#he's not even helping with backup vocals or anything he's just having a drink and waving his hand around | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lnnlove · 1 year

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leather and lace | e.m.

eddie munson x fem reader

summary: your band plays at the hideout on thursdays and you've always competed with eddie munson. when you realize your actual feelings towards him, you start sending messages in the songs you choose to sing and eddie notices. a (fr)enemies to lovers with mutual pining story where the upside down is never mentioned and the only conflict is the one that these two idiots in love create on their own.

word count: 10k

warnings: slight asshole!eddie, general angst, cussing, marijuana use, drinking, reader uses fem pronouns, mentions of harassment, beginnings of smut, if I missed any please let me know!

author's note(s): I did not fact check if all of the songs mentioned were released at the time this would be taking place (I feel like this is '87 or '88 and our boy got to graduate), please don't hate me! this is basically an open love letter to miley cyrus's version of heart of glass (when they sing heart of glass in the story, imagine this version) which obviously was not around then so if you can't ignore a few inaccuracies, don't read. also, i've just decided the fourth member of corroded coffin is named kevin instead "unnamed freak" or "freak 1" as he is referred to on wiki and imdb (😭).

here, have an accompanying playlist bc I love you <3

The Queens of Noise were what you sentimentally named your band after winning the middle school talent show when you sang the song of the same name by The Runaways with your four best friends.

"It's easy to sing the same words over and over again," Eddie Munson said to you backstage after the awards. "You just sang to the recorded song, you didn't even play your own instruments." That was the first thing the older boy ever said to you.

"Whatever Eddie. You're just jealous that we won," you replied to him with squinted eyes and a look that said eat shit Eddie Munson.

"First place doesn't prove anything except that the teachers like you better than us. It doesn't mean you actually have any talent," Eddie sneered, "come on guys, let's go."

Eddie brushed past you to leave the auditorium, jutting his shoulder into yours harshly as he walked past with his band Corroded Coffin following closely behind him, but Gareth actually smiled sweetly at you and your friends and Jeff quietly congratulated his sister standing behind you.

Ever since that day, everything you do is to prove Eddie Munson wrong.

Eddie said it wasn't impressive if you weren't playing your own instruments, so you learned guitar. Sarah switched to keyboard from piano lessons. Jess took up drums and Heather decided on bass. Tiffany (or Tiff as she preferred) got her brother Jeff to teach her guitar and she turned out to be better than you so you became the lead singer. The girls all help you on backup vocals and sometimes Sarah takes the verses of songs that require a more soprano voice, just like Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie the two of you like to joke with each other.

By the end of your freshman year in high school, you and your girls had solidified yourselves as the Queens of Noise and were practicing every other day in Heather's garage (much to her parents' dismay). You all decided to enter the talent show again next year.

You thought Eddie might finally see your group as a proper band according to his standards since your friends would be playing the music for One Way or Another by Blondie while you sang. But all he said to you after the show was "Easy for you to get all the attention when they're stuck with all the hard work," motioning to your friends behind you before brushing passed you to the other guys.

So you decided you could start playing the second guitar part under Tiff on some of your songs.

After you played on stage for the county fair in 1985, The Hawkins Post wanted to write a story about the band. You found out at the after party Tiff was having, so of course naturally Eddie was there with Jeff and the other boys too.

"Remember us when you're famous," Gareth joked and the other boys congratulated you in some way, but Eddie's competitive nature compelled him to say "Of course they want to write about it, all you know how to play is the hippie shit everyone loves."

"Don't talk about Fleetwood Mac like that man," Kevin retorted in your defense.

You dismissed his comment, but decided you could start training your voice to sing more like Joan Jett and Cherie Currie anyway. It had always been obvious to your friends why you made the decisions you did, but they knew better than to bring it up.

You thought he might finally be impressed during your senior year when the Queens of Noise started playing at the Hideout on Thursday nights and you consistently had a bigger crowd than Corroded Coffin did on Tuesdays.

"No surprise that the drunks of Hawkins would rather watch a bunch of girls on stage than listen to real music," Eddie claimed.

He loved to taunt you over the songs you chose to play, insisting that his metalhead preferences were better than the covers you did of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Runaways, Pat Benatar and Blondie.

Although you and Eddie would never call each other a "friend," you were nearly always around each other. You even had to endure two extra years of high school with him because he refused to apply himself to academics. Your bandmates had gotten close over the years, bonding naturally over shared interests and participating in healthy competition any opportunity you got. Eddie had a good relationship with all the girls except you, who appeared to be a perpetual thorn in his side. It was fine because he was the exact same to you.

The other members of your bands could still give their all to the band while supporting and cheering for the other but you and Eddie, both as stubborn as you are, could almost never put the aggression of competition aside.

Jeff and Tiff were close as siblings, Sarah and Gareth finally took their flirtation and secret hookups to the next step and told everyone they were dating in '86, and even Heather, Jess and Kevin were close because they lived in the same neighborhood. All of that was great, except that it meant you had to run in to Eddie all the time at parties, movies, or the other's shows.

"For someone who doesn't like me, it seems like you're one of our biggest fans," he'd mock you when they got off stage.

"I just came to keep Sarah company asshole," you respond with rolled eyes.

"Whatever you say Y/N," he'd joke as he walked away from you.

It seemed like you'd had a version of that conversation after every show you went to.

Just like going to their nights at the Hideout, you'd been roped in to many movie nights at Jeff and Tiff's house before, and stopped being surprised when often times Eddie would join as well. It typically ended with you two in some type of disagreement about the movie being good or not, since Eddie considered himself such a movie critic.

It wasn't always that bad though. Eddie is the type of guy who always noticed when your drink was empty and was quick to get you another. He'd stepped in several times to say "Hey man, she said she's not interested," when drunk assholes harassed one of you at the bar or parties. You noticed he would always seem to stick close by after something like that happened.

"A tad flat tonight babe," Eddie announced to you after forcing the heavy back door of the bar open to join you in the alley after a show one night.

"Not right now Eddie, I'm not in the mood," you attempted to brush him off.

"What's wrong, can't take a little constructive criticism?" he taunted.

You scoffed and turned your back to him, hoping he'd take the hint and leave you alone. But Eddie is not very good at leaving you alone.

He circled around to face you, dropping his head to meet your eyes when he noticed the smudged mascara under your lashes and clear glassiness in your eyes.

"Whoa whoa, what happened?" he said, bringing a hand to your shoulder. But you look away from him, unable to meet the concerned expression on his face.

When you don't answer, he jumped to conclusions.

"Did some asshole say something to you?" he questioned you, "other than me?"

How is it that he can make you laugh at a time like this? As small and delicate as your little laugh was, it shot something much stronger to Eddie's core.

All you could do was nod, feeling silly in his presence for letting something like that get to you. You noticed Eddie's jaw clench when he raised his head and turned it to look behind you toward the door.

"What guy? What's he wearing?" Eddie asked.

You didn't want to answer. You didn't want him to do something irrational or even get hurt because of you.

"No Eddie," you whispered.

"Tell me Y/N," he demanded.

"Okay, he's sitting at the end of the bar wearing a white collared shirt."

You'd barely finished before Eddie tore off in the direction of the bar. You stayed out there another minute or two collecting yourself and wiping your eyes clean of makeup.

To this day you're not certain what happened. But when you got back to the group, the guy at the end of the bar was gone, Eddie had a bag of ice from the bartender on his right hand, and your friends didn't say a word about it.

He punched a guy out once when he came on too strong to Jess after a gig and now you know he'd done the same for you even though the two of you barely ever saw eye to eye.

You found yourself in the smoke circle with Eddie at every party and he'd always let you take the first hit of a bowl. He'd let you bum a cigarette behind the bar or outside of school any time you asked and would light it for you sometimes even though you never once asked him to do that. The groups would get together to go to movies and concerts sometimes, all piling in to Eddie's van and carpooling to the city.

"Ah ah ah, what's she doing here?" Eddie asked, eyes darting to you. He can't resist an opportunity to torment you.

"Come on Eddie, you know Y/N's part of the group just as much as we are," Jess defends.

"I'm the one who told you all about this concert in the first place, Munson!" you argue.

"Can't you two please behave just for one night?" Gareth asks from his spot behind Sarah, head hanging over her shoulder. She nods in agreement.

You and Eddie hold eye contact for a few moments, considering all of your options.

"I will if he does," you bite as everyone begins to pile into the van.

The groups' eyes trail to where Eddie towers over you, watching from their seats in the back of the van.

"Fine," he answers, "after you," motioning for you to take a seat inside so he can close the back door. You move to climb in and can't help but gasp silently when you feel his hand under yours gently squeeze to help lift you into the van. But when you look back to him once you're seated, he's already slamming the door shut and turning his back to you to walk around to the driver's seat.

He left you alone the rest of the night, but there were a couple of times you shared quick glances from where you danced with the girls and he was standing behind the group nodding along to the music. You almost thought you could even make out a smile on his lips. But that was wiped from your memory the second he looked away from you and back to the stage.

Sometimes you could swear you caught him looking at you across the room with a look that wasn't hateful. Sometimes he even did things that sent a jolt of warmth to your stomach. But that was quickly diminished every time when Eddie would return his attention to another girl or say something that reminded you of his disdain for you. You tried so hard to ignore the pangs of jealousy when you saw him with someone under his arm or the flutters in your stomach when he held eye contact with you. All of it just added to your confusion and the frustration you felt towards him grew with every broken gaze.

✽✧✽✧✽✧✽

That brings you to tonight, Thursday at The Hideout. It's 7:45 and you're getting ready for your weekly show at 8:00. The stage is all set and you're backstage with your girls, putting final touches on makeup and warming up for the performance.

"Shit," you hear Tiff utter under her breath after a snap echoes through the small green room.

"What's wrong Tiff?" Heather asks from her place on the couch.

"My string broke," she announces, stress lacing her voice.

"Shit," the other girls repeat.

"I don't have any extras," Tiff says anxiously.

"Okay, okay, don't panic. I'll be right back," you announce on your way out of the door. You know Eddie's here and maybe he has some extras. You'll just be a little late on stage.

You make your way from the green room behind the stage, into the office and then out to the bar where Eddie is occupying a seat talking to the bartender.

"Eddie," you call out nervously as you approach him.

"Y/N," he returns tensely.

"Do you have any extra guitar strings with you?"

"Other than the ones that are strung to my electric, no. Sorry sweetheart."

"Fuck," you mutter under your breath, secretly shuttering at the nickname but turning away from him and leaning your elbows on the bar, attempting to come up with another solution.

Eddie eyes your slumped figure and brows that are furrowed in contemplation.

"What's the matter?" he asks.

"Tiff's string broke and we're obviously supposed to be playing in a few," you motion to the stage.

"Ah, that is quite the pickle you're in," he teases you, his mind calculating what you'll ask him next.

You think of something and sigh, closing your eyes and bracing yourself for what you're about to ask.

"Eddie...." you begin.

"Yes dear?" he mocks.

"Can we borrow your electric guitar? Pretty please," you utter with monotone.

Eddie exhales, puffing his lips and eyeing you sarcastically.

"That's a pretty big favor to ask without a cherry on top," he jokes. "Ask me again like you mean it." He says with squinted eyes examining you. He loves having power over you, there's no way he'll relent this easy. He'll make you beg a little first because he's reveling in the pouty expression on your face right now.

"Eddie please," you swallow your pride and begin, "if you care about me in any way at all, can I pretty please with a cherry on top borrow your guitar that I know is in the back of your van right now anyway?"

He fake considers for a moment, prolonging your torture.

“And what makes you think I care about you?” he asks, seriously.

“You're right, nothing. I wouldn't dream of you having any type goodwill towards me," he smiles at your response, quite satisfied with it. "But if you like me even just a little. I mean, not like me. but if you think I deserve any amount of kindness - "

"What'll you give me if I do?" he interrupts.

"Anything!" you shout impulsively, "Anything you want." You regret that instantly while considering all of the things he could ask of you.

"Jesus Christ babe, yes if you're that desperate, you can borrow my guitar."

You sigh, relieved, trying to ignore the twisting feeling the pet name causes inside you. Eddie stands from his seat and moves past you to the door to go retrieve the guitar from his van.

You stand, slightly in place as you awe at the fact that you just successfully asked Eddie Munson for a favor, and he said yes.

"You okay in there there?" he asks from his place a few feet away from you, interrupting your thought and grabbing your attention with a small wave in front of your face.

"Yes, Munson, I'm fine," snapping back to your normal self and rolling your eyes at him.

Eddie smirks, he secretly loves when you call him that.

“Good. For a second there I thought you might be in love with me or something," he jokes before turning around to make his way out of the door.

You curse yourself for not being able to think of a witty response and wait by the bar for the few minutes it takes him to return.

He hands you the guitar. "If you return her with even a scratch - "

"I know I know, you'll have my head," you interrupt jokingly, as you grab the instrument from him and turn hurriedly to leave for the girls backstage, not thinking of the many ways he could interpret that.

You return his guitar the same night with no mention of what he wants for his payment. He'd briefly considered asking for a kiss just to torture you, but quickly decided against that thinking it would be too much like the creeps who hit on you girls at the bar all the time. Eddie was not actually interested in coercing you into anything.

So Eddie decided to drop it, not wanting to hold anything over your head or make you feel like you owe him anything.

But a few days later, he opened his van door to find the new Dio and Judas Priest tapes he'd been wanting from the music store but hadn't bought yet with a note that simply said "thank you," in your scribbly writing that he recognized from class. You'd noticed him eyeing those tapes during your shift at the store and thought two tapes with your employee discount was the least you could do to thank him for saving your show.

Eddie smiles to himself at the thought of you doing something nice for him, even going as far as breaking in to his van to keep it a surprise. He chuckles to himself, thinking how out of character it was for you to do something sweet for him. Maybe, he thought, she feels the same. But he dismisses the thought as soon as it enters his mind. No, we're just even now. Nothing's changed, returning to his normal train of thought and strengthening his resolve to continue treating you as he always has.

Neither one of you ever bring it up again, but you have hope that maybe things are different between you now.

✽✧✽✧✽✧✽

The following Saturday was special because the band that was scheduled to play at The Hideout canceled and Sarah and Gareth convinced the owner to let Corroded Coffin and The Queens of Noise play back to back to fill in.

It was a big deal for both groups. You'd been playing Tuesdays and Thursdays for years, but a Saturday is different. Saturdays are for big groups, sometimes even from other cities. There's always a bigger crowd and one of the bands who used to play on Saturdays at The Hideout are on a small nationwide tour now.

Best of all, you'd be able to be there for each other's big moments front and center on the floor while the other group played on stage.

You and the girls practiced every day after work in preparation and even agreed to skip work the Friday before to finalize the details and make sure everything was clean and perfect. You all agreed on your strongest songs and put together a set you were really proud of. You were even going to debut a Blondie song that you've put your own spin on to see how the crowd likes it.

On Saturday, you and the others all arrived in the afternoon to begin setting up and warming up. You shared the green room backstage and it felt like any other night you all got together at Jeff and Tiff's. Gareth and Sarah were draped over each other on the couch, Jeff was playing some card game with Kevin and Heather, Tiff was tuning her guitar in the corner with Eddie who was strumming along to something, and you were sat at the vanity with Jess, sharing a joint for your nerves and deciding when to start your makeup and hair.

"Let me get a hit of that please," Tiff requests and so you bring the joint to her in the corner, holding it to her lips. After she takes a drag, you offer it to Eddie and he accepts quietly with a raise of his eyebrows. You let him keep it because you figure he'll want more than just on hit.

The boys were scheduled to start at 8:00 and then you would follow them at 9:00.

It was 7:00 when you broke the silent calm that had fallen over the room.

"Shouldn't we do a toast or something?" you suggest, "I mean this is kind of a huge fucking deal." You can't help the nervous laugh that falls from your lips after the realization hits you.

"We should," Jeff agrees, "we're playing a FUCKING SATURDAY SHOW!"

The group erupts in shouts, hollering cheers and praise for the situation you've found yourselves in.

"Okay then let's circle up," Sarah says as she jumps off the couch, pulling her arms around the two standing closest to her.

The nine of you circle up in the middle of the room, wrapping arms around each other and huddling together. Eddie stands across from you, gazing down at your excitement as he pops the cork out of the complimentary bottle of champagne left for your group and spraying the foam over all of you in the center of the circle.

"We all drink," he declares, pulling the bottle to his lips and taking a long pull of the lukewarm wine before dropping his head back down and returning his gaze to you.

He extends his arm, handing you the bottle. You accept it with an appreciative smile and take your pull.

"To...." Eddie begins, unsure of how to make a toast. "To us!" he shouts when you take your drink.

"To us!" the others chant in chorus.

"To us," you say when you finish your sip and pass the bottle to Gareth on your right.

Everyone passed the the bottle until it was empty, and then it was time for the boys to go on stage.

While the boys played, you and the girls were front and center to the stage moving to the music with each other and getting the crowd excited. You usually sang along but tonight you were trying to resist the urge so you could save your voice. Their music buzzed through the amps and speakers plugged in around them, vibrating in your chest. You danced and swayed with your friends to get yourself warmed up for your show.

The stage at The Hideout is just a platform that's elevated about three feet. If you're standing at the front of the crowd, you're still close enough in height to whoever's on stage that you can interact, something you've taken advantage of many times in the past while on stage and in the crowd.

From your angle below, the boys were backlit by the stage lights and covered in a warm halo that illuminated their forms. You couldn't deny how beautiful Eddie looked on stage. A natural performer, a personality that shined up there. You secretly ached at the thought that he seemed sweet and flirty with everyone but you.

The boys were great during their set. Of course they always were. But you enjoyed tonight more than any other night because it felt like they all were glad that you were there. There was such little animosity coming from Eddie that you almost thought he wanted you to be there instead of just accepting your presence. You even caught his glance a few times from your place below them.

During their last song, you had to leave the crowd and get backstage to take their place, but you were able to see the last song from the side stage. Gareth and Jess and agreed to use the same drum set, so all you had to do was walk out with your instruments, get Sarah's keyboard, and adjust the mics to be ready.

Suddenly you were wracked with nerves.

After their last song, you all cheered and whistled at the top of your lungs from the side stage so they could hear you over the rest of the crowd. You saw Gareth blow a kiss to Sarah and a blush creep up Kevin's neck.

"Thank you," you hear Eddie on the mic. "We are Corroded Coffin." Another cheer from the crowd. "Now please welcome our Queens of Noise."

Our Queens of Noise.

The possession in Eddie's words rung in your ears and froze you in place.

The boys were approaching you as they exited the stage. Kevin patted Heather's back in encouragement, Jeff hugged Tiff off the ground and told her to get out there, Gareth did his handshake with Jess before twirling Sarah off the ground and setting her down with a kiss.

Eddie spun Heather around and then moved toward you. He was glistening with a thin layer of sweat and his smile was contagious. His chest was heaving with breath and his delicious musky smell surrounded you as he casually enveloped your head in one of his arms and whispered "your turn" against the top of your head. Then you felt him release your head and his other hand on the small of your back nudged you forward. He was so relaxed, as if this was not the first time he's ever embraced you.

Yeah, things were definitely different now.

You took a step forward and shook off the surprise that had overcome you.

You were on fire during your set. You could feel your diaphragm tighten in your stomach as your sang deep, bellowing notes. In between your verses or the chorus, you'd dance back to back with Heather or Tiff, twirl and sway in the middle of the stage, shimmy to Jess in the back on drums and blow kisses to Sarah at her place on keys. Your stage presence was something you were proud of.

You noticed the boys squeeze their way to the front of the stage with their drinks during the third song, all nodding along and praising you all in their own boyish way. You think this is probably the closest Eddie's ever watched one of your gigs, and try to act unfazed by his closeness.

The last song of the set was your new one. You'd only sang it in rehearsal. Never in front of a crowd and never in front of Eddie.

You took a few deep steadying breaths before nodding at Tiff to begin her riff. You nodded along to the beat from her, Heather and Jess, closed your eyes and took a breath before singing the first line.

Once had love and it was a gas. It soon turned out, I had a heart of glass.

The crowd responded well, singing along and screaming for you.

You heard a loud whoop from Jeff with hands cuffed around his mouth and even a shout from Eddie.

During the break when Sarah took over with a keyboard solo, you take a moment to breathe and dance to the music from your friends around you. Below you, the boys were passing out shots and you notice Eddie raising one above his head, intended for you.

You squat to his level to accept it, offering him a quick clink as a cheers before standing, knocking back the shot, and jumping back in for the rest of the song.

Eddie thinks it might be the hottest thing he's ever seen. He swallows a gulp that rose in his chest and exhales deeply.

The crowd erupts into a chorus of cheers and praise on your last note and you inhale sharply to regain your breath. You smile into the mic and say thank you to the people in front of you. You gather with the other girls in the middle of the stage and bow while they cheer for you before turning to exit the stage.

Eddie calls your name from where he's standing by the corner of the stage as you walked down the stairs on the side.

You walk over to him, your heart pounding from the adrenaline in your system from the show and also from the look Eddie was giving you. He looked so good standing there with the stage light behind him and rush from their set still evident in his eyes. Maybe this is it, you think.

He exhales as you approach him like he had been holding his breath.

"That was great," he admits, his eyes taking in your chest rising and falling with heavy breaths and your post-stage glow.

"Yeah right Eddie," you scoff, rolling your eyes and turning away from him towards the bar. You're so used to his insults that you can't even register him being sincere.

He catches your wrist and spins you back toward him. You collide with him, bringing your free hand to his chest to steady yourself and look down to where he is holding your wrist between your bodies.

"I'm serious," he breathes, eyes trained down at where you stand pressed against him.

He towers over you with a look in his eyes that you don't recognize. Your breath hitches in your throat and you can't think of what to say.

"You were amazing up there tonight," he continues, "I couldn't take my eyes off of you."

Your lips part at his words and your insides twist. Every thought has left your brain as you stare up at him. His eyes are so inviting that it makes you forget all the things you'd planned to say to him for years when he finally admitted that you impressed him. Your gaze falls to his lips just for a second and you allow yourself a selfish moment to indulge as you imagine what he would taste like if you leaned in and just kissed him right now.

Your fallen eyes don't go unnoticed by Eddie.

Eddie begins to dip his lower to you when you're interrupted.

"Y/N, come on, the boys are buying us a round," Sarah says from behind you before crashing clumsily into your back, placing her arms on your waist and peeking around your shoulder to kiss your cheek, completely missing Eddie's expression and the moment that was unfolding in front of her.

She pulls you back and your wrist is freed from Eddie's grasp but you don't break your eye contact with him until she spins you around to face Heather, Tiff, and Jess who came along to collect you.

"What was that about?" Heather whispers in your ear as you're pulled into the group's embrace.

"I don't know," you whisper in response. But you think you might.

"He looked like he was going to eat you up," Tiff jokes, well aware of the implications in her tone.

You secretly wished he would. But you swallowed that feeling into your stomach, convincing yourself that there was no way he felt that way about you.

The girls giggle around you as they make their way to the bar to celebrate. You accepted drink after drink handed to you that night, but you weren't able to fully celebrate. Not when Eddie didn't follow you back to the group. Not when Eddie had looked at you that way. Not when you weren't sure what you were feeling in your stomach. Not when you could be putting yourself in the most vulnerable place you've been in in years. And especially not when you could be exposing yourself to someone who you're certain couldn't return the feelings you're having.

You didn't see much of Eddie after that Saturday at The Hideout. You went to your job at the music store every day thinking he may turn up, but he never did. He gave you the cold shoulder on his way out of the door when you tried to say something to him at their show on Tuesday and he wasn't at yours that Thursday. Avoiding you, you thought to yourself and tried to swallow the feeling that it elicited from your gut. Of course he was. How could you have been so stupid to hope something was there?

What you didn't know is that Eddie was hiding from you, worried that he'd revealed too much to you that night at The Hideout. Part of him wanted to reveal more to you. But he wasn't even sure himself what he felt for you. So until he figured it out, he was doing the safe thing and staying away from you. Except this coming Thursday because he agreed to cover for the bartender at the bar, so there's no way he could skip your show.

✽✧✽✧✽✧✽

You went back and forth between being certain the way he'd looked at you after the show was out of desire and thinking the way he was holding your wrist firmly was out of hating having to admit that you put on a good show. But either way, the taste you'd had having of him close to you was not enough.

So when Sarah told you at Sunday's practice in Heather's garage that the boys would definitely be at your show on Thursday, you couldn't help but ask "all of them?" sheepishly.

"I think so, why?" she asks, giving you a probing smile with raised eyebrows.

"No reason," you shrug off. "Think you ladies would be up to learning a new song for Thursday?"

They agree, exchanging knowing glances to each other as they took their places.

On Thursday, you arrived through the back of the bar so you didn't see Eddie until you were on stage. You could feel his eyes on you from his spot behind the bar but you refused to lift your gaze to him. He'd been giving you the cold shoulder for over a week and two could play at that game. Besides, your song choices for the night were bold and you thought you might chicken out if you saw anything in his eyes that changed your mind.

You sang I Hate Myself for Loving You and it meant more to you tonight than it ever had before. Your past relationships and meaningless hookups never once crossed your mind when that song came on, but one stupid tall metalhead with stupid brown button eyes and stupid long hair that you want to run your fingers through flashes through your mind every time you've heard it for weeks now.

Jess started playing the beat for your last song and you took a deep breath as you closed your eyes and felt the music surround you. Tiff came in on guitar while Heather and Sarah kept a steady bass line that you're certain was the only thing keeping your heartbeat regular.

We've been here too long, tryin' to get along. Pretending that you're oh so shy, you begin to sing.

