "She called me a dyke. She insulted the team and asked if you're as disappointing in the bed as you are on the field. That's it. She can insult me all she wants but she crossed a line dragging you guys into it." You leaned against the window and watched the streets.

You heard both of them gasping.

"We all know that she's homophobic, we've had issues with her before. That certainly wasn't the first time. It's just how she is, she ain't a good person. It's a shame that she had to target you of all people and not face any consequences." Ash's grip tightened around the wheel.

"You're better than her on so many levels, baby. You managed to score and not her. She can barely manage to defend a ball." Ali turned around in her seat and smiled at you.

"I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have punched her, it was my anger taking over." You sighed.

"No way, that was awesome." Ash smirked and Ali slapped her thigh. "Hey, what– I'm only speaking the truth," She laughed but grew serious again.

"If she's smart she'll stay as far away from me as possible next time. Lucky bitch got away without me breaking her face for laying her filthy hands on you." You had to smile at that, you loved when they got possessive or overprotective.

It didn't take long for you to arrive at your house. The rest of the ride was spent in silence. You ran into the house before anything else could be said and took a shower, you needed to wash the shame and dirt of your body.

Not bothering with a towel you left the bathroom to get some clothes. What you didn't expect was Ali comfortably resting on the bed, her eyes checking you out shamelessly.

"I– I- uhm, hi?" Why were you so nervous all of a sudden? It's not like they've never seen you naked before.

You tried walking backwards to flee into the bathroom and grab a towel but your body collided with another one behind you.

"Not so fast." You jumped feeling Ash's cold hands on your hips, trapping you by pressing herself against your naked back.

Her lips trailed featherlight kisses along the side of your neck before biting down and soothing it with her tongue. "Oh god." Your head fell back against her shoulder as your eyes closed.

"We thought we could cheer you up? You looked so sad and unhappy. Let us make you feel better, baby. We'll take care of you." Ali said softly.

You didn't dare move, too caught up with the feeling that Ash's hands and lips were giving you.

Your girlfriends shared a look of agreement and nodded. Without any effort Ash picked you up bridal style and carried you over to the bed.

Throwing you down the silky sheets made contact with your already highly sensitive skin.

Ali stayed put and continued watching as Ash climbed on top of you pinning your hands above your head. You didn't even struggle, she was much stronger than you anyways.

"Is this what you want, baby? Do you want us to make you feel good?" Ali asked taking her place next to you and Ashlyn.

The blonde on top of you continued kissing your neck teasingly, her lips barely touching your skin but it still turned you into a mess.

"Answer her!" Ash exclaimed and bit down again. "Oh fuck– yes! I want that." You whimpered, trying to arch into your girlfriend but her weight had you pressed down.

Ash released your hands and backed off the bed, leaving you confused for a second. "Hey, love. I missed you." Ali straddled your hips and leaned down grabbing your hands.

"I missed you too." Your voice was shaking with pleasure while Ali intertwined your fingers, pinning your hands down once again, nibbling on your earlobe.

Ash, enjoying the view very much, removed her top with a grin. She would much rather have you on your stomach, one of her straps buried deep into your pussy while she could easily slap your ass, but she knew right now you needed comfort more than rough fucking.

Sex with either one of them was mind blowing but the two of them together just shamelessly fucking you? That's always a lifetime experience.

Ali climbed off your lap and positioned herself next to your chest as Ashlyn returned spreading your legs as much as possible and sitting in between.

"Now, let's get to the fun part, shall we." She said and leaned down, completely avoiding the place where you needed her the most and instead gently kissed your inner thigh making sure to leave big purple marks.

You threw your head back as Ali's lips made contact with your collar bone, kissing a trail down to your left boob while her hand massaged your right boob, twisting and rubbing the nipple as well.

For a moment your body didn't know what to do with Ashlyn between your shaking legs and Ali's lips closing around your nipple, biting and sucking it until it stood hard.

"How does that feel, babygirl?" Ashlyn asked. You managed to open your eyes and saw both of them smirking down at you, making your clit throb.

"This- ugh, feels so good, so good. I need more, please!" You begged and grabbed the sheets.

