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#i did pull six cards already though and....
tetraharmonic · 1 year
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continued from here • @bybullets
It wasn't hard for her to notice his nervousness, but quite honestly, she couldn't blame him. She'd met two sorts of folks out here in No Man's Land, those who seek reassurance that their future is better than their present, and those afraid to know it won't be. It wasn't her place to be some sort of universal guardian, or anything like that, so she never pried, never trying to go further than she thought her client would be able to handle. She was merely a mouthpiece for something else greater than her, and, simply, sometimes people weren't ready to hear the message. She couldn't hold his nervousness against him.
As he continued, the woman's gaze softened. "Future it is then." She smiled as she shuffled her deck, pressing it to her lips for a moment as her eyes shut. Attuning to the deck was easy; She had the incantation memorized by now— well, that and Mother Rosa, the Oracle for her deck, seemed to work quite well with her. Opening her eyes, she'd shuffle it carefully, only for a heap of six cards to fall out. "I...wow. Rosa apparently has some things she's been dying to tell you." She'd joke softly, setting the rest of the deck down before laying out the six, flower covered cards on the floor before them.
Due to his nervousness, she kept her words soft and gentle, trying not to advance the reading too fast until he seemed comfortable. "I think I have plenty here to get an idea of what your future could look like. Just, tell me when you're ready, and I'll go ahead and start, okay?" She was getting very strong vibes from the cards already. How long was this message waiting for him?
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ghxstyfae · 7 months
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A B C's ♡ R.Cameron Headcanons
Warnings: breeding kink with intent of pregnancy, nsfw, baby fever,
Synopsis: Rafes fiance is a kindergarten teacher and is experiencing extreme baby fever, Rafe decides to breed her
Taglist: @sunflowerleii
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The new school year started and in walked a bunch of puffy-faced toddlers, happy as can be, everyday.
"Hi Mrs. Cameron!" "Have a good lunch Mrs. C!" "Can you help with my zipper please?"
Ugh they're adorable. By the third month of teaching kindergarten you were off the deep end. Your whole social medias were filled with cute babies and you couldnt stop picturing what a mix of you and rafe would look like
It got worse when you started dragging Rafe through baby asiles.
He kinda thought it was a joke at first
"You trying to tell me something baby?"
Yes you were!!
You kept telling him you "forgot" to pick up your birth control prescription
But he keeps using a condom? Does he not want babies with you?
One day he finds you holding little ugg baby booties you impulse bought, crying into your pillow.
"Whats wrong baby? What happened?"
And thats when you start wailing about wanting a baby and how he didnt want to give you one.
Hes just like "When did i say i wouldnt get you pregnant??"
Kisses your tummy and tells you how beautiful you'll look, swelling with his seed
"Gonna keep you home, nursing our little baby, being a perfect little mommy hm?"
He kneads your breasts and tells you that soon they'll be filled with nourishment for your baby
"Fuck should've had you teaching the kindies earlier huh? Wouldve made you a mommy already."
He fucks your hard, barely pulling out to thrust in again.
Probably about 3/4 rounds
He wouldn't pull out when hes done, probaly would make you cockwarm him for atleast half an hour.
"Its okay baby, you can rest, ill wake you up when i take us to the shower. For now just let it take."
"We'll go out for supper, make sure you'll get some salmon. Then ill pick up some tests and call Dr. Halls and let her know what we're planning for huh?"
Just keeps making plans, speaking lowly in your ears, even though he knows your probably not listening.
When hes sorta sure you've fallen asleep, he cradles you and whispers.
"Gonna make sure im better then my dad okay baby? Wont ever hurt you. Wont ever hurt out baby. You're the most important thing to me. Ill always keep you safe."
After a few weeks, you wake up at nearly six in the morning with morning sickness, and present a positive pregnancy test to Rafe and celebrate
He becomes MUCH more protective over you, especially when you start showing
The kids in your class are the sweetest, most curious little things ♡
"You have a tiny person in your tummy? Are they sleeping?"
Rafe visits her class multiple times a week, and the kids have become kinda accustomed to him
"Hi Mr. Cameron! Look at what Mrs. C Gave me!"
Once you go on maternity leave, he sets everything up to work from home as well, only going in once a week kr for bigger meetings.
The kids in your class make you cards and stuff💝
Rafe always gives you whatever your craving, helps you when your crying kr feeling over emotional, etc.
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bimbo-baggins17 · 17 days
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stripper!anakin who uses us for "training"..(I mean smutty smut with Anakin's damned skills)
- yours forever, 🐇
BUNNY YOUR MIND IS BRILLIANT AND I WANTED TO GATEKEEP THIS SO BAD! I won’t lie, idk how to really write dancing or stripping so..this is the best I can do 🫡
I’m pretty sure stripper!ani is a concept already, idk the creator but all credit goes to them! Tag them if you know who it is!:)
☆…━━━━━·:*☆…━━━━━·:*☆…━━━━━·:*☆
“Thanks for agreeing to do this for me.” Your best friend Anakin says as you get settled on the seat he had set up in the middle of his living room.
You nod your head, “Of course. Don’t even mention it.” You wave a hand dismissively. He had asked for help with a job interview, just didn’t mention any specifications. “What job is this for?”
His cheeks turn a little pink, “I uh…you know the um..the Black Stallion club..?”
You nod your head slowly and then it clicks. Your eyes widen and you gasp at your best friend. “Oh my god! The strip club??”
The color of his cheeks darken as he nods in confirmation. “..yeah..”
Anakin was obviously attractive. You have eyes and you’d be lying if you said you didn’t look at him in that way. “And the interview is…?”
He sighs again, hands on his hips as he looks away, unable to meet your gaze. “Come up with my own 2 minute routine.” He answers quietly.
“And I’m here to help you come up with one?”
Anakin shakes his head, “No..I was gonna..er..show it to you..make sure I can perform in front of someone.”
Your eyebrows shoot up immediately, “Oh..”
Slowly he nods his head, “Yeah..”
You’re quiet for a moment before steeling your nerves, “Alright so show me.”
He lifts his head, “Really? You’re sure?”
You nod your head. “Yeah. Of course.”
He takes a deep breath and nods once, “Okay..just..don’t laugh at me.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
Satisfied, he pulls his phone out, connecting the Bluetooth up to his speakers. Before hitting play he takes another deep breath to calm his own nerves and focus.
‘Unskinny Bop’ by Poison starts to come through the speakers.
He closes his eyes for a second to get into the right headspace before opening them with a newfound determination in them. His body starts to move rhythmically in ways you haven’t seen before. He makes a show of taking his white tshirt off, tossing it somewhere in the livingroom.
Your eyes drift down his exposed torso. You knew he was muscular but it seems like he’s been working out way more, his six pack more defined now. Anakin moves closer to where you’re sat on the chair. He stands so both of his legs are on either side of your lap, hips gyrating. He takes one of your hands and guides it down his lean frame all the way to his crotch where he keeps it while he grinds into it.
You feel a heat starting to pool in your stomach. Swallowing, you try to keep your face neutral as he moves more into your lap, thrusting into the air.
Those are the longest two minutes of your life. He steps back, breathing heavy. “Was that okay?”
You gulp a bit and nod, “Uh..yeah..yeah more than okay. Should be hired immediately.”
He grins triumphantly, having worked up a bit of sweat. “You think so?”
Again you nod, “Yeah.”
Anakin looks at you for a second, noticing something is off. “What is it?”
“Hm?” You look at him and then shake your head, “Nothing.”
He gives you an ‘I don’t believe you’ look. “I can tell when you’re lying. What is it?”
Your cheeks flush and you try to shift subtly in your seat. It’s enough to answer him though.
“Ohhhh.” He draws it out making the blush of your face darken immediately. He’d be lying himself if he denied getting a semi at that. “Don’t worry. I take it as a compliment. I could always help you out.”
Your eyebrows furrow. Did you hear him right? “Huh?”
He shrugs, “Consider it returning the favor. A friend helping another friend.”
That’s how you wind up on his couch with him knuckles deep in your cunt, thick digits prodding at your g-spot with his mouth latched onto your clit. You card your fingers through his curls and tug on them, earning a groan which vibrates through your clit. You moan at the extra stimulation.
Anakin lets go of your clit, “Yeah? Feel good pretty girl?”
“Mhm..so so good.” You mewl.
He grins and then finds your clit once more, flicking his tongue against the bundle of nerves before suckling with a new found fervor as your noises spur him on even more along with the wet squelches.
“Right there Ani..fuck..” You force his face further into your pussy, grinding against him, your grip in his hair tightening. You cum all over his skilled fingers.
He continues to work you through your orgasm before he pulls back, his chin glistening with your juices. He smiles down at you. “You okay?”
You nod your head, breathless and meeting his eyes with a blissed out expression. “Yeah..yeah ‘m fine.”
“Good,” He moves to start undoing the buckle of his belt, “Cause I’m not done with you yet.”
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saerins · 8 months
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⋆୨ chapter seven ୧˚ till forever falls apart
⋆୨ if not for you (masterlist) ⋆୨ previous: chapter six - redefines in every way what love is - end ୧˚
⋆୨ synopsis ୧˚ neither of you want this. both you and sae reluctantly agree to this marriage, although sae’s dissatisfaction far outweighs your own. with hidden agendas and old flames, will this ever work out between the two of you, or will your forced spark be doomed to fail?
ೀ series: sae x f!reader | wc 8.8k | ೀ content warnings: fluff/angst, modern au, arranged marriage, rich!sae and rich!reader, jealousy/paranoia, suggestive scenes, mentions of blood/children | notes: we have finally reached the end of infy !! rejoice i will no longer be able to torture you guys with the ending of this hehe but i do hope you all enjoyed this ^_^ & now onto the next !
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“I came here to talk to her.”
There’s no speck of kindness left in Sae’s eyes when he looks at what’s left of his former lover. He doesn’t even notice you sauntering up behind him.
“How many times do I need to tell you to leave us alone?” Sae emphasises that last part, uncertain of how else he can possibly phrase it so that she makes herself scarce.
For the first time tonight, Mirin doesn’t even pay attention to Sae. Her eyes look past him, focused entirely on you.
You take your position next to Sae, feeling his hand tenderly grip onto your wrist. At the very least, it gives you comfort knowing that he’s here no matter what’ll happen. Though, judging by the ever slight panic you can make out from Mirin’s face, whatever it is isn’t pretty.
Mirin doesn’t say a word, only stares at you expectantly. Swallowing your ego, you nod subtly. You’re curious.
“I’m sorry,” comes out of her mouth, and you don’t know how to feel. There’s a lot of things she needs to be sorry for, but that’s your personal feelings. Somehow, you doubt it’s related to anything with regards to Sae.
“If that’s all you came to say—”
“Do you know about your parents?” Mirin ignores Sae again, instead looking to you.
Sae’s about to just shut the door in her face when you tug on his hand, stopping him. He’s perplexed by you, but he listens to you just the same.
“Yeah, barely. What about it?” 
Because Sae did tell you briefly about it, about his suspicions on what they’re trying to do. You have to admit, having Oliver and his family’s PI stalk your parents wasn’t on your bingo card this year. And what he’s suspicious of never even crossed your mind. Only because even if they aren’t the best parents in the world, you didn’t think that they’d actually let any harm come upon you.
To think, they would try to take all of the money, not only their own but yours too, in order to save their own asses.
Mirin almost looks like she doesn’t want to say anything, her fingers grasping tightly and desperately on the hem of her dress before opening her mouth and making your heart sink to the depths below.
“The police are coming and it’s my fault and I know I haven’t done anything to earn your trust but can you please let me handle it?”
She says it all in one breath. Hurriedly without pause.
Are the police already that close?
“What the fuck, Mirin?” Sae spits, his grip on you tightening as he pulls you behind him, the vein on his forehead close to popping.
Mirin swallows the lump in her throat and you’re left staring in a daze behind your husband, wondering what you’ve done that was so wrong that you deserved this; your parents, a scorned and jealous ex-lover, legal threats.
“Sae, please,” Mirin’s panicking and you wonder why that is. Correction, you can sense why—it’s plain old regret. Regret caused by rash actions done on impulse. “It’s my fault, I know but we don’t have time. Tabito’s trying to stall them but they’re coming.” Her eyes flicker over to you, and you’d think she’s beautiful if all you’re seeing isn’t just red.
You feel the injustice creeping up inside of you, threatening you to take action. “And why the hell should I trust you?” Your tone is harsher than you ever thought you could go, and even Mirin shrinks back at the venom she senses laced inside your words.
And usually you’d feel bad for it but someone has already called the cops on you for something you didn’t do and that someone is right in front of you asking you for the same trust she wouldn’t have afforded you if the roles were reversed. If you didn’t have any self control, you’d have slapped her by now.
Mirin’s about to say something when she hears seven tight raps on the door. As Sae reluctantly moves away to open the door, Mirin whips her head towards you one last time.
“Please.”
The last thing she deserves is a chance. You know that. Both your head and your heart are in the same place for once and yet why can’t you act on it? Why can’t you just tell her to shove it up her ass?
“Y/N,” Sae calls your name, hushed because you presume he’s just as cautious as you are.
Slowly, you nod your head, signalling for him to open the door. You don’t know what Mirin is planning, or whether all this is part of her evil plot to take you down somehow.
When the door opens, you see Sae’s friend, Karasu, stepping in first before a detective, a dirty blonde with dark circles under his eyes like he hasn’t slept for days. Behind him, two policemen stand guard, watching you cautiously, as though you might try to jump out the window just to run from them.
“Are you Y/N?”
The detective is addressing you, and you’re sure he’s only doing it out of courtesy because these people always do their work before nabbing their supposed targets. Beside you, Mirin steps one step forward, her earlier panic expertly masked by a puzzlingly professional expression. From your line of sight, behind where the detective stands, Sae tries to move toward you, only to have Karasu reach out to grab his wrist and keep him there, a subtle shake of his head as the only signal for him not to make any moves.
“I am,” you respond, because any under or overreaction would only prove to make you look guilty.
“What is this about, detective?” Mirin asks, a casual aloofness donned on her face now. You’re impressed by just how quickly she can change her moods.
“Oh, it’s you, Ms Seto,” the detective says, realising who she is, and you don’t doubt how influential her father’s been to all of Japan with his work. Immediately, his face softens and brightens up, as though it’s imperative that he stay on their family’s good side. He probably assumes that just because Mirin’s here in this hotel room that she’s close to you. “We received an anonymous tip regarding Ms L/N’s family here, as well as her possible involvement. We’d like to take her down to the station for some questioning.”
So that’s what Mirin had done to you. She had tried to pin part of what your parents are doing on you, too. You nearly scoff if not for the fact you know that the two policemen behind are watching you like a hawk. Mirin is the one who scoffs though, crossing her arms like she’s been through these situations a thousand times.
Beside you, any trace of guilt is absent from Mirin’s expression because apparently, and you don’t doubt it, she’s a very good actress. If it’s up to you, you’d say that her talents are wasted since she’s not one. And while your stubborn ego wants to solve this for yourself, you’d never even gotten in trouble with the local police before for anything, and something tells you that Mirin is way better than you are at this, so you keep your mouth shut and let her handle this like she asked.
“So you have no proof of any sort that she’s complicit in any illegal activities?”
The detective chuckles helplessly, like he expects Mirin to be that attentive. “No, not until the anonymous tipper provides us with what they say they have.”
Mirin’s expression falters just slightly for a split second before she’s back to normal. “So no concrete proof, then?”
“No, ma’am.” The detective seems a little laid back around her—are they family friends? Sure seems like it to you.
“Then I’d appreciate it if you don’t treat Y/N here like she’s some sort of criminal. We wouldn’t want anyone seeing her being escorted into a police car and making assumptions, would we?”
Behind him, Sae seems to have relaxed a little, lacking the earlier blind hostility he held. Maybe it partly has to do with whatever Karasu whispered to him right before this. Still, he’s as surprised as you are that Mirin’s committing herself to covering for you.
“Fine, we’ll meet at the station then,” the detective says, the mirth still on his face as he bids a temporary goodbye.
When all that’s left are the four of you, Sae immediately takes his place beside you, his hand possessively gripping your wrist, an accusatory look thrown in Mirin’s direction. “You did all of that just to mess with my wife?”
Mirin’s expression falters when he uses that term again, for you, because deep down, she still wishes for it to be her. She still wishes for that guy she fell in love with and made all those plans with to be hers. Hers, and no one else’s. But it’s evident enough that no matter how much she tries, even if you somehow ended up dead, it would never be her. He’d rather wait for the ghost of you than live with anyone else.
Karasu walks over, settling himself between the divide. He’s the one who seems the most sane, given this has almost nothing to do with him. “Sae, leave it for now,” Karasu advises, blocking Mirin’s line of sight. You presume he’s just doing it as a favour, maybe to simmer Sae’s anger, because you can feel his hands trembling with rage even as they hold on to you. “We need to get Y/N to the police station before this gets any worse for her and her sister.”
Your throat goes dry. “My sister? She’s been taken in too?”
How ironic that you were doing all this just to protect her from the harsh reality that your parents never loved either of you.
Karasu nods apologetically. “My sources say she was taken in about half an hour ago, but discreetly.”
The passive anger that was only settling on the surface seems to finally boil over, and you thank god that Sae is holding you back from possibly harming Mirin. Otherwise, you’d have probably punched her right now.
“I’m… I’m sorry.” Her voice is timid and she’s trembling but you don’t hold an ounce of appreciation for her earlier actions nor sympathy for her current emotions. This was all because of her. Her, and your parents, and you doubt you’re enough of a saint to forgive either parties.
“If anything happens to her, I’ll make sure you regret it.” Your words are a warning, and Mirin takes them in silently.
Maybe you have been too nice, and way too passive. To the point where people like Mirin felt like they could try their best because they had nothing to fear. At the very least, it still comforts you knowing that Sae was never trying to get anywhere with her. If not, it was the very opposite, though you still didn’t appreciate his lack of communication.
“Hey, I’ll drive us there, okay?” Sae tells you softly, his hand tugging yours gently, briefly washing the anger off of you. When you face him and nod, he smiles, his hand coming up to place your head against his shoulder as he walks you to the car, Karasu and Mirin trudging wordlessly behind. You let him lead the way, finding an odd sense of comfort, different from before.
Now, you know that Sae will protect you unconditionally. He’s been doing it up until now, even when you weren’t his favourite person. Despite his shortcomings, despite the fact that he had no obligation to, Sae was always on your side.
And maybe now you can see a glimpse of the future you imagined, the one where you get unconditional love, the one where you can see a happy family who’s not just obsessed with money. A proper one, with its very foundations built on love and not control over another.
When you get to the carpark, you see Mirin getting into Karasu’s car, and you silently thank him for going out of his way to get involved in all of this. The last thing you need is to be able to see Mirin in the rearview mirror of your husband’s car, sitting there as though she deserved any sort of comfort. If you could, you’d stuff her in the trunk and tell her to deal with it.
However, even without her there, both of you stay relatively quiet. Maybe because neither of you have ever been in this type of situation; neither of you know what to say. Even so, as he pulls in to the parking lot of the station, he takes your hand, squeezing it gently, his teal eyes gentle as they fall into your gaze.
“No matter what, I promise you, I’ll protect you, okay?”
You don’t doubt his words. You nod, squeezing his hand back, tightly because you’re more nervous than he is. You’d probably have to face the interrogation alone, or at the most with Mirin, and who knows what she might pull in there?
“Hey, hey,” he calls out to you softly, his other hand coming up to your cheek and turning you to face him, his forehead pressing against your own, eyes still locked on yours, his smile the gentlest you’ve ever seen. “We’ll get through this. Whatever you decide, whatever you want to do, I’ll take your side, okay baby?”
Maybe it’s the way the pet name so easily rolls off your tongue, but you still find your heart skipping a beat at such a simple gesture.
“Ready?”
