#i just noticed the ship of the bad guys has a ball gag

[malintzyn]

anime is normally horny - i understand this

and usually i dont watch the overly horny ones, it bores me and is mostly kinda uncomfortable.

but i didnt expect this anime to be THIS horny (even if the first thing they talked abt was the preference of ass over boobs(and All they talk about is BOOBS))

yet i am so fucking captivated

its funny, its weird, its beautiful, its so STUPID!!

overall, this is a great show!

[todomochi-uwu]

Of Unspoken Troubles & New Threats (2.5/3)

Pairing: Ushijima Wakatoshi x reader

Warnings: Angst, and pls don’t kill me

Author’s Notes: Some of yall are going to be real pissed off and I can feel it in the back of my mind, but I didn’t want to cut it out, I wanted to build up the tension to the maximum! Don’t worry, tomorrow the next and FINALE part will be published, for now enjoy this. (I had already published this, but it wasn’t showing in the tags, and I’m about to cry)

“Take it, not so much of a threat, but as a warning.”

Previous parts: First Second

Since the very first second Ushijima had noticed the sudden raising friendship between you and the Nekoma captain lots of ill-mannered thoughts had started forming in the back of his head. Like, what would happen if he were to spike right into Kuroo’s head when he turned around? Or would it affect much his opponent’s game if he were to, I don’t know, break every single one of his fingers? Fumes seemed to come out of his ears, his spikes were harder than ever, his voice became even lower and the pressure he was putting on his team was becoming a little too excessive.

“What the fuck is up with Ushijima?” Semi said, hand on his knees, barely being able to breathe. 

Reon sat on the floor, trying to stabilize himself, “That’s what I want to know, what has got him like this? None of these teams is a threat to us.”

Tendou let out a giggle while throwing his head back in exhaustion, “It appears manager-chan has stroked a nerve in our dear miracle boy.”

“What do you mean?” Shirabu said while trying to crack his spine without causing even more damage.

“Look over there.” The red-haired man pointed to the other side of the gym, where you sat analyzing some of the game plans and notes you had made, while Kuroo sat next to you, chin resting on top of your head, casually caressing your back.

Goshiki furrowed his eyebrows, “What is Nekoma’s captain doing with our manager?”

“I didn’t know they were that close.” Tendou said, “But this new ship seems to be stressing the fuck out of our captain, the poor boy doesn’t know how to react to jealousy, I don’t think he has ever experienced it before, at least not to this extent.”

“Wait! Ushijima san likes Y/N-chan?” Goshiki looked wildered, expressing himself louder than he should. 

“Shh, man keep it low! We don’t want lover boy hearing us!” Shirabu smacked the back of the next inline ace.

“So, what’s the plan? Are we going to help them out? Like get them together or something?”

“Nope.” Tendou simply said. 

Everyone looked at him confused, did he not want Ushijima to go back to normal? “Don’t get me wrong, all this training is killing me, but I think our ace needs to learn how to take care of his significant other, to know Y/N has a limit no matter how much they love him.”

Goshiki eyes widened in shock, “Wait, wait, wait so they are already…” The harsh smack of a ball made them all turn around, Ushijima was there looking directly at them, the stern look in his face said everything.

“God fucking dammit, I hope all of this is worth it,” Semi said under his breath, everyone agreeing with him in his mind.

Things hadn’t gotten any better, every hour Ushijima only seemed to be getting worse, more laps, more blocks, more sets, it wasn’t until the sound of a whistle was heard all across the room that the entire team sighed in relief.

-

“Hey, boys! Good job today, I think we have improved, I don’t have any commentaries other than to tell you to please enjoy your meal and rest well, you guys deserve it.” You smiled with sympathy, by the looks in their faces they were about to pass out. Oh Ushijima, what in the hell are you doing? You thought. 

As they started scattering around and leaving the gym you noticed that Ushijima was not going with them, “Do you need anything, Ushijima-san?”

“Are we meeting outside at midnight?” He said. 

Your eyes lighted up for a second, butterflies flying in your stomach, but the reality was quick to hit you and bring you back to earth, “I don’t have any notes for you to revise, the boys did well today, nothing left for me to say, so no.” 

He furrowed his eyebrows, “I’m not talking about that.”

“Then why would we meet later? There’s nothing for us to discuss.” You grabbed your things, making sure not to leave anything behind.

“Y/N…” He attempted to stop you.

“Ushijima-san, I highly suggest you going to the cafeteria, you need to recover, they are serving rice and curry today.” You gave him a slight smile.

“Y/N…” He tried again, but this time, someone else entered the scene, interrupting him, “Chibi-chan…” His tone was melodic. 

“Kuroo-san.” You greeted him.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were busy.” He said, in faux innocence. “I can come back if you want.” 

“No, I was just telling Ushijima we were done with today’s work.” You said rushing out the door, no looking back.

Kuroo could only follow you. 

-

The night was restless, Ushijima kept turning and squirming, anxiety was now invading his dreams, trembles ran down his body, his breathing was agitated and his heart running down miles per hour, his thoughts could not be appeased and he didn’t know what to do. The idea of you leaving him would not abandon his mind; seeing you with another man, laughing, smiling, had taken a toll on him; and to top it all you had rejected him. His mouth was dry and his hands wouldn’t stop shaking, maybe a quick trip to the bathroom would help him calm down. 

As quiet as possible, he opened the door, hoping to control his anxiety, only to be met with something that only made him even more nervous. You and Kuroo. In front of the manager’s room, talking quietly but so closely, the sole scene made him want to gag. He stared at you for a couple of minutes before Kuroo finally left you to go inside, and made his way down the hall, to meet with Ushijima.

“Hey Ushiwaka, didn’t see you there, it’s kind of late, go to sleep you must be tired.” The smirk on Kuroo’s face was like a slap in the face to the other captain.

“That manager of yours sure is a hard worker.” Kuroo said, staring directly into the ace’s eyes, “Must be nice to have her, it would be such… a shame if someone were to steal her away, right?” Kuroo said, his tone was dangerous, his words dripped in venom.

Ushijima could only glare at him, no words came out of his mouth.

“Take it, not so much of a threat, but as a warning.” With that, Kuroo left.

-

The same thing was repeating the next day, no matter how sore Ushijima’s muscles felt, he wasn’t planning on stopping. His head wouldn’t stop repeating last night’s scene. You and Kuroo. Kuroo and you. Late night. Close. Together. It was getting under his skin and he didn´t know how to deal with it, not when you were distancing yourself from him.

“Ushijima I think you should talk to her, this isn’t healthy.” Tendou knows he kind of deserves it, but he couldn’t help but worry for him.

Ushijima didn´t know what to say, “I tried, she rejected me.”

“Make an effort, follow her around just like she always does, you can´t expect her to forgive you if you don´t even try.” Tendou nudged him, trying to cheer him.

Ushijima sighed, conflicted, he knew he had done you wrong, but he wasn’t aware of how bad he had fucked up until now. He was sorry, there was no doubt, but he didn’t know how to express it. 

-

“Gather round boys!” You called out for the team, “For today’s schedule you will be going against, mmm let me check… Oh, Nekoma.” And to this, the entire team had tensed up, even more, fuck, this was going to be a very bad idea.

Nekoma approached, gathering up and stretching out before the “friendly” match, checking out the system they were going to follow throughout the game. Kuroo jogged to your side.

“Should I expect your captain to go all out?” He said.

“Please tell them to be careful, Ushijima is so tense, just as the rest of the boys, so be careful.” 

“You sound like you think I’m not capable of blocking out his spikes.” He teased.

“Kuroo.” You warned him.

“I know, I know.” He cracked the back of his head, “Okay, let the match begin.”

Tags: @samanthaa-leanne @missalienqueen @anime-weeb-bnha @minnieminnie00-got7 @ama-suhen @iiwah @saeranoppa @4ambagelbites @sunaswife @puma-d-a @lionhearteddame @ix-elastix @dudejuststop @pruemania @salty4tsukki @wonderblogger @animexholic @kenmascateyes @aralynxo @decaffeinatedcheesecakemiracle @tsibba01 @softkookyy @nnessworls @xxitsaeonxx @hallothankmas @sinex @shinhiromi @killuaking @icedberrytea @foreverdebbie​ @nati-08​ @amoursa​ @lilolpotato​big @bigtitmisfit​ @itzgabz22​ @holographicwriter​ @aonenthusiast​ @flmshneverbreaks​ @yeolliedokai​ @cyber3lf​ @lyrxbz​ @nikkiandherrandomshits​ @josieveli​ @ryk-iok​ @lueurdeespoir​ @vee-77​ @keiwaii​

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Launch/Corridors revisit

We rewatched the first 3 eps of she ra s5 on stream!

I cannot stress how important the sound design of this show is. It is some top tier stuff, at least for cartoons - Season 5′s sound reminds me of Mass Effect. which I actually went back and played after finishing She-Ra because of how nostalgic the show made me feel for it. (Still havent done the ending, maybe this weekend, I wanted my friends to watch.)  

I missed the first ep, but I was there for “Launch” and “Corridors”.

  I feel kinda bad for Perfuma in “Launch”. Like, she’s trying. I mean, fuck the rope gag anyway, but Perfuma is a great ball of Stress. She was trying to be polite to Entrapta and eventualy snapped alongside the rest of the group.   

I’m also VERY interested in Scorpia’s feelings because she spent the entire ep looking like she wanted to say something but was too worried about getting involved in conflict. That’s a Bow moment for her.  The lack of statement from Scorpia perhaps made the fight at the end inevitable. .

Of course, Entrapta’s side of things is very.... yeah, it brought someone working on the show to tears and I can understand why. The way she isnt responding to things like they do, doesnt show the same doubt or remorse, so they get angrier and angrier and treat her like she has no feelings and she feels so terrible because she didn’t notice until it was too late as she’s so bad at reading people, and this keeps on happening and she feels it always will because of who she is, that is an autistic story. The fact Entrapta has to go through the monumentally difficult task of explaining how she feels, and everyone realises they fucked up. And Mermista running after her, it has always invoked some distant memory for me. More than anything else in the show could hope to do, besides maybe those early Adora episodes - it reminds me of when I was struggling to make friends with the cadets that I respected, and used to break down and run off, and the other kids would try to help even though they didn’t get it. They were good kids, but I was kinda not good at working with them.     

(Young Catradora also have vibes of that but I get so unreasonably angry every time I see/hear 8 year old Adora. I’m not sure if it’s the really bad child acting, or if it’s because Adora’s COMPLETE LACK OF UNDERSTANDING for how Catra feels reminds me way too much of my younger self.)  

I do feel like this scene could’ve done with more reinforcement later on - have a small scene where she genuinely bonds with one of the good guys, other than Wrong Hordak. Also maybe less wacky hijinks and ropes in this ep. But alas. I’m really glad, regardless of everything else, they got Entrapta’s POV across.   

(lol @ Bow seeing someone tear up and immediately starting to BAWL. he is so soft)

The scenes with Adora in this ep, the silent She-Ra form she just spoke to about her feelings on destiny, they were also great to watch and listen to again. I love that it was complete silence when she woke up, until Bow walked in, then Chaos started happening again, with Mermista SHRIEKING on the voice call for them to deck it to Darla, while Entrapta geeks out about finding glimmer and Bow is Stressed. I love it. 

Catra and Glimmer, for the first 3 eps (the scenes blur together in my head), ugh. These are the BEST INTERACTIONS IN THE SHOW, hands down. I don’t know. There is something so nuanced about how when they’re all stuck on the space ship together, they thirst so hard for a bit of familiarity that they are willing to turn to their gratest enemy for companionship.  

Catra and Glimmer have so much in common.  They have both nearly destroyed the world at this stage, they are both responsible for Prime being here today. And you can really tell  that the isolation is getting to them both, because they start bonding over Adora..  

I love the interactions between Catra and Hordak in this ep too. It’s... the last time they ever speak in the show. But the way Hordak is still so angry at Catra for what happened, he presumably thinks Entrapta’s dead or something, and he is more than willing to erase his memories, but is still... terrified. Like, Hordak has so many feelings about Catra, because of her betrayal and how they had been working together and he thought for a moment they could relate with each other but it turned out to be built on a lie, and if only he had figured it out sooner, figured out Catra’s deception rather than sulk about it like a teenage boy, he’d still have his friend.  

Catra feels... terrible about this. She has every right to hate Hordak, and yet still feels awful about what shes done to him and what Prime’s doing to him, and still nearly found comfort in him being present, until he hard rejected her and got traumatically mindwiped.  

The music that plays during these scenes, when Prime is onscreen, it is so terrifying. This continues to be the case through to the finale, but it’s especially effective here, before he has shown any vulnerabilities.   

And... Catra deciding to do her villain u-turn to rescue Glimmer, after bonding with her, feels really significant to me. I know she did it “for Adora”, but I find more meaning, personally, in recognising her ability to connect with someone other than Adora, even if she refuses to admit it.  

(The space ship scenes in this ep are SO FUNNY. I often cite the SPACE moment as the funniest scene in the show, and it’s largely because the surrounding scenes are so... tense that having Entrapta’s space fever finally get payoff after 4 seasons, with her having the happiest reaction ever, was so fucking funny. Bow losing it, and Adora being a total himbo, also have series-wide buildup for added comic relief. All we’re missing is Glimmer stabbing things... which we do get in this ep, so it’s fine.)

[yeah-klave]

The Sexual Awakening of David Joseph Katz - Chapter 8

Link to Chapter 1 || Link to Chapter 2 || Link to Chapter 3 || Link to Chapter 4 || Link to Chapter 5  ||  Link to Chapter 6 ||  Link to Chapter 7

Series summary:  A multi-chapter journey of self-discovery and sexual awakening.

Chapter summary: Dave tries something new.

Genre: Developing relationship, smut. (18+ only, please)

A/N: This is set in a nothing-too-bad-happens modern AU. The characters are all in their early twenties (I’m picturing adult!actor versions of them and Dave as a (younger) Cody Ray Thompson). The siblings are all still living at home, relatively happily, and Dave, Lila, Sissy and Carl are friends who hang out with them at the Academy.

Word length: 5.2k

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of The Umbrella Academy characters or settings.

*******************************************************

It was the weekend. Klaus and Dave had spent the day hanging out with Diego, Ben and Luther.

They’d driven out of the city to a hiking trail and explored for a bit, then set themselves up on a rickety jetty to do some fishing in a nearby lake.

Ben had rolled his eyes at Diego and Luther’s competitive sniping, but all three had ended up blaming Klaus for scaring away all the fish after he got board of sitting quietly and decided to dip his toes in the water and attempt to splash the serious look of concentration off Dave’s face. He succeeded.

Nobody ended up catching any fish.

In the afternoon, they returned to the Academy to chill and – at Dave’s insistence – have a Star Wars movie marathon.

At one point, Five wandered through the living room. He paused to roll his eyes fondly at the slouching heap of limbs they had become, before heading off in the direction of the bar. They heard clinking, them a few moments later he wandered back out, distractedly muttering something about quantum mechanics and clutching a Margarita topped with a little blue cocktail umbrella.

At some point during the second movie, Ben extracted himself and wandered off to a quiet nook to do a little reading and, shortly afterwards, Luther left to go pick up Allison from the mall, where she’d been shopping with some girlfriends.

Bored again from too much sitting, Klaus had come up with a game that involved passing random objects between them without letting them touch the floor, using only their feet.

With the movie still playing in the background, they’d been passing Dave’s balled-up hoodie between them for a solid twenty minutes when Diego’s phone pinged and he missed the pass from Klaus, letting the hoodie fall to the floor.

“Dude!” Klaus exclaimed, hands raised.

Diego shrugged and checked his phone.

“It’s Lila inviting me over,” he said. “Her roommate’s out of town.”

“Booty call,” Klaus grinned, winking at Diego and conspiratorially nudging Dave with his elbow. “Sounds like you’re in there, bro.”

Diego grimaced back. “More like, she’s bored of being on her own without anyone to tease, so she’s calling sparring partners to her.”

“If that really was the case,” Dave said, “and all she wanted was an argument, she’d just text Carl.”

“Ha! True!” Klaus barked a laugh. “He’d definitely take the bait. He’s been in such a pissy mood recently.” Klaus made a lewd gesture, “I don’t think he’s getting any from Sissy.”

“I don’t think you can blame Sissy for Carl’s foul mood,” Dave added sagely.

“Definitely not!” Klaus said, “it’s not her fault her boyfriend’s a prick.”

“To be fair,” Diego cut in, “she’s been pretty busy recently with that volunteering group she and Vanya signed up for. You know, the one with the music therapy for autistic kids.”

Klaus and Dave shared a glance and Dave had to duck his head quickly to hide his smile.

“Yeah,” Klaus said slowly, “Sissy and Vanya have been busy with the… volunteering. Recently, in particular, they’ve both got very… busy. Together.”

Engrossed in his phone, Diego didn’t notice the knowing grin that passed between Klaus and Dave.

“Maybe I shouldn’t go,” Diego mused, “maybe it gives her too much power. Coming when she calls, I mean. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea.”

“Don’t you mean get the right idea?” Klaus smirked.

“Shut up,” Diego scowled, “I’m not her lap dog.”

Klaus caught Dave’s gaze and rolled his eyes. “Honestly, these Straights,” he said with a mock exasperated sigh, “they have such complicated relationships.” He turned to Diego and levelled him a challenging look. “Seriously, brother mine, you need to let that girl peg the toxic masculinity right out of you. You might have a clearer perspective on the whole thing after you’ve let her fuck you ‘till your true bratty bottom personality starts showing. I bet you’d find it quite liberating to let her watch you shake apart while your ankles are in the air and your knees are up by your ears.”

Diego let out a strangled choking sound.

“But if you’re too much of a sissy to let a woman top you,” Klaus added, “I’d highly recommend levelling up and finding a nice guy to fuck you instead. Tits are nice and all that – but you just can’t beat a big, hard dick. So go find yourself one of them. Just not the one attached to him,” Klaus winked at Dave, “because that one’s spoken for.”

Dave grinned fondly, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t even know where to start with that,” Diego said with a grimace.

“Well,” Dave said evenly, “personally, I’d recommend starting with a bit of dry humping. Then, when you finally get your hands around it, you can start working it properly. Maybe fondle the balls a bit.”

“Dave!” Diego said shocked. “That’s… you… don’t say things like that.” He looked between Klaus and Dave, scandalised. “He’s having a bad effect on you, Dave.”

“He’s had an effect alright,” Dave said, catching Klaus’ eye, “a big, prominent, pointed effect.”

“Seriously, dude,” Diego grimaced, “I don’t want to hear this.”

“Oh, quit whining,” Klaus chuckled. “We all know you ship us hard.”