Finally feeling Ash's lips on your clit you arched your back and moaned her name, your legs clamping around her neck trying to shove her deeper into your pussy. Of course careful to not hurt her.

"Look at you, so wet for us. We barely even touched you, baby." Ali hummed and enjoyed the view of Ash eating you out, your moans music to her ears.

Ash had a rough grip on your thighs as she went to work on your sensitive core, her tongue swirling and licking over your hole, collecting your endless wetness and enjoying the taste of you.

Your moans jumped an octave when she pushed her tongue through your folds, exploring your inner walls, pushing her tongue in and out.

"Oh god, oh fuck!" You grabbed Ali's forearm harshly, holding on for dear life as her finger started rubbing your abused clit, bringing you closer to your release.

"Whenever you're ready to cum baby. Do it for us. You so deserve it, love." Ali spoke and twisted your erect nipple with her free hand.

The knot in your stomach grew tighter as both women continued their actions. Opening your eyes you stared into the green orbs of your girlfriend, the sight sending you straight over the edge as her tongue sucked your folds and Ali still circling your clit.

"I'm coming! Oh my god! Oh my–" You yelled as stars, no, whole galaxies exploded behind your eyelids. The intense orgasm rocked your body, your muscles tensing until you breathlessly slumped back down, your girlfriends immediately letting go and comforting you.

Ash and Ali felt more than satisfied after watching you come like that; loving how your body twisted and convulsed with pleasure, your hands fisting the sheets.

"You did so good, babe. We love you." Ash kissed your knuckles while Ali played with your hair, both sandwiching you under the big blanket.

#krashlyn imagines #had to repost bc it wasnt showing in the tags i hope this works now #uswnt imagines #krashlyn #uswnt

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delusionalwriterr · 5 years ago

Text

Resurgence (1)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avengers!Reader

Summary: After accepting a mission from an old friend, you and along with the other Avengers set out to another planet to retrieve a mysterious gem. Little did you know that the gem isn’t the only thing inhabiting the planet and soon found yourselves in a sticky situation.

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: slow burn, language, friendship issues, mentions of injuries, death, inaccurate depictions of space travel, angst, fluff

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and any of the other fictional works mentioned.

A/N: I hope y’all like it! Every detail about the mission is purely made up by me so yea HAHAHAH

Prologue | Masterlist | Chapter Two

“You sure you wanna do this, doll?” Bucky asked as he stuffed a few clothes in his duffel bag. The two of you were in your shared bedroom, packing for the mission. After the uncomfortable phone call with Peter, you gathered a few of the Avengers and relayed to them the details.

The Guardians were initially hired to retrieve a gem called the Resurgentium Stone, but the client refused to disclose any more information about it other than where it was and what it looked like. The gem was located on a planet called Mortvivus which was a few lightyears away from Earth and it was a green, irregularly-shaped stone that was about the size of a golf ball.

After explaining everything, the people who were willing to help you were Steve, Sam, Natasha, Rhodey, and of course your boyfriend, Bucky. Tony opted to stay behind to watch over the compound, but you all know he’s still petrified to go back into space after being stuck there for almost a month.

“I’m sure,” you replied, shooting Bucky an assuring smile. “Without me piloting that ship, who knows where you’ll end up.” you quipped, letting out a laugh which Bucky reciprocated. He then proceeded to watch you as you continued to pack, a dazed look in his eyes.

You halted your actions when you caught him from the corner of your eye and stared back. You drew your eyebrows together, an amused smirk displayed on your lips. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer, Sarge.” you teased, causing Bucky to turn red at the nickname. He cleared his throat and went over to where you were seated and situated himself beside you.

He grabbed your hand and lifted it to his lips, placing a delicate kiss on your knuckles. While doing this, he made sure to bore his eyes right into yours as you felt your cheeks heat up at the sudden gesture. Even if you and Bucky had been together for a few years now, he still manages to make you a blushing mess after doing the littlest things.

Bucky pulled his lips away from your hand. “You know I love you, right?” he asked, still staring at you with nothing but love and adoration in his eyes. “And that I’d do anything for you?” You beamed before nodding your head and giving his lips a quick peck. “I know. I could say the same to you, Bucky.”

