#hell yeah heres to my wrist/my whole right arm NOT hurting anytime i used the computer/drew now

[speeshularts]

OC character studies because I need to draw more

[ao3bronte]

☯🐍LUKADRIEN HEADCANONS🐍☯

It all started when Luka got his first tattoo. Juleka livestreamed it on Instagram and Adrien watched as much as he could of it while in the back of Father’s Mercedes, purposely ignoring Nathalie’s pointed stare. No doubt she would tell Father he was watching videos of his friends “partaking in delinquent behaviour”, but Adrien couldn’t blame her. It was her job, after all.

That aside, Adrien found himself both entranced and horrified as the artist carefully outlined the shape of a serpent in black ink up and down Luka’s right forearm, wiping away the excess ink before starting anew. It must hurt like hell, but Luka talked through it easily, humming a melody he’d been writing with his sister like the needle in his arm was hardly a bother.

Even after he’d been rushed out of the Mercedes and onto the runway, Adrien couldn’t stop thinking about it. How calm and collected Luka had been. How intricate the scales of the onyx snake had been against the paleness of his skin. How the tattoo would look after a few days of healing.

Adrien desperately wanted to find out. And thankfully, a week or so later, he got his chance.

“Dude, you gotta show Adrien. He’s been dying to see it, bro!” Nino calls out from beside him, waving Luka over from where he’d just parked his bike. Marinette had organized a collège graduation picnic and thankfully, the invitation that she’d sent home with Adrien had “mandatory for class attendance” printed on it in big, red letters.

“Yes, please!” Adrien responds, practically skipping in place as Luka saunters over and stretches out his hand. Adrien’s eyes grow wide as he takes in the snake’s coils that twist from his elbow to his wrist. The pattern on the snake’s scales is so familiar that Adrien is sure he’s seen this type of snake before, from the hood of its neck to its elongated fangs.

“Did it hurt?” Alix asks, buzzing with excitement. She’d already proudly announced that she’s booked her first tattoo for her upcoming sixteenth birthday next week.

“A little.” Luka shrugs, smiling downwards as Adrien forgets all of his manners and gently turns Luka’s arm around so he can see the other side. “The elbow was the worst part. Once he got away from the bone, it wasn’t so bad at all.”

“It looks so cool,” Adrien gushes, unable to contain himself. His nose is practically centimetres away from Luka’s skin so as to soak in every little detail. “I wish I could get something like this done.”

Luka continues to indulge him, despite Alix’s teasing glance in their direction. “What’s stopping you?”

Adrien snorts and stares in wonder at the snake’s slitted eyes. “Father. He’d kill me if I ever got a tattoo.”

“I doubt he’d kill his best model,” Luka responds, smiling as Adrien shakes his head and prods the little tongue of the serpent with the tip of his finger.

“Well, maybe not kill me. But he’d lock me away in my room until I was thirty five.”

“Dude, that’s abusive,” Nino says. Beside him, Alix agrees.

“It’s Father’s way of showing me he cares.” Adrien sighs and thanks Luka for letting him see the tattoo. Luka assures him that he can look at it anytime he wants.

And, of course, that’s how the plan begins.

Six months pass and Luka and Adrien are closer than they’ve ever been, thanks in part to Juleka’s burgeoning modelling career. They cross paths frequently, which means he sees Luka almost as much and begins to spend his free time with him whenever he can under the pretense of practicing his angles with Juleka and his piano skills with Luka.

Nathalie has given him exactly four hours of free time at the Couffaine’s on his day off, so long as the Gorilla is present to make sure he doesn’t “partake in any delinquent behaviour”. Adrien is an expert at eluding the massive hulk of a man and within minutes of arriving, Adrien, Luka and Juleka are meeting up with Rose, Nino and Alix for what would be the wildest, best kept secret plan in the world.

Why? Because Adrien was getting a tattoo. A tiny one. Very discreet. But a symbol of defiance and teenage rebellion nonetheless.

The whole ragtag group piles into the same studio that Luka and Alix had gotten their tattoos. White walls reflect the bright pink neon sign that takes up the majority of the side wall, adding an ambiance that simmers with excitement as house music thuds through the speakers. Adrien signs his life away with shaking fingers and gives his friends a thumbs up before sitting down on the leather lounger. Luka follows him into the smaller workspace and distracts Adrien by talking about the merits of the 5/4 time signature as the artist carefully sterilizes his equipment and applies a stencil onto the pale strip of skin just inside the swell of his hip bone. Adrien had picked this part of his body specifically; even in swimming briefs, no one would be able to see it. He would have to be completely bare in order for anyone to accidentally spot the tattoo, which makes it the perfect location for a clandestine symbol of his secret life.

The machine buzzes to life and Adrien prepares himself, gritting his teeth.

“Why did you pick this for your first tattoo?” Luka asks, wincing as Adrien grabs his hand and squeezes the life out of it. Adrien has been tossed around the city like a ragdoll countless times as Chat Noir, but this? This is the worst pain he’s ever experienced by far.

“Ghhh—oh my god.” Adrien heaves and tries to keep still as the artist completes the outline of the circle.

“Just breathe.” Luka begins to massage his arm with his other hand, rubbing smooth circles into Adrien’s tensed muscles. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

Adrien garbles something unintelligible and lets his head fall back against the headrest with a thunk. “How...did...you...?”

“I just did.” Luka shrugs and smiles encouragingly. “You get used to the feeling after a while.”

“I am never getting used to this.” Adrien groans vehemently, pushing the words from his lips in one shaky breath. Luka isn’t wrong though; after a minute or two of trying not to cry like an infant, Adrien’s hip hurts so badly that the pain begins to plateau into a five alarm burning bee sting. “Is it almost over?”

“He’s just finishing the spot,” Luka replies, leaning over to get a better look. Adrien opens his eyes, which is a horrible mistake. Between Luka’s constant presence beside him and his friend’s face mere centimetres from his belly button, Adrien finally thinks of something else that cuts through the haze.

“Y-yeah?” Adrien stammers and hopes Luka thinks it’s still from the pain. In actuality, the last six months of Adrien’s infatuation with Luka’s tattoo and, in turn, Luka himself has all flashed before his eyes in a matter of seconds.

“All finished,” the artist says, taking one last swipe with his towel before putting his tools away. Luka beams and congratulates him on being so brave, but all Adrien can think about is how his friend’s ample praise makes him melt like butter.

“Do you want to see?” Luka takes the mirror and holds it up to the tattoo. Red and raw, the yin and yang symbol shines like a beacon of Adrien’s duality. He’s the hero of destruction to Ladybug’s creation; he’s a flawless model with a secret dark side.

“I love it,” Adrien breathes, the immediate pain already fading. The artist dresses the wound and Adrien listens to the aftercare instructions with half an ear — he’s far too busy committing the experience to memory.

If Luka wants his hand back, he doesn’t ask, even as they exit the room together. Adrien’s too lost in the clouds to even realize, but the rest of his friends aren’t. They’ll tease Luka about it later, but the blue haired boy doesn’t seem to care.

A week later, Adrien proudly shows off his secret tattoo to his secret tattoo posse — he can’t risk anyone else knowing about it in case it gets leaked to the press — and beams when Luka tells him it looks beautiful.

He doesn’t tell Adrien he wasn’t talking about the tattoo.

SEE ALL OF MY LGBTQ+ HEADCANONS HERE!

[elysianslove]

jujutsu sorcerer!reader; haikyuu boys 

requested by anon(s): haikyuu boys with a crush on a jujutsu sorcerer, and being saved by them

pairings; hinata shōyō x reader, kuroo tetsurō x reader, tsukishima kei x reader, kozume kenma x reader 

genre; fluff

warnings; some mentions of death

hinata shōyō

to hinata, you probably stand out more than you’d think

idk why but i love love love the concept of hinata having like a completely opposite s/o kagehina. as in, i can see him so well with an alt!s/o or a goth!s/o. i can’t explain it it just works so well in my head

the fact that you were so mysterious and quiet really, and i mean really, peaked his interest. unlike literally any other character, he is nosy, and he wants to know why and how and when and who you are, so he does make effort to talk to you often

you always kinda just smile at him and give him one word replies. it’s not that you don’t like him, it’s more that you’re here for a reason and you don’t want him to get caught up in the middle of it all. you’d hate for something to happen to someone as pure as him

your attitude towards does not throw him off in the least. he’ll just want to get to know you even more

one of his upperclassmen, like tanaka or noya, probably notice and try telling him things about you to kinda back him off of you because they’re scared of you lowkey 

ik i used this scenario before but it fits hinata too; we all know he stays late to practice often, so it isn’t a surprise or it isn’t too odd that he stays yet another day until the sun has long since set. you’d only known he was in the volleyball club in passing, but you didn’t know him well enough to anticipate that he’d be in the gym this late

the most remote place, and the closest too, that you could think of at literally nine pm was the boys’ gymnasium, so you’d led the curse there in hopes of driving it away from other people around it. you hadn’t expected that you’d be leading the curse straight to another target 

hinata was the only one there, too, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to attack him 

one moment, he’s just tossing the ball against the wall and receiving it, the next the gymnasium is being broken into by some creature from above, followed by you and your angry yells

you were really focused on the curse, prepared to battle it and exorcise it, before you finally spot him. he’s frozen, the ball dropped from his hand and rolling away from him. the way he’s staring at you, and the way he keeps eyeing the creature in fear, it clicks something in you, you don’t know what

but you don’t give the curse a chance to even try and attack, immediately charging at it and exorcising it quickly, defeating it right away. it dies away with an agonizing yell and you’re pretty sure this’ll count as trauma for the poor kid before he rushes towards you, grasping your wrists and staring at you like you just hung the moon in the sky

“what the hell was that that was so cool oh my god can you do it again can you teach me how to do it you are so badass —“

like baby breathe omg 

even the way you laughed at him was intimidatingly hot he was a goner !!! 

now that he knows of your nature, it attaches him to your hip. you can’t get rid of him anymore but it’s okay he’s literally sunshine in human form 

as a duo, and as romantic partners, you really are complete opposites, but that’s why you fit so well together you know! 

if you can conjure up something like the divine dogs like megumi, expect him to constantly pester you for them <3

kuroo tetsurō

listen, he knew you were a little odd from the moment you joined nekoma. like there was no doubt about it there was something off about you. he had some type of feeling that you weren’t really here for the education you know? 

but the rational side of him convinced himself he wanted to live in some type of movie so he dropped it

he does try to get to know you, though, yeah, of course he had to fall for that one person that no one knows anything about 

kuroo’s just trynna be the main character lmfao

with kuroo, he actually succeeds in growing closer to you. i mean who can resist him? no one

it starts off simple, he’d invite you to games, sit with you during lunch, before it escalates more into walking you home some days, inviting you over during weekend games, inviting you over at outings with his friends

more often than not, especially when said outings happened during nighttime, you’d decline. he didn’t really think much of it though, he just let you be, you know? 

then, one time, you decide to go for it. 

he invites you out to the movies with some of the vbc boys, and you accept. you figure you being gone for a few hours won’t hurt anyone, and it wasn’t like there aren’t any other jujutsu sorcerers available in tokyo. it’s a big city, you rationalize 

halfway through the movie, something feels off, and as a sorcerer, you know to trust your gut instinct, so you excuse yourself to the bathroom to check the area out. kuroo, having felt like something wasn’t right with you, and being slightly worried himself, goes after you. 

turns out you were right. two people had already died by the time you come to the alleyway behind the theatre, and there’s a curse hovering by their bodies. you’re slower to react because of the initial shock, and when you see kuroo coming out of the same backdoor you’d just left out of, your body entirely freezes

until the curse jumps to attack him, and in a flash, you’re by his side, kicking away at the curse, watching as it smashes roughly against a wall 

kuroo’s immediately asking questions, but you can’t exactly focus on him at the moment. you prioritize eliminating and exorcising the curse first, and when that’s done and dusted, you lead kuroo away from the theatre

he’s very shaken by the whole scene, especially after having seen two corpses 

that night, you lead him to your home, and he stays there. he keeps you up all night, but it’s understandable. throughout it all, you reassure him of his safety constantly, telling him that you’d never let anyone or anything ever hurt him

it’s what brings you two closer together 

because that incident had been his introduction to that specific world, he grows very wary anytime you’re sent out on missions, but you always come back home to him, and that’s what matters <3

tsukishima kei 

please tsukki with a crush is hilarious cause he’s so bad at expressing his feelings 

you’re actually really similar to him in that you’re quiet and that you don’t really appreciate talking and conversing to others. you tend to keep to yourself, and he really respects that, like deep down 

he thought you were just a really timid person until he snaps at you once and you snap back. and then it was like everything that has ever happened to him led to this moment right here because what the fucsjdhwf

the fact that he recognized his feelings for you kinda made him even warier of you. like his scowl is deeper and his bite is harsher, but that’s really only because he does not know how to deal with these emotions. like he has a bad way of expressing them correctly 

you two build this small relationship between you. it’s like a teasing thing, where it’s literally just all bark and no bite. it’s lowkey fun, and you grow to appreciate his presence 

he doesn’t really question it when you miss days of schools, or when you return the days after that all bandaged and bruised. he figures it’s not his business to ask questions like that, and just continues to observe you from afar

anyways! one night he’s walking home, all alone, peacefully, before he sees you dash by him, being chased by??? what the fuck is that???

tsukki just pauses, but he’s not even like scared or worried he’s just confused and a little amused tbh. he stands in place while his eyes follow your movements as you allow the creature to chase at you, before you make a sharp turn and hit it, sending it flying back

except, you hadn’t realized the direction you’d hit it at

the curse goes flying at tsukki, and he’s just staring at it like, “hm,” not moving an inch. he’s trynna give you an aneurysm on god 

you scream at him to move, but you’re already rushing towards him. as soon as you can, you throw your arms around him and topple him to the ground. you land on top of him, but you don’t get to see his flustered face because you’re off of him way too soon, taking care of the issue at hand 

he’s a little surprised at the reason you’re always cut up and bruised, but he can’t say he’s not even a little amazed at just,,, how cool you seem

he’s still on the ground lol and you hit him with “i hope you’re not waiting for me to pick you up.”

“it is your fault i’m on the ground to begin with.”

you help him up 

with an eye roll of course 

when he’s standing again before you, he just sighs and lifts a finger to his face, as if to indicate to your face. then he says, “that explains all this then,” referring to the bruises painting your skin 

your relationship doesn’t change much for a while after that, except that knowing glance he gives you every time you walk into class exhausted 

likes to call it monster hunting for some reason 

clearly you’re the only one out of the two of you with any balls because you’re the one that confesses. thanks for saving him the trouble hehe

he’ll never tell you to your face, but he thinks he is incredibly lucky to have someone as badass as you as his s/o

kozume kenma 

kenma probably took note of your exceptional situation for a few, but he didn’t give it much thought initially. like so what if you were super secretive? not like anyone knew much of him himself 

it’s not until kuroo or someone points out like, “they’re quite odd, right?” that he starts to pay attention, but he’s not sure why

maybe he’s trying to convince himself and others that you’re not really odd for being the way that you are. just secretive and mysterious and introverted. like. does that make him odd? 

he starts to notice things like you staying after school for late, late hours, but not because you’re a part of any club, and things like your missing of school, or how your knuckles are always, always bandaged and wrapped, or how you seemed to be at the oddest of locations at the oddest of times

it’s not really like him to be too interested in what you do, so he doesn’t invest all his thoughts and energy into. he does though dwell over it for a lot longer than you’d think 

sometimes, kenma takes a console of his, and heads up his rooftop, because it just feels really safe where nobody and nothing can get to him

he’s proven wrong one night when, in the middle of the game, he hears thumps across the rooftop. he thinks he’s being tricked by the game he’s playing, until he feels something behind him, until the hairs on the nape of his neck stand and a shive runs down his spine because there is something breathing down his neck

and then he hears your all too familiar voice whispering out, “don’t move, please.” 

it’s honestly not like he could 

he sees you from the corner of his eye move in a flash, and suddenly, when the feeling is gone, he finds himself able to move again, and he turns around

it honestly looks like a scene from a movie, what he’s staring at. you battle the curse so well, and kenma is fully and shamelessly enamored by you and the way you moved so swiftly and efficiently, as you dodge and attack, and as you finally exorcise 

like he’s so in awe he has to pinch himself to convince himself he’s not dreaming 

when the curse is taken care of, you just slowly approach him, kneeling by his side and asking in a soft voice if he was okay. he decided then and there that no, you were not odd at all. you just saved his life, so,,,

you urge him to go back inside, to stay safe, and he just nods as you lead the way to his window. and when he slips inside, for some reason, he finds it in himself to ask you to stay too

to stay safe, of course

it takes you by surprise a little, but at the genuineness in his eyes, you accept, and stay up playing games with him

and when you greet him in school the next day with a smile and a wave, kenma returns it, just as brightly <3

[a-edgar-allan-hoe]

The Last Chthonian

Bucky x Reader, Sam x Reader, Zemo x Reader

Part 5

A/N: Hello lovelies! This one will feature a special guest! This is probably a stupid idea and I’ll probably regret it in the morning but oh well.

Summary: Imagine being Hekate, the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft, the night and the moon, doorways and crossroads, creatures of the night, and ghosts and necromancy. You stumbled upon Earth many centuries ago and since then have resided on the foreign planet. During the recent years you created an alias for yourself to hide your true identity, and after the war against Thanos you chose to live out your days in the Scottish countryside, until a certain trio appear at your doorstep one day.

Warnings: language

It was quiet when you had finished your story, too quiet. You had stared at your hands the whole time you explained everything, a part of you afraid to look at their faces, as if they would look at you different, less human. You left out the details because of limited time, occasionally stopping to discretely wipe away the tears that threatened to spill. Sam had sat next to you through the whole thing with his hand on your back as he rubbed circles. And though Sam had known about your past, he didn’t know about the recent events involving Ares and Thanos. He was heartbroken to hear you had lost everyone and everything you held dear, and wished you didn’t had to suffer through it all on your own. Finally gaining the courage to lift your head, you stared at the expressions of the men around you. Bucky and Zemo were still in shock, their brains trying to process the words that came out of your mouth, while Sam had the expression of sorrow.

“You guys are welcome to ask me questions....if you have any.” You brought up, rubbing your hands together.

“So basically...you’re a Greek god.” Bucky leaned back on your couch, his brows knitted together. “So Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hercules, Medusa, and all those stories, they’re real?”

“Pretty much. Some stories may be a bit distorted and inaccurate, but yes. They were all real. They were my family and friends, they were my people.”

“Wait so how old are you?” Bucky inquired this time, curious to know your age.

“Gods, I’d say around 23,000.”

“Wait, 23,000?” Bucky raised his brows as him and Zemo both looked at you in utter disbelief. They were astonished to say the least and dare say, even eager to hear your stories about the things you have seen in your lifetime.

“How?”

“Time works differently for us.”

“What about your daughter?” You heard Zemo speak for the first time today, making you look at him. “How old is she?”

“About 6 months. I had her after Thanos was defeated.”

“6 months? But how? Who’s her father?”

“Bucky, that was way out of line.” Sam shook his head at him, giving him a glare.

Bucky went pale as he realized what he had said just now, trying to apologize but you shrugged it off with a motion of your hand.

“No it’s fine Sam, he has every right to ask. It’s alright Bucky, I get that you’re only trying to understand everything. You see, there was no father, which explains why she’s 6 months old in the first place. To be honest, after Thanos was defeated, I was in a really bad state, I had lost so many people, I had lost my entire planet and my family. And after Nat being gone I just, I didn’t know what to do anymore. But I remembered, my brother Hephaestus gave me one last favor in his dying breath. The chance to create. So I sculpted her out of clay, in the image of my dear older sister Athena and brought her to life. I was only able to do it once. She was my only chance and she means the whole world to me.”

“So you sculpted her out of clay?”

“Yes.”

“And brought her to life?”

“Yes.”

There was more silence as they tried to take in the fact that you had sculpted a child, your own daughter Athena from clay using your own hands, and bringing her to life afterwards. It was almost beyond comprehension.

“And here I thought Thor was the only mythology one.” Bucky shook his head.

“Well, now that you know the truth, I think it’s time we get ready.” You stood up from the sofa.

“We?” Same eyed you. “What do you mean we?”

“I’m coming with you.”

“The hell you are.” Sam stood up next to you with his arms crossed. “I’m sorry y/n but you are NOT coming with us. It’s dangerous.”

“Sam, when have you known me to back away from danger?”

“......Never, because you’re stubborn and stupid.”

“Quite the contrary actually, stubborn yes, stupid no. You know I can’t let you go there on your own.”

“We’re grown men y/n. I’m pretty sure we can handle ourselves.”

“Need I remind you what happened the last time I was absent? Look Sam, I’m not going to stand by while you guys get hurt and possibly risk your lives. I on the other hand, can handle much worse and have handled much worse, I’m practically bulletproof.”

“Bulletproof or not.” Sam interrupted. “You have a daughter.”

“You don’t think I know that? I’ve already taken the extra precautions Sam.”

“What extra precautions?”

“I put a protective spell not only on her but on my home and land as well. No one is coming in without my permission, they’ll just get fried or blasted away or something like that if they touch the barrier. Trust me, I’m not going to let anything happen to her Sam. And besides, I’m going to hire a babysitter.”

Sam stared at you, chewing the inside of his cheek as he contemplated the option. “You’d still follow us even if I were to say no huh.”

“Yup. Or I could do a mind spell. It’s your choice. But you know I’d rather do this the easy way.”

Sam let out a sigh, shaking his head. “Well since you’re not going to budge anytime soon-“

“Great. I’ll go pack my bags.”

“Wait just a minute. Just because you get to tag along doesn’t mean you get to ignore the rules....” Sam trailed off as you hurried up the stairs.

You heard him mutter something along the lines of how you’ll probably end up turning everyone into toads by the end of the day, as you went into your room to pack some of your things. You had thrown on an old band shirt of yours and a pair of jeans, lacing up your docs before grabbing a jacket. You went into Athena’s room and saw that she had just awakened, sitting on her bed and staring at you with confusion as she saw the bag in your hand.

“Hey koukouvágia.” You set the bag down and kneeled down next to her.

“Where are you going mommy?”

“Mommy has some important work to do with Uncle Sam and Bucky.” You held her hands in yours as you gave them a light squeeze.

“Are you going to kick bad guy butts?”

“Something like that.” You chuckled as you brushed her hair from her face.

“When are you coming back?”

You sighed, looking to the floor before looking up at her again. “I don’t know yet sweetie. But I promise I won’t be long. I’ll be back before you know it. I’m going to have Auntie Maze take care of you while I’m gone.”

“Auntie Maze?” Her eyes lit up.

“Yes. I know you two are best friends.”

“Yay!” She giggled before hugging you, her arms wrapped your neck. “Good luck mommy.”

“Thanks sweetie.”

The whole time Sam had stood by Athena’s door, watching you two say goodbye.

“Uncle Sam!” Athena squealed once she saw him, running up to hug his leg.

“Hey kiddo. I promise I’ll take care of your mother and bring her back.”

“I know.” She looked up at him with a big grin before going over to hug you again. “Bye mommy.”

“I’ll see you soon koukouvágia. I love you so much.” You hugged her close to you, pressing your lips at the side of her head before holding her out in front of you. “You remember to behave yourself okay.”

“I will mommy.”

“And gods forbid, if anything happens or if you feel scared, all you have to do is call for me in here.” You pressed your index and middle finger against her temple, implying the telepathic connection you had. “And I will be there in the blink of an eye.”

“I know you will mommy.” She smiled before hugging you again. “You’re always there for me.”

You held back your tears as you kissed her forehead, holding her delicately as if you were afraid you’d come back and she would be gone just like the rest of your family and people. And all that would be left is her room and a memory, a reminder of her existence.

Athena had walked downstairs with you, saying goodbye to everyone as she hugged their legs, trying to put on a brave face which only broke your heart. But you knew she was stronger and smarter than she looked. After your final farewell to your daughter and your cat, you locked up your home. Sam, Bucky, and Zemo followed you as you led them out of your invisible barrier. Before you reached the edge you turned back, seeing your daughter wave at you from the window with Maleficent in her arms. You smiled, praying it wouldn’t be the last time you saw her as you blew her a kiss before stepping out of your barrier as it rippled around you. Once you were all outside the barrier you turned back again, but this time your home was no longer visible and all that could be seen was empty land. It terrified you to see your plot of land this way, but you knew it was still there, just behind your invisible barrier, and you knew your daughter would still be waiting for you.

“If you guys don’t mind.” You announced as you turned to the three men. “I need to stop by a place real quick and pick up Athena’s babysitter.”

“Is that who Auntie Maze is?” Sam asked you.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, let’s go then.” Sam started to head towards his car but you stopped him.

“Ummm she’s not here Sam.” You pursed your lips, scared to tell him where you were actually planning on going.

“Okay, is she in the next town?”

“No. I meant she’s not here, as in this planet this dimension not here.”

“Wait what?” Bucky turned to you as Zemo looked at you with confusion written on his face. Are you implying what they think you were implying?

“I need to go to another dimension.” You explained further, turning around before they would ask any more questions. Closing your eyes, you stretched your arm out and twirled your wrist in a circular motion. The men watched in confusion, wondering what you were doing.

A strong gust of wind suddenly pushed through, and in the center of your focus a small black circular object was forming, growing bigger and bigger until people could walk through it. A violet glow illuminated your features. You opened your eyes back up, your eyes glowing the same color of the mesmerizing violet vortex before you. The portal sparked and flickered to life, crackling like electricity.