“So hard,” Dave added.

“So, very, very hard.” Klaus giggled. “As hard as we make each other.”

“Oh, dear god!” Diego cringed, covering his ears with his hands. “Mental images! Forcing their way into my brain. Cannot un-think!”

Klaus and Dave both laughed.

“Well, on that note, I’m off.” Diego patted himself down checking for his keys and started towards the door. “I’d rather be at Lila’s beck and call than listen to anymore of this. You reprobates stay safe now. And for God’s sake, don’t cum on anything, please!”

“Don’t worry,” Klaus called after him. “We swallow.”

“La-la-la! NOT LISTENING!” Diego called back, hands over his ears again as he left, the front door to the Academy clicking shut behind him.

Klaus caught Dave’s eye and Dave raised an eyebrow and asked simply, “So, shall we?”

And Klaus barked a laugh. “Hell, yes!” he said, pulling Dave to his feet.

They ran upstairs and stumbled down the corridor to Klaus’ room, laughing and kissing and fumbling, hands pulling off clothes and blindly knocking into furniture in their haste.

“Diego’s really going to appreciate the trail of discarded clothing leading to your room,” Dave smiled, glancing over Klaus’ shoulder.

“Don’t care,” Klaus breathed, his lips pressing kisses along Dave’s jaw. “To be honest, Grace will probably pick it all up before he sees anyway.” Dave’s eyes widened in panic, but Klaus took the lobe of Dave’s ear into his mouth and sucked, and Dave’s mind blanked. He shivered and Klaus grinned, grazing his teeth along the flesh.

The door to Klaus’ room was barely shut behind them before Klaus was sinking to his knees in front of Dave, hands scrambling to unbuckle his pants.

Dave rested his head back against the door and allowed Klaus to pull his pants and boxers down, but before Dave had chance to step out of them, Klaus was leaning forwards eagerly and taking Dave into his mouth.

Dave groaned, long and low, both his hands going to Klaus’ head, fingers carding through the unruly curls, fingernails raking slowly and seductively along the scalp. He then tugged gently, in just the way he knew Klaus loved and Klaus hummed in delight. The vibrations sent a wave of pleasure through Dave and he sighed out Klaus’ name. Klaus hummed again, then started sucking and bobbing his head in earnest, his hands steadying Dave’s hips.

Dave closed his eyes and let the feelings overtake him. Klaus was setting a delicious rhythm, with just the right level of suction. His mouth was hot and wet and perfect. Dave could feel Klaus breathe out as he relaxed his throat and took Dave down deeper.

“Oh, Klaus…” Dave moaned, gently tugging on his hair again. “That’s so good.”

Klaus hummed again and, fighting the impulse to gag, took him down ever further.

“Oh, yes!” Dave sighed. “Oh Klaus, your mouth feels so good.” His brain fuzzy, the praises spilled off his lips, “Yes, oh you’re so good at that. It feels amazing. You feel amazing. You’re amazing.” Dave could feel the pressure building, the knot tightening. Klaus kept bobbing and sucking. “Oh yes, there, like that. Klaus! Oh yes, yes.”

 Dave twitched his hips slightly and Klaus gave an almost imperceptible nod and squeezed his fingers, signalling that Dave could thrust forwards. Dave let out a strangled little sound and – ever so gently – started fucking Klaus’ mouth. Klaus moaned, his pupil’s blown and his chin wet.

Dave let out a low grunt and concentrated on the feeling of the tiny thrusts of his hips – the raw, decadent pleasure of pushing his cock into his partner’s willing mouth. The slightly strangled moans coming from Klaus were needy and wanton and desperate. The act felt so… base. So… primal. To Dave, it felt… unimaginably good.

Dave savoured the feeling, storing it away to be examined and replayed at another time, another place.

Klaus squeezed Dave’s hips again and then took him all the way down into his throat, swallowed, then hummed. And Dave felt the vibrations rumble through him in a heady wave. His fingers twitched and his hips bucked involuntarily.

Klaus chocked. Just a little. “Sorry, sorry,” Dave said, contrite. He only felt slightly guilty for the sudden rush that had surged through him at the sight and sound of Klaus choking on his cock.

Klaus hummed in response, picking up the pace of his bobbing, cheeks hollowed and his tongue working the underside. His thumb ran soothingly over Dave’s hipbone and even in his state of fuggy pleasure, Dave knew it was a sign of reassurance.

Half out of his mind with pleasure, Dave looked down and took in the sight of Klaus; cheeks hollowed, his lips stretched wide around Dave’s cock, the gentle sway of his wild curls as he bobbed his head. His eyelashes were dark fans over eyelids heavy from desire. Dave felt a proprietary surge of pleasure as he noticed the beginnings of dark streaks on the pale, delicate skin under Klaus’ bottom lashes, where the slight wetness around his eyes had caused his eyeliner to run.

Dave gave another low groan. He could feel himself tensing, his pleasure cresting. “Klaus!” he managed to grunt.

 Klaus pulled back and off with a wet pop, a line of saliva still connecting them. He began fisting Dave’s length. He opened his mouth wide, stuck out his tongue and rested Dave’s tip on the wet, pink muscle. He looked up: open and willing and eager. Ready to be claimed, though Dave.

Eyelids heavy and eyes dark with lust, Klaus gazed up at Dave through his lashes. And, staring down into Klaus’ eyes, Dave’s pleasure crested and his orgasm crashed over him like a tidal surge. He came undone, pulsing and releasing, thick creamy ropes of cum landing over Klaus’ tongue and his lips and his chin and his cheek. Klaus closed his eyes and took it, hand still working Dave’s shaft, helping him ride out his high. And Dave just kept cumming, all over his boyfriend’s face and tongue and a bit in his hair. And it felt so dirty, but also so brilliant. And his brain thrummed: mine, mine, mine…

Dave’s cock gave a final weak pulse and Klaus licked the small trickle of cum off the tip.

Dave looked down and blushed at the sight of Klaus on his knees before him, his cheeks flushed, chin wet, face splattered with cum and his hair sticking up wildly from where Dave had been gripping the dark curls.

“Oh, Klaus” he whispered reverently. And Klaus smiled and gently kissed the tip of Dave’s cock one last time before getting to his feet.

Dave’s thumb came up to Klaus’ bottom lip and smeared a spot of cum across the skin. Klaus’ tongue came out to taste it, but Dave leaned forwards quickly and caught Klaus’ lips in a kiss, tasting himself on Klaus’ skin and in the slow slide of their lips and tongues.

“So, I guess we didn’t do what Diego asked after all,” Dave smiled.

“Pretty sure he meant the sofas, or in the kitchen or something,” Klaus grinned. “I don’t think it counts if the thing you’re cumming on is me.” Dave groaned again. Then reached blindly, grabbed his discarded tee and lightly wiped the mess off Klaus’ face. Then he brought their faces close until the tips of their noses were touching and brushed them together in an Eskimo kiss.

Dave stepped forwards, trying to walk Klaus back to the bed but, forgetting about his pants still pooled around his ankles, he almost overbalanced. Klaus laughed and held his arms steady while Dave toed off his boots and socks and stepped out of his jeans. Klaus’ pants had been abandoned somewhere on the trip from the living room to Klaus’ bedroom.

Dave gently placed his hands on Klaus’ immaculate chest and walked him back to the bed, softly pushing him down onto his back. Klaus shuffled backwards, laying his head on the pillow. He was toned and sun-golden and glorious, his erection a prominent bulge tenting his underwear. He’s gorgeous, Dave thought. Completely gorgeous and all mine. And a thrill ran through him.

Dave got onto the bed and pulled Klaus’ underwear off. And then Klaus was spread out before him: standing big and stiff and proud. A meal Dave wanted to both devour all at once… and also savour for the rest of his life.

Dave crawled over Klaus, propping himself up on his forearms so he could bring their lips together again. Klaus sighed and ran one hand down Dave’s spine, resting the other on his backside and squeezing.

“Ass man,” Dave breathed into Klaus’ mouth.

“Bite me,” Klaus smiled back, and Dave caught his bottom lip between his teeth and nipped lightly. Klaus groaned and pushed his hips up against Dave.

Dave grinned and rolled them over. He slotted his leg between Klaus’, presenting his thigh for Klaus to ride. Klaus propped himself up on his arms and pushed his hips down, grinding his erection into Dave’s deliciously solid thigh. He breathed out a sigh and leaned down to continue their kiss, his hips pressing forwards rhythmically. Dave pushed his tongue into Klaus’ mouth and let the kiss get dirty, his hands kneading Klaus’ ass cheeks as Klaus humped his leg. The room was filled with the sound of Klaus panting and grunting and the dull thunk of the headboard against the wall as Klaus increased the pace and vigour of his rutting.

“Look at you,” Dave breathed, eyeing Klaus’ slack mouth and flushed cheeks, “just look at you. So beautiful.”

“Dave,” Klaus gritted out.

“Oh, is there something you need, sweetheart?” Dave teased.

“Yes,” Klaus panted, a little frustrated and desperate to get off.

Dave raised an eyebrow but made no other attempt to move.

“Oh,” Klaus whined, “Dav-uh!”

Dave grinned wickedly, “Maybe you should ask nicely?”

Klaus’ eyes went wide. For a heart stopping moment, Dave thought he might have gone too far, might have misread the vibe, might have killed the moment.

But then Klaus flushed, blinking rapidly, and whispered, “Dave, please.” Dave squeezed his ass cheeks again and Klaus whined and clamped his thighs around Dave’s leg, grinding his erection down harder. “Please,” he repeated in a small, broken voice, “please do something to get me off.” He brought his lips to Dave’s ear, so close Dave could feel his lips moving, and murmured, “please, Mr Katz…”

Dave swallowed hard. A rush of adrenaline, and also something else – something deeper and more primal – ran through him. He could feel the soft, warm weight of his partner, writhing and rutting against him. Needy and desperate. Needy, for him. Dave was suddenly overwhelmed by an instinctive, primal urge to give and please and protect and provide. Mine, Dave thought again. He’s mine.

Dave hooked his leg around Klaus’ and flipped them over. He pressed one final searing kiss to Klaus’ lips and then worked his way down Klaus’ body, trailing kisses down his neck and chest, his tongue flicking over the hardened nub of a nipple. He teasingly kissed his way down the faint trail of dark hairs that started just below his navel and ended at the base of Klaus’ cock.

Dave could feel Klaus breathing deeply, his chest rising and falling in anticipation. But rather than turning his attention to Klaus’ erection. Dave dipped his head lower, and pressed kisses and teasing licks into the delicate skin surrounding Klaus’ cock. He pressed his nose against Klaus’ balls, nuzzling them slightly, then opened his mouth and sucked as much as he could into his mouth, applying delicious pressure and working the skin with his tongue. Klaus whined above him. Dave repeated the action, then moved onto the other.

“Dave,” Klaus panted. “Dave, please.”

A thought started buzzing in Dave’s brain. It felt electric – live and shocking.

Without quite realising he’d done it, Dave made a decision. He felt wired and alive and empowered.

Dave smiled and rose onto his knees. His hands went to Klaus’ hips. “Roll over,” he said gently.

“What?” Klaus’ head came up, eyes slightly unfocussed.

“Come on,” Dave repeated quietly, “roll over.”

“Dave? What’re you…” Klaus looked confused.

“I want to try something,” Dave smiled. He felt a shy, nervous flutter in his stomach, but he swallowed, caught Klaus’ eye and gave a confident little nod.

Klaus held his gaze a moment, eyes wide, but then he obliged, rolling onto his front. Dave encouraged him to spread his legs and lift onto his knees and elbows. Dave sat back for a second and just took in the sight before him: his boyfriend bent over on his bed, flushed and hard and slightly bewildered, but presenting himself so beautifully for Dave. Dave licked his lips and smiled. He was going to enjoy this.

Klaus’ head hung between his arms and he craned around to look at Dave admiring him and – despite all his previous experience – he still felt a small spike of self-conscious embarrassment. He shifted and started to get up, “Dave, what’s… what’re you doing…?”

“Shhh,” Dave reassured, his hand rubbing soothing circles into Klaus’ lower back and encouraging him back down. “It’s okay. Just relax. I’ve got this. I’ve got you.”

Klaus narrowed his eyes slightly but relaxed back down.

Dave positioned himself between Klaus’ legs and ran his hands over Klaus’ ass cheeks, endearingly pale against the tan of the rest of his skin. He gave the right one a quick pat and squeeze. Lowering his head slowly, he pressed a gentle kiss into the soft, fleshy centre of each cheek. Then, using his thumbs, he spread the cheeks apart, finally revealing Klaus’ pink, furled hole.

“Dave…?” He heard Klaus choke out.

Dave blew a soft stream of warm air onto Klaus’ little rosebud and watched as it clenched slightly.

Then, leaning forwards, he brought his face in close and slowly licked across Klaus’ tight hole.

“Fuck!” He heard Klaus exclaim.

Dave smiled and, tongue soft and wet and wide, he repeated the action.

“Oh, Dave! Oh, fuck!” Klaus panted again.

Dave pointed his tongue and flicked it up and down, and left to right, brushing it quickly over the delicate skin. Dave could feel Klaus’ hole fluttering under his tongue.

“Dave! Oh god, yes, oh yes!” Klaus panted. He shifted his hips and repositioned his arm to take his weight. He brought the other hand down to his cock, which was hanging thick and heavy and neglected between his legs. But before he could take hold of it, however, Dave caught his wrist and stopped him.

“Not yet,” he said. And his face was still so close to Klaus’ most private area that Klaus could feel the huff of air against his wet skin when Dave spoke.

Klaus shivered and groaned, but brought his elbow back down to the bed, resigning himself to the sweet torture.

Dave reapplied his tongue to Klaus’ hole and soon Klaus was panting and sighing and pushing back against him, needy whines and breathy little gasps escaping his throat.

Dave switched up the movement of his tongue from strong licks and fast little flicks, and instead covered Klaus’ hole with his lips and then sucked lightly.

Klaus groaned under him, pushing back, his legs trembling. “Oh, fuuuuuck!” he whimpered.

Dave gave the furled hole another slow lick, then pointed his tongue and – ever so slowly – pushed it against Klaus’ entrance. Klaus’ breath hitched. At first Klaus’ muscles resisted. But then, as Dave wiggled his tongue slightly, he felt the tight ring of muscles begin to relax, allowing him to push his tongue in slightly. Dave pressed his tongue forwards in tight circular motions, then slowly pulled back and pressed in again, fucking Klaus’ hole with the tip of his tongue.

“Oh, fuuuuucck me!” Klaus wailed. “Fuck, Dave! Yes! Oh, fuck I need to cum!”

Dave could feel Klaus trembling under his hands, the erratic twitch of his hips, the desperate, broken edge to his voice.

“Please, Dave,” Klaus pleaded. “Please, please…”

And Dave, his face still buried in Klaus’ ass, finally reached around and gripped Klaus’ leaking erection and started pumping.

And Klaus keened. He was caught between thrusting his painfully hard cock forward into Dave’s fist and pressing back into the delicious wet flicks of Dave’s tongue against his quivering hole. He was so desperately, painfully hard; the desire to cum so strong. And the feeling of Dave finally touching his rock-hard cock was toe-curlingly amazing. And Dave’s tongue, pressing and licking and sucking him – there – was beyond amazing. And for Klaus, time seemed to be caught in one delicious, shining moment of wet, hot, hard, fast, urgent, pleasure, clenching, tensing… and then he was cumming. Hard.

Thick creamy ropes spurted onto the bed and over Dave’s fist and Dave could feel Klaus’ hole twitching and clenching under his tongue as his muscles spasmed in waves. And Klaus was moaning Dave’s name wildly… then breathlessly… then a little brokenly as his trembling legs gave way and he finally collapsed forwards onto the bed.

Dave moved up the bed and lay down on his side next to him. Carefully, he ran his fingers through Klaus’ hair, studying his face, his closed eyes, his blissed-out expression.

Klaus opened his eyes blearily and looked at Dave.

“Dave,” he whispered hoarsely. Dave smiled.

“Dave,” Klaus tried again, “That was just so… thank you. Just, wow! Like really. Wow. It was just… so…” he screwed up his face, trying to find the right words and failing, ending instead on just a low grunt of consonants. “Nngggh,” he finished.

Dave smiled, eyes fond and affectionate. “Well, if I’ve rendered you speechless, I guess it must have been okay,” he teased lightly. Klaus blinked. Dave brought his lips down and tenderly kissed Klaus’ forehead and whispered, “I’m glad you thought so. It felt pretty incredible to do it for you too.” Klaus hummed and his eyes drifted closed.

“Hey,” Dave squeezed his shoulder. “You should have a quick shower before you sleep.”

“Don’t wanna,” Klaus mumbled. “Tired and comfy and no energy.”

“Come on, up you get.” Dave encouraged. “You’re sticky and sweaty and smell like sex. You’re laying in the wet spot and you’ve got cum in your hair. Shower, now.”

Klaus groaned and with great effort pulled himself up and moved towards the bathroom.

“Aren’t you coming?” Klaus asked in a small voice.

“You get in, I’ll be there in a sec,” Dave said. Klaus nodded and padded off.

Dave quickly stripped the bed and put on clean sheets from the cupboard where Grace kept the fresh linen. He bundled the dirty ones up and stuffed then in the laundry basket. He then went into the bathroom to join Klaus.

When they were showered and dry, Klaus in a pair of fluorescent briefs and Dave wearing clean boxers and a soft old tee from the stash of clothes he’d started leaving at the Academy, they crawled into bed. Klaus cuddled up to him and rested his head on Dave’s chest.

“Good call,” Klaus admitted, running his hands over the crisp sheets.

Dave hummed in response. Klaus closed his eyes, listening to the rumble of it against his ear.

“So, power kink, huh?” Klaus smiled into Dave’s chest.

“I guess so,” Dave replied. “Believe me, it took me by surprise a bit too.”

“It was good,” Klaus said. “Different. It looked good on you.” Klaus paused, then added, “I like the idea that we can switch stuff up like that sometimes.”

“Me too,” Dave found himself agreeing.

“You know,” Klaus said tentatively, “we could go further too.”

Dave traced the rim of Klaus’ ear with a fingertip.

“Yeah,” Dave said, feeling bold in the gathering darkness of the room. “Give and take, assertive and submissive, top and bottom… there’s so much we can try together. And that’s just power stuff. Then there’s… well, everything else as well.” He felt Klaus hum his agreement into the skin over his heart.

“You know,” Klaus said after a pause, “when we talked about this the other day, I thought we were going to start with some light fingering. But I guess I shouldn’t have underestimated you, Mr Katz. You just dived straight in tongue first.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Dave asked a little worriedly.