EARTH - 5 MINUTES TO LAUNCH

Soon enough, the six of you were boarding the ship. “Alright, besides Bucky, who’s never been to space?” you asked as everyone took a seat. You looked behind you from the pilot’s chair and saw that Sam’s hand was raised. “Well sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, birdie.” you teased, making Sam roll his eyes at the silly nickname you always used to get on his nerves.

“Is this thing on?” you heard Tony’s voice through your comms, “Be careful out there, guys.” he said to which Rhodey answered, “We will, man, don’t worry.”

As you were about to take off, you heard him again. “Don’t let anything probe you,” he remarked, causing you to chuckle, “No promises.”

After making sure everyone is fastened to their chairs, you started the ship and took off. At full speed, you drove the ship up and into the sky, driving your body backwards into your seat as you set the thrusters to maximum.

“I just remembered how much I hated space,” you hear Steve mumble, his voice shaky due to the turbulence. A few minutes later, you exited the Earth’s atmosphere and were met with the dark abyss that is space.

“I change my mind, I don’t wanna do this anymore, take me home.” Sam pleaded, drawing a cackle from you as you put the ship on co-pilot, unbuckled your seatbelt, and stood up from your seat.

The others mirrored your actions as you went over to where they were sitting. “If you thought that was bad, wait until we get to the wormhole,” you taunted before hearing a groan from Natasha, “I hate those things,”

“Wait, isn’t that the thing Matthew McConaughey went through in Interstellar where it was all trippy and shit?” Sam inquired, fear in his eyes. Bucky, on the other hand, looked like an excited puppy after hearing the word ‘wormhole’ and turned to you. “I always wanted to go through one of those, please tell me we’re going through one of those.” he pleaded, slightly bouncing up and down. However, the rest of the team were looking mortified.

Bucky never thought he’d be alive during a time when space travel was possible. Hell, he never imagined that he would be able to make it to space, himself! He spent most of his life picturing the day he’d get to see space in person, and here he was staring dreamily out of the window, admiring the view.

You nodded your head before proceeding to explain, “We’ll arrive at the wormhole in approximately two hours, so get comfortable.” You laughed as you earned a collective groan from the rest of the group. “Sorry, guys, but if we don’t use the wormhole we’ll all be at least two hundred years old when we get to Mortvivus.” you explained, shrugging your shoulders as Bucky put an arm around you, a huge grin on his face.

Rhodey scoffed at the sight, “I’m sure that smile is gonna be gone by the time we go through the wormhole.”

SPACE - 1 HOUR TO THE WORMHOLE

The team was eating their lunch on the table at the back of the ship while you were seated in the pilot’s seat, contacting the Guardians. “Doll, come eat with us.” Bucky called from across the room.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” you called back, your eyes fixated on the screen in front of you as you tried to reach the Benatar. Your leg bounced up and down, something you tend to do when you were anxious, as you waited for someone to pick up and have their face pop up on the screen. You pray to whoever was listening that it wouldn’t be Peter because you’re still not ready to face him after all those years.

It wasn’t until someone picked up the call and Rocket’s face appeared on your screen when you released a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “Rocket!” you squeeked, your voice going up an octave higher as you tried to hide the relief in your voice with excitement. “Hey, kid! Quill’s eating somewhere on the ship so I’m taking charge of it for a while.” the racoon greeted as he sat in the pilot’s chair, a sling around his arm.

You frowned at the sight and leaned in towards your screen. “Aren’t you supposed to be resting or something? You look pretty banged up.” you pointed out. Rocket was the person (or in this case, rodent) you were closest to after Peter. You had this sibling-type bond that you always found comfort in and you were relieved that it was still comfortable to talk to him after years of not seeing each other.

Rocket scoffed as he waved a dismissive hand. “They can’t keep the real captain away from his ship,” he commented, “enough of that. Where are you? You were supposed to call before you left Earth.”

“Right, sorry about that, it kinda slipped my mind,” you replied, sheepishly scratching the back of your head. “We’re on our way to the wormhole, should be there in an hour or so.” Rocket nodded and turned to the tangled pile of branches beside him, “Wanna say hi to (Y/N)?”