You take a deep breath, nodding.
“Ready.”
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While you’re in the room with Mirin and the detective, Sae finds himself pacing the waiting room restlessly despite Karasu’s attempts at calming him down.
The raven-haired man cocks a brow, amused by what he sees because Itoshi Sae of all people getting restless is always interesting. Usually, he doesn’t even get to see Sae bothered at all. The last time he saw that sliver of emotion was, well, back when Mirin left.
“Dude, relax, your wife will be fine.” That’s all Karasu can offer now, pointless words of assurance. Though he can argue he’s been plenty useful when calming Mirin down back at the hotel. 
Sae shoots him a warning look. “With Mirin in there?”
Karasu sighs, leaning back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. He doesn’t recall knowing when exactly things got so fucked up between them.
“Look, I don’t know what the fuck was up with her, I’ll be honest,” Karasu explains, the only person there with any hint of pity for Mirin. “She fucked up, she knows. And you don’t gotta forgive her, really. If it were me I’d have handled it much less classier than your wife did. But trust me, Mirin’s trying to make up for it right now, okay? We can’t do anything so relax.”
Silence falls over them for a while, the sounds of the landlines ringing and clacking of keyboards the only things they can hear.
“What did you say to make her regret it?”
Because Sae’s at the very least curious about why she was so quick to rescind her punishment for you.
His friend shrugs, “is it hard to believe it could be something as simple as realising she didn’t wanna lose you completely?”
The earlier hostility leaves Sae’s body, only a bitter upset lingering behind. Because he can believe it, because at the core, Mirin’s always been simple. The way she acts out, not so much. She’d already alienated Sae by having been the object of his affection once, and that was not her fault, but she’d exacerbated it by acting completely out of line. On the tip of her impulsiveness was just the last chance to either possibly redeem herself or risk thorough destruction of whatever was left of their entire relationship through the years.
Maybe it’s heartless of him, but he doesn’t care. Yeah, he should’ve handled it better in the beginning. He should’ve just told Mirin that he doesn’t want to be someone who wrecks his own home, even if it didn’t feel exactly like home back then. But you didn’t deserve the anger she placed onto you. After realising his feelings, that was where he drew the line. 
He doesn’t give a shit if Mirin woke up and regretted her actions. He doesn’t care if she’s trying to make up for it and save you. All he cares about is you and just you.
Sensing the tension in the air, Karasu forces a lighthearted chuckle. “What kind of magic does Y/N have to make someone like you so whipped, huh?”
There’s a pink hue to Sae’s cheeks at the mention of it, forcing him to look away as Karasu snickers at him.
“Look… don’t get mad, okay? But… do you think it’s possible she knew about it all?”
Never in his life has Sae’s fingers curled into a fist so fast, nails digging into his palms so hard, and Karasu has to throw his hands up in the air in surrender. Both of them know that if anything happens, they’re going to be recorded—and then the media will see it. And then everything will be taken out of context.
It’s routine at this point.
“She had nothing to do with it, so shut it.”
Does Sae know for sure that you don’t? Of course not. He doesn’t have evidence to support you, except that your parents left you behind. If your family’s really twisted, it could all be a part of some ploy. But Sae likes to think he knows you; you’re not sick or twisted. You’re kind and beautiful and trustworthy that he’s not even going to entertain the idea that you knew anything.
It isn’t long after that Sae spots you walking out of the interrogation room, down the corridor and back out to him. For the most part, at least you look fine. You’re trembling a little, so he clasps his hands over yours, holding you to him and kissing the top of your head.
“Hey, you doing okay?”
You can only manage a weak nod, but that’s enough for him. This situation can be a bit much for anyone. He holds you close like that, his warm body cloaking your own. You hate how it’s so easy for you to calm down when he’s here with you, and even if you’d like to condemn him for making such a whirlwind for your life you know it’s not technically his fault.
It was your parents who forced you into this marriage, or else you’d never have met Sae at all. It was Mirin who took it upon herself to try and ruin everything when Sae had refused her. And it was definitely your parents who took all their money and ran before they could get caught for multiple counts of fraud and embezzlement.
All Sae ever did was save your own money, all thanks to making that joint account. Otherwise, your parents would’ve made off with your money too, leaving you with no cent to your name, all properties seized.
You hold him a little tighter now, the tiff over what you thought was going on between him and Mirin seeming so stupid in comparison. Your own parents abandoned you and your sister, looked at you as just a pawn to get what they wanted. You don’t even know how you’re going to face Sae’s parents now that this happened.
A minute later, Mirin also waltzes out of the room, her feigned arrogance still present because the detective is still there. You gaze at them out of the corner of your eye; things only went so easy there because Mirin played her family’s cards right, and now both you and your sister are free to go.
In normal situations, this is where you thank her. But nothing about this is normal, and this was a situation partly borne out of Mirin’s impulsiveness. So all you manage is not paying her back with a slap.
“If you hear anything—”
“We’ll call you,” Sae cuts the detective off, his grip around you getting tighter.
Even if everything had been rocky earlier tonight, you find yourself comforted by the way you just know that Sae would protect you no matter what. You don’t even have to ask him, and he’d do right by you. For a moment, you wonder if this is the kind of unconditional love you’d always wanted.
“Hey, are you okay? Wanna go now?”
Sae’s voice is softer than you thought he could ever be, and all you want to do is melt into his embrace without thinking about anything but unfortunately the world is never so kind and neither is your mind because there’s a thousand questions running through it.
“Where’s my sister?”
“I got her to wait in Karasu’s car with her boyfriend. His car has more privacy and I thought it’d be best if no one outside could picture us.”
Right, because there are already some reporters who got hold of the news and are waiting right outside to ambush you into answering their questions. It’s all sorts of fucked up but you presume your parents are worse so you can’t really say anything.
Sae starts to lead the way to the carpark, his hand never leaving your side. He makes sure to look around, make sure nobody’s there to ambush you. Behind you, you can hear Karasu whispering things you can’t hear, probably to Mirin.
“That would mean there won’t be any space for her, right?” You ask, your mind still doing flips back and forth between being the bigger person and being petty about it. Because you’d love to be as ruthless as she once was to you, but ultimately, you don’t want to feel like you owe her anything.
As you reach the car, Karasu unlocks it, and Sae opens the back door, your sister sound asleep on the other side, her boyfriend muttering a soft ‘hello’. They both look tired, and you don’t blame them. At least you had Sae to warn you about what was going on, but to them it must’ve been a shock, especially for your poor sister who’s always been sheltered against the horrible things your parents could do.
“It’s fine, she can take the train,” Sae mutters, purposefully loud enough for Mirin to hear and hopefully get the hint.
Karasu’s about to suggest otherwise, but you interject—you’re pretty sure you’re the only one Sae will listen to now anyway. Even if Karasu tries to say anything, there’s a high chance that it’ll go ignored.
“She can sit in the front,” you say, because despite knowing better, it’s always been in you to try and be nice.
“Thank—”
“If she ends up getting pictured, it could blow back on us anyway,” you mutter coldly, because being nice doesn’t mean you have to make it apparent. There’s no one here you have to impress anyway, and Sae probably knows you’re just trying to hold it together for yourself, so you won’t have any regrets.
Like you predicted, Sae’s not all for it, but he doesn’t say a thing, following after you into the backseat, squeezing and trying not to wake your sister. Mirin doesn’t say a thing the whole way back, she only thanks Karasu for driving her back and leaves. Neither does Karasu say a thing, awkward silence hanging in the air as you catch him casting quick glances at you and Sae in the rearview mirror.
“Thanks for taking care of her,” you whisper to your sister’s boyfriend as he carries her out of the car. You didn’t get to talk to her all night, but that’s fine, you suppose she needs a long rest after everything she found out tonight.
He shoots you a helpless smile after he presses a kiss onto her forehead. The way he looks at her alone could make people believe in love, and you’ve never been more thankful that you tried your best to protect it. Among everyone, your sister’s always been good and kind, and even if you’ve never seen her around that much after university started for her, you love her all the same.
“You sure you don’t wanna wake her?” He asks you, quietly so he doesn’t disturb her. “She said she missed you, you know.”
You shake your head. “It’s fine, I’ll call her when things settle down,” you assure him, managing a genuine smile. “Take care of her, okay?”
Behind you, Sae smiles to himself when he figures out he must’ve married an angel, must be the luckiest man in the world. Despite everything that’s happened, you should be taking care of yourself, yet you managed to make sure Mirin got a ride home, and that your sister is in good hands. You’re a much bigger person than Sae can even dream to be and yet somehow, you chose to put all your effort into him and this marriage and even if he can’t tell where this will go from now on, he’s not going to give up on you.
When Karasu pulls out of your sister’s apartment parking, Sae slides over to your side, sitting himself on the middle backseat, putting an arm around you and gently placing your head in the crook of his neck. Then, only then, do you let your tears go, sobbing into his chest because you’d been holding back all this time, and Sae wonders if you do this a lot on a daily basis; put on a brave face as though you need to pretend you’re something you’re not. Though, if this was happening to him and Rin, he would be doing the same thing you are.
In the driver’s seat, Karasu finally understands why Oliver’s been saying Sae is a changed man. Even back then, with Mirin, Karasu doesn’t recall Sae being this gentle. Maybe it’s because he’s older now, or maybe it’s just because of you—the fact that it’s you, that’s why Sae is like this at all, a privilege only for a special person.
“Hey man,” Karasu calls out to Sae after you get out of the car. He smirks when Sae looks over at him, very much like a hopeless man in love because out of the corner of his eye, Karasu can tell that he has his hand in yours, keeping you there. Since when was he ever this clingy? “Congratulations.” Something he didn’t get to say because he wasn’t at the wedding.
But at least saying it now, he can really mean it.
Sae smiles subtly, but your head pops back into Karasu’s field of view before your husband can say anything.
“Hey, Karasu, right?”
He looks surprised, but he smiles at you all the same. “Yes, I am.”
You grin at him, and Karasu can already tell Sae’s a lucky man. Pretty wife, and from whatever Oliver’s mentioned, it sounds like you’re a keeper.
“I just met you tonight but… thank you, really,” you tell him, and he chuckles. 
You’re really something, because even Mirin had mentioned it to him earlier when she was having a full-on breakdown, when he had asked about you. Karasu thinks that it would just be a lot easier to think screw everyone and just focus on yourself, but apparently, not for you. Maybe he understands a little more of why Sae can’t help but fall for you.
“That’s a lot of shit to unload on someone who didn’t exactly steal Sae from you,” Karasu remarked, trying his best to steer Mirin in the right direction.
Mirin clicked her tongue, annoyed because she knew she wasn’t exactly acting with common sense. All she had wanted was to remove you from the picture, through any means necessary. So why? Why was it that whatever she tried would backfire on her? Why was it that no matter what, Sae would never give up on you? Where was the guy that so easily gave in when Mirin had suggested a breakup?
Why did she have to teach him everything only for you to get everything she ever wanted?
“Look, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if you keep doing this…” Karasu trailed off, sighing as he looked away, scratching his head. “You’re really gonna lose every ounce of a friend you could possibly have in Sae.”
Mirin kept quiet for a while, then, as if she was considering something. Back then, Karasu hadn’t even known that anonymous tip she sent in to the police. If he had, he would’ve definitely acted faster.
“Is that Y/N even that bad of a girl?” Karasu thought out loud, wondering why there was all this trouble over you and Sae.
And for the first time since she got back to Japan, Mirin was completely honest with herself.
“No, she’s not.” (It was so quiet, Karasu had trouble deciding whether it was just the figment of his imagination.)
Because what had you ever done to her except unwillingly be placed in the middle of their by-then non-existent relationship?
“At your service, ma’am,” Karasu responds, grinning at you when he says his next words. “And don’t worry, I’ll keep Mirin in check.”
You still for a moment hearing those words, then pout at him before you slowly retreat out of the car, pulling Sae with you. You’re not even sure why you can find it in yourself to be worried for someone like Mirin who tried to screw you over. Maybe it’s because Sae had told you about her parents, about how she just didn’t have anyone and leaned on Sae for support out of habit. Somehow, Karasu’s words manage to comfort you a little bit; at least you knew that there was still someone else looking out for her. Your empathy is there, but that doesn’t mean you want to forgive her or even think about it.
Karasu laughs at your subtle reaction, rolling down the window, “hey Sae, your wife’s kinda cute,” he teases, and you see why Karasu managed to calm Mirin down back at the hotel. Whatever he did, it was definitely effective. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he oozes sincerity despite his jokes, something you can’t really say for Oliver and Shidou.
Beside you, Sae uses his body to block your line of sight as he flips Karasu off. “My wife, go away,” he quips, and you can only watch as Karasu laughs it off while he drives away from your apartment.
The moment you’re back in the house, Sae sets your bag down slowly on the couch, and you pause right before you enter the bedroom. Everything somehow feels light yet awkward and it feels like you’ve been through so many emotions in the span of one night and now it’s already 2am and you’re tired but it’s not like you can sleep right away with all these thoughts in your head.
You feel Sae’s chest press up against your back, his arms wrapping around your chest. Now that you know he’s never actually even cheated on you, or even thought about it, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted off your chest.
“What’s on your mind?” There’s a strain in his voice, and you can tell he’s gotten a cold just from tonight alone.
You sigh. “I don’t know if I can handle all of this…” you mutter honestly. Everything has just been too much. It was manageable back when you thought your marriage was the only thing in ruins, but to learn now that your parents are wanted fugitives and the fact that they’d leave you and your sister to clean things up and bear the brunt of being damned just for being their kids is a lot to take in for one night.
“You know I’m here for you whatever you need, right?” Sae asks, holding you tighter, pressing a kiss on your temple.
You want to be soft for him so bad, you want to melt into his touch and let him comfort you and hug him to sleep, but can you really afford it right now? Can you afford letting him feel that everything is fine after keeping everything from you and driving you to the point of thinking about divorce?
It’s not normal. It shouldn’t be.
And while you appreciate what he’s done for you in secret, that’s exactly what you’re not so sure about—secrets. You’re husband and wife, and if there’s going to be any hope moving forward, you can’t have him try and bear the burden of knowing alone.
“If you ever keep something like that from me again, I’m not giving you another chance,” you tell him, your voice quivering but he listens to you seriously all the same. It’s times like these where you appreciate that he isn’t the type to be joking around all the time. He’s serious when you need him to be, and that means a lot to you already.
“I promise you, I’ll talk to you, whatever it is,” he says, slowly turning you around, his fingers gently gripping your chin, tipping your head up to face him. “I meant what I said, by the way. I love you, Y/N, and I’m sorry I was being stupid. And I’ll try to make up for it, however long it takes me, okay?”
This is a first for you that it makes you emotional. For your entire life, you feel like it’s been you who’s been the one trying to take care of other people’s feelings and needs so much that you step all over your own. For your entire life, no one has cared about you so much so that they’d actively try and take care of you. Everyone lets you take care of everything yourself without thinking that it’d be nice to offer you help even if you looked like you didn’t need it.
For your whole life, you’d wondered how it would feel like being loved by someone who wants to take care of you just because. And here he is, making you feel like you’re loveable, like you’re worthy of being treated like a princess, like you don’t have to mask who you are to get his love because no matter what you do, his love overpowers it.
“So don’t leave me, okay?” Sae’s lashes flutter against your own, his teeth clenched because he’s thinking of how close he was to losing you and he would’ve never forgiven himself if you did.
And maybe it’s the way you realised he’s loved you in his own way all this while, or maybe it’s the way he keeps you so close to him now, so afraid of losing you, that you feel it’s okay to let yourself go, to let yourself be you, to wear your heart on your sleeve because no matter what it is, Sae will take care of it.
“I love you, Sae,” you whisper, both of you with your eyes closed, breaths mixed together, Sae subconsciously pushing you into the bedroom because he never realised that such simple words from you would ignite such an urgency inside him.
That night, for the first time, you experience Sae’s love for you. The way it’s so subtle, so gentle, a complete opposite of what you initially thought he was. The way he holds you in the palm of his hands and takes care of you completely; a dream you thought you’d never live to see come true. So many people go their whole lives being stuck in a relationship that they find lacking and yet here you are, getting everything you need and want and you don’t even have to ask for it because Sae knows you well enough to give it to you.
In the dim light of the moon that makes it into the slivers of your blinds, Sae marks you as his own, and even though neither of you have been through it, it feels right. It feels so right even when you’re lying in bed together after everything, legs tangled together underneath the blanket, bare bodies enveloping one another as the exhaustion finally kicks in.
Sae watches you as you fall asleep, finger lightly brushing your arms and lulling you to sleep. There’s a lot he still doesn’t understand about relationships, and the only form of experience he had seemingly meaning nothing in the face of his actual love, yet he’s strangely motivated now. There’s no way he’s going to let anything, much less himself, fuck this up.
No, he’s going to do his best to keep you happy, to take care of you and make sure you don’t have to be the one who acts strong all the time just to appease everyone else. He’s going to make you smile everyday because you deserve it, and he’ll do anything to make sure that happens.
Anything.
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“She had nothing to do with it.”
Of course, Sae’s parents didn’t take too well to the news. One night isn’t enough for it to blow over, because the moment they got the news, they were here to get to the bottom of it. As expected, you received nothing but accusatory remarks, and unlike Mirin’s, at least Sae’s parents had the right to be upset.
Still, Sae’s standing up to them, a protective arm keeping you behind him, making sure they don’t throw daggers at you.
They’re angry, but they’re not as bad as your own parents. At the very least, his father isn’t throwing a tantrum and breaking silverware. Doesn’t even look close to it. He only crosses his arms in disbelief, the vein on his forehead threatening to pop.
“Are you sure you want to defend her?” He asks his son, scoffing. “You know how bad of a reputation we have now thanks to her parents?”
“He’s right, honey, if you want to divorce her now we’d fully support you,” his mother joins in, and she’s every bit as submissive as your own mother, you bet. Anything for their money bag.
“I’m not divorcing my wife ever, so if that’s all you came to say, you can leave.”
Suddenly you feel guilt for being the one to bring up divorce in the first place.
The argument goes on for a while, and you keep quiet all through it. Only because Sae asked you to. It’s fair; he wants to handle his parents, so you’ll trust him to it. If there’s a need, you’d interject anyway.
Like right now, when you realise that maybe your silence is making things even worse, like your admittance of guilt.
“I’m sorry for what my parents did,” you speak up, bowing ninety degrees because as much as you hate their actions, you want to help Sae as much as you can. He must hate talking to his parents as much as you do, so the least you can do is alleviate that. “I really didn’t know what they were up to, and I didn’t expect it to affect your family’s reputation as well. I can’t even begin to repay you for what my parents did, but I can offer you everything I have now, and I’ll do anything you want me to.”
“Then easy, leave—”
“Except leave your son,” you affirm, straightening up and looking them in the eyes. “We love each other, so we’re going to make this work.” Beside you, a smile tugs on the corners of Sae’s lips at your declaration. Are you really the same person who used to be so meek in front of yours and his parents once upon a time? “As for my parents, I’ll let the authorities do their work and capture them. As far as I’m concerned, they’re dead to me.”
Perhaps it’s because of your strong words, but the Itoshis leave not ten minutes later.
You flop down on the couch, an exhausting morning followed by an exhausting night is entirely too much for you. Sae shamelessly lays himself down on top of you, head resting on your chest. He must still be tired, judging from the bags under his eyes.
“Sorry about that,” he mumbles, fingers absentmindedly playing with your hair. “You were pretty hot, though, sticking it to them.”
You stifle a laugh, though your smile speaks for itself. “Guess we should’ve expected that. They got conned out of their money too, after all. Wonder when this is all gonna blow over,” you sigh to yourself, just wishing that the problem would disappear.
Over the course of the next few days, you received texts from colleagues asking what happened, and Sumi in particular loves to cuss your parents out over text and then apologise for being insensitive afterwards. It carries a sense of normalcy that you needed, though.