You glanced at Eddie behind the bar who was watching you. You wondered if he recognized it yet and if his heart was racing like yours was at the sight of him.

Do you wanna touch, Do you wanna touch, Do you wanna touch me there? Where? There. Yeah! Yeah, oh yeah.

You have to hold the mic with both hands and screw your eyes shut to will yourself to finish the song without looking in Eddie's direction again. When you were done, you said "that's all for tonight, thank you" to your crowd and you quickly exited the stage.

While the other girls went the bar immediately for the post-show shot tradition, you took the opportunity to sneak out back for a quick cigarette, desperate for a moment alone to catch your breath before facing Eddie.

But of course he doesn't allow you that favor.

Eddie watched your attempt at a sneaky escape and followed you out after pouring the other girls their shots on the house and making sure there was no one else at the bar for drinks.

You were standing to the right of the door with your back to the wall when he came out, you had a joint hanging loosely from your lips while you clumsily searched in your pockets for a lighter. You'd realized in seconds that you didn't have one, but you were still using that as your excuse not to look up at him.

Eddie reached his arm to you with his lit zippo, raising it to your lips. You leaned in with your hands cupping the end of the joint, allowing the flame to light it and take a deep hit immediately.

You finally lift your eyes to meet Eddie's. He's staring hot daggers in to you. You swallow the feeling growing in your throat, becoming acutely aware that neither of you have said anything yet.

"You sing that just for me?" Eddie asks, taking a dangerous step closer to you.

"What?"

Eddie tilts his head in frustration, squinting his eyes at you. Annoyed, he snatches the joint from in between your lips and tosses it to the ground, ashing it with his toe. He can't believe the capacity you have to bother him.

"You heard me," he says, bending at his hips so he's eye to eye with you, lifting his hands to either side of your face and caging you into the wall.

Your breath hitches in your throat. Your insides twist into a knot and your legs feel like they're melting. He hovers above you, your lips only parted by a few inches. His face is tilted towards you and he's drinking you in, reveling in the way your eyes fluttered shut and your chest began to heave.

"I," you whisper unsurely. "Yes, I did."

"And yes I do," Eddie breathes before moving forward, admitting the answer to the question you were asking with your song and crashing into your lips.

He brings his left hand to cradle your cheek and uses his right to grab your waist and pin you to the wall. You ball his shirt in your fists to pull him flush against you before reaching your arms to rest on his shoulders and wrap around him, sending one hand to the nape of his neck and feeling his hair between your fingers.

"God, I hate you," you whimper as Eddie breaks from your lips to suck sloppy kisses into your neck.

"No you don't," he murmurs with confidence just below your ear before returning to your lips.

"No I don't," you repeat into his lips.

You part your lips for him, allowing Eddie to slip his tongue inside. "You drive me fucking crazy Y/N," he utters into your mouth and you mewl in response.

His tongue moves smoothly with yours and he tastes like the shot of whiskey that he took just before following you out here. He was warm against you, both your chests breathing heavily between you. Eddie trails his hands all over your body in exploration. You wondered if he could feel your heartbeat with how hard it was fluttering against your ribcage.

You realized what you felt pushing against your stomach is his hardened cock swollen against his jeans and you moan into his mouth, clenching your thighs together at the thought of him filling you up and becoming aware of the wetness pooling between your legs.

The noise drives Eddie wild. He reaches down, sweeping his large hand down your waist, over your hip and to the back of your thigh. He grips the dough of your thigh and hikes it up, hooking it around his middle and lining your warm center up with his throbbing erection. You gasp at the sudden friction you didn't realize you were aching for. It's just a taste of what he could give you. You feel his lips pull into a smile against yours, knowing the effect he's having on you. You consider giving in to him, right here.

Your mind races with possibilities.

Have I felt this way all along? Has he?

Is this how it will be from now on? Does he want that too?

What if he doesn't? He definitely doesn't. He doesn't know how much it would mean to you.

What if it's just this one time? You'd never survive that.

"Wait," you say, breaking your kiss and catching your breath. Eddie rests his forehead against yours, ready to jump back in whenever you're ready. "I can't."

"Why not baby?" he whispers against your lips, hot breath fanning over you.

Baby. It sends a fluttering to your stomach. Your heart aches. You want him.

"I'm scared Eddie." Your eyes are closed.

"Scared of me?" He pulls away and straightens in front of you.

"No," you open your eyes to see the pained expression that paints his face. You want to kiss it off. You bring your hand to cup his cheek and he leans in to it. "I'm just really scared of getting hurt," you feebly admit. Eddie is silent for a moment. You pull your hand from his cheek and hug it to your middle. His silence scares you and he stays silent for just a second too long. You turn to the direction of the parking lot and take one step, then another.

"No I would never - " he tries to assure you but he was a second too late. You're already walking away from him.

When Eddie returned inside without you, he was met with the barrage of worried faces of his friends.

"Where's Y/N?" Jess asked, stating the thing that was obviously on everyone's mind from the kissed out look of Eddie's lips that were swollen and stained slightly with the color you'd been wearing.

"She uh..." Eddie trailed off with his face turned to the side, unable to meet the concerned looks in their eyes. "She left."

A choir of questions sprang from their mouths.

"She left?" Heather asked quietly, dread tugging in her stomach knowing something must have happened.

"What did you do to her man?" Jeff asked at the same time.

But Eddie didn't answer. He knocked back a shot from the bar and walked away from the group, the sting of rejection still too fresh inside him to discuss it any further with the group while he was fighting the negative feels rising in his gut.

The group watched as he approached a table of girls across the room, and couldn't help the groans that they sighed out in unison with rolled eyes, realizing how completely unprepared they were for the fallout that was sure to follow Eddie's agonizing attempt to nurse his ego.

You drove home in tears, shaking from the sudden absence of Eddie you felt and sickness churning your stomach as you played the events back in your head. The shock eventually wore off and your tears slowed to a stop, but the nausea remained until you fell asleep that night, unsure if you did the right thing or made the biggest mistake of your life.

✽✧✽✧✽✧✽

You called out of work the next day, allowing yourself one day to wallow in self pity since you were now leaning more towards thinking you made a huge mistake. It seemed like your lips still tingled from the pressure of his kiss, your body felt hollow without his touch and you longed to feel it again. Your heart ached every time your mind betrayed you and flashed the memory of his wounded expression through your mind.

It wasn't until Saturday morning that the girls showed up to your house, forcing themselves in to confront your sullen state. You were asleep when they opened your door.

Heather climbed into bed beside you and mirrored your position on your side, bringing her forehead to yours and tracing a soft finger down your nose to wake you up.

Jess sat at the edge of your bed with a caring hand placed on your exposed calf and Sarah hovered behind her with her head hung over Jess's shoulder.

You took count of your friends as your blurry vision cleared before realizing one was missing, rolling over on your back to see Tiff with her head hung low to meet your eyes and hands on her hip. "Good morning," she greeted briefly, "now spill."

You sat up a scooted closer to Heather, making room for Tiff to slide into bed on your other side. Sarah and Jess sat at the foot of your bed, crossed legged and facing you, both clutching one of your excess pillows for comfort.

It feels like you've been in a variation of this arrangement a hundred times before, either cuddling or being cuddled by your girls while you or the other works out their problem. It feels the same as it has since you were little girls. Like nothing has changed in the decade you've all been taking turns crowding into each others rooms, only this time something has changed. Something huge.

You don't hate Eddie Munson at all. You love him.

You were afraid that he wouldn't feel the same, that he'd only planned to be with you once and things we be the same between you after.

But now you were more afraid of never having him at all.

When the girls left, you decided you'd suppress your fear and just call him. But when you heard to the dial tone for the eighth time, you hung up with a huff and looked up to your ceiling to choke back the tears that threatened to fall.

On Monday, you knew that he'd be at Gareth's for their practice. Sarah gave you the number for his garage phone and when you called, Gareth answered.

"Hello?" Gareth asked on the other end, kindness always evident in his voice.

"Gareth hey, it's Y/N."

"Y/N?" he asked, thoroughly surprised.

"Yeah," you said with your eyes screwed shut, "listen, is Eddie there?"

"Eddie?" Gareth asks, and you can hear him shift on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah," you say, embarrassed while you wait.

You hear unclear whispering in the receiver, mumbling from definitely more than one person.

"Um, sorry Y/N," Gareth returns, his voice dripping with uncertainty, "he's not here."

You gulp down the lump in your throat, knowing there's no way he's not there.

"Okay," you sigh, defeated. "Would you just let him know I called?"

"Yeah, I'll tell him you called."

"Thanks Gareth." And you hang up.

You thought about going to their show Tuesday, but the dread that filled you when the time came was enough to keep you away. If he was avoiding you, you didn't want to make it worse by forcing him to see you. Not yet.

So on the next Saturday when you saw Eddie passing in front of the music store window during your shift to get to Family Video next door, you blinked first to make sure you weren't imaging it. But before you could understand it, your legs seemed to be carrying you towards him while your brain was yelling at you to turn around.

You ran quickly from behind the counter, leaving customers alone in the store and you threw open the door, flying out of it and running after him before he could get inside the other store.

"Eddie!" you shout at his back.

He pauses, shoulders tense in his leather jacket as he stands up straight. He hesitates for a few seconds, making you afraid that he won't turn around at all.

But he does. And the stony look on his face makes you wish he hadn't. His brows are knitted together in a furrow and his lips are pushed together in a tight line.

"What do you want?" Eddie says, so calm that it unnerves you.

When you don't answer right away, he shakes his head slightly and sticks a hand out like you're inconveniencing him.

"Something you want to say?" he asks, his eyes staring at you, annoyed by your silence.

"Yeah, I.." you choke on your words.

"You what Y/N?" Eddie scolds, his eyes squinted at you the way they used to when he looked at you. Before. "Your stash running low? Need to buy an ounce? Someone's instrument is broken and you need to borrow one? Your car's not starting and I need to fix it?" His tone is getting more and more exasperated.

You can't form any words. All you can do is stand there and accept him berating you. His words hurt and your lower lip begins to tremble.

"Because unless it's one of those things, I don't know what you could possibly be talking to me for."

When Eddie finishes, he turns and walks away. You exhale and a tear spills over your eyelashes and down your cheek.

✽✧✽✧✽✧✽

"He hates me," you say on the phone to Sarah when you get back behind the counter at work.

"I don't know, Y/N I think maybe he's just hurt you know?" Sarah attempts to soothe.

You disagree.

"Listen Y/N," you hear Gareth say distantly in the receiver before a shuffle on the other end. "I've known Eddie a long time okay?" His voice becomes more clear. "And he's not very good at this kind of thing. He'd much rather avoid his problems than deal with them and right now that's you."

"Oh thanks a lot Gareth, I feel so much better," you joke.

"Not his problem," he says. "I mean... the problem is he feels rejected, like you don't feel the same about him."

You heart drops.

"What do you mean the same about him?" you scream.

"Shit," Gareth curses under his breath, "I've said too much."

"You're gonna have to say a little more," you threaten.

"Well, we all know it, Y/N" Gareth explains, "he's always teased you and stuff because he loves to get a rise out of you. I can tell he has feelings for you. The whole hating you thing was always an act because he got off on the wrong foot when we were kids and he kept it up because didn't know what else to do."

You can't believe what you're hearing. His words ring in your ears like a squealing amp and your breathing picks up.

"Oh my god," you whisper, dropping the phone while you try to grasp what Gareth has just told you.

"Gareth, why the hell have you never told me that?" you faintly hear Sarah reprimand him on the other end of the phone.

"Um, okay okay," you catch back up, "Gareth can you please just make sure he comes to our set on Thursday?"

"I don't know, it'll be really hard to convince him."

"Just do it!" you and Sarah yell in unison before you slam the receiver down.

You know what you have to do. You lost your words when you tried to talk to him so you just have to find someone who's already written the words for you.

✽✧✽✧✽✧✽

When Thursday came, you were hopeful things might work out. You took deep breaths in the mirror as you got dressed for your show at The Hideout. You were sure of your feelings now and you'd make Eddie see, one way or another.

Gareth came to you and Sarah on Monday to say that there was no way in hell he could get Eddie to the entire show on Thursday, so you devised a plan to get him there in time for the last two songs. So you knew you had to make the last two count.

You'd felt like you were floating through the entire day, like a puppet going through the steps of a routine, legs carrying you places without you thinking about it.

So when you found yourself in the green room before your set, the gravity of the situation finally started to set in as time inched closer and closer. Your stomach twisted into knots and your mouth went dry.

The girls noticed the shift in your spirit immediately and came to you with hugs and enough encouragement that your doubt was replaced again and you felt good enough to take the stage.

Your set went by in what felt like just a few minutes. You had your normal crowd at the tables and some in the standing space in front of the stage, including the three attending boys of Corroded Coffin. You silently wished time to slow down, you were so nervous for what was coming. So when you were playing your fifth song, Sarah nodded to Gareth who snuck away to the phone.

He dialed Eddie's number from memory and waited eagerly for an answer.

"Hello?" his friend answered. Gareth let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey man," Gareth began, "Do you think you could come get me and the boys? Jeff's car isn't starting."

"Uh yeah I guess, where are you?" It was a dumb question. He knew where they were.

"The Hideout," Gareth said with eyes closed and teeth gritted in suspense as he waited for Eddie's answer.

"Shit, it's Thursday isn't it?" Eddie cursed into the receiver.

"Yeah man, but they're almost done with the set so you don't have to stay or anything. And we'll wait outside for you," Gareth lied. He was trying to time it perfectly for Eddie to arrive for the last two songs and have to come inside when they weren't waiting outside for him.

"Alright alright, I'm leaving now."

"Thanks man, see you in a few," Gareth silently celebrated in place as he hung up the phone and made his way back to his friends for the last of your set.

It was almost perfect. You looked around the room but didn't see Eddie when Jess tapped the count off for Heaven Is a Place on Earth with her sticks and you had to start singing the first chorus. You try to ignore the worry that he won't come growing inside you and sing the song, closing your eyes for the first verse.

When the night falls down I wait for you, and you come around.

When you finished the first verse, you opened your eyes and see him. He was standing at the very back of the room with his back against the wall. It looked like he had just walked into the door and he wasn't planning on coming any closer. He kept his lips pulled together in a tight line, his head head slouching against the wall and he looked at you through hooded eyes.

You smiled as you continued the song, happy that your plan had worked. You couldn't help yourself and met his gaze as you sang baby, I was afraid before but I'm not afraid anymore, hoping he understood to true meaning behind the lyrics.

When the song ended, Gareth followed your gaze and saw Eddie standing at the back of the room. Eddie met his eyes and gestures for him to get the others and leave. Gareth is shaking his head rapidly at Eddie, refusing to leave. You knew you had to act fast.

You cleared your throat into the mic. Eddie stops motioning to Gareth and his attention snaps back to you.

"We have one more for you tonight, and it's new for us but I'm sure you'll recognize it." You pause for a few cheers from the audience. "It's um... for someone special who made it tonight," you murmur into the mic. "I hope they know who they are." The room falls mostly silent, spare a few whispers you can hear among the crowd.

"I think maybe a few of you do," you joke into the mic, hearing comfortable laughter fill the room. And with that, you nod at Tiff to begin the music.

There's a few seconds of music before you have to come in with lyrics, so you use them to take deep breaths and when you glance at Eddie, you notice he's already moved a little closer. There's no going back now, you think. So you close your eyes and start singing.

Tonight, I want to give it all to you. In the darkness, there's so much I want to do. And tonight, I want to lay it at your feet. 'Cause boy, I was made for you and boy, you were made for me.

You looked up to see that Eddie has moved to his friends and he's watching you. His expression has slightly softened and you think you can maybe even see a grin painting his face in the dim light.

I was made for lovin' you, baby. You were made for lovin' me. And I can't get enough of you, baby. Can you get enough of me?

You sing directly to him, holding his gaze that's he's trying to intimidate you with. He won't win because you're not scared anymore. He's the first to break your eye contact, turning his head when Jeff nudges him and he begins nodding along with his friends.

Tonight, I want to see it in your eyes, feel the magic, there's something that drives me wild. And tonight, we're gonna make it all come true. 'Cause boy, you were made for me and boy, I was made for you.

You continued singing, moving your body to the music on stage for him, but your eyes never wandered far from where he stood in front of you.

Eddie exhaled the breath he was holding in, giving in to his weakness for you as he watched your electricity on stage. Someone passed him a shot. He downed it without even stopping to ask what it was, smiling at the stranger and thanking them. He needed it for his nerves. He was not sure what he was going to do when you finished singing.

I was made for lovin' you, baby. You were made for lovin' me And I can give it all to you, baby. Can you give it all to me?

You draw out your last note slightly, and breathe deep with a heaving chest when your song ends. You smile at the applause, lower your head back to the clapping crowd and see Eddie weaving his way through the people to the front of the crowd at the stage, to you.

Your heart thumps at the sight of him coming towards you. Just as he approaches the stage, you bend at your knees and come down closer to his level. You're hovering just inches above him at this height, his head is turned up only slightly to meet your eyes.

Neither of you say anything as the crowded room is cheering around you. Eddie stares at you from his place beneath you and the heat flushes you, pink rising from your chest and into your neck.

Almost instinctively, Eddie surges forward and you meet him without second thought, bringing your empty hands to either side of his face.

You kiss him with desperation, as if you could kiss away the agony of the last week, as if you didn't kiss him like this he would disappear from in front of you forever, like this is your last chance.

The crowd erupts around you, cheers and shouting and applause filling the room. It causes you both to break your kiss because of the huge smile that spreads on both your faces.

"You sing that just for me?" Eddie breathes against you.

"Yes."

"You mean it?" he asks in disbelief.

"Every word," you promise, planting a sweet kiss to his lips as his insides burn up with your love.

Then you feel his hands reach up and grab your ribs. He applies the slightest pressure, telling you to jump, that he'll catch you. And he does. You wrap both arms around his neck and Eddie pulls you off the stage effortlessly. He lowers you with firm hands on your ribcage to straddle your legs around his tall frame and keep your lips trained on him the entire time.

"Yeah you're welcome!" Jeff shouts.

"See you later then? We'll just pack up here!" Jess yells from stage with sarcasm.

"It's about fucking time!"

The whistling and catcalling you hear behind you grow more and more distant as Eddie walks you to the closest door, unwilling to waste another second without his hands all over you. You lift one hand from its place on his back to give them all the bird.

You can thank them later.

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson imagine #stranger things #joseph quinn #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson angst #eddie munson fluff #stranger things 4 #Spotify #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fics #eddie munson imagines #stranger things eddie

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buckys-little-belle · 2 years

Note

What About HeadCannons for Steve or Bucky??? How are they when they notice that little one is showing signs of anxiety or stress What would they do to help them regress and or calm down? Baby talk them? Ask them questions to lure them into little space? “Where’s your stuffie bubba?” “Come here bubs let’s watch a movie.” Etc

Stressed out Baby

Steve x Little!reader / Bucky x Little!reader (pronouns not used, y/n not used)

A/n - i really hope that this is good! I loved writing this and found it sweet, this ask hits close to home and i really loved writing something i could truly relate to <3

Steve

When he gets worried about you and thinks that little space would help the situation he’s absolutely all for it, doing anything in his power to help you feel safe and secure.

You two definitely have a prior agreement about the whole thing, you have a hard time regressing sometimes when you truly need to to help you cope with stress or anxiety. Because of this the two of you agreed that if Steve was worried about your mental well being he could help coax you into little space.

If you two are at home he’s definitely vocally babying you, sometimes its so subtle you don’t even realize he’s doing it, instead just finding comfort in the words.

“Bubba i need a hug from my little baby” gesturing you to walk over and when you do he scoops you up, holding you tight and squeezing you every once in a while.

He definitely makes you your favourite little food when your big and stressed, secretly hoping it helps you regress. “I made you Mac and cheese bubba” he would call, his heart warming when he sees you walking towards him with a large smile on your face.

You always wear his t-shirts when you get anxious or stressed so if he sees that you aren’t wearing one he immediately grabs one and brings it to you, helping you change into it and making sure it smells enough like him to calm your nerves.

At home he always has your favourite stuffy on hand, making sure he knows where it is at all times because you have a habit of losing it. When you’re both watching tv he grabs it and sets it near you, letting you know that it there if you want it. You often end up reaching for it, needing a stuffy snuggle.

If you’re out somewhere for dinner or something else he helps sooth you with his touch.

When he notices you getting stressed about the prices or the fact that theres too many options on the menus when you’re out with friends he immediately wraps his arm around you, making you feel small and secure in his grasp.

He also will unconsciously make sure you have everything you need in-front of you, water, some juice, a safe food, and if his arms aren’t around you he’s always touching you somehow, holding your hand or his knee touching yours. These actions are a second nature, subtly making you feel safe to regress without outing you or embarrassing you infront of others.

He also whispers saying of praise when you do something good, whether it be you drink all your water, eat a significant amount of your meal, or make genuine conversation with other people in the room. “You’re such a good little baby you know that?” “Bubba you’re doing so well”

Steve is a man with a plan and always has a backup little “kit” in his car, a stuffy, large sweater, and colouring book with crayons stashed away under the seats. The moment you enter the car he decks you out, making sure you’re warm and feel safe.

Once again telling you how good you did even though you were anxious about the situation.

Bucky

Bucky is more in tune with your feelings, he can sense a shift in your mood the second it happens. He’s always worried that you’ll hate him for helping you regress, scared you might say he forced you. But you reassured him, letting him know that your thankful he can read the signs of stress so quickly and help you relax and feel at ease before things get to bad.

Bucky will openly baby you at home, pick you up to cuddle, help you get water, make you lunch, pretty much he does everything for you and treats you tiny off the bat.

He’s very sweet about it, he doesn’t make you feel inferior to him but more of a counter part, he calls you his “little helper”

When your big and he’s helping you regress he says things like “lovie, can you be my little helper? I need some help making dinner” your mood changing immediately from sad and scared to happy and comforted.

Even when helping him you’re anxious, scared you might mess it up and he may be mad, Bucky makes sure to tell you how good you’re doing, giving simple tasks he knows you’ll excel at just to make sure you succeed. “Lovie can you bring me an egg?” “Wow lovie, youre an amazing little helper.” “I wish i could stir like you my love”

He also will read to you, he definitely has a special novel stashed away in his office that he pulls out when you need to de stress, grabbing you and snuggling into a large reading chair, you sitting in his lap comfortably while he reads. It helps you de stress and allows your mind to simplify and feel free of the anxiety inducing thoughts that plagued you minutes ago.

If you’re out somewhere with Bucky and he sees you struggling he’s very subtle about helping you regress, lots and lots of hugs, constantly smooshing you and making you feel small and safe in his arms.

He also calls you his “baby” when you’re out and about, to everyone its a sweet nickname but you know he’s holding back, not saying the usual “little” in-front of “baby”.

When you’re stressed while shopping his voice is soft, and his hands never leave your body, he’ll say things like “would my baby like that?” As you pick up a snack you’ve never tried. Things like “can’t loose my baby” as he grabs your hand after lifting something off a shelf, making you feel protected and heard, the words slowly helping you regress.

Bucky has a kit in his car but its filled with more practical things, goldfish, bandaids, water, and of course a clean Henley in case you get cold.

#little!reader #age regression fic #bucky age regression #bucky barnes #bucky x little reader #bucky x little!reader #bucky x reader #bucky #james buchanan bucky barnes #age regression #steve x little reader #steve x little!reader #steve rogers #steve x reader #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x little!reader #steve rogers age regression

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yostressmininggirl · 3 years

Text

Opening Band

Pair ××> CC!Wilbur Soot x Reader

Count ××> 1400+ words

Theme ××> No One Likes The Opening Band by IDKHOW, overall fluff

Summary ××> Before the first live performance of Lovejoy, Wilbur decided to ease his stage fright nerves by watching the opening band’s performance. The guitarist with a melodic vocal harmony quickly caught his attention throughout the entire night.

Just a simple test at a famous bar downtown with his pals, this time with high hopes as a full band.

It’s at least an hour left before Lovejoy performs and he felt as anxious as he was years ago. Wilbur couldn’t help but berate himself lightheartedly, how nervous he feels about the idea of performing in front of 50 or lesser bar patrons when his job was literally being in front of hundreds of thousands of people for several hours.

And that’s why he’s out here instead of with his band ‘backstage’, awaiting the opening act while cradling a cup of water (no, it is not a good idea to drink when you’re the lead vocal). Anything to ease the tension he’s been trying to ignore.

After pushing himself to the very back to be hidden from anyone that may recognize him from his hairstyle or height was the time that the first band came filing in to the stage to arrange their set.

The tense shoulders and the forced indifference on their faces relieved him with the familiarity, almost feeling a bit empathetic knowing just how unfamiliar they are. Oh, he can tell they’re just a small band trying out their shot in a small bar that would ignore their hardwork in favor of their ginger ale and cold, cold beer.

Wilbur had to squint his eyes from this distance to get a better look - honestly, maybe it was a bad idea to hide this far back, but he’s forced to it now.

The usual euphoria and giddy nervousness isn’t present in this one at all, somehow they looked even more like a band that’s been playing 10 years and had grown out of the band phase to become parents. This observation had him overthinking and theorizing as his eyes swept over the equipment they had. Almost the same instruments they’d be using for later, not as worn down as a 10 years old band but handled with greater care - almost unfamiliar.

Except for one person. And that’s when Wilbur saw the guitarist - saw you.

You carry your guitar like it was your friend, familiar and tailored to you. The eagerness and energy the band lacked was carried by your hopeful look and smiles, trying not to look too conscious of the crowd and ultimately failing by the obvious side glances you give.

Determination, he takes a sip of his room temperature water, reminds him of him.