A smile broke into your face as you saw Groot squeeze himself into frame. “I am Groot!” he shouted, voice deeper than the last time you talked to him. “I miss you too, Groot!” you cooed. He then returned to playing his game and you turned your attention back to Rocket. “How are ya, kid?” he questioned, leaning towards his screen, his voice suddenly becoming softer.

You answered by giving him a tight-lipped smile before uttering, “Better as I’ll ever be.” Before he could answer, Gamora emerged from behind him. “Rocket, what did I tell you to get some rest— oh, hi, (Y/N)!” she chirped, coming closer to the monitor. “It’s great to see you again, I hope you’re doing well.”

Your heart warmed at the fact that she still cared about you despite your decision of leaving the team. “It’s great to see you too, Gamora. I hope they’re not giving you a hard time,” you joked, earning a chuckle from her.

Just then, another voice came through that made your whole body tense up. “Is that (Y/N)? Let me talk to her,” Peter’s voice filled your ears. You froze when you heard his footsteps approach the computer as you tried your best to think of an excuse to hang up. Fortunately for you, Bucky called you over another time, “Doll, if you don’t come here and eat, Sam’s gonna steal all your food.”

You quickly turned back to your computer. “I gotta go, I’ll update you when we’re near the planet. Bye.” you rambled, swiftly ending the call before Peter showed up. You sighed and stood up to walk towards the table to join Bucky and the others.

You pulled up a chair next to Bucky and started to eat. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders, pulling you towards his body as he looked at you. His eyebrows were drawn together, mentally asking you if you were okay to which you only nodded in return. “So what’s it like going through a wormhole anyway?” Sam piped up. “The worst feeling ever.” Steve grumbled, taking a sip from his coffee.

Sam snapped his head towards his blonde friend, a dirty look on his face. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been turned into space dust before, but I’m pretty sure it’s way worse than travelling through some space portal.” he retorted, earning a laugh from everyone around the table as Steve lifted his arms up in defense. “Y’all still haven’t answered my question,” he pointed out as he turned to you.

You shook your head as you kept shoving spoonfuls of food in your mouth. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

SPACE - 2 MINUTES TO THE WORMHOLE

“Everybody’s seatbelts on?” you asked as you gripped the steering wheel of the ship. “Everything is gonna look really weird when we enter the wormhole— your vision’s gonna get distorted, things around you will look freaky, but that’s totally normal.”

Everyone nodded, too afraid to ask anymore questions. “I don’t think any of this is totally normal,” Sam countered, his knuckles turning white due to the death grip he had on the armrests on his seat. You hear Rhodey mumble in agreement before counting down, “Entering the wormhole in three, two, one.”

You dive into the spherical figure as you saw the light around you bend into something more tunnel-like. You were going through the wormhole in full speed as you felt the ship shake violently. “Why did I agree to this again?” you heard Natasha shout through the noise.

Bucky’s eyes marveled at the sight before him. Distorted stars and planets were whooshing past him at the speed of light, his field of view much wider than normal. He was a full fledged astronaut now, he thought to himself. Rhodey looked over to him to see the same boyish grin on his face as they continued to make their way to the other side of the hole. “Disneyland rides must seem like nothing to you,” he commented.

After a few minutes of speeding through space and time, you finally exited the wormhole. You heard Sam release a big huff of air before breathing heavily. “Hold on, I think I left my soul on the other side, go back,” he panted as he clutched a hand to his chest. Steve shook his head as he leaned his head back to rest on his chair, “I’m too old for this.”

“That. was. awesome!” Bucky enunciated, earning glares from the rest of the team and a smile from you. “Good job, babe. Best pilot in the galaxy,” he added, throwing you a wink. You shook your head and focused your attention to what was in front of your ship.

“There it is,” you began. “Mortvivus.”

You shot a quick message to the Benetar, telling the Guardians that you were able to travel through the wormhole successfully and that you were about to land on the planet. With shaky hands, you guided the ship towards the planet and began your descent.

“Here we go.”