It takes a few months before everything completely settles down for you, until your sister has come to the realisation that your parents abandoned you and deserve whatever hell they’re going to get. It doesn’t stop her from saying yes to her boyfriend when he proposes, and you and Sae watch on lovingly as she leaps into his arms and kisses him silly.
“You know what, a family like this doesn’t suck so much either,” you ponder out loud. All you really need is just your sister, and Sae—both of them have never failed you after all.
Sae puts his arm around you, holding you close like he always does. You notice that; that when Sae loves you he’ll crave your proximity everytime. Sumi likes to joke that he’s too clingy, but you like him just like that.
Seeing the scene unfold in front of them, your eyes twinkling as you watch the movie-like proposal in front of you, Sae feels just a pang of guilt.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t give that to you,” he mutters, though he already knows you don’t mind. To you, what matters the most is that the both of you are still together, still happy.
And that’s exactly what you say with your hands wrapped around his neck, kissing him with those perfect lips of yours, pulling him in so naturally without having to do anything.
“You give me more than enough, Itoshi Sae,” you whisper, oblivious to Sae falling even more and more in love with you.
“Have I told you I love you?”
You chuckle, nodding and Sae’s completely taken by your grin.
“We love you too.”
“We?”
And when you break it to him, in a hushed whisper because you don’t want to ruin the proposal, Sae gives you the most lovestruck expression you’ve ever seen.
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THREE YEARS LATER
A lot has changed.
Turns out, you’re not as cold-hearted as you thought. Mirin is still on the list of your least-liked humans, for sure, but it’s not like you care enough to harbour any resentment anymore. She’s not worth vexing over, and much less so after that one time years ago when she came over to personally apologise. You haven’t officially forgiven her, but you don’t particularly wish the worst upon her. You’re not even sure where she is or what she’s doing because Sae doesn’t care for keeping in touch with her, but you’re both indifferent about her now.
Reo had apparently met someone special last year when he attended a charity gala. You’ve never met her in person, but from the pictures Reo takes and shares on his socials—all to show her off, no doubt—she looks absolutely breathtaking. He was there with you throughout the whole fiasco too, lending his family’s support to weather you through the tough times. You’re happy he finally found that special someone. From his texts, sometimes it seems rocky, but he’s “pretty sure she’s the one,” and you’re honestly happy for him.
Your parents have been caught—apparently, a year out they’d tried to seek shelter with one of their friends only for them to tip the police off. It wasn’t even like you, but you visited your mother in jail, just out of curiosity, and the only thing she had begged you was to help them get a good lawyer. Not that you didn’t expect it, or that it would make any difference if you did agree. Frankly, you just went there to say “no”, to let her feel the same helplessness she and your father cast upon you. You’ve never visited her since.
Sae’s been busy ever since his career shift two years ago. (His parents weren’t all too happy about it, but ever since their screw up with yours, they weren’t as forceful anymore.) Now, he’s one of the assistant coaches for Japan’s national team, and you’ve never been happier for him. It gives him more flexibility too, getting to spend more time with you back at home, but also getting to invite you with him whenever they travel.
You guess it’s lucky that you managed to land a spot helping the team out with marketing, so more often than not you get to see your husband play some soccer. Like right now, when you’re bent over the railing, watching him coach the two main midfielders and looking completely different than when he’s at home.
For one, it’s definitely the first time you get to see him all intense. With you, he’s pretty much the opposite, going all soft whenever he gets home, and you wonder how you got so lucky to be building a home with someone who loves you so much he can spot you a mile away and give you the gentlest smile you’ve ever seen.
Sae calls for a break, jogging towards your direction looking handsome as hell but you’re not going to tell him that or else he’ll tease you about it.
“How are my girls?”
Oh, and you’ve apparently managed to give him a daughter that looks so much like him. She sits on the railing, your arms wrapped around her to support her as she jumps into her father’s arms.
“She’s been bugging me all day to come and visit you,” you remark.
Yeah, she’s a daddy’s girl—and you smile watching Sae kiss her all over, her laughter ringing in the air, her happiness meaning the world to you.
Neither you nor Sae have ever experienced what a good family is like, nor have either of you seen what good parenting is like. But your daughter seems happy everyday, with parents who support her whenever she wants to try something different, so you both take it one step at a time, learning as you go. If it ever gets too difficult for you, Sae steps in, and he’s never let you down.
“Remember what we’re gonna surprise mommy with later?” Sae asks your daughter, and you’re still trying to get used to him calling you that.
You arch a brow, “I get a surprise?”
Your daughter giggles, nodding as she melts in her father’s arms. “Of course, mommy! You’ll love it!”
Her smile is infectious, a grin forming on your face just by looking at her. You shift your gaze to your husband. “What is it?”
All he does is look you in the eyes, smirking. “You’ll see.”
That night, you entertain your daughter by letting her blindfold you and lead you, well, wherever the surprise is. It smells nice, wherever you are because you’d been blindfolded even during the car ride, and you can tell it’s grand because of the way your heels are clacking against the marble and the way Sae had dressed tonight.
By your guess, you’re probably at one of the nice hotels here for one of their signature buffet dinners. Your daughter’s never been, so that could be why she’s making a huge deal out of this. Like father, like daughter, so cute.
But when your daughter urgently whispers for you to take the blindfold off, you find yourself at the entrance of huge double doors, two hotel staff smiling and opening up to unveil a huge ballroom filled with people, most of them you recognise because they’re your friends.
It’s already bringing tears to your eyes when you realise what this must be.
They’re all cheering as they see you, your daughter skipping happily into the room, choosing to run straight to your purple-haired best friend at one of the tables who you thought was still busy abroad. Beside him, his beautiful girlfriend mouths a ‘hello’, but you’re still too surprised to respond.
Everyone’s clapping and cheering and all of a sudden you feel the familiar presence of your husband right beside you, his arms wrapping around your waist as he kisses you on the cheek.
“Surprised?”
Honestly? Yes. Very. And you’re not one to be easily surprised at all.
“I wanted to give you the celebration you deserved,” he tells you, waiting for you to take it all in.
It’s a far cry from the pathetic reception you got from people you barely knew during your actual wedding reception. Sae had been nothing but cold to you back then too, so it felt more like a prison than anything.
Now? You recognise so many faces in the crowd that you can’t help but smile and wave back. You’d always wondered what this would be like, and your husband somehow manages to give it to you without having you ask for it and you’re in love. Because he seems ice cold and awkward and rough around the edges but his love for you has always, always been warm. His love has always felt like coming home and having a safe space and this might be the unconditional love you’d been praying for your whole life.
You almost gave up on it. But you know now Sae never will. And neither will you. You have a family now, a proper one built by two people who never had a stable environment, by two people who never came close to being provided one themselves.
Sae’s your pillar of support, and you begin to see now that you’re his.
Now you know it’s true what they say; you don’t have to beg for someone’s love if they truly cared about you, because Sae has always gone the extra mile for you every single day. You don’t have to act like someone you’re not just to please them so they don’t leave—because no matter how many disagreements you have, Sae is always there to listen to your point of view. You don’t have to beg someone to treat you right if they really love you, because Sae’s been actively choosing you ever since the day you got married, and whether it’s intentional or not, you think you’re the luckiest person in the world.
And now you can’t be happier; you have a wonderful daughter who has two parents who absolutely love her. You have a husband who takes care of you in every single way, loving you in every essence of the word. You have friends like Reo who would burn the world if it was ever unkind to you and dance with you atop their pile of bodies. You have everything you could ever want and you couldn’t have seen it without Sae by your side.
The do-over of your wedding reception is perfect. So, so perfect, and it’s almost hard to believe it’s the product of Sae’s ideas. He doesn’t even particularly like celebrations like this but he did this for you, for both of you, and being able to make your daughter be a part of it is like icing on the four-tiered cake he had ordered.
“I’ll love you forever, Y/N,” he whispers suddenly into your ear as you guys are making rounds at the tables.
You accept the kiss from him, flashes going off as you smile against his lips. “Yeah? What if it falls apart?” you ask, teasing him, though you never thought he’d answer you seriously.
“Then I’ll rebuild it,” he tells you, your lips hovering just above each other and his beautiful teal eyes looking into yours, a small smile on his face. “But with you, I’m pretty sure that would never happen.”
And you’ve always been pessimistic. You’ve always chosen to believe the worst because it alleviates the pain you’d feel when things don’t go as planned. But somehow, you believe in Sae with your whole heart. You’d trust him with your whole life. So you want to give him what he’s given you—everything. (He thinks you already have.)
“I’ll love you forever, Itoshi Sae.”
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hgfictionwriter · 2 months
Text
Maybe This Time - Part Six
Jessie Fleming X Reader
Summary: Jessie’s on top of the world and simply cannot wait to see you. She can finally hold you in her arms and call you hers. Final confessions as you reunite.
Warnings: Nothing but Fluff (capital ‘F’) and emotions, folks.
A/N: Romance! Slow burn finally pays off! Hope you all enjoy. I loved writing this. Other parts are available here.
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Jessie's body felt like it was buzzing as she rode down the street. She cleared her throat as she tried to fight off an impending smile, but was only half successful.
She got to her destination and hopped off her bike, walking it to a nearby rack to lock it up. Her phone vibrated and she smiled before even looking at it. She unlocked it and read the last few messages in your conversation.
"Made it back to my apartment 👍 Are you done work?"
"I'm glad! I hope you're planning to take a nap. And do absolutely nothing this evening other than rest. I know you slept on the plane, but still. Sorry for the delay – I just got out of a meeting. I'm logging off for the day. Hallelujah lol."
"No worries at all. I know you're a busy and important lady lol. And no naps just yet, but I did laundry! What are you up to this evening?"
"Of course you did laundry already lol. Why am I not surprised haha. Promise me you won't do chores all evening. I'm not up to much tonight. TBD, I suppose lol."
Jessie smiled to herself furthermore as she called you.
"Hello?" You said, a curious laugh in your voice as you greeted her.
"I promise I won’t do chores all evening," Jessie replied, pulling a laugh out of you.
"Very good," you said in approval. "Cause, you know, I'd hate for our first fight to be about laundry. That would just be silly."
"First fight?" Jessie inquired. "That seems like something that usually requires more than one date, so that sounds promising."
You laughed. "True. Well, if you play your cards right we'll have enough dates that we'll eventually hit the 'first fight' milestone. Where are you anyway? It sounds like you're outside."
"Yeah, just finished biking," Jessie relayed, smiling into the phone. "Are you done work yet?"
"Yeah, I've shut everything down. I'm just looking for something to watch. I'm too lazy to start dinner just yet," you explained. "Wait, hold on, I'm getting another call. Oh, it's my buzzer. That's weird."
"Maybe you should answer it," Jessie suggested. You gave a weary sigh, that made her stifle a laugh.
"Fine. Okay, hold on."
Jessie stood there as the call on her phone went silent and your voice came through the buzzer speaker.
"Hello?"
"Hi," Jessie said, voice cheerful as she tried to tamp some of her excitement.
"Jess? Wait. Hold on, I thought I switched over to the buzzer. Just a sec."
Jessie stifled another laugh and waited patiently as you sorted things out. She finally laughed while you muttered to yourself.
"Buzz me in," Jessie said.
"Wait. What? I'm confused."
She laughed again. "Y/N. I'm at your apartment. Buzz me in."
"What?" Your voice was high with surprise. "You're kidding me."
"I'm not," Jessie chuckled. "I mean, if you want me to go..."
Instead of receiving a rebuttal, Jessie simply heard the click of the door along with the tone to alert her that the door was unlocked. She stepped inside and headed up to your apartment. She was about to knock on your door when it swung open to reveal you standing there with a scrutinizing look.
Jessie wore a complacent smile on her face as she held up a bag of take-out in front of her.
"I brought you dinner."
"What the heck," you exclaimed as you stepped out, bypassing the bag and pulling Jessie into a tight hug, which she readily returned.
Jessie tucked her head against yours and couldn't resist the content sigh that escaped her as you fit into her arms and pulled her close. It felt new and yet entirely familiar and natural at the same time. The hug lasted several, long moments until you pulled back, though only enough to look Jessie in the eye, arms still around her waist and sending further jolts of electricity up through her body.
"I didn't know you were coming," you said, eyes bright with wonder. Your smile widened. "I didn't think I'd get to see you until next week."
"I know." Jessie nodded. "We were landing and I just..." She paused, gaze flicking away as heat built in her face before she felt something click inside of her and she looked to you, a sudden feeling of ease and comfort coming over her as she took you in. "I just kept thinking about how much I wanted to see you. I know our date's only a week away, but we've waited long enough. I've wasted enough time and don't want to waste any more."
Jessie nearly beamed at the way your cheeks reddened and the way you looked at her. She'd waited years for you to look at her like this. And, well, while maybe she'd seen hints of it years before, now it was unhindered and there were no 'maybes' left.
Jessie's posture straightened and her breath hitched momentarily as your soft hand came to rest on her cheek.
"You're incredible. You know that, right?" You asked, eyes gentle and warm.
Jessie swallowed. She could hear her pulse pounding in her head as she held your gaze.
"I'm just being honest," she eventually managed to say.
"Well, I love it. And I agree, we've waited long enough," you said as you pulled back and led her into your apartment by her hand.
She followed wordlessly, watching you the whole way through and eventually jerking her head to the side when you finally turned back around. Despite her attempt to hide her staring, she caught the smirk that had snuck across your lips as she turned away. You took the bag of food from Jessie and set it down on the counter, releasing her hand in the process and leaving her missing it immediately.
"If I had known you were coming by I would've tried to look a bit more presentable. You know, not immediately changing into my worst sweats and t-shirt immediately after work finished," you said with a chuckle as you leaned back against the counter. Jessie's head immediately snapped back to you with a deep frown etched on her face.
"What are you talking about? I love it," she said unequivocally. She hesitated momentarily before relaxing into the moment. “You always look good,” she said assuredly. She frowned deeper as you gave her a look that was both disbelieving and affectionate. Eventually, you relented with an eye roll and a faint smirk.
"I suppose you've seen me in worse states than this," you admitted. A wry grin crossed your face as you folded your arms across yourself. "Remember the night after Teagan's year-end party?"
Jessie practically snorted a laugh. "Remember holding your hair back while you puked your guts out all night and morning? Running all over getting whatever remedies for you? Yeah, I remember."
"Yeah, it was like the exorcism," you said plainly before turning haughty, holding your head high. "Well, I learned to never try to out-drink an Aussie."
Jessie laughed and a moment later she smiled wider. "Oh, and remember when you had that extreme flu for like two weeks?"
"Oh yeah, let's not forget that," you deadpanned, giving her a comical stare before slipping back into a smile. "I get it, you've seen me in some very unflattering states."
"And I still-" Jessie caught herself, smile tightening and she cleared her throat. "I'm still interested."
You held her gaze, smiling softly at her before dropping it momentarily as you gently pushed off the counter and took a step towards her. "I'm glad."
The room was silent and the air around you began to infuse with anticipation and brightness. Your smile grew as you held her gaze.
“And I’m still super glad I got up the nerve to tell you about my delusional moment years before.”
Jessie let out a breathy laugh though she didn’t break eye contact. “Not delusional at all. I would’ve done anything to take you on a date.”
“Anything except ask me out,” you replied with a wink. Jessie blushed and her gaze dropped momentarily before she smirked up at you.
“Well, I’ve asked you out now,” she said. You took a step towards her and nodded with a quiet smile.
“You have.”
“And I’m really excited for it,” Jessie added. Her blush deepened a bit despite herself. She didn’t let it stop her this time though. “So excited in fact that I just couldn’t wait the few days to see you again.”
Your smile grew and you closed the space between you, wrapping your arms around the back of her neck. Jessie beamed before quieting her smile while she wrapped her arms securely around your waist.
“Well I'm glad I'm not the only one,” you told her. “Because I didn’t want to wait either.” You swallowed your hesitation. “I missed you. I know it’s silly, b-”
“I missed you too,” Jessie cut in, smiling brightly at you. “All the time. Janine’s always making fun of me because I check my phone way too often to see if I missed anything from you.”
You chuckled and sent a shiver down Jessie’s spine as you began to caress the back of her neck.
“You are far too cute. I love that you do that. I’m the same,” you confessed. "It's hard to believe now that there was a time - too long - when you weren't a constant in my day."
Jessie’s face hurt from trying not to smile too much. She gave you a nod. "I know the feeling."
She took you in, the softness in your eyes as you stood in her embrace. One that wasn't fleeting or masked as something it wasn't. She could hold you, truly hold you. Emotions began to rise in her throat and she let them out in a rush.
“I just can't believe this. I can! But I can't. I just-" She lost her words and shook her head affectionately at you. "I’m glad it’s not too much. You know, me calling you in the middle of the night. Me showing up unannounced. If it’s ever too much, just tell me. I’ve never really dated, so I don’t really know if I’m coming on too strong. Not that I think we’re dating. I know you didn’t agree to that, but-”
Jessie’s words ceased as you brought a single finger gently to her lips. Her breath stilled in her lungs and her heartbeat pounded in her ears as you slowly leaned in, dropping your hand to rest delicately on her shoulder and suddenly your soft lips were upon hers. The kiss lingered and Jessie’s eyes fluttered shut as you leaned subtly into her.
No thoughts registered in Jessie’s mind and she belatedly realized that you’d slowly drawn back, though remaining in her arms. When she gradually opened her eyes she saw you looking at her in what she couldn’t help but interpret as adoration. It made her feel weak in the knees.
“For the record, that’s confirmation that you’re doing great,” you said with a soft laugh.
Jessie was stunned. Elated. She’d pictured kissing you countless times, countless ways, but no dream of hers, no matter how vivid, lived up to this. It wasn’t even a heated, passionate kiss, but it was everything and she felt it down to her toes.
Jessie leaned in and kissed you once more. Deeper this time. Longer. Pulling you closer in her arms, feeling the shape of your body fitting perfectly against hers.
When she finally broke off the kiss, she smiled upon seeing you breathless, a dark pink tinge colouring your cheeks. She wished she could take a picture of you like this.
“Wow,” you breathed. Jessie beamed before tamping her excitement and ultimately just looking smug instead. You gave her a soft shove as you rolled your eyes, but leaned into the embrace further.
“So, dating, huh?” You asked, cheeks still pink.
Jessie’s smugness immediately shifted. She was about to speak, but you beat her to it.
“Don’t get me wrong, it sounds amazing. But I want to be really clear. I know we’ve shared a lot recently, and I don’t know if it’s like this for you, but things feel so natural and right and such a long time coming, but I also know you have your career and you’re at a really special and important time during it. You weren’t exactly looking for a relationship - you have a lot of obligations you need to balance. I don’t want to take you away from anything or be the reason you don’t do the things you want to do. That would never be my intention and I’d never ask you to sacrifice anything, but I don’t want you to make different decisions because of me.”
Jessie waited patiently, ensuring you got everything off your chest before she spoke.
“Y/N, I’ve been searching for this for years. How I felt for you all those years ago, it felt right. And it feels unequivocally right now, too,” she gave a breathless shrug and felt her throat constrict under the strain of her emotions. "And now that you're back in my life. I don't know how I managed without you. And I don't ever want to do it again. It’s you. It’s always been you.
"And I hear you - you don’t want me to compromise my career. But I don’t have to. You have your career as well. We both have obligations, but we already make time for each other. I’m going to keep playing, but if I’m not on the pitch - I’m yours. That’s what I want. And if you’re okay with it, then that’s how it’ll be.”
Jessie’s chest tightened exquisitely as you captured her lips once more.
“I am more than okay with that,” you told her. You narrowed your eyes playfully at her. “So did we just skip the first date and go straight to girlfriends?”
Jessie’s heart jumped into her throat in the best way possible.
“I am perfectly okay with that,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice steady despite the excitement that coursed through her. She couldn’t help herself.