“Good evening, Patterns,” who he assumed was the lead vocal stepped up to the microphone to introduce your band, “- and this will be the last time we’ll be playing as a band. Thank you for coming.”

It was a bad time for Wilbur to decide on finishing his glass of water, choking on it after a second of processing the words. He was wheezing and trying to hold in his coughing by pounding on his chest - oh god, you totally just passed a look at him even tho he’s obscured as is - as the opening band starts the beginning of their end.

Wilbur liked your vibe. Not stiff and just enjoying the moment with how carefree your stance is, your face showcasing in the spotlight of your glee to just play with your band. You have the talent, and he thinks it melancholic to know that this would be the last he sees of you.

It was during a song that you were harmonizing with main lead vocal that his table was visited by his bandmate, Ash. “We’re going at 30, you good?”

“Much better,” he adjusted his glasses as he gazed back at the stage to continue watching, seeing you playing with the drummer as backup for the instrumental segment of the current song. “Ever heard of them?”

“Yeah, they’ve been here for a while now. Never really hit it off for some reason, which is sad, the guitarist had good potential.” Wilbur waited for the song to end before he and Ash left to prepare for their own performance. Stealing one last glance before leaving the room.

A frown doesn’t suit you, was his last thought.

It felt surreal being the one on the stage when a few minutes ago he was in the farthest back as part of the crowd. The place felt more crowded than ever, and he can see more people filing in - the recognition evident in their eyes the moment they see him on stage. Fans from Twitch, some of them.

“Good evening, everyone! I see familiar faces in the crowd, thank you -” there was an obvious hiccup to his speech that he tried to recover, continuing his introduction while doing his best not to stare too much at the fact that YOU’RE sitting at the table he was occupying earlier. “We’ll start off with our band’s songs, and then we’ll do requests after. We hope you enjoy the night!”

You’re a fan. A big one at that.

Somehow the thought brings Wilbur to a fluster, more than the attention of over a hundred people watching and listening everything he and his bandmates do. No, instead his attention was zeroed in on how you never fail to sing along with all their songs with precise timing to the quips and sudden stops. At one point he’d even seen you match his chords with your air guitar movements, urging Joe to play around with the guitars with him as a little freestyle bit just to see your reaction.

The mini concert ended not too long after yet the crowd is still in high spirits over their debut performance.

So it took almost another hour for signatures and selfie requests. Everyone has been nice and truly, he does appreciate the compliments but Wilbur Soot is running out of time. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Wait up!” The guitar case slung on your back bumped you forward when you skidded to a halt, the force almost making you stumble before you maneuvered around to see the familiar voice that called to you.

Signature fluffy hair and sweater - you looked over your shoulder, left and right, to see if he was calling out to someone else. “Yeah, I meant you, silly,” Wilbur giggled at your confusion before composing himself. “So yeah, uh hi -”

“You did really great,” you blurted out immediately (you couldn’t compliment him during earlier’s downtime, too many people gathered around) as your hand gripped at the strap of your case. Realizing what you said, you backtracked, “I mean, you all did. Your band, Lovejoy, and you.”

“Thank you,” his easy smile lessened the embarrassment you felt and even got you to smile back. Though it may have looked like a grimace. “You did really good with your performance too, both with guitar and vocals.”

“Oh god, so you really were watching earlier,” you blurted out loud in obvious disarray of the turn of events, not even paying attention to the shock he was going through upon realizing that you were indeed able to distinguish him during your performance. Or in other words -

Your checking out was mutual.

Turning to the side to shoot a glance at the door back to the bar, Wilbur stepped aside before gesturing a hand towards it, pulling you out of your misery. “Do you wanna like, hang out with us? It would be cozier and safer than just standing out here.”

“Are you sure?” Despite your hesitance, the idea of spending more time with Wilbur, and potentially the whole Lovejoy band is something you don’t ever want to pass on. “It’s your band’s celebration, I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

Standing next to you, Wilbur softly urged you forward with a hand on your guitar case, but not forceful enough to let you think that you didn’t have a choice, “Yeah! I mean, one of my bandmates would love to talk to you too.” And without much restraint the both of you started your way back to the establishment.

You don’t know where you got the courage, but with a smile towards his way, you quipped, “You sure it’s not just you that wants to chat with me?”

But your teasing was overpowered when Wilbur looked down at you with an honest, slightly bashful smile, “I can’t say you’re wrong on that.” And you knew the night would be amazing after that.

On Lovejoy’s second EP that came a month after their first live performance, all songs featured a new vocal, introducing their newest talented member.

#Wilbur soot x reader #wilbur x reader #dsmp x reader #mcyt x reader #dream smp x reader #gender neutral reader #mine:emerald

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ghostly-shenanigans-in-progress · 3 years

Text

BNHA X DP Crossover HCs

After the long wait and finals, here are my ideas for all the quirks/occupations and other concepts I devised for the DP characters in the BNHA universe. This was just for fun and for inspiration towards others interested in this crossover au in general.

Tagging the people that were looking forward to this post based on the replies: @qoinq-qhost, @floralflowerpower, @tgfangirl4eva @goodfish-bowl, @whitehairglowinggreeneyedcrush and more.

Anyways, happy reading, folks!

Mr. Lancer

Hero name: Mr. Scholastic

Quirk: Bookworm

Involves his iconic usage of literature titles & quotes for swears to become abilities corresponding to the novel’s contents/themes. Course, he is limited to only books he has read and can quote accurately. Additionally, his voice gets very raspy past two or three quotes as well.

Occupation: Homeroom Teacher for Class 1- A; He’s very dedicated to his new students and teaching the fundamentals of being a pro hero and more! Course, I don’t think his chamomile tea with a wedge of lemon is enough to help him relax from his students (*cough* Danny, Tucker and Poindexter) from their antics at times.

Danny

Hero name: Phantom

Quirk: Ghost core (Ok, @coffeecakecafe had the best name for this one gotta give credit here)

Able to do anything a ghost is perceived to do. Go through walls, disappear and fly. This is a one of a kind quirk as it was obtained from Danny’s old quirk being altered by a machine his parents made that would repurpose/alter an individual’s quirk based on their past family members' own metahuman genetics.

Danny is doing his best and trying to understand his new quirk without causing too much attention to himself while doing so but it seems like its been doing the opposite as of late. Thankfully, he won’t be doing it alone with all his classmates around to help him!

Sam

Hero Name: Black Dahlia

Quirk: Overgrown

Able to create any plant that she knows the biological makeup and content of in almost any environment. However, it is important for her to drink lots of nutrient rich water and take in enough sun if she plans to create larger versions of these plants.

Tucker

Hero name: Tech Master

Quirk: Tech Core

Located on his chest/heart area is a special energy core capable of powering electronics at a rate faster than anything made-man could ever hope to achieve. As a kid, Tucker would tinker away in his family’s garage on a suit that would harness his power to the fullest extent and lead a new era of support tech in the hero world.

Valerie

Hero name: Red Huntress

Quirk: Electromagnetism (Someone I’ve been trying to find their post on my blog had posted this idea and I fell in love with it ever since)

She’s like Static Shock but with a dash of magenta/ruby lasers she can create through focusing her electromagnetism through her finger tips. She is an expert with her quirk and has the best handle of her quirk than most of her peers. She is the most frequent visitor in the support equipment workshop next to Tucker, Poindexter and Danny. It’s how she built the hoverboard she has in the show that utilizes her electromagnetic abilities for both offensive and defensive maneuvers. (Also, I enjoy the idea that Bullet is Val’s uncle on her mom’s side and is her biggest supporter alongside her dad, Damien Gray).

Jazz

Quirk: Serenity

Helps calm individuals and give them a sense of safety/security when they’re around her in a 10 feet radius. Though, anyone out of range cannot be affected by her quirk and she needs to be conscious in order to use it.

She planned on becoming a pro hero but felt her powers were best suited for her dream profession as a psychologist. She has used her quirk a lot when Danny was overwhelmed with his studies prior to UA. Course, a phone call and sibling chat over the phone certainly does the job for Danny now when it comes to preparing material for exams. (Course, its up to you guys to decide)

Dash

Hero name: Rager

Quirk: Strength Magnification

Improves his physique and stamina by a large percentage for a set amount of time. Needs to be careful of how much/long he magnifies his body or else his body will become immensely sore.

Kwan

Hero name: Rallier

Quirk: Team Rally (50/50)

Able to duplicate himself 3-4 times while being able to power-up allies’ quirks or stamina with a rally chant to help the team. The more duplicates there are the rally effect multiplies/stacks on the individual but it can lead to dangerous outcomes for their quirk output.

Kwan is the class representative for 1-A, he’s the best at the job and was more than thrilled to be the one leading his class in more ways than one.

Paulina

Hero name: Enchantress

Quirk: Charm

If the opponent is flustered by her taunts or flirting, their vision will become altered and start seeing things that are not there. It works better on men than women and the opponent can snap out of it with enough willpower or if they’re not interested in her.

Star

Hero name: Ms. Meteorite

Quirk: Comet

Similar to Gran Torino’s Jet quirk except faster and she can create an explosive impact on where she lands. Similar to a meteorite landing on earth, she also learns to use this as a long distance move by punching fast enough as she descends to create wind pressure punches.

Poindexter

Hero name: Tex (like in Tex Avery; Danny gave him the idea!)

Quirk: Slapstick

His appearance is black and white just like an old timey cartoon character as well as having the durability and cartoon powers of one. However, his quirk can only work as long as what he does with it is funny in the circumstance it’s used for. Sort of like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” rules in a sense.

Sidney is part of Class 1-A just saying, I don’t care, this is Poindexter’s time to shine here to be the coolest/funniest person in the class. Also, Tucker’s most loyal friend/tester for new support items.

Wes Weston

Hero name: Vigilance

Quirk: Deduction

He is able to deduct people’s identities to flaws/weak points for him to use against them and exploit against problems.

Class 1-B Representative and the most annoying/terrifying person that Danny has dealt with in his life. He was able to figure out that Danny’s quirk is not his own or more so that it's not natural and takes every opportunity to state this regardless if anyone is listening or not.

Amber Mclain

Hero Name: Ember

Quirk: Fiery voice (50/50)

Her quirk uses the vibrations in her sining voice to conduct intense heat waves onto opponents or utilize to rumble the structures around here and even put out the flames from her quirk. Its like a combination of Present Mic and Endevours quirk but it leaves her with a strained or inflamed vocal cords with overuse.

Third year student or an upcoming rock star that has certainly gain huge popularity after her song “Remember” was a nationwide hit amongst the younger generation. She’s striving to be the top hero while making her next hit to become the 1# song on the listings.

Dani

Hero name: Phantwo (lol jk; unsure what her name would be)

Quirk: Poltergeist

Similar to Danny’s quirk “Ghost”, except she has the additional ability to melt herself to a slimy puddle and use her ectoplasmic slime to trap or surprise opponents.

Clockwork

Hero Name: Clockwork

Quirk: Time Keeper

Clockwork’s quirk allows him to stop time for 5 to 15 minutes and be able to rewind it in the same amount of time. It can be one to multiple objects as long as he touches them in order to interact with them.

Principle of UA in this au. He’s quite a reserved man but still manages to visit and congregate with students throughout the school during lunch period.

Flynn Fenton/Flynn Walker

Hero Name: The Green Knight

Quirk: Mineralization

His quirk allows him to manipulate the minerals and inorganic materials in the atmosphere to create into crystalized constructs that are almost stronger than diamond. Luckily, the crystals have no value so he doesn’t have to worry about that aspect of his quirk. He does have to worry about his skin becoming dried out as a result of his quirk usage.

Flynn is a third year student that loves to check up on his cousin, Danny, any chance he gets bc of the amount of work he does with his internships.

James Walker (or James W. Hausermann)

Hero name: Warden Wraith

Quirk: Plasma Apparatus

His quirk ionizes the electrolytes in the blood system into plasma. His entire body is composed of plasma giving him his skeletal appearance. He can create plasma chains, teleport from point A to B and more as long as he focuses and has enough energy at use. Course, he can have minor to severe dehydration and imbalance in his electrolyte levels from overuse.

Occupation: CEO of an infrastructure security company/Provisional License Examiner just like Gang Orca.The ghost prison guards become his backup/helpers for the exam phases. (They’re just trained stuntmen with combat or military experience for the occasion).

Also, I like to think Walker has kids in this au who are in the Class 1-A group; they’re not hard to spot they take after their father with their skeletal complexion.

Skulker

Villain name: Quirk Hunter

Quirk: Tracker

The moment Skulker makes eye contact with his target he will be able to hunt them down and find them anywhere no matter how good they are at covering their tracks. He can lock on to only one target, but he will be able to know their heart beat, quirk, be able to place a tracking/scent line that only he can see and will lead him to his target’s location. It lasts for over a day or a half.

Occupation: Skulker is known for capturing, info-detailing or “retiring” newcomer pros or specific quirk users for his clients that pay him handsomely for their targets, dead or alive. Thanks to Vlad, Danny was strictly intended to be captured alive by Skulker but sometimes he gets too thrilled by the hunt to not have a memento. Trust me, it's more of a dangerous

Nicolai Technus

Villain Name: Technus

Quirk: Technopathy

A genius in his own right, even if he’s a little crazy, with the best ability possible for a man of science and innovation. As long as he knows the makeup and attributes of the machine, Technus is able to completely repurpose or change a machine’s qualities for offensive and defensive qualities. Whenever that be for a mech suit or hacking a high tech system for entry, he’s able to do it as long as he knows what it is and how it functions. An example is repurposing a slot machine into a submachine gun that shoots coins at the target.

Vlad Masters

Name: Vlad Plasmius

Quirk: Vampire

Can do anything a vampire can supposedly do. However, he was able to manifest an additional aspect of this quirk which is the ability to copy any quirk users ability. Based on the type of blood he ingests decides the amount of time he can use the copied quirk for.

Occupation: CEO of his own hero firm, he is extremely selective with the interns he has that there is a major waitlist to be even consider for Masters Inc. Course, imagine the surprise Danny must of felt when he received an offer from Vlad right off the bat after the Sports festival.

Bruce Guiles (Bullet)

Hero Name: Bullet

Quirk: Sphyraena or Chimera Fish

Able to do anything a barracuda can do or the quirk is a 50/50 mutant quirk in which he has both the traits of a barracuda, Chimaeras and a touch of piranha from his parents being of one of these fish species hence Chimera. Bullet can do anything those fish can do overall but he can’t go too long without hydration from water. Water quality and its oxygen content also affect his abilities by a noticeable percentage but he still remains quite formidable as a quirk user.

Occupation: Captain of a coast guard team, he’s a strict military man with an amazing record of saving people from any disasters both on land and sea. Him and Walker are best buddies ever since they went to school together.

Vortex

Hero Name: Vortex

Quirk: Storm Warning

Vortex can utilize any variation of a natural disaster depending on the environment he’s in. Hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, you name it he can create it for his use. However, despite his amazing control over his quirk it is still possible for him to create these disasters if he lost control or magnify another pre-existing one if he loses focus.

Occupation: Storm-chaser/Forecaster; His control and knowledge in combating/predicting these natural disasters has led to him to be part of a storm chasing crew and they’re the best in helping disaster prevention teams evacuate citizens as a result.

Petra Eris

Hero name: Pandora

Quirk: Butterfly Effect

Can manipulate or prevent a chaotic event to happen if she was in proximity and present to prevent it to happen. Or even give a little chaos to the opponent to deal with during battle.

One of the top ten heroes and most beloved heroes in the country. She is the best strategist in any team and has a way to predict any event before they happen given the necessity of it for her quirk to work in her favor.

Johnny

Vigilante name: Johnny 13

Quirk: Unlucky

Johnny manifests his bad luck into a shadow that will latch onto opponents and cause unfortunate events to occur more for that individual as a result. However, the shadow cannot exist in complete sunlight; it can only remain if there are already shadows in his general area or it’s nighttime and its effects are strongest at that time obviously.

Occupation: Johnny is the leader of a biker gang or de-facto leader of said biker gang who loves to raise hell and helping folks that need saving whenever he’s around or is up to the task. Kitty tags along with him to help him out of jams and bc she loves him. :3

Kitty

Vigilante name: Kitty

Quirk: Lovesick

Kitty sends a smooch towards her opponent which if it makes contact causes the individual to have nausea or become disoriented for around 10 minutes. It can also have a chance of lasting longer if the individual was sort of infatuated with her regardless of gender.

Pariah Dark

Villain name: King Pariah

Quirk: Ultimate Adaptation

Similar to all for one except with the unpredictability for both the user and opponents. Pariah can manifest any type of quirk needed to defeat anyone that stands in his way both one-on-one and in groups. Course, drawbacks are the learning curve to some of the quirks and that multiple adaptions he utilizes at once will destroy his cells in the process.

Pariah is a former follower of all for one who had unique quirk that All for one augmented to help him succeed if both Shigaraki and Tomura failed in their own conquest for the world. But now Pariah has his own plans to succeed where they failed and become the leader who shapes a new world order with an iron fist.

Frederick Kingsmen

Villain/vigilante name: Fright Knight

Quirk: Burning Energy Infusion

Able to form/infuse objects with his own burning energy life force that is capable of burning or slicing through any in his sight. The sweat he gives off is what provides the material needed to ignite his unnatural flames despite it causing his body to overheat still.

Fright Knight is Pariah’s second-in-command with a loyalty to him as strong as his control over his power. Fright Knight has faced many pro-heros as he carried out the smaller phases of Pariah’s plans and most of them barely came close towards defeating or leaving as much as scratch on the knight.

Rodolfo Gonzalo

Hero name: Wulf

Quirk: Werewolf + Portal creation (50/50?)

Can do anything a werewolf can supposedly do; somehow it allows him to create portals with his claws to locations he has marked with them or visited in the past.

Wulf was abducted on by Pariah’s forces and sent into the Nomu labs for experimentation to force on another quirk and instill complete allegiance to their cause. Course, Wulf broke free as a result of that new additional quirk allowing him to escape their clutches and his previous one helping him survive the endeavor. However, he lost his memories in the process and could only remember his native language, Spanish, and his hero name Wulf.

Overgrown

Villain/vigilante Name: Overgrown

Quirk: Plant Manipulation

Can manipulate any pre-existing plant matter or create new vegetation if water and soil is present for the process or he understand the biological makeup of the plant in question.

Occupation: Pro-hero or eco-terrorist who is tired of humanity from abusing the environment from quirk battles to industries using the land for their own benefits and none others.

That’s all I have for now! I hope this was worth the wait, guys. As well as, inspire ideas for your takes with a DP x BNHA Crossover!

#danny phantom #DP x BHA crossover #dp x bha au #dp x bnha #phandom #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #paulina sanchez #dp ember mclain #dp walker #dp bullet #dp kwan #dp mr. lancer #dp dash baxter #dp crossover #dp aus

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checkingoutforheroes · 3 years

Text

Natasha’s Birthday.

Pairing: Natasha x fem!reader

Words: 2786

Warning: None? I think.

Genre: Just fluffff. I PROMISE!

AU Notes: I suggest you listen to Uptown Girl by Westlife or Billy Joel while reading this💃🏻🕺🏻

Synopsys: Natasha is not happy to celebrate her own birthday party without her love life. Can Y/n make it?

People starts filling the party area in the compound. Perks of being Tony Stark best friend, he will never miss any of your guy’s birthday. Party is a must! Natasha try to hid her sad and disappoint feeling on her own party but fail when Wanda can easily feel and read mind.

Y/n have been send to a week mission yesterday and there is no way she can come home. The team acknowledge that and tried their best to cheer their friend up. Thor arrived and Tony greet him. “Right on time, Point Break. Party about to start.” “I couldn’t miss the party. It’s birthday party, there must be a cake. How’s Natasha? I heard Y/n is on a mission.” The god of thunder asking his fellow Avengers.

Clint answer him while Tony ask Pepper to call Natasha and Wanda to come down. “This is a secret okay. Do not, any circumstances, tell Natasha this but Y/n is not on a ‘work’ mission.” Thor confuse “What do you mean?” “He means; Y/n is preparing a big surprise for Natasha. It’s more like a show for her. We all kind of have a part in it. Sorry you didn’t have time to rehearse with us.” Steve explaining to him and Thor just sip his drinks happily. “That’s okay. I like watching a show. We have them on Asgard too, when we celebrating something. Like this.”

“And, done.” Wanda is doing Natasha’s hair and can’t help to hear her thought. “Maybe Y/n will celebrate it with you when she’s back. I know it past your birthday but I also know she definitely celebrating it.” Natasha just smiling on her chair, looking at Wanda through the mirror in front of them. “You invading my privacy.”

Wanda just giggle to answer to her mentor. “Well you’re not helping by thinking too loud. We all here for you tonight and I swear I can hear Thor already betting with someone, something about a drink?”

“Thor’s here huh? He’s been away in space but still can manage to come visit his fellow Avengers birthday party. While Y/n was away in a silly mission.” Natasha fake a smile.

“I understand if you want to strangle Fury right now but it’s time to go.” Someone knocking on the door and Pepper come in to get them. “Well, I’m here to invite this birthday girl to her own birthday party.” Natasha smile at her. “We are going. Let’s go.” Pepper nodding “Good idea. Because Thor is just a step away to get everybody drunk.”

They can hear the music blasting when they reach to the floor. “I guess you’re the one who handling the guests invitation?” Natasha asking Pepper. “If I let Tony, he’ll invite the whole Manhattan.” “You know me so well now, Pepper.”

Tony grabs the mic from the DJ and announce Natasha’s arrival. “Ladies and gentlemen, I announcing the arrival of our birthday girl for tonight, The Double Agent imposter.” The crowds go silent and only Tony and Thor are laughing. “I was just kidding. The lovely Natasha Romanoff!!” Now the crowds cheering loudly.

The party goes smoothly as planned. Some of the guess already drunk, chatting with their friends, playing at the pool table, throwing darts and here they are, in a group, sitting in a lounge, chatting with the birthday girl. “I see there are 3 piles of presents.” Asked by the birthday girl.

“They are from your rich guests here, your fan clubs and your little fans.” Clint told her.

“That’s sweet.” She said and Steve notice something is not right. “What is it? You not like it?”

“I like it.”

“She’ll kill to be here but no choice.” Steve try to makes his friend feel better at her own birthday.

“I asked Fury for an exchange, me instead, but you know that old man.” Clint assure her.

“Thank you for trying making me feel better. Well, the God is here. What more can I wish for right?” Natasha smile at Thor. “I apologize, I didn’t bring anything from Asgard. I’m from another course and drop by here but I have this humble drink for you.” Thor hand the drink in an antique and unique bottle to Natasha and she takes it. “Thanks! I could really use it now though.” Tony looks unsatisfied at Thor. “And you didn’t bring one for me?!” Pepper interject him “Thanks to that. You are already drunk even when you’re sober.” “I cannot disagree to that statement.” Sam jokes. Clint, Tony and Steve excuse themselves.

Wanda immediately stops her from drinking that drink. “Why did you stop me?” She asked and Wanda told her to enjoy the party. “You can drink that later because you might want to enjoy your ‘not so boring’ party first. That drink is probably too strong you know, not made for human.” “Everybody else is probably drunk right now, I don’t see why I can’t.” “I can’t let you because-”

Right on time the music play and Natasha turn her head so fast to the stage when she hears Y/n voice. “...that.” Wanda finishes her sentences. Turns out it’s not just you. There Steve on the keyboard, Clint on drum, Tony on bass guitar and Maria Hill on electric guitar. All wearing the same old S.H.I.E.L.D old uniform, sleeve rolling up. They all have microphone with them and singing as backup vocals as Y/n go lead.

Uptown girl,

She’s been living in her uptown world

I bet she never had a backstreet guy

I bet her mama never told her why

I’m gonna try for an uptown girl (Uptown girl…)

She’s been living in her white, bright world (white, bright world…)

As long as anyone with the hot blood can (hot blood can…)

And now she’s lookin’ for a downtown man (downtown man…)

That’s what I am

Her green eyes sparkles bright enough to light up the room when she sees you on stage singing the classic Uptown Girl. She turns to Wanda and Pepper asking whether it is really Y/n or a hologram. “Is that?” Wanda smiles wide and nods. “Yes, that’s Y/n.” Pepper add “I kill Tony myself if that is screen recording or hologram.”

And when she knows

What she wants

From her time

And when she wake up

And make up

Her mind

She’ll see I’m not so tough (duet with Steve)

Just because

I’m in love with an uptown girl (uptown girl)

You know I see her in her uptown world (uptown world)

She’s getting tired of her high class toys (high class toys)

And all her presents from her

Uptown boys (uptown boys)

She’s got a choice.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Fury come out of nowhere “It is so awkward to see The Avengers singing. And dancing. Maybe not for Captain America.” Natasha turns to see Fury. “Nick. Is this part of your plan too?” He smiles “How can I not? She’s been begging me for the last two months to not give any of you a mission specifically on this day. It’s worth it.”

Natasha chuckles, out of words. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Fury turns over and showing Natasha’s family. Yes, her family. Alexi, Melina and her little sister Yelena.

Wanda whisper at Natasha’s ear “They are real too.” She nods at Natasha “Go.”

Thor walks towards Wanda and Fury. “I’ve never seen her smiling that big.” Pepper and Wanda looking at her greeting her family. “Me too.”

“Such a noble thing you did.” Thor said to Fury and he just smiling. Natasha brings her family to introduce to Wanda, Thor and Pepper. They continue watching the show and Wanda pulls Natasha’s hand when Y/n calling them to come up the stage. “Let’s go. All of us. The band need us.” Pepper let Natasha’s family walks first. Wanda presenting Natasha and let Y/n takes her hand. She goes next to Steve, Pepper next to Tony, Thor doing silly dance next to Maria and be silly together while her family enjoying with all of them near Clint.