A/N: If you want to be tagged, feel free to leave a reply or just message me! ❤️ Requests are open too ⭐️

Taglist: @thewolfgirluniverse

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #the winter soldier x reader #the winter soldier x y/n #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan x y/n #bucky barnes #the winter soldier #sebastian stan #marvel #the avengers #marvel headcannon #delusionalwriterr #resurgence

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suga-kookiemonster · 5 years ago

Note

Ok Ashley, first of all when I saw the gif you used, I know you were about to FUCK ME UPPPP. Alright bubs, buckle up this is gon be a RIDE cus phew I am the biggest hoe for ego. I’ve literally re-read the whole series MULTIPLE TIMES and it’s never NOT funny, like I still cackle at the same jokes every damn time. Anyways, yes let’s get it. I love how you’ve used common tropes like fuckboy!jk, fratboy!jk, college au, F2L, and onebed, but have completely made it your own. Like I feel like even if

you posted your work under some other pen name, I’d still recognize your style and work. You have a very specific voice? Very “YOU” BRAND of writing and that’s probably one of the HARDEST things to achieve as a writer. Mc is a delight and the way she be low key losing her cool over sleepin in the same bed as kook has me cryin cus girl I FEEL YA. “just a t-shirt advertising your university’s Segway club that you had swiped off a table for free during freshman orientation” HAHAHA mc and I are the

same fuckin people is2g cus free is for me. ALSO DUDE, “Jungkook softly, but audibly inhaled, like he was gearing up to say something of importance” BUT WHAT WAS HE GOING TO SAY?! I need to know, it’s for science. Also, high key endeared that he calls he “noona” cus I’m a pervy old lady and a lady could dream ok. Yes, now we get to the good stuffs, cus motherfucker would I love to wake up to kook’s morning wood wow he really be like a man buffet- he’s both cute and dashingly sexy. “attempting to

smooth your expression into one of ignorant unconsciousness as adrenaline pounded through you. Your eyes were closed, but that didn’t stop you from feeling his close proximity as he gingerly leaned over you to scope out your face” OMFG THE WAY MY BLOOD PRESSURE SKYROCKETED. Ngl been there and it’s SO uncomfortable like can he NOT feel my heart falling right outta my ass??? Kudos to mc for keeping composure (cus I wasn’t able to oops) kinda interested in what the situation woulda looked like had

he known she was awake tho?? “really? … fucking really gonna do this now?” HAHAH OMG “the way he was using the clothes he had apparently grabbed from his bag to hide his crotch from your view” the consistency in your writing is SO IMPRESSIVE like… when I read ego I see it as a move in my head bc of all these small, but important, details. They both migrated towards each other uwu that is SO CUTE, esp with kook as the big spoon wrapped all around her ughhh my heart. And the way she grabbed a

plate of food for baby boy has me SO ENDEARED, it’s so sweet the way she’s thinking of him and his favorite food. Ok, BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT NAMJOON AND LISA, cus Namjesus they totally boned that night didn’t they?! The whole breakfast scene had me ROLLING “jungkookie lost his hands in a tragic paragliding accident” and “…like he was sitting there smiling at you, eyes sparkling like he was a big titty anime girl?” honestly, I gotta hand it to you, there has been no fic that makes me laugh the way

ego does. The dialogue, the pop culture references (re: pimp my ride, fear factor, “Squidward”, etc), the humor KILLS ME. You seem like the funny af friend in the group. Like “baby wine doesn’t exist because that illegal. and, frankly, immoral.” “But I would just like to state for the record that I’m the one who passed through her vagina.” “Tore it too, from what I hear” HAHA OMFG THEIR BANTER IS A+ bff shitting on each other and I’m living for it!!! The whole laser tag scene was pure gold.