“If I’m being honest, I’ve pictured you as far more than my girlfriend many times.” She paused. “I saw how your exes were with you. I saw how they disappointed you and frustrated you. I’m human and we’re new to this, so of course I won’t be perfect, but I know I can and I do love you better and more than they ever did. I know how to make you smile when you’re feeling your worst, I know how to make you laugh when you’re trying so hard to be stern and serious with me, I know you so well, even after all this time. You’re a part of me. And I want nothing more than to make you so happy.”
She watched your reaction. She expected herself to be blushing, but the things she said were so deeply rooted inside of her it seemed second nature to say. She waited as you stood there speechless, staring back at her with shimmering eyes.
“So, head over heels really did mean you loved me,” you said with a gentle laugh. Jessie didn’t waver.
“Yes. And still do.”
You swallowed, but immediately kissed her once more.
“I know it’s a lot,” she said when the kiss ended, but you spoke before she could go on.
“It is. But it’s real. You were my person all those years. And here you are again. You’re perfect for me. So you’re silly if you think I don’t love you, too.”
“Then say it properly,” Jessie challenged teasingly. “I’ve been waiting a long, long time to hear it.”
You cupped her face in your hands and smiled affectionately at her.
“I love you so much, Jessie,” you professed softly, your words followed up with another kiss from her.
When she pulled back her eyes were bright.
“Let’s get through date #1,” you laughed. “And if the topic of rings comes up at some point over the next few months, well,” you kissed her softly, "so be it."
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wileys-russo · 10 months
Note
Alessia playing a rough match & insisting she’s fine (despite being on the ground more than not).
“I know every inch of your body Alessia and I know for a fact that bruise is new”
+proceeding to take care of her and kiss all her better
I love your writing btw
bruises II a.russo
"they're really going in on her today." you mumbled to your soon to be brother in law, bouncing your knee anxiously as not even twenty minutes into the game and your fiance had already been the collateral damage of three fouls and a yellow card.
"she's a big girl and it's a contact sport, she'll be fine." gio waved off your worries, patting your back without looking away from the pitch as you sighed.
"she'll be alright darling, she's done this for years she knows what to do." carol murmured much more empathetically, squeezing your knee and sending you a reassuring look as you nodded.
however by half time your worries had only doubled ten fold, your fiance seemingly spending more time on the ground than on her own two feet.
alessia had always been clumsy by nature and normally her consistent stumbles and slips had you smiling with amusement but now every time her body hit the ground your breath caught in your throat.
"go on. ease the nerves a bit!" gio nudged past you and dropped back into his seat, handing you a drink as you forced a smile and took a sip. normally you'd not drink at your fiances games but today you'd do anything to try and fight the anxiety which clawed desperately at your throat.
"oh thats a joke, how is that not a card?" you protested, wincing as you watched alessia's body thud to the ground once again, her legs completely sweeped out from underneath her. "beats me. come on ref!" gio yelled, joining the horde of angry arsenal fans also shouting for at least a yellow.
"she's limping." your brought your bottom lip between your teeth, chewing on it nervously as your fiance waved off the medics, hobbling back to her position and resetting herself for a moment. rolling her shoulders and neck she bent back down, joining the huddle of her team mates as they bunched in for a corner.
"six more minutes of stoppage time love, she's going to be just fine." carol assured, you only nodding wordlessly as your gaze locked onto alessia, knee once again bouncing as you flinched every time she came near to the ball.
"again? they've got to be taking the piss." you scoffed as the same defender from before sweeped her legs out from beneath her, though this time your fiance wasn't quite so quick to her feet. you huffed as finally a card was rewarded, the spurs player headed off the pitch as it was her second yellow of the match.
"she's not getting up." you mumbled, jaw clenching as your knee bounced even faster, not even your future mother in laws hand squeezing it reassuringly helping with anything. your stomach dropped as you watched your fiance gesture frantically toward her knee, the pain clear on her face with every passing second.
"you don't think-" you started, not even finishing your sentence out of gut wrenching terror for the next few words which died in your mouth.
"no, we don't even think about that." gio remanded firmly though not unkindly as he draped an arm around your shoulders, a sigh of relief left you as finally alessia was up being helped off the pitch as stina was subbed on in her place.
"see? she knows how to take a knock and a push, she's nearly twice the size of that pesky defender anyway." gio chuckled, doing his best to reassure you as play resumed.
"the bigger they are the harder they fall." you sighed, much less optimistic as you caught leah's eye from the bench, the girl raising an eyebrow and nodding her head toward the tunnel.
"go darling." carol watched the blonde gesture for you to come to her, nudging you up as you hurried out of your seat and out of the stand, leah meeting you as you did.
"she's all good, just a bit sore." the older girl assured, pulling you into her side in a hug as she walked the two of you toward the medic room where alessia had been taken to.
you heard cheering as the final whistle blew, the gunners winning 4-1 but you couldn't share their excitement, your only focus now the blonde you were only seconds away from seeing.
"go kiss it better." leah winked, pinching your cheek playfully and giving you a gentle push into the med room.
the physio gave you a smile, also assuring there wasn't any major damage just a mild sprain but alessia would need to take it carefully and train separately for the week until it could be reassessed.
you thanked him grateful for the update as he left the room and shut the door afterward, giving you and your fiance some more privacy.
"hi beautiful." the blonde smiled affectionately, sat on the medical bench still in her kit as you moved to stand between her dangling legs. "ah! babe." she whined in surprise as you suddenly smacked her thigh with a loud slap and an unimpressed scowl.
"do not scare me like that again, pointing to your knee when its an ankle problem." you warned with a huff, frowning up at her as your fiance only smiled, infuriatingly attractive as she did so.
"i just knew it was something in my leg and your head mentally always goes to the worst possible scenario. i didn't mean to worry you baby i'm sorry." she apologized sincerely, your hands moving either side of her body as you leaned up to kiss her, another apology mumbled against your lips as her hands squeezed your sides.
~
"you're limping lessi. just let me help you!" you groaned frustratedly, your fiance refusing, batting away your arms which reached out to help her out of the car. "for the one millionth time i am fine!" she huffed, hauling herself up and swallowing her pain, walking as normally as she could to the front door.
"so fucking stubborn." you grumbled, slamming the door after her and shaking your head, your fiance letting herself into your shared home. "my love please at least sit down, put your ankle up on a pillow and rest it, please!" you begged with a sigh, the striker still standing with her head engrossed in her phone.
"honestly are you going to be this dramatic all week? because you are already getting on my last nerve its just a sprain i am absolutely fine!" alessia spat, rolling her eyes and limping off into the bedroom as you dragged your hands down your face with a silent groan of irritation before following after her.
"stop! i'll do it." you dropped down to your knees, helping her take off her trainers, extra careful with her injured ankle. alessia only groaned, flopping down onto her back on the bed making you roll your eyes.
"right i have had it with this denial and the stroppy attitude. hoodie off, joggers off." you stood back up and ordered firmly, crossing your arms sternly. "don't be cute, i'm serious." you warned as alessia smiled suggestively, though it dropped from her lips at your tone.
with a roll of her eyes she shuffled back up the bed, resting on her elbows as she tugged at her hoodie.
"i don't see why i have to-"
"stop." you moved to push away her hands, helping her to take her hoodie off and moving her training top up so it pooled at her neck, giving her a firm look as she opened her mouth to continue complaining.
without another word you ducked your head, placing a tender kiss to each and every bruise which littered her rib cage, your eyes locked with alessia's own as you did so.
you broke her stare as you moved backwards and dropped again to your knees, sliding her joggers off and giving the bruises adoring her legs the same loving treatment, your fiance tangling a hand in your hair, short nails affectionately scratching your scalp as she exhaled slowly.
tugging her top back down you carefully swung your leg over her hips, settling yourself on top of her as her hands instinctively moved to caress your thighs.
"alessia i know your body like the back of my hand. i've been head over heels in love with you for five years and your best friend for far longer than that. so there is not a single freckle, scar, birth mark, mole, nothing that i do not know like a map." you started, her hands coming to rest on your thighs.
"so these, all of these, are new." you frowned, shuffling down her body a little bit, gesturing to the freshly inflicted bruises scattering her body.
"so please don't tell me you're fine and everything is fine and nothing hurts. i know you better than that and i'd hope you know me better than that to think i'd believe anything otherwise." you finished softly, your hands moving to gently clasp her face, thumbs tracing the curvature of her jaw.
"i love you very very much less and i've always supported you in every single way i can, and i will always continue to do so. but please let me take care of you when you need it, even when you don't think you do." you requested, eyebrows knitted into a concerned frown.
"m'sorry baby, i love you very much and i didn't mean to be snappy or difficult." your fiance sighed apologetically as you shook your head.
"i've always known you were difficult love, i wouldn't have said yes to marrying you if i didn't know how to handle that." you smiled in amusement, shutting up her response with a kiss so filled with love it sent her head spinning.
"well then mrs russo i promise to always let you take care of me if you promise to always let me take care of you. i might be difficult but you are one of the most stubborn women i've ever met my pretty girl." your fiance grinned knowingly, squeezing your legs and leaning up slightly to place a gentle kiss to your nose.
holding out her pinky toward you expectantly making you laugh you linked your own with hers, the two of you kissing your interlocked fingers.
"i promise."
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geesenoises · 8 months
Text
DnD: dungeons and draco
for @quail-in-red. this is just further proof that if anybody shows even the slightest interest in one of my dumb jokes, i crumble and perform like a silly jester at once. based on this post i made last year and rediscovered today about hp wizards playing DnD.
Dean didn’t give a lot of details when he invited Harry to his weekly dungeons and dragons game, but the last person Harry expected to see at the table was Draco Malfoy.
“We started a game together when we were, er,” Dean trailed off.
“When we were prisoners in Draco's house!” Luna finished for him brightly.
Malfoy didn’t say anything, just met Harry’s eyes stolidly and then went to fuss with the small pile of papers and cards in front of him.
Harry shared a look with Ron, who was already sitting between Dean and Hermione, and then sighed inwardly and took the last remaining seat between Seamus and Luna. He pulled out the premade character sheet Dean had owled him last week. It was wrinkled from having nearly been lost in a pile of post and then hastily shoved in Harry’s pocket before flooing to Dean’s flat. 
Harry looked around the table. Malfoy’s stack of papers was bigger than anyone else’s, even Hermione’s. And why did he have so many cards? There was a little wooden tray in front of him too. The dice in the tray looked iridescent, catching and reflecting the light. Trust Malfoy to have expensive poncy accessories. Why was he even here? Did he even like DnD? He’d grown up around magic his whole life; what did he need to pretend for?
“And so let’s go around and introduce our characters,” Dean finished. Harry had missed his whole introduction. “Since Draco and Luna have played before, we’ll start with them.”
Malfoy straightened up a little, carefully picking up his character sheet even though it seemed like he was so familiar with it, he didn’t need to reference it. “I’m Mike, a level three call center operator. I’m twenty-three years old, originally from Essex and just moved to London. I played football in uni, but am feeling less fit now that I have a job where I sit all day.”
Luna went next and spoke in a surprisingly deep voice. “My name is Archie, and I’m a level six IT consultant. I’m forty-six years old, originally from Norwich, but I moved to London for uni and never left. I’ve been married to my wife, Evelyn, for twenty years and we have two children and a cocker spaniel named Rosa.”
Harry stared down at the character sheet in front of him. He hadn’t looked at it before grabbing it in his rush to get here on time. It told him he was meant to be playing Grace, a 29 year old paramedic who’d grown up in London and recently broken up with her fiance after finding out he had cheated on her. She had a cat named Pomegranate. Harry didn’t know much about tabletop games, but there had been a group of kids that Dudley’s gang would sometimes target instead of Harry who had played. And what he’d overhead from their games didn’t sound anything like this.
“Hang on, these are just normal people; we’re all humans with muggle jobs. I thought we were playing dungeons and dragons, you know, with magic involved.”
Malfoy glared at him. “Weren’t you paying attention, Potter? Dean just explained the premise of our campaign.”
Harry didn’t want to admit to Malfoy he’d been too busy wondering what his dice were made of. He looked away from Malfoy to Dean. “Er, sorry. I was… distracted.”
Dean sighed but looked more resigned than irritated at having to explain again. “When I started the game with Draco and Luna, they got confused by the magic system because actual magic doesn’t work the way it does in DnD, so I made up a slightly different game we could play. We’re a group of Londoners in a recreational dodgeball league.”
“And honestly, Harry, it doesn’t feel right pretending to be of magical creature heritage for a game,” Hermione added. “Think of what kind of hurtful stereotypes we could fall into.”
“Okay…” Harry said slowly. It still felt strange, but now that he thought about it, he supposed he didn’t need to spend his Thursday evenings pretending to be part of a group camping out and hunting evil. Once per lifetime was enough without having to do it recreationally in the realm of imagination.
Harry smoothed out his character sheet again and introduced the group to Grace.
not sure if there will be more, but we're all shipping mike/grace right?
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justporo · 1 year
Text
A Shuffle of Cards
Another shorter one-shot in which Astarion and Tav just waste an evening playing cards and drinking wine and the vampire learns he doesn't know everything about sleight of hand that there is to know - yet.
Pairing: Astarion / Fem!Tav (You) Rating: Teen (just to be sure)
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(Gif from here!)
“How did you-?“ “A lady never tells.” Astarion snorted – you flipped him off. “Well, is it your card or not?”
Astarion groaned in frustration: “Yes, it is.” You grinned at him – equal parts proud of yourself and mischievously happy. Then you turned the card over so you could see which one it was. “Oh, Queen of Hearts – so fitting, don’t you think?”, you said and raised your eyebrows cheekily at the vampire. But he had no capacities for teasing – you must’ve gotten him good.
“Show me again!”, he demanded, his ruby eyes already fully concentrated on your slender hands again, brows furrowed critically. You rolled your eyes at him. “You didn’t get it the last six times I’ve done this, what makes you think this time will be different?” “Just show me again!” You breathed out in annoyance and went to shuffle the deck of cards again.
The two of you had gotten cozy in front of the fireplace in your living room while an autumn storm was roaming outside – right on the cliché fur rug, each seated with crossed legs on a pillow. You had been playing cards and emptying a bottle of red wine (“hm, rich taste with a bouquet of red berries and a hint of almond”, Astarion had said after taking his first sip – to you it tasted like good stuff to get wasted on), when you had suddenly exclaimed: “You wanna see a card trick?”
Astarion had scoffed in arrogance and waved at you sneeringly to go on, expecting child’s play. And now he was sitting there trying to figure out how you managed to get his chosen card right every damn time – for fifteen minutes straight. His hands were pressed to his knees, elbows up, while he leaned to you to watch you shuffle the deck artfully. His gaze basically bored into your fingers.
“Love, there is nothing yet to see.” “Maybe I just like to watch what those sinful fingers can do”, he smirked at you, his eyes moving from your hands to your face and grinning even more broadly. The warm orange light of the fire shone in his eyes and illuminated his face in warm tones. He looked so beautiful right then and there, you almost dropped the cards.
But no! You wouldn’t be distracted by him this time. He already almost got what he wanted from you all the time by working his charms on you because you were so desperately inclined to give him everything that would make him smile at you like this.
You unceremoniously placed the cards on the ground before you and spread them out. “Pick a card”, you said to him in an annoyed tone to demonstrate how much you weren’t affected by him making eyes at you, even though one of his soft white curls had fallen adorably onto his forehead now too.
Astarion pouted at your demeanor: “Not giving me the whole show, my sweet?” You slowly blinked at him not reacting further. “Come now, love, this is the last time, I promise”, he then said pleadingly and stretched out his hand to grab you by the neck and pull you towards him for a quick but sweet kiss.
You sighed in defeat and picked up your cards. “Alright, one last time.” You shuffled the deck once more, making the cards jump from your one hand to the other then spread them out in a neat curve with one swift movement – the space between all cards perfectly balanced. Astarion whistled in astonishment which made you look up at him. He smiled and winked at you and you blushed at him cheering you.
“Sooo, would you honour me with choosing a card, Astarion?” “Oh, I would love nothing more, darling!” He made a show of letting his fingers wander through the air above the cards before settling on a card and elegantly dragging it out. “Now, would you please look at it without showing me which one it is and memorise it well.” The vampire drew the card close to his chest and raised his eyebrows mockingly being overly secretive. He took a peek at his card then threw you a glance to make sure you weren’t trying to watch – you sat there waiting for him to be done with your mouth pressed into a line. “Alright, I memorised it”, Astarion said while keeping the card pressed to his chest, eyebrows still raised at you.
“Well then”, you replied and grabbed the remainder of the deck with another swift movement until you had them all in your hands. Then you split them in half and held them out to the vampire. “Please put your card back in.” He did as he was told while acting being hesitant about it. When he had placed the card down, you put the other half above it.
Astarion’s lips opened in anticipation and his eyes were trained on your hands again – now being completely serious about it.
He wanted a show, so you gave it to him – you artfully split the deck up again in thirds and made them whirl around your fingers with an incredible speed. You knew exactly where his card was at any given moment.
“No, no, no – this isn’t fair, love!”, Astarion exclaimed in desperation and pouted at you again, but you just stuck your tongue out at him and kept shuffling. When the vampire looked positively dizzy from watching your shenanigans you stopped and lifted up the top card with its face to Astarion. “Is this your card?”
His eyes widened in surprise then he angrily snatched the card from your hand with furrowed brows. “Yes”, he grumbled while you broke into laughter. “Which one was it?”, you asked him while you put down the remaining cards. Reluctantly, Astarion showed you the card he was clutching in his fingers. “King of Hearts”, he said still pouting.
“Uuh, what another great coincidence, don’t you think?”, you cooed at him cheerfully and slapped your hands on your knees. Astarion narrowed his eyes at you and kept brooding.
“You know”, you said while pursing your lips “because you certainly are the king of my heart.”
You saw it – you saw the light twitch at the corner of his mouth; you got him. “Just as much as you are the queen of mine, my sweet sweet darling”, he answered dramatically and grabbed his goblet of wine to down the rest of it in one go.
“You are only trying to distract me because you lost the last five rounds of cards”, he offered dryly while he licked a remaining drop of “rich, red berry” red wine of his lips. You watched, being mesmerized by the tiny gesture. “Well, is it working?”, you retorted while you kept watching his lips. Astarion noticed your staring and cocked his head: “Hmm, I don’t know might’ve worked better if your clothes had been off.” He leaned back on his hands and watched the effect of his comment unfold. You tried miserably not to blush – damn, would you ever gain some tiny shred of immunity against his charms?
You coughed and rearranged your sitting position. “I only lost because you keep cheating the entire time”, you threw his way to which he lifted a hand to his chest, so taken aback. “My, what a dire accusation. When have you ever known me to be dishonest, my love?” You threw him a single glance. He kept up his dramatic posture.
“Tell you what, you win the next game fair and square, I’ll show you how the trick works.”
“Deal, sweetheart!”, Astarion agreed happily, picked up the cards and started shuffling and dealing you each a fresh hand of cards.
Tonight no new chapter of my longer fic A Night of Song and Laughter (I honestly need a bit of a break, I lost too much sleep the last two weeks or so). But I still wanted to write something. Hope you enjoyed!
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icallhimjoey · 3 days
Note
supreme leader, would you ever write a sequel to ‘ground rules’ where our baby with joe is here and it’s just a cutesy dad!joe moment? (also wouldn’t be opposed to some smutty times as well bc i just can’t go past gotta-be-quiet-cause-the-baby’s-sleeping-but-fuck-i-want-you-right-now-new-parent-smut) heart you, as always!!
we're switching gears, everyone! sorry for the whiplash! Wordcount: 3K
---
Only Have Eyes For You
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(read Ground Rules here)
Joe has yet to stop staring at her.
It’s either eyes on her, or eyes on you, and even though you’re gorgeous and make his chest swell beyond what he thought his ribs could ever manage, looking at her is different.