Uptown girl

You know I can’t afford to buy her pearl

But maybe when my ship comes in

She’ll understand what kind of guy I’ve been

And then I win.

Y/n put her hand out for Natasha to take and walking on the stage. Que for her walking. Luckily Natasha play along.

And when she’s walking

She’s looking so fine

And when she’s talking

She’s say that she’s mine

Y/n pass her to her family and jog towards Tony.

She’ll say I’m not so tough (duet with Tony)

Just because

I’m in love with an uptown girl (oohhh)

She’s been living in her white, bread world (oohhh)

As long as anyone with a hot blood can (ooohhh)

And now she’s looking for a downtown man (oohhh)

That’s what I am

Oh oh oh oh

While the rest of them singing the ‘Oh’ parts, you Y/n whisper to Natasha. “You know the next part. You’ve seen the video.” Natasha shyly looking at her family and friends until Yelena yells “Go! This is one in a lifetime chances.” Natasha looks at Y/n, her smile still plastering at her beautiful face. “Why are you doing this to me?” “Because I love you. Dance with me.” The music continues playing even they stop playing the instruments to gather around just like they practiced. Tony already set the music with Friday and it knows the queue.

Uptown girl (uptown girl)

She’s my uptown girl

You know I’m in love

With an uptown girl (uptown girl)

My uptown girl

You know I’m in love

With a birthday girl (uptown girl)

She’s my birthday girl

You know I’m in love

With an uptown girl (uptown girl)

My uptown girl….

They let their friend finish that song. Everybody enjoying the moment and each of them have biggest smile on their faces. Even Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D himself. It’s weird but yes, he is smiling. Y/n and Natasha go hugs their friends and family. Y/n stops at Natasha’s family while she’s with Steve and Maria at the other end.

“I know I just met you, but I already like you Y/n.” Melina says to Y/n and Alexi continue. “It’s hard to see her smile like that. Not even when she’s a kid.”

“Take a good care of my sister. I trust you.” Yelena said.

“She doesn’t even trust me! Her father.” Alexi said and Yelena jus rolling her eyes.

Y/n look at them with hope and grateful in her eyes. “Thank you, for allowing me to marry your daughter, sister. I promise I’ll take care of her.” Yelena sees her sister coming toward them “What are you waiting for? Go put the ring on her finger, in-law.” Y/n smiles big at Yelena’s as she called her sister in-law.

The crowds getting quiet when Tony put a ‘silent’ sign on the screen above them while the other screen focus on Y/n and Natasha without they even notice. Secretly Tony recording the whole thing since the beginning and make the whole documentary out of it. Y/n surely need to thank him.

“Happy birthday, Natasha. You, look so, d.. divine. Tonight.” Y/n nervously said to her soon to be fiancé. Hopefully.

“You sound nervous. You’ve been singing, dancing in front of hundreds people in this room and you’re nervous to praise me?” Natasha cupping your cheek with her right hand. Y/n pull her hand down and Natasha’s sensing something is wrong. “Y/n. What’s wrong?” They didn’t notice that all of The Avengers slowly moves behind Y/n. Even Y/n doesn’t know this part. It was Wanda’s idea. They all get down on their knee when Y/n is on her knee.

“You’re right. I am nervous, now. I’m speechless. Over the edge, I’m breathless. I understand if… I understand...” Y/n is so nervous and let out a long sigh before looking at Natasha’s family behind her. They all nodding at Y/n. Y/n take a deep breath and pull out a red velvet box that have a diamond engagement ring from her pocket. Y/n get down on her knee.

To be honest, Natasha is also nervous and shock, mix with happy and overwhelm when she sees not just Y/n who down on one knee but the whole Avengers. Her second family, also bending their knee but she keeps her composure. Y/n turns to see where Natasha’s looking and almost let out tears when she sees them.

They both looking eye to eye and Y/n starts talking. “You know how terrible I am with words when I’m nervous. That’s why I’m so bad at espionage. You are the most solid, nothing to solidify. Calm and collected. We avenge together, we mess up together. You know I love you, right? Natasha Romanoff, will you accept my proposal?” Wanda hissing and whisper directly to you from her place “Pssstt… Will you marry me. Will. You. Marry. Me.” Your eyes still lock on Natasha astonishing green eyes. “Sorry. Umm... Will you marry me?”

“We drive each other mad, but what is love with no pain and suffer.” The whole room is so quiet that they can only listen to their own heart beats. “To you, I’ve never lied. For you, I’d take a life. I swear.” Natasha said eyes still on each other. “Your answer is…….?” Y/n gulp and Natasha smile. “Yes. I’ll marry you, my favorite Avengers.”

Y/n get up from the floor and hug Natasha a little too strong because why not? She’s over the moon right now. Before Natasha kiss her new fiancé, Y/n turn around and runs to her friends. “SHE SAID YES GUYS! She said the big YES!!”

Pepper stops Y/n. “Y/n, have you kiss her yet?”

“I did hug her.”

They all yell “KISS HER!!” You run towards Natasha and kiss her. “I’m sorry I forget to kiss you. I’m so excited! Can I kiss you now?” Natasha giggles “You’ve never ask my permission before.” Y/n kiss Natasha in front of her family and they awkwardly watch especially Yelena.

“Are you sure she’s an Avenger? Not from any circus camp?” Yelena looking at her sister.

“No.” Natasha let out a small laugh. “No? Are you sure? Yes? No? ” “No…” “Okay if you’re sure, because I want you to be happy.” The sisters hug each other for a while meanwhile Y/n and Wanda hold each other hand jumping up and down like children get what they wish for as Christmas present. “she said Yes Wanda. I’m getting marry.” “Yes you’re getting marry.”

“Natasha.” Melina caught her attention. “I’m proud of you. We, all proud of you. You’ve grown to be an incredible woman Natasha.”

“Looooonggg way from Ohio.” Yelena smiles. “I’ll never forget Ohio.” Natasha told he sister.

“She’s a good person, Natasha.” Alexi caught her attention. Seriousness shown on his face, he continues. “She did asked us for our blessing.” “She did what?” Now its her turn to be serious.

“She asked for our blessing. To marry you.”

“Y/n asked for your blessing?”

“Yes. I know! I can’t believe it too until I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Hah! You’re marrying a vintage.” Yelena laugh at her sister. “Mom, almost take her down with sniper.”

Natasha look sternly at Melina “Almost! Okay! Almost. I didn’t because she came unarms. Not even a swish blade.” Melina clearing the situation.

“She came to you guys? When?” Natasha asked her family.

“Yeah. Alone. Last month. Why?” Alexi asks her daughter.

“I thought Fury brought you guys here. I never told her where do you live. Only Fury knows, based on my file details.”

“She did break into Maria Hill’s personal computer just to find your original file. No one ever know that you and Barton had an original file. Somehow, she did. She’s a catch Romanoff.” Fury came behind her.

“Thank you.” Natasha at him.

“I have to go. It broke my heart to see the Avengers jumping like that.” He looks at the Avengers. “Lighten up, Fury. Let her have a moment.” Natasha said. “You better tell your fiancé not to break any S.H.I.E.L.D files or computers ever again. I’m watching.” He nods at her family and walks away. The family joins The Avengers drinking and chatting. Natasha greeted by Y/n and put her arm around Y/n neck.

“Hey you.” Y/n smiles.

“Hey fiancé.” Natasha smirking seductively at Y/n.

“Fiancé. Huh, I’d like that.”

“Wait until I call you my wife.”

“I’ll love that.”

Tony snap their picture and post it on instagram and twiter. The news travel so fast and the whole world are happy for them. Who doesn’t get excited. Two of earth mightiest heroes are engaged to each other. Their phones are blown off with calls, notification, texts, emails from fans, reporters, sponsors, government, agencies this, that. All of those are for congratulate the couple.

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annoyed-galaxy · 3 years

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Post-Destroy Ending

I bring from the grave of the beyond a fix-it fic serving up fresh angst and some fluff. Mass Effect destroyed my heart and with that major fucking cliffhanger, I just had to write something. But since there's a lot, I decided to break this up into chapters. Well, who knows how many chapters there will be, but just stick around I'm sure you'll have a great time. My writing is still rusty as hell, but I needed to get SOMETHING out. Anyways enjoy this! It's also on AO3 if you want that link.

Go!

It was the last thing she had ordered when she ran off into the jaws of death. He hated watching her go. Hated seeing her run back towards the beam with Harbinger raining down death. Tali had to tear him away from watching her run, dragging him back into the Normandy.

Garrus was on his fourth bottle of alcohol. The other three bottles were littered across Shepard’s nameplate. He ran his fingers across each letter of her name. It had been a couple weeks and Garrus still refused to put her name on the memorial wall. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. And he sure as hell wasn’t letting someone else do it.

They were still grounded on the uncharted world they had crashed into after the blast from the Citadel. While the Normandy was relatively fine, there were still some repairs that had to be made. There was also the issue with EDI. When the blast caused the Normandy to crash, EDI had suddenly collapsed, no longer functioning. Whatever the blast was, it didn’t kill just the Reapers.

The mass relays were destroyed, comm buoys were in pieces, so communication was very limited. Whatever happened back on Earth, whether people had recovered or not, was not making it to the Normandy anytime soon. The Reapers were defeated, but at what cost?

The door to the lounge opened and Liara sat next to Garrus. She grabbed a bottle of wine and began to pour herself a glass. “How are you feeling?” she asked, taking a sip.

Garrus grumbled to himself. He was drunk, his mind fuzzy and numb. “I’m fine,” he mumbled.

Liara nodded, not buying his story, but knew he hadn’t been okay in a while. “Tali has been working on EDI. She also brought Glyph back. In return, Glyph has been helping Tali with bringing EDI back,” Liara explained, hoping some good news would brighten his mood.

He looked at her, his face plates shifting. Part of him was annoyed that she would bring that up, knowing the possibility of Shepard truly being gone was most likely. But he was happy for Joker at the very least. “That’s good,” he mumbled, returning to his drink.

Liara frowned, worry crossing her face. “Garrus...I know you’re hurting, but...” Liara stopped herself. She didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry, Garrus. I know Joker has been talking about trying to make it back to Earth. But with the mass relays out, who knows how long it’ll be until we get there. Communications have been scrambled too.” Liara put a hand on his back. “It’s going to be okay Garrus. I promise.”

He stayed silent. He had nothing to say. He wanted to go back to Earth, back to the Citadel. He wouldn’t put Shepard’s name on the memorial wall until he had seen her cold corpse himself.

After a few minutes of silence, Liara finally decided it would be best to leave the turian to his sulking. She left with comforting parting words.

༻✧༺

“There’s a body over here!”

Her head was pounding. There were noises. Faint. Distant. Her body burned, stung, felt battered and bruised. She was breathing, but it stung. The voices came closer. She could no longer make out words, but she saw blinding lights come into view. She felt a weight lift from her, probably some rubble, and she couldn’t make out any faces. There were just blurred shapes and bright lights.

“Holy shit, it’s Commander Shepard!”

More shapes rushed over to her. Rubble was being dragged off of her. The light began to fade, her breathing slowing. She felt something cover her nose and mouth. Air filled her easily now. Her eyes fluttered shut and the noise faded away.

༻✧༺

“EDI!” Joker cried out as the robot sat up, blinking. He hugged her, tears forming in his eyes.

“Hello, Jeff,” EDI replied, slightly confused. She returned the hug, tentatively patting his back. He moved out of the way, allowing her to stand on her feet. “What happened?” she asked, looking around the room. She was in the AI core, Tali, Liara, and Glyph all stationed behind Joker, watching with held breaths as she was brought back to life.

“The blast from the Citadel took you out,” Joker explained, his arms on her shoulders. “But the Reapers were taken down too. Tali and Glyph have been working day in and day out to bring you back.”

EDI looked back at Tali and Glyph and smiled. “Thank you, you two. I did not realize I had...died.” EDI looked down at her hands, stretching her robotic fingers. “It felt like I had just stopped working. There was no afterlife.”

Joker put a finger under her chin, lifting her eyes to meet his. “It’s okay, you’re here now.” She smiled and took his hand.

“So what did I miss?” she asked, as they left the AI core. Awkward glances were shared between Tali and Liara.

Joker cleared his throat and took EDI to the bridge of the ship, letting her settle back into her usual co-pilot seat. The door to the cockpit closed as Tali and Liara stepped in. “Shepard activated the Crucible,” Joker began to explain. “Whatever it did, it destroyed the Reapers and other synthetic lives including you. But it also destroyed the mass relays and left comm buoys in scrambles. We’ve been stuck on an uncharted world for about a month now, trying to get you working again.”

“We didn’t feel safe, nor comfortable, taking off without you working again,” Liara added, offering a small smile to EDI. “That and the fact that the Normandy is currently offline.”

“You keep the Normandy in full function,” Tali tagged on.

Joker nodded. “Now that you’re back online, we’re hoping to make it back to Earth. The only issue with that is...”

“We don’t know how far away we are, nor how long would it take, or if we could even get there via FTL,” Liara explained, her voice low and sad.

“Is there a specific reason to going back to Earth?” EDI asked, pure innocence and naiveness in her robotic eyes.

Joker looked at Tali and Liara, asking for some backup with his eyes. Tali rubbed her hands together nervously. “We want to try and find Shepard.”

EDI tilted her head. “Is Shepard alive?”

The three of them exchanged looks once more. “We...we don’t know,” Liara sighed. “But Garrus seems determined to find out.”

EDI lowered her head. “Oh. Right. Garrus and Shepard were in a romantic relationship weren’t they?” Everyone nodded. “I will begin to run diagnostics on the ship then, to see what repairs will be required to get us off the ground once more,” EDI said, more optimistic and hopeful. It seemed to work as Joker, Tali, and Liara smiled a little more.

“I’ll let Garrus know,” Liara said before leaving the cockpit. She went to the crew deck, in the lounge looking for Garrus, but he wasn’t there. She went to the other side, the starboard observatory, but he wasn’t there either. She went to the main battery, wondering if he had gone back to calibrating to distract him, but he wasn’t there either. Liara could think of only one other place he would be grieving in.

As she suspected, the door to Shepard’s cabin was open, a somber tune of a piano playing through the speakers as she stepped out of the elevator. Laying on the bed was Garrus, a picture in his hand. Liara could tell it was the picture of the Normandy crew they had taken back on the Citadel. “Good news, Garrus,” Liara greeted, standing next to the fish tank. He looked up at her, his mandibles parting in curiosity. “EDI is back online. She is going to run a systems check and see what it will take to get us back to Earth.”

Garrus sat up, putting the picture on one of the bedside tables. “That’s what everyone wants to do?” he asked, not looking at her, still looking at the picture.

Liara moved closer, sitting on the end of the bed. “Garrus, you’re not the only one who wants to find Shepard. I, for one, do not want to see her name on that wall either. I want to at least see her body if she is...gone.”

Garrus snorted. “Weren’t you the one who recovered her body last time? After the Normandy’s first destruction?”

Liara nodded. “I was. Until I found her, I never lost hope. Even when I recovered her body, I still didn’t lose hope, especially since Cerberus planned to bring her back. I thought it was crazy, but they did it.” Liara smirked. “Death and Shepard are not good friends. She defies him at every turn.”

“I just...I don’t want to put her name on that damned wall. Because if I do, then it may be as well saying she’s gone. I...can’t accept that.” Garrus’s voice faltered, weak and strained. Liara couldn’t hear his sub-vocal very well, but she knew it was worse than his regular voice. She knew the pain of losing Shepard would be hard on him.

“Then let’s hope we can make it to Earth soon,” Liara comforted, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

He silently nodded as she left the cabin.

༻✧༺

Another month had passed by, the Normandy was still grounded, but basic functions were online. Power kept the basic necessities alive, powering Liara’s room where she spent most of her time, using her Shadow Broker resources trying to gauge the aftermath of the Reaper War. No matter how much she tried to get any information, with comm buoys out of commission and them being on an uncharted world, anything she received was scarce at best. She still had received no status about the Citadel, Earth, or what state the galactic civilization was in. The only information she could glean, was what everyone already knew; the Reapers were dead and the mass relays were broken.

Voices were raised in concern about food supplies. There was still plenty of food for everyone, including Tali and Garrus, but supplies would run out soon if they didn’t restock. James, Cortez, Tali, Garrus, and Javik all decided to explore the uncharted world in hopes to find some food. Tali had a scanner in her suit that could identify whether something was poisonous and dextro-friendly or not. The only thing they had managed to find was some berries for everyone except the quarian and turian.

“Great, we’re going to be living off berries,” James groaned, picking the bright red fruits from the bush Tali had just scanned.

“Be lucky we found anything at all,” Tali retorted. “Garrus and I still have to find food that we can eat.”

“To be fair, you guys are the only dextros on board so you’re not going through your supply as fast,” Cortez pointed out.

“Hopefully we won’t run out in general,” Garrus said, looking aimlessly at the horizon. The system’s sun was equal to the sun, Sol, providing the same warmth and light on this world’s surface.

“If we do run out of food, we can just eat one another,” Javik suggested. Everyone turned and looked at the Prothean.

“Of course the Prothean would say that,” James cackled. “Talking about salarian soup and shit.”

“Let’s try to avoid that outcome,” Cortez suggested.

The idle conversation continued as the group continued looking for more food.

“Liara.” EDI stepped into the Shadow Broker’s cabin, her arms behind her back as she waited patiently for the asari to notice her.

“What is it EDI?” Liara looked up from her computer screen, frustration painted on her face.

“I found something. Upon doing an internal scan of the Normandy, I discovered a signal that was sent about two months ago. A distress signal,” EDI explained.

Liara looked at EDI in curious surprise. “Oh?”

EDI motioned for Liara to follow back up to the bridge of the Normandy. Joker was sitting in his pilot’s seat, the seat turned to face the door of the cockpit. His hands were templed together and worry was bright across his face. “Jeff and I have already listened to the signal. I had to clear it up in order to understand it since the signal was so ruined.” EDI explained as she stood next to Joker.

“Keep in mind, it’s two months old,” Joker grumbled as EDI used her omni-tool to play the signal.

There was a lot of crackling in the beginning and then a cough. “Help...” Liara strained to listen to the static in the voice. “This is...Com...mander...Shep...ard. I’m...still alive...Please help...” The signal cut off then with one more cough from the sender.

Liara’s eyes widened as EDI and Joker looked up at her to gauge her reaction. “Don’t get your hopes up. The signal is two months old,” Joker repeated.

“Do you...do you know if this signal was received by anyone else?” Liara asked, her voice soft and quiet. It was hard to determine what her reaction was.

“No. As I said, I just received this signal when I was doing diagnostics on the Normandy,” EDI answered. “I cannot determine if the signal was sent to any available ships or if it was sent to the Normandy specifically.”

Liara crossed her arms, bringing a hand to her chin, stroking it thoughtfully. There was a reason Joker reiterated the fact that the signal was two months old. With no knowledge of whether or not the signal was received by anyone else, there was no guaranteeing Shepard was alive. Liara sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about it. But whatever you do, don’t show it to Garrus. Unless we can find out whether or not the signal was received by someone else, there is no reason to bank our hopes on this.”

Joker nodded. “I agree. And honestly, Liara? As much as I want to hope...I don’t think she made it.”

Liara smiled sadly. “We can only hope she did, Jeff.”

༻✧༺

Not sure if turian heaven is the same as yours, but if this thing goes sideways and we both end up there...meet me at the bar.

She was standing in the forest. There was no child there this time. No copy of herself. She was alone. There were voices surrounding her. She looked around. Her body didn’t hurt. She couldn’t feel anything. There was a bar on the opposite end of the forest. She could have sworn she saw a turian sitting on one of the stools, a bottle in its hand.

Her legs began moving, but like all the other dreams, she moved slowly, felt weighed down by a crushing force of gravity, moving impossibly slow.

Shepard.

She heard his voice again. All around the forest. She reached out towards the turian sitting at the bar. She wanted to call out for him, but her throat tightened and no sound escaped. Fire started to form around the turian and the bar.

Not again. Please. Not again.

Come back alive. It’d be an awfully empty galaxy without you.

The flames consumed the bar and the turian, just as his head turned to look at her; the blue eyes, the blue colony marking across his face, his visor, his mandibles parting at the sight of her.

We’re in this until the end.

She tried crying out, but the flames consumed him and the noise of the Reapers echoed all around her. A bright flash of red came into her view. She felt sluggish as she brought her arms up in a futile attempt to block the beam from disintegrating her. But the pain never hit.

༻✧༺

Six months had passed since the Reaper War ended. Food supplies had started to run short, even for the dextros on the Normandy. Despite all the exploring the adventuring party had done, they still found nothing more except for berries for everyone else. However, progress on getting the Normandy back online was going well. EDI had predicted that the Normandy would be airborne within the week.

The mood on the ship was tense. Everyone was excited to be airborne again. Garrus still kept Shepard’s nameplate close to him. People stopped talking about the possibilities of Shepard’s fate, not wanting to further upset the turian and the rest of her close friends. Games of poker were used to distract crew members from the low running food supplies and the restlessness of being grounded for so long on an uncharted world.

“Man I can’t wait to get the hell off this planet,” James chattered, fixing himself a plate of berry flavored scrap food. “We’re pretty much out of food and have been surviving off of berries and MREs for six goddamn months. We haven’t been getting nearly enough proteins we need in a daily meal.” He sat down at the lunch table where the other crew members sat. Tali and Garrus looked at him pointedly. He lifted his shoulders. “What? You guys still have food.”

Tali scoffed. “Barely. There wasn’t that much dextro-food compared to your guys’ food. So we started running out around the same time you guys did.”

Cortez smiled, offering some hope around the table. “It’s okay guys. EDI said we should be taking off here soon.”

“Yes, but how long until we get to a known system?” James countered. “The mass relays are still screwed and we haven’t even received communications in forever.”

“Not to worry,” piped the synthetic voice of EDI who had just rounded the corner of the mess room. Liara stood next to her, a small smile on her face. “Communications have been reestablished.”

Liara sighed softly. “The only problem is that the communications we do receive are delayed. Say, if something was sent four months ago, we would just be receiving it now, or later. So any news we do get is going to be late.”

“Fantastic,” Garrus mumbled, looking down at his plate. He had barely touched his food and Tali was half-tempted to snag what he didn’t eat.

“Getting communications up at all is a start,” EDI admitted. “As I said, it shouldn’t be long before I can get the Normandy back into full motion.”

“Please hurry,” James begged, leaning back in his chair. “I’m sick and tired of this planet. If we had more resources, I wouldn’t mind living here. But I’m gonna lose it if I managed to survive the Reapers just to die to starvation six months later.”

Cortez raised a glass towards James. “Cheers to that.”

Liara rolled her eyes just as Specialist Traynor rushed around the corner. “Everyone! Come quick! I just received a message from Admiral Hackett!”

Everyone perked up a bit at that statement. Most of the communications they received were garbage or were so insignificant that Liara had immediately deleted them. But a message from Admiral Hackett? This had to be good.

Everyone rushed to the elevator, cramming inside of it before stepping out into the CIC. Traynor rushed over to her computer and pulled up the message. “I haven’t listened to it yet, I just saw who it was from and decided to call everyone up.” Joker was leaning on the opposite side of Traynor, by Shepard’s personal computer. There was a glint of hope in his eyes at the news of the message from Hackett.

Admiral Hackett played a huge part in the Reaper War, commanding the forces that brought the Crucible to the Citadel. If he was sending a message directly to the Normandy, then hopefully it was good news. Or news in general.

The message came up, but the frequency was all scrambled, too much static to even hear words. A few tweaks later and the old man’s voice finally came through.

“Normandy. This is Admiral Hackett. With the comm buoys in disarray and mass relays destroyed, I don’t know if and when this message will reach you, but you need to come back to Earth as soon as possible. Do whatever the hell you have to to make it back.” There was a pause in the message as everyone looked at each other. Then the voice spoke again and the words that came out struck everyone.

“We found Commander Shepard. She’s alive.”

#mass effect #mass effect 3 #mass effect post destroy ending #mass effect legendary edition #mass effect remastered #mele #garrus vakarian #femshep #femshep x garrus #shakarian #mass effect shepard #mass effect garrus #OC: Lyris Shepard #writing #my writing #ao3 #G-W76 #GalaxyPlaysMELE

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imagineabrighterworld · 3 years

Text

Psy-Cutie pt. 1

Summary // Mind Jack is an S-ranked villain who always manages to evade capture. You are a florist working in the city and never really minded what was happening around you. You kept an ear open for more relevant news, but you never heard of Mind Jack or his schemes. This works in Hitoshi Shinso's favor as he crashes into your shop one day, injured and unable to take care of himself. Lucky for him, you are just the healer he needs.

A/N: Based loosely on the song American Beauty/American Psycho, hope you enjoy! ^^

- - -

Hitoshi knew two things when he woke up in an unfamiliar bed.

One. He was in pain.

Two. He was safe.

He knew he was safe with clear surety because if the person who saved him knew who he was, he would have on handcuffs and a muzzle rather than a blanket and bandages.

-4 hours earlier-

Twisting the dial of his mask, Hitoshi tests the new vocals he had acquired.

"Help me! Please Akane!" The voice of a 45 year old woman echoes in the room, bouncing off the concrete walls. The voice belonged to Hiromi Sasaki, the wife of a broker who had ties to several Pro Heroes in the Coruscant district. She had been a thorn in Hitoshi's side what with her providing new equipment and upgraded tech to superheroes. Last month he had nearly been foiled by a beam that concentrated a hypnotic ray. But now he had the perfect plan to get rid of her.