“Follow me.” You turned to the men before stepping into the portal and vanishing into it.

“Y/n!” Sam stared at where you were just stood, swallowing the lump in his throat as he was unsure whether he should just follow you.

Bucky straightened up, chills running down his spine as the men stared at the unknown territory in front of them, they didn’t have a clue on what would be waiting for them on the other side.

They stepped back as they saw your head poke out of the black center of the portal, a stern expression sat on your face. “Well you guys coming or not? I haven’t got all day. If you don’t hurry up this portal will close and you don’t want to be caught halfway in it.” You popped back in and the men stared at each other, Zemo was the first to walk in before the others followed.

When they stepped through, day was replaced with night and the portal closed behind them while they found you standing up front.

“About time.” You teased, “I thought I might have to go back and pick up a limb you left behind.”

“Not funny.” Sam glared at you.

As the men looked around at their surroundings they found themselves to be in what looked like to be...Los Angeles?

“This is LA.” Sam gave you a disappointed look.

“No. This is different.” Zemo observed as Sam and Bucky looked at him.

“What do you mean different?” Bucky asked, not sure if Zemo was playing games.

“Well I’m pretty sure that building up ahead does not exist in our Los Angeles.” Zemo pointed to the tall white building that was lit up against the night sky.

You nodded your head at Zemo’s observation before heading towards the building and towards the nightclub entrance that had a lit up sign that said Lux. Bucky, Sam, and Zemo glanced at each other as they saw you cut the long line of people waiting by the entrance.

“What the hell? Is y/n a mob boss now?” Bucky uttered as he saw you whisper something to the security at the door before taking off your jacket slightly, pulling up your shirt sleeve to show him something on your arm. The security nodded his head, allowing you to go in. You turned to Sam, Bucky, and Zemo and waved them over.

“What the hell is going on y/n?” Sam muttered to himself as they followed you in.

The fancy dark interior of the place was lit up with dim lights and crowded with drunk men and scantily clad women dancing to the loud beat of the music. You stuck out from the rest with your Pink Floyd shirt, your jeans, and your corduroy jacket and doc martens as you searched the crowd for a particular someone.

“Y/n what the hell are we doing here? This isn’t exactly your crowd!” Sam leaned over, raising his voice against the music so you could hear him.

“I know!” You replied as your eyes finally found the person you were looking for. You headed towards the lit up bar, cursing under your breath as you weaved through the sweaty grinding bodies and the couples heavily making out in public. You felt your anxiety creep up on you and you wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. After having to escape your way out of what felt like the hedge maze from The Shining, you finally approached the bar, walking up to the tall dark haired man near the counter wearing an expensive suit. You could smell his strong, almost obnoxious cologne from where you were standing. You straightened up and cleared your throat, eyeing the back of the man’s head.

“Hello Lucifer.”

Tag List: @Little-baby-vixen @girl-obsessed-with-things @aerynchromie @sunshinepower17 @viviace @kakimakiloh @thebivirgin @gambitsqueen @spookycereal-s @lulu-yuming @mochminnie @gabitanaka47 @s00nhi @vanteguccir @tomhollandsslilslut @dracoxxyoflam @suchababie @uhhhcrypticbastard

[my-emotional-self]

Toxic Love Chapter 4

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader, Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes

Summary: Finding out your soulmates were Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes was one thing.  But when someone from your past comes back to haunt you, you have to figure out if a relationship with two super soldiers is something you really want to pursue or if you’d rather go back to your comfortable single life.

Series Warnings:  18+, Swearing, Angst, Fluff, past mentions of rape, self-harm, attempted rape, domestic violence, stalking, death threats, possible Dark!Steve?, Steve will be an asshole a LOT in this series but I don’t know how dark it will get, explicit sexual content, mental health issues, kind of A/B/O dynamics but not really (no they are not actual wolves, more like the hierarchy), mentions of suicide, flashbacks of suicide

A/N: There will be no taglist for this story!  I apologize in advance!

The three of you gathered around the kitchen island and ate the pizza.  Well, more like Steve and Bucky inhaled a whole pizza each while you ate two slices.  The pizza was delicious, probably the best you’d ever had and your stomach was grateful for the yumminess.

“Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself Y/N?” Bucky asked as he licked the grease off his lips.

“What do you want to know?” you replied.  

“Let’s start with your family and where you grew up.”

You shrugged as you wiped your fingers with a napkin.  “There isn’t really much to say.  I grew up in a small town in the Midwest.  Both my parents died when I was a teenager.  I never knew my grandparents and I was an only child, same with my parents, so I don’t have any other family.  I moved here when I was 20,” you stated honestly.  Well, mostly at least.  Yes, it was true both of your parents died, but how they died was tragic.  They both committed suicide.  First your mother, then your father one year later.  As far back as you could research, mental health issues unfortunately ran in your family and that was including you.  But you weren’t ready to open up that old wound yet. You were on medication to help it and that was that.  Luckily the dosing you were on worked well and you could only hope you wouldn’t need to adjust your medications anytime soon.  

“We know how you feel doll. Obviously all of our family is gone too. But we can make a new family with the three of us,” Bucky stated as he wrapped his metal arm around your shoulders. You liked the sound of that.  The three of you becoming your own family. It sounded nice.  

You gave Bucky a wide smile, mirroring his.  “What have your past relationships looked like?” Steve announced from the other side of you.  

This was something you had been debating on bringing up.  If you weren’t going to tell them about your mental health issues just yet, you didn’t want to lie and be dishonest about John as well.  Taking a deep breath, you held it in for five seconds before releasing it.  “I’ve only been in one relationship before.  His name was John, John Smith.  He’s in prison right now.”

From the corner of your eye you could see Steve clench his fist; his knuckles cracking in the process.   “What happened?” he growled out.    

“He…he umm.  Well, he hit me,” you said, almost as quiet as a mouse but you knew both men had super hearing and they damn well heard you.  

Steve slammed his fist on the granite countertop making you flinch.  

“Steve!” Bucky barked at him in anger.  “You’re not making this situation any better right now.  Calm the fuck down and let her talk.”  Bucky soothed his arm up and down your back.  “Go ahead doll.   We’re listening.”

Nodding, you began to speak again.  “Things were great in the beginning.  He seemed like everything I could have ever asked for in a man.  I didn’t know if or when I would ever meet the two of you so I decided to live my life and date him.   The first six months were a whirlwind of romance.  He was the most charming man I had ever met.  But then things took a turn when I moved in with him. I was ready to have sex yet, but he was sick of waiting.  That first night I moved in, he…he raped me.”

This time you saw Bucky’s right hand clench on the table in front of you while Steve knocked his chair over as he stood up, pacing the kitchen.  “Go on doll,” Bucky urged, trying to keep the anger out of his voice as best he could for you.

“That was just the first time.  He umm, he did it again for weeks.  I wanted to leave, I really did.  But he was rich and he had security around the house.  I knew I couldn’t just up and leave.  Finally, when he demanded I quit my job, I stood up to him and told him no. That was the first time he hit me. That continued for months.  I was ready to give up on myself.”

“What happened next huh? How did he end up in prison?” Steve demanded as he leaned over the counter, staring at you with those piercing eyes.  

“I got lucky,” you replied. “We were out shopping one day.  He felt bad for the wrist he broke the night before so he took me shopping.  One of the sales ladies escorted me into a fitting room and I slipped her a note letting her know what was going on.  I stayed in the fitting room for as long as possible.  And then I heard them.  The police. The sales lady called the police for me and they took him away.  He’s been locked up ever since.”

Closing your eyes, you let the tears slip down your cheek.  “You were so brave,” Bucky cooed as you felt his lips on the top of your head.

“Look at me Y/N,” Steve demanded yet again and that deep feeling to please him was happening again. You snapped your head up and looked directly into his eyes.  “That will never happen in this relationship. Do you understand me?”  You simply nodded.  “Bucky and I would never hurt you like that.  Ever.  You have our word.”  As soon as he finished talking, he stormed out of the kitchen and down the hallway to where you only assumed was his room.  

“Just give him a minute to cool off sweetheart,” Bucky spoke in your ear.  “Stevie gets pent up sometimes and he has a lot on his plate. He may seem like it, but he’s not mad at you.  I promise.”

You collapsed into Bucky’s chest and softy sobbed.  It felt like a weight was lifted off your shoulders and you were relieved to have told them about John.  “I’m so sorry you had to go through that doll.  That will never happen to you again.  We won’t let anything like that happen.”

It couldn’t have been more than 10 minutes later when Steve emerged from his room.  “How about we go down and show you the communal kitchen and living room.  Give you a little tour.  What do you say?”

A small smile broke across your face.  “I’d like that very much.”

As the elevators opened to the communal floor, you jaw dropped.  If you thought Steve and Bucky’s apartment was big, this was ten times the size. Not only were there ample more couches, the television was bigger and there was a large dining table big enough to sit at least twenty people.  

“Holy crap,” you exclaimed in awe.  

“Yeah, Tony likes to go big if you couldn’t already tell,” Steve joked.  

“You think?” you quipped back, earning a smirk from Steve.  

The entire space was void of anyone except the three of you as Steve pulled you further into the living room.  He explained that the group tries to do a movie night at least once a week.  “To make things as fair as possible, Tony pulls a name out of a hat to see who gets to pick the movie that night,” Bucky said.

“Yeah but it doesn’t really work.  There is still always complaining and bitching from everyone else.  Mainly Clint,” Steve chimed in.  

It made you giggle, genuinely giggle and it felt good.  That hadn’t happened in quite some time.  

Steve and Bucky guided you towards the hallway, explaining that these were the ‘hobby rooms’ of everyone and their soulmates.  Steve opened the door to the one at the end of the all on right left side.  

“This will be your room. You can make it anything you want. But I’m going to guess this will be your game room where you work.”

“That would be correct,” you answered as you turned on the light.  The room was very decent sized and you would have no problem fitting all of your gamer stuff in here.  Hell, there would be a lot of room left over and you were quickly trying to think what else you could fit in here.  

“C’mon.  Let’s go back to our floor and we can show you your room up there.”

On the elevator ride back to their apartment, Steve and Bucky explained who all lived in the tower and who their soulmates were.  Tony and Pepper were soulmates together, along with Bruce.  Bruce was best friends with Tony and more of a brother figure to Pepper. Then there was Natasha, Clint and Darcy Lewis and they were all in an intimate relationship together.  Lastly, there was Thor and Jane but they didn’t stay in the tower too much as they spent most of their time on Asgard.  

Steve stopped in front of your door.  It was across the hall from Bucky’s and right next door to Steve’s.  

“Go ahead and open it,” Steve said with a smile.  “Just place your hand over the screen.”

Taking a deep breath, you did as he said and placed your hand, palm down, on the digital screen where there would normally have been a doorknob.  With a soft click, the door opened for you and you walked into your new place.  It was nothing like what you were thinking. You were honestly just guessing it would be a bedroom, but no, this was an entire apartment.  

Straight ahead was a decent sized kitchen.   There was dark cherry wood cabinet with black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.  To the left is what you would assume would be the living room, however it was completely bare of any furniture.  As you continued to move through the apartment you found that the bedroom was all the way in the back.  It was a very nice sized master bedroom with the biggest walk in closet and on suite bathroom you had ever seen.  

“What do you think?” Bucky asked as he came up behind you and placed his hands on your shoulders.  

“It’s big,” you replied with a chuckle.  

“I’m going to have Tony’s interior designer email you.  Give him examples and ideas of what you would like and she will make it happen.  Don’t worry about prices.  This is Tony’s gift to you.”

Your eyes grew wide at his statement.  “Are you sure?”