“Fuck no!” Klaus exclaimed. “I just didn’t think we’d start with rimming. I mean it’s not really the natural place to start.”

“Isn’t it?” Dave frowned. “To me, it kind of just felt right in the moment.”

“I’m glad you did,” Klaus insisted, “it was mind-blowing.”

Dave grimaced. “Promise you’re not teasing my technique?” He asked. “It’s the first thing I’ve done to you before you’ve done it to me first. I didn’t have any previous experience to work from.”

There was silence and Dave frowned and shifted to look down at Klaus’ face. He was surprised to find Klaus’ cheeks pink and his ears a little red.

“Klaus?” he asked, worried.

“You weren’t bad.” Klaus said quickly. “It’s not that. It’s just that, for once, I don’t really have anything to compare to either.” His eyes widened. “Not that I usually compare you with other people,” he said quickly. “I don’t do that. Just, with this, I don’t have a point of reference. So, all I can say is you blew my mind.”

Dave took a moment to process and then asked the obvious question. “Are you saying none of the people you’ve been with before have done that for you?”

“Um… yeah,” Klaus blushed – actually blushed – “yeah, I guess I am.”

Dave swallowed. “Because they didn’t want to? Or because you didn’t want them to?” He swallowed again. “Did I… I hope I didn’t… Klaus, did you want me to do that just now?”

Klaus shifted to press his face into the hollow of Dave’s neck, his nose nuzzling the base of his throat. “Dave,” he said seriously, “I wanted it. I wanted you to.” He paused. “Before now… nobody ever offered. It wasn’t particularly something that was on my radar. I was just happy for them to fuck me. Just that was okay. I didn’t feel like I was missing out or anything. But then you just… did that for me. Because you wanted to. I’ve never been with anyone who put me first like that before.”

Dave’s heart clenched and his chest felt tight. He wrapped his arms around Klaus’ small frame and buried his nose into the curls on the top of his head.

“Klaus” he murmured, “Klaus…”

“It’s okay,” he heard Klaus sigh into his neck, “you don’t need to say anything.”

Dave swallowed the lump in his throat and tightened his arms around Klaus. The warm weight of words that didn’t need to be said just yet, lying like a blanket over them as they held each other in the gathering darkness.

Finally, Dave broke the silence, “I don’t know whether I should be a little bit offended, you know? About not being complicated, I mean.” He grinned.

“What?” Klaus frowned, opening his eyes.

“That thing you said to Diego earlier, about his dynamic with Lila being complicated.”

“Oh,” Klaus settled back down. “That.” He paused then added. “You might play the deep, strong, silent type sometimes, Dave, but you’re not complicated. I mean, not complicated complicated.” Dave ran his fingers soothingly up and down Klaus’ arm. “It’s not like do you confusing things that I can’t work out. You’re easy.”

Dave laughed.

“I don’t mean easy.” Klaus corrected himself. “I mean…”

“I know what you mean,” Dave cut in. He pressed a kiss to the top of Klaus’ head. “You might be a chaotic, eccentric oddball at times, but to me, you’re easy, too.” Klaus huffed a small laugh against Dave’s chest.

“I love that we always seem to be on the same page about stuff,” Klaus said into the quiet stillness of the room.

“Yeah,” Dave agreed. “We click. Always have. And I suppose we trust each other too, so that helps.”

Klaus blinked and swallowed hard.

“We do click, don’t we?” His voice was small.

“Yes,” Dave said earnestly.

“This really is something special, isn’t it?” Klaus said, just as quietly. He wants confirmation, Dave thought. Despite all the bravado, he’s actually a little vulnerable and insecure and wants confirmation.

“Yes,” Dave said, giving him exactly what he needed. “For me, right from the very first moment, this just felt right.”

“For me too,” Klaus admitted softly.

Klaus rolled over and settled on his side, pulling Dave flush behind him; the big spoon to Klaus’ little spoon. Dave’s knees tucked into the crook of Klaus’ legs, his arm coming over, fingers interlacing and hands curled close to Klaus’ chest. Dave’s groin pressed against Klaus’ backside, but in this moment, Dave felt nothing more than tenderness and affection. He pressed a kiss to the back of Klaus’ neck, the spot right between his shoulders, and shifted slightly, snuggling them even closer.

“After everything,” Klaus mumbled into the pillow, voice drowsy and muffled slightly. “After all this time, and everything we’ve been through to get here.” He paused, let out a breath and then carried on. “It’s hard to believe that this is how it could be from now on.”

Dave thought back to how he used to feel about his relationship with Klaus – like his life had turned into a series of moments as precious… and delicate… and fragile as champagne flutes on a tray in the wind. He wondered when he had stopped feeling like the tiniest wrong move or misstep could bring his happiness crashing down in a shower of irreparable shards of shattered crystal.

“Believe it,” Dave replied, and Klaus sighed and relaxed further into his arms. Dave shut his eyes and held him close, his heart beating a rhythm against Klaus’ back: this, just this, just this, just this, just this…

[anothertimdrakestan]

A Lovely Intervention  -  Damian Wayne x Jon Kent & Tim Drake x Conner Kent

Words: 2.3k

Requested? Yes! From a lovely anon!

“Can you make a fic out your short where Damian is taking after his brothers? Maybe like an intervention or something? I love your shorts I basically binged them😁😁”

LINK TO PROMPTS  -> REQUESTS ARE STILL OPEN!

I LOVE THIS! TimKon is my everything and we love Damian and Jon secretly taking after their brothers and it turning into a whole family moment. This req made me soft, thank you so so so much and I’m glad you like my shorts hehehe 💓 Hope you enjoy!

“We gotta talk get here asap.” Dick called his family, needing to investigate the current problem.

“I’m bringing Kon if you’re interrupting my day” Tim buzzed in, and Dick smiled, everything was going exactly to plan. “Yeah Red that’s fine, I want him here anyways” Dick replied, hearing the whoosh of Tim and Conner take off towards their rondevu point.

“Kay gang’s all here except the demon, you hiding him here somewhere?” Jason mocked, eliciting a harsh look from Dick.

“No, this meeting is actually about him, or about us. Have you guys noticed Damian and Jon trying to imitate us recently?” A lightbulb went off for Conner as he stole the floor, recollecting his most recent interaction with the boys.

“Oh my god yea, wait get this: I’m at the farm gettin’ work done so I could hang with Timmy - don’t blush babe everyone knew we were out together - yeah, then I see Damian tearing across the field with one of Ma’s horses. And I’m like ‘Hey Punk! She isn’t yours!’ and the kid gives me this shitty little smirk like he knows something, and he keeps going! Then he has the balls to flip me off! In my house?!?” Kon was waving his hands around trying to get the point across. “Is this gonna go anywhere airhead?” Jason interrupted, and Tim grabbed Conner’s hand, pulling him down back onto the ground after he began floating with anger.

“Shh babe lemme finish I was there too” Dick looked taken aback “TIM YOU SPENT THE NIGHT AT CONNORS? YOU TOLD BRUCE YOU WERE WITH THE TITANS” Tim quickly blushed and kept talking “Well yeah, but that’s not the point! I was watching Damian cuz he wanted to go over and ‘watch the stars’ which seems lame but the kid’s messed up enough maybe he needs some star gazing” Jason rolled his eyes, tapping his wrist to hurry his younger brother up. "Shit I took Kori star gazing a few weeks ago!" Dick mumbled before Tim got back to explaining.

“Sorry, sorry, so I wake up before Kon and go down and Jon is showing Damian pictures of all his pets then he ruffles Damian’s hair [ Dick audibly gasps ] yeah I fucking know, he let him touch him. Then it gets worse. Jon was wearing your jacket Kon. With the fucking spikes. The. Spikes. And Damian complimented him like I always do like he said ‘looking sharp Kent’ and that’s literally my line. So I have to do some recon but you’re right Dick, the kid’s a robot or something, not the demon” Kon nodded, finishing his story right after Tim “Oh my you’re right, Jon told me that he wanted to give Damian something to cement his feelings, like how I give you some of my clothes and souvenirs babe, except he gave the punk a whole ass horse!”

Dick realized it was getting worse that he thought. “This is good info guys, Tim I don’t think Damian is a robot but I think he’s taking after us, remember when I caught you trying on my Nightwing outfit? Jay you did it too, do I need to remind you about the Robin suit? And Kon you know what it’s like” The three boys shifted, uncomfortable with being called out by Dick.

“Alright so what do we do? Jump off a bridge and see if the demon follows? Kid doesn’t take after me so I don’t know why this is a problem?” Jason crossed his arms, still a little hurt by the robin reference. “Shut up Jay you’re with Tim running interference while Conner and I take the lead” Dick looked at the group explaining his plan. “Conner you’re talking to Jon about being himself, don’t roll your eyes they’re teens they need shaping in the right direction, it’s the least we can do. I mean look how well Jason turned out, you don’t want that happening to Jon!” Conner nodded, glancing at Jason who was openly scowling at the group. “Shut up Jay you’ve got the easy job unless you rather take mine and try to talk to Damian about his feelings. That’s where you guys come in, if Damian tries to make a break for it you’re security.” Tim and Jason high fived, excited at the possibility of having to cage a demon.

“So, plan A is the civil plan, plan B is caging the bird and then trying to be civil what happens if plan B fails?” Tim was well aware there were odds Damian wouldn’t want to hear it. Dick sighed, “well, plan C is disgusting Jon and Dami with Kon’s sappiness” and Kon cheered. “Plan C it is!” And it was time to set the plan (s) in motion.

“Dami look! I’m like a bat!” Damian tried to suppress a smile as Jon grinned, hanging upside down on the tree he’d climbed. “C’mon I can see that smile come hang with me!” Jon cooed and Damian easily scrambled up the tree, sitting on one of the limbs with his back against the trunk. “TT Kent I’m Robin not Batman, besides shouldn’t I be trying to impersonate your father?” he joked, tracing an S on his chest.

In a flash, Jon was pulled from the tree by his big brother. Damian jumped up, not sure what had taken Jon. “At ease soldier, it’s just Kon!” Tim walked up to the base of the tree, gesturing Damian down. Sliding down the tree Damian mumbled “your Kent stole my Kent” and Tim nudged him “so you’ve staked a claim huh?” and Damian blushed, looking down and walking towards the house. “Dames Dickwing needs you for something I think he’s waiting outside. “And you’re not coming? Gonna spend another night with Conner, who is your excuse this time?” Damian sneered as it was now Tim’s turn to flush with red. “Hey you wanted to go too! Don’t pretend like you didn’t hold Jon’s hand on the way over” Damian didn’t turn around, flipping Tim off as he raced toward’s Dick’s car.

“What’s with the super-snatching?” Jon huffed while Conner set him down on top of the family barn, the view of their home from on top of the barn was a favorite spot of theirs. “Well, uh, I’m never good at these but I’ve noticed you and Dames getting really close, and that’s really cool ya know”

Jon gagged and tried to begin climbing down from the roof, “oh god Kon no. I don’t want whatever talk you’re trying to give me. You really? Aren’t you already with a bat yourself?” Kon snorted “so you admit you wanna be with the bat?” and Jon huffed, sitting down again. “Maybe a little bit - what does it mean to you!” Jon refused to make eye contact with Conner. “Kid nothing’s wrong! But if you are I just wanted to give some advice, one SuperBat to another!” Jon shook his head at the cringeworthy ship name but eventually gave him attention back to Kon.

“What I’ve learned is that each of those boys is their own person, and so are we. And you know how hard that was for me to learn especially! So, I guess we’ve noticed you kinda trying to act like me and Tim but I just wanted to tell you that Damian isn’t Tim and you aren’t me, you gotta make your own path bro” Kon nudged Jon as he nodded, “yeah, I mean you’re right Damian is nothing like your coffee addict, he’s strong and passionate and really cares if you actually look deeper and - uh, yeah. I get what you’re saying.” Kon smiled, it wasn’t often they had a good “bro moment” but it went well. “Okay good talk bud, I’m gonna take ya back over now, but remember I’m here to give advice. You know Damian is emotionally constipated and so’s Timmy sometimes so I’m here when ya need me, okay bud?” Jon rolled his eyes “okay there we go, too sappy Kon, let’s go back... Oh no, are you guys trying the same thing with Dames?” Conner nodded, and Jon groaned knowing Dami was gonna be in a bad mood now if he hadn’t torn one of his brothers to shreds yet. “Let’s go back now”

“What do you need Grayson” Damian slumped in the passenger seat while Dick began driving. He noticed Dick locked the doors and noted all the ways he could escape if Dick wasn’t who he seemed to be. “Not much little-D just wanted to chat n grab some food, I’ve missed ya!” Damian narrowed his eyes, “I thought you liked Kent, you let Tim sleepover too and he had significantly more fun with the clone than Jon and I, who knows what they were doing while we traced star patterns” Dick cringed, noting that he’d have to talk to Tim later. “Well this is actually about Jon! You’ve gotten really close huh?” Damian shifted in his seat, getting a clear view of the car’s side mirror which showed none other than Red Robin trailing a couple hundred feet behind Dick’s car. “What is happening Grayson, we’ve done nothing wrong, not to mention nothing the clone and replacement haven’t done,” Damian couldn’t fathom why he was being tortured by his mom brother.

“That’s just the point baby bat, you and Jon haven’t done anything for yourselves. You invited Jon to star watch, Kori and I did that two weeks ago, Jon’s ruffling your hair the way Kon does Tim, and you’re saving news clippings from your adventures with Jon just as Tim does with Kon. It’s time to be your own guy Dames!” This was too much emotional intervention for Damian. Noticing Tim had fallen behind he pulled the lever on the car seat and use the momentum of it flying forward to push himself out the car’s side window. Never without his tool belt, he grabbed his grapple but cursed Smallville for having nothing good to swing towards. He heard cars honk and a child threw themself out of a window, rolled smoothly on the grass beside the road, and took off.

He was in the clear until he heard the rev of Red Hood’s motorcycle. Muttering under his breath he pulled out the comm he and Jon had exchanged just a few days before, he’d seen Jason do it with his teammates why shouldn’t he? As he signaled Jon he let his thoughts divulge for just a second at how similar he was to his brothers, and how Jon really liked to copy Kon as well. “Might have a point but this is good fun” he mumbled as he radioed Jon.

“They try the intervention?”

“I think I’m still being intervened for lack of a better word. Care to give me a lift these damn Smallville buildings aren’t big enough to swing from.” Damian heard Jon chuckle. “I would say ‘I’m on the way bird-brain’ but I think that’s Kon’s line and we aren’t supposed to do that anymore” Damian groaned at the realization they’d already gotten to Jon and knowing him he’d want to talk about it with Damian. There truly was no escape, but Jon was better than getting captured by Jason and Tim.

“C’mere you little shit!” Jason screeched as he saw Damian pick up the pace. Damian would usually know when he’d lost and go in for a fight but the kid kept running. “Something’s up, he’s not fighting” Jason lookup up to see Tim soaring down towards Damian. “Wings aren’t flapping Drake you’re not airborne much longer” Jason noted as Tim cascaded through the air. “Long enough idiot, pick up is on the way”

“of - fucking - course it is” Jason stopped in his tracks when he saw not only Jon but Conner flying in, Conner on Jon’s tail. “So is this just a fun exercise now? I think the kids got the message” Tim had connected Kon to the group. “Leave ‘em be let’s go for plan C” Dick told the group and the comms filled with Tim’s groans and Kon whooping. “Nah I’m out but I still wanna give ‘em a run for it. Dami is smart he’ll figure out what he and Jon are” Jason tried to sound caring and thoughtful, but really he wanted to chase Damian and not have to watch Conner makeout with his brother. “Alright we can talk later, go get them” Dick gave the go-ahead and the three took after their younger brothers who had quite the head start.

“Clone is on our tail, can’t you go faster?” Damian complained. “Good one Rob but if I’ve got this correctly I’m the one carrying you.” Damian rolled his eyes, using his wrist computer to find the quickest hiding spot. “Left here, hard turn” Damian instructed as Jon dove into a field of grains. “Not that hard idiot” Jon laughed and Damian couldn’t contain a giggle. “Well they won’t find us... what should we do?” Jon poked at Damian.

“Sometimes I wonder how I befriended you”

“So you admit we’re best friends!”

“Glad that’s what you got”

“Well now that we’re here wanna talk about our..... feelings?” Jon waggled an eyebrow at Damian.

“Forget it, Jason finding me is better than this” Damian began to get up when Jon grabbed his hand, stopping him dead in his tracks. “Stay with me Dames, just for a little” and though Damian wouldn’t admit it, he was glad Jon asked him to stay, because he was never good at the feelings thing but with Jon he kinda wanted to try. He wanted to find what the feeling of his heart pounding out his chest and his brain being fuzzy was, and just how he could feel it just a little more often.

[plainvanillapotato]

the 100 diaries S2 E12

quarantine: may 31 2020

season 2 episode 12: “Rubicon”

the guy is running. watch he just die and no one gets clarkes message. i would love it if clarkes plane just backfired but of course they save him. 

ok but wait why was cage just random carrying a oxygen tank when he himself doesnt even need one.

tsing out here with her own personal army. then just plucking these kids one by one. damn 

these grounders really be listening to clarke just because lexa said so?? damn these grounders be loyal minus gustus and that one guy that tried to kill clarke but then got eaten by king kong

is raven really the only person out here doing all this crap?? like does clarke not realize how big of an ask shes asking of raven? raven is magic and shit but she has some limitations just to be somewhat realistic. just chill the fuck out clarke raven is doing the best out here arguably more than clarke.

i love how bellamy is still wearing that hat still looking like sean malto. but also how has someone not noticed him? but i guess bellamy like joe from you as in if he wears a hat he magically blends in.