Or rather, get rid of her clients privacy.

"Hiromi! Are you here?!" Akane yells from afar, finally catching up to him after following the sound of her wife from blocks away. Now that they were in a closed and controlled area, Hitoshi felt no need to continue this game of cat and mouse.

"How precious." His voice rings out. "You really do love her don't you. If only that love was enough to keep her safe." He steps out from his spot behind a pillar, looking at the now frozen broker who stood still at the doorway. Her eyes were wide open, a blank canvas.

He stalks forward, lowering his mask into the folds of his capture weapon. "You're going to listen to me now." Hitoshi beckons her with a finger, walking backwards to a single chair. "Come. Let's go over the terms of our agreement."

The woman sits down on the rickety chair, showing no signs of fear as it buckles under her weight.

"From now on, you'll be attaching these to all the equipment you sell to your heroes." He unties a small bag from his waist and tosses it onto her lap. They were tracking devices. "If you get caught, your wife will not come back from what I'll do to her."

Nothing, nothing showed on her face that she was listening, but he knew his instructions ran clear. He could feel his control taking over. His quirk had evolved since his time at U.A, no longer was his brain washing temporary, no, he could give long term instructions. It was very, very useful. An evolution he was sure his old classmate would have loved to jot down. But today wasn’t a day for lamenting old friendships he already burned.

Bang!

His focus snaps to the wall next to him, the concrete was beginning to crack as a barrage of fists pummeled into it.

Shit.

"Don't forget what I told you." Hitoshi pulls his mask back into place, cutting off his connection to the broker, not sparing another second to watch her as he bolts to the farthest window with his capture weapon in hand.

Breaking through the glass he sends the end of the scarf to a faraway pole, using it to swing onto a nearby building. He curls into a ball and tumbles to lessen the impact on his joints before sprinting across the rooftops. Narrowly he evades the paralyzing bullets of police officers on the ground, shouting to the heroes who were hot on his tail.

It was fun, in a way, they were finally making it fun for him after being so easily put down.

But the heroes were prepared for him. Finally, they learned to bring proper backup.

"Mind Jack!" The hero Racer yells from the rooftop next to him. The hero beside them creates a ramp of metal, allowing Racer to send themselves flying onto the rooftop he was currently on.

Hitoshi coils his capture weapon around Racer's leg as they fly midair, twisting them around and throwing them into the new hero behind him. The group that had begun to accumulate was a mixture of A and C ranked heroes, which normally would be easily handled by himself. But he was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a telekinetic that sent him plummeting into the ground and through the floors below him.

“Damn!” His scarf wraps around the exposed edge of a steel pillar poking out of the concrete floor, allowing him to swing out of sight from the heroes that continued their path downward where they assumed he had fallen. But it didn’t mean he was safe.

All he remembers is the cold wind rushing past him as he breaks through the window of the thirtieth floor and freefalls to the unforgiving ground.

- Now -

Now he was staring at a pitcher of water with slices of lemons and leaves of mint.

Just where did he land?

"Oh you're awake!" A voice chimes in from behind a curtain. He squints at the fuzzy shadow, making out something round and human shaped.

A hand grabs the curtain and pulls it aside, the roundness now obviously a ceramic pot and the human shaped figure.. A very cute human.

He tilts his head as he watches you balance the pot of dirt on your hip, your cheeks smudged along with your gloved hands.

Who were you?

"You scared me earlier! I almost didn't get to you in time." You place the pot on a chair and pull up a stool from the vanity against the wall, crossing your legs as you sat down. "My quirk is a little reckless, so I was afraid I might hurt you more than help you. But you're a sturdy one."

"What is-!" Hitoshi cringes at the pain in his throat, reaching up a hand to cup his jugular. It felt like crushed glass was grinding against his vocal cords.

You stood up at the sound of his voice, already preparing a cup of water to give to him. "My quirk? It's repel. I can repel anything, living or non-living- but the force I exert can change from moment to moment if I'm not careful. So when I saw you falling, I had to use it in small bursts to keep you from smacking the pavement too hard."

Well, he was asking for your name but he took the water anyway, looking it over for traces of a sedative. Deeming it clean, he mouths a quick ‘thank you’ before drinking.

Using the opportunity to collect clues on what kind of person his host was, Hitoshi takes in the sight around him. A pitcher of water on a chipped black nightstand. Macrame potted plants hanging by an open window. A wardrobe with a sweater peeking out. A worn beige carpet on vinyl floors. Photographs of friends and family. Clippings of plants and dried out flowers in picture frames.

Nothing out of the ordinary. Safe.

A part of him wanted to cringe. How long had it been since he was around something so ordinary? He didn’t live in places long enough to decorate it. He didn’t leave windows open, chancing a police officer spotting him. He didn’t have any of these things you had.

“So..”

He turns his attention back to you.

“Would you happen to be Hitoshi Shinso?”

His grip on the cup tightens instinctively. Without his voice to activate his quirk, he settles on relying on his physicality. Hitoshi reaches instinctively for the scarf around his neck-

But it wasn’t there.

He settles on a nod, preparing to bolt out of the bed should you try screaming for help. Even without his scarf, he was prepared to scale the walls if he had to.

However, it isn't a yell of fear that he is met with. Surprise floods him as he watches your face light up with a smile. You lean forward with your hands tucked under your thighs. “Really?! I watched you in the U.A sports festivals when I was a teenager! You were amazing!”

Without knowing it, his hand raised from his neck to his face, covering his mouth as you continued on, a warmth building in his cheeks.

“I live pretty far away, but I took a trip to U.A. for my second year, and to see you take down students twice your size was so cool! You really worked hard after the first festival and it showed-“ A blush of your own takes root on your face. You scoot your seat backwards. “Ah- sorry about that.. I didn’t mean to be so forward.”

He shakes his head, looking at you with much softer eyes. He was a villain. And had been a villain after leaving amid his third year at U.A. He didn’t regret his decision and never cared for the love the media gave his former classmates. He didn’t need praise or the affection of strangers. He didn’t care about any of that.

But to hear someone praise him for his hard work, and to hear someone put him in such a light? To hear that someone saw him as more than his quirk?

Hitoshi could get drunk on your words alone.

“You don't mind..? I understand if it’s creepy. I've met fans of Deku who even I was uncomfortable next to.”

Once more he shakes his head, unbothered by your enthusiasm. In fact, he liked it. More than he thought he would.

Was this why heroes strived to be popular? The warm feeling it brought? Or was it because it came from you? Someone so blissfully ignorant of what he has done.

You still saw him as a hero.

A hero.

“Oh! I need to get back to the shop! Your fall left some of my pots smashed, I need to clean it up before someone gets hurt.” You get to your feet and take his now empty glass, refilling it before handing it back. “Take your time,I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”

And just when he thought you couldn't get any better, you stumble on your way out, drawing out a squeak from your lips.

He was truly and utterly whipped.

#bnha #mha #bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha hitoshi #mha hitoshi #hitoshi shinso #hitoshi shinso x reader #bnha hitoshi shinso #bnha hitoshi shinso x reader #mha hitoshi shinso x reader #Psy-Cutie #very self indulgent #maybe a tiny bit of angst in the future but not really #any suggestions or ideas for future mini chapters are welcome!#just really wanted a soft villain hitoshi úwù #he is my son #please be gentle with him

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novantinuum · 3 years

Link

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 1600~

Summary: Lapis genuinely doesn’t know how many hours (Days? Months? Years?) have passed when light finally graces her eyes once again.

Ah, my first Lapis POV fic! This one has been in my drafts for ages- at least a year and a half. Feels nice to finally have it done.

If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3. Thank you! <3

________

Finally Free

It’s funny, in a way.

She spent thousands of years trapped inside herself, unable to form... hating the Crystal Gems... fearing the endless destructive conquest of the Diamonds... and yet in the end, the first time she falls in a battle she fought willingly she does so fighting alongside those star-bearing rebels, face-to-face with the very Diamond who abandoned her to Earth to be forgotten to begin with.

And now, she’s gone. Trapped inside herself again. It’s equal parts disorienting as it is concerning. After all, Lapis Lazuli cannot see the world beyond. She has no way of knowing if the Crystal Gems lost or won. No way of knowing if she’ll be shattered at any moment. It’s nerve-racking— suffocating! She wants out. She wants to know.

But no matter what she tries, she can’t manage to pull herself out of this formless limbo on demand. She always imagined that the next time she got struck down she’d reform in an instant... pop right back up like the next day’s dawn, ready to slice the waves and swing her fists like she’s never been shaken to her knees in the first place. Apparently not.

Despite her dearest wishes, it would seem the universe has a higher agenda.

Lapis genuinely doesn’t know how many hours (Days? Months? Years?) have passed when light finally graces her eyes once again.

Fittingly, it’s the ocean who greets her first as she hovers midair in the midst of reformation, arms outstretched and coursing with newfound strength as her form fully solidifies. She gently falls to her knees on the sand. With the sun’s energizing warmth kissing the gemstone on her back, she spreads her fingers through the fine granules, her relief at being free from unconsciousness’ cruel prison so palpable and overwhelming that for a moment she’s irrationally terrified she’ll poof again from the intensity of this fierce emotion alone. Her hard-light body remains solid, however. After all, she’s a stubborn Gem. There’s no way she’ll let herself poof as easily as she did this time around ever again.

Coaxing herself to her feet, she makes a clear point of judiciously surveying her surroundings. Her first big clue as to the outcome of the battle is the fact that the Diamond ships still lay broken and motionless in the shallows at the edge of the peninsula. (Not to mention the fact that the Earth is still... well, here.) Directly behind her, she finds a makeshift worktable formed out of a thick board placed over twin stacks of wood, with plenty of human tools scattered across its surface. No one appears to be hanging around Steven’s house right now, but there’s a sizable tarp thrown over the half that Blue’s ship smashed during the battle. That’s good, that insinuates that someone’s alive to begin repairs. Although, wait a minute... Her brow sharply creases as she filters back through recent memory. Wasn’t that ship still leaning against the side of the cliff when she poofed? How’d it get into the water? And how did the arm ship’s thumb get reattached?

Before she can fret about these mysteries further and and risk losing herself to a burst of paranoid panic, she hears her name called from the distance. Attentively, she whirls around, seeking its source.

It’s Peridot, sprinting right towards her across the fine sand as if the rest of this growing, changing world has somehow hurtled to an abrupt stop. But not her. Goodness, never her. She’s always in motion, always manages to be so alive.

And she... she’s changed her outfit. There’s stars everywhere, on her leggings at her knees, in the silhouette formed by the shape of her visor and hair, and plastered proudly right across her chest. Lapis can’t help but give a fond smirk at the sight. It suits her. Now she can finally represent like a true Crystal Gem.

“Lapis!” she exclaims as she crosses the final distance, lands herself face-to-face once more. “You’re finally back!”

For a minuscule moment the green eyes behind that tinted visor glitter with deep affection and relief, and her arms stretch outward as if she intends to envelop her in a tight embrace and never let go, but as oft is the case, the turbulent waves of emotion coursing through this Gem are riddled with more complexity than initial appearances let on. And if there’s one thing Lapis fails to excel at, it’s understanding how to best respond to the nuances of complex emotions. She’s never been much of a people person, even before her capture.

Eventually, the joyful familiarity within Peridot’s expression dims, and— inhaling deep— she steeples her fingers together as if she were an agate merely addressing a subordinate. The tone of her voice becomes bitingly procedural, detached.

(Try as she may, Lapis can’t block the ephemeral ache this new reality elicits at her core as the conversation continues. She clutches at her wrist, shamefully dropping her gaze to the sand.)

“Anyways,” the former Kindergarten technician says evenly, gesturing at the mess littering the beach behind them, “we have a lot of work to do. No time to waste!”

Her brow creases. “But... didn’t we win?”

“We did, yes,” she nods in confirmation. “Bismuth can explain in more depth, but she’s currently on one of the diamond ships. We’re fixing them so we can fly out as backup.”

“Backup? Backup for what?”

Peridot’s cool and collected guise crumples at this query, her hands curling into small fists as she blinks away any lingering evidence of her distress.

“Steven’s in trouble,” she reveals. “We just received a distress message from him yesterday. I’m told he returned to Homeworld with the Diamonds to discuss healing all the corrupted Gems, but...”

“Something went wrong,” she guesses, the shadow of her bangs darkening over her eyes. “They turned on him.”

“Well... we don’t really know what happened. Which is why time is of the essence!” she says with a sudden surge of positive energy, swiftly jabbing her pointer finger in the air. “Follow me, and I’ll show you where we’re working.”

Her old roommate prepares to jog away, towards the other side of the beach where the ships lay in temporary rot and ruin. Time stills in Lapis’ mind, if but for a brief moment, as she watches the sunlight glint at the upper edge of her visor, the refraction producing almost kaleidoscopic patterns in the sand. The choppy rhythm of the ocean, its undulating melody as it washes in and away from shore, uninterrupted... it almost sounds sad. She hums a few bars of a song she wrote back in her solitude, on the moon. And then she realizes, eyes widening... that she never really left that place, did she? In a way, even though she returned to Earth, it’s like she’s still stuck watching everyone from that observation sphere, still barring herself from nurturing her relationships with others out of fear.

Lapis throws her glance out towards the endless horizon, standing tall and erect as the loose pants of her new form billow against her legs in the light breeze. The long-held tension at her core releases. She’s done closing herself off from people. She’s done with feeling trapped and alone. She wants to mend her relationships, not let them erode away.

Which means... she has to at least try to make things right with Peridot. Somehow.

The tide’s pace resumes to its full intensity. At that precise moment, her friend turns on her heels, swiftly preparing to return to their work site.

“Peridot,” she says, quickly stepping forward to catch her shoulder before she can walk off, before she journeys to some distant shore where she can’t follow.

The shorter Gem freezes in place upon the utterance of her name. She doesn’t respond in words initially, lips tightly pursed. Waiting. Hoping.

(Stars, just say it!)

“I... I shouldn’t have run away,” Lapis blurts out, her form growing lighter the second that vocalization crosses the threshold from her guilt-filled subconscious to shining reality. “That was... a huge mistake. And I really wish I could make it up to you, but...” Her scattered focus shifts as she searches for something— anything— to say in further acknowledgement of her regret, eventually landing upon the shattered remnants of wood still strewn across the beach. She sighs sadly, giving her respects. “I’m pretty sure we can both agree that the barn’s a goner.”

Under her hold, Peridot’s once-tense shoulder relaxes. She makes no move to face her, however, still drinking in the no-doubt humbling sight of this planet’s boundless sea

“Well,” she begins slowly. “As long as you work to communicate with your friends whenever you feel overwhelmed in the future, and promise not to kidnap all of my morps into space again, I think we can call it even.”

She places one of her hands atop hers, the action but a small sign of their renewed goodwill.

“In any case, I’m- really glad you’re back,” she says, fondness evident in her tone.

Lapis smiles.

The ocean’s melody is no longer tinged with a companionless melancholy.

It’s funny how things can change.

She spent thousands of years terrified of the consequences of being caught as traitor to the Great Diamond Authority, and now she’s planning to illegally commandeer a diamond ship to fly a rescue mission into the stagnant heart of Homeworld. She’s only been a Crystal Gem for the equivalent of a few minutes, and yet she’s already reformed bolder and braver than ever before.

She feels strong. Despite the inherent danger of their task, she feels an ever-building reassurance, fighting amongst her friends. For the first time ever, she finally feels like someone has her back.

Lapis closes her eyes as she reflects on the culmination of her journey, standing confident alongside her dear friend on the bridge of Blue’s ship.

No more searching. No more running. She’s finally free.

#su #lapis lazuli #peridot #su fanfiction #my writing stuff

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slipping-through-my-fingertips · 3 years

Text

mad woman

part of my folklore series

Summary: Kurt is concerned that Santana has lost her voice; Blaine helps her get it back.

Notes: I really feel that this song embodies Santana. I can’t explain it but it just reminds me so much of her. HAPPY 1 YEAR OF FOLKLORE!!!!!

AO3

Anytime he heard Santana singing in the shower, Kurt wondered why she gave up performing. Sure, she had the Spotlight Diner shifts but she was seldom a soloist. More likely, Santana opted to be backup vocals unless she was feuding with Rachel that day. It was like glee all over again. Her voice silenced or drowned out by the attention seekers. She didn’t fight for it as she had during her short-lived time as a member of the Treble Tones. Hell, she wasn’t into the music as much as Elliott and Dani were when One Tree Hill had been a quintet.

Kurt was worried about her. Though she’d deny it, Santana loved to sing. She needed glee just as much as the rest of them. The problem was since she moved to New York it was like she lost her voice.

He remembers feeling like that when he first arrived. Without NYADA, Kurt was another drop in the huge sea of city folk. No longer did he stand out for his bold fashion choices or being gay. Here, the things that once made him eccentric were just another thing people tried to ignore as they went about their days. No one in the city had time to pick on or compliment a newcomer from a small town in Ohio.

At first, Kurt liked it because the fear of being beaten for being himself had completely vanished within a few weeks of moving. That was all behind him. Way back in Lima. After a few months, the novelty wore off. He actually started to miss the stares from his classmates at McKinley High.

He hated to admit it but Rachel may have been right when she said they were similar. Sometimes, Kurt felt like Tinkerbell too. He needed applause to live. Craved the attention. Then, he got it at the Winter Showcase. Madame Tibideaux handed the limelight to him on a silver platter. The entirety of the NYADA staff got to hear him sing.

Of course, he could’ve thrown up because he was so nervous and completely unprepared. Yet, it had been exhilarating. That rush of being on stage with a captive audience. Combined with his attendance to NYADA being on the line, Kurt hadn’t felt this energized since he last saw Blaine in person.

None of that seemed to faze Santana Lopez.

Honestly, after pulling her into the band and having her quit, recommending the evening dance classes at NYADA, and taking her out to Callbacks on weekends, Kurt was out of ideas. She refused to get on stage. But he saw that small smile on her face when she hummed under her breath when she thought no one was listening. No matter how vehemently she denied it, she missed singing. So, Kurt called Blaine.

“I don’t know, Kurt, it’s kinda hard to help when I’m not seeing the situation for myself.” Blaine sighs, likely bummed he can’t solve this.

Kurt practically saw him pouting through the phone. Thank god, they weren’t on Skype. He hated seeing his boyfriend looking so defeated when he wasn’t there in person to kiss the top of his head.

Blaine had become the self-proclaimed advice-giver of the New Directions since he transferred.

He helped Mike Chang fix his relationship with Tina when they had a week-long fight about only eating at Asian restaurants on their date nights. Tina had been pissed. No simple apology was going to cut it. Blaine single-handedly compiled a list of Tina’s favorite places to eat and added a few of his personal favorite date night places.

When Finn would forget special dates and Rachel got fussy about how Finn never uses the couple calendars she made for them, Blaine stepped in and helped him set up a reminder alert on his phone.

And there was that whole fiasco about Miss Pillsbury not-so-subtly hinting that she wanted to get engaged. Blaine was able to straighten Mr. Schue out pretty quickly that day. For the life of him, that man didn’t understand why Miss Pillsbury was acting so weird.

“You don’t have to be so roundabout, you know?” Kurt told him.

“Huh.” Playing dumb, typical.

“Just come up to the city, Blaine,” he said. “I know you want to ask.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, boyfriend of mine,” Blaine huffed. “I have zero ulterior motives while being completely unhelpful to your current predicament.”

“Uh-huh, I’m sure that’s the case. I’ll see you next week.”

“Unless Cooper can find an earlier flight!” Blaine exclaimed.

He had been using up the countless number of frequent flyer miles his older brother had racked up to make weekend trips to New York. After Cooper discovered their long-distance relationship (likely after one too many late-night calls from Blaine missing his boyfriend), he offered them to Blaine.

Blaine arrived the following Friday. McKinley had some teacher’s day so Blaine was able to hop on a morning flight. He was waiting in the loft when Kurt finished classes for the day.

“Okay, we’re going to Callbacks tonight,” Kurt said, removing his coat.

“Hello to you too,” Blaine replied, standing up from the sofa. “How are you, Blaine? How was the flight, Blaine? I missed you so much, Blaine.”

Kurt rolled his eyes and ignored his boyfriend.

“This isn’t about you, Blaine,” he said, “it’s about Santana.”

“Wow, Blaine, you look great! Aren’t those my yellow pants you’re borrowing?” Blaine crossed his arms.

“Hey!” Kurt exclaimed. “Those are my pants!”

“Yeah.” Blaine blushed. “I rolled them so they’d fit better.”

Kurt marched over to him and knocked him onto the couch. “You look hot in my clothes.”

“I look better out of them.”

Instead of verbally agreeing, Kurt unbuttoned his yellow pants. Blaine was quick to keep up removing his own shirt and attempting to pull off Kurt’s as well. However, Blaine was sitting on the couch and Kurt was kneeling between his legs. It was proving to be rather difficult a task.

“Kurt…” Blaine groaned, “come up here with me.”

“I can’t very well do what I want up there, Blaine.”

He sat up straighter. “Is this payment for not properly greeting me because I’ll take a blowjob over ‘how do you do’ any day?”

Kurt pressed his face into Blaine’s naked thigh. “So long as you aren’t accepting blowjobs from anyone but me.”

“No, I would…” Kurt licked around Blaine’s hip. “Never.”

Within seconds, Blaine’s head was fully tipped over the back of the couch and the only thing coming from his mouth were moans. He couldn’t even force the word ‘Kurt’ from his lips. When Kurt finally gave in and decided Blaine had received efficient teasing, he sucked at the tip until Blaine screamed his name.

They were quick to clean up their mess afterward, unsure of when the girls would be home. It was one thing to have sex in the living room, it was a whole other to get caught. Though, Kurt figured Rachel owned him after Brody paraded around naked for the few months they dated.

“Okay, now that we’ve defiled Santana’s bed, can we focus on helping her?”

“Step one, don’t tell her about this,” Blaine suggested.

Kurt slapped Blaine’s chest.

“Ow.”

“Be helpful. You said if you were in New York, you’d be able to help better. So do it.”

“FIne,” Blaine replied, “no Callbacks. I have a better idea.”

Turns out that idea was a speciality club night of Alternative Tunes.

“It’s open mic. There’s gonna be singers, poets, magicians, and I heard their harpist is opening tonight,” Blaine explained, as they waited in line.

“Is that why she brought your violin?” Rachel questioned.

“Yup!” Blaine held up his black case. “I haven’t played to an audience of more than one in a while.”

Kurt smiled at him. He loved when Blaine performed just for him almost as much as he enjoyed watching Blaine in front of an audience. Something about his face just lit up on stage. The same way Santana’s did in front of a microphone.

“As much as I love talking about violins…” She rolled her eyes, “is there alcohol at this place?” Santana asked, “because that’s like 90% the point of going out.”

“Yes, there’s alcohol,” Kurt confirmed.

He told Blaine they’d need at least two drinks into Santana before they brought up performing to her. Which proved true. After nursing two long island ice teas, Santana was finally talking to Blaine about being on stage. He hadn’t gone up yet and she was teasing him.

“Come on, you brought your own instrument and everything,” she said. “Give us a show and tell.”

With that, Blaine stood up and walked to the stage. No one was in line so he went right up after the juggler finished. He tapped the microphone and introduced himself.

“I’d like to dedicate this first one to my boyfriend.”

He mouthed an “I love you” towards Kurt, who blew a kiss back.

Then, he was lost in the strings. The next song he did was for Santana. Blaine didn’t announce it or anything but he watched her face when he could during the progression of the song. When he finished his set, Blaine thanked the audience. Kurt whistled and clapped, Rachel was jumping up and down while screaming for an encore, and when Blaine was back at the table Santana offered to buy him a drink.

Without Kurt even realizing it, the next performer on stage was Santana. Just her. She didn’t introduce herself as Blaine did, the piano music just started to play and then she was singing.

“What do you sing on your drive home?

Do you see my face in the neighbor's lawn?

Does she smile?

Or does she mouth, ‘Fuck you forever’?”

Kurt couldn’t say why exactly but the song suited her well. Santana was always one to command an audience when she soloed. Soft instrumental with harsher lyrics was always her style.

While Santana had the audience and Kurt captivated, Blaine bounced back over to their table. He had two drinks in his hand.

“For you,” he said, passing Kurt a mojito.

In return, Kurt pecked his check. He really was so lucky. Then, his full attention went back to the stage.

“Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy

What about that?

And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry

And there's nothing like a mad woman

What a shame she went mad

No one likes a mad woman

You made her like that”

As Santana finished her song, Kurt and Rachel turned to Blaine, who was positively beaming. He’d done exactly what he had told Kurt he could do.

“How?” Rachel asked.

“I’m a smooth talker,” Blaine said with a smirk.

Kurt rolled his eyes.

If anything, his boyfriend was a clumsy mess. Romantic and adorable? Yes. Tripped over his words? Constantly.

“Come on, Blaine, give it up,” Kurt said.

“Magicians never reveal their secrets.”

Rachel huffed. She had a glint in her eyes suggesting she wasn’t giving up. Rachel rarely did when she really wanted something. Kurt had a theory that she could pester anyone enough to get what she wanted. Example A, a ticket to NYADA by tracking down the head of admissions and inviting her to Chicago to watch a show choir competition.

Before Kurt could tell Rachel to drop it, Santana returned. She had a new drink in her hand.

“Compliments of the lady in red,” she told them.

“Excellent song choice,” Kurt said.

“Blaine’s idea.” she shrugged, sipping her drink.

Blaine was still beaming.

“It’s perfect for her, isn’t it?” Blaine replied, “When I first heard it I knew I had to hear Santana do a cover of it.”