The way lisa started opening up, jk’s cocky ass, mc/joon’s mess of team work, the way jungkook calls mc “babe” instead of “noona” (what’s with that anyways? He wanna be seen as manlier or something??), the return of the god of destruction, “Yeah, well you also have no upper lip” HAHAHAHA ok but I actually love jk’s sparce upper lip and buck teeth, it’s just so SWEET &ENDEARING. “You watched his tongue roll in his cheek as he considered you. It was sexy” HELL MFING YES IT’S SO SEXY!! I love this

characterization of jk- he’s very layered. He’s sweet, charming, sexy, dumb af, and annoying all at the same time which makes him feel vvv real to me. And now the smut. The fact that they’re in the same position as the other morning, but unlike last time, she’s ready to do something about it. The mouth on that boy omg reminds me of “do you kiss your mom with that mouth?” from an earlier chapter phew. I love that he’s focused on prepping her with all the grinding and fingering. While v sexy, also

shows he cares about her pleasure in that he wants her to enjoy penetration. The bit when he’s just dazed when she’s urging him to get a condom has me chuckling- is he THAT shook that it’s actually happening?? “He slid the rubber on with shaky hands.” Makes me think that he’s both nervous and excited and it’s more than just one time fucking to him. And the way she asks to ride him phew, she really be LIVIN THE DREAM that’s my ultimate fantasy let’s be real until he opens his dumb mouth “Hop on.

Please remember to fasten your seatbelt and for your safety keep all items stowed beneath the seat in front of you until after takeoff” OMFG HE’S SO ANNOYING HAHAHA “You placed another kiss on a pebbled nipple, intrigued when you heard him swallow a moan. Emboldened, you circled it with your tongue, scratched it lightly with your teeth. Jungkook whined, and the sound shot straight to your clit” FUCK THAT’S HOT. I am 10/10 a hoe for nipple play. Holy shit, and the way he pulled outta her cus he

knew he wasn’t going to make it in time for her to cum too, so he opts to eat her out first. We LOVE a man who prioritizes female pleasure!! Hnng and the way she agrees to continue fucking even after she’s already came and the way kook just GOES TO FUCKING TOWN ON THAT PUSS had my vag ROLLINGGGG damn I really feel bad for whoever is sharing a wall with them rn cus that headboard RIP my heart “I win” wtf dude his pillow talk SUCKS ASS. Just when she thinks she’s not just a game to him, he pulls

this shit. It’s probably just a dumb af joke cus we know my bby be competitive as all hell and also ain’t that smart, but damn. Not. The. Time. UGHHHH I just want to squish their faces together and be like "TALK TO EACH OTHER PLS- this is all a terrible misunderstanding" TL;DR my panties are wet, my heart is broken, and I kinda wanna knee kook in the balls. Thank you for this update!! Masterpieces are ALWAYS worth the wait!! It's bitter sweet that ego is comin to the end. Sending all my love

PHEWWWWW, THIS REVIEW!! 😭😭💕we still have one part left, so i’m not gonna confirm or deny any of your assumptions. but OMG, i’m so touched that my work left this big of an impression on you! your commentary made me smile so big 😩😩😩 truly, thank you so much for enjoying my wacky fic and my wacky characters. it really means a lot to know that people love my babies as much as i do, and that they’re actually as invested in the storyline as i am. ego was my first fic for the bts fandom, so she’s really special to me and it makes me happy that others enjoy her 🤧💕 and that you enjoy my writing style 😭😭😭pls 😭😭😭

thank you again for your sweet words. hopefully i can finish ch 8 sooner than later!

#fic: ego #lcksndkys #asks

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nicklangfordmuse · 5 years ago

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‘ you could stay here. with me. ’

High school is a tough jungle, whether you’re popular or not. When you thought you’d only get into a fight with friends because of social hierarchy, this was the least expected reason for Nick. He’s never really been the smartest guy in class and he admitted that. But there’d be times that he feels like he can do it, and so he gives it a try. Debate. Just a class debate caused him to get kicked out of the lunch table.

“What the hell, guys? It’s just a debate. C minus isn’t gonna kill your chances from graduating high school.” Nick said, laughing as he was he really confused. “We got the lowest grade in class. It’s definitely gonna hurt our grades for the entire year.” Wesley said and Nick rolled his eyes as he’s never really been one to care about his grades. “We can just ask for...special project. Or whatever. It’s just one class.” He tried to reason but the entire table was already ignoring him. Nick was starting to get pissed so he had to call out the person he’s closest to. “Claire? Seriously?” He asked and Claire flared at him. “I could’ve been fine with a B. You should’ve just kept your mouth shut, Nick.” She said and Nick wasn’t in the mood to convince them anymore. And so, he left the table. Looking around, he tried to find a seat but he couldn’t find anywhere to fit in. Going around, he stopped at the table that had less people and saw a familiar face.