“...all of this is for nothing” way to put pressure on prettyboy bellamy like he didnt already know that. chill clarke everyone is trying their best out here. ngl i would hate to have clarke as a manager cuz i think she would micromanage the shit out of people. 

remember in the last episode when clarke asked what her job was well i think that i figured it out:

i also wanna mention that finn literally died idk less than a week ago but clarkes in charge being out and about commanding people years her senior. i get that we had that whole episode dedicated to how finns death affects clarke but still she got over that pretty quick. a little too quick. but i guess that if youre a sky person your emotional metabolism is just through the fucking roof...

ooo clarke still be salty toward her mom. but yeah kane is kinda an enabler

but why do these people have clear paper. the art department is feeling themselves on that one. like is it because they wanted to be edgy and futuristic or is it from an actual realistic viewpoint that the space people dont have trees to create paper................does this also mean that the space people didnt have toilet paper???????? but also back to the paper thing did these kids never learn how to write in cursive??? since i would imagine actual writing utensils are limited so idk if they waste it on teaching kids cursive. actually tho does anyone have an answer to these questions??? 

where did jaha get that antler stick. i kinda want one. i like to imagine that he just saw it lying somewhere on their way to the desert and said to himself i would look epic holding that stick and then went to pick up and started using it even tho he doesnt actually need a walking stick....any hunter x hunter fans?

jaha’s mask at 8:29 is an example of what not to wear during corona season

“thanks for the water?”...while looking down a bit flustered ”its, uh..it was no problem” emori and murphy? ship?

bellamy crawling through air vents to save the day...magenta from sky high who??

also bellamy’s ear piece is giving me everything. *i know that the following meme is just a tiny phone but i just really like it so idgaf

again with the inaccuracy of bone marrow extraction.

but what really gets me is clarke recognizing what procedure is going o just by the sound of a drill. ok who is she? she be like the boy that can identify a vacuum just by the sound. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about:

https://youtu.be/Ar5nLNku0CM

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A missile?? where did these people get a missile

But also imagine if clarke was like actually i didn’t catch any of that conversation and bellamy just had to recap it like Luis in ant-man. I would die

thats a lot to ask of raven clarke. Like i could never get that shit done no matter how long you gave me. Yeah ppl be screwed if i was part of the 100

That hug btw Clarke and raven...ship? Jk i know it was just a friendship hug but yah can never know with these writers. Like i honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the writers said enemies (being part of that love triangle with finn) to friends to lovers

murphy and emori are definitly a ship. walking together behind with everyone else. Murphy said “i killed two people. I had my reasons but nobody cared.” Fuck you murphy you killed them cuz you a salty bitch. I also hate how he says this so blasé. Like dude want?? Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Murphy also said im the bad guy. Murphy is a billie elish fan?? Duh.

woah when that girl pulled out her claw????? I fell out of my seat. its actually huge. she could grab a whole basket all. They did a great job concealing/ not drawing attention to her hand before like i was so fucking surprised.

“Its pretty badass” and murphy looking at that claw tho...murphy is into kinky shit. But also that look he gave her while she walked away that was the most genuine look I’ve ever seen out of murphy.

Bellamy shoving jasper into a wall and whispering...bellamy and jasper? ship?

this secret talk between bellamy and Dante....bellamy and president Dante? ship?

But i also like to imagine that during this meeting that bellamy has the song dont be suspious. Dont be suspious playing in his head

woah. Mountain man said inconito mode activated. Reminds me of one of those green soldiers in toy story especially during the opening scene of i think the first movie

This character development in clarke is something else like remember when she talked about the grounders wanting finn out in the open and not in private causing a huge public uproar. Look at her now talking in private with Lexa about the missile. Phenomenal character growth if you ask me.

they really put all their eggs in one basket with bellamy. But bellamy be a really good basket tho. Trust Lexa trust.

where tf did this guy get an RPG??

Woah Emori be the real bad guy. But honestly she could slit Murphy’s throat and he would still live because cockroaches can still live without their head.

raven you should have just shut up. You really dropped the ball there.

lincoln???? What are the chances??? Isn’t he still a druggie?? Honestly octavias little speech would not motivate me at all. If anything it would make me want to take more drugs. At this point i would just say to Lincoln “dont fight it”

i like how they took everything but they let jaha keep his stick.

caspian is reall dressed like a hipster that sells artisanal kombucha

Jaha really has some faith in murphy...jaha and murphy? ship?

Also that was a really good shot of them murphy, jaha, and their crew climbing up the hill with a giant moon in the background

Lexa is giving me padme vibez wearing that head scarf like that

they were going to let kane and indra die

yeah sorry to break it to you abby but your child is a killer but then again so are you sooo..you really cant be out here to judge your kid like that. Like mother like daughter. But you really cant lecture clarke on this. you literally gave your husband up and you let your daughter blame her best friend for it. And on top of this you were part of the council that sent 100 kid down to earth without even knowing if earth was survivable. ma’m get the fuck outta here.

but all those lives for bellamy. i think its worth it. Because bellamy is worth everything.

theyre linking arms they got monty no!! absolutely not. they took jasper but i gotta say better he than monty bc Monty is king. Yeah jasper really fumbled with that gun. Really not smart. jasper should have just shot tsing instead

Oof a containment breach. wow what an epic door stop. Sooo loong tsing. That was such a cruel death tho but yeah she kinda deserved it.

Does Dante play the cello?? A real renaissance man isn’t he?

wow this makes octaiva and lincoln like an epic couple that conquered the world. power couple. Goals *gag* but ok does that mean that Lincoln just stopped cold turkey just like that?? Hes just automatically better? No this is not how drug addiction works. But ok sure Jan.

[popculturebuffet]

Star Vs the Forces of Evil Reviews: The Blood Moon Ball (1-15)

Welcome back.. though to most of you probably just joining me, welcome. I’ve been on a sorta hiatus from revewiing due to a combination of procrastination, depression, and being really busy. But I finally decided it was time to put boots to the ground and get back to doing what I love: Going on way too long about children’s television.  As such, with She Ra taking a bow a few weeks back and nailing it I got to thinking about another show that just so happened to end the year before: Star Vs the Forces of Evil. Part of it was very simple: She ra ended on a trriumphant note, making a well set up romance that had been it’s backbone canon, having a wonderful final battle, tons of payoff and a throughly happy ending that satisfied all involved and got tons of well earned coverage for having a deep, meaningful relationship between two lesbians finally coming together being the thing that saves the universe. It was freaking great.  Meanwhile a year prior Star Vs, after having been treated like toilet dinner by disney for no good reason by having it’s final season shoved out over a few sundays after a yearlong hiatus.. ended not with a bang, but with a wah wah trumpet. The series ending was unsatisfying, left more questions than answers, had the title character loose all likeablity and was in general miserable. I hadn’t been this pissed off at a finale since How I Met Your Mother and hadn’t seen a romance botched this badly in animation since “Merry Christmas Mordecai”. It was BADDDDD.  However it did make me want to go back to the series; To revisit the good, the bad and the just plain weird to remember what made me love the series, what made me want to throw my tv into a river before reminding myself “No dude, shit’s expensive. “, and what COULD have been, what SHOULD have been and what WASN’T. So i’ll be reviewing assorted episodes.. and the best place to start for me was with the introduction of one of the series best characters, as well as at the same time the start of a ship that was a good idea at first but would slowly take the series down with it as it started to fall apart. This is Blood Moon Ball. There will be blood, and a dead horse, after the cut. 

Before we get into the episode, one of the series most notable and honestly a damn good one, for those 2 of you not familiar with the series a quick refresher: Star VS is the story of Star Butterfly, a rebelious 14 year old princess from the Kingdom of Mewni. Mewni is your standard medievil fantasy kingdom.. but you know with wifi because they have magic compacts that work as phones and large sale acess to the multiverse. Their also ruled over by a long sucession of queens with great and terrible magic power, which is channeld through an increidbly powerful wand that’s passed down from generation to generation.  On her 14th birthday Star gets her turn with the wand.. and not long after sets everything on fire. Not wanting the kingdom to get blown up while Star figures out thing, her parents send her to Earth, and after bribing the school principal into enroling her, that’s not a joke on my part but an actual joke from the pilot, Star soon becomes an exchange student, boarding with the Diazes and soon becoming best friends with their teenage son Marco, a saftey obessed, shy talented martial artist. The two are frequently forced to beat up the hordes of Ludo, a spoiled monster king who wants the wand for himself. Things would get way darker... like in literally two seconds as the revelation star’s people stole mewni from the monsters and Star’s hatred being revealed to be partly racisim instead of standard hero and villian stuff. But that’s for future reviews. Today we have demons, internet commentors and ship tease to get to. So with the basic premise set up let’s finally get on with it.  We open on the arrival of my boy and yours, hopefully, Tom Lucitor. Tom is the prince of the underworld, basically exactly what it sounds like: fire, brimstone, demons spooky scary skeltons sending shivers up your spine. He’s also Star’s ex boyfriend. How they broke up is.. never really explained. While more details about their relationship, includign the fact Tom bought Star her iconic Devil Horn headband on their frist date, were revealed in the tie-in spellbook, and reveals that star’s arson that got her sent to mewni happened right after her and tom broke up, but never explains WHY.  My guess is since the series clearly frames the breakup as Tom’s fault in this episode and on his anger, they probably didn’t want a scene of him screaming his head off at star, either to keep him sympathetic or , more likely, because a scene of a teenage girl watching her boyfriend having a rage fueld breakdown that leads to htem breaking up would be MASSIVELY uncomfortable to watch and unlike some uncomfortable to watch scenes, wouldn’t tell us anything we didn’t know already. So unlike some later things they never pulled the trigger on this one at least makes sense.  Anywho, Tom arrives, parking in the handicap spot (a nice little gag as Star’s crush at the time Oskar points it out, while the dead skeletal horse pulling tom’s carriage turns around to look at him), and all the girls stop and stare.. including Janna, who would probably regret this moment once she realize tom was a bad boy because he’s socially awkard and has anger issues. Basically he’s Kylo Ren but his redemption dosen’t come straight out of JJ Abrhams ass.  Tom arrives at Star’s classroom, removes his shade and damn if he dosen’t have game.. but naturally showing up unnannaounced to her school (Not that TOm probably gets what school is as Mewni dosen’t have those, but still), basically assuming she’ll go out with him, after they had a messy breakup it dosen’t go well and we get a great cut of Star shoving tom back into his carriage.. we also get the best joke of the episode.  Star: So take your invitation and your fire and your dead horse and go.  Dead Horse: wait.. i’m dead? Sad but hilarious. Anyways it’s quickly conved to viewers like us that Tom has anger problems, but he insists to star he’s doing better: he has an anger managment counsler he takes with him places, Brian, voiced by the wonderful and weirdly in Disney’s pocket these days Stephen Root, and a bunny he pets. Before star can pet said bunny Marco , KARATE CHOPS TOM’S HAND OFF.. I just.. until this review I hadn’t sat back to consider just how freakishly strong that boy is , that he can just accidently chop off a hand. I mean tom may have weak joints or something but even after taking far worse blows later on his hands just.. don’t come off. Tom flies itnto a rage and it becomes clear that yeah, whatever happened, it was tom’s fault, and given the kind of rage she flies into, you can see why i’d assume the writers really didn’t want the audience to see him at his worst. I certainly don’t.  Star both worried and clearly having seen this sort of thing go bad before urges Marco to run but tom quickly recovers, both reuniting with his hand and having calmed down, and he and Marco are formally introduced, with star explaning the invite. We also get a great line with marco encouraging her “Star never go with a preadator to a second location”. This show was damn good at getting shit past the radar and i’m here for it. Anyways, Star isn’t quite sold despite tom clearly TRYING to get better, and Tom , in a really nice  move, gives her a bell and tiny hammer to summon his carriage with if she decides to go but leaves it up to her, not pressuring her or anything. For how selfish tom is initially.. this is a spark that shows h’es not a TERRIBLE person, just one who has some growing up to do. Marco however is not convinced and wants to go with, with Star teling him no because A) he wasn’t invited and it’d be rude to ask and B), she appricates the concerns but she can handle this, and implicily, despite her reckless nature knows this is a risk but knows if the night turns she can handle Tom, and that maybe he’s changed. Marco insists Tom can’t change.. which I find hilarious given his massive character arc to the point I had as eires ofessays planned, and one don about his growth before deciding to change formats to doing each ep of his journey instead every so often, to the point where two years on in the series timeline.. we’ve gone from Marco thinking Tom is a predator to...

But star decides to go and .. it’s clear from the subtext that while part of it is clear concern for star, Marco’s line about “it being fun here all the time” may mean that while he DOES have the best intentions.. part of him is jealousssssss. More on that in a bit.  For now we go to the underworld with the second best gag of the episode as Tom is toning down the spookiness to please star, and one of the guys in the picture at the top insults him... and when tom asks which one he says me. We sadly don’t get an answer but it’s small gags like this that made me want to do this episode by episode. Star arrives.. and things quickly go south. Tom tries giving her a corsage that’s a live spider and she rejects it. This admitely looks bad on both as Tom , living in you know, a hell dimenson probably sees it as a sweet gesture, and Star is refusing it.. but star does so POLITELY, and for understandable reasons, and Tom is still clearly pissed about it. Not long after, they line up for what’s essentially a prom photo.. and to get Carried by a bucket of unicorn blood, another nice little gag. Star refuses since well her best friend is a unicorn, one of them anyway, or at least it’s head.. and yes one of the species in this series multiverse is a bunch of headless unicorns. IT’s wonderful. And star also notices tom needs his anger managment bunny and is clearly pissed about it when, having dated her for several months, clearly should’ve KNOWN this might bother her.  That’s really tom’s problem here: He wants everything his way on his terms and only compromises if he thinks it’ll get star to do things with him. He’s made the PRETENSE of changing.. but he really dosen’t WANT to yet. He just wants her back and wants to change just enough to get her back so he can stop trying again. He also may , due to the underworld being diffrent and a place where being covered in a bucket of blood is a time honored tradition instead of the thing that turns a young mutant into a mass murderer, and yes I think a carrie x-men crossover would be the shit. He probably dosen’t GET that star wouldn’t like a spider corasge or bathing in her best friends blood.. but the problem isn’t that. that’s culture shock, that can be bridged with some talk.. the problem is tom dosen’t want to talk, he just wants her to do what he wants and things to be all cool and to get his way. Being a prince with two loving parents, we’ll meet them soon enough just not this episode, and tons of servants, I get the impressionf rom this and other episodes tom simply isn’t USED to not getting what he wants.He’s not USED to being told “No”, and thus has no way to deal with it healthily and isntead lashes out like an angry toddler. It dosen’t make his actions RIGHT but it does make them more understandable and makes it so Tom’s later growth FEELS natural depsite some of his sketchier actions beforehand. 

Back at Marco’s house, Marco is depressed eating nachos in a sumbrero.. which if I had corn chips, cheese and a sombrero would probably be my daily life right about now. It’s then we get a WEIRD dropped bit, as Marco hears a weird piratey voice telling him the blood moon is the moon for lovers and stuff. This is IMPLIED to be his monster arm, from an earlier episode.. but it’s.. never explained. Whatever it was going to be was dropped. Which would be fine if the blood moon itself and the end of this episode didn’t get a full explination in season 4 with the writers clearly going back to it to resolve the dangling thread.. but still not explaning the spooky voice. I mean what was it? Marco’s pirate ancestor? the sea captain from the simpsons? the monster arm? terry that bastard? Burt Macklin FBI? Old Man Withers the guy who runs the amusment park? Dirk Dastardely? A sentient payphone? The alps? Tell us damn you! Okay that tangent aside Marco decides to party crash at the advice of the ominous voice.. seriously is it Flintheart Glomgold? Nevermind. Back at the ball star is bonding with a small skeletal fish int he magma punch whent his random asshole comes up and whines for a good minute,if hilariously so, about the ball being changed.

He’s feels, looks and acts like the combination of those morons who were mad adora wasn’t “as hot” in the she ra reboot and was aged down to a teenager and the threw it on the ground guy.  After that interlude, tom shoos away a guy asking star to dance and the guy makes vauge comments about tom wanting his and star’s souls to be link while making kissy nosies. Before Tom can explain what he means by that, or at least lie about what he means by that, the blood moon is about the drop, the lights turn red and tom walks off because he wants the music to be perfect. And then Marco arrives in his really damn cool calevara outfit. Which fair play, I can see why, besides ship reasons, it gets a lot of art: it looks really damn neat.  Speaking of shipping.. it’s time. Star, not realizing it’s marco, dances with him.. quite romantically in fact. It’s here that the show conciously starts Shipping star and marco together. Starco is born, and the scnee is really good: romantic, well animated, jsut great all around. While the ship would .. end up done rather poorly and lead to some really terrible stuff at the time.. it wasn’t abd and already shipping them I loved this and even now, even knowing what woudl come later... it’s not a bad sequence. The only bad thing is what would come later, but I can’t fault the writers of THIS EP for what they would do in a LATER ONE. That’s just not fair. The ship wasn’t bad to start and the later arc springing from it in season 2 would be good.. it just quickly went in bad directions as the series went on , then disappeared, then how it finallyc ame about was just awful. But as much as I want to.. I can’t blame the sequence on this. It didn’t create rabid shippers or poor writing, it was just good and deserves to be praised as such.  Naturally tom takes this about as well as me when I found out HBO max wouldn’t be on roku at launch and prepares to murder Marco.. and promptly gets frozen by star who decides to wisely get out of there. It’s a ncie moment.. and  reminder that Star is crazy powerful, as is the wand itself, because as we’ll see later, tom is no slouch himself in the power department, but even if her attack was from behind, she still stopped him in one move.  So Star takes marco home and dresses him down for sneaking in, understandbly so: while it was an iffy situation, Star knew who she was dealing with and as shown at the end, was strong enough that tom was no threat to her, and given what we learn later, Tom’s parents would likely never let her come to real harm. For all her reckless decision making, Star thought this one out and Marco shoudl’ve repsectied that and didn’t for his own reasons. To his credit though he apologizes, Star admits to liking the dance, then the two speak in unison a few times, and we wont’ get followup on that till the last season! Roll credits. I don’t have the credits for this episode so enjoy this instead:

Final Thoughts: Blood Moon Ball is a spectacular ep. A good plot, a great introduction for tom, and great animation and humor really make the episode pop and it’s nice to get our first look at the underworld and tom himself. Tom would be back, and i’ll be back to tom eventually, but on it’s own the episode is really good and it’s standout sequence still holds up even as starco ended up in the sewer quality wise. All in all a great ep and a great starting point if you haven’t watched the show yet.  Coming Soon: A return to Star in the near future probably since Tom is great and his second ep deserves love too, as do several other star eps, as well as a look at the saluna episodes of the loud house because i’m in a gay mood for obvious reasons, and a loud house mood for less obvious reasons. Until then, feel free to hit me up with asks with suggestions or commisosns for future reviews, and until next time, later days. 

[neverwatchedonepiece]

517-519: "The Beginning of the New Chapter! The Straw Hats Reunited!", "An Explosive Situation! Luffy vs. Fake Luffy!" and "The Navy Has Set Out! The Straw Hats in Danger!"

The hat is back on!

I was excited about this. Was also oddly excited to click on the “Fishman Island” arc on CR, finally, after so long on Marineford.

These episodes were another curve ball for me. I thought the timeskip would go one of two ways: either they’d all meet straight away at Sabaody, group hug, then sail off into the New World, or we’d get a training montage for each Strawhat before the meeting.

Then I remembered you guys mentioned there would be a mini-arc and I cursed myself for being dense.