“Yes sweetheart,” Steve replied as he slipped his hand in yours.  “We want the best for you.  Whatever you want this new home of yours to look like, then so be it.  We will make it happen for you.”

~~~

That night as you lay in bed after spending time with Steve and Bucky, you couldn’t help but frown. Things had seemed to be going much better tonight than they did when you first met them two days ago.  Now, you had to pack up your apartment and move. You weren’t really nervous about that part, hell, you were looking forward to it.  But then it meant things were starting to get real.  When things start to get intimate with them, would you be able to let yourself go and do that?  Would things be vanilla in the bedroom? Would you be able to tell them that because the only sexual experiences you’ve ever had was being raped, that you could now only get yourself off on violent fantasies of being raped, or tied up, or choked?  Fuck, what was wrong with you?

[xpeachesncream]

Hi! A drabble idea i have for perfectly wrongnis that in an alternative universe where y/n ends up with jk and tae is jealous so he goes after her, you can decide the ending 😙👉👈

perfectly wrong | drabble [8]: who said you didn’t want jeon jungkook the way he wanted you?

word count: 2.3k

warnings: cussing, jealousy, almost had a taehyung v. jungkook round 2, alcohol consumption, block party scene, slight angst?

note: (this takes place after chapter 12) HOHHHKAY, ANON! I SEE YOU! I LOVE THE SWITCH UP HERE! we are in this thangythang 🤪 gotta show our other baby some love, right? this also ended up being a lot longer than planned so i’m sorry lol i just didn’t know how to end it properly. enjoy!

Enough time had passed and you were tired. You were tired and you were over this shit. Hell to the no you were not gonna let this man keep on walking all over you. This was not you.

You picked yourself up and dusted off your shoulders.

You've deleted Taehyung's number for good. Tossed out all those memories, the need, the want for him. You pushed aside longing for that familiar feeling. You were done and Taehyung fucking hates it. If he wasn't mad before, he's livid now. He hates losing. And he knows after the shit he pulled at Jin's party with Aiko and the way he disrespected you, he lost you fair and square. He noticed how well you were doing even after the whole incident - clinging onto Jungkook and the public PDA, doing all the flirty, cute couple shit. It drives him crazy that it can't be him, and he knows he's to blame for his stupid antics and messy attitude. He truly can't say he regrets throwing fists at Jungkook. Somehow, Taehyung knew he was always going to lose this battle in the end. It was only a matter of time.

"Wakey wakey to my favorite couple!" Yoongi yelled, repeatedly opening and closing Jungkook's door before he finally had the nerve to jump on top of you two snuggled under his sheets. "Block party time!"

"Get the fuck off." You mumbled near the crook of Jungkook's neck, causing him to slightly chuckle as he tried to wake himself up. Yoongi didn't move, his body weight still fully on top of you two, so you did what you had to do and kicked him off.

"Aish! Agh, ow!" He laughed as he fell onto the floor, grabbing his shin. Jungkook shot his head up and began to laugh, watching as he dramatically limped out of the room. "Y/N kicked me off the bed." He begins to tell Hobi, in which Hobi faintly replied with a 'serves you right for going into the room like that.'

"Did you really have to do that?" Kook snickered as he booped your nose and watched you stir in your position. Jungkook, surprisingly, had easily welcomed the fact that you've passed the unspoken "bestfriend" boundaries over time and how you opened that door. The title alone is what gave you both those boundaries, but if it were up to him, he would have asked you a long time ago about taking this further. He loved you, he truly did. He always has, but he always respected you before anything else. He just wanted to make sure you were happy first and foremost, whether or not that meant being with him or someone else, so he never pressed it. Instead, he figured he'd let it naturally happen if it was meant to. 

For the most part, you were good and that's all that mattered. You were good even though Taehyung had the nerve to do this shit to you and to call you a meaningless fuck. You were good because you had someone like Jungkook that could make you feel safe and protected. This entire time had you wondering if the person you were really meant to be with was in front of you this whole time. Why were you chasing someone like Taehyung when Jungkook was here? All the shit Jin and your friends had tossed your way, teasing you about your relationship with Kook - maybe it was true. Maybe there was some truth to it. That's why you opened the door to see what the other side was about.

"100%." You sat up to fully wake yourself up from the nap. Kook gets himself out first and heads to the bathroom to get ready. Once it was your turn to get ready, he waited outside in the living room along with Yoongi and Hobi. There was a block party happening downtown, with Yoongi and his friends dj'ing for some part of it. There would be tons of local restaurants, beer, wine and other food trucks in attendance, along with other activities like face painting and temporary tattoo booths, shit you'd pretty much see at a fair.

You'd done a great job avoiding Taehyung and running into him head on, so you were hoping your streak would remain alive tonight. You knew he'd be there. There was no way he wasn’t going to. Taehyung and his friends were always present at any event.

His silence was a curse. Had always been. So if he had anything to say to you now, you didn't wanna hear it.

After sitting in the car, taking swigs of vodka from a water bottle and chasing with White Claws, you all find yourselves walking through the food trucks and booths. The block party is fucking packed from end to end on the street, with You, Jungkook and Hobi trying your hardest to stick together. Yoongi had ran off to the main stage, already starting his set as you three are trying to find a good spot to dance and chill at. Kook is holding your hand, but as soon as you all find a spot you agree with, he's bringing you to the front so you could dance with and on him. Really, it's nothing new to you two, the dynamic not really changing even if you were exploring new heights in your relationship with him. Your friends also really appreciate the dynamic between you, them never really feeling like they're third-wheeling or out of place.

When DJ Yoongi is starting to slow the music down, Jungkook wraps his arms around your neck, singing along and holding you close as you vibe to the beat of Southside by Lloyd and Ashanti. Hobi is standing next to you like Kris Jenner, recording Yoongi during his entire set and trying his hardest not to bounce around too much while recording. All of a sudden, Yoongi's friend hops onto the tables and shit gets turnt really quick. It's almost like a mosh pit, except you and Jungkook were able to make it out and Hobi is somewhere within the crowd trying to find Yoongi on the other end.

"Shit, where's Hobi?" You said while tippytoeing, trying to catch a glimpse of his head in the sea of people.

"He'll be okay, I think? Let's head to the other side and see if we can find him and Yoongi." Jungkook says, intertwining his hands with yours as he leads the way towards the other side. It's a little calmer on this side being that there's a barrier to block off the party from the sidewalk area. You two catch a glimpse of Hobi making his way towards Yoongi next to the stage, allowing you to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ah, okay. I see him. Thank god." You say, pushing your back against the wall. You were just worried he would get hurt trying to find his way through.

"Hobi's a big boy." Jungkook chuckles, scrunching his nose. You two observe from the sidelines for a bit, figuring this is probably the safest area to stay at for awhile. "Hey, I'm gonna head to the bathroom, okay? You gonna be alright here?" Jungkook squeezes your hand as he looks down at you.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." He smiles toothlessly before planting a quick kiss on your head. You watch as he waddles off to the bathroom, a line starting to form around the corner just to get in like it's some kind of club. You lean your back against the wall, scrolling through your phone to keep yourself busy until he gets back.

"So, that's it, huh? Can't say I'm surprised, though." Taehyung says, coming out of fucking nowhere? He comes closer, nodding towards Jungkook's way. His eyes are piercing through you, and suddenly, every moment you had spent with him flashes in your head.

"Please get the hell away from me."

"Can we just talk for a minute?" Was he serious right now? Out of all fucking places?

"Talk about what, Taehyung?"

"Look, let me just say this. I'm sorry for how things went down at Jin's party. I—" He paused. "I didn't mean the things that I said."

"Then maybe you should learn how to think before you let shit come out of your mouth." You turn behind you to check if Jungkook is coming back anytime soon, but you don't see a sign of him. "I'm really not trying to do this--"

"Maybe next time you shouldn't come at me about toying with emotions." He's furrowing his brows, slight anger peeking through his eyes. He shakes his head before he steps closer to you, his hands dug into his pockets. "Can you really say that you're done with us?" He says softly, his gaze following from your eyes to your lips.

"Us?" You scoff. "There was never an us." You glare at him. "This is done. You said all of this yourself, loud and clear."

"Y/N, I was stupid. I just didn't know how to control my feelings about everything going on." His jaw slightly clenches.

"And that's your problem. You don't know how to control anything. You have things you need to figure out and quite frankly, I'm not trying to be around for it. I'm not waiting for you to get your shit together. I don't fucking deserve to put myself through this after all the mess you've caused, all the shit you've said to me." You shook your head "No."

"It's been Jungkook this whole time, hasn't it?" He scoffs. "You always denied it, but you knew it was always going to be him."

"Don't turn this on me."

"So, what? You think he's gonna do you like I did?" He comes closer, his breath hitting against the side of your neck. "Touch you like I did? Fuck you the way that I did?"

"None of that matters if you can't even pull yourself together and own up to your shit."

"You know this isn't what you want."

"And how do you know what I want, Taehyung? You don't even know what you want for yourself." He glares down at you.

"It's still you."

"Bullshit, you don't disrespect someone and expect them to come back. Not me." Suddenly, you feel Jungkook's hand around your wrist. You turn to see him and Taehyung having a stare off, afraid of what might ensue if you don't get Jungkook to walk away. You were not trying to have a Taehyung v. Jungkook Royal Rumble 2, not with all the cops and security present here.

"Are you serious?" Taehyung laughs. "If he's really the one you want, then whatever. So be it, I guess."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Jungkook spits out as you grip his arm tightly.

"Just thought your girl might have second thoughts, that’s all." He smirked slyly while shrugging. The thing with Taehyung is that he knew how to piss of anybody. He just didn’t give a flying fuck.

"Taehyung, stop." You say, getting in the middle. "We don't have shit to discuss anymore, okay? This is done. Get yourself together before you think about fucking over somebody else." You slightly push Jungkook to walk away, his eyes still kept on Taehyung until you've placed enough distance between the two.

"What else did he say to you?"

"Nothing, Kook."

"Y/N."

"He just tried to talk to me about Jin's party and apologize."

"Apologize?" He furrows his forehead.

"Leave it, Jungkook. It's fine, alright?" He sighs heavily.

"Alright." Jungkook doesn't say much for the rest of the night, and so don't you. You both tried your hardest to push it aside and enjoy the rest of the night, but everyone knows the damage Taehyung has done and what that comes with. It's just awkward, and a really uncomfortable vibe whenever you two happen to cross paths again in one way or another. You weren't trying to be friends, you weren't trying to talk about anything. He made himself clear at Jin's party. You weren't shit to him. So why should you care?

After the block party, everyone is pretty tired and is ready to go straight to bed. You all take turns washing up and getting ready in Jungkook's apartment, Jungkook being the last to step out of the bathroom in a shirt and pajama pants. He watches you sit on his bed quietly, scrolling through your phone.

"Hey." He says softly, gently touching your arm to bring you closer to him.

"Yeah?"

"You know I care about you, right? You know how I feel about you." He says in a soft tone.

"I know."

"So then you know that your happiness is more important to me than mine. You're what matters here."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I know I tell you time and time again that you deserve better than Taehyung, but part of me also feels like I really can't stop you from feeling what you feel. If you--" His head drops as he sighs. "If you wanna work this out with him, just tell me." He says, genuinely concerned about your feelings. He knows he wouldn't hurt you but he's also partially afraid that you might be distracted since things didn't turn out well with Taehyung. Although, whatever, it's always gonna be a big fuck you to him. He's an asshole, and Jungkook was never going to change his mind about it. But what mattered here was you. Kook knew you deserved way better and he was willing to be that for you, but he wasn't going to force you if this wasn't where you truly wanted to be.

"I am happy. Right here."

"Are you sure?"

"Kook. That's done with. I'm not going anywhere."

"Okay." Is all he responds with before he's pressing lips into a fine line and squeezing your hand. He leans over to kiss you on the forehead before he makes his way out of the room to help your bestfriends get settled out in the living room.

[toothpastecanyon]

Noie's Friends, Chapter 3

A collection of oneshots about Noie's years at college.

See most updated version on Archive of Our Own.

_____________________________________________________________

“Hmm… what should I have today? What, should, I, have?”

Tapping on the counter. Noie stretched her shoulders a bit, and tapped the register to stop it going to sleep.

“Huh. You know, I just don’t know any of these teas.” The man scratched his stubble. “You guys sell an awful lot of them, don’t you?”

“Yes. We’re a tea shop, sir.”

“Oooh, sir. I don’t get sir’ed very often…” he peered at her name tag. “Naomi. Oh, that’s a pretty name. Where’s it from?”

She shrugged.

“You don’t know? Oh, I know where my name comes from, John’s a good English name, you know? There was a King John once. In fact, how’s about I write it down on this napkin…”

Noie found herself glancing over his shoulder. If only she could tell him there was a line.

“You can call me up anytime, little lady.” He passed it to her with a wink. “Anyway, where was I… Oh, do you guys have Dr Salt? I think I’ll take that over your weird teas.”

“Okay, we’ve got them in the back.” Noie stepped away. “They’re kind of expensive here, though.”

“Aw, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Hey, don’t forget my napkin!”

Noie headed to the back, which was a small tiled room with an asphyxiatingly-strong stench of various spices. Even after a week she still hadn’t gotten used to it; her eyes watered a tiny bit as she headed to the tiny soda fridge in the corner of the room.

“Somebody wants another soda?” A voice - Sara stepped out from behind a column of spices. “They know there’s a restaurant right next to us, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s here for a drink.” She tossed the napkin at her. “Check out what he passed me.”

Noie opened the fridge and picked a soda out. She heard a sniggering from behind her.

“Why did he…” Sara snorted. “Why did he write ‘King John winky face’ on it?”

“Oh my god, did he? I didn’t even look at it.”

“Yeah, look at it there. He sounds like a real catch.” She shook her head. “You want me to go out there? I can always chase off a creepy guy.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Thanks, though.” Noie heard the front door jingle. “Oh, sweet, new people!”

“Now you can tell him there’s a line.”

“Hah! Did you read my mind?” She winked at Sara as she opened the door. “Seeya.”

“Silver!”

Noie recognised the group strolling into the shop - and especially the woman in pyjamas making hre way to the counter. “Bea! Isn’t it Magic 101 for Gus and Mina right now? I thought you guys were coming after that.”

“Hey,” The man glanced between them. “About my order-”

“What, you dreading us?” Bea winked at her. “Nah, there was - heh - a little accident in the labs.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She stabbed a thumb back at Gus, who seemed to be missing his eyebrows. “You should get the story from ol’ fire fingers over there. I hear primary sources make the most engaging narratives.”

The man cleared his throat. “Excuse me-”

“Oh, I’ll ring your soda up for you, it’s five dollars.” Noie grinned at Bea. “Did he blow himself-”

“Five dollars?!”

“-up?”

“I’m not saying nothing! You’ll have to-”

“Excuse me kid, I’m still ordering!” The man shoved Bea a little back. “Hey, what’s the big idea? I could go down to the gas station and get this for a fifth of what I’m paying here! What kind of stupid fucking-”

Bea tapped his shoulder, and he stopped midsentence with a choking gasp. He grabbed his throat gasping for air, eyes bugging out, and started coughing up leaves and loose soil. She pushed him aside, and leaned an elbow on the counter.

“Okay, so what’ll we have today?” Bea slid the soda away. “Obviously not that - jeez, five dollars? Does anyone actually buy those?” A pause. “What?”

Noie was leaning over the counter with wide eyes. The man was on his hands and knees, making shallow gagging sounds. “Uh, Bea? Is he gonna be alright?!”

“Hmm? Oh, sorry about the mess. Shouldn’t have done that spell indoors.” She snapped her fingers, and everything dissolved into air. The man gave a gasp of relief, and curled up into a shuddering foetal position. “Now I’m the bad customer, right? There you go.”

“But is he gonna be okay?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s an old elven children’s prank. I don’t know why he’s being such a baby about it.” She nudged his leg. “Come on, man. I’ve seen elflings half your age take this better than you. Stop crying.”

As Noie watched, Sara came out of the back. She saw her peeking around the corner- as soon as she caught sight of Bea and the others, she came wandering out.

“Oh, hey guys! Hi Bea!”

“How’s it hanging.”

“You’re here early, right? Why do I feel like- oh my stars, Gus, your eyebrows! Your hair!”

Laughter erupted across the table, and Gus went red. Bea chuckled.

“Yeah, tell her the whole thing, dude!” Bea turned back to Noie. “Eh, I think we’ll all just have our usual. You know what that is, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Noie turned towards the brewing machines. “Alright, gimme a second…”

She got out a pot, and from behind her she heard the ongoing conversation.

“So what happened, dude? Did you blow yourself up?”

“I didn’t blow myself up-“

“Yeah, cause it was a candle spell.” There was a chuckle from Bea. “First time I’ve ever heard of a human hurting themselves on one of those.”

“No, no, okay, so I had my hands like this, okay! I was rubbing my forehead from all the Latin, and then suddenly my head feels really warm and Mina starts screaming that my hair’s on fire.”

“Your hair was on fire, dude. It looked like a campfire up there for a second.”

“Yeah, and then Mr Jasko grabbed me and basically threw me into the lab shower. How often does that water get cleaned, do you think? It smelled really bad.”

Noie poured the tea, and turned around as it brewed. She saw Gus rubbing at his eyebrows; Jess was patting his shoulder.

“Ughhhh… I look like a damn thumb.”

“No you don’t, dude. You still have… some of your hair.”

“Oh yeah, that’s great, that’s great. Some of my hair.” He ran a hand through it. “Shit, and I have a date this Friday! Do you think it’ll grow back by then?”

“I can grow things.” Bea gave a smile. “Hair is kinda like moss, right?”

“Oh no, you are not touching my hair, Bea. I know you too well.”

“Yeah, you do. But really, that sucks, man. I’m sorry for you.”

“Maybe I’ll just wear a hat,” Noie heard as she placed all the mugs onto a tray. “Hats are cool right? He’ll think it’s cool, right?”

Noie walked over. “I’m sure it’ll go fine, dude.” She carefully placed the tea right next to Gus’ book. “At least you gotta get a good grade on the fire spell thing, right?”

“Well, I didn’t exactly light a candle, did I.” He flipped his textbook to a certain page, and picked up his tea. “The lab’s probably gonna be redone anyway. I gotta study up for it.”

“Heh, don’t go saying it out loud again-”

“No. No, I won’t, Mina.”

Noie started going around the table, but Sara suddenly noticed her and jumped up. “Oh my gosh! Noie, I should’ve been helping! Let me do that!”

“Oh, it’s fine-”

She took the tray. “No, no, you made it, I’ll do the rest. Bea, were you paying?”

“Yeah, it’s my turn.” Bea turned around, digging in her pockets. There seemed to be a lull in conversation as everyone set up their books and magi-orbs; Noie found herself standing awkwardly behind Gus, looking down at his textbook.

Huh. She’d never actually looked inside a magic textbook before; it looked a lot like any other, with dense pages of information cut up by a few diagrams and headings - here, the headings seemed to be the spell incantations themselves, judging by the fact that they were in latin. There was one incantation next to a drawing of someone lighting a candle with their finger; that was probably the one Gus messed up on.

She frowned. How do you even pronounce Latin? She tried sounding it out in her head, flam-mul-a ex stud-

There was a shout. The next thing Noie knew she was on the floor, her hands twisted behind her back. She opened her mouth, but-

“D’arvit!” Bea’s voice was right next to her ear, louder and sterner than she’d ever heard. “The hell are you playing at, Naomi!”

“Wh-what-”

“Don’t let me ever see you trying that shit again! You know better!”

Noie blinked; she could hardly form words. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! What did I do?”

“You don’t know?!” A pause. “You don’t know?”

“No!” Noie tried to move her arm, but it wouldn’t budge. “Agh, ugh, I think you’re twisting my wrist!”

There was a moment of silence, and then Bea let go of her completely. She pulled Noie up, and there was something strange in her eyes as she patted her down. She felt along Noie’s wrist, and Noie couldn’t help but notice the whole table had turned around to stare at them.

Noie shivered at that… shivered. She felt strangely cold, strangely drained. She opened her mouth, but nothing really came out.

Mina was the first one to speak. “Uh, Bea,” she started. “What was that about? What happened?”

Bea’s eyes flitted up to her, and then traced across the whole group. She let go of Noie’s arm, and after a moment, Noie could see her stretch a big smile across her face.

“What was that?” Bea asked, and then gave Noie a light shove. “Pranked! It was a prank! You should’ve seen your face, Silver!”

She gave a great laugh, but Noie could still see that glint in her eyes. She didn’t laugh back; no one did.

“Eh? Prank? Nobody up for some good ol’ horsing around?”

“Seriously? That, uh, wasn’t very funny, Bea.” Sara walked over to Noie. “I think you really freaked her out. You freaked me out.”

“Yeah, me too.” Gus frowned at her. “You really shouldn’t tackle someone like that. That hurts.”

“I see your point, I see your point.” Bea raised her hands. “Guess I don’t know my own strength. I won’t do it again… unless, like, hypothetically, you were standing next to some kind of bomb and I had to tackle you to save your life-”

“Dude. Just apologise.”

“Alright, I was getting to it!” She looked at Noie, and held out her hand. “Hey. I’m sorry I freaked you out.”

Noie glanced down at her hand. She gingerly took it. “Uh, no problem, Bea-”

We need to talk.

She froze at a clear voice in her head - Bea’s voice. Still smiling, the elf nodded once, and let go.

“Alright, glad we reached an understanding.” She dusted her hands off. “Now, what was I doing? Oh right, paying for junk! Sara, get over here!”

Sara put a hand on Noie’s shoulder - it was strangely warm, or maybe Noie was strangely cold. “Are you gonna be okay?” She asked. “You’re shivering.”

“Me? Um,” Noie gulped. “Y-yeah, I’ll be, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“You should go stand out in the sun for a bit. I’ll cover for you.”

“Yeah, that… that sounds good. Thanks.”

Sara gave her a quick smile, a squeeze, and then headed off. Noie watched her go, then looked towards the front doors. She stumbled as she made her way over, and struggled a little to open them.

She stepped out into the sun, into the harsh rays beating down on her face, her shirt, her soul…

And still she shivered a little.

She needed… she needed to sit down. Wow.

_____________________________________________________________

The little study session ended much sooner than usual - only a little after the end of Noie’s shift. It was a bit awkward the whole time, with Gus touching his hair and Sara shooting daggers into the back of Bea’s head. For Noie it still felt like an eternity; she’d managed to warm up, but there was still a strange weakness in her knees, a sluggishness in her mind that was hard to shake.

It was strange. The looks Bea kept shooting her didn’t help either. What was going on?

“I think I’ll be heading out,” Gus said, closing his textbook. “Gonna go hat shopping.”

“Oh, if you’re heading out, I might too.”

“Yeah, it’s getting late.”

As everyone started packing up, Noie felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey,” Sara spoke quietly. “You, uh, want a ride home?”

Noie glanced over at Bea, who was ostensibly cleaning her magi-orb; somehow Noie still felt watched.

“Uh,” she started. “That’s okay, thank you. I think I’m gonna walk home - uh, with Bea.”

Sara frowned. “You sure?”

“Don’t worry,” Bea spoke without looking up. “I won’t tackle her again, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Noie gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, it’s fine. It’s fine, Sara. Thanks.”

Sara didn’t look entirely convinced, but she hugged her goodbye and left the shop. The rest of the group filtered out shortly after, leaving only the two of them, sitting across from each other.

Bea didn’t immediately talk. Noie tapped her fingers a little on the desk; she made a face, and then opened her mouth.

“Bea-“

Bea stood up. “Walk with me, will you?”

“What?”

“Just follow me.” She reached out an arm. “Take my hand.”

“Why?”

“I wanna show you something.” She flashed a smile. “You’ll like it, I promise. Trust me on this, Silver.”

Noie hesitated… but after a moment, she did take her hand. Bea gently pulled her upright, and led her out the door. Immediately they turned into a back alley, and Noie frowned.

“Uh, where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

“Why are you being so weird about this?” She stumbled as they made their way down the edge of a parking lot. “What happened back there? And, uh, not to be rude, but did you do something to me? I feel kinda weird after you tackled me back there.”

“Hmm?” Bea suddenly turned and lead them through a dead bush. “Oh, yeah, sorry about that. It’ll go back to normal in the next few days.”

A twig slapped her in the face. “What? What’ll go back to normal?”

“Your, uh, magic.”

“Magic? What?” Noie could hardly see her through the greenery now. “Okay, where are we going, seriously? There’s got to be an easier way to-“

She stumbled out of the bushes, and blinked hard. Her eyes went wide.

“To…”

They were inside the biggest forest Noie had ever seen in her life. Old growth trees with trunks wider than a car towered way overhead, up into a canopy of leaves that caught all but little flickers of sunlight. Beneath her feet was suddenly ferns and mulch, and all around her were animal sounds - caws, chirps, cheeps, foliage cracking, woodpeckers hammering. This was… Noie looked to Bea, and found her grinning back.

“This…” she managed. “This isn’t Arizona.”

“Sure it is! Also it isn’t. Don’t worry about it.”

“Did you teleport us?”

“No, no.” Bea let go of her hand. “This is, uh… well, there isn’t really an English word for it - let’s call it the Elfscape!” She snorted. “Stars, the Elders can never catch me calling it that.”

“Elfscape? Like the Mindscape-”

“It’s complicated, it’s, uh… well, kinda, but it’s more physical than the Mindscape. Or maybe it’s the Earth’s Mindscape?” She shrugged. “Look, it’s complicated even for elves, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Oh, okay?”

“Also, uh, if you see anything between the trees, try not to stare at them.”

“What?” Noie followed her gaze, and saw a shadowy figure far in the distance. There was something eerily… angry, there - she could feel it like a pit in her stomach. She looked back at Bea. “Uh, what’s that?”

“Another elf. They’re probably fine - they just get a bit touchy about outsiders coming here.” Bea gave a laugh. “I’m gonna get an earful about it when I next visit for sure.”

Noie frowned. “Then, uh, why’d you bring me here?”

“Because you are gonna test something for me real quick.”

“Test something?”

“Yeah!” Bea touched her hand, and gently lifted it up. “Alright, that goes - yeah, there. And point for me; any finger’s fine. Yeah, that looks good!”

Noie found herself pointing straight forwards. She raised an eyebrow at Bea. “Uh, okay?”

“Now, I want you to say flammula ex studio.” A small flame appeared on Bea’s thumb; she winked when Noie’s eyes went wide. “Can you do that?”

“Are you trying to get me to do magic? I don’t think I can do that kinda stuff; don’t you have to really practice for it? And-“

“Just! Just indulge me for a second, Silver.” Bea stepped back. “Try it. Please?”

Noie made a face at her, then turned to look forwards again. She felt a little ridiculous standing here like this, but Bea shot her another smile and she sighed.

“Okay… fine. Fine. What do I have to say again?”

“Flammula ex studio. Whenever you’re ready.”

Noie grimaced. “Okay, here goes nothing. Flammula ex studio.”

She’d hardly finished the incantation when she felt a rush of heat. One moment she was standing there, the next all she could see was a great ball of fire coming out of her fingertip.

“Wha- oh, shit!” Noie jumped back and instinctively tried to shake it off. “Bea! Bea! Help, I’m on fire! I’m on-”

With a chuckle, Bea walked over and put a hand over the flames. They seemed to extinguish it, and Noie was left standing there, eyes wide, heart thudding in her chest. Distantly she could hear Bea laughing.

“Now that is what you call no flow control!” Bea patted her shoulder. “You really haven’t done magic before, huh? Wow!”

Noie gulped, and tried to steady her breathing. She forced herself to meet Bea’s eyes, and opened her mouth. “W-w-what was that? Why did th-that happen?”

“Why’d you think? Magic!”

“Magic?”

“You better believe it! Seems like you’ve got a bit more juice in your tank than the average human! A lot more juice, but of course,” Bea winked at her. “I already knew that.”

Noie blinked. “You did?”

“Course I did! Magic’s not subtle, Silver. It’s written all over you!” She patted her shoulder. “Honestly, the only thing I’m surprised by is that you didn’t know. Don’t human schools have those little magic exams in elementary school these days?”

“Magic exams?” Noie frowned. “I don’t remember those… but I was exempt from magic stuff as a kid. Dipper has magic sensitivity, so he-” She glanced at Bea. “Oh. That was, uh, his cover when we were growing up.”

“Huh, not a bad cover.” She rubbed her chin. “Well, that definitely clears it up, but that’s still nuts to me that you didn’t know. I guess that’s just me talking, though; I dunno what I’d do without magic.”

Noie laughed a bit at that, but the sound faded away quickly. She found herself looking down at her hands, rubbing her fingers. They still felt warm, and she frowned.

“Bea?”

“Yeah?”

“You said…” Noie clasped her hands against her chest. “You said I had more magic than most humans.”

“I did.” She chuckled. “Gus’d have a way worse day if he could do what you can.”