Santana winked at him from across the table.

“What is going on with you two?” Rachel asked. “The devil incarnate and the sun from teletubbies should not get along this well.”

Santana shrugged. “He’s besties with Britt.”

“It’s true.” Blaine nodded. “She even called us the Sunshine Twins.”

Kurt’s eyes drift to Blaine’s—his—yellow pants. “Yeah, that fits.”

#klaine #klaine fanfiction #klaine fanfic #my fics #folklore series

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warren-lauren · 4 years

Text

Lessons in love... 80′sProfessor!Brian May x Student!reader pt1

WARNINGS: swearing, student/teacher relationship, age gap

>Part 2>

Starting the school year by being late on your first day was not how you wanted to start, but alas, here you were already in the bad books with your; let's not lie, gorgeous, professor. After three years of having classes in the same rooms, or near one another, you were taken off guard when you discovered at the last minute your 'Physics' class was at the other end of the building. It required you to run, and fast.

'If you can't be here on time, then don't be here at all.'

Professor May did all he could to ignore you, only ever picking you out of the crowd to humiliate you (which you strangely enjoyed) and to try and catch you out with trick questions. It had been a hard three months but you'd made it to December which meant half of the month you were technically allowed to be drunk.

You stared up at the man in front of you with an open mouth, unable to believe what you were seeing. In a tight black tank top and tight jeans, a couple of necklaces around his neck and a few rings adoring his fingers with his dark curls unruly, looking even more gorgeous than when he's stood up at the front of class, was Professor Brian May.

When your flat mate dragged you out one night before you welcomed the new year in, you were reluctant. You rather be studying, if you were being honest, but your friend wasn't having your excuses and dragged you out behind her.

Then when you saw who was playing guitar and singing backup vocals in the band playing in the bar you were taken to, you were even more reluctant. And perhaps a little horny.

Your friends hadn't a clue who he was, having never seen Professor May so they just thought he was the sexy guitarist. I mean, he was but he was Professor May.

"I need a drink!" You called out to your friend as the band finished.

Your friends answered back with something about talking to the band. That was the last thing on your mind, talking to your sexy Physics teacher after drinking alcohol and having stared at him all night.

"So, you rather be studying tonight?" You let out a startled gasp, looking over your shoulder. "Hello, Miss Y/L/N," Professor May smirked at you as he leaned on the bar beside you.

"H-Hello, Professor May," You whispered, finding yourself nervous as you looked up at him.

He let out a little chuckle before turning to catch the bar tenders attention. "I think you can call me, Brian, just this once, Y/N."

Your breath caught in your throat, hearing your name leave his mouth. You'd never heard him say your name before, it was always 'Miss Y/L/N'. "But, sir-"

"I won't tell, if you don't." He sent you a playful wink before ordering the two of you a drink. "Your friends were saying they had to drag you out, away from your books."

You nodded with a gulp, looking away from him and down to the drink now in your hand. "Much rather be at home right now." You sighed.

"Sorry to be such a bore," Brian chuckled.

You shook your head panicking. "Oh, no, I didn't mean-"

"It's fine, love, I was only teasing," He winked at you making you blush. "I didn't take you as someone who'd choose my boring lectures over boys and drinking." He chuckled.

You frowned, "Believe it or not, Brian, but I take my studies seriously." You turned away from him.

Brian let out a heavy sigh, stepping a little closer to you. "Yes, I can see that from your grades, Y/N."

Your frown stayed on your face as you looked back to him. "So why are you so mean to me, then?" You pouted.

Brian smirked, rather enjoying the way you were behaving. "I'm not mean, love," He licked his lips and leaned in closer to you, pressing his lips against your ear. "I'm hard." He whispered.

You gasped, taking a step back from him. He was smirking at you, his eyes filled with something new.

"I should be getting back to my friends." You spun around quickly, needing to get away from your seriously hot professor. You took a step forwards to rejoin friends but stopped, not seeing them anywhere. "Oh-"

Brian took a hold of your hand and began to lead you through the crowded bar as if he wasn't your pysics professor and you'd known each other all your lives. "C'mon, we'll ask Fred where they went."

You held your breath the whole time your hand was enclosed in Brian's. It should have felt wrong, but it didn't. It felt almost, exciting.

"Freddie," Brian called out as he walked up to his friend whom was surrounded by people.

Freddie turned his attention to Brian, briefly glancing to you. "And what can I do for you, darlin'?" He smiled brightly.

Brian smiled back at him, "Don't suppose you know where Y/N's friends have gone, do you?" He asked and looked down to you with a slight smile.

You felt your face heat up under his gaze, quickly moving your gaze down to your feet. It was just the alcohol.

Freddie looked at you once again, thinking for a moment before he nodded, "Yes, darlin'. I'm afraid they left, said you wouldn't mind because you'll be leaving for home soon." He gave you a slight sadened look.

You nodded, pulling your hand out if Brian's grip and pulled your small jacket tighter around yourself. "Oh, sure, right... I was, going to get off, so," You gave Freddie something of a smile before you excused your self. "I'll, see you later then." You gave Brian a curt nod before you left, quickly and embarrassed.

Brian's brows knitted together as he watched you wonder off, alone.

"Who was that, Bri?" Freddie asked as he stood by his friends side.

"Oh, hm, someone... Unexpected." He let out a soft sigh turning to his friend. "I'm gonna get off, Fred. Speak to you later." He said as he began to leave, not giving his friend chance to speak.

Your whole body shivered as you stood outside the pub, searching in your bag for your keys the best you could in the little to no light. Fuck, Lucy had them. You could cry. All you wanted was to go home and get into bed-

"Y/N?"

You looked up at the sound of that familiar and oddly calming voice. "Oh, Prof- Brian," You gave him a shy smile.

Brian let out a soft chuckle as he walked up to you, the door behind him shutting and leaving the two of you in near silence, the soft hum of the music from inside the pub the only thing you could hear.

"Everything okay, love?"

You nodded, glancing down to your bag before you let out a heavy sigh. "Actually, no, it's not." You frowned, "I have no bloody house keys thanks to my mate buggering off." You pouted with a little huff.

The corner of Brian's mouth quirked up, he really did like you this way, all sad and pouty, like you were begging to be taken care of. "Ah. I see." He nodded, slipping his hands into his pockets and took a quick look around. It was just the two of you. "Well, how I see it, you've got two options. One, go home and wait on the doorstep until your flat mate gets home."

You frowned up at him. "Like a cat, I don't think so." You scoffed making him smile. "What's option two?"

Brian let out a soft sigh and ran a hand over the back of his neck. "You, hmm, come back to mine until the morning."

You stared up at him, your Physics professor, with wide eyes. He couldn't be serious? "Oh, I-" You had no other option. "You won't get into trouble, will you?" You asked, looking up at him with big innocent eyes taking Brian by surprise.

He hadn't expected you to be worried about him getting into trouble. "Uh, no, love, I won't. We're not doing anything wrong, are we?" He smiled softly at you, making you blush once more. "C'mon, my car is just round the corner." He began to lead the way, not waiting for you to decide whether it was a good idea or not.

He wasn't being rude, he just needed to get some distance from you before he spent longer than a couple of hours with you in a small space.

The car ride to Brian's was filled with silence and the radio playing quietly. Brian noticed you were staring up at the night sky, softly muttering to yourself as you moved your head every now and then, and the tip of your index finger drew patterns on your bare legs. What were you doing?

"It's not much," Brian shrugged as he shut the front door behind the two of you.

You smiled to yourself as you looked across the large living space that was probably the same size of your flat your shared with Lucy. "If this isn't much then my flat is a shoe box." You let out a soft giggle turning back round to face Brian.

Brian let out a small chuckle, "Ah, student life." He sent you a wink before he walked off in front of you, thankfully missing the way you blushed and looked away. "Unfortunately, I only have one bedroom," He sighed as he walked over to one of the two doors on the right, "But, the sofa is actually very comfortable and I often fall asleep on the bloody thing anyway so, for tonight, my bed, is yours." He smiled at you as he pushed the bedroom door open for you.

"Oh," Was all you could manage as you walked into the room first.

You weren't surprised at all when you walked in. It was very him. The furniture was all dark colours, grown up, neatly kept, there was no clutter - everything had its place. You smiled as your eyes landed on a couple of books about space and other sciences, and there was a telescope set up too.

"Would you like something to sleep in?" Brian asked.

"Oh, hmm," You glanced down to your tight dress and nodded. "Please."

Brian smiled and pointed over to the wardrobe. "Help yourself to what like. I don't know what you girls like to sleep in so," He let out a nervous chuckle and turned to the bedroom door. "I'll just be, hmm, out here."

You nodded, waiting until Brian had left and shut the bedroom door before letting out the breath you'd been holding. This was insane. You kicked your heels off and moved over to the wardrobe, pulling it open to have a look at what you could put on.

You pulled out a plain white shirt that looked like it could be a nightie on you. You decided not to have a look for any bottoms knowing they wouldn't fit you. Professor May was a tall man, 6ft something definitely, his legs went on forever.

Once you had your dress pulled off, you took your bra off, hating to sleep in the thing and then slipped the shirt on. The thing came to your thighs, covering everything it needed to once you had it buttoned up. You grabbed a hair tie from your bag and tied your hair back, it really caring how it looked before you made a move for the bedroom door. You were nervous, Brian was going to have to see you like this.

"Hmm, Brian?" You Called our into the living room once you stepped out.

"Just a minute," He answered before stepping out of another door on the opposite side of the room. His eyes widened a little, "Oh, I- Yeah?" He cleared his throat.

You blushed as you looked down at your bare feet. "Am I okay to use the bathroom? Just, need to wash my face and, hmm, what have you."

Brian gulped, nodding. "That door there." He pointed to the door a little further down from you. "Towels and what have you, in the, hmm, cupboard, in... There... Hmm..." He turned back to the door he'd just come out of before looking back to you as you slowly made your way to the bathroom. "Would you like a drink? I've just put the kettle on."

You nodded, "Tea please, sir." You answered without thinking, opening and closing the door without looking back.

Brian walked into the kitchen as he let out a deep breath, closing his eyes. Fuck.

By the time you had washed off your make-up and calmed your nerves, Brian had made a cup of tea for the two of you and placed it on the coffee table. He was sat on the sofa when you emerged from the bathroom. His right leg was thrown over his left, his arms resting on the back of the sofa with his head back.

He sat up once you stepped back into the living room. "Hmm, wasn't sure if you took sugar so," He pushed the sugar and tea towards you on the coffee table.

"Oh," You nodded with a slight smile, moving over to sit beside him. "Thank you."

Brian shook his head with a soft smile. "It's fine."

You shook your head as you picked your mug up and stood from the sofa. "I'll leave you to-"

"Stay." Brian cleared his throat as he sat up . "I mean, you can stay out here, until you've finished." He blushed a little looking away from you.

"Oh," You nodded. "Okay." You smiled shyly as you sat back down beside him.

Silence settled between the pair of you as you sipped your tea. It wasn't as awkward as you expected it to be, must have been the alcohol.

"Do you hate me?"

Brian looked up to you, surprised by your question. "Why would you think I hate you?" He frowned, turning on the sofa so he could look at you.

You shrugged, pouting into your cup. "I don't know, you just, always seem to be mean to me. Nothing I do seems to be good enough for you. I try my hardest, that's why I didn't even want to go out tonight. I really want to do good, for you." You let out a heavy sigh.

For him? Brian's mouth slowly curled into a smile. He reached forwards and placed his tea back on to the coffee table, letting out a slow exhale. "Y/N, you're one of the most brightest people I have ever met. You have nothing to worry about. You shouldn't feel like you can't go out and enjoy yourself every now and then." He smiled, "I'm sorry if I've made you feel like you're not doing good enough, but, I only push you to be better, because I know you can."

You looked up to meet his gaze with a soft blush, your lips curling into your own smile. "Really? You don't hate me?"

Brian let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head causing his curls to bounce. "Certainly not, love." He smiled, "Quite the opposite."

You blushed even more. "Oh," You gulped looking down to your tea. "Well, what it's worth, I quite the opposite you too." You giggled.

Brian grinned with a nod. "Glad to hear it." He let out a heavy sigh as he glanced to the clock on the wall before looking to his tea on the coffee table. "Well, I don't know about you but I certainly won't be going to bed any time soon. Want something a little stronger to drink?" He asked with a soft smile.

You looked down at your half drank tea, biting your bottom lip as you looked up to his hazel eyes. "As long as you answer all my questions about you being in a band." You grinned at him, giggling as he let out an embarrassed groan.

"Okay, deal."

#Brian May #brianmay #Brian Harold May #Dr. Brian May #dr brian may #Professor Brian May x reader smut #80s brian may x reader #brian may x reader smut #80s brian may x reader smut #brian may smut #present day! brian may x reader smut #80s!brian may x reader smut #sexy brian may #80s brian may smut #professor brian may smut #Professor brian may x student reader #80s brian may x younger reader #queen

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procrastinatorimagines · 4 years

Text

I Can Take Care of Myself

Fandom: One Chicago / Chicago PD

Character/s: Reader x Voight, Jay, Hailey

Warning/s: guns, blood

Word Count: 2,405

Request: Could you do a voight imagine where him and the reader are together and theres an age gap and she has to go undercover with jay and vought is hesitant but let's her go and he gets a bit jealous of jay and at one point Voight protectiveness gives it away to the rest of the team that they're together. Add a bit of fluff and a bit of smut if you can. Live your writing by the way ❤

Summary: Y/N and Jay go undercover to bust a wealthy criminal couple, but when the op goes a little sideways, Voight’s overprotectiveness becomes too much

You could tell Voight wasn’t happy about it, he’d been short with you all day even though he was the one who’d given you the assignment. Milling your way through a crowd of rich pricks on the arm of a tuxedo wearing Halstead you tried not to take it too personally, but Voight’s protectiveness was starting to raise suspicion in the unit as to why he was so against you going undercover as Jay’s fiance, especially when he’d seen what you were wearing. Did you wear a dress this low cut to piss him off? Maybe a little. Did he deserve it for being overprotective and jealous for no good reason? Yes.

You’d been with Voight a little over a year, and you’d managed to keep it a secret from everyone you worked with. Sure, there was an age gap, but most of the time it went unnoticed, at least to you anyway, it seemed to bother him more, especially recently as the two of you were starting to get more serious. He seemed to think you’d be better suited to someone more your own age, well, a guy like Halstead now you thought about it. Seeing the two of you together, even undercover, was making him a little more self-conscious than he would ever admit out loud.

It was a high end deal, a rich family, the Andersons, selling valuable stolen property had racked up a bodycount during a home invasion gone wrong, and so Intelligence had been brought in to take them down. Jay had already introduced himself as a potential buyer and the rich husband had invited him to a house party to do the deal, but he needed a date to blend in. That’s where you came in, Burgess and Upton had already interviewed various members of the family, so they couldn’t go with him, and Rojas was working a separate angle with Atwater to find the hired muscle responsible for the robberies. That only left you.

Voight hadn’t been to happy about it, he’d been hesitant to sign off, despite it being your best option to catch these criminals with their hands in the jewel encrusted cookie jar so to speak. But he still wasn’t happy, not when Jay had wrapped his arm around your waist as you took your seats with the theives on their ridiculously fancy sofas, and certainly not when he’d given you a quick kiss before heading off to fetch the first round of drinks.

Men, you thought, equal parts annoyed and amused by Voight’s reaction to you and Halstead, mostly because you didn’t view Jay in that way at all, and visa versa.

“You know what’s up with Voight?” Jay asked quitely as you guys stood waiting for your drinks at the bar. One of the three bars these people had in their house; throwing the cuffs on them was going to be so satisfying. You shrugged.

“Why would I know?” You asked, thanking the bartender for your drink as Jay raised an eyebrow at you, unconvinced.

“Well he seemed really against sending you in, anything I should know?” He asked.

“Not that I can think of,” you told him, suddenly finding the olive in your drink fascinating. There was a dinging of a glass on the otherside of the room before Jay could reply, Mr. Anderson was preparing to make a toast, then Jay was to follow him into his study to make the deal.

“Okay,” he shrugged, not believing a word you said, but there was no time to discuss it now, you had a job to do.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if I can have your attention for just a moment I would like to thank you for coming tonight, me and my wife so appreciate your company-” Mrs. Anderson took her place beside her husband and he gave her a kiss on the cheek, “-now, our servers will be bringing out some light hors d’oeurves and gifts to show our gratitude,”

“Now please, enjoy yourselves,” Mrs. Anderson finished and everyone raised their glasses,

“Here here, cheers everyone,” you all took a sip of your drinks, Jay nodding to you as he went to find Mr. Anderson.

His wife approached you at that point, inviting you into the drawing room for a chat while business was conducted; who the hell had a drawing room? You thought, feeling like you’d traveled back to the nineteenth century as you stepped in, not knowing whether to stare at the enormous portraits of the Mrs. Anderson lining the walls or the ghastly tastled curtains. You took a seat on an expensive looking chair opposite Mrs. Anderson.

“Now dear, while the men are discussing the dirty business, why don’t me and you discuss something else,” she smiled.

“What did you have in mind?” You asked, trying to do your best to sound like you belonged there.

“Tell me something,” she mused, raising from her seat again and heading towards a set of shelves behind her, decorated with a considerable amount of expensive looking items. No wonder they were commiting robberies, if this was where all their money was being spent, you thought bitterly as Mrs. Anderson ran her hand over an ornate box.

“Tell you... what?” You asked, unsure as to where the conversation was heading, you hadn’t even expected to be cornered by the woman, let alone interograted. She opened the box and pulled something out, but what you couldn’t tell.

“Tell me... how long have you been a cop?” Before you could react she turned around, pistol pointing straight at you, you barely had time to dive for the floor before the first shot rang, putting a hole through the back of the chair you’d been sitting on.

There wasn’t room for any consealed weapons in the outfit you were wearing, so you got up quickly, heading for some form of cover as she fired again; people were screaming now, you could hear them running outside the door, not knowing where the shots were even coming from. Where the hell was Jay? Was he okay? Where was backup? You had a camera in your necklace, surely they were on their way in.

You jumped up, grabbing a letter opener from a nearby desk, throwing it at your assailant. She ducked out of the way, giving you enough time to leap over the sofa now separating the two of you, grabbing her wrist as you both struggled for the gun.

Out the corner of your eye you saw Jay burst in, white shirt red with blood you hoped wasn’t his, just as you wrestled the gun from her hand, momentum causing you to lose balance as she kicked you back, causing you to fall and hit your head on a table, then everything went dark.

When you woke up you were still in the drawing room, you’d only been out a minute, according to Jay. Intelligence had come in at that point apparently and the Andersons were in cuffs, the husband suffering some laserations from a glass Jay had hit him with, the wife perfectly fine and cuffed in the back of a patrolcar.

“Easy, you good?” Jay helped you into sitting position and you winced, putting your hand to the back of your head, it was wet with blood but it wasn’t too bad, the pounding in your head was worse.

“What happened? What went wrong?” You asked him.

“Kev and Rojas got the hired muscle, but not before they alerted the Andersons that there were cops after them, we were the only new comers at the party so...” Jay told you as Voight came into the room.

“What the hell happened?!” He snapped at Jay. You shakily got to your feet to try and provide a buffer, stepping forward to slightly block Jay.

“We’re good, everyone’s good,” you said and Voight shook his head, “that’s what matters.” EMT’s tried to come check you out but you sent them away quickly, you’d get looked at once you knew Voight wasn’t about to give Jay a reason to need their services more.

“That’s what matters?! She tried to shoot you, you were alone and unarmed,” he replied, “where the hell were you?” He turned to Jay.

“Sarge I was doing to deal with Anderson, like I was supposed to, I didn’t know Y/N was even with the wife, I didn’t hear anything over the comms otherwise-” he tried to explain but Voight cut him off.

“Otherwise what? You would have done what you were supposed to?” He demanded.

“What I was supposed to?” It was Jay’s turn to raise his voice and you had a bad feeling about how this argument was going to end. “I was doing what I was supposed to, my job!”

“Your job,” Voight started, “is to keep your partner safe, to not let them go off alone where something could happen to them!”

“She-” Jay began but you interuppted.

“She can take care of her self,” you said, “and she doesn’t appreciate being talked about like she isn’t in the room.”

Jay sighed but nodded and backing off a little, but Voight stood his ground. “This is unacceptable, look at you, you’re hurt.” He moved closer, looking like he was about to reach towards you but caught himself at the last minute, but you could tell by the look on Jay’s face that he caught it.

“Look you want to place blame on Jay for not backing me up? Where was everyone else when she pulled the gun, why’d it take so long to storm the place?” You turned it back on Voight, not meaning to blame him but you could tell it stung a bit.

“We lost visual as soon as you entered this room,” Hailey said, approaching the three of you to see what was going on, “this room is teched out, no signals in or out of here. Robbery-homicide wouldn’t let us come in, Jay’s deal seemed to still be going smoothly so they said it was probably faulty tech on our end, told us to stand down.” A sideways glace at Voight told you he’d been vocally unhappy about that.

The EMT’s approached again, and you begrudgingly agreed to go to Med, still a little dizzy and definitely in pain, earning a considerable amount of looks from the rest of the unit when Voight insisted on riding with you to make sure you were okay. If they weren’t a little suspicious at the start of this op, they definitely were now.

So much for keeping work and personal life separate, you thought, out of the two of you you thought you’d be the one to slip up first, but Voight’s behaviour today had you refusing to even look at him in the ambo, and you’d asked your doctor to keep him out while you were being treated. You weren’t a child, you were a cop, this was your job, why was he suddenly not okay with that?

“If you’re not going to talk to me, at least let me drive you home.” He said once you were stitched up and ready to be discharged, a minor concussion but you’d insisted on leaving as soon as possible.

“Fine,” you said curtly, but only because you didn’t want to walk alone in the dark with a concussion, however mild.

Most of the ride was in silence, any questions Voight had about how you were feeling were met with equally short answers and eventually he gave up. As he pulled up outside you place you said: “at least let me walk you inside.”

“I’m good, thanks.” You brushed him off, going to open the doors only to find that he’d locked them.

“Hank let me out,” you said and he shook his head, “Hank, I’m tired and seriously not in the mood.”

“You’re angry with me,” he said.

“Astute observational skills, you should consider a career in law enforcement,” you replied sarcastically.

“Okay that’s enough, you got something to say, just say it,” he demanded. “What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter?” You turned back to him, shocked that he didn’t know. “Hank you’ve spent the whole day treating me like I’m made of glass, you didn’t even want me on the op in the first place, nevermind that it isn’t something I’ve done countless times before, and then you go yelling at Halstead for not protecting me, like I’m not capable of taking care of myself?! I’m a cop, a good one for that matter, and the way you acted today, overprotective, jealous... it was out of line, and the whole damn unit saw it! That’s what’s the matter with me!” He blinked at your outburst. “Now let me out the goddamn car before I say something I’m going to regret-”

Before you could say anymore he was kissing you, but you pushed him away when you realised what was happened. “No, that... that doesn’t change how I feel, not now, it doesn’t justify how you acted today, I-”

“I love you,” he blurted out, stopping you in your tracks. Now it was your turn to look shocked, taking in exactly what he’d said, why he’d been acting differently recently... Voight was never one to express his emotions like this, so to say this caught you off guard was an understatement.

“Hank-” you began, not really knowing what to say but knowing you should say something. You settled for a kiss instead, pulling him closer to you and resting your forehead on his when you broke apart. “I love you too,” you told him, his relieved smile making your heart swell. “I-”

“It won’t happen again,” he promised, taking your hand, “I know what you’re capable of, it’s one of the many reasons I fell for you in the first place, so it won’t happen again.

You smiled, “thank you. Now could you please unlock these damn doors so we can go inside?” You both laughed.

“I probably shouldn’t go up, we’ve got an early shift tomorrow, Superintendent’s giving up a case from narcotics to work,” he explained.

“And what, you’re worried what the unit’ll think if we show up together?” You asked, his shrug answering your question. “Like they don’t already know after today? Besides, if anyone’s going to get hell for it it’s me not you, you’re still their boss remember?”

You both laughed as you headed inside.

#hank voight #chicago pd #one chicago #hank voight imagine #chicago pd imagine #hank voight imagines #chicago pd imagines #chicago pd one shot #hank voight one shot #one chicago imagine #one chicago imagines #one chicago one shot #one shot

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valaks · 3 years

Text

It was 5 o clock and Tom had escaped the mess hall for the third night in a row. He probably had one more before Jag and Lynx force fed him. He just couldn’t bring himself to after...his thoughts trailed off as a helicopter thundered towards them. It was clearly American from the insignia on the side but no one made any defensive moves so it must be approved. Just as it touched down a single man jumped out, holding a duffel and a wooden case tight to his chest. He motioned something to the pilots who waved and took back to the air as the man scrambled away from the downblast. Sand swirled around him, obscuring him for small periods before he was gone, likely to the commander’s hut. He shrugged off the occurrence, settling back on the crate under the canopy that he had taken as respite from his overbearing teammates and the rest of the mass of sweaty, irritated men stuck in the desert with him.

He had just started to drift off when he heard the rattle of glass. The stranger from earlier had sunk his crate into the sand and sat staring out at the base with him. He seemed familiar but Tom couldn’t quite recognize it.

His companion rooted around in the duffle bag and extracted a bottle. He expected the man to pop it open and take a drink but instead it was held out for him. Tom used it as an excuse to study him - tan skin, dark black hair and bright hazel eyes. Maybe a local? No, he didn’t have a beard so someone from the government but why would they be in an American helicopter in a British base?

For his part the man didn’t seem bothered at his examination waiting for recognition but when none came smiled “Heard you had your first kill” Alex. Of course it was Alex.