“Hey.” He said, grinning awkwardly as he was holding onto his tray of sandwich and Gatorade.

The girl smiled at him awkwardly, giggling like a Disney princess. “Hey.” She said, putting her pen down as she was writing something. Nick looked down but tried to respect her privacy when he saw that it was a journal. He looked away and cleared his throat, not sure where this was heading.

“You look...lost. Are you...okay?” She suddenly asked and Nick had to chuckle. “I...I guess. I don’t know where to stay. My friends are being total assholes.” He admitted, shaking his head. “If they’re acting like assholes, then I guess friends isn’t the right term for them.” She said, pushing her tray to the side as she moved as well. “You could...stay here. With me.” She added and Nick grinned at her, putting his tray down. “Uhm...yeah. Thanks, Katrina. Just...don’t mind me. I’m gonna eat my butt hurt and...you can continue with what you’re doing.” He said, opening his sandwich as he started eating. She continued writing on her journal while eating her perfectly cut strawberries in half.

Nick munched on his sandwich, letting his anger out in every bite. Unintentionally, he was making a mess, bread crumbs falling as the sauce was dripping. Not only that but the pieces of bacon and shredded cabbage were falling on the table. Turning to his side, he saw Katrina looking at him in disbelief. Realizing that his eating was disturbing, Nick started laughing. Surprisingly, Katrina just laughed along.

“I’m...I’m sorry. I promise. I don’t eat like this all the time. Just...when I’m stress eating. And...I mean, this sandwich isn’t even stacked well. Like...the lunch lady was too lazy to even align it well, you know.” Nick tried to explain and Katrina just kept giggling at him. He grinned at her and laughed too. “Why are you laughing? What’s so funny?” He asked curiously and Katrina shook her head. “It’s just funny how you’re blaming the lunch lady for misaligning your sandwich. You could easily just eat the sandwich gently.” She explained and Nick laughed, putting his sandwich down. “I’m stress eating. I told you.” He said, taking a sip of his Gatorade to wash all the sandwich in his mouth.

Katrina looked at him, curious as to what’s going on in that head of his. Why didn’t he have a table to sit in when he usually sat with Claire and the others? “What are you so stressed about?” She asked and Nick swallowed first before answering her. “My asshole frie—“ He paused, remembering what Katrina said earlier. “Just...ex-friends who rejected me because I lost the debate for our team.” He explained, eating his sandwich carefully this time, putting it down after to clean the rest of his dirt from earlier. “I’m not that smart, you know that. We have a class together, right? But...I just thought I’d share some effort so that I would feel like I deserve the grade they’re giving my team. And so...I volunteered to battle in the final debate and...well, not surprisingly, I lost. I lost hard. I just thought I understood my team’s stand but I ended up siding with the other team so...C minus. And...I’m out of the lunch table.” He explained more, taking another sip of his drink. Turning to her, Nick saw that Katrina was listening. Like, she was ACTUALLY listening to him and it felt weird. His thoughts were that important?

“Anyway. I don’t want to think about that. They’re just a bunch of babies.” He said, putting his sandwich down before turning to her again. “What are you writing there?” He asked curiously but Katrina subtly closed her notebook. “Just...a daily journal. I like to keep notes on a lot of things and...that includes my mind, productivity, the day’s weather, song of the day...” She tried to explain but Nick quickly cut her off, finding something interesting. “What’s your song of the day?” He asked and Katrina pressed her lips together. Opening her notebook, she stared at it before letting out a sigh and closing it again. “Sadly, I don’t have anything yet. I guess...it’ll just have to wait till I get home.” She said, eating more of her strawberries. “You got a car?” He asked and she shook her head. “I’m taking the test next week. My dad said I still need practice, especially with parking.” Nick finished his sandwich and drank his gatorade as he nodded at her. “Alright. You can ride with me. I’m using my mom’s car. She works closer to home, anyway.” He shared, putting his phone down near her. “Put your number in. I’ll call you after my last class.” He added and Katrina was completely surprised. This was all happening so fast and she couldn’t believe this was all actually happening. She awkwardly held the phone and started typing her number. It felt weird to be holding his phone when she’s only seen him use it a lot. Once she was done, she gave it back to him and Nick saved her number.