“But - how? Is it just… random chance? Do you know?”

“Do you know?”

Bea had that strange shine in her eyes again. Noie hesitated as she stepped a little closer.

“I’m asking you seriously.” Bea was studying her face; after a moment, she looked away. “You know, it’s a common joke that humans suck at magic, but you know why they do?”

“Why?”

“Cause of the Transcendence. Or at least, all that time leading up to the Transcendence, living in a world without magic. Y’know, elves were in their forests, mermaids were in the seas, all your city preters kept themselves under wraps.” Bea touched a budding leaf, and watched it open. “Magic follows magic, and for thousands of years, you guys just weren’t having much sent your way. Now you’re playing catch up.”

She looked at Noie with a knowing smile.

“So that leaves us two possibilities,” she said, and pushed off the tree. “Either you’re just a real lucky human - and that happens! - oooor, someone in your family was a little more in touch with their magic, if you know what I mean.”

“More in touch-” Noie started, and then she stopped dead. Oh.

Oh, she knew exactly where she got this from.

“Anyway, you don’t have to say anything. Just telling you what might be going on” She passed by Noie. “You wanna head home? I’m thinking I should probably take you back to your brother before he thinks I trapped you in an alternate dimension or something.”

“But- what do I do?”

Bea raised her eyebrows. “Do about what?”

“I-I nearly burned everyone back at the tea shop without even realising!” Noie stammered over her words. “What if that happens again? I was lucky you were there - I don’t know how to control that on my own!”

“Hey, don’t panic. Panic makes magic explode, I’ve heard.”

“Wh- that’s not funny, Bea!”

“I know, I know.” She chuckled to herself. “Couldn’t help myself, but, uh, if you’re asking for serious advice, I guess you could just make sure you never read anything that sounds like a spell again. Oh, also, since you don’t have to speak it out loud, try not to think too hard about that spell I taught you, flammula ex studio.” She gave a sly grin. “Yeah, don’t even think about flammula ex studio, don’t even think the words flammula ex studio, don’t-”

“Please stop.”

“Okay, or what you could do - and I think this is better - you could maybe learn some basic flow control so you stop going full blast on every random spell you see. It’s not hard to learn, I bet I could give you a handle on it in a couple hours.”

Noie just stared at her. Stared, as she reached out a hand.

“C’mon, Silver. Let’s get you home.”

After a moment, Noie took a deep breath, in, and out. She swallowed, and then she took Bea’s hand. Bea smiled, and then took them through a bush; they made their way through the greenery, through cool leaves brushing past her face, and then came out in the garden bordering Noie’s dorm. She looked behind her, and saw not a forest but a shrub and the corner of a building. There was a chuckle from Bea.

“Yeah, don’t tell the others about that little trick. They’ll be asking me for shortcuts until the end of time.”

“Hah, yeah-”

“Wait.” Bea held up a hand. “Do you hear that?”

“You!”

A shout. Someone was stomping over to them - someone with a suit, glowing eyes, and a shadow that sported wings. Noie blinked.

“Dipper?”

“You’re okay!” Dipper hugged her tight, then turned to Bea. “Okay, where’d you take her?”

“Back to her dorm, of course.”

“Don’t play games with me, mortal.” He stabbed a finger at her. “I just spent the past hour tearing through pocket dimensions to see where the hell my sister went. Where’d you take her?”

Noie patted his shoulder. “Dipper…”

“Nah, it’s okay, it’s a fair question.” Bea brushed his finger away. “It’s just a little hangout place for elves, it was totally fine.” She chuckled. “I’m glad that’s the part you noticed - you know, not the part where I totally broke her arm a tiny bit. I thought I was a dead girl walking there.”

“You did what?!”

“You broke my arm?”

“See? She didn’t even notice before I healed it, it was fine.”

Noie watched Dipper make several attempts to speak. He clenched his clawed fists - and then, with some effort, unclenched them, and pinched his forehead.

“You… make it very hard for me to like you, you know?”

“Aww, I try.” Bea winked at Noie. “Anyway, I oughtta be heating out.” She took a step away, and then clicked her fingers. “Oh, you know who else could totally help you with magic? Demon boy over here’s pretty good at it, I’ve heard.”

“Magic?” Dipper looked over at her. “You want to learn that? I could definitely help.”

Noie stared back.

“What?”

“You knew I could do magic too?”

“Yeah?” Dipper frowned at her. “I could always tell, why?”

There came a chuckle from Bea as she walked away. “Yeah, you two have fun now! Bye!”

_____________________________________________________________

“So, you had a bit of a day.”

“Tell me about it.” Noie unlocked her dorm’s door and collapsed into bed. “I can’t believe you knew this whole time. You didn’t think to mention it?”

“I mean, no!” Dipper closed the door; immediately he shed his human form, and floated close to her. “I’m sorry, I just - I didn’t think you were that into magic!”

“Yeah, and why wasn’t I into magic when I was a kid again?” She huffed as his face dropped. “No, that’s not a- you don’t have to feel bad about it, but that’s just the truth. I didn’t know about this because of your magic sensitivity.”

“Yeah…” Dipper looked down. “No, you’re right, you’re right.”

Silence hung there for a second. Noie rolled her eyes, and pulled him into bed.

“Hey!”

“Hey yourself.” She hugged him close. “Stop looking so sad; seriously, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m not really ‘into’ magic anyway; I was only annoyed because I’m not ‘into’ accidentally blowing myself up if I read some Latin.”

Dipper snorted at that, and she smiled. Stared up at the ceiling.

“Yeah…” she said. “It’s not important to me, you know? It’s not something I grew up with, or even knew that much about. Even if I had found out earlier… how much would it really matter, you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Noie looked at him. “I know where it came from, you know?”

“From where?”

“You don’t know?”

Dipper stared blankly.

“From Pinni, of course.” Noie made a face. “From… my mother.”

“Your mother?” He sat up. “Oh, right, I remember now! She was a selkie, right?”

“Apparently.”

“Yeah, yeah, I see that now. I totally forgot you’re a half-selkie-”

“I’m not a half-selkie, you can’t be half selkie.” Noie cut in, and then stopped herself. “Sorry, it’s just- it's a hereditary enchantment, not a separate species. And I'm long past the age when they were supposed to do the skin thing and everything, so I'm not a selkie, I'm fully human."

Dipper was looking at her askance; suddenly Noie heard how that came off. Her cheeks flushed.

"Not that it'd be bad if I was! I'm not, like, ashamed of it or anything, but it doesn't affect me all that much!” She gave a shrug. “Seriously, I live in a desert. I've never been to the ocean in my life - heck, I don't even know how to swim. Why would I go around telling people 'ooh, did you know I'm half selkie?' That'd be so obnoxious."

Dipper didn’t say anything to that. She rose to her feet.

“It’s just - what do I know about any of this, right? What do I know about magic, about selkies - fuck, what do I even know about my own mom?” She gestured at him. “At least Leon left videos, right! At least you and David met him, right! But who the fuck is Pinni? All I ever got was, I dunno, she’s nice? She’s shy?” An angry shrug. “Apparently she came from the ocean, whatever the fuck that means, so it sounds like I’d have a hell of a time tracking down any family on that side!”

“Noie?”

“It’s just - I’m fine that I never met these people, okay? They’re literally strangers to me, I don’t know why people expect me to feel devastated about them or something.” She stared at her hands. “I guess I just… that everything could’ve been so different, you know?”

A pause. Dipper said nothing, and she sighed.

“I could’ve known about magic. I could’ve actually met my parents. I could’ve been a fucking selkie - how weird is that?”

She chuckled, but then she looked back at Dipper. He had tears in his eyes, and she watched him hang his head.

“You could’ve,” he said, softly. “I’m sorry, Noie. If it weren’t for me, you could’ve had so, so much better-”

“No!”

Dipper glanced up sharply. She ran back to his side.

“Dipper, that’s - that’s not what I mean!” She put a hand on his shoulder. “You know, I think about how stuff could’ve been, a-and it scares me! I don’t want that!”

“What do you mean? You deserved so much better, you deserved to know your parents-”

“And if I had them, I would never have had you!” Noie snapped. She put her arms around him. “I don’t care if it would’ve been better. I don’t want to imagine myself in a timeline where you aren’t my brother, okay?”

Dipper hugged her back - lightly for a moment, but then he squeezed.

“And there’s… it feels like if just one thing had changed, I would never have known you at all, and I hate that… you know?”

There was a thick chuckle. “Oh, you might have known me. You’re still a Mizar, after all.”

“But you wouldn’t have been my brother.” Noie hugged him tighter. “And I’m so glad you are. I’m so glad. I love you, Dipper.”

She heard him say something like “I love you too”, but it was too shakey to make out, and when he buried his face in her shoulder, she felt wet tears on her shirt. She smiled at that, at his wings enveloping her, and just held him for a long, long time.

It was a warm kind of quiet. Neither of them quite let go, but eventually Noie shifted her leg, and Dipper pulled back a little to wipe his eyes. They looked at each other, and laughed a little.

“We’re a pair, aren’t we?” She said, and Dipper gave a chuckle.

“We are, we are…” He cleared his throat. “So, uh, I take it you aren’t up for magic lessons?”

“Huh? Oh, no…. Bea was right, I probably should learn the basics.” She brushed some hair out of her eyes. “You know, just so I don’t go blowing myself up accidentally.”

“Yeah.”

“After that… I dunno, maybe it’ll be fun? We’ll see how it goes.”

“I liked learning magic.” Dipper said. “Of course, my magic’s kind of… different from yours, but I think you’ll like it.”

“What, I won’t be making demon deals? Darn.”

“Oh, very funny.”

“I’m hilarious,” Noie said, and lay back down in her bed. Looked out her window, at the setting sun. After a moment, Dipper laid down next to her, and that warm silence descended on both of them again.

Words were needed no more. They held each other like that as Noie’s eyes drooped, as she drifted peacefully to sleep in her brother’s arms.

[an-sceal]

Sleeping Sickness (Cobra Kai Fic)

Unfinished and abandoned, but going through this I can see seeds of each of the other stories/series I've written since then. This was written before I'd seen all of season 2, and any of season 3. I ultimately binned it because in my headcanon there's no way Johnny would have let Kreese be around his students if he'd at ALL recognized what he went through as abuse.

CW: vague mentions of child abuse, child s**ual abuse, s**ual assault

Johnny

He doesn’t remember the drive from his apartment- had he been at his apartment? Didn’t he come from the dojo? That’s not unusual, the autopilot, but moreso than it used to be. He hasn’t gotten behind the wheel loaded in months. Buzzed, which, yaddayadda, but not blind drunk. For a second he doesn’t know where he is, and then LaRusso’s perfect fucking life swims into focus and he groans.

Leaning against his steering wheel hurts too much, pulls things in places he can’t think about right now. Johnny opens his door and stumbles out of his car, winding up on his hands and knees when he can’t swing the low exit with anything approaching grace. LaRusso’s driveway has a crack in it, unavoidable in earthquake country, but it’s incongruous with the shadow of perfection cast by LaRusso’s house.

Johnny shouldn’t be here, but he doesn’t know how to leave.

You can leave anytime you want, Mr. Lawrence. I’m not keeping you here.

“Fuck you, old man.” Johnny pulls himself to his feet, running a hand through his hair. His clothes feel constricting, seams digging in, buttons chafing his skin, but they’re holding him in, keeping the world at least that much farther away from him.

Johnny stands on the front step and tries to make himself knock. Or he thinks he does.

He doesn’t remember.

Daniel

He and Amanda are sitting together on the couch in their pajamas, about to turn off the news and head to bed when both their phones ding with a motion alert from the front door camera. Daniel glances across the living room toward the foyer and sees that the light has come on over the front step. He goes to check it out, expecting to chase the Shermans corgi out of the bushes again, and finds Johnny Lawrence standing two feet from his front door.

Johnny’s hands are clenched into fists. Daniel would take it as a threat, but Johnny’s eyes aren’t tracking him, aren’t assessing a place to strike. He narrows his own, but the only thing he can smell is the wisteria and night blooming jasmine that climbs the trellis over their entry way.

He waits for Johnny to say something. And waits. He’s about to shut the door and go to bed when Amanda speaks. “Would you like to come in, Johnny?”

Daniel glances sideways at her, but she’s not looking at him, not even to scold him for his lacking manners. She’s got a pinch between her eyebrows that wasn’t there a moment ago.

He backs away from the door to make room, but nothing happens. He waves a hand into the house. Same. He glances at Amanda, and the tightness around her eyes has become a small frown. Daniel clears his throat softly.

“Hey man, are you okay?”

He doesn’t get an answer, but as Johnny brushes past him on the way into the house he can smell beer. At this point the man is probably 5% alcohol by volume whether he’s been drinking or not. There’s nothing sharp to the smell, nothing fresh or hinting at a brown bag with an empty bottle on this lawn.

Amanda has already led their guest into the living room by the time he’s done locking the door again. He takes a seat beside her on the sofa, Johnny at an angle on the loveseat across from them.

They wait again. Daniel is already thrumming with the low-grade buzz of whatever it is that gets under his skin every time he sees Johnny Lawrence, and in the late night silence it’s easy to pretend it’s annoyance.

“Are you going to say--”

Amanda puts her hand on his knee, just as Johnny cuts him off.

“Would you take my kids if I close the dojo?” Johnny’s voice is wrecked. He sounds like he’s been smoking a pack a day for 40 years, or come down with strep throat and tried to gargle it away with battery acid.

Daniel’s jaw clicks shut. He… What now?

“That sounds painful. Let me get you some water, at least.” Amanda slips away toward the kitchen, placing a hand lightly on Johnny’s shoulder as she goes. Johnny flinches.

Daniel meets his thousand-yard stare with suspicion, still trying to nail down what flavour of wasted this might be. Maybe it’s drugs, but he can almost imagine the denial, the pitch Johnny’s voice would take on. “I’m a drunk, asshole, not a junkie.”

“They need someone--” Johnny breaks off into a small coughing fit, grimacing, and Daniel is starting to wonder if he’s got consumption or something. That, or maybe he’s high, and this is all a scruffy blonde hallucination.

“They’ve got you,” he allows, because he’s too tired to make it sound like an insult.

Something changes in Johnny’s face, under the obvious bruising and around his bloodshot eyes. He gets sharper, somehow, more in focus. His breath stutters, jaw clenching before he winces and squeezes his eyelids closed. He shifts on the sofa, obviously trying to adjust to whatever injury he’s currently favouring, and that same wreck of a voice is so much more at home now, so in keeping with the defensive way he holds himself.

“Can’t do it. Need someone to keep them safe from Kreese.”

They aren’t friends or anything, but Daniel knows enough to see how much it costs Johnny to be there, to ask that, to admit to wanting any help at all. He suspects if it wasn’t for his kids, Johnny would slink off into the hills like a coyote.

Where the hell did Amanda go, anyway?

Johnny’s gaze has dropped to his own hands, and Daniel follows it. A few of his knuckles are bloodied, and one finger is darkly bruised. There’s something under his fingernails, but it could be anything. Daniel tells himself that firmly. It could be anything. It’s blood.

“He’ll hurt them,” Johnny rasps, his large hands working over each other without a care for the obvious injuries.

It’s only because Daniel is staring at Johnny’s hands that he notices the fine tremors rippling through his whole body.

Johnny

He knows he’s fucked up by coming here, to Daniel with his permanent and well-earned grudge. To Lady LaRusso and her sharp-eyed sympathy. He knows. They’re going to see through him, realize his failure and fix it, and then he’ll leave.

Nausea cramps at his stomach again when Amanda comes back from the kitchen and hands him a mug of tea. What is it with fucking tea? This stuff smells like weak ginger ale and grass, and Johnny has to press his other hand over his mouth to make sure he swallows back the bile that rises in his throat. His throat feels…

It feels like nothing. It’s all nothing. He can get through this.

The mug is hot, and it feels good against the finger he thinks might be dislocated, maybe broken. The tea scalds his skin when he shakes a little too obviously, and someone takes it away. Someone is talking to him. Someone is asking him things he doesn’t know the answers to. Is he okay? Fuck yeah, he’s awesome- it’s the rest of the world that sucks. Is he hurt? Nothing hurts because everything hurts, and anyway he can’t draw a deep enough breath to explain that.

People are talking to him, blue eyes, brown, and he just needs it to be nothing again, so he covers his face with his hands and tries to block it out. But that’s for pussies anyway, and nothing happened.

“Hey, hey, stop that.” LaRusso’s wrapping a hand around his wrist, gently, but not the gentle of something delicate. Gently, because he thinks Johnny is dangerous, a cornered animal about to bite. Which he is. He’s biting his hand, making a noise, Jesus fuck, what kind of man makes that noise?

The renewed taste of blood in his mouth is such a welcome relief that it almost calms the monster caught halfway between his gut and his throat, trying to claw its way out of his chest.

There’s a firm hand on his forehead, pushing his hair back. Amanda is sitting on the coffee table in front of him, directing his face so all he can see hers when she puts both her hands on his cheeks and makes everything go still for a second.

Daniel, Daniel fuckin LaRusso, who once kicked him in the face and ruined (saved maybe) his life, sits down next to him and puts an arm around his shoulders. And he fucking lets him.

Amanda presses against the sides of his face again, steady and trying to make him look at her. He does, for a second, before he gets fascinated by her earring and looks there instead.

“We’ll do yes or no for now, okay?”

He nods, his lower lip caught between his teeth.

“Is one of your students in trouble right now?”

They think he’d be here, if one of his kids was-- Johnny shakes his head.

“Do you need a doctor?”

Fucking people and their health insurance, like you can just go see a doctor any time you want. If he’s still pissing blood next week he’ll do a drop in at the Planned Parenthood and pretend he thinks he’s got VD.

His throat tightens at the thought, then his stomach, and he tries to tell them he’s going to puke. He must manage something, verbal or not. LaRusso shoves some fancy ass decorative bowl under his face, and Johnny drools into it like a dog who ate grass. His body wars- stomach wanting to expel, throat too swollen to allow it, and his lungs and ribs caught somewhere between, stabbing him with every hitching attempt to get a handle on himself.

“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay.” The last thing he should want are hands on him. He should be fighting. He should be, but he’s already lost tonight. He’s lost.

Johnny throws up in Daniel LaRusso’s stupid bowl, on his stupid couch, in his stupid house. Daniel’s stupid warm hand is on his back, rubbing gentle circles between his shoulders. Daniel’s beautiful wife is petting his hair. He thinks he maybe got blood on her robe.

The last heave feels like it tears something in his abdomen, and he welcomes the fresh, white-hot pain. It doesn’t erase the rest, but he’s a body built for endurance. This, at least is something real to live through, not some pansy panic attack.

After a minute the bowl disappears, and he swallows the noise he makes when the warmth at his side goes with it. Amanda holds the mug up for him to drink from, and he doesn’t even take it from her, just swallows and pretends it’s not the second most disgusting thing he’s had in his mouth tonight.

Her attention is all on setting the mug on the table next to her when Johnny manages to grind out what he came here for. “It was just supposed to be me. But he’ll pick favorites again.”

The clear-eyed horror on her face is instant, and he wants to apologize, to make her understand that it was supposed to be safe. That it’s his fault Kreese did those things, his fault he let it happen, his fault he was weak and needy and made a grown man want him those ways. Johnny is the problem. His kids were never supposed to be involved.

Amanda tries to touch his face again, but he jerks away. He’d let her before, but now he realizes she might have rested her fingers on the filth smeared all over him, that he brought that here, to them, these people who owe him nothing and don’t even really like him. He’s a carrier, a plague rat. And all he can do is try to keep Miguel and the rest of them safe from the disease that’s been in him since the first time his sensei told him he was good and he knew he’d do anything to keep feeling that way.

“Is he still…” She always has the right words, but she’s clearly at a loss for how to ask someone who punches everything that pisses him off if he’s such a pussy that an old man is giving him the bad touch.

The numb reality settles over him, so much colder than before. He hit his knees like he was 14 again, swallowed John Kreese’s poison like a willing little bitch. “He swore it was just me, that he’d never-- that I’d always made him-- They weren’t part of it. I did what he wanted.”

The sound of glass shattering against LaRusso’s million dollar tile floor doesn’t even make him flinch.

Daniel

Daniel sweeps up the glass carefully, watching the upstairs hallway to make sure neither of the kids comes down. By the time he’s got everything in the trash, he’s pretty sure he didn’t wake them. From the kitchen, he can see Johnny hunched miserably on the loveseat, and Amanda perched next to him, one hand on his shoulder. She’s speaking, but he can’t hear what she’s saying.

He’s surprised he can hear anything at all, when the rush of blood to his head is still pounding in his ears. His mind is spinning a million scenarios, each more disturbing than the last, and it’s fucking him up on a fundamental level that his grounding point is the knowledge that Johnny goddamn Lawrence would probably throw himself in front of a bullet to protect one of his students. Daniel doesn’t understand how that can co-exist with the way he allowed Kreese into his dojo, even supervised.

Don’t you, though? He might be three decades older, and Terry Silver hasn’t emerged from the shadows to twist him up again, but the knowledge that a mentor could use you against your own better judgement isn’t all that hard to recall. For the millionth time, he wishes he could talk to Mr. Miyagi.

Then again, Mr. Miyagi wasn’t some kind of mystic. He was just an old man who’d seen a lot more pain and life than Daniel. The single most important thing Mr. Miyagi had given him was kindness in the face of his own anger and self-doubt. It wasn’t an ancient karate secret-- it was just compassion. Humanity.

At the end of the day, sharing that with Johnny couldn’t be that hard, could it?

[brutal-nemesis]

Glass Day 2020: Broken Glass-tys

Woot glass day! Dragging Castys out again for this cuz he’s fun to hurt. This is set very early in his time at the lab which is one of my favorite settings for whump :D!

Castys Masterlist

Ingredients:  glass in wounds, mild gore, slight dehumanization, needles, poison, muzzle

It took seventeen days for them to get tired of him talking. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. They seemed to have grown tired of it almost immediately, but up until now they’d just gag him whenever he got to be too much. Alas, Castys woke up from the morning’s round of organ harvests with something tightly covering the lower half of his face and a metal bit forced between his teeth, an unwelcome addition to the myriad of straps securing him to the table. He’d have loved to reach up and check what it was and also take it the fuck off, but today’s Hell Time was far from over so his wrists wouldn’t be free anytime soon. 

“What’s on the agenda for Subject 000001 today?” One of the workers asked as he checked Castys’s vitals, making sure he’d completely come back to life. Ugh, this stupid thing made it impossible for Castys to even make weird faces at the guy. 

“We’re starting foreign object healing tests on this one since the other test group is starting with it as well, and we’d like to compare the results...” Ooh, how well Castys could heal foreign objects with his special immortal boy powers! No, that probably wasn’t it at all. It was probably something horribly painfully terrible. Maybe if he’d listen to what the white coats were prattling on about he would know, but they were boring and used too much jargon. You’d think listening to people talk about how they were going to cut you up would be remotely interesting, but it really wasn’t. At least not the way they talked about it.

So it was a surprise but also not when they began making a series of cuts along his arm with their sharp little knives. You know, he had to give them credit for that. Most people who cut him didn’t have weapons that were quite as sharp, and dull blades hurt so much more. But most people who cut him didn’t start shoving sharp little whatever-the-hell chunks into his wounds seriously what are those fucks doing. Upon looking down, Castys discovered that, ah, they were shoving broken glass into his arm, how lovely. Double the pain of any injury by just shoving glass into it! And call it science!

Some of the wounds they stitched up for some reason, trapping the glass shards inside him, and some they just left open with the jagged little presents sticking out. Castys realized what they were actually up to the moment the needle entered his other arm, injecting the familiar poison into his veins. Very...mean of you, he thought as he sunk into the poison’s deadly embrace.

Came back to life and yup, his stupid flesh had healed around the glass. The pieces that hadn’t been sewn in had popped out, but the stitches had kept the rest of the glass in his arm. The thread of the stitches was still in his arm as well, now just useless embroidery over unbroken flesh. And, hopefully but also not hopefully, that thread and glass would have to come out. An unfun process, but one Castys would rather happen than being condemned to Glass In Your Arm.

“Subject 000001, flex your hand.” Okay, as much as he hated responding to that, this was his favorite command they gave him. Express permission to make rude hand gestures! They’d started giving him that command more often recently, probably since it was the only one he’d actually do every time without any, ah, persuasion. He winced a bit as he did it, the movement of his muscles against the glass in his arm a brand new kind of ouch. Was that what they were looking for? Who knows. No matter what happened they always wrote it down, which was the science part of the whole thing, he supposed. 

The other science part was Doing The Same Thing Again But Stepping It The Fuck Up A Notch, which this time translated to a stupid large shard of glass. This time they made an incision in his abdomen and shoved it in at an angle, causing Castys to clench his teeth tightly around the metal bit. God, even biting it hurt, as if the whole situation couldn’t get any worse. He could feel the glass sliding deeper into him, like...no, this wasn’t like anything he had ever felt before. Even when the glass was completely inside him they kept pushing it, further and further from the incision. After it had been shoved in a ridiculous distance they stopped and injected him with the poison once again.

He came back to a sharp, stinging pain. The glass was still inside him, wasn’t it? And oh boy, they were poking at the unnatural lump in his stomach where it still resided, taking notes all the while. The most refined of methods to be sure. And once again Castys found himself thinking ah, surely this is the worst it can get yes this will be today’s peak Horrible only to be absolutely proven wrong. Because next they brought out some nice, long needles. He was not a fan of needles not that anyone really was. At least hopefully no one was, could you imagine liking-

Intense, sharp pinching sensations lit up his arm. For added fun, they pressed down on some of the needles once they were fully inserted into his flesh. He felt a little snap along with even more little pinpricks of pain. The needles were also made of glass, fantastic. Who even came up with this stuff? Who woke up and decided, yeah, let’s shove little glass needles into Cast-sorry, Subject 000001’s arm and break them, filling his arm with horrible little splinters that-oh god they’re going to have to be dug out too I fucking hate it here. Another injection, another death, another instance of coming back to find that there was still glass inside him. Most of the needles that hadn’t been broken had popped out when he regenerated, but some were stuck inside him at weird angles along with the broken ones.

“Let’s clean up and break for lunch.” Castys had been tuning out most of their conversation, but those blessed words caught his attention. This weird glass bullshit was finally over! At least for now, because he could totally see them repeating the exact same thing again for posterity or whatever. Hopefully they would at least take this stupid thing off his face now that they were done. But when they didn’t put down their knives, Castys remembered that in fact there was something terrible that still had to happen before they were really done.

 Yup, he was right, this was absolutely the worst part. They sliced him open all over again and started to dig the pieces of glass out, but glass is slippery, especially when coated in blood. Even with rubber-tipped tweezers, it took them a few tries to grab some of the shards, pushing them deeper into his flesh in the process. Castys’s arm tensed in pain a few times while they did this, sometimes helping to push the glass out, and sometimes only making things worse. But could they be bothered to fish around for the little pieces of the broken glass needles? No, no they could not be. Their method of extracting it was both efficient and also incredibly painful, which was very on brand for this place.

Castys screwed his eyes shut as they sliced off strips of his arm. He wasn’t sure if it hurt more or less than them digging around with tweezers, but it wasn’t like he needed to pick what was worse. Just designate this whole experience as absolutely agonizing, please don’t repeat it, I’d like to get the fuck out of here, holy god just STOP- well, hey, they stopped. And after cleaning their tools, they started to leave, which was incredibly rude. Castys pounded on the table as much as he could with his wrists restrained, because, hello guys, I’m still fucking bleeding all over the place get the hell over here and kill me so I don’t have to lie here in pain until- and they’re gone. Great. Welcome to lying on a table with your arms and stomach sliced up for however long and thinking about how it sucks but somehow what comes after is going to somehow be so much worse so you should just enjoy it hour! And he couldn’t even talk to himself since they still hadn’t taken that stupid thing off his face.

And they wouldn’t anytime soon.

Castys gang tags: @as-a-matter-of-whump @thehopelessopus @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi

[naruto-ichigo-soul-kyobabe]

Drunk Confession - Seungmin