New.
“Will you keep an eye on her?”
“Yea, of course I will. Go get some rest, please, baby.”
It’s been over an hour, and he still needs to raise a thumb up to wipe a tear from an inner corner about every thirty seconds. For several reasons, too.
It’s been five hours since you’ve given birth, and both sets of grandparents – grandparents, that sounds so fucking wild – have left evidence of their visit all over the room. There’s balloons, cards, flowers, bags with gifts in for you and for the newborn baby girl and Joe feels like they brought too much and too little. Were there for too long but left too soon. Should’ve been there right after instead of two hours later, but also maybe should’ve come to meet the baby tomorrow instead of today.
He wants to protect and hide this little girl from the world, but also needs everyone to see how gorgeous she is.
Five-hour old baby, fast asleep in her clear plastic bed that’s been placed right next to your hospital bed where you’re asleep even faster.   
He’s got no idea how much sleep he’s gotten over this weekend. Doesn’t care, either. Just knows that he’s staring at perfection no matter which way he turns, and that the small of his lower back aches because he’s been sitting in his chair weird, but this is the only way he can both touch you and see her little face.
Her perfect little face.
Joe’s got a hand around your ankle as you lie passed out in your hospital bed, finally in what seems to be a deeper sleep rather than just a quick nap, and he wishes you could stay like that for at least the next ten hours. He knows it doesn’t work like that with a newborn, and you’re obviously in a hospital which doesn’t help, but God, you deserve to sleep for a fucking lifetime.
Everything that surrounds you looks and sounds normal, so he guesses your blood pressure must be okay, but he keeps his ears pricked, just to be sure.
The birth was a long one. Almost everything you had tried preparing for hadn’t happened in the way you’d expected, which is what everyone kept telling you was going to happen, but it was still frustrating. It did however feel very fitting with how the two of you had even gotten together.
It was a good thing you managed to pull through most of the labour with humour.
Doctors and nurses had started making jokes of you becoming permanent residents when your dilation had halted at six centimeters for ages, and in return, you had started making jokes that they were going to have to start knocking before coming in, because you knew of a way to induce the labour that Joe would feel more comfortable about if he had some privacy.
“No, no, I do not–” Joe had immediately protested the first time you’d cracked the joke, and the lack of laughter coming from him plus your weird eyebrow wiggle had only made the nurses laugh louder.
“Sorry to inform you,” the doctor said in the middle of giving you another check. “But having sex will not cause labour to begin before your body is ready for delivery.”
“It won’t?” You’d acted all heartbroken. Made Joe mutter, “Jesus Christ!” under his breath, because, you were six centimeters dilated for fuck’s sake. Of course he wasn’t going to have sex with you.
“We’re still not in labour, are we?” the doctor said, insinuating that he thought you had probably tried it at home already.
“Ask him how many times we’ve had sex...” you’d challenged immediately, making Joe groan from the corner of the room where he was sort of pacing around, facing the wall more than the room, because there was another man with fingers deep inside of your vagina, talking to you about sex.
“Can we please focus on—” Joe started, equally as embarrassed as he was humoured by you.
“Once.” You answered your own question and gestured at your stomach. “One time! All it took!”
It had become a running joke between the two of you that Joe didn’t think you were going to involve so many other people in. Joe had gotten you pregnant and then hadn’t touched you since.
Not true. There had been plenty of touching. But you were super pregnant when you’d gotten together and it never felt right for Joe to insert parts of himself into parts of you that felt like they belonged to a whole different person for the time being.
Which actually made a lot of sense to you.
It was just unfortunate that hormones had made you super horny for half the pregnancy.
Hence why it had become a running joke.
One that really annoyed Joe. You were lucky that he loved to hear you laugh and to see you smile so much.
When the two of you were left alone again, Joe scolded you through a smile and pressed kisses to your temple, because you were being funny and entertaining even though you’d just gotten bad news. Again.
Joe lovingly touched your stomach, and pressed his cheek to yours as he looked down at it and said, “You’ve made it too nice in there. She doesn’t want to come out.”
“Remember when we were like, let’s do this as friends...” you joked, but Joe could hardly focus on your light tone of voice when you grabbed hold of his bicep with a strong grip.
“Idiots.” Joe commented, finding your hand and covering it with his.
“I think we would’ve been able to do it, but—”
“You think so?”
“Yea. I was very determined. But, this is nicer.” You smiled and made eye-contact with Joe. He was quick with a tissue, to dab at your wet eyes. He’d learnt to be ready for every and any emotion over the past few days; everything and anything could bring you to tears.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it.” Joe said, smiling too. “I was already sort of head over heels if I’m honest. You were determined for two, I think.”
That had made you burst into actual sobs.
The last hour of giving birth, you’d cried non-stop. A weird silent steady leaking of water from your eyes as you struggled through the delivery. Joe guessed it was the pain – had to be, because, what the fuck was even going on? How the fuck had nature decided that this was meant to be normal? But then finally, when soft baby cries filled the room, one of the nurses said, “You’re there, you’re done. Relax, we’ll take it from here.” He’d realized then that it they were tears of exhaustion over anything else.
You’d been going for hours, and then your blood pressure did something funny after the placenta got removed, so now they wanted to keep you for a bit, which was scary. But going home with a newborn sounded even scarier, if he was honest... so he wasn’t going to complain about how uncomfortable his chair was.
Or how tired he felt.
He’d been going for hours too, but his tired was different from your tired. He could feel it in his bones, sure, but it was easy to keep his eyes open. Easy to keep staring at her. Easy to do jobs whenever someone asked him to do one.
“Mum’s done. Now, dad, come here. Pay attention.” 
And he has not been able to stop paying attention yet. He’s listening to your breathing, paying close attention to the rhythm because you’re the priority after all that’s happened. Yet he can’t keep his eyes off of his baby.
There’s a baby next to your bed.
The one he watched you gave birth to.
Your baby.
His baby.
He thumbs another tear from the corner of his eye before it leaves a wet trail down his face and uses his sleeve to dry both his eyes as he pushes his nose into his elbow for a second, not letting go of your ankle.
Life is ridiculous.
He still feels emotional over seeing you scream and cry, in pain and all sweaty. You’d performed a miracle, but it was no fun to witness how difficult the whole thing was on you. Had he not already convinced you to be with him, he would have started that quest today and would’ve likely never stopped.
When he blinks his eyes back into focus, it’s to you stirring in the white sheets of your hospital bed.
He freezes.
Maybe if he holds his breath and doesn’t make a single noise, you won’t wake up. He’s not sure how easy it’ll be to fall back asleep if you pull from your unconscious state completely. He wasn’t there when it happened – had gotten hauled off to help wash and dress his baby (the tiniest clothes he’d ever seen still too big on her, he was pouring tears as he tried to put the socks on and hated how you weren’t there to see it) – but he was informed that you lost a lot of blood and needed a lot of stitching.
After going through all of that, you’d needed stitching.
Your baby had been taken to get cleaned up, and you’d told Joe to go with her. To watch her. To stay with her and to not lose her out of his sight.
He’d listened.
Knew better than to tell you no.
But then you were left on your own, and you’d needed stitching.
You can’t move without wincing now, and Joe could probably jog home if he really wanted to. How is that fair?
Joe holds his breath, and watches you stretch your spine in your sleep before you relax again.
But then suddenly, your slow movements turn jumpy as you jolt awake with a gasp. It makes Joe jump almost just as much, and he narrowly avoids your knee to his face.
He watches you wince in pain, clearly uncomfortable, but then you immediately sink back into the mattress when your eyes find the clear plastic baby bed that holds your child, and you release a relieved breath.
“My God,” Joe whispers, already humoured by what just happened. “She’s still here, calm down.”
“Sorry,” you croak, curling a hand around the edge of the hard plastic and Joe watches your knuckles go white.
“You okay?” Joe’s already up on his feet, hand on your face to wipe your hair back.
With your eyes still closed and head slumped to the side, you softly answer, “Hmm. My vagina hurts.”
“Yea, of course.” Joe nods, unable to look at you without all the sympathy in the world displayed on his forehead. “Do you need anything for the pain?”
“I need to pee, but I don’t want to. It’s already burning.”
“I’ll go get someone.”
“Please.”
Joe gets a nurse in, and he helps you get out of the bed before you’re helped over to the toilet. Not before you tell Joe to watch her. Watch the baby.
“I’ll keep an eye,” Joe says, because he’s already found it’s his new favourite thing to do. To stare at her. “Go pee.”
The door to the bathroom is left open, and Joe listens to your conversation as he does as he’s told.
It’s a lot of, “Careful, mum. Careful. Slow movements.” coming from her, and a lot of hissing in between your teeth from you. A lot of, “Is this normal?” questions coming from you, and a lot of “If you feel this, it’s probably for this reason, which is totally normal.” answers from the nurse.
Joe gets the room and the fresh new little person all to himself for a second, and he leans all the way over your bed, feet still on the floor, his head resting in both hands as he slowly blinks at what you’ve created together.
He can’t get over how you’ve made this.
Two people have just gone and accidentally made a whole new person... it’s legitimately insane, Joe thinks.
The peeing takes longer than Joe thought it would take. He doesn’t blame you for taking your time, but he hopes that you figure out how to do it without being in pain or needing any help before you get to go home.
Joe hears a shocked gasp coming from you before you softly ask, “That’s a lot of blood. Is that a lot of blood?” followed by a toilet flushing and a reassuring, “Absolutely totally normal. Don’t worry.”
Baby is still asleep. Soundly and so peacefully, small tiny nose doing a perfect job at breathing, Joe’s already so proud of her it’s stupid.
“Well done, mum! First bathroom visit!” the nurse claps her hands together and laughs when you give a sarcastic yay in faux celebration.
You’re miserable, but Joe can hear your smile through everything and it makes his heart swell even more with pride. For you. For urinating. He’s proud because you peed, what the hell.
He shares his first secret smile with his daughter. “Mummy peed!”
You get helped back into your underwear and joggers, and Joe lets his view distract him enough that he almost doesn’t hear what you ask just before you step back into the room.
“Six weeks before sex, right?”
You’re joking, but Joe hears the serious confusion when the nurse asks, “Oh, have you not been talked through—”
“We have. Don’t listen to her.” Joe interrupts, and when he looks over his shoulder to see you shuffle back over to the bed, he catches the cheeky smile you’re trying to hide.
Before he can say anything else about how he’ll have you wait twelve weeks if you keep bringing it up, he catches your eyes flash in pain, just from your small shuffling steps, and he’s up in an instant. Pushes himself from your bed and turns to place both hands under your arms to make sure you’re safe and supported.
You hold onto him like a lifeline and pause in place for a moment.
God, the labour is done. Can you have a single second without any uncomfortable sharp pulling down there? Jesus.
You don’t see how Joe and the nurse share a look over your shoulder. The nurse is smiling at him, and Joe gives her a tired shake of his head as he rolls his eyes, quietly communicating that the girl he’s chosen to have a baby with is an actual menace.
“Maybe eight weeks?” Joe carefully jokes, hoping it’ll get you to laugh and forget about how sore you’re feeling for a second. Instead you just sigh and go, “Yea, maybe.”
You’re helped back into bed by four hands, shuffle slowly into position and leave enough room for Joe to join you.
You’re sore and tired and in a weird emotional state, and it’s simply much nicer to be all of those things squeezed tightly up against him. Joe knows to curl into you with his whole body and lays an arm over your pillow for you to place your head on. It gives the both of you the perfect view of your baby.
Your baby.
You feel a flash of want for her. To have her in your arms. Against your chest. To hold and hug and keep her close. But she’s asleep and you’re not quite sure what to do when she wakes up. What if she cries and you can’t get her to stop? This is safer.
You can both just watch her.
“I’ll be back in thirty minutes,” the nurse says after checking a file, and you ask, “To help me feed her?”
The nurse smiles, says, “Yea sure, that too.” and leaves.
You make a funny face, confused, and look at Joe like you think she was being rude.
“To check on you.” Joe softly says, and your face drops immediately.
“Oh. Yea. But I feel fine, now.” your focus is barely on yourself. There’s this whole other brand new human to be worried about.
“Hmm. Okay. Think you can sneak a little more sleep before she’s back?”
“Probably not.” you say, but Joe sees how you close your eyes anyway. Feels how you carefully move your hips back a little to feel more of Joe against your body. Feels how you grab onto his arm and firmly press it into your stomach that’s still big and round, but all soft and squishy now.
“Can you try?” Joe whispers, lips touching the shell of your ear.
“Will you watch her?” you’re already sinking away. Joe’s body heat is pulling you under quicker than he’d anticipated.
“Of course I will,” Joe says, but lies, and watches you for a moment instead. You’re his priority. Thinks it’s silly how you wouldn’t accept that if he told you. “I’ll watch her.” he confirms, not lying then, because he’s talking to his daughter as he says it.
Joe watches you until he feels you drop of the deep end. Feels you relax in a way he’s not felt you relax in ages.
After a while Joe repeats, “I’ll watch her.” in a barely-there whisper before he places a barely-there kiss against your cheek as you sleep.
His gaze moves back to the small baby girl in the room, and Joe’s eyes immediately well up again.
It’s stupid how even just the sight of her feels new and unexpected again. Like he’s seeing her for the first time once more.
And he simply finds that, once again, it’s so easy to stare.
Finds he can’t stop staring.
“Yea, I’ll keep an eye,” Joe whispers to himself. Thumbs another tear from his inner corner before it can run down his face and bother you.
“I’ll keep an eye.”
---
The Taglisted
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thurio-edau · 4 months
Text
"It was her," Aiden yelled out, trying to get them to understand him. He couldn't get that bloody image of Ashlyn out of his mind. "I swear I saw her this time!"
"Cut it out! This is the fifth time you thought something you've seen is Ashlyn!" And of course Tyler didn't understand him. He never understood.
Aiden was getting mad. He lost control of his emotions without the smiling mask he always wore. "Are you calling me insane!? I know what I saw! I'm not delusional like your m--"
His eyes widened as he realized what he said, already too late. These were his friends, his found family, looking at him as if he was a monster.
"...I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."
Tyler didn't accept the apology though. He pulled Taylor from the arm and left, he couldn't stand Aiden especially lately. It was his fault. He always messed stuff up. He messed it up again.
"Damn it!" Ashlyn yelled to herself in her mind, waking up in the boring facility room yet again. She was so close to getting there... But she failed.
All she could do was talk inside her mind. Not even out loud, she couldn't let Alex and whoever else was there suspect anything. Now she needed an excuse to have a first aid kit in her room. She wasn't sure if she could walk outside and search for anything in the phantom dimension from how heavily injured she was. Yeah, she had Alex's card thanks to a trick she did, but she didn't have anything in real life except this room.
The walls were plain white. Lifeless and tired, just like her. She missed the braids her mom did each morning. She missed her father's awful jokes. She missed the graveyard, she missed her friends.
She missed that one smile.
The pain in her back and arms were obvious to her. Phantom claws were sharp for sure, she bled terribly in the phantom dimension. And Ashlyn woke up in the facility room yet again... All the distance she went was trashed.
They told her it was a fungus. That her parents knew she was here. That her friends knew she was here. That they were okay with it. They were okay with it. They were okay with her being kept away. They were okay with not getting to see her. They were okay with it.
Tch. Such bullshit. She didn't believe it, at all. It ate away at her, she didn't know how Tyler was right now. How Aiden was right now. A tree and a ceiling. Maybe they were fine. Tyler was alright. Aiden woke up okay. She still felt the way she clung to him once they woke up.
She had to get back. It was so close, why not get closer? One hour was the preparation... If she prepared the night before, she'd have six hours on the road. Right. She could do this. She was Ashlyn Banner, of course she could do it... Well, she needed to take care of her scars first because she could pass out. Every single night was important now, she was practically only alive for 7 hours in the phantom dimension. She felt dead in real life, 24 hours of doing nothing.
"I need to hurt myself somehow... So that I can have some kind of bandaging." Ashlyn thought.
But how? She didn't have a knife to injure herself with. And no way they'd just bring her one upon request. And trying anything drastic was too risky. Injuring her foot or legs were risky too... She needed that to get to her friends. But she definitely needed the bandaging, because her scars were too intense from the phantom claws.
Putting together a plan wasn't as hard as she thought.
im okay guys dont worry i wrote this out of free will yes sorry it sucks it was the free will
its just buildup rn honestly i literally didnt expect to make this an actual fic but here we go i guess
smoke signals part 2 . part 1 here
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makeste · 9 months
Text
BnHA Chapter 410: Kacchan Fights a Baby
Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was born and then he grew up and murdered the Demon Lord.
Today on BnHA: Kacchan fights a baby. Tomura and Deku finally remember that they were supposed to have been fighting too this entire time, and get on with that once again. Tomura is all, “[literally just reaches out and grabs Deku’s face because Deku’s main character powers suddenly abandoned him in a fit of confusion].” Deku is all, “[chops off Tomura’s fingers which is somehow not even in the top twenty of violent things that have happened in this series in just the last five chapters].” Tomura is all “joke’s on you I still got your quirk :D” and fuck me he actually stole Danger Sense, what the fuck.
logically I knew AFO still had to be alive somehow because he’s too big of a villain to go out that easily without a proper sendoff. but deep in my heart, I’m still secretly disappointed
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it just isn’t fair, lol. this guy has died more times than Rasputin and he’s still out here scheming his schemey schemes. when oh when will it end
sir you did not just say you had yet ANOTHER unused trump card up your sleeve??
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(ETA: the translation isn’t fully clear here, but I think the trump card he’s referring to is the whole “I’ll just go back inside him and join the part of me that was already in there and we’ll take over Tomura’s body again together” plan that he was trying to pull off. I think. if not though, that’s certainly something worth speculating about.)
well as always the psychology in this series is unironically fascinating! he just wants acknowledgement at the end of the day, huh. just wants some love and attention. too bad he was born in a rat-infested hellscape and learned all the wrong lessons and turned into a crazed omnipotent murderlad
also he really did turn back into a baby sdfsdlkjfl oh no. I need to see Katsuki’s reaction to this immediately
oh my lord
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(●__●)
lmao this is so incredibly fucked up
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ngl though, this is karma at its finest. he tortured and killed so many people trying to earn everyone’s fear and awe and reverence, only to literally blip out of existence at the end with absolutely nothing to show for it
everyone please enjoy this series of panels of a deeply vexed Bakugou Katsuki picking a fight with this slowly melting evil baby
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“you think I care that you’re a baby now. you think I won’t fight a fuckin’ baby. let’s do this you little punk”
also I’m sorry but it’s absolutely ridiculous that the gigantic chest wound Tomura inflicted on him got sewed up so neatly lol. AFO’s not the only one who stubbornly refuses to die no matter what
...
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just once, it would be nice if Horikoshi didn’t immediately shred my plot nitpicks to pieces mere seconds after I write them
LMAO
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BABY AFO DON’T CARE. BABY AFO WILL THROW HANDS WITH ANYONE \(`0´)/
KACCHAN MY BELOVED FAVE OF ALL TIME, ARE YOU REALLY ABOUT TO LOSE TO A LITERAL FUCKING INFANT
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WHAT HAPPENED TO “PERFECT VICTORY” LMAO. MOVING THE GOALPOSTS EVEN AS HIS CONSCIOUSNESS FADES. “EH, CLOSE ENOUGH”
-- OH FOR THE LOVE OF --
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me: wow it sure is uncharacteristic of Katsuki to just pass out before he properly wraps up this battle
Horikoshi: oh yeah good point, sure would be a shame if someone... IMMEDIATELY ADDRESSED THAT CONCERN ON THE VERY NEXT PAGE
me: ఠ_ఠ
ldskjflaksdjfkds
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fdsfsdkf. “SORRY ABOUT THAT, FOR A MOMENT THERE I ALMOST FORGOT TO BEND THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE TO MY WILL”
holy fucking shit. his body was all “um, just a quick reminder that you’re HORRIBLY WOUNDED and have lost like ten gallons of blood and all of your cells are about to call an emergency meeting to shut this thing down before you get us all killed.” and he was all “WHAT WAS THAT?!” and his body was all “oh my GOD, FUCK, OKAY just forget we said anything”
and meanwhile Baby AFO is just lying there all “(◉⌓◉)”
this six-month-old child is truly and sincerely still trying to kill Kacchan while screeching death threats in high-pitched baby talk
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this actually would have killed him too, if he’d succeeded in passing out. all that just to be punk’d by a damn baby
you are actually shitting me right now
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at this point I’m genuinely not sure which of them has the more powerful angry toddler energy
oh no ffuffkdsfk
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meeeeelting. meeeeeeltiiiiiing!!! oh what a world what a world
jesus Horikoshi I am genuinely speechless
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... welp
WAIT NO WAY, REALLY?!?!