Seeing the time on his phone, he remembered something. “Okay. I’m sorry to be leaving so soon but...I have to go. I still haven’t done my chemistry homework and I’m sure those guys won’t let me copy anymore.” He explained, getting up as Katrina nodded at him. “I’ll call you later. Thanks again!” He said, jogging away from the table and Katrina just looked at him with an awkward but satisfied smile. Nick will drive her home later.

Last period came and Katrina didn’t really put her hopes up. What if Nick forgot and she was just waiting for nothing? She walked out of the classroom with Polly and her best friend spoke about the neighbor she has that always mows the lawn shirtless. Katrina was so distracted, slowing her walk down as she didn’t want to get close to the door to get out of school. Just before they got there, her phone rang. She stopped, feeling her heart race. “Who’s that?” Polly questioned and Katrina couldn’t control the grin and blush on her face. “It’s Nick.” She said under her breath and Polly was so surprised. “Nick? Langford? Your crush?” She asked, chuckling as her best friend was just blushing hard. “Why is he calling you?” Katrina stared at her phone, feeling her heart race more. “He...Uhm...offered for drive me home. I don’t know. We just...shared a table earlier so...” she explained but the feeling is so much more than that. “Well, what are you waiting for? Answer the phone!” Polly said excitedly for her best friend. But before she could, the girls were interrupted by a voice.

“Yeah, Katrina. Answer the phone. Why you keeping me on hold?” Nick asked playfully before chuckling at the girl. She turned to him, trying to control her blush. “Uhm...I just...I thought you forgot.” She admitted as Nick ended the call and showed his screen to her. “Nope. Got it on alarm.” He said, smiling before realizing she was with someone. “Oh, Uhm...are you...riding with someone else?” He asked curiously but Polly answered for her. “No, no, no. She’s...free for the day. She can ride with you.” Polly said, pushing her best friend closer to Nick. “Anyway, I gotta go...meet my hottie neighbor.” She used as an excuse, signalling for Katrina to call her after.

“Ready?” Nick asked and Katrina nodded at him as they walked out together to where his car is. It was a simple sedan but she’s not gonna complain at all. Getting in the car, Nick fastened his seatbelt before pulling his phone out. “You gotta give me directions. I’ve never been to your house.” He said jokingly with a laugh. Connecting his phone to the cord as he tried to look for something. Katrina was curious but when a song started playing, her heart raced. She could feel the shivers running down every bone in her body.

“Lionel Richie, Easy. My mom says whenever she listens to this song, it reminds her of my dad. And the best way to listen to this is in your car, windows down with the good weather and just enjoying the drive.” He said as it started playing and Nick opened the windows. He started driving and letting Katrina guide him through the roads.

She couldn’t explain it. Right now, she’s inside of Nick’s car, seeing the real him, not the guy the school knows but the guy who grew up with a single mother. Thankfully, she didn’t have ballet training today or else, she wouldn’t have experienced the best afternoon of her life. Watching and listening to Nick sing the song quietly, she could feel her heart curling into a ball more and more for him. This is definitely a crush thats gonna be hard to get over.

Once they got to her house, Nick turned the sounds off and looked at her. “How’s that for song of the day?” He asked and Katrina pressed her lips together and nodded. “It’s perfect. Thank you.” She said sincerely and Nick gave her a bow playfully. “Thanks for letting me sit with you. And...making my day better. I knew I needed a reason to listen to that song again.” He said and Katrina smiled at her before remembering her parents. She couldn’t be spotted out like this with a guy her parents barely know. “I...I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said and Nick nodded, giving her a wave and watching as she got inside her house before driving away.

#verse: baby daddy #back when they were in high school

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