Seungmin was enjoying his Friday night at home and alone. He was happy he finally had some time to relax and read, since he was usually busy with school and looking after you during the week. Tonight was one of your other friend’s birthdays and you were celebrating it with her. What Seungmin didn’t know that this party was more of a house party, with lots of random people and alcohol, which you didn’t handle well. So he was rather annoyed when he got a call from your friend telling him you were pretty drunk and some of the guys at the party were hoping to get with you. 

“Hey Seungmin, this is y/b/f/n and y/n’s pretty drunk. Can you come get her?” 

“Can’t she just sleep it off? I mean it’s just you guys and a couple other friends.” He said sighing. 

“Uh, actually some of my friends invited some of their friends who invited some guys... and it’s getting hard to keep them away from here since I have been drinking too.” She explained laughing nervous. 

Seungmin was going to kill you and any guy who tried to touch you before he got there. “Address. Now.” 

Once Seungmin arrived at the right location and entered the house and saw just dozens of people crammed together. Some where dancing, most if not all were drinking, and some were getting heated right there for all to see. He scanned the area for you and didn’t see you. His heart started race. He spotted your friend and went to her. 

“Where’s y/n?” He asked harshly. 

“In my room. I managed to get her to stay there by telling her, you were coming to get her.” She explained. She told him where her room was and he went up the stairs. 

He knocked on the door before opening up. “Y/n?” He asked before seeing you sitting on the bed, hopping up and down. “What are you doing?” 

“Oh!! Minnie you came!” You exclaimed happily and ran towards him. You hugged him tightly, which caught him off guard. You two were best friends and you were the more affectionate one in the relationship but he still was caught off guard every time. 

“Who allowed you to drink? You know you can’t handle it.” He said rolling his eyes. 

“Oooooh but’s a celebration! Wooo!” You said throwing your arms up and yelling. 

“Well no more celebration for you. I’m taking you home.” He said as he grabbed your wrist. “Let’s go.” 

“Oh but I don’t want to go home.” You pouted. “Oh! We should have a sleepover! We haven’t had one in ages!” 

He looked at you, feeling exhausted, he didn’t understand why you wouldn’t just let him take you home. 

“Y/n, we are not going to have a sleepover. We’re adults now. And you are drunk and just need to sleep it off” 

“Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you can’t have sleepovers!” You said angry. “And I can sleep it off with you.” 

“My, you’re bold today.” Seungmin said laughing slightly. “But no. You’ll sleep it off alone at home.” 

“Then I’m not going.” You said crossing your arms over your chest and sitting on the floor. “I’ll stay right here. Maybe even go back down and party some more. Maybe someone else would like to have a sleepover with me.” 

“What are you even saying?” He asked. “Just go home,” 

“No, I refuse.” You said shaking your head violently. 

He looked at you, throwing a fit like a child, and knew he could easily toss you over his shoulder and take you home by force. But he knew if he did that you would make a scene and someone might think he was kidnapping you something. So he knew he had no other choice. 

“Fine,” he said. “We can have a sleepover,” 

“Yay!!” You jumped up excitedly and hugged him. “I can’t wait! We never hangout like we used to.” 

He frowned when you said that. You guys saw each other pretty much every day at school and did things on the weekends. But he decided not to dwell on it and grabbed your wrist again and lead you to his car. 

He was driving you to your home. He had lied about having a sleepover. He only said that to get you to come to his car quietly. As soon as you figured out he was taking you home, you started to throw a fit. 

“Kim Seungmin. You lied to me.” You said. “Stop the car I want out.” 

“What are you talking about? I’m taking you home, so stay in the car.” He said feeling like he was getting a headache. 

“Let me out.” You said and unlocked the car door yourself and opened it while he was still driving. 

He slammed on the breaks. “What the hell are you doing!? Are you crazy?” He asked leaning over and slamming the door closed. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” 

You put your head down and started crying, which startled him. He has no idea what to do because he didn’t know why you were crying. “Why are you crying? Is it because I yelled at you? I’m sorry for that but you scared me to death when you opened the door!” 

You shook your head. “I j-just want to spend time with you and you j-just want to send me away.” 

“Wha-“ 

“We h-hardly hangout anymore!” You said crying harder. 

“We see each other at school all the time-“ 

“No! That’s not the same! We’re in different majors! We hardly spend anytime together a-anymore!” You finally were able to say what you wanted to tell Seungmin for months. “I feel so lonely without you. You’re u-usually with your friends or classmates a-and don’t make a lot of time for me.” 

Seungmin’s heart sank when he heard you say all this while you were crying. It was true he didn’t see you as often as he liked or for as long either. He was busy with his classes and studying and usually chose to hangout with the guys from his classes so they could discuss what they had learned. He didn’t realize he had hurt you by doing that. He bit his lip and sighed. 

“Okay. Sleep over at my house.” He said and started to drive. “To make up for me being a shitty friend to you. I’m sorry.” 

You thought he was lying again so you just leaned your head on the window and cried a bit more until you guys got to his house. He got out and went over to your side and opened the door. 

“Y/n, come on. Let’s go in.” He offered you his hand. You looked up and realized you were in front of his house and you smiled and took his hand. 

Seungmin had lent you some of his clothes and helped you wash all your makeup off before tucking you into his bed. He said goodnight to you before he started to walk away, you grabbed his arm. 

“Where are you going?” 

“I’m going to sleep on the couch.” He said as if it was obvious. 

“But Minnie, it’s a sleepover. Sleep beside me.” You whined. You pulled his arm causing him to lose his balance and he fell onto the bed. “Please.” 

At this point his was out of energy to argue with you and he still felt bad that you had cried because he unintentionally ignored you. You moved over and he got into bed next to you. He laid into his side and turned his back to you. 

“Good night.” 

“Seungmin, would you hold me?” 

He nearly had a heart attack from your sudden question. “No.” 

“Fine,” you said as you wrapped your arms around him to hold him instead. “Good night.” 

He stiffened. He didn’t understand what you were doing. “Y/n what are you doing?” 

“Cuddling you.” 

“Why?” 

“Because I want to.” You said snuggling closer to him, smiling at his warmth. 

“Well, I-I don’t want to. So let go.” He said feeling his face blush. 

“No.” You said hugging him tighter. “You use to let me do this when we were younger. I miss it” 

“Yeah when we were kids! So let go” 

“What does that have anything to do with it? Being kids or adults?” You asked annoyed. “Like damn it, Seungmin. I loved you when we were kids and I love you now, when we’re adults. So what difference does it make?” 

He froze. His heart rate started to increase. His face burned. He wasn’t sure if you meant friendship love or love love and he was kind of afraid to ask. But he knew he had to. 

“Y-you love me?” 

“Of course.” You said. “I always have and always will.” 

“Like as friends or?” He asked nervously. 

“I mean you’re my best friend so course I love you as a friend, but I mean I love love you. That’s why I have been very sad because it felt like you didn’t like me anymore and was pushing me away.” 

He turned around quickly and wrapped his arms around you. “Y/n, I never meant to make you feel like that. I would never push you away and I still like you and will always like you.” 

He pulled you in closer to his chest and hugged you tight. He never wanted to lose you and the realization that he was close to due to him prioritizing others before you, broke his heart. 

“Do you love me?” You asked quietly. 

“If I didn’t love you then I wouldn’t have went through this whole ordeal to get your drunk ass from that party, have you open the door while the car was moving, and be holding you like this.” He said smiling softly. 

“Then say it. Say “Y/n I love you.”” 

“But you already know I do.” He said embarrassed. 

“Seungmin, I love you. Why can’t you just say it back?” You whined. 

“You know you’re annoying, right?” He said chuckling. “Y/n, I love you.” 

“Good,” You giggled. “Can we have lots of sleepovers now?” 

“What’s with your obsession with sleepovers?” 

“Because I want to sleep in your arms often.” 

He blushed and was happy that the room was dark and you couldn’t tell. “If that’s the case, we’ll have as many as you want.” He kissed your forehead. “Good night, y/n” 

“Good night, Minnie.” 

[ourloveisforthelovely]

In the Dark 4

Harry Potter Marauders era 

Link to Chapter 3

Pairings: Sirius Black x Reader 

Rating: M-smut

________

This wasn’t the first time that you had been in the room of requirement. You had used it as a hideout with Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter multiple times after playing pranks on Lucius Malfoy. This time, however, was different. This time it was only Sirius and yourself. Something very different was on the menu! As much fun as it would be to hex Malfoy, this was going to be more exciting!

At the moment you took pride in the fact that you hadn’t slept with anyone yet. You knew Sirius, on the other hand, couldn’t say that. It was common knowledge to anyone who knew your boyfriend had been around the block a few times. You rolled your eyes at that thought alone. Starting in the second year, he was all over any girl that looked at him.

Don’t think about that!

Your mind added. The way Sirius behaved didn’t really bother you until the current year when you really noticed him.

Sirius wrapped his arms around your waist pulled you from your thoughts. His lips closed on your neck before biting down lightly. You sighed and automatically pressed back into his body.

“Are you sure that this is what you want?”

You nodded and slowly turned in his arms.

“I don’t think that we would have been sneaking through the corridors and risk getting in trouble if this wasn’t what we both wanted.”

Sirius smirked.

“We have snuck through the halls at night for various reasons other than having sex.”

“This is different.”

You said before pulling away. Sirius walked to the bed that was in the middle of the room and flopped down. He quickly started taking off his tie before tossing it over his head.

“Bless the person who came up with this room. We owe them so much. Now come here, pretty girl.”

You didn’t hesitate before practically pouncing on his lap. Sirius chuckled and leaned back against the pillow.

“Get this shirt off of me.”

Your hands were shaking as you started at the top button. Sirius’ hands closed around yours.

“Hey, look at me. This is me….us. You know that I would never do anything to hurt you. Well, it will hurt for a moment but that’s it.”

You gave him a shy smile before continuing with the remaining shirt buttons. Without looking at Sirius, you could feel his piercing eyes watching you intently. He had that hungry expression on his face that could drive any woman mad!

You slowly reached out and pushed his button-down off. Swallowing, you took a deep breath before looking Sirius over slowly. You had seen him without a shirt plenty of times but this time it was different. This time you were about to have him nake and inside of you.

“Sirius, when did you get all of the tattoos?”

You asked, gently tracing a finger over the various tattoos that littered his chest and upper arms. Sirius smirked.

“Remember all of those times that you went out to tea with your mum? Yeah, that’s what James and I were doing. Well, it was me getting stabbed with needles and James wincing like a baby in the corner. What do you think?”

You bit your lip and stroked your finger from his chest down to the buck of his pants.

“Fits you very well...naughty boy. Your mother would have a shit fit.”

Sirius rolled his eyes.

“Talking about my mother is a great way for me to lose the hard-on that you are giving me.”

You blushed furiously leaving Sirius chuckling. He pulled you further onto his lap.

“I want to see more of you. A bikini just leaves too much to the imagination.”

Sirius’ hands were immediately undoing the buttons with an eager smile on his face. He licked his lips the moment that your lace bra came into view

“This is taking too long.”

Sirius muttered reaching up and snapping the bra in one tug.

“I liked that one.”

You protested in a teasing tone. Sirius shrugged, innocently.

“Well...it needed to come off.”

He said as his eyes lowered to your now exposed breasts. Sirius kept his cool calm demeanor as he wrapped his mouth around one breast. You squeezed your eyes closed enjoying the sensations of his Sirius’ tongue swirling around your nipple as his other hand massaged the opposite breast.

Sirius kept his eyes on your face wanting to see every reaction. He closed his eyes the moment your fingers tangled in his hair. That was all that he needed from you to turn into putty in your hands.

“Maybe we should...you know...get the rest of these clothes off?”

You suggested as Sirius rocked his hips into your bottom. Feeling his erection grinding against your ass, you tried to fight back the surge of nervousness knowing that had to fit inside of you! You had seen Sirius naked enough to know that he was not a little guy.

You have seen all of your friends naked…That is the joy of having all guys for friends…

Your mind supplied. It took all you had to not burst into a fit of giggles. Sirius, meanwhile, had already wiggled out from underneath and was undoing his pants.

“So, darling, are you going to take the skirt off? You really don’t have to either. I have been wanting to fuck you in that skirt for a long time.”

Sirius grinned when your face turned blood red. From the time the two of you had started dating, he took great pleasure in making your blush.

“Keep playing your cards right and you might just get to do it.”

You said as you wiggled out of your skirt. Sirius quickly reached out and lifted you enough to wrap your legs around him. His mouth was back on your neck kissing, nibbling, and sucking a path down to your collarbone.

“We may be paying this room frequent visits or we can just find some abandoned corner.”

Sirius gently laid you back on the waiting bed. He spread your legs before gently easing your lace knickers down and off.

“I’m ready!”

You gasped, wrapping your hands around Sirius’ wrist. He chuckled before leaning down for another kiss. “Not yet, love. You deserve some foreplay. I want to touch every inch of your body.”

Sirius gave you one of his eyebrow wiggles before slowly kissing a path down your body. He stopped at your hip bones and looked up at you.

“Do you still want this?”

You nodded adamantly. There was no way that you were about to let your boyfriend get away from you!

“Yes! Don’t stop!”

You squealed. The vibrations of Sirius laughing made waves of pleasure and desperation go through your body.

“Please.”

You whined. Sirius went back to kissing your down to your thighs and spread them a little further. His grey eyes rolled up to you once more before stroking over your fold with his index and middle finger. You pressed your lips together trying to fight back the little gasp that threatened to leave your lips.

“This may sting a bit.”

Sirius choked out and slowly pushed his two fingers inside of you. You threw your head back into the pillow.

“Love, if you want me inside of you then you’ll have to get used to this.”

You swallowed back another gasp as Sirius added a second finger. As Sirius increased his pace, you felt a tight ball of tension building in your core.

“Don’t hold back.”

Sirius said with a devious smirk. He knew exactly what he was about to do to you. Knowing that he was the one to give you your first orgasm and that he was the first to touch you definitely built his ego higher!

“Sirius…”

You whimpered his name. His eyes gleamed in the candlelight.

“Come, princess.”

He said before pressing down on your clit with the pad of his thumb. That was all that you needed to fall over the edge of no return while chanting his name like a prayer.

Sirius watched with a proud smile before lifting up and taking his place over you.

“That was beautiful, love. You’re so beautiful! I’m going to push in now.”

You nodded, wrapping your arms around his neck as Sirius slowly began to push in. Sirius bit his lip keeping his mind focused on the task at hand. As much as he wanted to just slam inside, he couldn’t. You weren’t some slut that he had slept with before. The other girls, that he could have anytime that he wanted, meant nothing to him now. You were the only girl in Sirius’ world that meant anything to him!

“It hurts!”

You whimpered as the pressure intensified. Never in your life had you ever felt so “full!” Sirius eased up but kept going.

“Just a second longer...I’ll make you feel good! Love, you feel so good!”

“Just push in all the way, please.”

You begged. Sirius looked down at you once more before snapping his hips and pushing through your barrier. He groaned and your fingernails dug into his shoulders.

“Love...holy hell…”

Sirius moaned as he slowly increased his pace. As quickly as the pain started the pleasure began to increase!

The following minutes had to be the most mind-blowing of your life! The two of you rolled around the bed destroying the whole thing beyond recognition! Sirius pulling out made your world of happiness come to a screeching halt!

“What are you doing?”

You cried. Sirius chuckled and flipped you over.

“Hold onto the sheets.”

Sirius said before shoving back inside. You could have come apart on him at that very moment!

“Sirius, please.”

You whimpered as he leaned down to press a kiss to your spine.

“Take it all.”

He said in a hoarse voice before covering your body with his. Sirius covered your hands with his and whispered erotically in your ear.

“See? I told you that it would feel amazing! I think that you were made for me, love.”

The ball of tension slowly began to tighten again. You pressed your face into the mattress as Sirius snaked his arm around your waist. His middle finger teased your clit until your body tightened around his.

“I’m close, love.”

Sirius moaned.

“Me too!”

You gasped as one more snap of his hips sent you into a mind-blowing second orgasm! Sirius continued to slam into you throughout your orgasm. It took only a few more thrusts before Sirius finished hard inside of you.

For the next few moments, you both remained motionless. Sirius was the first to pull away. He lay down beside you and pulled your body against his.

“Wow.”

You said with a sleepy sigh. Sirius leaned down and kissed your lips softly. He gave you that innocent expression before stating hypothetically,

“Wow is right. Just so you know...whenever you want to...you know...go for a roll in the sack...I am always available.”

You yawned as Sirius reached over to grab his wand. He muttered a quick contraceptive charm then went back to cuddling against you. You snuggled your face against his chest and yawned.

“Same goes for you.”

You said, happily. Sirius smiled and closed his eyes. Something about the two of you being available for sex anytime was more than appealing!

“Y/n?”

“Mhm?”

You said. At the moment your brain couldn't formulate any thoughts. Sirius looked down at you with a smile. He knew that he wanted to say “i love you” but wasn’t sure it was the best time. Was it appropriate to tell a girl that you loved her after fucking her brains out? Something said no.

There was also the fact that Sirius was also super worried about saying those three little words. He had never heard his parents say it to him or each other for that matter. Hell his parents would probably turn into a flaming ball of hellfire if they were the least bit romantic.

What if you didn’t love him as he loved you? It would be just like when Sirius was 4 years old and told his mother that he loved her. She gave him an annoyed expression and said something about love not being a real emotion. Sirius would die of heartbreak if you said “oh I’m sorry...I don’t love you. Thanks for the great dicking though.”

“Y/n isn’t that kind of girl.”

Sirius said with a smile before letting himself drift off to sleep.

The next morning...

Remus, James, Peter, and Lily sat in the common room. James looke around the room with a frown. He hasn’t seen Sirius nor yourself all morning.

“Has anyone seen Sirius or my sister? I haven’t seen them all morning.”

Remus looked up from his book.

“I haven’t seen them all morning. They weren’t at breakfast. Sirius wasn’t in bed when I got up.”

Peter looked up.

“Sirius is probably somewhere making Y/n a woman.”

James and Remus immediately looked ill.

“Gross!”

James hissed. Remus shook his head. That was the last thing that he wanted to think about. Sure, he was aware that Sirius and yourself would probably sleep together at some point. That didn’t mean that he wanted to see it!

“Lily, was Y/n in bed when you woke up?”

James asked, trying to shake the mental image of Sirius and yourself trying to climb each other from his mind. He had seen the two of you snogging way too much for his liking. Lily, meanwhile, shook her head.

“Sorry, James but no she wasn’t.”

James ran a hand through his hair.

“Best friend or not, if Sirius breaks her heart I am going to punch him in the face.”

Remus smirked.

“You’ll do that then apologize to him for it.”

(meanwhile)

You woke up the next morning with a sleepy yawn. Sirius was still wrapped around you with his face shoved into your hair. You smiled before turning in his arms and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Don’t want to wake up.”

He muttered. Sirius was never a morning person and one night of passionate love making wasn’t about to change that!

“We have to wake up, Sirius. Our friends are going to be wondering where the hell we are.”

Sirius yawned and slowly sat up. He ran a hand through his messy hair before looking back to you with a smile.

“We are about to get interrogated. Let's go in and not act suspicious.”

10 minutes later, the two of you walked into the common room to all of your friends staring like a herd of wild hyenas.

“What?”

Sirius said, trying to sound innocent. Remus smirked.

“You two are perverts.”

Your face turned blood red as James stood up.

“I don’t want to know! Don’t tell me. Sirius, I normally love to hear about what you are doing but I don't want these details.”

Sirius didn’t smile. He knew that James was trying to be funny but he wasn’t amused.

“It's different this time.”

You let go of Sirius’ hand before standing on your tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.

“I’m going to go change. See you in a bit?

Sirius nodded as Lily and Marlene stood to follow you up the stairs. James laughed.

“And there goes the Spanish inquisition.”

Walking into your dormitory, you tried to ignore your friends as you searched for clean clothes. You knew that there would be questions so you were prepared.

“So what happened?”

“Did you two do it?”

Lily and Marlene asked back to back. Doras looked up from her bed where she was studying.

“Do what with who?”

Marlene grinned.

“Sirius, of course.”

Dorcas jumped up.

“The two of you finally slept together?”

You put down your sweater and looked up with a grin.

“Yes, we slept together. That is where we were all night. We had sex in the room of requirement. That is all that I am going to say.”

Marlene smirked.

“Sirius is good in bed so I’m not shocked that you had a good time.”

All of your good and happy feelings vanished and were replaced with shock.

“Excuse me?”

All of the color drained from your face. Had you really heard that correctly? One of your best friends had slept with your boyfriend and didn’t tell you!

Marlene bit her lip.

“We were bored!”

You put a hand over your face.

“You knew how I felt about Sirius then! If you were bored so should have read a damn book...go run around the castle if you had to but no. You go and sleep with the one man that I was in love with then decided to hide it from me instead of fessing up like a good friend. Lily, you should have told me too! We are supposed to be best friends!”

Lily quickly walked to you and tried to hold your hand.

“Y/n, we are best friends. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to see you hurt!”

You slammed your new outfit down before pulling your shoes back on.

“Well I’m hurt no so thanks a lot!”

You turned and stormed from the room without another word.

When you walked down the stairs, Sirius, Remus James, and Peter all looked up. James and Sirius immediately stood up knowing that look.

“Uh oh.”

James muttered. Sirius held his hand out.

“Love, what’s wrong?”

You stopped.

“Did you sleep with Marlene?”

Sirius’ mouth dropped. He looked down at you for a moment before taking a breath.

“Yes, I did.”

You shook your head before walking toward the fat lady’s portrait.

“Fucking beautiful!”

______

@brokencasbutt67-writer

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[minghaocouture]

Fearless: Chapter 7

Pairing: Werewolf!Jeon Wonwoo x Vampire!Reader Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Non-Idol Au Warnings: Language, Mentions of violence WC: 3.6k AU Lore:   Vampire Coven Info/Wolf Pack Info/Lore Info Tag List: @moon-asia​

A/N: Thank you guys so much for being patient with this chapter being release. I want to say I do no condone what happened and I wish PLEDIS would make some kind of statement despite how much time has passed. Despite this, I do want to be able to finish this story so I can properly move on in the timeline. I do really enjoy this chapter and it does have one of my favorite moments between Wonwoo and the reader that i’ve written so far. 

Chapter List: Chapter 1/Chapter 2/Chapter 3/Chapter 4/Chapter 5/Chapter 6/Chapter 7/Chapter 8/Chapter 9/Chapter 10/Chapter 11/Chapter 12/Chapter 13/Chapter 14

“So...the body was a woman’s? Then it was probably who Minah saw.” 

You didn’t know why you had agreed to meet back up in the woods, but apparently making stupid decisions was just a part of your life now. Wonwoo nodded in agreement, watching as you paced.

“Then it has to be a stray. I talked to Minghao about it and he said it definitely wasn’t any of us. Everyone has been accounted for recently...well except for me? But he knows where I am so he knows it isn’t me.”

You were probably rambling, but you were concerned. If there was a stray out there then that meant a lot of people were in danger, not just humans. Sure humans fed you better, but there was nothing stopping you from feeding on wolves or even Fae, it just didn’t taste as good. 

“Well, we can always try and lure them out?” Wonwoo suggested, placing a hand on your shoulder to halt your pacing. The contact was immediately comforting, which you didn’t want to admit. You were still confused and conflicted about being on friendly terms with a wolf, so it was still something you were working on. 

“Are you saying to use Minah as bait?” 

“I mean, if we had both your Coven and my pack on our side then she’d be-”

A little harsher than you had intended, you shoved his hand away. “But that’s the thing. We don’t have either of them on our side, hell I’m still surprised that the both of us aren’t in big shit with the people who do know!” You retorted, placing a hand on your hip as you stared him down.

“It’s not like I can just walk up to my Venture and be all. ‘Oh hey Soonie, yeah I’ve been fraternizing with a werewolf for the past three days! But please forgive my treason because we just misunderstood them’!”

“Four days if you count the day you attacked me.” Wonwoo interrupted pointing at the scar that was still on his nose. You cast a small almost offended look towards him, hand drifting to gently rub your right arm. It was still a bit hurt but because of how Vampires healed, you didn’t need to keep it bandaged 

“To be fair, I’m the one that got hurt worse out of the two of us. You know how hard it is to leave a scar on a Vampire? And you somehow did it without even trying.” It was meant to be a small joke, considering that the two of you had basically buried the hatchet at this point in favor of stopping the feud between your groups. 

Despite the joking tone of your voice, you noticed the guilt that filled his eyes. Just like the night of the fight. You felt your chest tighten a bit. You didn’t know why but, you didn’t like that he was upset. Sure the two of you weren’t trying to kill each other anymore but you weren’t close either. This was a business friendship and nothing more. Once again rolling your eyes, you pulled your arm out of the sleeve of your jacket. 

“Don’t make that face, it’s fine see? We’re past it, and I’m not planning on attacking you again anytime soon...because I would definitely kick your ass if I did.” He didn’t laugh, which was pretty annoying to you. You were getting ready to comment on the fact that you were hilarious and he was being a stick in the mud, when he took a few steps towards you. His eyes were glued to the newly scars on your arm. A hand reaching out to gently graze the marred skin. Wonwoo was amazed at how fast such a deep wound had healed, must have been one of the perks of being a Vampire.

His hand was warm, almost too warm, especially compared to your usually cold skin. You noticed that you didn’t seem to hate the feeling, letting him trace the outline of the claw marks with his thumb. It was an oddly sensitive moment, and just a few days ago if a wolf had touched you like this you would have flipped out. Yet here you are now, letting him do as he pleased and you still weren’t sure why. He just had this kind of...aura that was pulling you in, and it was getting harder to stay angry or standoffish  when you were around him.

“Sorry about that. I really was just trying to push you away without hurting you.” He confessed, even back then he had been trying to protect you for whatever reason. Just like when he lied to his pack. Your mouth opened, ready to question his actions. Only for the moment to be ruined by the sound of crunching snow.

“Wonwoo! [Y/N]!” At the sound of the younger wolf’s voice, you quickly stepped away from Wonwoo (missing the feeling of his hand on your skin) and pulled your jacket back on. Vernon barreled into the moonlit clearing and stopped right next to the two of you, panting heavily as this was pretty far away from their cabin. 

“What?” Wonwoo immediately turned his attention towards Vernon, seeming almost irritated at the interruption. Vernon straightened himself, looking quite upset. 

“It’s Sana. She was attacked on the way home from work tonight!” Time seemed to stop. You knew that the stray could possibly attack the wolf pack directly but you hadn’t been expecting it. It seems you underestimated this stray. “And Seungcheol, he obviously thinks it’s your Coven. He’s pissed.” 

Irritated you let out a rather long string of quiet curses, pacing around the small clearing angrily. All soft feelings from before were gone. The two males looked on in confusion, shocked that you had let out such an outburst. Especially when previously you hadn’t cared at all if a wolf had gotten hurt.

“Fine. We’ll ask Minah to be our bait and we are catching this bastard to clear my Coven’s name. I’m going to talk to her and Minghao tonight and if she agrees we’re doing this shit tomorrow. If she doesn’t agree then we will figure something out, I don’t care if Soonyoung finds out. We are getting rid of this stray.” 

Wonwoo sighed, grabbing your shoulders to stop you from continuing your irritated march. His hand gently slid down your shoulders to rest on your biceps. He gave them a soft squeeze, attempting to comfort you. He regretted that a bit when he notice you wince slightly as he squeezed your previously injured arm.

“Hey, we need you calm okay? You go back and talk to Minghao and Minah, figure something out.” He began. Just from his touch you felt your temper turn from boiling rage to a smaller simmer. It was strange what he could do to you. “I’m...going to come out to my Pack tonight. I’ll explain our plan to our Alpha and hopefully it will calm him down. We’ll message each other so we know what’s going on.”

You knew this plan was risky, everything right now was. So you didn’t try to fight him on his decision, he was a big boy and knew what he was doing. Hopefully. Nodding in agreement, you grabbed his wrists and moved his hands away from you while putting a bit more distance between the two of you. Despite this, you didn’t let go of his hands.