There’s not much plot to it. Some fake Strawhats are blighting the real ones’ good name and reputation. Unfortunately for them, 3D2Y is kicking off and the real Strawhats are gathering on Sabaody like the Avengers Assemble. Plus, pretending to be an infamous pirate crew isn’t a great idea when the Marines and World Government are after them.

I think I can see what’s coming. The fake Strawhats are light-hearted fodder, there only to show off their real counterparts’ training. And bring some lulz. No idea how it’ll unfold, though. That’s half the fun of watching One Piece, to be honest.

Luffy

It was good to see Oda hasn’t tinkered with Luffy’s design too much. (Saying that, I liked the Strong World outfit).  He still has those flip flops and cut offs, but now the red vest has sleeves and is open at the chest. (Gotta expose dat 8 pack and scars, right?) 

Of course, the iconic straw hat was picked up at the beginning of the episode. He was ready! Hancock and the Kuja pirates were there to see him off. Hancock packed Luffy half a year’s worth of supplies in a massive pack and gave him a handy-dandy Groucho Marx disguise in case any Marines spotted him prior to sailing out.

(Is it me, or does Luffy finally realise Hancock likes him? He kept saying, “I’m not getting married.” Though I did like the part when he refused to say goodbye because he wanted to see her again. That was nice of him. He acknowledges just how much Hancock helped him - and she helped A LOT. You could argue Luffy is as indebted to Hancock as to Rayleigh, Jimbei and Ivankov.)

Then, he set off! The next time we saw him, his massive backpack nudged Fake Luffy. There was an altercation. 

Of course, Luffy couldn’t retaliate. Drawing attention to himself and bringing the Marines down on his head before he reunited with his crew would be a Bad Idea.

He did get his own back. Just not in a way that would draw attention.

When Fake Luffy fired the gun, I cheered because Real Luffy gave us a teaser of his new power. Observational Haki! Armament Haki! Conqueror’s Haki! He deflected the bullet, dodged it, then floored the Fakers without lifting a finger.

Honestly, I cannot wait until Luffy’s next big fight. Sentomaru has returned with some Pacifistas. I hope the Strawhats get their rematch. Oooh, maybe the Pacifistas will be fodder now....

Nami and Usopp

Look at them.

Look at how beautiful Nami and Usopp are. 

It seems that over the course of two years, certain Strawhats have ended up with less clothes than they started with.

Nami has lost her t-shirt, but at least she has that bikini, right? Like Luffy, Usopp has buffed up and has a shirtless look to show off his gainz. They both have longer hair too - and it looks good on them.

Not sure about this comment from Usopp, "I don't belong to the weak trio with you and Chopper. I became a warrior who is not fazed by anything!" I guess (or I hope) it was acknowledged by all three that they were the weakest members of the crew, but it’s a bit much saying he’s graduated to a higher tier. Especially since he doesn’t know what Nami and Chopper have been doing. I like that Usopp has found some more confidence, but don’t find it at the expense of your friends.

Or, it’s classic Usopp overcompensating because he’s underconfident. Or he’s just joking. 

Nami must have quiet confidence in her fighting ability because she sat at that bar in Sabaody on her own and talked back to Fake Luffy who had just shot someone. She can control the weather and summon thunderclouds indoors. That is not someone you’d mess with.

Usopp has some new weapons in his arsenal too. He’s weaponised the plants from Bowin Island and I’ll bet he has much more than carnivorous plants up his sleeve. 

I love how casually they walked out of the bar, talking about their training, “Yeah, so I was studying new weather tech on a Sky Island...” while thunderclouds tore the bar apart in the background.

And Nami was driving a hard bargain for a discount. Never change, Nami. Never change...

Zoro and Sanji

Never realised how much I missed these guys and their bickering until I had a genuine laugh-out-loud moment (in 519, I think?)

I love Zoro’s new design. I think it’s my favourite out of the new outfits. The green robe looks great. It gives him more gravitas, as though he has now graduated from Sword Training School and is allowed to wear the academic gown. Not sure what kind of garment it is, but it’s definitely more traditional.

Sanji is still in a suit. I liked his previous style, so I’m kind of glad Oda didn’t mess with it too much. Sanji and suits are like Luffy and flip-flops, you know? He’s changed his shirt, has grown a goatee (which, of course Zoro noticed and roasted Sanji for it) and maybe his hair’s a bit longer?

Zoro arrived at Shakky’s bar first. This was a source of woe for poor Sanji, who arrived seventh after Franky, Nami, Usopp, Chopper and Brook. (Robin was eighth because she had to shake some CP goons off her tail.)

The fact that Zoro arrived first was nothing short of a miracle. I’m still not sure how he managed it. Maybe Perona dropped him off right at the door. When Sanji arrived, he was overcome with emotion at the sight of women to the point his enthusiasm freaked out a couple of innocent ladies. Then Sanji met Duval (I love how they’re friends now) checked out the kitchen and went food shopping.

On the way, he met Zoro.

Zoro wanted to go fishing. Rayleigh and Shakky shouldn’t have let him out of their sight. Instead of getting on a fishing boat, he boarded a pirate galleon and fell asleep. Sure enough, the ship set sail with him on it. “THAT IDIOT!” Sanji yelled. But it was okay. Of course Zoro would do something like that. At least the ship was headed for Fishman Island and they knew where Zoro would be.

I was annoyed for a half a second (rob Zoro of the big reunion? How dare you!) But then he showed off some of his new skills. Mihawk-esque skills. He sliced an entire pirate galleon in half. It was awesome. He still has great lines too. “I ruined your New World dream? No. It was your fault for allowing a plague on your ship.”

Has Zoro taken a Mihawk level in edginess? I think so.

Then they started arguing on the way back and I honestly laughed out loud at their shit-flinging contest. 

“Stay with me, or you’ll get lost!”

“Who’re you talking to, moustache eyebrow!”

“Shut up, lost moss!”

“How could number seven talk bossily to number one?”

“SHUT UP, I TRAINED MY LEGS IN HELL FOR TWO YEARS!”

“BRING IT ON, I’LL CUT YOU IN HALF!!”

They love to pretend they hate each other, don’t they?

Chopper

Aw, Chopper. He has definitely take an level in cuteness.  Chopper is a rare example of more clothes. He has acquired a cute, stripey shirt and red shorts. The hat is okay. It’s huge. Maybe to accommodate his massive brain (because he has absorbed the contents of all those medical books, right?) Must say I prefer his old hat. Mainly because Dr Hiluluk gave it to him and it’s a huge part of his identity. Parts of it are still there, but I guess it’s difficult to change Chopper a lot, so the hat is an obvious target.

Haven’t seen any of his new abilities yet, so Chopper hasn’t changed at all personality wise. He still loves cotton candy and, like Luffy, is still absolutely hopeless at seeing through lies and bad disguises. The part when Chopper was running after the Fake Strawhats and crying out at them to rescue Fake Robin was a bit daft. I mean Chopper did admit later on to Nami that the Fake Robin, “didn’t smell familiar.” But then, that’s the gag. It goes all the way back to Sogeking, so I’ll let it slide. :)

He really thought the Strawhats had changed so much, though. It was  interesting to see that he’d stick to his principles and go rescue Robin himself: a real marker of Chopper’s new determination and confidence in his own abilities!

After that stressful moment, it was nice to see how glad Nami and Usopp were to see him, hugging him and telling him how much softer his fur was, how much bigger he’d grown. And Chopper’s outrage once he realised there were impostors about: “WAIT, NOW I’M MAD!”

Even though he’s stronger, kind, innocent Chopper hasn’t changed that much.

Robin and Franky

Again, how good do these two look? Robin is the most drastic change out of all the Strawhats. Could you believe I actually didn’t recognise her at first? (Only the eyes and the voice acting finally gave it away.) The blunt bangs/fringe/whatever you call them were iconic to her look, so it’s a definite departure. She looks great, though. Similar to Boa Hancock.

I’m 100% being Franky’s new look. The colour scheme is the same (red/blue) and he has his loud fashion sense, but the chunky cybernetic enhancements, the sharp shades and the buzz really add an intimidating edge to Franky that he was missing pre-timeskip. And apparently, the Sunny has some new weapons as well as a Full Underwater Coating courtesy of Rayleigh. Can’t wait to see what nightmarish destroyers of ships Franky has constructed! >:D

Franky injected some tension into the narrative, which was cool, even though I am 99% certain it will turn out fine in the end. While losing the CP9 goons trailing her, Robin picked up a poster for Brook’s concert. Quite rightly, she WTF’d over it and asked Franky if he knew what was going on.

“Brook's quite the star now. From the lonely shadows to a place where everyone cheers for him. He might not come back to pirating again.”

Surely Brook would not be so ungrateful to abandon the friends who lifted him out of loneliness into the spotlight again?

Nah. Brook’s not like that. I’d bet money it.

Soul King?

Brook has now graduated from garage band Slash-wannabe to issuing health and well-being advice via the genre of soul and the medium of arena tours. 

He has acquired a manager. Before the gig, Brook had something to tell him and I’ll bet it was about quitting. 

I’m still wondering how Brook got away with becoming so famous. Wasn’t he identified at Sabaody when Kizaru kicked their asses two years ago? Hasn’t his bounty poster been updated since? Did not a single Marine think, “Hey, there was a talking skeleton in the Strawhats’ company at Sabaody. Here is another one on TV. Coincidence?”

Love that we got to hear most of the song, though. Brook hasn’t changed that much, either. He still loves those skeleton puns.

(I am very behind on replies, btw. I know. I will reply to every single one tomorrow. ^_^)

“Move, bitch. Get out the way. Get out the way, bitch. Get out the way!” - Ludacris

[builder051]

He lives to run

For @royalermine.  I’ve had these scenes in my head for a while now, but once I tried to put them on the page, they started to shape themselves around the events in Royal’s I, Zola. 

(It’s a great read, but if you don’t have time for the novel-length wonder, a basic summary is that new evidence comes to light showing that while Zola was the brains behind the winter soldier project, he was less of a monster and more of a man caught up in impossible circumstances.  That’s all you really need to know in order for my fic to make sense, but if you’re looking for recs, well, there you go.)

This falls comfortably into Heroverse, even though it pulls in Royal’s missing moment/subplot.  We’re still in that ‘post-CA:CW Steve and Bucky working for (reestablished) SHIELD as boyfriend heroes’ place.

_____

Bucky starts to pale during the pre-mission briefing.  He slumps in his chair and rests his elbows on the conference table as they watch the slideshow of maps and aerial photos of a not-entirely-decommissioned HYDRA base.  Steve steals a glance at him from the corner of his eye, then returns his attention to the presentation.

“Some of the names we’ve attached to the faces have a history,” Fury says, zooming in on a picture of a man in a black coat slinking along the perimeter fence.  It’s so grainy Steve can barely pick out his features.  He’s stopped wondering how SHIELD’s facial recognition technology works, but he doesn’t think it’ll ever cease to amaze him.  “This one’s former KBG.  With ties to Russia and Germany.”

Bucky gives a noncommittal grunt and reaches for the coffee carafe.  He tops off his cup, then stares into the dark liquid as Fury progresses to the next photo.

“Some of them, not so much.”  The director tightens up on another face.  “CalTech professors don’t have a lot of reason to be in Siberian bunkers, if you get my drift.”

Steve nods.  He’s used to jobs like this: bring back the hostages; leave the bad guys in a pile on the floor.  If there are in fact both.  He feels better about the outcome if he winds up evacuating a few civilians, but there’s something invigorating about fighting alongside Bucky, communicating in nods and glances to coordinate maneuvers they can laugh about on the plane ride home.  It reminds him of the Howling Commandos days, and even of the days before that, when they talked through baseball games as they walked home on muggy summer nights.

But there’s a long way to go before they get to that point, if they do at all.  “Any evidence they’re keeping him there against his will?” Steve asks.  He looks at Bucky again.  It feels wrong to make a bigger deal of Bucky’s trauma than Bucky does himself, but left to his own devices, Bucky would probably  never bring it up.

“Not directly, but we have reports of chemicals and lab equipment arriving at the location two weeks before Professor Carlisle did,” Fury answers.  “And this from the security camera outside his house in Pasadena.”  He advances to the next image.  A half-dozen newspapers sit strewn across the porch, along with a soggy-looking Amazon package.

“So,” Steve says slowly.  “They knew he was coming.  But he didn’t know he was leaving.”

“Exactly,” Fury says.  “Five more brilliant minds from around the country have gone missing.  Carlisle’s the only one we’ve captured on film, but it’s feasible that all of them could be here.  And with the four agents we’ve also seen, that’s ten possible opponents.”

“Or just four HYDRA with the rest as hostages,” Steve counters.

“Or any combination in between,” Fury finishes.  “Plan for the worst, hope for the best.”

Bucky scoffs.  He takes a long gulp of his coffee and sets the cup down hard.  A little splashes over the edges. Steve notices he has the handle of the mug gripped in his left hand, the light glinting off his shiny silver knuckles.  His right is balled into a fist on the table.

“You ok?” Steve asks softly.

“Yeah.”  Bucky scrapes his thumb over lip of the mug, picking at a crack in the glaze.  “I’m fine.”

“Ok.”  He doesn’t push it, but Steve drops his palm over Bucky’s clenched fist.  He asks Fury, “Know what they’re trying to do?”

“No.  Not really.”  Fury flicks the slideshow forward to show a scanned image of a shipping receipt.  It’s difficult to read through creases and garbage stains.  “The chemicals are listed here.”  Fury points.  “It’s all common enough stuff.  Every hospital and university on the planet stocks the same things.  It’s like...trying to do a crossword when all you have are the blanks.  No clues, and every letter of the alphabet is up for grabs.”

“Yeah,” Steve sighs.  “And we don’t go around doing searches and seizures in hospitals and universities, so, benefit of the doubt, I guess.”

“And that’s where we trust your discretion.  And your expertise.”

Bucky’s hand starts to vibrate under Steve’s, a miniscule, fast-paced tremor that carries up his arm and furthers the slouch in his shoulders.  Steve feels like he’s shaking too, though the movement he absorbs stops at his wrist.

“Buck?”  Steve strokes the back of his hand.  “What’s--?”

But he doesn’t get to finish the question.  Bucky audibly grinds his teeth, then shoves his chair back from the table and tears for the door.

“Buck, wait,” Steve calls after him, getting to his feet. But the door to the conference room slams.

“Shit,” Steve mutters. “Sorry.” He looks at Fury.

“No, don’t be.” Fury raises one eyebrow. “He alright?”

“I don’t know,” Steve says. “I mean, generally, yes. But... I don’t know.”

“You know what I mean.” Fury presses a button on the wall, and the holographic screen vanishes. The room feels dark without it. “Do I need to bring in another team? Barton and Romanov are on call, but...” He shakes his head.

Steve lets out his breath. “ I don’t know,” he says again. “Give me a minute with him.” He doesn’t wait for permission to step toward the door.

Bucky stands in the hall, hunched over with his back to Steve. He keeps his head down as Steve softly says his name.

“Bucky?”  Steve approaches slowly, but not quietly.  Being a little on edge is helpful for missions, but sneaking up on him will do more harm than good now.

Bucky’s shoulders rise and fall with the rhythm of breath that comes too fast. His right hand embeds in his hair, and his left rises slowly toward the wall. Steve isn’t sure if he’s going to steady himself or punch it.

“Hey. It’s alright.” Steve reaches for him. The tips of his fingers barely brush the thick fabric of Bucky’s tactical vest, but Bucky cringes and pulls away again. A strangled noise comes from his throat, and he trips down the hall toward the bathroom.

Steve curses under his breath.  If Bucky wants privacy to get himself under control, Steve should let him have it.  It’s hard to stand in the hall and know Bucky’s falling apart on the other side of the door, but Steve’s willing to try.  For a few minutes at least.

But then Bucky starts gasping.  Then retching.  A choked string of profanities reaches Steve’s ears along with the sound of liquid hitting toilet water.  

“Aw, Buck,” Steve sighs.  He paces back and forth in front of the bathroom door.  He’ll give him five minutes. He’ll give him three.  He’ll give him ninety seconds…

Not quite a minute passes, and Steve still can’t decide on a course of action.  But then Bucky heaves again, and this time it turns to a different sound.  A primal sob that’s a hack and a wail all at once.

It doesn’t matter that Bucky locked the door.  Steve breaks the bolt with one good shove  and runs to Bucky’s side, skidding the last couple yards on his knees like a batter scrambling for home plate.  

“It’s ok,” Steve says, trying to breathe and speak at the same time.  The last thing he wants is for the franticness in his voice to feed Bucky’s panic.  “Alright.  It’s alright.”  He sweeps Bucky’s hair out of his face and strokes it down his neck.  The exposed skin above his collar is damp with clammy sweat.  

Strings of vomit and mucous hang from Bucky’s lips and sway over the toilet bowl.  His adam’s apple bobs up and down.  He draws in a quavering, wet-sounding breath and immediately begins to cough and sputter.  

“”Ok, ok, Buck.”  Steve pats him between the shoulder blades, hoping to break up whatever he’s choking on.  “Breathe.  I got you.”

Air moves audibly in and out, rattling through Bucky’s throat.  Steve’s lungs burn in sympathy.  It’s clear Bucky’s suffering physically, but Steve has no idea where he is mentally.  He wraps his hands around Bucky’s trembling biceps and presses his chest to his back, desperate to ground him.

“It’s ok,” Steve intones.  “Get your breath.  It’s ok.”

But it’s not working.  Bucky gags harshly, bringing up coffee and acid all over the toilet seat.  A low whine escapes his lips, and he breaks into a fit of deep coughs.

“Come on, Buck.  Calm down.”  It’s probably the worst thing he can say, but Steve can’t stop himself.  “Calm down, please, Buck.  Calm down.”  

He’s been to the therapy sessions.  He knows Bucky can’t help it.  He knows some words carry double meanings, encoded messages that can be intentional or not.  They can be born of cruel brainwashing or just the ebb and flow of social norms.  A lot of things might be different now from the way the were in ‘45, but the world still has a hard time with men showing their feelings.

But I don’t, Steve thinks.  It’s fine, Buck.  I wish I could help you calm down.  I wish I could flip a switch and take it all away…

Bucky heaves again, and this time Steve feels nauseous too.  What is he doing?  Of course he doesn’t wish that.  Taking away Bucky’s autonomy and free will is still a crime, no matter how good his intentions.  Even though he’s said none of it aloud, Steve still feels the need to apologize.

“I’m sorry.”  He dips his chin, his temple brushing past Bucky’s ear.  “I’m so sorry, Buck.”  Steve can’t think of anything else to say, so he just sits there holding him, letting his legs go numb and praying Bucky understands.  