“Please tell me you didn’t come all this way to try and talk me down.”

“I didn’t, I have a mission but even if I did I would not be here to talk.”

“No sage advice from ‘6s best killer?” Tom was being cruel. Alex had a job to do at the cottage and had made sure his team was safe. Others had not been so lucky from what he heard. He could probably attribute his attitude to his dark mood after…he shut the thought off quickly

“No advice.” Alex’s answer was firm “not unless you want it. I’m not here to talk, Tom, I’m here to listen.”

“Stag” he corrected instinctively

Alex nodded back “then Orion”

Tom took the hint and opened the bottle, taking small sips of whiskey straight out of it. It was the good stuff, not the cheap slag he shared with Lynx after patrol. He offered it to Alex who held up his hand in the universal symbol for ‘pass’

“Don't drink?”

“Only to maintain cover and even then I prefer vodka. I blame Gregorovich.”

They fell into silence, Alex content to let Tom handle the course of conversation. After half a week of everyone throwing their thoughts and perceptions at him it was refreshing.

“What was it like? Your first kill?”

Alex seemed to consider this “On accident or on purpose?”

“Does it matter?”

“Quite a bit, the accident one is funny in a dark kind of way if that helps make up your mind.”

“Let’s start there.”

“It was my first mission. The man I was up against kept a Portuguese man of war in a glass tank behind his desk. When my cover was blown I ended up in the tank. Thankfully, our gadget master had given me a cream that dissolved metal cleverly hidden in a tube of zit cream. I destroyed the girders holding it together. His assistant was too close when it came down and the man o’ war landed on top of her. I’m pretty sure it killed her but she was still twitching when I left to finish the mission.”

“Jesus, Orion, what other shit have you been in?”

“Animal wise? Piranhas, crocodiles, sharks, gorillas, tigers, snakes, rats, scorpions, of course.”

Tom rolled his eyes “Revenge?”

“Technically, it was while I was still working for them. One of the board members had a prior relationship with my father. She tried to kill me and the scorpions were supposed to be a message.”

“What happened?”

“Yassen made me hunt her down and kill her and her right hand. With scorpions.”

“Of course” Tom supplied and they shared a wry smile “What about your first kill, on purpose?”

Alex shot him a sidelong glance “You sure you want to hear? It’s not going to make you feel any better.”

“Can’t get any worse”

“Alright” he sighed “I was apprenticed under Dr. Three he was the world’s foremost authority in torture and information extraction.”

“What happened to him?”

Alex looked up sharply “I killed him” then paused “he wasn’t my first kill, though. We were doing live dissections in the lab. My subject was particularly vocal. He kept begging, pleading, screaming. Yassen had me on a sleep deprivation schedule so that I would break down and finally kill. I don’t know specifically what brought it on but after 3 days I finally slit his throat. Blood went everywhere. I was soaked in it. The good doctor congratulated me and pointed out easier, cleaner ways I could have ended it then made me finish the exercise before I could clean up.”

“That’s how they taught you to kill”

“That’s how they taught me to be a killer. I learned the art of killing in the shooting ranges or the sparring mats or the botany and demolitions classrooms. I excelled in the art of killing - top of my class. It was the act of the kill that I struggled with - Yassen fixed that defect. Painfully.

“So they made you kill prisoners?”

“That’s how it started.” Alex shrugged “all in all the process from ‘I’ll never kill’ to shooting a man point blank in cold blood without hesitation lasted 6 months and I pretty much killed once a day toward the end.”

They sat in silence as Tom turned that over in his mind. 14 or 15 and forced to kill everyday. Fuck. Tom could barely handle killing to save a teammate. Alex held his hand out and Tom obliged, Alex deserved a drink after talking about that, after living through that. His own story was a shade by comparison but he felt like he should share something.

“We were pinned down in the heart of town. Backup had gotten hit by an IED around the same time the insurgents had blocked off our inward route with their own barricade. To get out we had to go back and who knows what they had set up. The streets are narrow, only one Humvee at a time, not enough room to turn around. So to extricate we blew the corner off the apartment or shop or whatever it was. The owner came out and Boar our comm tried talking with him, and things were beginning to escalate. The man was angry and pulled a gun. I shot without thinking. His kids were right there hiding in the stairwell. I can still see them.” He finished softly.

Alex didn’t say anything just passed the bottle back over. They sat in silence as the desert sun set. Finally, Tom broke it. “What’s your advice, then? Everyone else’s given me some.”

“Are you sure you want it?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t”

Alex nodded with a small smile “You won’t get over it but don’t let it consume you. You’ll feel it for the rest of your life. If you’re lucky you’ll live long enough to add others. The fact that you regret it makes you human. Don’t lose that.”

“Have you lost that?”

Alex didn’t respond just gestured for the bottle and Tom handed it over without another word.

#alex rider #tom harris #Tom in the military AU #Adult Alex and Tom #Fic Snippet #alex rider fanfiction

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theawkwardterrier · 4 years

Text

Prototypes, Pekingese, and Other Things That Might Test Your Patience

Steggy Week 2k20, day 1 Prompt: Domestic Bliss

Summary: Sunday afternoon, Steve comes home from the movies and finds Peggy sitting on the sofa, having what seems to be a staring contest with the ugliest little dog he’s ever seen.

AO3 link here. Thanks to @steggyfanevents for organizing!

Sunday afternoon, Steve comes home from the movies and finds Peggy sitting on the sofa, having what seems to be a staring contest with the ugliest little dog he’s ever seen.

To be clear, the dog is the kind of ugly that probably means that its ancestors came over on the Mayflower and it is the result of centuries of very carefully considered and high-standard breeding which would put Steve’s own pedigree to shame. That said, the animal has been left with a flat face, watery eyes, sharp little teeth, minuscule legs, a coat that probably weighs more than its actual body, and an apparent tendency to snuffle even when at rest.

None of this makes a good first impression.

“Hello,” Steve says carefully, closing the door. “I thought you were finishing up the Beckworth operation today.”

“We did.” Peggy breaks her stare with the dog on the floor in front of her, sounding sour. “The first part went absolutely swimmingly. He was entirely willing to reveal the location of the safe while showing off for Gladys.” She gestures to a curly blonde wig lying on the side table. “The distraction was timed perfectly, and I was able to crack back in while he was gone and remove the prototype before calling for backup. We arrested him without incident. It was all as smooth as you like, textbook even, until I gave the prototype into the care of Fletcher in evidence collection - you’ve met him, ginger, entirely too tall? - and the man immediately dropped it on the floor only to have it eaten by this thing.” She glares again at the dog. “And now it has to be watched while we wait for the prototype to...pass, so it can be used as evidence and then handed over to Howard and his merry band for examination.”

“Ah.” Steve lowers himself into a chair, keeping a careful eye on the dog. It seems the type to be easily unsettled by simple things in its surroundings. “And it needs to be watched here? By us?”

“Well, after what happened today, I’m certainly not going to give more responsibility to Fletcher or any of the so-called experts in evidence collection.” They’ve barely finished staffing the various departments over at SHIELD, but Steve now suspects based on her tone that they might be going back to the drawing board in some places. “Of course, I wouldn’t trust Howard to take care of it himself, and Jarvis and Ana have been told by the adoption agency to be on the alert in the next few weeks—”

“Hey, that’s great!”

“It is, but of course it means that they should have as much time as possible to prepare themselves, which does not at all fit with taking responsibility for this. And, of course, I’m trying to build a more official reputation for the organization. As reliable as Jarvis has proven himself to be, I’d like us to try to appear slightly less homegrown than we have in the past, at least for the moment.”

Steve looks around himself at the living room of their home, then down at the dog, which has started to pace and sniff around itself. “So it’s up to us.”

“Yes. But I can’t imagine it will take long for the prototype to reappear, and then they will both be off our hands.”

Peggy comes home on Monday evening and, flipping through the mail on her way down the hall, nearly forgets to even look for the dog until she reaches the kitchen where Steve is washing dishes.

“You didn’t call,” she says, “so I assume that the prototype is still…”

“As far as I can tell,” Steve says, looking a little worn. “And I’m pretty familiar with what did come out of him today.”

“How was—” she tries, just as a high, incessant yapping starts from the front room.

“Sorry, he’s been looking out into the yard all day, going nuts over squirrels, birds, the mailman, anything. It’s a good thing there weren’t any Girl Scouts going door to door today,” Steve apologizes before calling tiredly toward the next room, “Knock it off, Eliot.” To Peggy’s surprise, the sound turns to a whining, nasal growl, which is at least softer.

“You gave it a name?” she asks, kissing him quickly as she leans to put the mail on the counter.

“He didn’t come with one that I could figure out, and I had to call him something.”

“And why decide on Eliot?”

Steve finishes drying off his hands, then points into the trash can where there’s a pile of shredded paper mixed in with the usual garbage.

“I guess the books looked at him funny because he started clawing at them pretty early on. I managed to move most of them up to higher shelves before he got them too bad, but he really did a number on Middlemarch. Moby-Dick, too, but he didn’t exactly seem like a Herman any more than he looked like a George. And I guess I could have called him Pepper, because he knocked that over too, but he’s the wrong color.”

Eliot comes, nails clicking, into the kitchen to bark at their feet. Peggy stares down on him. She sighs.

“Well, your instincts about Melville were spot on, at least,” she tells the dog, and takes her husband upstairs to show her gratitude for his forbearance.

When Peggy calls Tuesday morning and tells Steve that she’s scheduled a veterinary appointment for Eliot that afternoon, he groans aloud down the phone line.

“He’s actually finally quiet,” Steve says, watching from out of the corner of his eye as Eliot yawns, peers out the window, and seems to start dozing again. “If I take him out somewhere new…”

“Yes, but that place might be able to offer some guidance about when we might get to see the prototype again, and therefore when we might never have to see the dog again.”

Eliot shies away from anything particularly cold or shiny at the vet’s office in a way that Steve remembers from his own earliest medical experiences. He keeps up a constant, quiet growl; Steve considers it polite if anything based on the lowered volume, and luckily none of the staff seem overly concerned or insulted. Then again, they aren’t actually that helpful either: the vet cheerfully informs Steve that these things usually pass by themselves within a few days, and as long as Eliot is still able to eat, drink, and play normally there’s no reason to be concerned.

“You can come back in if something changes, and of course, if you’re really concerned, I can refer you to a colleague about an hour away who can do an x-ray of the little fella,” the vet offers, and then quotes a price for it that makes Steve laugh reflexively at what must be a joke. (It isn’t.)

The only helpful piece of advice comes at the end of the visit.

“Fur like that,” the vet says, going over to the door, “I’d expect you must be showing him.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, dog shows, contests, like that.”

“You mean we can get him trimmed if we don’t care about all that?” Steve asks, relieved. He’s wearing his only pair of brown trousers today; even though Eliot sleeps downstairs, somehow strands of his long fur have migrated onto the black and gray pants which fill most of Steve's wardrobe.

The vet looks surprised. “Sure, though it’d be a shame. He’s a pretty fine specimen, after all.” He tilts his head, turning thoughtful. “Say, if you don’t really want him for that, I have a friend who’d love to get his hands on a purebred like this. Pay you nicely for it, too, what do you say?”

Steve looks over at Eliot. Despite the standoff the dog is having with a row of bottles on the doctor’s counter, he looks up at Steve with something very human and pleading and familiar in his eyes.

“No, thanks,” Steve finds himself saying, picking Eliot up in one arm. “I think we’ll hang onto him for now.”

Steve is as surprised as Peggy when she comes home Wednesday to find the dog lying politely at the foot of the armchair while Steve sketches. Eliot’s paws are forward, his face relaxed on the carpet between them. Steve had apparently been successful in his mission for the day; the nimbus of tawny fur is gone, trimmed to a more manageable - and, she’ll admit, attractive - level. She can actually see the dog’s eyes clearly now, blinking slow consideration, and his tail puffs up sweetly rather than billowing wildly outward.

“Well, this is quite the change of pace,” Peggy says, keeping her voice pitched low on instinct. Eliot turns to look over at her, but returns to staring peaceably through the window where the tree in the front yard shifts slowly in the breeze.

“Yeah,” Steve says, glancing down with...is that fondness? “He isn’t so bad once you get used to him. Or once he gets used to you. Melinda, the girl at the dog barbershop, said that he probably just needed to figure out how to handle a new place and new people, and that his breed can be a little bossy and vocal.” He pauses. “Also, she said he might have just been hot and annoyed from all that fur.”

“Well, he's at least sensible,” Peggy says, sitting down too. She knows she should go and change, should at least unpack her case, but there’s something comforting about sitting there, just listening to the scratch of Steve’s pencil, the constant sound of Eliot’s breathing. Without her thinking much about it, without even asking if there’s been any update on the prototype, she decides to stay a while with the two of them.

“He’s still not exactly the cutest little thing,” Bucky comments when he comes for a walk with Steve and Eliot on Thursday afternoon. Eliot doesn’t pay him any attention, sniffing busily at the sidewalk in front of himself as he trots along (although Steve knows that he’ll run out of energy pretty soon and slow to a crawl).

“Looks aren’t the only thing that’s important,” Steve points out, moving over so Mr. Sabitini and his grandsons can pass by. “Character plays a big role in things, and Eliot’s got plenty of that; he might be mouthy, but he's pretty intelligent, and considerate too. Yesterday he saw a boy drop his ice cream on the ground and started to nose it back to him.”

Bucky snorts. "Probably trying to sneak a few licks in for himself."

"I don't think so." Steve’s voice is firm, his glare hard.

Bucky stares, then shoves a hand through his hair. “Oh God,” he says. “You’re starting to identify with the mutt. You should have just called him Steve Junior.”

“What? No, I’m—” Steve starts, then shoves him over the curb into the street. “Shut your trap, Barnes.”

“Just calling it like I see it,” Bucky laughs, and he gets back onto the sidewalk only for Steve to shove him over again.

At dinner on Friday evening, Steve tells Peggy about how Eliot has started to just bark a polite little greeting to the squirrels on the lawn, as if welcoming them to the home to which he’s graciously allowed them access, and then asks how the Beckworth case is coming.

“The prosecutor is optimistic, which I consider an accomplishment for him - he’s usually quite doleful. Of course it would be better if we had the prototype in hand, but we have the schematics and the testimony from the assistant…”

“What’s wrong?” he asks, as she trails off.

"Mr. Beckworth is seemingly quite...upset that we have taken custody of his dog. I read the report from his latest interrogation and it was all he spoke about.”

Steve swallows a bite of chicken. “He’s probably pretty worried about his life’s work being trapped inside him.”

Peggy shakes her head. “I don’t think so. I think he’s actually concerned about him. Unless he’s playing some sort of game, I believe he truly loves the creature.”

“Well, he’s actually pretty easy to love,” Steve says. “He just shouldn’t have to put up with criminals.” When he palms and drops a piece of his chicken on the floor for Eliot to sweep up, he tries to think of it as more of a consolation than a bribe. Peggy sees and shakes her head; apparently she’s missed the distinction

Peggy calls to say that she’ll be working late on Saturday, so Steve tells Eliot, “Guess it’s just you and me for dinner tonight, fella.” He thinks of what Bucky or Peggy would say if they heard that, groans, and then shrugs, because they didn’t hear it so who cares?

Eliot whines as Steve goes upstairs and shuts the bedroom door, but the house is definitely furrier than is preferable even after the haircut and the establishment of a daily brushing regimen, and there are some lines they haven’t crossed, at least not yet, so Steve goes to bed alone.

He wakes up alone too, several hours later, wondering for a blink what pulled him from sleep. Then he hears Eliot’s growl from down in the kitchen followed by a yip, as if someone’s kicked him.

For a moment, as he makes his quick, silent way down the stairs, he gropes for his shield, something he hasn’t done in years. But before he can really miss its presence, he hears Peggy say, “I’ll thank you to unhand my dog,” in a way that he can tell means she’s aiming her gun.

“I don’t know who you think you are, lady,” says a voice, “but this is Ned Beckworth’s dog.”

“It was,” Peggy says, perfectly calmly. “But Mr. Beckworth is awaiting trial, as you soon will be as well, and now it’s my dog. Just as this is my house you’re standing in, and my husband coming up behind you, so put Eliot down, if you please.”

Looking from the doorway into the dimness, Steve can only see the backs of the two men who have broken in, moderately sized and wearing black. One of them has Eliot under his arm, a hand over his muzzle even as he tries to wriggle away. When the stranger doesn’t move, Steve says, “She really will shoot you if you don’t let the dog go. She’ll get your leg no problem, even if you’re trying to use him as a shield,” and Eliot is reluctantly and a bit too forcefully released. He takes a minute to regain his footing, nails scrabbling on the linoleum after being dropped to the ground, but before Steve can say a word, the dog has vomited copiously onto his captor’s shoe before skidding over to Peggy and pressing himself against her leg. The prototype, its light still blinking a calm blue, lies in the middle of the puddle.

“Excellent aim, Eliot,” she says dryly, without taking her eye off the now loudly disgusted housebreakers. “But your timing leaves quite a bit to be desired. Steve?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it.”

Between the two of them, they pretty easily subdue their unwanted guests, and wrap up the prototype to deliver to headquarters in the morning. (Peggy says she’ll trust a retrieval team to take care of prisoner transport, but the prototype stays with her from this point forward. Steve, cleaning up the mess on the floor, says she is welcome to it.) Eliot obeys commands for “sit” and “quiet” for only a few seconds at a time before once again starting to dart distractingly around the room, barking. Still, once everyone else has left, he curls easily into Peggy’s lap and allows himself to be petted.

“He acquitted himself well,” she says as Eliot’s tail flips through the air, clearly pleased by her attention to his ears, “even if he isn’t exactly anyone’s picture of heroism.”

“Neither of us exactly was either,” says Steve, “so I think he’ll fit in fine.” He pauses. “Don’t tell Bucky I said that. He'll just start again about me over-identifying.”

She laughs. “I wouldn’t dream of it, even if he might have something of the right of it.”

Eliot barks in what seems to be agreement, but Steve knows for a fact that, if the dog could talk, he’d sell Steve out in a minute if offered a half decent steak.

As Sunday dawns, the three of them are still sitting in the living room, asleep together.

#steggyweek20 #Steggy #Steggy fic #Steve Rogers #Peggy Carter #kinda wild to me tbh how the prompt that should have been 1000% in my wheelhouse left me scrounging for something but here you are!

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littledrummeraussie · 4 years

Text

i wanna feel you in my veins.

Word count: 7500+ Author’s note: This would be the best time to come up with a ship name for yourself [Y/S/N]. :) Also: lots of drinking.

playlist / masterlist.

The invitation to the Chainsmokers guys’ party couldn’t have come at a better time. Recording a new album was a really lonely process – between that and appearing on various shows and festivals, it was a nice change to be able to finally go out and have some real fun. Having worked with the guys on their previous single meant that I made it to their ’party contact list’, at least that’s how Alex referred to the group he invited over to Saturday night.

He promised me a good time, and I had every intention to grab the opportunity, dress up, get a little tipsy, sing some songs, and maybe even jump into the pool in my clothes – anything, that would result me having a night off away from the studio and home, and put me into a place where there was finally some life.

I’ve checked my makeup one last time before getting into the cab and spent the drive to Alex’s house answering his and Drew’s messages. I made sure they knew I was on my way, and no, I was not planning on ditching their party. The music playing at the house was noticeable even from the end of the street by the time I’ve arrived. I’ve made my way up to the door after paying my driver, but before I could knock, Drew opened the door for me.

”And there you are!” he grinned at me, and pushed a red plastic cup into my hand without missing a beat.

”It’s nice to see you too,” I laughed, giving him a half-hug, careful not to spill my drink on him. ”Alex?”

”Setting up some fun stuff,” Drew winked at me as he pulled me inside. ”Come on! You’re pretty much the last one to arrive, you know?”

”Had to make an entrance. That way people will remember you.”

Drew snorted, and picked up his own cup, ushering me to the living room where the party was going on full force. I’ve bumped into people I knew every step of the way, making small talk, sharing stories and a laugh, or just giving them a hug before moving on the next person. I was just finishing up saying hi to Alex when suddenly someone called my name from the other end of the room.

”Hey, Y/N!” waved a tall blonde at me, a smile spreading across his face. ”Come here!”

Alex waved me away, promising to catch up with me as I made my way to the couch where the blonde – Luke from 5 Seconds of Summer, – stood up to squeeze me to his side and give me a hug.

”I swear you’ve grown a few more inches since the last time I saw you,” I looked up at him and chuckled as he grunted.

”It’s the boots,” added Calum, winking at me. ”They are magical!”

”Alright, alright, you just laugh,” Luke rolled his eyes, and tossed his drink back.

”I mean, I wish I could pull those off,” I gave him a smile. ”They look really good on you. And Cal is definitely jealous of them too.”

Calum snorted, and pulled me in for a hug. I liked how my friendship with them was so easy and fun. For a few months we’ve worked next to each other in the studio, and it was amazing to hear their finished album after all of those times only listening to the snippets and layers they’ve shared with me.

”It’s always nice seeing you,” said Calum. ”You should come around to these parties more. Right, Ash?”

”Yeah, that would be nice,” agreed Ashton when Calum let go of me. ”Haven’t seen you since we finished the album.”

”Trust me, the studio is definitely more lonely since then,” I smiled at him, for which he grinned back.

It was his turn to embrace me, and I went into his arms willingly. Ashton held me tight for what felt like more than necessary, but I’ve brushed off the feeling – he was probably already on his second or third drink, and maybe even a little bit tipsy. It was possible that he was happy to see just about anyone.

”Alright, out of the way, Irwin,” said Michael, and shoved Ashton away a little. ”It’s my turn to get my hugging on!”

Ashton pulled a face – he tried for annoyed, but the smile was playing at the corner of his mouth, – and let go of me, his hand lingering on my waist a second too long as Michael pulled me closer. After that three of them settled back on the couch, Calum giving up his place for me between Luke and Ashton, and he sat down on the floor in front of us.

”So how’s the album coming together?” asked Michael, leaning over Ashton to hear me over the chatter. ”Do you need us to wreak some havoc for inspiration?”

”God, no,” I shook my head and sipped on my drink. ”There was enough mayhem happening in there this week. I really needed this party just to clear my head.”

”What’s wrong? What happened?” Luke joined in, putting an arm around my shoulder and turned more in my way. By now I was pretty much pushed against Ashton, who didn’t look like he minded it at all.

”My bassist and drummer quit on me. They had some argument with the producers about arrangements and lines and solos. This was going on for a while now, but it really blew up this week, and they just up and left,” I admitted; it felt really good to be honest about my struggles with people who understood what it meant to be a musician. ”And now comes the fun part: I have to find some people who will help me finish up recording the album, and maybe even re-record the previously finished songs, because if we use the tracks the guys did before, we have to credit them and all that stuff. And I just really don’t feel like doing that after the shit they’ve pulled on me.”

”Sounds like those two really pissed you off,” commented Michael. ”And I’m not surprised, to be honest.”

”We will just go on and see what happens,” I’ve shrugged my shoulder, and smiled at him.

”I mean, we could always just replace them for you,” said Calum from the floor, resting his cup on my knee, giving me a smile. ”You’ve got me for bass, Ashton for the drums, Mikey will whip out an awesome guitar solo in no time, and Luke can do some backup vocals for you. Or we can just send him on a coffee run.”

”What is wrong with you all tonight?” asked Luke, rolling his eyes at Cal, who just laughed at him.

”You know he does this on purpose, right?” I patted his knee. ”You make this too easy for him.”

”I’m watching you, Hood,” he pointed at Calum, who just continued laughing at Luke.

”I’m with Calum,” said Ashton suddenly. ”Just say the word and we will be in the studio with you and record all those songs. It was a shitty move from them, and you deserve better than that.”

”See? Ash is right. We are also so much better than them, let’s be honest here,” Calum continued. ”And if for some reason we couldn’t make it there, I’m sure Ashton would just go ahead and record all the instrumentals for you if you’ve asked him.”

”Ashton could be your one-man-band,” snickered Michael, and the others joined in on it.

Ashton smiled, and mumbled something into his cup. I found their promised help and the seriousness behind it really cute, and how they never stopped teasing each other. But before they could continue with their antics, Alex and Drew appeared before us, both of them wearing matching grins.

”It’s time to have some fun, youngsters,” announced Alex.

”We challenge you to a group karaoke game,” said Drew and pointed at us. ”We’ve paired up everyone at the party to play, and since you guys seem to have all the fun together, we just decided to go with it. So, we’re gonna ask the fans on Twitter to tweet us their challenge song for you, and then you split into two teams, and let the battle begin!”

”I’m not even surprised, this is such a you thing,” I shook my head with a smile. ”Alright, what do we do?”

”Could you just lie over their laps while we take a picture of you all to post it?” Alex asked, already pulling out his phone.

”You’ve put way too much thought into this, man,” said Michael, as Calum pulled me off the couch to switch places, and sat back down between Ashton and Luke.

”Could be funnier with Luke lying across our laps?” I’ve tried to ask, but Drew shook his head.

”Nope, you go and just do your thing. And anyway, you’re much prettier than Luke.”

”It’s true!” Luke raised his cup to clink it to mine. ”Cheers! Now come on, get in our laps!”

I was sure Alex was making a whole video of me just sitting down on Cal’s thighs, swinging my legs up so Michael caught them, and just put my head in Luke’s lap. They all held onto me as we got into position, and the guys started to take photos of us.

”Are you ticklish?” asked Michael, reaching for my waist.

”Don’t you dare! Mikey, no!” I’ve bolted up laughing, almost falling off of them.