“Just...be careful. Okay? If I don’t hear from you in like an hour I’m breaking into the cabin to make sure you didn’t die or something.” You declared, not really realizing that you had gently begun to rub circles on the insides of his wrists as you held them. This time, the male laughed. Which brought a smile to your face as you listened to the soothing bass tones of his voice. It was as oddly comforting as his hands had been. 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I know you can’t enter private homes without permission.” He retorted. Earning a small smack from you after you let go of his hands. 

“I take it back, I might be fighting you again soon. Keep your eyes peeled wolf boy.” With that final verbal jab, you turned from him and said a quick goodbye to Vernon before once again running off into the night.

“Wow...you’re both super whipped. That was kinda gross to watch.” Vernon declared once you were out of earshot. If Wonwoo was being completely honest, he had almost completely forgotten that Vernon was there. 

He was probably never going to live this down. So he decided to ignore Vernon’s comment, turning to make his way back to the Cabin. Light tingles of anxiety filling his gut with every step he took.

“Come on, we need to get back to the house.” He wanted to at least offer Vernon an out. This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation, especially with Sana being attacked tonight. 

***

You rushed through the back door of the bar, ignoring the blaring music beyond the inner doors as you swung yourself onto the stairs, taking them two at a time. Turning onto the stairs quietly, as to not draw suspicion and went to the last room on the left of the hallway. It was a bit smaller than the other rooms but had a small bed in it, and quite a few still packed boxes. Which was kind of sad considering the Coven moved here about 4 years ago. 

Inside, Minghao sat on the small twin sized bed completely alone. Minah nowhere in sight. As you entered, he glanced over at you and raised an eyebrow. 

“Done with your wolf boy for the night?” 

“Where is Minah?” You questioned, taking a few steps towards him. Worry crept into your veins. If something had happened to Minah already, then your whole plan would fall apart. Minghao, swung his legs off the bed and walked over towards you. 

“She’s downstairs with Jun in the bar. We figured she would feel more comfortable if she were around people. It’d be pretty awkward if she had just been locked in this room with me.” He had a fair point, but he didn’t have to say it as if you were a moron. Though, to be fair, with all of the decisions you’ve made in the past few days...you being a moron wasn’t too far from the truth.

“What did your wolf say?”

“The body they found was a woman’s, and one of their pack got attacked tonight. Have you heard of anyone getting into it with a wolf tonight?” Minghao shook his head, obviously having heard nothing. And with the fight you had gotten into, there is no way anyone was going to keep that hidden. They had seen what kind of trouble you had gotten into, or at least you hoped no one was that stupid. 

“We, well I think it’s a stray. You know the one we’ve been seeing around town?” Minghao nodded, he hadn’t caused any trouble with the coven directly so you had been kind of leaving him alone. In hindsight, that had probably been a bad idea. Hence why you hadn’t mentioned that to Wonwoo. Shaking off the mild guilt at keeping that information hidden, you continue. 

“Wonwoo and I have a plan but it isn’t great. We were going to use Minah as bait. Lure him out and kill him if we can. We just need to get the okay from Minah.” That wasn’t something that the two of you had really agreed upon, but if he could get his Pack on your side, then you figured that none of them would have any issues with killing a Vampire.

The air was thick with tension. Minghao must have been irritated by what you had learned, but he kept an extraordinary good poker face. He let out a small sigh before pulling out his phone, who he was messaging you had no clue. When his attention returned to you, his poker face had fallen which left him with a rather irritated expression.

“I told Jun to send her back up here. I’ll help you as long as Jun and Soonyoung agree with this plan.” You weren’t too surprised by his actions. Minghao had admitted that he wanted the war to end, and he had been irritated that he wasn’t allowed to take out that Stray. He thought letting him stay in your territory had been a stupid decision, but because the Primus and Venture had agreed then there was nothing he could do to go against it. 

Sighing, you took a seat on the bed that Minghao had previously been on. Exhaustion was finally kicking in, you were running on maybe three hours of sleep? Frankly at this point you just wanted a nap. Minghao didn’t say anything if he noticed your mood. In fact he stayed silent until Minah entered the room, followed by...Jun.

Your chest felt like it was about to cave in when you saw Jun. You had managed to avoid him when you had dropped Minah off. He stood near the door, giving you and Minghao a rather expectant look. This only caused Minghao to sigh in irritation. 

“Jun, they’re going to need you at the bar. So you better head back down, this is going to take a while.” In his defense, Minghao did try to get Jun to leave. It was just such a poor attempt that it might as well have not mattered. 

“They’ll be fine. Honestly I trust Snow Angel more than I trust any of you alone at the bar.” You raised a brow at his words, looking up at him from your seat on the bed. He must be talking about the Winter Court girl, though she looks like she’d kick his ass before letting him call her Snow Angel. She definitely had more of an Ice Queen vibe.

“Besides, you two and Hyunjin have been hiding something. Minghao I know you’re part of the Inner Circle but that doesn’t mean you can keep information from the coven, especially if it’s dangerous enough that we have to house a human who needs protection.” To be fair, Jun was right. Minghao may have been in the Inner Circle but Junhui and Soonyoung were the Primus and Venture. Which made them higher ranked than Minghao and Chan, the other Inner Circle members. At this point it definitely hit you how much Minghao had stuck his neck out for you. Gave you a new found sense of gratitude for the male. You’d have to apologize to him later, since you had given him such a hard time before.

Minghao huffed lightly, running a hand through his black hair out of frustration. He flashed you a look and gave a nod, basically giving you permission to talk freely in front of Jun. You would have anyway but it was nice that he was letting it happen and wouldn’t get mad about it. You would still keep some details to yourself though. Standing, to give yourself more of a presence you began.

“So Junhui, long story short. You know that Stray we’ve been seeing? Well he’s been dumping human corpses into the forest. Last night, Minah saw a Stray while he was feeding last night, so she’s in danger because he saw her and might come after her next. Sooo the plan is we are going to lure the Stray out by using Minah as bait and then we kill him. Problem solved.” Omitting everything about the wolves, sure there were some plot holes in it but with luck he wouldn’t question it.

“How do you know about the bodies in the forest?” Apparently, Lady Luck decided to give a special ‘fuck you’ to you today. Of course he would ask about that, couldn’t just ignore it and ask later. Oh well, you weren’t some flower that was scared of what would happen. Okay that was a lie, you were scared shitless about what Junhui would say, Despite this, you were going to own it...this time. 

“I’ve been meeting with one of the wolves from the pack in the forest. He told me about it, said they thought it was us and would have continued to think that if I hadn’t told him it wasn’t.” Minah let out a small gasp, realizing that the two men you had been with must have been the wolves you were talking about.  You kept your eyes locked on Junhui’s and standing your ground. This was grounds for expulsion from the Coven, and your enforcer had allowed it to happen, so you weren’t expecting a happy reaction. 

Surprisingly, instead of flying off the handle like you had expected. He just sighed and rubbed his temples. Raising a brow, you glanced over at Minghao who also seemed a bit surprised at the lack of a total freak out.

“How can you be sure he wasn’t lying? Why and how did you even start talking to one of those Mutts anyway?” 

“He’s not a mutt.” The words escaped your lips before you even realized it. Hearing Jun talk about Wonwoo like that, well it pissed you off. It hadn’t been long since you, yourself had referred to Wonwoo as a Mutt. But that was wrong, and now you knew that. It wasn’t some magical change of heart or anything like that. Meeting Wonwoo, and later Vernon, it just kind of hit you that they were just people. They weren’t like the wolves who had killed you, in the same way that your Coven wasn’t like that Stray. They had morals too, and seemed to stand by them just as fiercely as your Coven did.

Jun seemed taken back by your words, confused at the sudden difference of opinion. He advanced towards you, a solemn frown on his face.

“[Y/N], I know you’re not a complete idiot. We’ve known each other for almost a century now. You can’t be stupid enough to care about a wolf of all things? Especially after..” He didn’t seem angry with you, he seemed concerned. As if he were the much smarter parent who was just concerned about his rebellious daughter. Unfortunately, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The insults coupled with your lack of sleep had your fist clenched by your sides as you advanced towards Junhui and cutting him off before he could continue.

“You know what, I’m getting pretty sick of you guys saying I’m stupid. Yeah I don’t always follow orders and it gets me into shit sometimes, and I’m reckless but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid Wen Junhui.” You didn’t yell, not now, but your voice carried a sharper tone to it than it usually would when speaking to Junhui. “I would assume that knowing me for almost a century, as you put it, you would have started to trust my decisions more. If you really think I’m that stupid then just kick me out of the Coven, why don’t you? I mean why not, if i’m stupid enough to get tricked by some damn wolf then i’m obviously not worth the Coven’s time.” 

He didn’t seem to have a response to that, as he stayed silent. You turned your attention to Minah, who seemed fairly overwhelmed with the conversation she had just witnessed. At that moment though, you didn’t really care. 

“Minah you don’t have to do this, but if you do I swear nothing will happen to you. This is the only way we can think of to lure him out.” You tried your best to calm your temper, you didn’t need to scare off the human. She was obviously already scared enough, being trapped here with Vampires while hiding from a Vampire. It was a rough situation for someone who had just found out that supernatural creatures were real. She hesitated, stumbling over her words.

Taking a deep breath, you reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Even attempting to push a smile onto your face. “We are trying for tomorrow night. So get some rest for now. You already have my phone number so just message me with your decision okay?”

She seemed pretty relieved about this and nodded. Removing your hand, you turned to face Junhui, who wasn’t looking at you at all. You had been planning on saying one final thing, full of spite and frustration, but doing so felt wrong. Despite being irritated Junhui was still your family, for now at least. It was up to Junhui and Soonyoung to decide if that wasn’t the case anymore. In fact Junhui would probably report back to Soonyoung tonight. You couldn’t stop guilt from creeping into your system, thinking about how Minghao was most likely also going to get in trouble for your actions. So instead of speaking you just left, walking out of the room and back down the stairs.

As you exited through the back door, you thought back on what Junhui had said. You felt the phantom beatings of a heart in your chest, the pounding as you really contemplated things. It was strange to stay but you did in fact care about Wonwoo. Despite whatever he thought of you, like if this was just a friendship until everything had been solved, you did truly care about what happened to him. Not that you were going to admit that to him, ever. You’d be stupid if you did.

With a groan, you made your way out towards the forest again. Messaging Wonwoo and asking him to meet back up with you once he was done with his pack. This was going to be a long night.

[spartanguard]

pushing buttons

Summary: Killian is hurt, and the only one around to help him out is his beautiful neighbor—that he's never talked to before. Looks like that's about to change. (Based on this prompt, shared by @clockadile​: "I was talking to my friend and she was telling me about how her coworker had injured his arm and had to wear a sling, but also was required to wear a button up shirt for work. So every morning he had to go knock on his neighbour’s door and she would help him button the shirt." 

rated M | 7.3k words | AO3

A/N: HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS TO @xpumpkindumplingx​!!!! SHE’S A LOVELY AMAZING SWEET RED VELVET CUPCAKE AND YOU SHOULD ALL GO SEND HER LOVE!!! I've literally been working on this story for over a year and it seemed like her birthday was the appropriate occasion to force me to finish it. I’m sure someone else has written it but, oh well. Enjoy!

This wasn’t how he ever planned on introducing himself to his cute neighbor. Killian figured he’d make some witty, flirtatious line, they’d share a bit of banter, and maybe she’d agree to go out on a date. However it worked for other people. 

But no, Killian’s life could never be that simple, could it? Because apparently, his best friend just had to tackle him extra hard in their weekly game of football (proper football—not that American nonsense they loved over here). Which apparently led to a dislocated shoulder and a hairline fracture in his arm (whatever the bone was that supported the bicep; he was a navigational expert, not a doctor). And consequently was putting him in a sling for a fair number of weeks. 

Good thing he was already missing the hand on that arm, eh?

But, as he discovered, things like buttoning his work shirts and securing the sling were more than a bit difficult one-handed. Obviously, he was used to dressing himself by now, but he usually had the assistance of his prosthesis, or at least his blunted wrist. He was a bit SOL at the moment, though. 

After checking to see if the coast was clear before he stepped out half dressed, he knocked on the door across the hall, where said best friend (though he was questioning that title at the moment) lived; the least Robin could do was help him out. Until he remembered that Robin closed the bar last night and would be dead to the world for the next several hours. 

He glanced at the next door, home to a rather lascivious but otherwise friendly old lady, who he knew for a fact was running breakfast rush at the diner downstairs. 

That left only one other door: Swan. At least, he thought that was the name he saw on her packages; it suited her well enough that he didn’t care if it was wrong. They’d done little more than exchange smiles in the hall, but that was clearly about to change; desperate times and desperate measures and all that. 

Swallowing his pride—and maybe adjusting his posture a bit—he stepped up to her door and knocked. 

It took hardly a second for her to open, and there she was: blonde hair pulled up in a messy bun, wearing a baggy sweatshirt and leggings with a coffee mug in hand and a bit of sleep still caught in her eyes. But—so beautiful. His breath hitched in his throat. 

“Hello—ohhh…” she started to greet, but then her voice trailed off and jaw hung open when she took in his state of dress. Crap; maybe making an introduction with his shirt half open was a bad idea. 

He felt his cheeks flushing pink in embarrassment and the instinct to scratch behind his ear, his telltale nervous tick, was itching. “Hi, uh,” he stammered, his gaze flicking to the floor. “I apologize for bothering you so early, but I’m in a bit of a pickle and could use some assistance, if you’re okay with that.”

“Well, I don’t like pickles but I can probably help,” she offered, setting her mug down on some unseen surface inside and stepping forward. “What do you need?”

He swallowed at the heightened proximity. “I need a bit of help getting this sling on, and then buttoning my shirt, if you wouldn’t terribly mind.”

“Oh, sure!” she blurted out, faster than either of them expected, judging by the surprised look on her face after. “I mean, yeah, just tell me what you need.”

“Of course, love—thank you so much,” he gushed, not realizing until he’d already said the term of endearment. She narrowed her eyes a bit at that but it didn’t seem to stop her. 

He started to slip his left arm into the sleeve of the sling and was going to tell her how to attach the strap, but then her eyes went wide and she gasped. “Oh my god, what happened?” 

He followed her worried gaze to his empty left wrist. Oh, right—she’s probably never seen him without his prosthetic hand. 

“Oh, no—this is old,” he assured her, nodding at it. “It’s my shoulder that’s messed up at the moment.”

“You’ve seriously had that many injuries on one side?” she asked as she stepped closer to grab the straps. “That’s more than coincidence—that’s bad luck.”

“Aye, I suppose. Good thing I’m right-handed.”

“Definitely,” she smiled back as she slipped the strap over his head and started to tighten it. “How’s this?”

“Perfect,” he answered—and it was: the right amount of snug and comfortable. “How’d you know to get it right?”

“I work in bail bonds,” she answered, turning her attention to the buttons on his shirt. “Injuries like that are part of the trade. Everyone at my firm has a pretty good grasp of first aid.”

The back of her fingers brushed against the skin of his stomach, making him breathe in sharply at the contact. 

“Oh no—did I hurt you?” She sounded so worried and pulled her hands back, looking back up at him with her brows raised in concern. 

No, she didn’t—he just hadn’t been touched with anything like that level of care in ages. “No, not at all—you’re fine.” He resisted the instinct to add “love” to the end of that again.  

“Phew, okay; just didn’t want to add to your injuries. I can’t imagine a pinched chest hair feels very good,” she explained, resuming her task. 

He chuckled. “Believe me, I’ve had worse.”

“I can see that,” she teased. 

She managed to button behind the sling, but he stopped her before she got too high. “That’s good.” There were still a few left undone but he didn’t want to impose on her kindness any longer—or if he could stand being in her airspace any more without doing something incredibly stupid, like kissing her.

She adjusted his collar and then stepped away. “You don’t strike me as much of a top-button guy, anyway,” she replied, smirking. 

He winked. “Not in the slightest.” He was amazed, and a bit relieved, at how easy they fell into banter; what could have been an awkward situation was decidedly less so. “But seriously—thank you, so much; I’d hate to have to call off work again simply because I wasn’t presentable.”

It looked like she was about to fire back something, but quickly bit her lip to hold it back. “No worries,” she finally answered. “Anytime.”

“Are you sure about that? Because I’m in this for at least six weeks.”

“I can think of worse ways to start the day,” she shrugged.

“Might I…” Now Killian freely scratched behind his ear. “Could I avail you of your skills tomorrow?”

She smiled, but it faltered. “I have a late night at work tonight, unfortunately,” she told him. “But I’ll be free the next day.”

“It’s a date then,” he blurted out, then realized what he said. “Or, not a date—but—you know—“

“It’s a date,” she laughed. “But there’s one more thing: I don’t ‘date’ guys whose names I don’t know.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” he cursed; they had skipped that part hadn’t they? “I’m Killian; Killian Jones,” he belatedly introduced, offering his hand. 

She took it. “Emma Swan.”

“Emma,” he repeated; Swan still suited her best, but he liked the way her given name felt on his lips. Which he subsequently placed on the back of her hand with a gentle kiss; probably still too forward but better than some of the alternatives. 

Now she was the one blushing, pink coloring the apples of her cheeks as she shyly smiled at him. “See you soon, Killian.”

“Until then, Swan.”

She slipped back inside her apartment and gave him one last wry smile before closing the door, and he headed back to his place. 

Oh, goodness—he was fucked. 

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

She hadn’t been lying: there were definitely worse ways for Emma to start her day. 

Who was she to complain when a man that attractive shows up at her door with his shirt half off?

Okay, so it was more like half on, but it still gave her more than a decent view of his toned chest and core, the line of his collarbones, and the most attractive array of chest hair she’d ever seen as it spread across his pecs and down his stomach to other parts she wouldn’t mind seeing. 

It caught her off guard, opening the door to that; usually it was the opposite—her on the outside, leaving, after a one-night stand. But none of those guys were half as beautiful as Killian, nor as charming or sweet. 

Plus, what kind of person says no to an injured guy like that? Not Emma. She knew what it was like to fend for yourself and could tell he did, too; it took a lot to work up the courage to ask for help like that. 

She felt bad that she wasn’t able to help him the following day, but was surprised to find she couldn’t wait for the next; that wasn’t something she’d done in a very long time. 

She thought about putting on extra coffee for him that morning but thought that might be too forward for a guy who seemed nervous enough in her presence—which was a little odd, because she was pretty sure she’d seen at least a handful of late-night visitors there. 

The coffee scoop was still in her hand when the knock came at the door. So much for that then; she’d just have to swing through Granny’s downstairs. 

When she opened the door, there Killian was again in all his adorable sexiness. “Good morning, Emma; is this an okay time?” He was a bit more reserved than he had been the other day—that wouldn’t do at all. 

Especially because she was hardcore ogling him the whole time. He had on a navy shirt today that hugged his biceps. It didn’t match his eyes quite as well as the pale blue one from his last visit but it gave a bold contrast to his gingery beard, which she noticed was a bit longer than it usually was. This must be some injury if it was impeding his ability to use his uninjured arm, too. 

“Of course!” she quickly said, because she realized she’d spent a bit too much time staring. “Mind if we do it reverse of last time?”

“Uh…”

She bit her lip and winced; that didn’t come out right. (Or maybe it did.) “I meant, let’s do the shirt first, if that’s alright.”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s fine. The pain isn’t quite as bad today.” But he still bit back a tiny wince as she adjusted his shirt, so she resolved to move fast. 

Carefully starting on the bottom button, she had to ask, “How did this happen in the first place?”

“Oh, just my so-called best friend coming at me like a defensive tackle in a game of real football.”

“You mean soccer?”

“Yes, that. How did you Yanks even come up with that term?”

“Fuck if I know.” And even if she did, she was too focused on not touching his skin this time to come up with the answer. She still couldn’t get that brush of soft hair and warm skin out of her mind—which had taken it and ran with it, imagining how the rest of him might feel. 

And it didn’t help that he smelled amazing. He continued on a rant about his friend—who was apparently the other British guy on their floor—but all she was really aware of were what her fingers were doing and the scent of Old Spice Captain, mixed with something else—leather, maybe? Rum? (Hopefully not, with whatever pain meds he was on.) Regardless, she kind of wanted to get drunk on it. 

“How’s that?” she asked when she thought she’d gotten the buttons to where he wanted—done up enough to be fairly modest but open enough to leave things to her overactive imagination. 

He glanced down, and she noticed not for the first time how long his lashes were. “That’s perfect; you’re a quick study,” he smirked, looking back up, amusement crinkling the skin at the corner of his eyes and bringing his adorable dimples out to play. 

“Gotta let the chest hair breathe, right?” She immediately regretted saying that and quickly busied herself with his sling. 

Thankfully, he just laughed. “Aye, I suppose so. My, uh,” he stammered, scratching that spot behind his ear again. “My last girlfriend always liked the view and I suppose it just stuck.”

Emma just adjusted the strap and avoided eye contact. Crap. How was she supposed to answer that? Was she supposed to flirt back to a guy who clearly wasn’t over his ex? Or was there something else going on?

(She was trying to ignore the voice in the back of her head about him being too good to be true, like most guys were.)

“Well...I’ve gotta say, I agree with her. Smart lady,” she offered, awkwardly. 

“Yeah, she was,” Killian answered solemnly. Oh—maybe there was more to this story then. But she had enough tragic backstories of her own to know not to try to prod at someone else’s. He got a bit of a vacant look in his eyes, like he was lost in memory, until he shook it off and looked back up at her, now that she was done. “Anyway, thank you so much again. Same time tomorrow?”

“It’s a date,” she answered without thinking. Because whatever his past was, and whatever the future held, she still knew she at least wanted to get to know him better. 

He grinned back. “See you then.”

He’d turned to head back to his apartment, but she worked up the nerve to call after him. “Wait!” He stopped and faced her again. “How do you take your coffee?”

“Black,” he answered simply.

“Good to know,” she smiled back, and he gave another in return before nodding his final farewell. 

She went back inside and busied herself with grabbing what she needed for work, but still couldn’t get him out of her mind. 

Dammit, why was he injured? Can’t they just fuck?

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

So not only was Emma intoxicating to be around, she also made a fantastic cup of coffee. That was how she greeted him the next day, and every day thereafter. He had to start coming a bit earlier, because coffee usually meant chatting, and once they started, he never wanted to stop. It only took a side-eye from his boss twice to make sure he wasn’t late again, but honestly, he’d rather deal with his boss’s ire than cut off any conversation short. 

It was during those discussions that he learned more about her—like that her favorite movie was The Princess Bride but she wasn’t a big reader, she liked to listen to the Black Keys, and she loved cinnamon in her hot chocolate; she had opted for that one morning a few weeks into this adventure, despite it being the middle of summer. 

“Isn’t this a bit out of season?” he gently teased, hoping to garner a real smile; she seemed down today, her half-smiles not quite reaching her eyes. 

She shrugged, eyes cast down. “Sometimes you just need things that bring a bit more comfort.”

“Love, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” He may have only known her for less than a month, but the thought of any trouble coming to her made his heart lurch.

She took another sip, then glanced around the hallway before opening her door. “Can you come in for a second?”

“Of course.”

He followed her and she shut the door behind him, but stayed close to it. A quick glance around the space showed that her place was much like his: sparse, with just the necessities—not many homey touches.

“Are we at the point where we can share tragic backstories?” she asked him shyly, leaning against the wall.

“I think so,” he confirmed, giving her a small smile of encouragement.

She exhaled. “Okay. Well, today...is my son’s birthday.”

His eyes grew wide and his breath hitched in his throat. “Your...you have a…?” He didn’t know what to say, especially considering it was pretty obvious that no child lived here. Oh, no—did he—?

“Had. Past tense.” His heart sank, but he didn’t want to interrupt. “I put him up for adoption. I wasn’t even 18 yet, and his dad was gone—abandoned me before he even knew. My foster mom helped me, but I knew I wasn’t ready, so I gave him up. I know that was the best thing for him, but I still...wonder. And I hope he’s okay.” She sniffled a bit, and wiped a tear from her eye.

But another one was escaping down the other cheek; he quickly set his mug down on a table by the door and reached up to brush it away. “Oh, Emma—I...I can’t imagine what that’s like. But...thank you for telling me.”

“You’re not gonna judge me?” Her voice was small and watery, and broke his heart in a whole different way.

“How could I? You made one of the hardest decisions anyone could make, and when you were a teenager no less. If anything, you’re probably one of the bravest people I know.”

There it was—that smile he’d been looking for. “That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she murmured.

He’d seen it before, but not as strong as it was right now—the guarded, lonely look in her eyes that all lost children had. It wasn’t something that was ever outgrown; he knew because he wore it, too. And his heart thudded in his chest again, adding to its list of acrobatics today in reaction to this brilliant woman—who was apparently even more of a kindred soul than he’d realized.

“A lass as fierce as you deserves to hear how awesome she is far more often than that,” he told her, tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear, before scratching behind his own—because now it was his turn to share. “But, ah, I know how rare that happens in the foster system.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. My brother and I ended up there after our mum died; dad was already out of the picture. Liam tried to get custody when he aged out, but they wouldn’t let him, so he went off to the Navy. He, uh, he was killed in action.”

“Oh my God—I’m so sorry.”

He swallowed and nodded. He didn’t often talk about his past, but given what Emma had told him, it seemed to be bubbling out of him today. “I floundered a bit after that—tried the Navy, too, but it didn’t take, and then I met Milah. It was a bit of whirlwind romance but I was head over heels, and she for me. Until her husband found out.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. I...I can’t go into the details, but he...he killed her, and he did this,” he explained, nodding at his stump. “He’s in jail for life, at least, but...yeah. So that’s my story.”

“Oh, Killian.” She didn’t try to give any platitudes, like the few other people he was close with had at first; she just wrapped her arms around him, being careful of his injuries. It took him a bit by surprise at first—he could tell she wasn’t the touchy-feely type—but he didn’t wait long to wrap his free arm around her and pull her close. Something told him this hug was as much for her comfort as his.

Try as he might not to, he couldn’t help but notice how perfect she fit in his embrace, his arm naturally settling at her waist and her head resting on his shoulder (the good one). He closed his eyes and inhaled, surrounded by her scent—cinnamon and chocolate from her cocoa, and something lightly floral and sweet that didn’t quite match her rough exterior but suited her perfectly nonetheless.

He had an even harder time ignoring the bit of his subconscious that didn’t want to let go of her, not now and possibly not ever. And there was no way for him to overlook the way his heart leapt when she practically burrowed into his neck.

Until her phone went off and they jumped apart. That actually did kind of hurt, in more ways than one. 

“Sorry; I better—”

“Yeah, me too.” He could almost physically see her emotional walls going back up in the way she stiffened and retracted from him, making no effort to actually grab her phone and just using the interruption as an out. He understood why, though it stung a bit, but he’d be damned if he was the one making her uncomfortable.

“I—I have another work thing tonight, so I won’t be able to see you tomorrow; but...next day?”