Finally the tension begins to ease.  There’s more space between the sobs.  Bucky’s muscles loosen, and he melts into a lax heap sandwiched between Steve and the toilet.  

Steve lets out a breath of relief.  He brushes a lock of sweat-damp hair out of Bucky’s eyes, then erases a tear track from his cheek.  “Ok,” he whispers.  “You back with me?”

“Hm.”

Steve can’t help but smile.  It’s a small response, but it’s music to Steve’s ears.  Bucky may be tender and sick and in no shape for a mission, but at least Steve has him again.  “That’s good,” he whispers.

Bucky slowly reaches up to flush the toilet.  He shifts to a more upright seated position, then blinks at Steve.  He opens his mouth, his brow furrowing as he searches for words.

Steve’s working on being patient, on letting Bucky voice his thoughts at his own pace.  He’s getting better at it, but as their therapist often points out, change takes time.  It’s still easier to give him choices.  “Do you feel up to going home?” Steve asks.  “I just have to talk to Fury for a minute, then we can go.  Or we can stay here.”

“No.”  The force of it surprises Steve.  Bucky’s weak and breathless, but his tone is clear.  “No...I…”  He swallows.  “We have to--”

“Buck…”  Steve shakes his head.  “You‘re not feeling good.  Someone else can go.”

“But it’s our mission,”  Bucky protests.  “I have to do it.”

“No, you don’t.”  Steve squeezes his shoulder.  “You’re allowed to turn it down.  And...this time I think you probably should.”

“But...what they’re doing, who knows how many innocent lives are at stake.”

“You’re right,” Steve says.  “We don’t know.  It’s like Fury said.  It’s a puzzle with no clues.”

“No!”  Bucky slams his fist down on the toilet seat.  “You just don’t want to see it.  Chemicals.  Lab shit.  Abducted scientists.  What do you think they’re doing, Steve?”  The threat of tears creeps into his tone again, along with anger and blatant obviousness.  

Steve sighs.  Of course he’s thought about it. He thinks about it all the time, even when Fury’s not showing them pictures from HYDRA’s trash can and telling them to go fetch.  What if they revitalized the program?  What if what happened to Bucky happens to someone else?  How would he feel about fighting them, now that he’s seen the love of his life fall apart and try desperately to pick up the pieces?

But they’re back to Bucky’s trauma again.  Steve doesn’t go there unless Bucky does first.  And now that they are there, Steve would rather stay silent.  He can’t, though.  Not with Bucky looking at him like that.

“They hurt you, Buck,” Steve says softly.  “I know you’re upset about it.”  That doesn’t begin to cover it.  “I am too.  But you don’t have to go after justice.  It matters more that you’re ok.”

“It’s not about me.”  Bucky’s voice drops to somewhere between a whisper and a growl.  “If they’re doing the same thing over again, they’ve got some new guy locked up in a cage.  Maybe some kid, maybe someone...someone like Wanda.”

Even in his less than stable state, Bucky’s playing to Steve’s sensibilities.  He knows exactly what buttons to push.  He always has.  If Steve weren’t so grateful Bucky’s communicating at all, he’d hate to admit that it’s working.  He can’t contradict him.  “Buck…”  Steve bites his lip.

“No, listen.”  Bucky’s jaw trembles.  He pulls in a congested breath, then twitches, and he suddenly has a handful of Steve’s collar clenched in his metal fist.  “They’re…  Fuck, Steve, they’re gonna do what they did to Zola.  Six times over.”  Bucky’s face is inches from Steve’s.  A vein throbs in his forehead, and moisture glistens in his eyelashes and moustache.  “Prisoners manipulated into killing their own families, it ain’t exactly new.  How many of those doctors were married, huh?  Fury didn’t feel like putting a number on that for us.”

“He might not know,” Steve murmurs.  He holds as still as he possibly can.  He trusts Bucky not to hurt him.  Not on purpose.  But Bucky’s dangerous.  He’s just as strong as Steve is, both in body and stubbornness.  They share protective instincts, too.  It makes them a good team, but it makes their conflicts bitter, each of them ending up with more defensive wounds than strikes landed.

“I don’t buy it.”  Bucky’s breathing speeds up again, puffs of warm air hitting Steve’s cheeks and making the whole room smell like fear and bile.  “I don’t fucking buy it.”

Bucky’s right.  About the whole thing, probably.  Steve’s all for innocent until proven otherwise, but Occam’s razor is enough to tell him that’s most likely not the case here.  Their worst fears about HYDRA are coming true.  And Bucky’s probably the best-equipped of all of them to take them down.  Except that he can’t, not without destroying himself.  If he does, he’s taking Steve down with him.

Fury will take one look at Bucky and declare him unfit to fly, let alone fight.  Steve’s not worried about physical danger.  It’s Bucky’s progress that’s in jeopardy.  Recovery isn’t linear; they’ve established that.  But how does he tell the beautiful, powerful man in his arms that doing the right thing is, in this case, the wrong thing?  

Bucky has the first shred of autonomy he’s had in over 70 years.  He’s just beginning to get over the stumbling block of Zola’s tape, to not look sad anymore when they walk into the SHIELD building where the doctor’s body had been found.

Steve can’t tell Bucky what to do.  His conscience won’t let him.  So he does the next best thing and closes the gap between their bodies, pulling Bucky against his chest.  He’s stiff in Steve’s arms for a moment, then his head drops to Steve’s shoulder, and the grip of his metal hand loosens until his palm is flat over Steve’s sternum.

“Sometimes,” Steve whispers, blinking back tears, “You just gotta take care of you.  And if you’re not, then I’m damn well gonna try.”

Bucky doesn’t reply.  He’s past words again, and crying into the fabric of Steve’s uniform.  But he shifts slightly, pushing upward until the top of his head fills the space below Steve’s chin.  He leaves no gap.  And no uncertainty.

[dearophelia]

gonna set your flag on fire - chapter 2

Thirty years after the war, things are as close to normal as they’ll get. Garrus is the turian councilor and Olivia runs Galactic Affairs, helping the galaxy rebuild. They’ve happily settled into the life they’ve built. Their kids are grown, and out living their own lives.But something goes wrong on Nora’s latest mission. Very wrong. 

chapter 02: we were born to break the doors down 

In which we meet the team. (read on AO3)

Major thanks to everyone who liked, commented, reblogged, etc., the first chapter of this! I’m really excited people are interested in reading about Nora. Additional gratitude to my cheerleaders @nightingaleseeking and @tarysande

A quick note: Alle is pronounced “Allie"

2214 - 23 years later

“Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit shit SHIT.”

“Use your words, Torrini,” Nora says, crouched behind a boulder. Her supply pylon whirs and drops an arc grenade. She snaps it onto her bandolier.

“Bad guys. Lots of guns. Chasing me. Fuck!” His voice pitches upward as he draws out the curse to three syllables.

“You did volunteer to play bait,” Micah reminds him. He sets his Black Widow on the boulder in front of him and peers through the scope. He looks at Nora on the opposite side of the creek, shakes his head, and sits down again.

“Not! Helping!” Carlos shouts, followed by a rapid bang of Mattock fire.

Movement catches Nora’s eye; she looks down by her feet, and instantly regrets it. An orange and black spider the size of her hand crawls up out of the grass onto her boulder. It starts to turn grey, camouflaging itself against the rock. Nora shudders and swallows back a gag: her armor these days is black with an orange stripe down the arm.

There’s a tiny splash, and she looks over at Micah.

“You okay?” he says off comms.

She grimaces and pushes stray pieces of hair out of her face. Her braid was intact this morning, and then she stepped out of the tent. “We need to get off this planet.” It’s not the worst place they’ve ever been, not even in the top ten, but it’s hot and humid and she’s covered in itchy mosquito bites. And it has large spiders that can camouflage themselves.

Something crawls up her neck and she slaps at it. She looks down at her gloved fingers: nothing. She rubs at her neck just to make sure, and brushes away any other sweat that’s about to drip. At least the mission’s been pretty simple.

A biotic boom thunders through the entire valley. The echo’s barely faded before another explosion follows, and then another, coming closer.

“About time Carter got here,” Micah says, shifting his weight so he can pop out of cover as soon as he’s needed. He collapses his Black Widow and exchanges it for his Typhoon.

Nora taps her omnitool, activating the external comm link and bringing their escape route into the conversation. “They’re on their way back, Starkhov. Get ready for extract.” She takes her sunglasses off the top of her head and slides them onto her face.

“On it. Approaching now, three minutes out.”

After her pylon drops a final grenade, she collapses it and attaches the small disc to her armor. This is her last pylon and she can’t afford to leave it anywhere, not until she makes it back to Tereshkova and can pick up the resupply package waiting for her.

The spider, not quite the right shade of grey to blend in perfectly, changes its mind and crawls back into the grass. She scoots as far to the other end of the boulder as she can and still stay in cover. Her boot splashes in the shallow creek and slides a little on an algae-covered rock. She holds her balance and glares down at the grass where she last saw the spider. It’s probably green now, and she’ll never find it again. Good. It can stay here.

The gunfire takes on a louder and sharper edge as the valley narrows and curves down with the river. Nora scopes into her teammates with her Valiant: Alle’s caught up with Carlos, and he’s setting off her annihilation field nearly as much as she is. Despite the force of near-constant biotic explosions, the raiders chasing them aren’t slowed by much. Alle yells to Carlos, and he turns around just in time to smash his omnishield into a raider. Carlos has the upper body strength of a raging bull and the guy goes flying, only to catch the edge of Alle’s biotic explosion and sail through the air like a ragdoll.

“Cover fire would not go unappreciated!” Alle shouts.

Nora and Micah both open fire. Nora ejects a spent thermal clip with one hand and flicks the pin out of a grenade with the other. “Fire in the hole!” she warns. Alle and Carlos sprint as hard as they can, and Nora hurls the grenade into the crowd behind them. It hits the ground with an angry electric crackle that shocks and stuns everyone within its range, giving her teammates half a moment to breathe.

Engines rumble overhead as Lucy flies into the valley. She sets the shuttle down, keeping it hovering for easier take off, a hundred yards behind Nora. The hatch opens and a combat drone flies out, speeding down the valley toward the stunned raiders.

Nora holsters her Valiant, exchanging it for her Locust, and shifts so she’s squatting. She throws another grenade, and so does Micah. As soon as the other two run past her boulder, she pushes off, sprinting for the shuttle with Micah right behind her. Lucy has the shuttle moving half a second after Micah has both feet in the shuttle, and takes off.

Micah hits the door control, silencing the wind and birds and gunfire of pissed off raiders outside.

Nora pushes her sunglasses up into her hair. “Did you get it?”

Breathing hard, Alle nods and pushes back her hood, then slips off her backpack. She unzips the main pouch and withdraws a small metal box. “One copy of classified Alliance ship schematics. It didn’t look like they’d transmitted them yet or made copies, but I uploaded Julian's obliteration virus to their server and any contacts from the last month. And destroyed their uplink for good measure.”

Carlos pops open a refrigerated storage compartment in the side of the shuttle. He tosses a bottle of water to each of the other three before unscrewing the cap on one for himself. “I am not playing bait next time,” he says, breathless, once he’s drained half the bottle.

Micah braces a large hand on the top of the shuttle. “You volunteered,” he says again.

“I am just saying,” he says. “I am not bait again.”

Nora opens her omnitool and sends off a quick message to Vega – mission a success, on our way back now – and takes a seat next to Alle. “I’ll be bait next time,” she says to silence the argument, and watches the valley grow smaller and smaller as they fly away.

***

Nora drops into a crouch behind a pile of tires. “This is ridiculous,” she mutters.

Alle nods in agreement from her spot behind a box a few feet away. “Not what I thought day one would look like.” She lifts up just a little to look over the box, and a bullet whizzes past. She ducks down again. “Two bogies, at eleven and three.”

A shot cracks across the field, followed immediately by a loud and emphatic “goddammit!” Both their omnitools light up – Chen, I. eliminated by Rabinowitz, M.

“Make that one bogey,” Alle says, swatting at a grasshopper jumping around in the tall weeds by her feet.

Nora slides the barrel of her Valiant through a tire and surveys the space in front of them. “Eleven o’clock’s still there; I think it’s one of the vanguards.” The red outline in her scope blinks out of existence, only to reappear fifty feet farther away next to another red outline. “No, it’s definitely one of the vanguards.” She waits, but the two outlines don’t move to attack each other. “Looks like they’ve just teamed up with someone.” She scans around the rest of the area in her range. “And we have someone else at two.”

“More like one-thirty,” a new voice says.

Nora spins on the balls of her feet and has her Locust withdrawn and aimed before she’s fully turned around. An impossibly-tall person in deep red armor stands in front of her, assault rifle pointed at her. A quick glance at Alle confirms her friend had the same thought process. She squints at him in the bright afternoon sun. “I rounded up.”

He taps a button and his helmet visor fades, revealing a dark-skinned man with a bright, kind smile. “Mind if I join up with you? You two look like you know what you’re doing.” He lowers his gun.

“We try,” Alle says, lowering her own gun. “Pick a spot.”

“I’m Micah Rabinowitz,” he says, setting up behind a broken Mako between them.

Nora quickly checks the group’s stats - she doesn’t know what Vega’s up to with this exercise, but she does know she doesn’t want to team up with someone who just got a lucky shot. No one gets into ICT based on lucky shots, but still. Some recruits are bound to be better than others.

Micah’s second on the scoreboard, ahead of both her and Alle, although, she notices with a slight spark of joy, she is beating him in headshots. “Nora Vakarian,” she says, holstering her Locust again. “That’s Alexandra Carter.”

Alle looks over at him. “Call me Alle or I will find a box to stand on and punch you in the face.”

Micah smiles. “Roger that.” He looks back at Nora. “Do we have a plan?”

Two biotic booms echo across the field, and their omnitools buzz in unison – Kennedy, C. eliminated by Deckard, O.; Starkhov, L. eliminated by Deckard, O.

“We hadn’t gotten much further than ‘die last,’” Nora admits. Her visor suddenly blares a low-shield warning. “What the hell?” She yanks her Valiant back from the tires and rapidly scopes in on the open area behind them. It’s a kill zone, and they’d assumed no one would be dumb enough to try to cross it in order to flank them. First Micah, and now this; she’s beginning to rethink that logic. Her scope catches someone crouched behind a low bush. “Alle can you deal with the asshole that stole my shields? Seven o’clock.”

With a twist of her hand, Alle pulls an annihilation field around her. “Gladly.” She glances up over the box, then dashes away from it, toward the bush.

Nora settles back in, covering one half of the courtyard. “What brings you to ICT, Rabinowitz?”

“A slight difficulty following mainstream protocol,” he says, a smile evident in his voice.

She glances over and watches him switch out his assault rifle for a sniper rifle. “As in ‘I don’t follow orders well’ or ‘I follow orders, just not how my CO intended’?”

“Second one.”

Smiling, Nora turns back to her rifle. Someone teleports straight into her scope and she takes the shot. Their glowing outline flickers out and, with a visibly-irritated sigh, she pulls off her helmet, nods in Nora’s general direction, and strolls off the field. Rahiri, I., eliminated by Vakarian, N.

“Okay, before you say anything,” Alle says.

Nora looks over her shoulder to see Alle crouched down behind her box again, with another new person beside her. She’d wondered why she hadn’t seen anything in the elimination feed yet. She gestures for Alle to continue.

“He made some very convincing points about us possibly needing a tech specialist.”

Whoever he is, he’s not wrong. And Vega never specified this was a battle royale to the last person standing – he just told them to gear up with target rounds and get the hell out of the shuttles. Three is better than two, but four’s even better. “And he is?”

“Carlos Torrini,” he says. “You got room for a fourth?”

Nora looks at him, and then glances around the pile of tires. She’d been eyeing an empty prefab structure about a hundred yards away, but the closest door is locked. All her decryption programs require direct physical access, and there is absolutely no cover by the door. “Sure. If you can get us into that building,” she points.

Carlos breaks into a wide, crooked grin and opens his omnitool. “Give me ninety seconds.”

***

Debriefed and showered, Nora walks out of the bathroom barefoot and rubs a towel at her hair. Three days of slogging through riverbed and muck made for an unfortunate olfactory experience when they all shed their armor in the locker room. Now, in her quarters, finally clean and in civilian clothing, she’s not quite so tired as she was when she got off the shuttle.

“Tell me you didn’t take all the hot water,” Alle says as she walks into the steamy bathroom.

“There’s still plenty,” she assures at her friend. She drapes the towel over the back of a chair and sits cross-legged on her bunk to check her messages.

Five from Quentus, all of which are memes and only two of which she understands. One from Nico, a funny bird video along with an update that he and his boyfriend have decided to move in together.

Twelve from various teammates, and those can wait until the morning. She sends all social media updates directly to spam and adds a to do list reminder to fix her spam filter.

Two article links from her dad, one titled Boom Tomorrow: Increasing the Effective Range of Hand Grenades from the very-classified Council Defense Research Department she’s finally credentialed enough to know about, and the other a hilariously-scathing review of the new Blasto movie with a suggestion that they go see it the next time she’s on the Citadel (he’ll buy the popcorn). And one message from her mom, just checking in.

She checks the time – 8:45pm on the Citadel, not a bad time to call her parents.

A message pops up: a meeting invite from Vega:

TO: ‘N3 Squad Leaders - Vega’ [Deckard, Ophelia; Vakarian, Nora; Wu, Jonah]

SUBJECT: Mission Briefing

LOCATION: Tereshkova Station, ICT Briefing Room

TIME: 1930, Sunday

DESCRIPTION: Next mission briefing. Deck, bring a notebook this time.

She sends it to her calendar, closes her email and dials a vidcall through to home.

***

The vidcall rings, a happy little tune they’ve set for Nora, and Olivia slides across the hardwood floor in her socks, nearly careening into the wall, as she rushes across the apartment to answer. When she got home today, she’d set her omnitool in her office, closed the door behind it, and silenced all but the main comm unit so she could have a few uninterrupted hours of non-crisis time. With Garrus at a Council meeting, Nora off on a mission, and Quentus drinking his disappointment this weekend (and Nico dealing with him), she hadn’t anticipated that anyone might call home, or that she’d have to race down and across the entire apartment to answer. She taps accept just before it goes to the mailbox.

Nora flickers into view. From her surroundings, Olivia gathers she’s on a ship, one of the small personnel transports the Alliance uses these days. She looks a little tired, but Olivia can’t see any injuries, at least from her shoulders up. Getting hurt in ICT is inevitable, she knows this better than anyone in their family, and she always prefers when Nora’s post-mission calls don’t come from the ship infirmary.