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?!?!?! WAS IT ACTUALLY THAT SIMPLE THIS WHOLE TIME
-- lkjf
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three times. three times in the same fucking chapter. I give up. apparently I’ll literally believe anything this man says. does it feel good, Horikoshi. preying on your readers’ hopeful naivete
yeefuckinghaw lmao
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GOOD JOB KACCHAN YOU DEFEATED THE EVIL BABY
awwwww
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I actually had a theory about this! well more of a wishlist item, really. I can’t remember if I’ve actually posted about it yet or not. but it’s like. you know how Deku and Kacchan are always being really dramatic about holding hands? wanting to hold hands; not wanting to hold hands; being afraid to hold hands; holding hands via proxy, etc. etc.?
and you know how both Endeavor and All Might have each done their own version of the victory pose that Kacchan is referring to here? with each one using a different hand?
so you see, I was thinking that it might be nice. might be a little poetic and all that. if at the end of the fight, Deku and Kacchan did, in fact, hold hands. and then did the victory pose together. and it became like their iconic hero moment. them standing there together. having accomplished their goal and defeated TomurAFO through teamwork. realizing their shared childhood dream. and sharing that moment of triumph with each other and with the world, ushering in a new era of heroes
anyway yeah. I was thinking that might be a pretty good ending. but it looks like Kacchan maybe really is about to pass out here now, lol, so maybe not? anyways time to finally scroll down
-- okay I literally said awww again out loud
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what a fucking nerd. I have never felt more fondness for a character in my life
every damn person watching this on the news better have leaped to their feet and started applauding, goddammit. those motherfuckers better be CHANTING HIS FUCKING NAME. all those nagging reporters better be bombarding his phone with calls. those fuckers who deleted his footage from the Shouto interview better be shamelessly leaving him dozens of voicemails acting like none of that ever happened and presumptuously asking when he can free some time in his schedule to visit their studio again. all the heroes who haven’t hugged him yet better be lining the fuck up. that one guy from the post-kidnapping press conference in chapter 86 better be writing a fifty page letter of apology!!
oh hey it’s a random pre-battle flashback mysteriously taking place in Troy “a few days before the battle” even though I thought they only moved into that place the night before the fight
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I love how Katsuki immediately narrows his eyes (I assume. we can’t see for sure but that’s the vibe I get) at Jeanist and has to resist the urge to call the police on him for that pun
so Hadou’s wondering what Jeanist is talking about because they already evacuated the civilians, so what else are they trying to protect. and Edgeshot is all, “well obviously we’ve gotta protect everyone’s future,” which is a nice... rearshadowing?? for him saving Katsuki’s life later on lol
and now Mirko is all “get to the fucking point already.” which, same
so Jeanist says that Tomura is an even bigger problem than AFO, because at least AFO doesn’t want to murder everyone on the entire planet. and he concludes with “he’ll probably try to touch the ground and use his quirk.” which is a conclusion that I have to say wasn’t really worth two pages of flashback buildup for, considering that we all figured that out years ago
I’m guessing this is all just some sort of awkward transition back to Deku’s fight now lol
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and now we’re getting two pages of exposition on how long it would theoretically take Tomura’s Decay to spread throughout the city, and then the entire country, yikes
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damn. talk about stakes
and now finally back to Deku!!
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shoutout to everyone who correctly predicted that Deku was once again talking out of his ass when it came to being out of Gearshifts. we all knew. unlimited supply
wow Tomura way to throw AFO under the bus
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the way I recall it, AFO wasn’t the one who failed to kill him back then lol. but go ahead and talk your shit king
DEKU WHAT ARE YOU DOING
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holy shit?!?!
like my first thought was “well last time he did this he just tried to steal OFA rather than Decay him, so he’ll probably try that again and it’ll be fine.” only to remember that the AFO inside Tomura is currently permanently(?) out to lunch, and Tomura himself doesn’t give two figs about stealing OFA. so, uhhhh >_>
(ETA: nevermind.)
but then this happened
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Deku what the actual fuck
OH MY GOD??!?!
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HOLY SHIT
okay. okay, fuck. lemme gather up my thoughts, and then we’ll wrap this up
they’ll never admit it, but you know the other OFA Vestiges secretly resented Shino a tiny bit for being the only one of them to not be gruesomely murdered. bet they all feel guilty for thinking that now
Shino and Banjou also seemed to have this cute little pseudo-rivalry thing going on, so I really feel bad for Banjou now. :/ he looks so horrified in that bottom right panel
gotta admit, I did not see this coming in the slightest. OFA has been this immutable “I do what I want!” quirk for so long that I never thought Tomura or AFO would actually succeed in stealing it, even partially. that shook me to my core
BUT, it’s also really exciting to me because it’s going to make this battle much more interesting if Deku can’t use his get out of jail free card. shit just got way more real and I’m here for it
lastly, so! let me tell you guys my prediction. I still can’t see Tomura being the final villain lol. I just can’t. it feels too anticlimactic. if I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and I’ve certainly botched MANY predictions in the past, but I have not yet learned my lesson from any of it and I will not apologize lol
so here’s what I think. Deku and Tomura battle it out for the next chapter or two, and Tomura snatches up more of Deku’s quirks one by one. we see all of the Vestiges disappearing and the mood gets more and more desperate. eventually we’re down to just Kudou and Yoichi. Deku is panicking, but for some reason Kudou seems even MORE panicked
Kudou/Gearshift eventually gets stolen too, and it looks like this might finally be it for Deku (I have no idea how he’d stop Tomura from Decaying the ground once Blackwhip gets stolen, btw, but maybe Katsuki or someone else interferes in desperation towards the end). but just when it looks like Tomura is finally going to take the last piece of OFA, Deku’s vibes suddenly do a 180, stopping Tomura in his tracks
cut to the OFA Moon Gorgeous Meditation Realm, where Deku and Yoichi are staring at the door -- yes, that door -- in shock. because it’s finally been opened (now that the other Vestiges are no longer there to keep it at bay). and just like that, enter AFO, for the THIRD FUCKING TIME :D :D
tl;dr, HERE’S HOW HORCRUX!DEKU CAN STILL HAPPEN!!! wait where are you all going. wait come back
anyway so wow that was a really bizarre chapter that I truly thoroughly enjoyed, which should probably be a bit concerning. on to the next two week break! (for anyone who’s not aware, Shounen Jump will be on break next week, so yeah.) I’m on chapter 391 now. so close but still so far. the end of the year has gone by too damn fast tbh
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xdacted · 11 months
Text
The art of sibling hood
Paring: sister!Reader & Charles Leclerc
Warnings: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort
Word Count: 3,815
Status: Complete
***Request made by reader***
Summer break offers us a sliver of peace. 
No teams are calling, no coaches screaming, no clients to take care of - there is nothing but family. For a few weeks out of the year, all we have is each other. I can’t ask for anything better. 
We all gather at our mother’s house, hiding away there with her. It’s nice, to all be under the same roof again, we haven’t been since Lorenzo first moved out. It only worsened when I decided to take my training to France. 16 years of living under one roof was gone in an instant. We had lived together our entire lives until that point. 
It was like losing a piece of myself. 
But then, after the sadness rolled away, I was filled with so much joy. To know that both Charles and Arthur were chasing their dream, to see them every weekend battling it out on the track. Though my mother refused to watch, I always did. 
But there is always more I want to know, more I want to see. I can’t help myself from asking questions. The countries they see, the people they meet - it’s a world I’ll never know. I almost got involved, my father put me in karting as a child, but it was never my passion. Not the way it was with Arthur and Charles. I found my calling in school. 
At six, I was sitting among my classmates in the gymnasium, watching as our instructor introduced the sport of fencing. He was trying to start a club, with a school as small as ours, it wasn’t very likely to happen. 
He brandished the swords, explaining the rules. My friend, Anies, had fallen asleep on my shoulder, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I was transfixed, hooked. That day, I ran home, with the club papers in my hand and begged my parents.
At first, Papa was hesitant, telling me that this sport was a fighting spot - I wasn’t a ‘fighting girl’. But I pleaded, hooking my arms around his neck and staring up at him. This was my dream. Fencing was racing to me. Fencing was everything. 
What I didn’t understand was that fencing was also incredibly expensive. With two children karting and one in fencing, I remember the night I caught Mum and Papa talking it over, they couldn’t afford it. 
I was lucky enough to be given a scholarship by a fencing club, I would have the funding to chase my dream. Arthur, however, was not so lucky. I remember how he cried, screaming and howling into his pillow. He mourned the loss of his sport, but he was never angry. Just sad. 
I shake off the memories when Charles calls my name. 
“What?”
He looks at me, staring at me from his seat on the floor, arms holding his knees close to him. He and Arthur are playing some card game they explained more than once - but I have never cared to learn. Arthur glares at the cards below him, flipping them over in his hand.
He laughs, “I asked how training was going?”
“Good,” I burrow further into the couch, pulling a blanket across my shoulders, “When I go back, I have a tournament in Italy.”
“Well,” Arthur huffs, still fixed on the game, “You’re already a World Champion - Ugh! Charles, you’re cheating! This is why I hate playing with you!”
Charles throws his hands up, turning to Arthur with an indignant expression, “I am not a cheater. I am a man of honor, you just suck.”
With a curse, Arthur throws his cards down. 
He stands, “You’re a cheat and you know it.”
“You just don’t know how to lose.”
Arthur throws himself beside me, moving the pillows so he can lean against them, crossing his arms in front of him. I don’t have to hide my laughter, I let it slip from me. The laughter is easy, the tension from yesterday gone. Charles had still been insistent on apologizing, even when I told him to just drop it. 
My brother is one of the kindest people in the world. 
“What about you?” I dare to ask, offering Arthur some of my blanket, “How’s Ferrari treating you?”
I don’t need to ask because I already know. Even from across the world, every Sunday, I watch him. Every Sunday, I watch my brother get into that car and put his life on the line. And every Sunday I watch Ferrari screw him over. My teammates were getting far too tired of my outbursts. 
Charles clears his throat, looking down at the cards scattered across the floor. He sweeps them together, shuffling them, “Fine.”
“Fine?”
I’m stepping on thin ice. My brothers like to assume that when it came to racing they knew everything, but I had grown up around this. My father was a racer and now my brothers were racers - it was in my blood. I had just chosen not to pursue it. 
“Yes, fine.” He pushes himself up, standing and walking to the edge of the couch. 
“If you say so, brother,” Charles opens his mouth to speak, but the sound of the doorbell cuts him off. 
He practically leaps over the couches, nearly tripping over the carpet, to throw the door open. My mother hardly has time to scold him as she steps inside her room because cheery voices are ringing out through the house. 
“Hello!”
Lorenzo comes bounding from upstairs and Arthur rolls off the couch, kicking the blanket away from him. The three women who step inside the house bring the light of the shining sun with them. 
“Girls!” I cry, it has been so long since I’ve last seen them. 
Carla sees me first, throwing her hands in the air. She pushes past Arthur to sweep me into a hug. The position is awkward, as her body curves over the couch and I attempt to reach up to her, but I can feel her laughter vibrate within her chest. 
“Did you get in today?” Her eyes are shining and the glasses perched atop her head threaten to fall, “Why didn’t you text me?”
“I wanted to surprise you, of course!” When we pull away, Charlotte and Alexandria are right beside us. 
“We need to get breakfast while you’re here,” Charlotte says, pressing her hands together. It isn’t so much a request as it is a plan in motion. 
I just nod along. I look around, my brother’s waiting behind them with crossed arms and a less-than-pleased expression. 
“What?”
“They’re supposed to be here to see us.”
“No,” Charlotte says, wrapping her arms around me, “We’re here for her and of course - Pascale.”
“Hello, dear,” Mum says, Carla placing welcoming kisses on her cheeks. 
I turn to my left, Alex having taken a seat in the open space that Arthur left. 
“Hey,” I whisper, pulling her close. 
“Hi,” She whispers back. 
There’s something different. I can tell when she hugs me, pressing a kiss on my cheek. When we pull away, there’s a glow to her skin and a twinkle in her eyes. 
“Is there -?” 
Charles is draped across her in a second, gentle hands on her shoulders, “She is my girlfriend. Please, do not be selfish.”
Alex only rolls her eyes and I can’t help but follow. 
What a drama queen. 
__________
I watch Charles and Alex as Mum bustles around the kitchen. It’s little, but something is different. I can feel it. Something about the way Charles has an arm curled around her waist or the way she clings to his arm. They keep eyeing the rest of us, Alex turning around to whisper in his ear. 
Hm. How strange. 
Alex was quite shy, this much became evident when I first met her, but she was by no means afraid of the family. Just a few weeks earlier she had come to visit me in France, we spent the day together and had been texting each other constantly. 
What could it be?
I met her eyes and she sharply turned away from me. 
A secret then. 
Papa liked to say that I inherited Mum’s gift for reading people, especially my brothers. Even when we’re separated by seas, I know when something’s bothering them. I know when something is wrong. 
But this - this was different. 
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. 
But, my mind can help but wonder, what if - no. Could it be?
“Arthur.”
He hardly looks up from his phone, “Hm?”
“Wanna make a bet?”
“What kind of bet?” He asks, still scrolling. 
I lean in closer, “I think Alex is pregnant.”
Arthur nearly drops his phone. He whips his head over to look at me, mouth agape, “What?!”
“Sh!” I smack his arm, he is going to give us away, “You’re so loud…”
“Why do you think she’s pregnant?” He whisper-shouts, “That’s crazy. Charles would’ve told us.”
“Maybe he’s going to tell us tonight,” I shrug, pulling away from him. 
“Are you in or out?” I crossed my legs, my gut feelings were always strong. I’d guessed many things over the years and felt a change within the people around me before they told me. I’d known Charles got signed to Ferrari before he told us, or that Arthur was going to be moved to F2, or that Lorenzo had met someone new - all of these things, I’d felt. All of these things I guessed. 
Maybe I was a bit psychic. 
“You’re on,” He stuck his hand out, “€10?”
I scoffed, “That’s nothing - €100.”
“You could be wrong.”
“I could be right,” I looked down at his waiting hand. 
“€50?”
I slapped my hand in his, “€50 it is!”
“You’re going down,” He whispered, squeezing my hand. I kick at his shin.
“Ow!”
“That’s what you get, dumbass.”
“LANGUAGE!”
__________
Dinner is an easy affair. The time ticks by slowly, but none of us mind. Warm and laughter fill the house, everyone staying at the table after the food has long been eaten. Stories are tossed around and jokes float about, it's peaceful. 
A peace that’s so very addicting. 
Here, I can forget that I have to leave in only a few days. I can tell that the boys forget too, throwing themselves over Mum and the table. Arthur laughs so hard that he snorts and Lorenzo’s jokes have Charles reduced to tears - it’s all so nostalgic. 
As we eat, I can see Charles and Alex glance at each other, watching as he scoops her hand in his. She whispers something in his ear and he nods. 
Before I know it, they are both standing. 
“I,” He clears his throat, “I have something to say - well, we do, actually...”
“Well,” Alex begins, a bright smile pulling over her face, “Charles and I are expecting a - a child.”
The table erupts into cheers and exclamations. Mum drops her head into her hands, and before we can rush over, she looks up with tears in her eyes and a dazzling smile on her lips. We stand to offer them hugs and kisses, pats, and words of encouragement. 
“I told you!” I cry. 
Arthur lets out a loud groan, pushing his face into his hands, “Why?”
Confusion is written across their face and I can only laugh
I hold out a waiting hand.
With another groan and a roll of his eyes, he shoves his hand into his pockets, pulling out the €50 I’m owed. The bill is crunched and he drops it into my palm with little fanfare. 
“This is so unfair,” Arthur throws his arms around my shoulders, “How could you have possibly known?”
“I just do,” I shrug, looking up at him with a smile, “I’m just that good.”
“I knew it,” Carla giggles, “You are a psychic.”
I lock eyes with Mum over the table, she flashes me a smile.
“Of course,” I say, “I learned from the very best.”
__________
The ocean calls our name, the lull of the tides and the crashing of the waves. Such a beautiful song and we can do nothing but dance to it. With the sun shining down on our backs, we pile into Charles’s boat, clinging to the railing as we push away from the dock. The salt of the air tangles in my hair, and gentle winds give us a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, the sea was calm. What more could we ever ask for?
We spend the day lounging about the boat, pushing and shoving each other in the water. I manage to convince Charles to let me take the smaller boat out for a spin, with Carla clinging to the seats, and Charolette cheering us on from the deck above. I can’t help but dissolve into laughter at his face, twisted with worry. 
The water is cool against our heated skin, it invites us in for more. The longer we stay, the more we forget about the world that surrounds us. It is nearly enough to make me forget about my flight in only a few days. I will have to leave and this will all become a memory. 
But what a beautiful memory it will be. 
I can’t dwell on my thoughts, because Charlotte demands that we all jump. There is little fanfare for Charles and Lorenzo as they practically wrestle to the sea below. Arthur grips my hand as we jump, throwing ourselves into the Moncao air, caught by the arms of the sea. 
It is perfect. It is home. 
When the sun begins to dip in the sky, my mother draws herself up from the couch and claims that dinner will not ready itself. The others agree and begin to shuffle off but Carla and I are the last to get back from the boat. Though Charles has always held the title of ‘captain’, I have always maintained that the sea is but a little requirement for boating. We stayed behind to just lounge about in the sun, only coming back to the house when she got a frantic call from Arthur, telling her to come back. 
“What’s…” The words die in our throats when we see Alex huddled in the corner, sobbing into her hands. Charlotte stands over her, rubbing a reassuring hand over her back, whispering something into her ear. 
Before we can say another word, Arthur and Lorenzo interrupt us. He pulls us into a corner of the house, wiping his hands on his shorts. His eyes dart around the room, lip caught between his teeth. 
“What happened?” Carla demands. 
“It - it was the press,” Arthur manages, “They got pictures from earlier, on the boat.”
I need to hear little else. I dig my phone from my bag.
Finding the photo doesn’t take much work. It’s there as soon as I open Twitter, Alexandria and Charles standing on the balcony of the boat. Her hands on her stomach, nothing there to show - not yet - but the implication is enough for the media to run with. 
I can hardly breathe. 
Anger coils tight within me. 
Fucking vultures. 
Carla gasps from beside me, pressing a hand to her mouth. The headlines make my stomach turn. Far too atrocious to look at, I shove my phone back into my bag. Carla is quick to slip from beside me, rushing over to the couch, and dropping to her knees beside Alex. 
Haven’t they gone through enough? Have people not thrown Alex into the fire already? Had they not already ripped her apart? I remember the articles and the tweets when their relationship went public, the look of sadness on her face. People hated her simply because she loved Charles. How they got together and why they got together was no one’s business but their own. 
“Where -” I cut myself off, dropping my voice lower, “Where’s Charles?”