Suddenly I had two arms around me, and I held on to Ashton’s shoulders, sitting fully in his lap, still laughing, and trying to pull away from Michael’s grabby hands. He let go of me for a second to push Michael back a little, who continued mimicking the tickles.

”My hero,” I beamed at him, and leaned my face against his. I could feel his cheek getting warmer, his smile growing.

”Will you be on my team?” Ashton asked me, and I just nodded. ”Cool! Alright, then the three of you can just do whatever you want, we will win this shit!”

”What are we now? 3 Seconds of Summer?” asked Luke, looking at Calum and Michael. ”3SOS? No, that sounds crap!”

”I would say we are Team Y/S/N,” I turned back to Luke, still sitting in Ashton’s lap. ”And you guys could be…”

”Definitely Team Losers,” snorted Ashton.

”At least we’re alright with that,” said Calum, punching Ashton’s arm, and we all joined in on laughing about their little inside joke.

* * *

”Okay kids, here comes the challenge,” drummed Alex on his thighs, getting everyone’s attention around us. ”The fan votes are in and…”

We were all standing on the makeshift stage with the karaoke machine fired up, Luke, Michael and Calum on one side, and Ashton and me on the other. We were both given microphones, which we had to share within the group – and that was definitely a challenge in itself for the guys in Team 3SOS, as they’ve decided to call themselves. Ashton stood behind me, resting his head on top of mine, arms still around my waist, swaying to the background music as we’ve waited for the fans’ song choice.

It surprised me, how comfortable I was with him being this close and affectionate, but the drinks I have drowned must have played a part in it. We were at a party with booze, music and friends – a little hugging and friendly flirting was normal; at least that’s what I’ve told myself whenever my stomach did a little flip at Ashton’s touches.

”…they have challenged Team Y/S/N and Team 3SOS to sing the ever classic Take On Me by A-ha!” announced Drew, already holding up his phone to film the performance for their followers.

”Do you guys even know this song?” snickered Alex while looking for the track on the machine.

”Do we look like we live under a rock?” shot back Michael, trying to grab the microphone from Calum’s hand. ”Hey, gimmie that!”

”Our chances at winning are getting better,” stated Ashton. ”You can’t even agree upon a fuckin’ mic.”

”Let’s see if that’s true,” said Alex as he finished with getting our song ready. ”Also: you’re the drummer, your whole team is riding on Y/N’s vocals!”

”Really, I just have to look pretty,” shrugged Ash, making me and everyone else laugh. ”We all know who’s the best singer here, and which team will win!”

”Too much talk, not enough singing!” shouted Luke at him. ”You two are going down!”

”Oh, it’s so on, Hemmings!” I slipped out of Ashton’s arms, and nodded at our two hosts with a smile. ”Hit it, boys!”

The next 4 minutes were the most fun I had that week – I forgot about all of my troubles while me and Ashton tried to make it through the song without bursting out laughing at how the other three guys fought over the microphone or how they missed their cues at the verses. We managed to score a few claps and whistles as we sang our parts – or maybe those were for Ash’s dance moves, which he did to distract his bandmates.

As the last notes faded out, everyone who gathered at the party gave us a round of applause, and we all took a bow for the show of it. Alex and Drew were deep in conversation, probably trying to figure out who they will announce as the winner. Calum slipped next to us, throwing an arm around Ashton’s shoulder, and gave us a toothy grin.

”How does it feel, knowing we have crashed you?”

”Dream on Calum, dream on,” I winked at him. ”You clearly weren’t part of the A-team.”

”It’s three against you two, we had more man power,” he continued, patting Ash’s back. ”I mean, come on, we clearly have this win under our belt!”

”Nobody cares what’s under your belt, Cal,” Ashton elbowed him, giving his pal a grimace. ”Definitely not Y/N.”

”How do you know? Maybe she’s into me,” Calum wiggled his eyebrows, and I burst out laughing, holding onto his shirt as he gave me a hug. Something flashed in Ashton’s eyes, but before any of us could say something, the two Chainsmokers guys appeared on stage.

”This was a ridiculously entertaining showdown, that’s for sure,” said Alex, grinning from left to right. ”So now it’s time to announce the winning team, which gets two shots of tequila as a reward. Don’t say we’re not generous.”

Calum left to go back to his other two mates, so Ashton put his arm around my waist. He didn’t look at me; his eyes were trained on his friends, the crowd around us, on his shoes. I was thinking about sneaking an arm around him as well, maybe ask him if he was doing okay, when suddenly Drew pointed at us.

”…TEAM Y/S/N!”

I missed most of their announcement, but it was clear from the way Ashton picked me up and spun me around that we won the impromptu karaoke game. We’ve got another big round of applause as the other guys made their way to us to give their congratulations and hugs, making a few comments here and there that made us all laugh as we’ve left the stage.

Alex was already pulling the next two teams up to continue the game, and we were ushered to a side table by Drew who gave us our shots, documenting every step of us licking salt, drinking tequila, and sucking on the lime he prepared for us. I was sure by the end that there were more pictures of us doing this process than when we were singing on stage, but a quick look at Ashton’s face made me realize that I did not mind it at all. He looked happily back at me, the lime wedge still between his teeth, and I knew I wouldn’t have this night any other way.

* * *

For the next hour or two the guests lingered around the stage and sang along to one song after the other, cheering on their favourite teams or friends as they gave their best karaoke performances. The show ended with Alex and Drew challenging each other, and their rendition of Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go was definitely something that was worth waiting for. After the song was over, they’ve switched to their own setup, and started playing some more recent songs, making everyone jump to their feet and start dancing.

The rooms were crowded, people pressed against each other, solo cups and bottles raised as they were singing and dancing. Someone caught me in the crowd, twirling me around, and I happily danced with them until the next person came to take their place. Song after song I found myself dancing with someone else, sometimes with people I knew, sometimes with strangers.

Then Luke appeared in front of me, and he was my partner for the next few songs; the same happened with Alex, then Drew, both of them singing drunkenly in my ear – one better than the other. When he found an appropriate song, Michael shimmied next to me, both of us jumping and laughing, playing air guitar and just being huge dorks. Calum followed Mikey, trusting a cup into my hand, smiling and joining in on the fun, the two of them giving a mini rock concert in the middle of the dance floor.

As others started to join in as well, I found myself drifting away from the group, looking for something else to drink, – I was sure Cal gave me the rest of his beer, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to drink that, – when I stumbled upon someone wearing a familiar checkered shirt. I tapped his shoulder, and Ashton spun around, giving me a surprised look. He looked wide eyed and out of breath, but as soon as he realized it was me, a smile appeared on his face, and I felt myself falling for him a little bit more. I told myself once again that it was only the party and the booze speaking – the air was humid, I was pleasantly drunk, and I’ve been dancing for hours. Whatever I felt or did tonight – they won’t mean anything in the morning.

”Hey stranger,” he put his arm around me, smiling down at me.

”Hey partner,” I smiled back at him, tugging a little on his shirt. ”Long time no see.”

”You looked like you were having fun,” he nodded his head in the direction I came from, where Calum and Michael were still doing their thing.

”Are you? Having fun, I mean,” I asked him, still looking at him.

”I am now,” his gaze moved back to me, then gave me another smile. ”Can I have this next dance?”

”How long have you been waiting to ask this?” I bumped my hips against Ashton’s, for which he just laughed at me.

”Long enough. So?” he quirked an eyebrow at me, returning the hip bump.

”Lead the way, partner.”

Ashton held out his hand for me, and I took it, letting him pull me back to the dancefloor. He never took his eyes off of me as he guided us through the crowd. Then he drew me closer, his arms locked around me, trapping me against his body. He was slightly sweaty and his skin was warm, and as I’ve leaned into him, I could still smell a faint citrusy scent on him. Ashton started humming, softly singing the lyrics to the song that was playing from the stereo. His breath tickled my ear, and I hid my smiles against his neck, letting myself get lost in our little world.

One song followed another, people around us changed, some sitting down, others just joining in on the party – yet we were still pressed against each other, Ashton’s hands firmly on my hips, my arms around his shoulder and neck. Sometimes we were singing, sometimes he was making snarky comments paired with a cheeky grin, and I had to stifle my laugh against his cheek. Luke appeared once next to us, giving us both a cup, said something about staying hydrated, then left with a pat on Ashton’s arm. We’ve spent the next hour wrapped up in each other, bodies moving together, singing at the top of our lungs, until I couldn’t take it anymore, and tiredly leaned against him.

”Feet’s sore,” I giggled as I’ve tried to take off my heels.

”Come on, let’s take a break,” he said, already moving us to a couch in the corner.

He went looking for something to drink, and I held onto our cups until he returned. Ash sat down next to me, his thigh pressed against mine as he poured me my drink. After that he just leaned back against the couch, taking a swig from his cup, his eyes still trained on me. I kicked off my shoes, pulled my legs up under me, then changed my mind, and with another laugh I’ve put them over Ashton’s lap.

”Is this your subtle way of asking me to give you a foot rub?” he asked me, already moving his hands to my feet.

”Ashton. Remember. Ticklish,” I poked his knee with my toe, and he smiled back at me, resting his hands instead on my knees.

”Well, we don’t want you to fall off. It’s harder to catch you this way,” he said, slowly drumming his fingers on my leg. ”So, about the studio…”

”Don’t even mention it,” I shook my head. ”I don’t want to think about it until I really have to go back. I need a few days off to work all of this out. I just really, really need a break from it.”

”But if you really need help… you know we’ve been serious, right?” he asked me, sitting up a little straighter, pulling my feet a little more into his lap. ”I mean, I know Cal would help, but… you can count on me. It would be no trouble at all! I would be more than happy to come by and record the drums for you. Even the bass if he can’t make it. Just say the words, and I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”

”That’s really nice of you, Ash,” I sat up as well, sliding my legs off of him, pulling them back under me. ”And don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the offer more than anything. But I do need someone who will be able to come on tour with me, and… I just can’t steal you away from your fans,” I finished with a smile.

”Maybe we could just tour together. Make the best of it,” he bumped his shoulder against mine, a twinkle in his eyes.

”I mean, I wouldn’t say no,” I winked at him, making him smile wider than before. ”But if you have a good candidate for the drums or the bass, send them my way, please. I would be happy to consider them, especially if they come with your recommendation.”

”My lady, you have my word,” he held up his cup and clinked it to mine. ”To new beginnings!”

”To new beginnings!” I mimicked him, then we both took a sip.

The conversation soon turned around, and I was the one asking him about how the promotion and their tour were shaping up, what ideas they were playing with, and what people can expect from them now with the new album out. Ashton talked excitedly about their sound and the plans for the upcoming shows, and I found myself hanging on his every word. By the time he finished describing his merch ideas, my cup was once again empty.

”Do you think we could get something else to drink?” I asked, and with a theatrical move I turned my cup upside down, which made Ashton laugh.

”Say what – how about we go back to my place? I’m sure I have something fancy you would like,” he said suddenly. ”We could drink that, and just pick up where we left off before you interrupted me.”

”How dramatic,” I rolled my eyes at him with another smile.

”I mean, only if you’re okay with that,” Ashton added, turning serious for a moment. ”It’s alright if you want to stay, it’s a party, and I–”

”No, it’s cool. I would actually like that,” I nodded, and he visibly relaxed.

”Great! I’ll just call a cab for us, and then we can go,” he replied, already pulling out his phone.

I’ve started to put my heels back on, trying to take a moment to clear my head and think about what just happened. Ashton’s offer could have meant anything, and I was drunk enough to not think about any of the consequences; still, I trusted him, I knew going with him probably meant that we will both fall asleep on the couch, and wake with a hangover the next day. And if something else happened – well, didn’t I say it to myself that it wouldn’t matter in the morning?

I looked up just in time to see him holding out his hand for me; I took it with a smile, and he pulled me off the couch, giving my hand a squeeze. Ash led us out of the room and grabbed our jackets from the hallway, helping me into mine, putting on his own, then we slipped out of the house together. I held onto his arm as we made our way down the street to where the cab was waiting for us. Ashton pulled open the door, waiting for me to get in, and after that settled on the other side of the backseat. He gave our driver his address, and then just stared out of the window.

His fingers were drumming on the seat between us, following the rhythm of the song that was playing on the radio. I didn’t know if he was nervous or excited, or if it simply was just a habit he couldn’t shake. I bit my lip, then slid my hand down to the seat, slowly inching my fingers closer to his drumming ones. When his fingertips caught mine, he stopped abruptly, but after a few seconds he slid his hand against mine, loosely interlacing our fingers. I gave his hand a small squeeze, just as he did with me before – he looked at me for a second, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. We sat there silently with our hands intertwined until we arrived to Ashton’s house.

* * *

We had no idea how did we end up like this, lying on the carpet in Ashton’s living room floor. After he paid for our cab and led me inside the house, Ash told me to make myself comfortable until he found the promised drink. So I kicked off my heels once again, settled on the couch and waited for him, while looking around the room from my spot. He came back with two glasses and a bottle of wine, already telling me a story about a birthday party in one of those fancy clubs and how each of them smuggled out a bottle while they were leaving. This made us trade stories back and forth about similar parties that we either attended together, or on our own, the things we did during those occasions, let them be embarrassing or funny.

Award shows and after parties, concerts we’ve liked, concerts we’ve hated. People in the business who we found cool, and people we wanted to avoid as much as we could. Best songs and entertainers in the last year, and the worst of them. There wasn’t a topic we couldn’t talk about as the hour went on. Then I found myself slipping off the couch and lying down on the floor, and in a second or two Ashton followed suit; our bodies were facing the other way, but our faces were resting next to each other as we’ve continued talking and laughing about our experiences.

”Stay still,” I said suddenly, making Ashton stop in the middle of his story as he gave me a confused look.

”What?”

”Don’t move,” I repeated again, slowly reaching towards his face. Ashton followed the movement until my fingers touched the corner of his eye, brushing them against his skin.

”It’s just… there was an eyelash on your face,” I smiled at him, then held it between my fingers, and raised it to his mouth. ”Blow on it.”

”What does it do?” he asked me, but then dutifully blew a short gust of air on my fingers, his breath tickling them.

”Make a wish,” I said with a shrug, followed by a laugh. ”At least, that’s how I remember it.”

But Ashton did not laugh – he was looking into my eyes, slowly blinking and watching my every move. It felt like he was waiting for something, like he wanted to say something, just didn’t know how to form the words. We stared at each other for a long time, both of us quiet, lost in the moment.

”You know…” Ash whispered, then bit his bottom lip for a moment. ”I really fucking want to kiss you.”

”Is that your wish?” I asked softly, biting my lips as well.

”You have no fuckin’ idea,” he breathed, closing his eyes for a moment, then looking back at me with such intensity that I’ve thought I’ll catch fire. ”You don’t know how long I’ve been wanting to do this, do you? How every time I look at you I have to fight the urge to pull you close and kiss you senseless. How I want your attention only for myself whenever we are in the same room. How… how it drives me crazy, that even looking at your pictures or seeing you perform makes me want to do it, I– I just really fucking want to kiss you.”

Was it the truth, or just the alcohol we have drank that night – I wasn’t sure; but I knew that after his confession so many things started to make sense. The way he always stood so close to me, how his touches lingered, how his arms were around my waist during the party. The way he was looking at me, or how he and his friends acted around me, how he did not hesitate to be on the same team as me during our little singing competition. His smiles, the constant need to help me out with my music, and then leaving the party together, fingers interlocked all through the drive to his house. And now – now we were lying on the floor, looking at each other like it was the first time.

Memories came back to me in flashes from the last year, when the guys were still my next door neighbours in the studio. The first few days were awkward; we’ve only ever seen each other in the parking lot or the hallway, until one day Michael came over and asked me if I wanted to get some pizza with them, since they have ordered too many boxes – again. After that everything came so much easier; we’ve spent a lot of time talking about music and songwriting, we had some jam sessions and traded demos, giving each other tips and ideas. Spending time with the group was a lot of fun, and I did not have a boring day in the studio while they were there. And then there was Ashton.

Ashton, who would knock on the door of my studio and ask if it would bother me if he crashed on one of the couches there, because all the others were already taken in their studio, and he was just really tired, and needed a nap. Who quietly snored in the corner while I was working on lyrics and arrangements, and who would wake up later and ask about what they meant, why did I choose those stories to tell. Who would post the pictures I’ve taken of him napping, because I’ve always sent them to him, and he would make comments about how he was “working hard”.

Ashton, who always showed me his favourite drum samples and the new sound he came up with; who would call me over to their studio when he was excited about his newest creation, or just appear out of nowhere and give me a quick performance on the drum kit in our recording space. Who would stop just outside the room to listen in on my recording sessions after he realized I’ve been doing that with them for weeks.

Ashton, who always gave me a half-hug when they passed me on the hallway, who always stopped by to ask me if he could get me coffee or lunch. Ashton, who, when it was just the two of us, always looked at me with so much passion, and with whom I’ve shared so many heated looks during those months that every time I was sure he will push me up against the closest wall, and have his way with me right then and there. How every time I’ve wished that he would do that.

”That’s a lot of time you’ve spent thinking about kissing me,” I answered quietly, trying to keep my eyes on him, and not look away.

”Do you think I’m crazy?” Ashton asked, running his hand through his hair, over his face, almost like a nervous habit.

”Crazy? No,” I shook my head, reaching for his hand to pull it back. ”Ambitious? Definitely. And maybe a little bit drunk.”

”Maybe,” he moved to lie on his side, still looking at me. ”But still I want to kiss you.”

”I don’t want to disappoint you.”

”Let me be the judge of that,” Ashton said, reaching over to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear.

”Are you sure?” I whispered, locking my eyes with him again.

Ashton licked his lips, then he was up on his elbows, bracketing me in, leaning over me. His breath was hot on my cheek as he tilted his head closer, brushing his lips against my chin, to the corner of my mouth, and then to my lips, kissing first the bottom, then the top. We were upside down, my nose pushed against his chin, feeling a slight stubble on my skin as his lips worked against mine, his teeth giving a little nibble which made me gasp, and he slipped his tongue in my mouth. He tasted like wine with a hint of something unique that I was sure was Ashton himself. His fingers tangled in my hair, angling my face so he could kiss me deeper.

My hands shot up, running my fingers up the nape of his neck and pulled him as close as I could, smiling into the kiss as a shiver ran through him. He made a little laughing sound as our teeth knocked against each other, tongues licking and tasting, lips wet and swollen. Ash pulled away for a moment, gasping for air, eyes dark and wide, looking at me like I was the most beautiful thing in the world, and it made my heart beat more wildly than when he was kissing me.

”So… what do you think?” I asked him while I was trying to catch my breath. ”How much on a scale from one to ten?”

”I’m not sure,” he shook his head, leaning back to rest his forehead against mine. ”Definitely need seconds.”

”You’re a dessert kinda guy, aren’t you?” I laughed, my fingers still tangled in his hair.

”I do love sweet things,” Ash gave me a little chuckle, and pressed his lips back to mine.

For long minutes we’ve stayed like that – whenever he tried to pull away, my teeth caught his bottom lip, lightly biting and pulling on it to keep him close to me. Whenever I was trying to catch my breath, his lips wouldn’t stop moving against my jaw, peppering kisses there and gently sucking on my skin, leaving faint red marks all over me. Then we started to slow down, noses pressed together and lips slightly parted, feeling each other’s breath on our skin as Ashton lay back next to me.

It took us a few more moments to open our eyes and look at each other. I’ve let my gaze linger on his features, trying to catch all the small details – the shape of his eyebrows, the length of his lashes, the different colours in his eyes; his swollen lips, the straight line of his nose, how his hair curled around his ear, and if I looked close enough…

”My god, was that me?” I reached towards him, finding a smudge of red on his cheek.

”Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ash smiled contently, pushing his face against my hand as much as he could.

”My lipstick is all over your face,” I answered as I’ve tried to clean it off of him.

”Your lipstick stain is a work of art,” he started singing it, catching my hand and pulling it to his lips to leave small kisses all over my fingers and knuckles.

”Are you really quoting She Looks So Perfect on me?” I giggled as Ashton sang a few more notes.

”Why not do it when it’s true?”

I felt myself blushing, and Ash leaned over to give a small kiss on my forehead. The little gesture made me shiver, and the need to be closer to him was even stronger now; I slowly sat up, turned around and as I lay back next to him, I pushed myself against his side. His arm found its place on my waist, his hand big and warm against me, and I rested my head on his chest, my head fitting perfectly under his chin. I could feel his heart beating rapidly under my fingers, and it felt like my own started to sync up with his. Maybe it was only a few minutes, maybe even an hour gone by like this, but the next thing I knew was Ashton pulling me even closer to his body, and his fingers brushing the hair back from my face.

”Are you okay?” he ask softly, running his thumb across my cheek.

”Hmm, just tired,” I whispered in return, leaning into his touch.

”Come on, sweet thing,” Ashton said, kissing the top of my head. ”You can have my bed.”

He helped me up from the floor, and started to guide me up the stairs to his bedroom, the arm around my waist keeping me safe on the steps. Ash asked me if I wanted to borrow some of his clothes, but I was already half asleep on top of his bed, so he just pulled the sheets around me and covered me with them.

”Stay with me,” I called after him when he rose up from the edge of the mattress. ”Please.”

”You sure about that?” he asked, leaning back to make sure he heard me right.

”We’ve already kissed, Ashton,” I mumbled into his pillow. ”And I’m too drunk to have sex with you right now.”

”Who talked about sex?” he laughed, then I felt him pull back the sheets and lie down behind me, slowly sliding his arm back around my waist, like he did so many times that night. ”You feel so good,” he let out a sigh, burying his face in my hair.

”You too, Ash. Warm and comfy,” I pushed back a little to feel more of his body heat against my back, and I felt his fingers find the bare skin of my stomach where my shirt rode up under the blankets.

”…and just so you know,” he whispered against my ear, voice already thick with sleep. ”I wouldn’t want to have sex with you right now… cause when I do, I want to remember all of it.”

* * *

The morning found me in the kitchen, still in my rumpled clothes from the night before, trying to find my way around the unfamiliar place and my feelings. I woke up in a room I did not recognize at first, but then I’ve felt Ashton’s body pressed against mine, his breath tickling my ear, his light snoring almost lulling me back to sleep. I wanted to give in, to close my eyes and let the moment last, but I slowly started to remember the previous night, and I couldn’t stop replaying everything that happened.

I needed a moment to breathe, to go over the things we’ve said and done, and to work out what will happen after this. Was Ashton serious when he said all those things, or was his drunken confession only a fragment of my imagination? Maybe I made a mistake, maybe I misunderstood his flirty behaviour, and I shouldn’t have come with him. Maybe I made it all up in my head.

As I sat up next to him and looked back at his sleeping form, eyes closed, features soft, hair falling over his face, I remembered how he kissed me during the night, how his arms pulled me closer whenever he felt like I was too far away. How being right there with him felt like the most perfect thing that could ever happen to me. How I wished that this was really the beginning of something new, and not just a casual fling between two friends.

I was fiddling with the coffee maker, trying to make it work when I’ve heard Ashton start moving upstairs, doors opening and closing, the water running in the bathroom, and then his feet thumping down the stairs. He was still wearing the same clothes he slept in, the ones he also wore during the party at Alex’s house. His hair was tousled, eyes sleepy, his gaze searching me as he rubbed his face. He looked relieved, I realized – maybe waking up to an empty bed wasn’t what he expected. Maybe he thought that I’ve already left.

”You know… you did a crappy job trying to get that lipstick stain off my face,” he said finally, pulling away his hand, and showing me the red smudge still colouring his skin.

”At least I can be sure now that my lipstick is kiss-proof,” I answered with a small smile, stepping to him and reaching up to wipe the stain off his face.

”I didn’t say I want it cleaned off,” Ash caught both my wrists, pulling them over his shoulders instead. ”Maybe I like those markings.”

”Just so you know… there’s a lot more where those came from,” I whispered, gathering all my courage and taking a chance; I needed to know what last night made us, what we were now that the sun was up and we were sober.

”You could cover my whole face with your lipstick and I would die a happy man,” he breathed, leaning closer and brushing his nose against mine.

”Careful what you wish for,” I grasped the collar of his shirt, lightly tugging on it.

”I was,” he bit his bottom lip, trying to hide the smile appearing on his face. ”Look how it came true. I did kiss you last night.”

”Took you long enough,” I tugged his shirt once again, bringing him a little bit closer.

Ashton gripped my hips, and in a second he pushed me up against the wall, pinning me there with his whole body. His left hand found its place on the back of my neck, running his fingers through my hair, his right one pulling me closer to him as his lips hungrily kissed my jaw.

”Ash…”

”If you’re gonna ask me what does this make us, then I must be doing a terrible job at this,” he stopped for a moment, breathing heavily in my ear.

”Then you just have to kiss me senseless once again,” I said, tilting my head back a little to look into his eyes. ”So I don’t ask silly questions…”

I didn’t have to ask him twice; Ashton just leaned closer and pressed his lips against mine, sliding his tongue in my mouth, and making good on his promise.

Later that morning, when I was about to leave and go home to have a shower and get myself a change of clothes, Ashton nuzzled his face against mine, his stubble lightly scratching my skin, making me promise that I will be back as soon as I can. I kissed him for a long moment while the cab was honking at us, mumbling something about leaving my favourite lipstick in his bathroom, and how I needed to see him again to get it back – the sooner the better.

It was only 20 minutes later when a message popped up from him with a picture attached to it – eyes wide, hair wet, and a pout that made my heart melt. I already miss you – Ash x

He still had the fresh lipstick stain on his face.

#ashton irwin x reader #ashton irwin fanfiction #ashton irwin #fiction time #afic: i wanna feel you in my veins

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