“Can’t wait,” he answered, giving her his usual smile. He slipped out and almost had to run back to his place to get his work things, but cast another glance at Emma’s now-closed door as he passed.

Assuming that image wasn’t a metaphor, he couldn’t wait for the day he could truly wrap her in his arms, and maybe then some.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

So, hugging him was a bad idea. A completely terrible one. Not her worst ever—their prior conversation kind of displayed that—but recently? Yeah, that was awful.

Because she really should have known how great he would feel against her. She got a prime view of his upper body every day; she didn’t need to wrap herself around it to know he’d be firm and soft in the most perfect ways.

And she was already well aware of what he smelled like; did she really have to dive in for deeper whiff? (Or become any more aware of what the heat felt like rolling off him, warming both her body and soul?)

God bless her boss for that perfectly timed text. She did feel bad for the slight wince she caught on Killian’s face as she jumped away, and then even more for the white lie she gave about the next day—it wasn’t so much that she had a late night, but more that she knew she needed a day to cool off after that. Or to let the inevitable freak-out run its course, because who on earth tells a sob story like hers to someone they’ve barely known for a month? (Even if said person did the same.)

Killian seemed unfazed, though, so she took that as a good sign. Which she also did with the bag of pumpkin spice-flavored coffee she found outside her door the next morning, with her name scrawled on it in an unfairly beautiful script.

But, perfectly, that gave her a way to figure out where they were the following day. Things change when you bare your soul to another person, and honestly, her biggest fear was that she’d scared him off altogether.

So when that familiar, gentlemanly knock rapped on her door (how a knock could be prim and proper, she had no idea, but his was), she was ready to answer it with two mugs of her new brew.

“Who’s out of season now?” she teased, handing the cup over. Falling back on humor was something was a safeguard, but hopefully he’d still pick up on the way she was acknowledging their last conversation.

His usual early-morning sleepy smile morphed into an eyebrows-raised expression of surprise for a moment, but a dimpled smirk quickly took over.

He took the proffered mug and quipped, “Well, as a brilliant lass once told me, sometimes you just need something comforting, and I suppose there’s no wrong season on that.”

And just like that, things were okay. Why had she thought they wouldn’t be? It’s Killian, for fuck’s sake. She grinned back at him and set to work on his shirt and sling, maneuvers so well-practiced at this point she barely needed to look to make sure she was doing everything right, and they quickly fell back into their easy banter. 

“I think you could give lessons in buttoning a shirt, Swan; I’ve never seen fingers more nimble.”

“Oh? Who else has been buttoning your shirts lately? Should I be jealous?”

He chuckled, deep and low—a sound that went straight to certain sensitive parts of her. “Just Robin, on the days you’re busy. But the arse can’t even keep the rows straight and nearly strangled me with the sling.”

From the other end of the hallway, a slightly muffled shout called out “I heard that, you bellend!” from Robin’s apartment. Killian turned to bark back, “You were supposed to, ya bloody wanker!”

“God, you’re so British sometimes,” she laughed and started on the sling. 

“Well, you can take the man out of England, and so on. Even if it’s been 20 years.”

Things pretty much went back to normal after that, if a bit bolder on both their ends. They still chatted about anything and everything—he had some good stories about his culture shock when he first came over as a kid, shared his strongly held opinions on various rums, and she was able to figure out he had a lifelong love of Peter Pan (“but Pan himself is a prat; Hook, though—he’s an icon. And, y’know, we have something in common.” “I’m kind of surprised you don’t have a hook instead of your prosthetic.” “You haven’t seen me on Halloween, darling.”).

If her hands brushed his skin more often, she could probably chalk that up to their increased comfort with one another. If she found herself invading his personal space on a regular basis, it was easy to write that off as part of her helping him. And if she daydreamed about the freckles on his neck and where other ones might be...okay, she had no explanation for that. Actually, that one was his fault.

“So just what do you do at night?” she’d asked. “You don’t seem to need my help then.”

“Are you offering?” he tossed back, and she could see his tongue moving lasciviously behind his teeth as he smirked. She playfully slapped the uninjured shoulder as she continued to work. “Well, if you must know, it’s much easier to get all this off than it is to get it on. And as long as I don’t move around too much in my sleep, no harm, no foul.”

“So...no sleep shirt?”

“No sleep shirt,” he repeated, voice a bit lower than usual; she could feel it vibrating in his chest as she did the last button. It was a damn good thing she was staring at her work and not his eyes because she might have reinjured him at that moment.

Summer turned into early fall and Killian had just become a normal part of her mornings. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew he’d get better at some point, but it wasn’t something she ever really focused on—not when she was enjoying herself with him far more than she had anyone else in recent memory.

So it was a bit of a bomb when he dropped the news on her one morning, roughly six weeks after he’d first knocked on her door.

“Um, it looks like this might be the last time I’m bothering you,” he stammered, staring at the floor as she did up his shirt for the countless-th time. “I’ve got an appointment with the doctor later on to see how it’s healed.”

“Oh,” she answered, sounding much more sad than she thought she would. “Uh, how’s it been feeling?”

“Pretty good; still a little sore, but that might be more with disuse than anything.”

“That’s...that’s good, then.” But was it? Was it really? Killian had basically become the highlight of her days and now that was just going to...end?

“Yeah, I...guess so.” At least he sounded as unenthused at the prospect as she was. 

She was tempted to offer to push him down the stairs to keep things going, but who only knew what kind of damage that would do, so she held back and kept focused on the task at hand. Which was suddenly becoming blurry; how did a shirt get blurry?

“I truly can’t thank you enough, Swan, for helping me out so generously. Getting to know you...has been the best part of this.”

“My pleasure,” she replied, not knowing what else to say and hoping he couldn’t hear how watery her voice was.

But, of course, he did. “We’ll still see each other around, right?”

“I dunno; you live really far away,” she quipped back, hiding behind her walls again. He was one of the few people to get through them and if he was backing out, she needed to start rebuilding them.

“I think I can manage getting over here from time to time,” he said, with that dumb sweet soft smile she loved and hated equally. “You’re definitely worth the journey.”

Now she was blushing and almost crying. She didn’t know that was a thing. And she knew if she tried to say anything, she’d probably just put her foot in her mouth, so she silently focused on the task at hand, almost reverent in her care. 

She tightened the strap on the sling—probably for the last time—and stepped back to survey her work. But Killian caught her hand before she got too far away, and found her eyes with his intense blue gaze. 

“Seriously, Emma—I couldn’t have gotten through this without you. It certainly wasn’t how I had planned on making your acquaintance, but now...I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He brought her hand to his lips, just like the first time, and placed a gentle but firm kiss on the back, never breaking eye contact. “Thank you.”

She was left no less speechless than she was back then, but she couldn’t reply as casually as she had; too much had passed between them now. Really, only one thing popped into her mind, and she acted on instinct. 

Squeezing his hand tight, she rose up on her toes and found his lips with hers. Why her mind went straight to kissing, she had no idea, but there was no turning back now—especially not when he broke her grasp to pull her close, and her arms snaked around his neck. 

There was none of the hesitation on his part like when they hugged despite this being a whole other magnitude of physical contact, but that didn’t register until after the fact; right now, all she could focus on was how talented his tongue was against hers and how he tasted of that delicious pumpkin spice coffee. Damn, he was good at this; what other things was he good at?

But then her fucking phone went off again, making them break apart. And then it sunk in: she kissed him. What the hell? This changed everything. (Or worse: what if it didn’t?)

“I, uh…” she stuttered, her speechlessness catching up to and now paired with breathlessness. 

“That was…” He sounded equally wrecked. 

“I’ve...I’ve gotta get that. I’ll see you around. Good luck today. Just...leave the mug when you finish it. Um...yeah.” She cast one lady glance at his utterly fuckstruck face before turning around and heading back inside, collapsing against the door once it was closed. 

But before it shut, she’d heard him say three perfect words: “As you wish.”

What the fuck—what did she just do?

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

He didn’t dream that, did he? Did Emma just kiss him within an inch of his life?

He’d managed to blurt out the only thing that came to mind after she blabbered her way out of whatever that encounter was, but after the door shut, he had to lean against the wall next to it, lest his legs give out. 

His fingers found his kiss-swollen lips and he let out a long exhale, reminding himself how out of breath he’d been left. 

Bloody hell, that really happened. He’d certainly imagined it many times—and other, far more intimate things while enjoying a bit of self-love—but the real thing put all his daydreams to shame. The way she’d pressed herself against him, warm and soft; her sweet scent mixed with her savory flavor; but most of all, how he swore their hearts were beating in time for one star-crossed moment. (Yes, he was being dramatic, but that was pretty much his M.O.)

He shook his head to clear his brain; he couldn’t stand there all day being lovestruck, or else he might still be there once Emma finally went on her way. Which he typically wouldn’t consider a bad thing were it not for the way she attempted to close herself off at the end. He knew what she was doing—trying to protect herself—and he’d give her some space for the moment. 

But, as he headed back to his place and out into the day, he started formulating a plan. He knew other people had walked out on Emma and that was surely what she was expecting of him—but he’d be damned if he let that be the case.

He’d barely made it in the door of his apartment that evening when he shook off his jacket, tossed the sling on the back of his sofa, and turned around to knock on that familiar door again. He still wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do or say, but Emma hadn’t seen him for the last time.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

The first thing Emma saw when she got home that night was the mug Killian used that day still sitting on her kitchen counter, waiting to be washed and put away, where it would probably sit unused for a long while. She didn’t do the whole having-friends-over thing, so despite her small collection of mugs, she tended to just use her favorite one every day. Even if washing two was a bit extra work, she was glad to do it if it meant having Killian’s company.

She sighed for what felt like forever. He didn’t need her anymore. Regardless of how he kissed her today, that was the truth of it, unless the doctor had bad news. It would still have to come to an end eventually, though; better to rip off the bandage now.

Why she kissed him, she still didn’t know. That wasn’t like her. She was no stranger to one-night rendezvous but there was never an emotional connection with those, not like she’d developed with him. In some way, it was putting the ball in his court, she guessed. He wasn’t the kind of guy to take advantage of a situation, she knew, but life had taught her to not hold onto too much hope, despite the constant preaching of her best friend.

So when a knock came at the door, she just assumed it was the pizza she’d ordered on her way home. At least she had that to look forward to—and the bottle of wine in the cupboard. 

“Thank God, I’m star—ving…” she started as she opened the door, but trailed off when she saw what was on the other side: not some scrawny delivery boy, but Killian. “Uh, hi.”

He looked just as amazing as he had that morning: slightly disheveled hair, blue plaid shirt, and those well-fitting pants that she had watched saunter away more than once. But something was missing. 

“No sling,” she said, though it came a bit more like a question. 

“Nope; clean bill of health.”

“That’s good then.” She wasn’t anywhere near as enthusiastic as she probably should have been. “So...what are you doing here?”

She could see the wheels turning in his brain—he was working up to something. He wet his lip with his tongue, but couldn’t seem to get the words out.

As distracting as that tick was, her nervous side started to bubble. “I mean, it’s not like you need help getting your shirt on or anything,” she quipped anxiously.

He immediately smirked and his eyebrows leapt in amusement. Oh no—she just fed him a line, didn’t she?

“No,” he drawled, taking a swaggering step forward. “But I’d be glad to have your assistance in taking it off.”

If it were anyone else, she’d call it out for the skeezy come-on it was, but not him. He knew he was being ridiculous and he wanted to see what she’d do. And it didn’t help that he couldn’t keep the sincerity out of his voice.

There was really only one way for her to reply to that. She stepped up to meet him and found the top button, the one that let that tempting thatch of hair below it breathe. For a second, she just traced it with her fingertip, then went ahead and undid it. Her heart was racing the entire time and she was pretty sure Killian stopped breathing, especially once she looked up at him to see that he was staring at her intently. 

“I can think of worse ways to end the day,” she told him, echoing their first conversation.

He started to smile but she didn’t give him the chance to unleash his full grin before she grabbed his flannel collar and pulled him to her. His lips didn’t taste quite the same as they had that morning but it didn’t matter; she wanted to discover all his flavors, every day. 

She tugged him inside her apartment and he kicked the door shut behind them as the kiss continued. Her fingers continued to work at his shirt, undoing her earlier handiwork, and his hand and wrist drifted to her waist. 

It was a bit jarring when her back hit the edge of her kitchen island, but she just took that as a chance to switch directions. She released the last button, letting his shirt fall open, and then slipped her hands under the fabric on his shoulders as she pushed the two of them in the direction of the couch. 

Her hands drifted to his trim waist as she guided them around the end of the sofa, only breaking the kiss to make sure she wasn’t pushing him into any obstructions (god, she’d be so embarrassed if she broke him again). But as soon as they were clear, she pushed him down onto the cushions and then one by one set her knees on either side of his lap to straddle him.

HIs gaze had darkened considerably, the normal sky blue turning a hazy midnight, and his hand had somehow found its way to her ass and was cupping it reverently—which shouldn’t have even been a thing, but this was Killian; that was just how he was.

They’d sufficiently reclaimed their breaths, evidently, because they surged forward to meet again, and Emma’s hand drifted back up to his collarbones. She tried to be gentle, but need was overtaking her as she pushed the soft fabric down over his shoulders to his biceps, squeezing the muscles as she went, until—

—Until he pulled back, wincing and hissing in pain. Fuck. “Oh god, are you alright? What did I do?”

“It’s fine, love,” he said reassuringly, letting his head fall back against the couch (and giving her a perfect view of those freckles on his neck that just looked so damn kissable but now was not the moment). “Just still a bit sore; take it easy on me, aye?”

“Easier said than done,” she blurted, not even thinking about it. He cocked an eyebrow in amusement and she felt her entire face flush red, and not from arousal. “God, I fucked this up, didn’t I?”

“How on earth could you have done that?”

“Because I don’t know how to do...this,” she said, gesturing between them.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Emma—you’re a marvelous kisser.” He winked (poorly) and squeezed his hand, which was still on her rear end.

“Ha,” she answered dryly. “Just...why are you even here?”

HIs face lost its humor and turned serious, but there was still a softness that made her heart melt a little bit. “Well in case you hadn’t noticed, I quite fancy you. And I couldn’t bear to never see you again.” 

She looked away. “Well, it wouldn’t be never. Our mailboxes are right next to each other,” she deflected.  

“I know but...I want more than that.” His hand finally left her back pocket and nudged itself under her chin, guiding her eyes back to his. “I’ve spent nearly every morning for the last six weeks with you, darling, and I’m sure you’ve picked up that I’m a creature of habit. And starting each day with you is one tradition that I’d be loath to lose.”

He’d never been more honest with her, she could tell. And it was a little overwhelming. 

“What do you say, love?”

Despite her past, despite her fears and heartbreaks, and despite his, she took a deep breath, swallowed, and stared into his intense gaze. “It’s a date.”

He broke into that adorable, wide-eyed, incandescent grin that she couldn’t help but return, but it was quickly drowned by another round of kissing (much gentler on her part). 

And it was also quickly determined that her bed was much softer than the couch. 

They left a trail of clothes from the living room to her bedroom, but she insisted he keep the shirt on until the last minute. 

They were kneeling on her bed, naked save for that bit of cotton, which she finally pushed down off the ends of his arms.

“How long have you been waiting to do that?” he asked, voice low and breath hot on her ear.

“Since the day you first showed up.”

He pulled her tight to him with his left arm and she finally got to enjoy the divine feel of his chest hair and warm skin against hers—somehow more amazing than even her imagination had come up with, both soft and coarse, teasing and abrasive; kind of a lot like him. 

And then he was guiding her to laying down, and after only minor fumbling, was pressing inside her, which is when most coherent thought ended on her part. There was a lot of “fuck”, “damn”, “yes”, and “YES” going on, from both of them, as he thrust in and out and she met him move for move.

She worried he’d aggravate something again after they came (an incredible moment, really) and he collapsed alongside her, but she held onto his shoulders in some vain attempt at support, and he was clearly practiced in relying on his right arm. They did the necessary cleaning up stuff, but then fell back into bed and he pulled her close. 

For the first time in ages, she spent the night in a guy’s arms and wasn’t looking for an escape route.

(Having him a few more times over the course of the night probably helped. She was already looking forward to when he was less sore and she could be on top.)

(The pizza and wine were icing on the cake, though she probably scarred the delivery boy by answering the door in just Killian’s shirt. She got to see just how nimble those fingers were when it was his turn to unbutton—and then when he used them to make her come undone as well.)

The next morning, she got out that second mug again as she brewed another batch of pumpkin spice coffee.

And proceeded to button his shirt for him, albeit sadly, now that she knew what lay underneath.

But it was okay, because she got to undo it again that night, and every night thereafter.

(The only morning she didn’t button him up was on their wedding day.)

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

thanks for reading!!! tagging some friends:  @kat2609​ @thesschesthair​ @optomisticgirl​ @shipsxahoy​ @amortentia-on-the-rocks​ @mryddinwilt​ @cocohook38​ @annytecture​ @wingedlioness​ @word-bug​ @distant-rose​ @wellhellotragic​ @welllpthisishappening​ @let-it-raines​ @pirateherokillian​ @bleebug​ @its-imperator-furiosa​ @fergus80​ @killianmesmalls​ @sherlockianwhovian​ @ineffablecolors​ @laschatzi​ @ive-always-been-a-pirate​ @nfbagelperson​ @stubblesandwich​​ @killian-whump​​ @lenfaz​ @phiralovesloki​ @athenascarlet​ @kmomof4​ @ilovemesomekillianjones​ @whimsicallyenchantedrose​ @snowbellewells​ @idristardis​ @scientificapricot​ @searchingwardrobes​

[thefanficmonster]

Listener

John (The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope) x Reader (Male)

Warnings: SPOILERS FOR THE GAME LITTLE HOPE

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: He wishes to be fine, he wants to be ok. He only wants to get over that night, bury it in the past and push forward. But you can’t bury what you can’t see or touch - the scars on your psyche, the trauma, the nightmares. He’s not able to battle it...not on his own at least.

Requested by @dark-pictures-until-dawn Hello dear! Sorry to be posting your request so late. I really hope you have stayed patient enough to still want to read the fic because I’m really looking forward to hearing your feedback, especially since it’s my first time writing a male reader. Please enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤

I can’t go home. I feel unsafe and lonely there. I feel how shallow is the meaningfulness of my existence and am constantly reminded of how quickly and gruesomely it was almost taken from me back in that ghost town. How I was prepared to do anything to shield my life as well as the lives of those I was responsible of from the horrors Little Hope provided for us. Speaking of my companions at the time, I think they’re doing far better than I am. Angela is, well, Angela - unbothered by the real problem, rather focusing on herself, mostly appearance-wise. Taylor and Daniel are each other’s support and have finally made their relationship public and I’m really happy for them. They deserve nothing but the best and I hope they get through this soon. Andrew left for home for a week or two to be with his family until the concussion and the trauma wore off at least a small bit. I was really worried for him and still am, but I’m at ease knowing he’s surrounded by people who’ll take care of him.

I, however, am left to my own devices. Devices I’m not sure I have. I can hear the weak side of me whispering to me whenever I get home, telling me it’s ok to break the streak at a time like this, even encouraging me to do so. Telling me it’ll be alright, that I’ll be able to pick myself back up, but for now, I can turn to my old friend for comfort. I can allow the liquor to pick me up like it did then.  But then, thank the heavens, my rational side kicks in right on time - one second before it can be too late. It makes me ask myself if alcohol ever did anything for me except dig me a grave for my own dignity. Did it ever pick me up, or was it always the illusion behind which was the defeat and demise it truly gave me?

This rational side has helped me put down the bottle just as I was about to unscrew its cap, and I’ll forever be in its debt. Lord knows I’d be back in the same awful spot I was in before I started by journey of getting clean. I can’t go through the hellish first months of recovery another time. But the escape is a little too hard to resist sometimes.

Tonight it’s especially bad. This afternoon I had a meetup with the principle of the college during which I had to tell him all that happened that night, all the while enduring his ‘you’ve gone mad’ stare mixed with pity. He doesn’t believe any of us, how could he? I wouldn’t believe it either if I were in his shoes. Still, I’m the one who he bothers the most about it, given the others are students and I’m basically an employee of his and I am not allowed to show any sort of disrespect, no matter how much I’d like to put him in his place, if I want to keep my job.  Having to reach to the dark side of my mind for the memories of that night took a toll on me like it hasn’t been able to in the past three days. I sometimes experience rather decent days during which my mind is too occupied to crack under the weight of the trauma. But then come the nights when I avoid sleeping just to unintentionally sink in deep slumber which is interrupted by a nightmare that sends me in a state of absolute terror.

Those are the instances in which I need metal chains to tie my wrists and feet so I don’t go back to old habits. 

Why I still have alcohol in my house is beyond me. It’s like I’m taunting myself to fail what I’ve worked so hard for. Like dangling a piece of meat in front of a lion. The problem is - I’m both the person dangling the meat and the lion. I end up hurting myself by seeking comfort. It’d be a straight up lie if I tell myself I’m strong enough to resist temptation. The only reason why I do so is to avoid those first few months of the new attempted recovery. If I even attempt it, that is.

Because of the deteriorated state my mind is in right now and my weakened defenses, I have made the only move I can think of - sleeping in the school tonight. I’m lucky to have a couch in my office which I share with another professor, so sleeping here will at least be comfortable. The weather has been holding up well, so I won’t even need to bring out the heater. Just as long as no one...

“John? You’re still here?“

…sees me.

The familiar voice scares me half to death, bringing me out of my spiraling thoughts. I’ve become really jumpy and easily terrified which I consider to be reasonable. Other people are rather cautious around me and when approaching me, which I appreciate. 

The person standing in the doorway with one hand on the handle and a startled expression on his face is my colleague Y/N. He’s the professor I’m sharing this office with. Him and I started working at this college at the same time and we quickly bonded over our first-day-on-the-job anxiety. He is pretty swell guy, about my age and height. He is the laid back professor, you don’t see many of his kind, especially since he is an ECON professor. Some of my students are in his class too, and they have nothing but kind words to say about him and his teaching. While the other professors, myself included, sport suits to work, he shows up in a polo shirt and jeans. He hasn’t missed a single day of work and his class flaunts the highest score in the whole college. That should tell you enough about how professional and well-put-together of a person Y/N is. 

“Um, yeah...I just have some things to finish up.“ I wave my hand dismissively, hoping he’d leave it at that. But we’ve been colleagues and friends too long for him to let that slide so easily. He knows me well, people are an open book to him in general. He has told me he wanted to pursue psychology but his parents talked him out of it which explains his ability to tap into a person’s psyche like a literal mind reader. God knows I need a psychologist right now.

Y/N steps inside, closing the door behind him. “I can wait for you. We could get some dinner if you want.“ He suggests casually, shrugging his shoulders a tiny bit.

My eyes go wide, “No!” I answer a little too quickly and too loudly, causing him to frown in confusion, “I mean...don’t wait for me. There’s no need. It’s already late. We could get dinner another time.”

Y/N narrows his eyes slightly as if attempting to read a sign in the distance. I know he’s reading me. I bet he doesn’t even have to try so hard. I’m an open book that has suffered too much damage recently. And I’m not only talking the events back in that God forsaken town.

I try avoiding his gaze but when he says my name I can look nowhere but his eyes, “John, I know you’re still rattled and traumatized. Who wouldn’t be? Just know that you can talk to me anytime, about anything.“ His hand rests on my shoulder, “I’m one of those people who believes you. I believe you 100%” He chuckles, shaking his head, “I’ve researched that stuff probably more than I should’ve when I was a teenager. And it still intrigues me. Though I’m really sorry you had to go through such horrible events. You know you can take a paid leave for a month or two, right? No one will hold it against you. I’d be more than happy to cover for you if you’d like.” 

I find myself smiling at Y/N’s words, “I really appreciate that, Y/N, but I’m afraid that if I don’t come to work I’ll end up losing my mind. Hell...“ I motion around the office, “I don’t even wanna leave. ‘Home’ doesn’t seem so homey at the moment.“ I force a melancholic chuckle, deprived of almost all emotion.

“Hey, now that offends me.“ He frowns, showing off just how much I’ve hurt his feelings, “You’d rather crash here than come over to my place? Come on, John, you should know better than that.“ He pauses for a second, eyeing me suspiciously before a smirk appears on his face, “You’re just afraid I’ll bring out the chess board, aren’t you?“

I can’t help but laugh, “Not at all. We both know I’m the better chess player.“

A mock offended expression makes its way onto Y/N’s face as his eyes widen, “Oh, you’re so on now.” He quickly open the door, one foot already out in the hall.

I hurriedly grab my jacket and briefcase from where I left them this morning, “Not before dinner, though. My treat.” I call after him, my arm automatically reaching out for him, taking gentle hold of his wrist, “And, thank you, Y/N. This means a lot to me. Your support, your company, your friendship...everything.”

Y/N turns around, sending me one of his bright, dazzling smiles, “I was on board with you till you said friendship.” He snorts, moving his hand so it can hold mine and give it a gentle squeeze, “Jokes aside, John, I really want to help you and be there for you. So, please, I’m begging you, don’t push me away. At least try not to, ok?”

The warmth seeping from his eyes comforts me, helps me forget what’s been bothering me, at least momentarily. He always understands, he’s always prepared to help, to comfort, prepared to give advice and receive criticism. He’s human, obviously, but a human who understands what it’s like to be let down, brought down and forced to pick yourself back up, I haven’t found many who understand that in my life. He was my support when I decided to get clean, my biggest stability pillar, why couldn’t he help me now too? Why don’t I allow him to make me at least half the person he is?

“I’ll try, Y/N. I promise.“

And this is a promise I’ll keep, starting by discarding all the alcohol bottles in my house.

[lover-of-skellies]

And Then There Was One

a blurb I wrote for adult!Mal, inspired by this epic cover version of “The Final Countdown” that I found on youtube :P

Her eye lights scanned the area around her once more, taking in the cracked earth, toppled buildings, and destruction. The smoke. The blood. The monster dust. The smell of death hung in the air around her, and she made a face, disgusted. From the other side of the makeshift battle field, the guardian of negativity watched her, visibly amused at the position she’d been left in. To her right, Necro’s body laid broken on the ground, his eye lights extinguished as Zerif clutched him to his chest, ignoring his own injuries as he frantically tried to heal those of his partner, lime green tears dripping down his face. To her left, Lucky was on the ground as well, lying on his side. He wasn’t moving and there were no signs of his eye lights returning anytime soon, but at least he hadn’t begun turning to dust yet.

Ink’s body was also lying nearby, beaten down and broken into multiple pieces in a puddle of black ink. Dream laid near him, just barely conscious and unable to move. Template was nowhere in sight, though his pen had been broken in half and was carelessly tossed aside. His glasses were also broken, their lenses cracked horribly as they rested not far from the broken pen. 