For a moment, Lorenzo doesn’t answer me, phone in hand. I can’t tell who’s calling, but the grave look on his face is all I need to know. He shakes his head, dragging a hand through his hair. 
“He’s outside,” He whispers, sparing a look over at Alex, “He stormed out and won’t come back in.”
“Of course! He’s upset!” I hiss, this was private. This was personal. The media has taken that away from him. 
Lorenzo holds his hands up, “I’m not saying he shouldn’t be - I’m not saying that I’m not,” He sighs, “But this is more - this is more than just…”
He looks away, rubbing a hand over his face, “He can’t run from this now.” 
I turn away from Lorenzo and the tears begin to gather in my eyes before I can gather the courage to force them back. I wrap my arms around myself, afraid that I might throw something across the room. 
This wasn’t right. 
Summer is our time. 
There is never any anger, never any sadness. That’s the world that waits beyond the walls of our home, that is the world we leave behind. We shut it all out because summer break is just us. I don’t realize that I’ve begun to dig my fingers into the flesh of my arm until Arthur yanks my hands away. 
He doesn’t say anything, just squeezing my hands in his. I can’t look at him, but I feel his gaze on me. When he releases me, my hands drop back down to my sides. I suck in a large gulp of air, trying to calm the pounding of my heartbeat. 
Before I can make my way to Alex, Charlotte stops me. She holds her hand up, a sad smile on her face. 
‘We’ve got it,’ She mouths, ‘Go.’
Her eyes flicker to the terrace, doors closed tightly. I can see, in the shadows of the darkness, Charles. 
“I’ll be back,” I whisper, reaching out to squeeze Arthur’s shoulder before I walk towards the doors. 
I gently push them open, waiting for Charles to scream out that he wasn’t privacy, that he needs space, but he never does
I step through. 
Charles stands out on the balcony, hands clutching onto the terrace railing. He stares into the swaying trees of our backyard, the melting sun casting a glow around the shadow of the house. Though the wind blows, there is no twinkle of windchimes. There is no echo of laughter or memory of youth, there is nothing. The light from the entry room spills across his back, but he doesn’t turn. 
The silence is thick, sitting heavily atop the both of us. With his back turned to me, I can’t see his face. There’s a selfish part of me that never wants to. I never want to see the pain and anger on my brother’s face. I never want to watch his heart fall apart before me. He is my family, an extension of myself. 
“Why can’t they just leave us alone?” 
His voice is hardly above a whisper, nearly consumed by the distant sounds of the city, but I hear. It cuts through the silence, piercing it with ease. There is sadness in his voice and I can feel the tears burn once more. His shoulders slump forward, a heavy sigh leaving his lips. For a movement, I fear that he might collapse. 
I take a tentative step forward. 
My brother is many things. Charles is competitive and rash, he is hard-working and self-deprecating. But he is also kind and forgiving, with a smile like the sun and a laugh like the sea. He is good. Our Papa used to say that Lorenzo and I got all the anger and bite, as it never seemed that Charles could hate, to be spiteful. 
Always the first to take the blame, always the first to vouch, always the first to arrive, always the last to go. 
My brother is good. 
And the world is cruel. 
“Charles,” I whisper, he doesn’t turn.
I reach for him, my fingertips barely grazing the fabric of his shirt, “Charles.”
He finally turns, biting his lip, tears in his eyes. The words die in my throat. There is nothing I can say to fix his pain, nothing I can do to take his unhappiness away. It kills me. They may be my older brothers, but I have always been fiercely protective of them. To hurt them was to hurt me - and to hurt them was unforgivable. 
And Charles. 
Charles, who flew through the night to catch my competitions. Charles, who cheered me on, even if he knew nothing about fencing. Charles, who always had an extra Paddock Pass for me. Charles, who always let me have his last cookie or pastry. Charles, who held me when I wailed for weeks after Papa’s passing. Charles put the money he earned in Formula 1 into getting Arthur back into carting. Charles, who always called to scream ‘Happy Birthday’ in my ear. 
That Charles. 
My brother Charles, would forgive. He will see it as a mistake, he will blame himself. In only a few hours, he will make a statement and tell the truth - because that’s just who he is. 
I throw my arms open and catch him as he falls into them. 
He doesn’t cry, not at first, just clinging onto me. But then, the moment that Alex’s cries drift onto the open terrace, he begins to weep. He sobbed into my shoulder, pressing his wet face into the fabric of my shirt. He clutches my hand, and I can do nothing but hold him. 
I hold him and let him fall apart. 
From over Charle’s shoulder, I see Arthur peeking out at us. He wrings his hands, twisting his fingers around. He can’t sit still, pacing around the room, brushing Carla away when she tries to calm him. 
I gesture for him to come and he does. 
Before I can say a word, he’s wrapping his arms around Charles, burying his face into his back. 
“We’ll fix this,” He mumbles, “I - I don’t know how, but we will.”
Charles doesn’t speak, he just searches for Arthur’s hand blindly in the pile of libs and holds on. It’s all we can do. I feel like I am 15 years old, losing our father again. It feels just as it did then, unbearable. But we do just what we did then, we hold each other. Clinging onto the only people that we have known since before we knew them, the only people that will love us even when no one else does. 
The only person -
Lorenzo is there, strong arms trying to tuck us all into him. I can feel his warmth against my back and push my face into his chest. 
“We’ve got you, Charlie,” He says, “We’ve got you.”
We do. 
We always will. 
_________________________
A/N:This work has been cross-posted on Wattpad and AO3. All are under the name XDACTED. Thank you for reading and feel free to request fics about any of the drivers <3
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dilemmaontwolegs · 1 year
Text
The Aftermath || LN4 {4}
Pairing: Lando Norris x widow!reader Summary: Things heat up and the night's only just beginning. Warnings: 18+ only, NSFW, nudity, sexual themes WC: 2.3k
F1 Masterlist || One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six || Seven || Eight || Nine || Ten || Eleven || Twelve || Thirteen || Epilogue
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“I need to head down to the gym for a bit, are you going to be alright here?” Lando asked as he gently lifted your head off his legs.
You dropped the hotel guide you were flipping through after unpacking your bags and sat up so he could get up off the couch. “I’ll come with you.”
“You’ll come to the gym?” he asked as his eyebrow cocked up in surprise.
“Don’t be silly,” you scoffed as you waved the hotel guide his way. “I’ll be in the spa. They have a full salon service.”
He pulled you to your feet and into his arms as he brushed his lips softly over yours, teasing you until you rose on your tiptoes to deepen the kiss. A small groan escaped his throat as he pulled away and combed his fingers through his hair. “I already don’t want to go.”
“Sorry.” The smile on your face contradicted the apology and Lando chuckled at the sight, knowing you were not feeling sorry at all. 
“Come on then, before you distract me again.” He slipped a room key into your pocket and laced his fingers with yours before heading to the elevator. As soon as the elevator doors closed he looked at your reflection in the mirrors and remembered the intense ride up. “This was a bad idea. This is very distracting and it’s your fault.”
You turned to face him, head tilting as you looked up through your lashes with an innocent smile. “It’s not my fault you are so easily distracted.”
“But you are the distraction.”
You caught your bottom lip between your teeth at the heat in his eyes. “Is a workout really that important?”
His hand reached past you to the panel, his finger aiming for the floor button you had just left, but then the doors opened at the leisure centre and you skipped out before he could hit it. 
“Mr Malvern would be very disappointed if you missed a cardio session because you got distracted,” you teased as you pressed your key card to the gym entrance and opened the door for him. 
He tried to stifle his smile as he looked down at his shoes and stepped off the elevator, his body brushing yours as he passed the doorway to the gym. Unable to resist his own teasing, he dipped his head to yours as he walked by. “There’s more than one way to get a cardio workout, love.” His lips brushed your cheek as light as a feather before he was gone, throwing a wink over his shoulder as he left you struggling to remember how to breathe.
You were still half in a daze as you headed to the other end of the hall where a pair of opaque glass doors awaited, his words playing on repeat in your head the entire way.
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“Is this something special for tonight?” the beautician asked as you placed one hand under the UV light and she painted the other nails. 
“Hopefully,” you admitted with a smile mostly to yourself as you looked over the menu of services. “What’s the go with waxing?”
“How do you mean?” 
“It’s, um, been a while since I’ve been with anyone, if you know what I mean…do guys expect a Hollywood or Landing Strip or anything?”
She screwed the lid on the nail polish and placed it down on the table. “In my experience, if he's worth a grain of salt, he won’t care. But, it’s a Hollywood that we get most requested.”
You felt like a new woman as you stepped out of the salon with your nails done, a fresh blowout in your hair, and not a single strand of hair on your body from your newly tinted and shaped eyebrows to your toes. The beautician had been one to remind you with each strip of wax, ‘beauty is pain’ and she was right, but the result did wonders for your confidence.
Though you couldn’t see the sun outside, the time on your watch said it was only 6pm as you stepped into the suite. Lando said his surprise wasn’t going to start until 9pm so there were still a few hours that your imagination had many ideas on how to fill. Just the thought of what you were planning was enough to leave you giddy, with an edge of nervousness.
You had been with René since you were both teenagers, learning how to love with all the finesse of two bumbling toddlers learning to walk. It hadn’t been pretty at times, and the both of you had stumbled as you found your footing, but before you knew it you were running together hand in hand. You had thought it would be that way forever.
You didn’t have the naivety that came with the rose tinted glasses of young love. You were older now, not just physically but in your soul. While other women your age faced breakdowns in relationships or lost their partners to infidelity, yours lost his life. 
Before René died you had thought widows were grey haired grandma’s, they weren’t in their 20’s, they weren’t you. Until it was.
Now you had to learn how to love once again, learn what the other enjoyed and disliked, make mistakes and learn from them. It was exciting and saddening at the same time. It was more confusing the longer you thought about it.
A sweet scent hit you as you stepped inside and closed the door. “Lando?”
“Just a sec,” he called from the bedroom and you followed his voice to find him in the bathroom, bubbles overflowing the tub and rose petals sprinkled all around the room. 
His back was to you as he bent over the counter and you could see the definition of each muscle as he moved, lighting a scented candle like the dozen already flickering in the darkened room. The sweatpants he had changed into after his workout hung low enough on his hips to reveal the two dimples at the base of his spine and the warmth of his skin called you closer until you could wrap your arms around his waist and rest your cheek on his shoulder blade. 
“Hey,” he greeted softly as he blew out the match and turned in your arms. 
“Am I interrupting a little me time?” you asked with a smirk. “You should have put a sock on the door if you wanted privacy.”
Lando’s laugh echoed off the tiled walls before he swept you up into his arms. “You’re gonna pay for that, smartass,” he promised as he stepped into the bath and sank down into the hot water with you still fully clothed. Water overflowed the lip of the deep bath and flooded the floor but you didn’t care as your head fell back with a laugh.
“I just had my hair done,” you managed to say through the giggles as you flicked bubbles out of it and tried to save it before seeing the mess on the floor. “Housekeeping is going to hate you.”
“I can take the trouble,” he said with a smile. “You’re worth it.”
Shifting onto his lap, you placed a hand over his heart and felt it beating beneath your palm. “I had plans, you know.”
Settling back into the curve of the bath, he relaxed beneath you with his hands on your hips. “Yeah?”
“Mhmm,” you hummed as you took his hands, gripping the hem of your shirt as you drew them up your body. “I think you might have had the same one.”
His smirk grew as he pulled the shirt over your head and tossed it aside. “You were going to bathe me and massage my feet by candlelight too?”
“I might be skipping a few steps.”
“So impatient,” he tutted as his thumbs drew circles over your ribs, each circle inching him closer to the lace of your bra.
Your patience had been infinite all your life. You had been a patient girlfriend, putting your career on pause so you could travel with René and support him early in his career. You had been a patient fiancée, delaying the wedding when René needed to focus on racing and planning was a distraction. You had been a patient wife, waiting until René retired before trying to start a family so he didn’t miss out on the things that matter.
Your patience had finally run out. 
“It’s selfish,” you corrected as you leaned forward, your lips hovering over his as you looked into his blue eyes that reflected the dozens of flames flickering around the bath. “I want you, Lando, and I don’t want to wait any longer.”
You could feel beneath the sweatpants how much he wanted you too but there was hesitancy in his eyes. Or maybe it was more akin to regret.
“What are you thinking about?” you asked quietly as he sighed.
“Fucking Max.”
Your jaw fell slack before you recovered. “Not what I expected,” you muttered as you started to climb out of the bath.
“No, that’s not what I meant. Fuck,” Lando groaned as he pulled you back down onto his lap. “I want you too, so so so badly, but I ordered us dinner and it’ll be here any minute. That was Max’s suggestion, I knew I shouldn’t have listened to him.”
A knock sounded at the door and a muffled ‘room service’ reached you a moment later. 
“Come in,” you called back and the front door clicked open before the rattle of a trolley clinked as it was rolled into the room. “Leave it there thanks!”
“Certainly, ma’am, just call reception when you’re ready for the dishes to be cleared.”
Your eyes hadn’t left his as you waited to hear the door click shut.
“Food is going to get cold,” he warned at the telltale sound that you were alone once again.
Your lips had gone dry from the deep breaths you had been taking to steady your racing heart and he watched your tongue roll across them, your stomach somersaulting at the hunger in that stare. “I don’t care.”
Fresh water sloshed over the lip of the bath as he sat up closed the distance between his lips and your skin, his teeth grazing over the supple skin of your breasts. “Off,” he ordered as he pulled the cup of your bra down and sealed his mouth over your nipple.
You obeyed in an instant, reaching back and unclasping it before dropping it to the floor with your shirt while his tongue drew his name from your lips. Your hips rocked over his but your shorts and his sweatpants kept you from what you needed most and a frustrated whine escaped. “Lando, get me out of these damn shorts.”
A small pool was forming outside the bath as you climbed out with Lando following quickly. There was a furious need to keep close and your fingers tugged at his hair to bring his lips back to yours while he fumbled with the button on your denim shorts before pushing them past your hips. You relinquished the hold on his curls to pull the string of his sweatpant loose and your core clenched as the white material of his boxers had turned clear with the water, leaving nothing to the imagination.
The sodden sweatpants caught around his ankles as he took a step closer and you gave a small squeal as he stumbled into you, the soapy bubbles covering the tiles giving no purchase as the ground rushed up to meet you. Lando tried to help catch you but with his pants tangled all he did was end up splashing onto the floor beside you, shock and horror plastered on his face.
You wiggled your fingers and toes, satisfied you weren’t hurt, before a giggle escaped and you lay down on the warm tiles as more laughter filled the air. It took a moment, a heartbeat even, for Lando to join you and sprawl across the floor with his deep laugh echoing yours. 
“This is not what I had planned,” you said between the giggles you couldn’t stop. “Are you alright?”
“Ego’s a little bruised and my confidence could do with a bandaid,” he said with a chuckle, pulling you into his arms so your head could rest on his shoulder and not the hard floor. 
You shifted in his arms, cupping his face as you smiled at him and washed away the worry that lingered in his eyes with a kiss. 
This kiss was a far cry from the desperate need earlier, it was soft and slow, reassuring. It was a promise that you hadn’t changed your mind because you had ended up in a mess on the floor. It had actually endeared you to him even more, if that were possible. Up until now everything he had been planned worked out perfectly that you were worried you would fuck it all up. But he was human. A handsome, kind, perfectly normal human who was trying his best and it made your heart swell with emotion.
 Retreating from his embrace, you grabbed the sweatpants from where they were still tangled around his legs and pulled them free.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he pushed up onto his elbows, his abs tensing as you crawled up his body, your fingers slipping into the waistband of his boxers. 
His breath shuddered as you pulled the material away and bit your lip at the long hard length that sprung free. “Giving you a bandaid.”
Click here for part five.
Tagging: @yunnie-f1 @neiich @zendayabelova @stillbreathin @dr3lover @writerscurse @christianpulisic10 @alwaysclassyeagle @alexisquinnlee-bc @purplephantomwolf @lightsoutletsgo 
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tgmsunmontue · 25 days
Text
Season to Taste - 11/? WIP
Explicit Hangster - Celebrity Chef Bradley and Naval Aviator Jake Seresin who have a relationship spanning the globe before they realize how tightly bound they are to one another. Heading into this little world.
PROLOGUE/ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE
TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
                “A fishing boat?” Bradley asks, pulling a face. “Really?”
                “You said you wanted to be in the Navy. Are you scared of a little seasickness?”
                “No. I just…”
                “Understanding and appreciating our food, from where we harvest it, or take it, is all important. Learning what fresh really looks like is also very important when it come to fish and seafood hmm?”
                “Oh yeah, I guess that’s true,” Bradley says, thinking of Johan’s ability to look at fish and simply pick the best pieces.
                “Also a week in Greece is not the end of the world hmm?”
                “Okay, you deliberately made it sound like I was going on a fishing boat in the North Sea, not a… charter boat for a week in Greece.”
                “Hmm. You will earn your stay. But I think you will enjoy the change of scenery.”
                Bradley had no idea how Leandro knows him so well, but he finds himself the sole chef on a charter yacht for a group of six tourists. They’re American, and once they realize he’s also American they stop speaking slowly and loudly, chat happily to him while he cooks. He fishes and dives with them during the day, makes breakfasts and lunches and then cooks what they’ve caught that day. He doesn’t recognize any of them, but when the week ends a couple of them tip him heavily, even though he tries to insist there isn’t any need. Then one of them passes him a business card.
                “If you ever consider setting up shop back home, look me up. I’d be interested in supporting you. And eating more of your food.”
…            …            …
                “Holy shit. Bradley Bradshaw.”
                “Yeah. Hello again…”
                “You’ve met already?” Jake asks, looking between Bradley and who must be his sister. She’s maybe a few years older, hair the same color but longer, tied back in a plait. Bradley finds himself automatically nodding, although he’s also hoping that her surprise is that he’s at her front door, and not because she’s starstruck. She hadn’t seemed at all perturbed when he’d met her on Saturday with the film crew trailing him. Turning up with her brother shouldn’t be any more alarming, surely?
                “Yeah, at the Farmers Market in the weekend,” Bradley starts. “I tried the chili jam, it was really good. Bought a few jars.”
                “Oh cool. Well, then I don’t need to introduce you. Well, her name is Maria if you need a reminder. I call him Leo because Bradley Bradshaw sounds made up.”
                He’s glad Jake has provided a name, and he notes Maria’s eyebrows shoot up and god, he’s been enjoying Jake’s complete disregard for Bradley’s fame, whether it’s real or contrived he doesn’t care. He doesn’t think Jake would care, if he did know, but it’s also really nice not having any expectations put on him from the person he’s with. The last few days have been great, reminding him of his younger years in Europe.
                “Leo is the name my Italian family call me. Short for Leonardo.”
                “I definitely prefer Leo,” Jake says, grinning at him and he follows his lead in taking his shoes off, putting the bags of ingredients and previous iterations of sauce down. “Keep forgetting your name is actually Bradley Bradshaw…”
                Maria makes a high-pitched sound Bradley can only guess is a choked off laugh and he grimaces and shrugs his shoulders, tries to convey that he’s doing the best he can and Maria is just looking at him and shaking her head, her eyes wide as she looks between him and her brother.
                “Um, yeah, okay, hi again. Jake said you were after some help with… tasting things. Right. You’ve been… trying to feed him,” Maria says, now looking at Jake. “Wow…”
                “Yeah. He’s pretty decent. Not as good as grandma, or even you or Olivia, but he hasn’t killed me yet.”
                Bradley clenches his jaw to stop himself from laughing outright, his eyes not leaving Maria’s face, and she looks equal parts mortified but also like she’s also trying not to laugh again. She makes a little high-pitched sound and Bradley has to pretend to cough as a burst of laughter makes its way out. She definitely knows who he is, had known on Saturday when he’d been walking around with the film crew but she’d been very chilled and laid back, hadn’t even asked for a selfie.