“Hey, kid,” she says.

“Hi, Mom.” Nora’s shoulders settle and the tension in her jaw disappears.

“How are you?” Olivia watches as Nora visibly relaxes. Though she doubts Nora remembers those days alone at all, abandonment still lingers around the edges of her subconscious, even over twenty years later.

“Good. I can’t tell you about it, but the mission went well.”

Olivia smiles proudly. If she remembers the pacing right, Nora’s well on her way to N4 by the end of the year. James and Abby emphasize cooperation over solo missions whenever possible, and she has no doubt Nora’s N4 won’t be nearly as much of a mess as hers was. “That’s good to hear. Any idea when you’ll be back this way?”

“No clue. We’re headed back to Tereshkova; it looks like Vega’s got another op lined up.” Nora plays with her dog tags, sliding them back and forth on the chain as she talks. “That’s part of why I called, actually. Dad said something about going to see the new Blasto, but I don’t know that I’ll be back before it’s been booed out of theaters.” She scrunches up her nose in half a pout. “Is he home?”

Olivia shakes her head. “I’ll let him know you called. He’s in a meeting – they’re voting on new Spectres tonight.”

Her eyes widen in excitement. “Did Quentus make the final cut?”

“Not this time,” she exhales sadly. Her heart aches for her eldest son: he’s wanted to be a Spectre since he first heard about them, even more so when he found out she used to be one. But Quentus is an unstoppable force when he wants something badly enough, and Olivia knows he’ll try again. And again. As many times as he needs. As soon as he wakes up in Nico’s guest room, having slept off the hangover, he’ll be planning.

Nora sighs. “Poor guy. I’ll give him a call tomorrow.”

“You might want to wait until the afternoon. There was something about triple-filtered black label scotch.” Some things are better not to even ask about.

A door opens to Nora’s right and she turns to talk quietly to a person just off screen. She turns back. “I have to go. We’re gonna go raid the mess for food and then Alle has some hanar soap opera,” she makes a confused face and shrugs, “she’s dragging me into.”

Olivia laughs. “Tell Alle I said hi.” A muffled hi Olivia! comes from somewhere offscreen. “And if that upcoming mission of yours happens to have a stop on the Citadel…”

“Believe me, I’ll be coming over for dinner.” Nora grins. “Love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too.”

***

“Admiral, she's a child,” Olivia argues. “You cannot keep her locked up and isolated for her entire life.”

Hackett sighs. “I don’t disagree with you, Shepard. But she has unknown Cerberus technology inside of her. It’s dangerous, and we don't know what it does. And until we do, Alliance brass isn't comfortable letting her live among the general population.”

Olivia squares her shoulders and stares him down across his desk. “All your top scientists confirmed the chip is deactivated. It’s not emitting any signal, it shows no sign of energy or power whatsoever.” She holds up her hand when he opens his mouth to argue. “I’m not saying that it isn’t dangerous, or that she’ll never pose a threat. I’m saying that right now, she’s a scared little girl who wants nothing more than a hug.”

She pauses for half a moment before continuing. She hates what she’s about to say, but she and Garrus talked at length about how she was going to make their case; appealing to the Alliance’s sensitivity and maternal instinct alone was never going to work. “Keeping her locked up as a lab experiment is only going to breed resentment. If the chip does become a problem later and you’ve kept her in a cage, she’s going to be far more dangerous than if you’ve let her be a kid.” If you’ve let her be loved. “The chip’s off for now,” she continues. “Garrus and I are willing and able, and happy, to take her in. And you know you can trust us.”

He sighs again, heavier this time, and scrubs a hand over his face as he leans back in his chair. “You two aren’t exactly out of the spotlight. What happens when some Cerberus agent sees news footage of your family and recognizes her?”

Olivia grinds her back teeth. They’ve been trying to get the press to leave them to their privacy, but she’s even higher-profile now than she was during the war, and Garrus is the sixth-ranking turian in the galaxy. Though the bodyguards Wrex provides help, it’s still an exercise in frustration at times. “She’s three,” she says. “She was born on that station. Everyone on it is dead. Her biological parents are both dead. There’s likely not anyone to recognize her.”

Holding up his hands in defeat, Hackett gives in. “I will bring it up with the others,” he says. “But,” he softens his voice, and she knows that it’s now Steven talking to Olivia, not Admiral Hackett talking to Captain Shepard, “are you going to be able to give her up to us if something does happen?”

She squares her shoulders, looks him right in the eye, and lies. “Yes.”

***

Nora drops into her seat at the large wooden briefing table opposite Deck. They docked at Tereshkova this morning, and she’s spent most of the day shopping for a new visor. Everywhere she tried had the one she wants on backorder; she’ll have to talk to the Alliance’s Ariake rep and maybe flaunt her last name to pull some strings. She pokes her straw through the lid of her iced tea lemonade, swirls the ice around, and takes a sip. It’s absolute heaven, especially after a week of drinking only water and bad Alliance-manufactured coffee. She sniffs the air and squints at the foil-covered package in Deck’s hand. “When did they get a falafel place?”

Deck shrugs, chewing a bite of her pita. “Okay,” she says when Jonah walks in, “I have been coming here for five years and have never found the McDonald’s. Rahiri drew me a damn map last time, and I still couldn’t find it.”

Jonah smirks as he takes a seat two chairs down from Nora. He opens his takeout bag and offers Deck first dibs on his fries. “It’s on the Section 4 docks, around the corner from the quarian fortuneteller. Who, by the way,” he takes his fries back before Deck can eat them all, “is still convinced I died two years ago.”

“Hold up,” Nora says. “You paid fifty credits to a guy – who you already knew was going to tell you that you were dead – to tell you that you were dead? Which you are very clearly not?” She tears a piece off her soft pretzel and pops it into her mouth. While the pretzel is totally delicious, she’ll need to get actual dinner after the briefing before they all land in a bar.

“Yeah, man,” Deck stretches over the table and snags another fry. “If you’re giving money away, I’ll take it.”

“He’s a very sad man who never succeeded in his pilgrimage, but he won’t take a handout. So I pay him fifty credits, he throws some rocks on the table, tells me I’m dead, and he gets to eat dinner tonight that isn’t protein paste.” He moves his fries out of reach and back to safety.

Deck leans back and kicks her feet up onto the chair next to her. “You are so nice,” she points a stolen fry at him, “it’s disgusting.”

Nora catches Jonah’s eye and smiles. She always gives a few credit chits to the kids who hang out on the docks, and they both know Deck does the same in the salarian districts where she buys her snacks. The war ended over thirty years ago, before any of them were born, but scars are everywhere.

The doors swish open and Commander Vega enters. “I’m stealing you from leave; don’t get up,” Vega says when the three lieutenants move to stand. He takes up his position near the head of the table, and stares at Jonah’s food. “Alright,” he sighs, “I live here. Where is the McDonald’s?”

“Section 4 docks, by the quarian fortune teller, apparently,” Deck says. “But I think he’s full of shit.”

“There’s a station directory,” Jonah says flatly.

Biting back a laugh, Nora keeps quiet on the issue: she’s only ever found the McDonald’s by accident, and never anywhere near the Section 4 docks. She jabs her straw at the ice and takes another sip.

Vega blinks at his soldiers, shakes his head, and then kills the lights. He activates the display at the center of the table, and a blue holographic galaxy map flickers into existence. “We’ve got two missions: reaper cults and Cerberus. Any preference what we talk about first?”

“Is there a third option?” Deck asks around a mouthful of falafel.

“Nope.”

“Reaper cults,” Nora says, when neither of the others says anything.

“Right,” Vega says, and taps at the control panel on the wall. “We’ve got reports from both Omega and the quarians of suspicious activity coming and going from the Skepsis relay.” He focuses in on the Sigurd’s Cradle cluster.

The map zooms in past the cluster and to a star system. “It was enough for the quarians to send scouts. They tracked a ship to Psi Tophet, where they found evidence of reaper cult activity. Normally, we’d just keep an eye on it and leave it alone: they’ve largely faded to the edges of the galaxy and keep to themselves.”

Though Deck’s still lounging back in her chair with her feet kicked up on the seat next to her, Nora sees the tension taking hold in her shoulders. Her hand shakes as she sets her sandwich down. They all have their ghosts.

“But?” Deck prompts, voice tight and flat.

“But, twelve cargo ships have gone missing in the last eight months after departing Omega.”

“Things go missing around Omega all the time,” Jonah points out. “Why is this weird?”

Vega taps the panel, and flight paths overlay the galaxy map. “Because all their trajectories required a relay jump at Skepsis, and they were all carrying relatively large hauls of eezo.”

Jonah lifts his eyebrows. “That’s worth investigating.”

“Alliance brass thought so, too. Deck, I know this is an uncomfortable topic for you, but you have firsthand knowledge –”

“Not willingly,” she mutters.

“– of how these cults work. You’d be able to notice things the rest of your squad won’t. I’d like you leading this one.”

Nora watches as Deck takes a deep breath and shoves the tension away when she exhales. It’s impressive. She wishes she was that quick at calming herself whenever Cerberus is up on the monitors.

“Sure,” she says, cracking her neck.

“You’ll take Kennedy, Hayes, and Starkhov. This is recon only. I don’t want you engaging. Hopefully it’s nothing.”

“Twelve missing eezo cargo ships, and reaper cults near the Leviathan homeworld,” Nora says. “I think we can hope it’s nothing all we want.”

Deck points at her, agreeing. “If this is supposed to be recon only, can I have Rahiri instead? Kennedy is not good at stealth.”

Vega shakes his head. “No, Rahiri’s on a mission with Chen.”

The three lieutenants look at each other, and then back to Vega.

“You can’t just leave that there, sir,” Deck says. “Irene and Isaac have been at each other’s throats since the day they met. What the hell do you have them doing together?”

“A classified op, for which both their skills were uniquely suited.”

A moment of silence, and then a collective nod of comprehension. “Assassination,” they say in unison.

Vega clears his throat before any of them can ask for details he can’t give. “You’ll head to Haignere Station, where you’ll meet up with an Omega scout ship that’s establishing a listening station in the Pylos Nebula. They’ll take you to Psi Tophet, at which point you’ll leave in an FTL shuttle and proceed on your own.”

“And we trust Aria T’Loak to follow through with this?” Jonah asks, one eyebrow raised high. He crumples up the foil his burger came in and drops it into the grease-spotted paper bag.

“It’s her eezo shipments that’ve gone missing,” Vega says. “She has a vested interest in this. It’s financial, but no less legit.” He looks at Deck and tosses her an OSD. “Operation Anubis leaves in three days.”

Deck catches the drive, and nods. “Understood.”

“Now,” Vega says, changing the display, “Cerberus.”

Nora swallows, her mouth suddenly dry. If she even still has the memory, it’s dim and buried deep. But she knows what happened, and that alone is enough to conjure up images of a station full of the dead, and a tiny scared toddler tucked up underneath a desk amidst the carnage.

“The galactic intelligence community has assumed for a while that Cerberus is under new, consolidated leadership, but other than an increase in organized attacks, we haven’t found any real proof. However, the Alliance has come across some new information.”

Though the chip hasn’t shown even the slightest hint of energy since it was deactivated, and though she’s taken anatomy courses that taught her it’s impossible, some days she swears she can feel it buzzing in her head. She takes another bite to try to settle her nerves, but her pretzel’s cold now.

“How?” Jonah asks.

“Shadow Broker,” Vega says.

Nora presses her lips together to hold back a smile, despite her mood. She doubts even the highest of Alliance Command knows who Vega’s wife really is. She’s used Liara’s intel herself on a handful of missions, and even once spent a few days on a Broker base hiding out from pirates. Her team keeps pestering her how she knows the Shadow Broker well enough to have access to a base, but she’s gotten very good at shrugging silently. So has Vega.

“The Broker’s intel referenced several Cerberus bases. Scouts checked it out – all abandoned, but information on a server led us to a planet in the Faia system of the Ismar Frontier.” He taps on the interface and the map zooms to the other side of the galaxy, highlighting the second planet. A little label pops up, Zorya.

Deck’s chair squeaks as she sits up to stare at the map. “That is the ass-end of nowhere.”

“That’s probably why they chose it,” Jonah says.

Vega nods. “Zorya used to be Blue Suns headquarters, but the Reapers wiped everyone out. Galactic Affairs rated the system destroyed and abandoned, so it never got any rebuilding attention. Based on the apparent age of the base, we assume Cerberus moved in a few years after the Aquila relay went back online,” he says. “It’s a mid-level research facility, but it’s active, and therefore the best lead we have to find their actual headquarters.”

He zooms in on the planet, focusing on a compound deep in the jungle. “We have blueprints, and their guard rotations and main door access codes as of two weeks ago. Your job is to infiltrate the compound, grab whatever data you find, and then blow it. Captured Cerberus agents are a perk if you can, but thirty years underground probably hasn’t eased their paranoia.”

Nora takes a slow, quiet, deep breath. And then another. Good air in, bad air out. After three, she’s settled enough that she can focus on participating in the briefing. She wipes her clammy palms against her thighs.

Jonah taps on the glass panel built into the table, activating the interface. He calls up data on Zorya. “It rains 98% of the time on that part of the planet, and the only intel we have on plants and wildlife is from the vorcha. Which obviously makes it reliable.” He looks up. “Apparently there are mutated pyjaks and something with very long thorns.”

“We’ve been worse places,” Nora shrugs, calling up her own interface.

Sighing, Jonah shakes his head. “We need to stop saying that.”

“Well,” Deck says, sliding her straw up and down through the lid so it squeaks, “we have.”

“As long as those things with long thorns aren’t trying to digest Torrini, I think we’re okay,” Nora says. The tightness in her shoulders starts to relax as she has something concrete to focus on.

Vega clears his throat. “Even though all of Chimera’s going on this, I’m putting Wu in charge. Vakarian, you’ll be second.” He lifts an eyebrow ever so slightly, a silent inquiry for them to speak now on the matter of command or forever hold their peace.

Normally, she’d argue. Chimera’s her team, and has been from the very beginning. But they’re going into an active Cerberus facility – not just a small cell, an actual fully-functional base – and she probably has no business going on this mission in the first place, even less business leading it. 2IC is fine by her. She nods.

“We’re dubbing this one Operation Grigori. You leave for Haliat-Gemini in four days. You’ll pick up one of our new stealth FTL shuttles from the shipyard, a turian stealth cruiser will take you to the Ismar Frontier, and you’re on your own from there. I want an infiltration plan before you leave.” He tosses Jonah an OSD. “Here’s all the intel.”

“Yes, sir,” Jonah says. He fumbles the catch and has to duck under the table to pick it up. Deck rolls her eyes while Nora bites back a smile.

“Alright, dismissed,” Vega turns the lights back on. “Go have fun.”

The three of them stand, salute, collect their trash, and head toward the door.

“Vakarian, hold up.”

“I’ll meet you there,” she tells Deck and Jonah, and turns around. “Yes, sir?”

He waits until the others are gone and the door’s closed. “Drop the sir.”

She nods. Vega’s her commanding officer, but he’s also known her since she was a kid. Though most of the time they’re Lieutenant Vakarian and Commander Vega, sometimes they need to talk as Nora and James. As weird as it is for her to be ordered to jump out of a dropship six miles aboveground by someone who used to braid her hair, she bets it’s even weirder for him. “What’s up?”

He looks at the display, still showing the Cerberus compound, and then back at her, brow furrowed in concern. “You okay with this one?”

Nora watches the blue hologram slowly spin, giving a full aerial view. “Yes,” she says, more confidently than she feels. Her previous Cerberus missions have always been at a temporary location or a base they stole from someone else - never on their own ground. The chip itches. Not for the first time, she wants to claw inside of her skull and rip it out.

“You sure? I can swap you with Kennedy. Deck won’t mind.”

She studies the map. They’ll need a significant amount of stealth to even get into the facility, and once inside it’s all tight corridors and blind corners. What the team needs is a sniper and non-concussive grenades, not a claustrophobic vanguard. “Yeah,” she says quietly, “I’m sure.” She looks back at him and offers him a smile. “Thanks, though.”

“And you’re good seconding?”

She lets out a short, sharp laugh. “Please put Jonah in charge.”

He holds her gaze for half a moment longer, and then nods. “Alright, sobrina. Eezo job takes off in three days, if you change your mind.”

“Got it, boss.”

“Have a drink for me. I’m here all night doing paperwork,” he sighs. “And stop having Torrini as bait, would you? Command’s starting to wonder a few things.”

Nora grins, and it’s bigger, more genuine than the one she gave him just a minute before. “I’ve already heard it from him. He’s off bait duty for the foreseeable future, don’t worry.”

He waves her out the door. “Enjoy leave.”

She offers him a casual salute. “See you in a few days.”

[kprciffdw]

Kim Possible: The Extremely Secret Files-Part 7

They arrived at the Planet Endako and landed in Megapolis. They jumped out of the ship immediately after they landed. Kim: "Let's go find Ron." Ratchet: "OK."

They rushed into the city at full speed. As they rushed through the city, they fought through many robots that came at them and tried to attack them. They managed to clobber every robot that came their way. Further into the city, they were taken by surprised from what appeared to be a large thug in a chopper. Thug: "Peek-a-boo!"

The thug flew off. Kim: "Who was that?" Ratchet: "I don't know, but I would like to find out. Let's go."

They continued after the thug. They kept on rushing off, fighting more robots along the way. Soon enough, they reached a balcony where they came face to face with the thug in the chopper. Kim: "Oh!" Thug: "Greetings, morons. Since my employees did such a lousy job of takin' care of yous twos, I thought I'd come and handle things myself." Kim: "You're the leader of those squads of boneheads? If your men are as terrible as the name of your company, then it's no wonder they were unable to even come close to bringing us down."

Ratchet laughed at her remark. Thug: "No one bad-mouths the name Thug-4-Less or my squads of men! You and fuzz ball are goings down, Missy Redhead!" Ratchet: "Missy Redhead? That's the dumbest name I have ever heard." Kim: "Well, at least he didn't say "seriously" like that other bonehead back at home who calls me red."

They fought against the thug leader. It was a rough battle, especially with the thug leader blasting and destroying everything on the balcony and attempted to destroy the actual balcony with them on it. But they were able to defeat him before he was able to do that. His chopper began to fall. Thug: "Don't think this is overs! I'll remembers yous twos!"

They watched as he fell many stories to the ground. Kim: "Glad that's over with. Let's meet up with Ron. I only hope he's still at the penthouse, even more so then earlier; safe and sound." Ratchet: "So do I."