Nightmare’s side had also sustained casualties though as well; Axe had been knocked aside, hitting his head in the process and falling limp. Asy was also lying on the ground, his straitjacket coated by a thin layer of dust and clear stains from both grass and blood. Dust had also been taken out; he was still conscious, but much like Dream, he couldn’t move. Not a single inch. Killer was still very much present and able to fight, minus the fact that he’d managed to lose an arm, and half of his skull was cracked. While Error casually perched on a tree branch to watch the battle until it was deemed necessary for him to get involved, Nightmare himself stood, his hands in his jacket pockets as he narrowed his one visible socket and arched a single brow bone, silently challenging Mal to continue fighting. He’d known her since she was just a mere child, so of course he was confident that there was nothing she could do to surprise him.

The female skeleton in question stood, her body rigid as she curled her hands down into fists by her sides, narrowing her sockets and sporting a look of sheer hatred and resentment as she gazed back and the goop covered guardian, his eye lights also briefly flickering back and forth between Error and Killer as well. A bead of blue tinted sweat slowly rolled down the side of her face as she let out a deep breath, her chest feeling heavy as she called out to her last remaining companion, “...Fresh. I’ve got one last thing I need your help with.”

A portal opened behind her and the nineties nightmare peered through it. He was immediately aware of the numerous bodies scattered along the field, but chose to ignore them in favor of responding to his friend, “Yeah, Sparky? Whatcha need?” Mal felt a pang of regret course through her and she frowned, “I need you to take them to Geno. Then from there, I want them taken to ReaperTale. They should be safe there, right?” Fresh tilted his head, also frowning once the realization dawned on him, “For a while, yeah. Don’t tell me you’re gonna do what I think you are though. Please. You have them ta think about too, ya know? I’m not good w’kids or anythin’ either, an’ I don’t wanna have ta explain ta them where their ma is when ya don’t come back from this.” Mal scoffed, glancing over her shoulder to shoot a glare in his direction, “If you really think I plan on dying here, you’re an idiot.”

From within the portal, two small voices could be heard, “Mom?” “Mommy, is that you?” Mal’s expression softened as she looked back at the portal, a human child with golden blonde hair peeking at her from behind Fresh while a second child, a small, rather fragile skeleton, darted through the portal to cling to her. Immediately kneeling on the ground and wrapping her arm around the child, she pressed a kiss to the top of their skull before looking to the second child and offering him a sad smile, extending a hand to him, “Come here, Avalon. I need to tell you something.” Though he was nervous, the child did as he was asked, stepping through the portal and going to his mother, now also clinging to her. 

Mal pressed another kiss to the second child’s head, sighing softly as she began speaking softly to both of them, “Things… might not look too good right now. For anyone. But I promise you, everything will be ok again soon. I’ll come get you, then we can all go home. For now though, I need you to go with Fresh. He’s going to take you to see Geno, then the four of you are gonna go on a trip together. Somewhere new that you haven’t been before.” Avalon tightened his grip on her shirt ever so slightly, his voice cracking, “You promise you’re gonna be ok, mama?” She offered him a reassuring smile, gently ruffling his hair, “Yes, Lonnie, I promise. Here,” she paused, holding up a fist with only her pinky still held straight, “should we make it a pinky promise? Would that be better?” Smiling slightly, Avalon lifted a hand, wrapping his pinky around hers to complete the promise, “Uh huh.” 

She laughed softly, hugging him a hair bit tighter before sighing, “You’re a good kid, you know that? Always so strong and brave, always such a big helper.” The child smiled at the praises, trying to snuggle even closer to her, and with a heavy heart, she continued after a brief moment of silence, “I love you, ok? So, so much… with my whole soul. I will come for you once this is over.” Feeling him tighten his grip on her again, she hummed, gently pulling back from him just enough to delicately cup his face as she met his gaze, giving him another smile in hopes of offering even a little reassurance, “Hey, everything will be ok, I promise. Have I ever lied to you before?” Avalon shook his head, his voice soft, “No, I don’t think so.” Mal chuckled, leaning slightly closer to whisper to him, “Exactly. Now, go back to Fresh. If you get scared, him and Geno will be there for you, ok?”

The child nodded, leaning closer to kiss his adoptive mother’s cheekbone, “Ok… I love you, mama.” The skeleton felt tears prick at the edge of her sockets, but in fear of upsetting her child, she blinked them back, forcing out another smile as she sighed, “I love you too, Avalon. And I always will.” Avalon, though very clearly reluctant to part from her, slipped from her grasp, and she watched him as he slipped back through the portal and clung to Fresh’s jacket.

She turned her attention back to the first child, offering them a soft smile and mumbling, “And then there was one.” The skeleton child smiled weakly, one of their eye lights shifting into the shape of a tear drop. Seeing the familiar shape, Mal’s smile became a frown and she gently touched their face, stroking their cheekbone with her thumb and whispering, “Baby, hey… don’t look at me like that. Everything will be ok, I promise. I swear on my soul, even, that things’ll go back to normal soon. We just have to be patient.” The child frowned, their gaze flickering over to where the three remaining enemies stood, before looking back at their mother, “Mom?... How do you know it’ll be ok?... Everything… Everything here doesn’t look like it’ll ever get better.” Mal hummed, smiling weakly, “I just do, I guess. You could even say I feel it in my bones.”

The child snorted, trying to hide a small smile, and Mal tilted her head, feeling a tad bit more at ease now. The magic shifted in the air and she froze, looking up to see Killer beginning to approach her and her child, his knife drawn. She was immediately on her feet at that, one arm protectively nudging her child behind herself as she glared at Killer, her sockets narrows as she frowned, “Killer, back the hell off right now. You are not to get any closer to my kid and I.” The skeleton arched a brow bone and chuckled, a black tar-like substance dripping down his face as he smirked, “Yeah? And just what are you gonna do to stop me?” Scoffing at the arrogance in his tone, she used her free hand, touching her fingertips to the edge of one of her sockets and producing blue threads. 

With a flick of her wrist, the threads were quick to shoot toward Killer. Despite only having one arm, he sliced through them and continued on toward her, and she hissed, “Last chance, shit for brains. Back off, and maybe I’ll be nice about how I kill you.” He continued on toward her, his head tilting again in interest as the child peeked out from behind Mal, their sockets widened in fear. Seeing the look they wore, Killer grinned widely, “That’s a cute kid you got there, Mal. I’m a little hurt that you haven’t introduced me to them yet.” Mal took a single step back, her child following her movements. As red magic surrounded the child’s soul, one of their eye lights shifted into an exclamation mark and they called out, their tone soaked with alarm, “Mom?! Mom, what’s going on?” 

Glancing back and seeing Killer’s magic enveloping her child’s soul, Mal’s eyes briefly widened in fear before they narrowed and her eye lights extinguished. Whirling around to face Killer again, her blue threads gradually became a vibrant shade of crimson and shot toward him, and she roared, “DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY CHILD, YOU BASTARD.” Not expecting to see her threads become crimson, Killer momentarily froze, giving the threads just enough time to wrap around his neck vertebrae. And then he was soaring through the air, the threads searing hot as they cut into his neck. Mal’s child hid their face in her shirt as her threads released Killer, causing him to fly directly at Error, successfully knocking the black skeleton off his perch.

The crimson threads faded from view and Mal took a deep breath to calm herself before turning to face her child, removing her black and white striped scarf and draping it over their shoulders, offering them a sad smile, “You need to go, baby, it’s not safe here. I’ll come get you after this is over, I promise.” The child touched her scarf, pastel rainbow tinted tears pricking at their sockets as they whimpered, “Mom… you promise you’ll come back? You won’t die, right?...” As the tears began to roll down their cheekbones, Mal frowned, dark blue tears beginning to drip from hers before they transformed into more threads. She let out a shaky breath and hugged her child tightly, “I swear to you, Pastel, I won’t die. Not here, not to losers like these guys. As long as I have you waiting for me, I’ll always come back. I mean… that’s what moms do, right?” Pastel sniffled, their one eye light becoming the shape of a broken heart as they whimpered again, “Uh huh… I guess so.” 

She smiled weakly, kissing Pastel’s face and mumbling to them, “I love you so much, ok?... You and your brother are my whole world.” Pastel nodded, rubbing at their sockets with the back of their hand, “I love you too, mom… You’re so strong and cool. If you come back, can you show me how to be like you?” Mal sighed, chuckling softly, “Love, there’s no need for that. You’re already as strong and cool as me. Maybe even more. Now, you gotta get going. When you see Geno, give him a hug for me, ok? And if it makes you feel any better, you can tell Reaper that your mom’s gonna come kick his butt later, too.” Unable to help it, Pastel pressed a hand over their mouth and giggled, earning an affectionate smile from Mal. Though she really didn’t want to, she parted from her child and gently nudged them toward the portal. Fortunately, they went without any sort of argument or hesitation, and as the portal closed behind them, she let out a sigh of relief.

Now that her children were gone, she could finally focus her attention on Error and Nightmare. Judging by Killer’s position on the ground, she guessed that he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon… or ever again, for that matter.

Nightmare and Error looked at each other, seeming to communicate in silence, and Mal watched them intently, her threads at the ready. Whatever they planned to throw at her, she’d be ready. 

Error’s body glitched and he vanished from sight, reappearing only a matter of feet away from her, his own blue threads drawn. Mal instinctively took a step back and used her threads to block an attack, and Error raised a single brow bone, deciding to question her, “You’re really gonna entrust your disgusting little glitches to that parasite? Geez, and here I thought you were smarter than that. You know, Nightmare’s good with kids. You would’ve been better off handing them over to us.” Mal let out a low growl, blocking another attack, “Like hell I’d ever do that. Fresh might be a parasite, but he’s still a better choice than two dudes with a massive little dick complex.” 

Error flinched, suddenly scowling at her, “Yeah? And just what does that mean?” Seeing that she’d provoked a reaction from the black skeleton, Mal smirked, “Come on, do I really have to spell it out for you? It means exactly what you think it does.” The elder of the two frowned, letting out a startled yelp as a row of scarlet bones whizzed past him, grazing the side of his skull. In the split second that his attention had shifted to the scarlet bones, Mal’s body glitched heavily as her threads grasped the tree he’d just been resting at, and proceeded to uproot it. The tree toppled over, and seeing the it was heading right for him, Error’s frown shifted into an amused grin, his threads slicing through its trunk with ease. He turned and shot more thread at Mal, and remembering how he’d essentially threatened her children, she narrowed her sockets at him

Her blue threads intercepted his attack, wrapping around his to form a large knot. Seeing that his threads had been caught, Error froze, unsure what to do. Mal’s gaze darkened as she offered him an almost manic looking grin, “Oh yeah, that’s right… You’re haphephobic, aren’t you?” His sockets widened for a brief moment before narrowing as he scowled at her again, “Don’t you dare.” Eye lights constricted into the size of mere pin pricks, Mal’s smile widened further and she suddenly jerked Error forward. She focused the majority of her magic on one of her hands, clenching it into a fist, and once the black skeleton was close enough, she hissed, “Gotcha, glitch bitch.” Her fist struck the underside of his jaw, and even though it’d lasted no longer than a couple seconds, his sockets filled with errors and he fell backward, his body glitching heavily as he began to reboot. 

Riding the pleasant high she’d gotten from her small victory over Error, she failed to notice the goop covered guardian lash out with one of his tentacles. As it wound around one of her arms, she was suddenly flung to the side. Just when she thought she was able to right herself before she’d had the chance to take any damage, Nightmare appeared much closer to her, one hand snagging one of her wrists while two tendrils wrapped around her arm again. There was a loud crack and she screamed, crying out in pain, all of the magic she’d been using almost instantly vanishing from view. 

Nightmare released her, a sickening, malicious grin on his face as he carelessly tossed her arm aside. Her body trembling as she winced and began trying to get up again, she let out a broken sob, yelping as the corrupted guardian stood beside her and roughly shoved her back down, a tendril pinning her in place. As a second tendril began wrapping around her good arm, Nightmare tilted his head and purred, “Even after all these years, it looks like you haven’t gotten any stronger… What a damn shame that is. Since you seem to need your hands for all those fancy string tricks of yours, I think I’ll be ridding you of them now.” Mal released another choked out sob, her mind flickering back to her children. She cycled through more memories of them, and all of a sudden, Nightmare recoiled, his tentacle immediately releasing her. 

She was momentarily confused by this, but then the reason for his change in behavior became clear as day; her memories were positive, and had evoked positive feelings from her in turn. She’d hurt Nightmare without even doing anything. 

Sitting on and clutching her bare shoulder joint, she closed her eyes, a small smile settling on her face as she began cycling through more happy memories. Nightmare hissed, very rapidly becoming enraged as he shouted, “STOP THAT. WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING, STOP IT NOW.” She chose to ignore him, focusing on her memories again; back when she’d visited the human world and found Avalon, wrapped in dirty bath towels and alone, abandoned on the doorsteps of an orphanage. She remembered how eagerly he’d accepted her help despite their obvious differences, and how quickly he’d become attached to her. She recalled all the things they’d done together, her smile slowly widening. As her memories slowly wandered to Pastel, Nightmare roared, a tendril lashing out at her again. She felt the rush of air, but the hit never actually came, and she opened her eyes, shocked to see Dream now standing up, completely healed.

Mal stared at him in disbelief, and he offered her a small smile, explaining softly, “Your positivity… was a lot more abundant that you thought, huh? It was enough to completely restore my HP and give me a bit of a boost.” She blinked, worry flickering in her gaze as she glanced back toward Error. Correcting her before she had the chance to panic and experience any negative feelings again, Dream cut in, continuing to speak, “Don’t worry. Error will be out for a while still, and as long as you think you could talk some sense into Zerif, the two of you could start healing the others. I already sent out a distress signal, and until our backup arrives, all we have to do is keep Nightmare busy. I can handle him on my own though, so you have nothing to worry about, I promise.” Mal let out a shaky breath, smiling up at him, “God, you’re so awesome sometimes, y’know that? If I was in better shape, I might actually kiss you.” 

A yellow blush dusted across Dream’s cheekbones and he laughed softly, smiling at her, “Yeah, there’s no need for that, I assure you. Just go to Zerif and get his head back in the game, and I’ll deal with Night, ok? You think you can do that?” Mal nodded, taking Dream’s hand as it was offered to her, and pulling herself up, “Yeah, I can do that, don’t even worry about it.” Dream made a soft sound of acknowledgement, watching to make sure she reached Zerif without any sort of difficulties before he returned his attention to Nightmare, who was very visibly feeling less than happy at the revelation that his brother was up and functioning again. Though Nightmare was tense and completely rigid with stress, Dream was almost completely relaxed; from here on out, it’d be pretty much the same old song and dance they’d had going throughout the years. Nothing new, and entirely too predictable. 

As soon as the backup arrived and all the casualties were dealt with, Mal would be able to return to her children. Dream was almost disappointed that he wouldn’t be there to see the reunion, because he already knew it’d be beautiful. More than likely full of tears, but still beautiful nonetheless.

[ambivalent-anarchy]

Grey

Gender: Female

Pairing: Peter Parker x morally grey! reader

Warning: None

Saw something on Pinterest and had an idea.

This will be a new storyline. Not a fic, just the one-shots will be connected, though you'll be able to read all of them separate and it still makes sense. You can send requests for this storyline just put 'Peter Parker x grey!reader'

Morally grey- a character who does too much good to fully be bad, but too much bad to fully be good and their motives are unclear.

Hope you like it!

---------------------------------------

Peter had been warned against people like her.

She kept him on his toes, always switching sides. She wasn't like the other villains he'd known.

Mysterio, Scorpion, Otto Octavius. They were bad. There was no doubt about it. They'd each brought some turmoil on the world in one form or another.

They needed to be stopped. So Spiderman stopped them. Simple as that.

But [Y/N]. She was different.

"Watch out for the morally grey ones," Mr. Stark had told him early in his superhero career. "They're the confusing ones. The ones ya just can't fully be mad at."

Natasha was much more clear with her approach. "Take my advice, kid," she said. "Don't make it personal. I've seen how you act with your villains.. one like that, where they're so close to being good, yet so far. One like that would kill your spirit."

And it certainly seemed Peter had finally found his match.

"Give it up, [Y/N]! I always catch you!"

He'd been tracking her for weeks now. At first it seemed she was just a common thief. But she was smart. She had skills. She had plans. And well, if you wear a costume, you can't just be some common thief.

"You forget, Spiderman!," she chirped as she ran, a large, bulging bag on her back. "We're twelve to seven! I've been coming up lately!"

Peter rolled his eyes as he hopped into action. "Is this just a game to you?"

"I'm just saying," she laughed. "Gotta give credit where credit is due!"

Peter scoffed as he swung to catch up. "You say that as you hold a bag of hundreds of people's stolen money!"

This was her fifth time this week. Going to rich people's banks and sneaking past the security systems and stealing their money.

For a few weeks, Peter hadn't eaten. He hadn't slept. He was practically going crazy searching for her. Trying to pin an M.O. to make it a bit easier for himself. But she was untraceable. The only thing he'd found out about her was her name. Which basically led to nothing being that she was practically a nobody. The only time he could see her was when she made herself visible.

Today, she'd hit the bank Norman Osborn had been storing sums of his money into. But hardly anyone knew that. She'd done her research and some heavy snooping.

"It's mostly just Osborn today, he'll find a way to bounce back! He always does!," she yelled, jumping to the last building on the block.

She looked around desperately as she felt her chaser getting closer. She was trapped. "Crap," she muttered.

"Gotcha," Peter whispered to himself as he swung to the building she stood on. Once there, he quickly webbed the bag from her back.

Quickly noticing what he was doing, [Y/N] caught it just as he began to snatch it. She kept a tight hold on it and they began to fight for dominance, stuck in their own little game of tug-of-war.

"Let...go!," Peter grunted.

"Not on your life," she shot back, feeling her feet slide on the concrete. She was about to lose.

They both realized it as her feet began to give way and her body became airborne, almost crashing into Peter before he quickly moved out of the way.

"Ugh!"

[Y/N] screamed as her entire back crashed into wall of the building. Looking up, she watched as Spiderman grabbed the bag.

"Oh, hell no," she spat.

Peter smirked as he picked up the bag. "Sorry [Y/N]. But I guess it's thirteen to seven now- AGH!"

He collapsed in an instant, feeling something hard sling across his face. It was too hard to be a fist. And God it hurt like hell.

[Y/N] scowled. "You threw me into a wall!," she screamed as hit her nemesis again and again with the butt of her gun. "You asshole!"

Peter grimaced, attempting to grab hold to her wrists and push her off of him. "Well, I didn't BREAK YOUR NOSE!," he hissed through gritted teeth. Luckily, that was the only thing that felt broken of his.

She continued her brutal attack on his upper body, almost as if she's was trying to put the gun through him before he finally got the upper hand and threw her off.

He moved to try to stand, but he fell back down, an entirely new, different pain aside from his face starting.

[Y/N] propped her head up. "Was that your stomach?," she asked.

Aunt May was out of town, so there was no one to make sure Peter had been taking care of himself, which he hadn't. The last thing he'd prepared was a pop-tart, that was still burning in the toaster in his home as he sat on that building.

[Y/N] stood, rubbing her back to relieve some of the pain she felt that was keen on staying. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was your stomach."

Peter scrunched his eyebrows together, confused. Still, he put his fist up to fight, ignoring the heavy and loud rumbling of his stomach.

Rolling her eyes, she threw the gun down. "Well, I'm not gonna fight you now." She moved toward him to pick up the bag he barely had a hold on. Unzipping it and reaching in, she pulled out a few bills and put it in the hand that wasn't pressing his cheek. "Here. Take it."

Peter backed into the wall some more, if that was even possible. "I don't want your dirty money," he protested.

"Well, it's from a rich people bank. It's actually pretty clean," [Y/N] joked before kicking his uninjured leg lightly. "C'mon man, don't be weird just take it, okay?"

"Put the money back in the bag," Peter ordered, making a second attempt to stand. He didn't make it this time either, cursing quietly as he fell back to the ground. Was he hurt or was he just really tired he asked himself.

"You need to eat something."

Peter frowned, wrapping both arms around his grumbling stomach. "You need to mind your own business."

[Y/N] stepped forward slowly, arms held out in front of her, palms up. "You fainted on me last week, remember idiot? And I can hear how hungry you are now." She walked a bit closer, picking up the bills her enemy had thrown on the ground, then looked back up to him. "If you won't take the money, at least let me buy you some food," she bargained.

Peter watched the mixed expressions flicker on her face. Annoyance. Concerned? She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Look Spiderman, you help everyone. Let someone help you for once. Don't let your pride stop you from taking the help you need to continue saving lives, okay?" She smiled crookedly. "To continue stopping people like me."

Peter stared, mouth agape. "[Y/N], what is this?," he questioned. "You're not nice.. you're rude, a-and you only care about yourself." He winced, shuffling to lay his back on the wall of the building you'd thrown him into moments before.

"Well, I've always preferred 'rough around the edges', but okay," she snickered, rolling her eyes and then looking down at the ground right in front of his feet. This was completely out of her element, but she couldn't help but feel like she was obligated to do it.

"Alright, but.. you hate me," Peter said, looking up to see her completely unreadable face.

She finished stuffing the rest of the money in her bag. "I think you've got me messed up with Doc Oc," she said, wiping off her pants, getting ready to help Spider-man up. "I'm not like most of them, y'know. Us villains aren't all the same. Some of us actually do have some morals."

He watched as she looked around, muttering to herself. If it were anybody else, they wouldn't have heard her. But with his senses, Peter heard her loud and clear.

'God, give me strength.'

She held her hand out to him. "Come on, let me get you outta here, Spider."

Underneath his mask, Peter's frown deepened. "No, I got it... just go, okay?" He still had a hold on the bag with his webs. He was offering her a chance to escape.

"Don't be an idiot, dude," she scolded. "I just pistol-whipped you. Even if you swing, I'm sure all that wind blowing on your cuts and bruises wouldn't be comfortable..."

Peter blew out a breath. He knew she didn't really want this. So why was she so insistent? She was a criminal and he was the hero. Simple as that. Or at least, it's supposed to be.

But now she was helping him? Offering him a meal? He hated to admit it, but at this moment, he preferred criminals like Doc Oc or Green Goblin. At least they didn't confuse him like this.

But she's didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. And he did still need to take the cash she'd stolen. So swallowing his pride, he chuckled. "Um, [Y/N]... look.."

-

And now they were in the Olive Garden parking lot.

She'd helped clean most of his cuts in her car (his mask only going up to his nose of course).

After he'd had a bit of time to calm down, he turned his face toward her. "So, um, there's no drive-thru?"

The villain scoffed lightly. "Hell no," she responded. "I'm not throwing my whole day off on you. We're movin' on my schedule bucko. And anytime I lose against you, and not get thrown in lockup, I go drink, okay? That cool with you?," you teased. "Or are you gonna tell me how unhealthy that is Mr. Superhero Guy?"

Peter huffed. "Well, you can go eat. But I'm not taking off my mask. I'll stay here."

"And let you steal back my cash? I don't think so," she retorted.

"So what?," he asked, frankly annoyed at this point. "Spider-Man just walks into an Olive Garden with a random girl?"

"Wouldn't be that way if you'd just take off your mask," [Y/N] defended. "Then it'd just be two random people walking into an Olive Garden."

"That's not an option."

Tapping on the dashboard, she groaned. "C'mon, I take my mask off in front of you all the time! You know who I am. Why can't I know who you are?"

"You don't care about keeping your identity a secret because you have nothing to lose. I'm not the same. I want my loved ones to be safe."

"That's implying that I'd hurt someone you love, Spider-Man. I'm not sadistic," [Y/N] corrected.

Peter frowned. "You literally pistol-whipped me about an hour ago."

"And I just spent that last hour nursing your wounds," she shot back.

"Sometimes you go out of your way to beat me up though."

"That's because sometimes you aggravate me," she laughed. "Occasionally, you deserve to get punched in the face."

"Whatever."

It was quiet again.

Until two minutes later Spiderman's stomach growled once again.

"Look dude, we could always pass you off as a overenthusiastic cosplayer?," she offered. "You wouldn't have to take off your mask that way, but you would get weird looks."

For probably the hundredth time since starting his hunt on her, Peter rolled his eyes. "Why do you want me to eat so much anyway?"

"I don't care about you if that's what you're suggesting," she said. "I just don't like people going hungry. And it's obvious you're not taking care of yourself." Her eyes shifted a bit. "And what's the fun in beating you if I'm not beating you at your highest, right?"

Peter chuckled at [Y/N]'s excuse. "Right.."

-

And now they were sat at a table. [Y/N] in a cute shirt she had in her car and some jeans. Peter still in his Spiderman suit.

Awkward, to say the least.

But the stares from waiters were the least of Peter's worries.

'What am I doing???'

He should've left hours ago. He should've grabbed the money and returned it and taken this girl to jail.

But the more he talked to her, and the way she nursed his wounds without question and gave him some food. It made him think of all the other things he hadn't noticed before.

How she only stole from the rich (which was very bad of course but way better than just taking from everybody). How she never went for kill shots, or even for spots that'd cause heavy injury.

She was a bad guy, yes. But maybe she wasn't a bad guy.

"I'm sorry for that time I shot you, by the way," she spoke in the middle of their meal. "It was meant to just be a warning shot. But you moved and it got your leg. It's been bugging me for a long time. That didn't take too long to heal, did it?"

Peter shook his head as he chewed his food.

"Good," she said. "Also for pistol-whipping you earlier today. I kinda got carried away."

"Yeah, I could tell. It hurts to chew right now," he said.

"Well my back still hurts from being thrown into a wa-"

"Why do you steal?," Peter cut in to ask.

Without any hesitation, [Y/N] responded. "It's just my way."

He frowned. "Just your way?," he repeated. "Haven't you-"

"Don't want a job. Tried them and didn't like them. And there's nothing more schools can teach me. Stealing has the thrill I love and it helps me to get around and, if the opportunity presents itself, to help somebody out."

Peter stared, dumbfounded. So [Y/N] was a good person...who just happened to like stealing? But then that else make her a bad person.

How could one person be so contradictory?

"You are an enigma," Peter marveled.

"Thank you," she replied, taking a sip of her wine.

When it came time to leave, [Y/N] paid and they made their way out of the building, actually laughing together and enjoying themselves.

They made their way back to her car. [Y/N] smiled. "Well, thanks for that, even though I never saw your face the whole time," she giggled. "Wait, does this count as a date? I'm sorta dressed up and you're probably in the best suit you've ever worn." She pinched at a spot of his suit on his shoulder. "Had a semi-fancy dinner-"

Peter held his head back and laughed. "I mean, I guess if you want it to, then it does. But I'm still gonna arrest you if I catch you again."

[Y/N] smirked. "And I'm still gonna steal, so.."

"Right..," Peter sighed. It wasn't like he thought he could actually change her in one night. But someone so insistent on doing a bad thing.

So close, yet so far...

Which made him remember..

"Oh yeah!," he exclaimed as he bursts off running towards the car, leaving a confused [Y/N] behind him.

She didn't get a chance to ask what he was doing before he kicked and busted the tires of her car and broke one of the windows to reach in and steal the bag of money inside.

Jumping onto her car, he pulled his mask up to right above his mouth. "Thanks for the meal! Gotta blast! Remember to stay off the streets!," Peter yelled before he jumped into the air.

Shocked, [Y/N] stood there frozen. "I-i, I-i.... I'M GONNA KILL YOU, SPIDERMAN!!!"

"You say that a lot!," he joked. "I'm beginning to doubt your commitment!"

"Ugh!"

-

"How'd it go, underoos?," Tony asked early the next morning.

Peter looked up from his computer with a unreadable expression on his face. "Hey Mr. Stark," he started. He furrowed his eyebrows. "I think I met one of those villains you used to talk about. The good but bad ones?"

Tony crossed his arms. "And?"

"I think we're kinda friends..."