                “What chores need doing? I can go and do whatever it was you were planning on doing and instead you can help Leo with his new recipe… I like your cooking, but I am kind of over tasting the same thing over and over and you expecting me to be able to taste the difference,” he says to Bradley. Bradley looks back at Maria who has covered her mouth with both her hands and closed her eyes, had her head tilted back like she’s hoping the ceiling has answers.
                “Thank you, I’ll try my best not to poison your sister…”
                “Oh god…” Maria says from behind her hands.
                “Thanks. Appreciate it. Maria, you okay?”
                Maria wipes at her eyes, waves away Jake’s concerns saying it’s the pollen making them itch and hands Jake a piece of paper with writing on it and he tucks it into his pocket.
                “I’ll be back.”
                Then he’s kissing him, his thigh slotting between Bradley’s and he finds himself almost being dipped and he knows he’s flushing bright red, wonders if that was Jake’s whole aim, trying to embarrass him. It’s over quickly, although he’s not sure if that is a good thing or not.
                “Don’t be mean,” Jake says to Maria, and then he’s tugging boots on, grabbing the same cowboy hat Bradley remembers him wearing on Saturday.
                “When am I ever mean?”
                “Only every day of my life,” Jake says with a grin, but then he’s tipping the hat and Bradley bites his lip as he watches him stride back outside. Hmm.
                “So, you’re Leo. I had no idea he was bringing you around.”
                A little reluctantly he stops watching Jake stride off, and he turns to find Maris watching him, eyes amused and he smiles.
                “Yeah. I gathered he hadn’t told you when you said holy shit first thing when you opened the door. He and I met years ago, in Italy. He said he told his sister?”
                At that Maria’s lips twitch and Bradley starts feeling a little uneasy.
                “Did he say which one?”
                “Uh. No?”
                “Has he mentioned exactly how many sisters he has?” Maria asks, and she’s folding her arms and leaning back, watching him and Bradley feels like he’s being tested. That’s fine. If he can survive the Gallo family he can survive Jake’s sisters. Why he feels like he needs to survive or befriend Jake’s sister isn’t something he’s going to examine too closely but… he likes to think he’s a nice guy when he isn’t stressed out.
                “Not exactly? But… three? I mean, I know he’s the youngest. And there’s a sister with kids because he babysat them on Monday night.”
                “Sandra.”
                “And then his sister who he told about meeting me in Italy? And that isn’t you?”
                “Hmm. He only told me about meeting you in Italy on Sunday, so… it was probably Nicola when it happened originally.”
                “Okay. So. Jake just mentioned an Olivia, so… four? That’s my best guess. Four.”
                He can’t even imagine having four older sisters, having Violet is bad enough, although he calls her cousin he sometimes wonders how much closer they’d be if they were actually siblings. She’s his best friend.
                “Nope. Five. You’re missing Amanda. She’s Nicola’s twin.”
                “Five sisters. Holy shit.”
                “What about you? Big family?”
                “No. All the stuff about me losing both my parents is true. I’ve got a big Italian family that informally adopted me though…”
                “So he met you, and you bumped into each other on Saturday and now you’re…”
                She doesn’t finish the sentence and he’s grateful, although the look she gives him clearly spells out exactly what she’s thinking. She grabs some of the bags at his feet and jerks her head for him to follow her.
                “So you’ve told him your name, he’s just…Oh my god… he has no idea who you are.”
                “You think so? I kind of like it,” Bradley admits and Maria’s shaking her head.
                “Oh, he’ll have no idea. He’s smart, but he’s also fucking oblivious. Also I’m judging you. He adds sauce to nearly everything…”
                “Yeah. I’ve noticed.”
                “Well, he had really bad reflux as a baby. Like… he needed an operation to fix it type bad. He was such a picky eater as a kid, drove us mad. We got around it by pretty much putting sauce on everything.”
                “Oh…” Bradley murmurs, and he’d wondered. He sets out the ingredients and the little containers of sauce saved from his previous attempts.
                “Yeah. Obviously he’s an adult now, he doesn’t have to add sauce, but if he has the choice?”
                “On it goes. Right. Okay…”
                “Yeah. You okay with that?”
                “Of course. He’s not making me eat it. I’m not…” he shrugs helplessly, wants to try and say he’s not the uptight and angry chef that that TV producers like to portray him as. Sure he has a temper, but it’s definitely not as bad or as frequent as they make it seem. He also knows he's got something of a resting bitch-face. At least that's what Vi calls it.
                “Hmm. Thought so. Anyway, Jake doesn’t cook. He’d never watch a cooking show. Doesn’t like reality TV at all… If you wanted to keep it on the downlow you could. I don’t think he’d accidentally stumble across you. And I can keep my mouth shut.”
                “I don’t want to keep it a secret from him or anything. He knows it’s my job. And he knows my name…”
                “Okay. So… not to be super crude but you’re just, uh, hooking up right?”
                “I mean… yeah.”
                “Well. If you decide you want something more than hooking up with him, you’re going to have to spell it out, be really obvious. More obvious than you think you need to be. And I have an idea for showing just how oblivious he can potentially be…”
TWELVE
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lwh-writing · 10 months
Text
DC x DP Prompt: Maddie Kane
Disclaimer: I don't know a whole lot about the Kane family. This is mostly my own interpretation based on the wikis I hastily read.
Roderick and Betsy Kane had six children: Martha, Nathan, Philip, Jacob, Roderick Jr., and Madeline.
Now, Madeline was a surprise baby. Martha was already twenty-three and married to Thomas by the time her only sister was born, but that didn't stop her from showering the girl with love and affection. Thomas loved his little sister-in-law just as much, and the two practically raised her as their own. Under the undivided care and affection of Martha and Thomas, little Madeline grows up to be a willful, independent, free-thinking, intelligent girl who is very, very happy with her life at Wayne Manor.
Madeline and Martha's relationships with their brothers are... complicated, to say the least. Martha as a rule did not fully support the Kane Family's arms dealings, and so tried to distance herself (and subsequently Madeline) from them. The Kane boys didn't challenge this overmuch: they were, after all, hard military men and didn't have much interest in raising their sister who would surely just become another socialite married to one billionaire or another. (It's ironic, then, that Maddie would grow up to be the best weapons innovator the Kanes would ever produce, but such things happen.)
Madeline had just turned thirteen when Martha and Thomas had Bruce. Her little nephew was a long-awaited joy for the family, and she would sooner think of Bruce than the Kane boys when Maddie heard the word "brother".
This idea is only solidified when the Kanes, forced to acknowledge their sister after multiple high-society scandals, try to strong-arm her into attending a finishing school in England. (Maddie to this day does not regret hospitalizing Lionel Luthor. If he didn't want a broken fibula, then he shouldn't have gotten drunk at a Wayne Gala and tried to strike his son. The following press release was unfortunate, but the thank you card from Alexander was touching.) The Kanes are not successful in removing Madeline from Gotham, and after much back-and-forth, they give one final ultimatum: either go to England and return an "upstanding member of society," or Madeline would be officially cut off.
Madeline chooses the second option without much further thought, sure to tell her brothers to stuff it in as many ways as she can before she trashes the Kane Mansion for good measure.
Madeline, now almost exclusively going by "Maddie", thrives. She gets accepted into the University of Wisconsin, and so off she goes, with hugs and well-wishes from Martha, Thomas, and Bruce, who are staying in New Jersey.
Maddie is twenty-one when she gets the worst news of her life: Martha and Thomas are dead. She puts her studies on hold for a bit and flies back for the funeral, her research partner/best friend in the world/boyfriend Jack Fenton-Nightingale coming with her.
Not even a week after her sibling-parents are put in the ground, her brother Philip tries to swoop in and seize Wayne Industries for himself. Thankfully, though, Martha and Thomas's wills were very clear: Maddie is to manage the Waynes' estates until Bruce comes of age. So Maddie once more tells her brothers to fuck off, this time for good. Jack, muscled, glowering, and seven feet tall and still growing, makes good to stand silently in the background so the Kanes don't try to pull anything further.
As soon as she is able, Maddie sits Bruce down and they make arrangements. Maddie can't abandon her schooling forever, and Bruce's life has been upended enough; she doesn't want to make it worse by ripping him away from the only home he's ever known. So Maddie signs over custody to Alfred, and promises are made to visit every chance she gets.
Life moves on. Jack and Maddie get married and start Fenton Works. Bruce starts traveling abroad to "further his education of the world." Maddie and Jack have two kids. Jasmine Martha Fenton-Nightingale-Kane inherited the Kane signature fire-red hair, and Daniel James Fenton-Nightingale-Kane looks so much like Martha that it hurts. Bruce adopts a gaggle of children of his own. Bruce and Maddie like to send each other pictures to brag about their respective kids, and the Fenton-Nightingale-Kanes make sure to visit Gotham for at least one week every summer.
Maddie and Jack don't ask too many questions when Bruce hesitantly takes them aside and requests that they make a couple of custom-made, non-ghostly weapons for him. Of course they'd be happy to make him a few odds and ends every once in a while. Goodness knows how dangerous Gotham can be.
The Fenton-Nightingale-Kanes miss their summer trip for the first time ever when Danny comes to them and explains the whole "half-a-ghost-thing" and, well... Jack and Maddie spend the entire summer reeducating themselves about ghosts, working through years of biases, and ensuring that their son knows that they still love him of course we still love you, Danny, there isn't a thing in this world that could stop us from loving you. Dick Grayson is very understanding and assures them that Bruce wouldn't mind. (Dick is very happy to avoid telling Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack about Bruce's death. Dick is even more happy when Tim finds proof that their dad was just lost in the timestream and not actually dead. That entire summer was very stressful for both sides of the family)
It isn't until Danny is seventeen and hesitantly makes contact with the Justice League that the Waynes learn about ghosts and the Fenton-Nightingale-Kanes learn about the vigilantism.
Maddie is so cross when she and the rest of the ghostly delegation walks into the Watchtower only to come face-to-face with her nephew/brother, and don't you try and deny that's you, Brucie, I have eyes. Who are you trying to fool, young man?
The rest of the Justice League has to awkwardly sit there as the Ghost King and his family have a full-on family reunion, with King Phantom taking the time to finally introduce his partners to his cousins, Princess Jasmine and Nightwing teaming up to try and talk Red Robin into dialing back on the caffeine intake, King Father Jack exchanging fudge recipes with Agent A, and Queen Mother Madeline chewing out Batman for being a reckless idiot and not telling her what he was using his gadgets for. ("If I knew that grappling hook would be actively used every night, I would have installed more safety features! We could've made it more durable! We would've had to put it through more rigorous testing before we deemed it field-ready!" "Why does that bother you now? Isn't your lab safety horrible?" "A private, indoor lab that less than ten people have access to is not the same as the streets of Gotham in every type of weather! Goddammit, Bruce, I swear--")
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pablitogavii · 11 months
Note
Hey I’ve love your stories for quite a while now and it’s absolutely amazing btw!!!! But I kinda wanted to request like enemies to lovers trope. Something about Gavi and the reader hating each other but gavi still like over protecting and jealous over the reader
Nerd.
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Pablo Gavi...loved my many...hated by some (mostly jealous fanatics) was the biggest bully you ever met in your life.
Everything started the evening the Gavira family invited yours to dinner when you moved to the neighborhood six years ago. You grabbed a cup of milk but as you turned back you collided with Pablo's chest spilling it all over his brand new white Barça hoodie.
Ever since then, he would purposefully bump into you, call you "nerd" and mess with your by stealing your glasses and making you reach for them. God! Couldn't he just get over something that happened when you were 11 years old!?
"Let's just take two cars and meet there?" Fermin suggested since there was quite a bit of people going to watch them play El Classico today at Camp Nou.
"I'll go with them.." you said walking towards the group away from Pablo just wanting to avoid his snarky comments.
"Whatever nerd!" he said and Fermin hit his chest in annoyance really trying to figure out why was his friend so mean only to you all the goddamn time!??
"Qué pasa!?Estás enamorado de ella o algo así, hermano?" Fermin said and Pablo just snarled shaking his head while watching you get into another car your skirt rising up as you moved. His shorts got tight!!!
When you arrived, there were some members form the opposite team already at the hallway and you got all shy being surrounded by so many famous players. Every single one was more handsome than the other...of course your bully had to be the most handsome of all!!! Damn, you're screwed in the head for thinking it!!!
One of the boys was definitely chatting you up while Pablo was observing the whole thing utterly furious. After barely five seconds, you heard Pablo's annoyed voice.
"Hey! Nerd! Come here!" Pablo said and you were rudely interrupted from answering a question from a boy who seemed genuinely interested.
"I was talking to him!" you say but Pablo's hand was already around your wrist as he pulled you away from a guy who was very loudly protesting while your friends watching in confusion.
"What do you want from me Pablo!??" you said pulling away standing in the empty room with Pablo pacing around and grunting in annoyance.
"You do know he is the enemy right!? You don't just go fuck an enemy!" Pablo was yelling without thinking about his words and you just stared at him in utter disbelief. Did he really think you would let someone do that after simply sharing two sentences with him!? Now, he really hurt your feelings!
"Good luck on your game, Pablo.." you said with tearful eyes clouding your classes before running out of the room just wanting to go home already. You were used to his occasional teasing, maybe even rude nicknames like 'nerd',or 'four eyes', but now he really passed the line.
"No..wait! Please! Nerd!..Um..Y?N!!!" Pablo was yelling after you but they were already calling him to join the others in the dressing room.
The whole game, Pablo was agitated getting angry easily and getting himself a yellow card already in the first half. You were at home still watching the game (ofc!) but it was mainly Fermin trying to calm down Gavi on the screen.
Seeing his handsome face despite bringing you butterflies now reminded you of those awful words..is that really how he saw you???
"Hijo de puta, ella es mía después del juego!" the player whispered to Gavi during the corner kick and he pushed him down without second though receiving another yellow which added into the red and got him kicked off the field. He theatrically exited tossing his jersey aside before sitting down in the chair.
Despite what happened with Pablo, Barça won, (luckily) and you turned off the TV getting ready for bed. You really dolled up today with a Barça jersey and your favorite skirt as a chosen outfit..you kinda wanted Pablo to notice but instead he called you a whore!
You were working diligently on your assignment trying to get your mid off things while it was roaring rain outside. Suddenly someone knocked on the door of your apartment. You were terrified...it was late..your mom was on her business trip..and someone is at the door!? Scary!
You tried looking through the peep hole but it was too dark to see.
"Um..who is it??" you said and there was a silence for a few minutes.
"It's me! Open up, nerd!!" Pablo said and you sighed in relief that it was someone you knew but then you realized who exactly was in front of your door right now..what was he doing all the way up here tonight!?
You opened up and there he was completely drenched looking hotter than ever before..damn it's even better than in the edits..Get yourself together Y/N!!! "Um..what..what are you doing here P..Pablo?" you were a mumbling shy mess and he could tell that he was making you very much nervous right now.
He changed into some clean clothes he had in his bag from practice before coming our of the bathroom to your still flustered face.
"Why are you always so shy around me!?" he said a bit roughly and you just looked down in embarrassment. You couldn't exactly be hones't, could you?? It's because I love you even though you make fun of me every single waking moment of every day!!!
"Ughh you're impossible to understand nerd!!!" he said walking into the living room and you followed after him like a lost puppy. He saw all your paperwork on the floor matching with your books and graphs.
"You weren't sleeping?? It's late?" he said and you just shook your head sitting back down on the ground wanting to continue your work.
"I had to study.." you answer simply.
He sat down as well looking at you working but what you didn't know is just how much in awe he was seeing you like this..it made him want you so badly. You might be the sexiest nerd he's ever laid eyes on...
"You know why I call you nerd???" he said raising up your chin and you looked into him with those dowey eyes through your big glasses. He slowly took your glasses off smirking at your blushed cheeks.
"Because you hate me..?" you say finally gaining bravery to look him straight in the eyes and he smiled shaking his head while caressing your chin. Was this really real right now!!?
"Because I love you.." he said and your whole belly got filled with butterflies..this was indeed real..you were not hallucinating..Pablo Gavi loves you too!!?
"Umm..today was the first day to hear you call me Y/n.." you say to that looking away from his eyes again.
"And did you like that??" he asked this time tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear. You just shrugged your shoulders not knowing how to feel about all of this..it was so sudden..you were excited and scared of waking up from a dream all at the same damn fucking time!!!
"Because, you know..there are other things I can call you..hmm..like mi amor..." he moved closer while whispering that nickname into your ear and then leaving a slow kiss on your earlobe while you closed your eyes in ecstasy.
"Nena preciosa.." he whispered again this time moving lower to kiss your neck and you gasped which he really like..you knew what you were doing to him. Little minx!!!
"Mi princesa guapa.." he said moving up and sucking marks into your skin until reaching your chin and kissing it softly while holding your face as you slowly opened your eyes to look at his hungry looking lips. He was like a starved predator and you were his only prey.
"Aii mis ojitos negros lindosss...I always loved how you looked at me with glasses on..like a good little girl..me vuelves loco siempre princesitaa" he said and you were still looking at his lips wanting desperately to feel them against yours right now!!!
"Are you a good little girl, preciosa??" he asked teasingly touching your lips with his thumb and you pouted nodding your head completely under his thumb right now.
"Hmm that's good,..but I want more..I want you to be only my good little girl, vale? I don't want you talking to anybody ever again..toda mia siempre!!" he growled the last part finally devouring your lips as you moaned into the kiss moving to straddle his lap and he welcomed it with a smirk.
Pablo was groaning the more you were moving on his lap before you two pulled away from air and he kept you on his lap with his strong arms wrapping tightly around your body.
"I only did it to piss you off.." you said and he looked at you with raised eyebrows.
"I talked to him because it was making you angry.." you paraphrase it and his hands lowered resting on your bum where he squeezed roughly.
"And here I thought you were a good girl nena???" he smirked and you moaned hiding your face into his neck shyly.
"I just wanted you attention..papi" you kissed his neck while he groaned at the use of the nickname he dreamed about hearing from your lips for years.
"Well you got it now preciosita" Pablo smirked kissing you again while standing up and carrying you into the bedroom putting you underneath the covers.
You were making out in bed for a good half an hour before he pulled away catching you by surprise.
"Todo bien, Pablito??" you ask and he smiled at the new nickname you found for him. If it was anyone else he would be annoyed..but you could call him what you wished to call him at all times.
"I just want to say I'm sorry about how I've been acting for the past years..I just didn't know how to show you I like you properly..so I bullied you..it's dumb!!!" he spoke and now it was your turn to take charge and shut him up with a kiss.
"Hmm I always knew you had a soft spot for me in here Pablitoo tho.." you say touching his chest where his heart was being fast and regular rhythm.
"H..how?" he was pretty stunned but wanted to hear more of it.
"Little things..you would always call me annoying whenever I got cold but always gave me your jacket.." you say and he nodded remembering how much eh would love when you give it back and it smelled so strongly of you.
"Whenever we go out and I drink, you never do..you are always the one to drive me home" you say remembering the night you accidentally 'confessed' but refused to talk about it afterwards. Pablo would often call you out on it just to annoy you but when his feeling got stronger he stopped doing it.
"Or that one time you were holding my glasses above my head so I can't reach and I slipped, fell and started crying" you said and that one made Pablo become sad..he was really an asshole and he had a lot of making up to do for you..
"Amor..I'm.." he couldn't finish the sentence because your hand was on his mouth while you were sitting on top of him.
"You dried away my tears, put my glasses back on and helped me up..I always knew I was your weak spot" you giggled removing your hand while he watched up from below in awe sitting up and starting to kiss you passionately again.
"Nerd.." he whispered into your mouth with a smirk and this time you smirked back nodding your head while wrapping your hands into his curly hair.
"Hmm a nerd that got you weak Pablo Gavi.." you said and he nodded with a chuckle laying you both back down as you were making our before both feell asleep in each other warm arms.
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