They continued their trek through the city. They were eventually they were able to reach the penthouse. There, they met up with Ron. He was very, very relieved to see them again. Ron: "KP! Ratchet! Thank goodness you were able to get here!" Kim: "We got here as fast as we could. Are you OK, Ron?" Ron: "I'm fine, but I'm not the one you should be worrying about! Clank should be much more of a concern to you! I can't believe I let that Thief take him from under my nose like that. I've only known him for such short time and yet I felt as though I have been such a terrible friend to not have prevented this from happening. I should have never left him alone to order Nacos!" Rufus: "(cry) Clank!" Kim: "Don't worry, Ron. There really wasn't anything you could have done to prevent this. We're here now, so let's go find him together."

Ratchet took a few sniffs of the place and almost gagged. Ratchet: "Ew, what is that horrible stench? It almost smells like unappetizing and non-nutritional food-like substances." Kim: "That would be from Ron's favorite kind of food. Really, Ron? Even in another galaxy, you somehow manage to find a way to order Bueno Nacho?" Ron: "Hey, the food isn't Bueno Nacho; it's something that's almost like that and that's good enough. Right, Rufus?" Rufus: "Oh, yeah! Very good!" Ratchet: "It's still rancid." Kim: "Come on, let's go find Clank." Ron: "I'm right behind you, KP."

They left the penthouse and continued on their way.

They continued their trek through the city now along with Ron. There were even more robots that they had to fight through. Both Kim and Ratchet handled them with ease, but Ron ran away screaming, which irritated the both of them. They eventually found themselves in a facility where there were a few cranes that were operational with the help of Ratchet's new gadget. Ron: "Ooh! A futuristic crane game…type…thing…May I try?" Ratchet: "(groan) Fine. Knock yourself out." Ron: "Alright!"

He got started on operating the crane. Ratchet: "That should keep him busy for a while. Now let's hurry off and look for Clank." Kim: "I'm there."

Kim and Ratchet ran off. As they kept going, they were caught off guard again by Shego's sudden appearance. Ratchet: "Shego? What are you doing here?" Shego: "Well, let's see. You and Kimmie ditched me on that swamp planet, so I came all the way to let you both know that I was so not OK with that." Kim: "And now you want payback." Shego: "Rightio, Kimmie."

Shego's hands started to glow again, Kim took on a battle stance. Ratchet: "Don't tell me; you've got this?" Kim: "Heh! You bet. Go find Clank; she's my problem."

Ratchet ran off while Kim fought Shego. He kept going until he found Clank exactly where he was on the footage. Ratchet: "Clank? Hang in there, Clank, I'll come for you."

Just then, the Thief showed up behind Ratchet and pushed him off the ledge above the room after it. The Thief ran off. Ratchet: "Son of a Qwark!"

He got up almost immediately and approached Clank. Ratchet: "Alright, buddy. Let's get you up and running again."

He worked to get Clank out of his predicament. Just then, Ron came rushing in. Ron: "Hey, Ratchet. Have you seen KP?" Ratchet: "She's fighting Shego."

It didn't take long for Ron to notice Clank. Ron: "OH! CLANK! Hang on, Clank! I'm coming!" Ratchet: "Ron! Wait!"

Suddenly, both Kim and Shego show up as they were still fighting each other. They accidentally knocked Ron off of the ledge, Shego then shoved Kim off the ledge and into the room, she landed directly on top Ron. She looked up at Shego with a tense look on her face. Kim: "Grr! Shego!" Shego: "Later, Kimmie."

She ran off and sealed them in. Kim and Ron got up. Kim dusted herself off as she groaned. Kim: "She so won't get away with that."

Ratchet was able to get Clank operational again. Clank sat up, still awaking up from his slump. Clank: "The final digit of pi is…" Ratchet: "Clank?"

Kim and Ron approached Ratchet and stood beside him. Kim: "Clank, are you OK?" Clank: "Ratchet? Miss Possible? When did you get here? I must have dozed off." Kim: "We came as soon as we heard that you were snatched by the Thief." Clank: "You…came for me? I am touched. I feel grateful." Kim: "No need to thank us. So not the drama." Ron: "Oh, man! I really wanted to hear what that last number in pi was!" Ratchet: "It doesn't matter, Ron; pi is infinite." Ron: "But I would have liked to hear what that last number would have been; that would have been interesting." Ratchet: "I said it doesn't matter, Ron!" Kim: "So, how do we get out of here?"

Just then, Rufus broke right through a nearby air duct. Ron: "Rufus!"

Rufus ran towards Ron as he crouched down, he then picked him up and put him right back into his pocket. Kim: "Rufus? Where did you come from?" Clank: "Hm…"

Clank looked towards the air duct. Clank: "I believe your hairless rodent has provided a means of escape. I will be right back." Ratchet: "Go for it, Clank! We're counting on you."

Clank got himself up and went towards the air duct.

Clank managed to make it to the other side of the air duct. From there, he continued on his way. As he progressed on, he received some help from a few other robots. Together, they made it around the small area and back towards where his friends were. He managed to find another exit for them within that inescapable room. Kim: "Way to go, Clank!" Clank: "(giggle) Nothing to it or rather…uh…what was that thing you would say when something was easy?" Kim: "No big?" Clank: "No, that other thing you say." Kim: "So not the drama?" Clank: "Yes! That's the one!" Ratchet: "Come on, guys, let's go get back that Experiment."

They walked out and continued on. Ron: "You know, I still owe you that free meal that I just earned." Clank: "Why? So you can order those Nacos for you and Rufus?" Ron: "Well, yes, that, but for me to also thank you for letting me order whatever I wanted from that virtual menu." Clank: "Oh! Well…that is very thoughtful of you, Ron."

Kim and Ratchet smiled as they were listening to their conversation. Suddenly, the Kimmunicator went off. Kim pulled it out. Wade: "Hey, Kim, did you and Ratchet find Clank, yet?" Clank: "Yes they have. I am right here, Wade; alive and well." Wade: "Clank! I'm so glad you're OK, I was worried about you." Clank: "Well, no need to worry anymore, I am alright." Kim: "So, Wade, got anything on the whereabouts of those shuttle parts?" Wade: "I wasn't even thinking about that until just now, so I'm glad you asked. There should be one nearby, but…hm…that's strange, it seems to be moving…"

Just then, they heard what sounded like a hover vehicle. Sure enough, arriving on the scene was Dr. Drakken and Shego on another one of their hovering vehicles. Drakken: "Kim Possible! I never would have imagined that you would even be here in this galaxy of all places." Shego: "Even though I told him that is was a possibility." Drakken: "By they way, you wouldn't happen to be looking for this, would you?"

Drakken held up another piece of the space shuttle. Ratchet: "Kimberly! That's another piece of your dad's space shuttle!" Shego: "Aw, poor Kimmie, too bad you won't be getting this back, but since you want it so bad, just try to get it from us."

They flew off. Ratchet: "Come on, Kimberly! Let's go get them!"

Both Kim and Ratchet went after Drakken and Shego. They attacked them as they chased after them. Shego attacks them back with the use of her glowing green hands being fired at them as energy beams. They exchanged insults and smack talk as they continued this fight. It went on for an extended period of time. Eventually, Drakken and Shego were defeated and the shuttle piece was thrown directly towards Kim and Ratchet. Ron and Clank were able to catch up to them a little afterwards. They were shown the shuttle piece that they were able to get back. Ron: "You've got it! Way to go, you guys!" Kim: "No big. Drakken and Shego are so not difficult to handle."

Kim and Ratchet did another high-5 with each other. They looked over towards Drakken and Shego who were still hovering close to them. Drakken: "You may have won this time, Kim Possible, but the next time we meet, I will defeat you and that includes your sidekick, that robot and that cat…alien…thing!" Ratchet: "Lombax!" Drakken: "Whatever! Farewell!"

Drakken and Shego hovered off. Clank: "What an unpleasant and disturbed individual." Kim: "Tell me about it." Ratchet: "Now that we got everything we needed here, let's get off of this planet and get back to our missions." Kim: "Sure, I'm there."

They made their way back to the ship. Shortly afterwards, Kim and Ratchet looked at Ron and Clank then at each other after realizing something. Kim: "Ratchet?" Ratchet: "I've got this."

He jumped into the ship and, with a flip of a switch, a set of 2 back seats opened up. Ratchet: "And I thought we wouldn't need them. Good thing Wade thought ahead."

Ron got in, Kim was about to do the same but she looked down at Clank who just glanced up at her with no emotional response of any kind. Kim: "Uh…the second front seat is usually your spot, right?" Clank: "Yes, but it is alright. You can still have that, Miss Possible."

He walked up to the ship. Kim: "Are you sure about that, Clank?" Clank: "I am positive."

He got in and sat next to Ron in the backseat behind the driver's seat, which is obviously Ratchet's spot. Kim seemed concerned. Kim: "OK…"

She jumped in and back on to the front seat next to Ratchet. She looked back at Clank. Kim: "If you would like to switch seats with me, please let me know and I will gladly do that." Clank: "That is not necessary, but I do appreciate your consideration."

Kim smiled a little. They took off and left the planet.

[mzargentum]

I’m Still Here

In honor of my bestie babeh @insomniasix‘s birthday today, here’s a little Six and Muerlin adventure shenanigan.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY BEAUTIFUL BABEH LOVE! I know I give you mooshies out the moogle’s magical butthole, but the amount of happiness and pride for myself that you’ve given me over these few months of us even meeting has seriously been more than I’ve felt with most of my friends. You are my Six and I will never not drown you in mooshies and I will never stop lovin’ you. So let this be a reminder that you ARE the best, you DESERVE the best and to let NOTHING stand in your way.

Warnings: Swearing.

Word Count: 1,612

Characters: Six Ulric and Muerlinian Zephyr (Arcana)

Who is Six Ulric?

Asked no one ever.

It was a name that meant many things.

It meant love to all that she held dear and sudden death to those she did not.

It brought hope to the kingdoms of Eos and the bad guy’s to their knees.

And it pretty much added a new depth to “oh, shit”.

To me, it was the name of my mentor, closest friend and the most badass glaive that ever served the fallen kingdom of Insomnia. 

Not to even mention the fact she’s a frickin’ Astral herself….well….sort of.

She knows my lightning obsessed father better than I do and I’M the actual wizard.

A wizard that rules over an entire kingdom…wonder whose bright idea that was. If anything, I should probably be in prison…or worse. I mean, that’s really what everyone wanted from the get go.

Everyone, but Six.

Even though it took some doing, I will admit I am a handful, she’s stuck by my side through all the pain, all the tears, all the dumbass mistakes I’ve made over the years and I knew no matter what, she’d stick by me through the rest.

…Although…this time, she might actually kill me.

“Muerlin, I’m gonna kill you!” A furious huff sliced through the wind as we raced through the puddled surface of the Alstor Slough, armed Imperial Soldiers hot on our tail.

Yep, there it was.

Not like she didn’t have a reason to be pissed. I mean, I did kind of steal a really valuable item from the Nif’s treasury in broad daylight, but we wouldn’t have gotten caught if those stupid giant robot things hadn’t exploded.

….which, was actually also my fault.

“By Shiva’s frozen ass, Muerlin! Just give them the fuckin’ box!” Six was at her wits end. 

We were severely outnumbered and there was barely any way to escape. They sent ship after ship filled to the brim with soldiers to retrieve this item from us and probably kill us, but the contents of this silver crate were worth far too much to allow those bastards to get their grubby mitts on them again.

“We can’t! It’s too important!” I nervously shouted. “Besides, it’s probably the only reason why they’re not shooting!”

“That doesn’t mean they won’t risk it!” She had a point. Obviously, they were worried about damaging it, but at some point, they were going to take their chances with the sniper.

Lucky for me, I did have one trick up my sleeve. “We’ll make it! Just trust me!” I shouted as we approached the lake occupied by multiple hungry catoblepas.

As we got closer to the muddy waters, I heard an exhausted “oh, crap” which let me know that the glaive had caught onto my plan and although I know she wasn’t loving the idea of potentially get trampled to death by giant catoblepas hooves, it was our only clear shot of shaking the imperial army off our hinds.

“You know they aren’t going to wait until we’re close enough to start shooting, right?!”

“Heh, wouldn’t that be great?!”

“We have to time it just right!” Six zeroed in on the deepest part of the lake while I concentrated on the Nif’s guns waiting for that one subtle…

*click*

“NOW!”

Before I knew it, my mouth had completely filled with water. The sudden shock nearly caused me to let go of the box, but a monstrous roar that pierced my ears brought me back to reality as I felt a firm tug of my arm yank me back to the surface.

“Bloody hell…”, I panted as I gasped for air, Six tugging against my arm.

“Come on”. She helped me up before we darted toward the trees disappearing from detection, not once looking back to the chaos we left behind.

“We need to get the hell outta here, ASAP”, Six panted as we finally stopped to catch our breath.

She was right. The soldiers would be tied up with the catoblepas for a while, but not long enough for us to relax so an escape was definitely in order.

“Yeah, but where? The first place they’d look is the Coernix Station”.

“The Hunter HQ is too far without a ride and they’d see us from above”. It was clear how irritated she was and for good reason. We were pretty much fucked. Until…

“I know!” A sudden fire flew up my butt which kept me from getting discouraged at the super pissed off death stare I was getting from my assassin best friend. “This way, hurry”.

“This better be good”, I heard her snarl as we took off in a new direction.

Although her irritation was still obvious, she couldn’t possibly resist that pleasant “ya’ll still keepin’ on keepin’ on?” as we finally reacted out destination.

“Hey, Wiz, long time no see”. The old chocobo farmer could easily detect the glaive’s aggravation as she peeled her drenched raven locks from her face.

“Looks like you two’ve had a long day”.

“Heh-heh, youuu could say that”, I chuckled with my failed attempt to not look terrified by my best friend’s stare piercing into my cheek like her bloodstained katana. “Mind if we crash here for a bit?”

“Oh, sure. The caravan is free. Help yourself”.

Finally, we could relax.

After a day of crazy havoc and looking death in the face via enemy imprisonment, torture, near failed escape, drowning and a catoblepas stampede, I put the treasured box down onto the table and plopped face first onto the couch.

A sudden growl caught my attention causing me to turn toward my still fuming friend.

“Um…aren’t we forgetting something?”

“Well, Wiz IS a wiz in the kitchen, Six. I’m sure he’ll feed us”.

“THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!”

Well, you can’t blame a girl for tryin’.

“What is so godsdamn important about this box that we had to nearly become Imperial puppets for it and why were the Nif’s so hard on getting it back?!”

“Is there some mystical artifact that would bring Reggie back to life to rebuild Insomnia?”

“A device that’ll destroy their entire Magitek production?”

“EMPEROR ALDERCAPT’S BALLS?!”

Damn, she was more pissed than I thought. Not gonna lie, my bladder was about to go oh, shit, but I couldn’t help, but feel a little proud of myself…

“…what’re you smiling about?”, Six asked with a suspicious raised eyebrow, her nose scrunched.

“Well, you could open it and see”.

The rage that previously consumed my friend suddenly washed over and was replaced with apprehension as she gazed toward the mystery box. I noticed a slight trembling of her hands as she approached it.

On one end, my excitement skyrocketed.

On the other, I was internally giggling at the fact that Six Ulric actually looked nervous about opening a box, but as her lightly sweat covered fingers lifted the lid, her silver iris’ shimmered with a collection of warm tears as she gazed in bewilderment, immediately recognizing the two curved daggers that were hidden inside.

“A…are these…”, the tearful woman stuttered.

“Yeah”.

“…Nyx”.

“After the fall, the Nif’s did their sweep. There was no concrete record of a body, but…they managed to scrounge these up”.

I could sense the newfound rage and hurt began to boil in Six’s gut. “They had these…all this time”.

“Yeah, but now they’re where they belong”.

As she continued to gaze at her son’s beloved daggers, she shook her head suddenly and I somehow fought the urge to roll my eyes at her adorable motherly inability to accept a gift with her anticipated “Muerlin…you didn’t have to do this”.

“Yeah, I did”, I firmly stated. My tone must’ve hardened by the stunned look she gave me, but enough was enough. Momma Six needed to know the truth.

“Do you realize that without you, I would be in a Tenebraen graveyard, or a Niflheim prison cell or shackled in the charming Imperial Chancellor’s pleasure chamber, blindfolded and gagged?!”

Six shuddered at the thought of that last one.

“I’ve put you through so much hell so many times…but you’ve stood by me through all of it. I don’t deserve to be Queen, I don’t deserve this power, I don’t deserve to call someone as amazing as you my best friend”.

The overall shock that rested upon my friend’s face made me blush a little. It wasn’t like me to get all deep like that, but it needed to come out.

“Besides…I made him a promise to remind you of something”.

“..of what?”

I nodded toward the silver blades. “Run a fire over them and find out”.

Raising her palm, Six summoned a small flame within the center gliding it over the surface of the dagger revealing a hidden engraving. Warm sparkling tears flowed down her reddened cheeks as she read.

Mom…I finally had my moment to be real. Got to touch things I didn’t feel.

I held on and…now I feel I belong.

You used to say that though the world wanted me to change, they were the ones that would stay the same.

Now…I know you can’t see me…

…but I’m still here.

Six clutched her heart, tears streaming like silver waterfalls down her face as she sat down next to me, daggers in hand. Still absolutely speechless. “Y’know…”, she lightly chuckled, “you could’ve gotten me anything…a necklace…some new boots…a puppy…and I would’ve loved it”.

“I know”.

“So…why this?”

“You’ve carried my world for so long…the least I could do was carry yours in a box for a few hours”, I joked trying to lighten the mood, which Six responded to with a hearty giggle.

“Besides…every mother deserves to be with her son for her birthday”.

Tagging: @ravagekamisama @aquathemermaidstripper @insomniasix @digitalkanvas @a-new-recipehhh @prettyprompto

If you would like to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know. c:

[octoberwren]

Prompt: Steve x Darcy: Is it too late? (My Dear)

So I have lowkey shipped this couple for years, not because I was ashamed or anything, but because there were so much amazing fanfiction out there for them already, and I was slightly (a lot) intimidated by it. So I didn’t think I’d be able to get their voices right or do it justice. But I decided recently to broaden my horizons as some you who follow me might know already. And the wonderful human who runs @shieldshockfanfic​ gave me some prompts to run with and I decided on this one, it just hit all the right angsty notes with me. So I just wanted to say THANK YOU to @shieldshockfanfic for the heartwarming encouragement to help me be brave. Much Love to you!

Hope you enjoy the read.

You can also read it on Ao3 for your convenience.

Summary:  First there's a kidnapping. Then a bullet. And all Darcy really knows is that she despises portals.

 As far as kidnappings went Darcy's one was pretty creative, she'd have to admit, albeit grudgingly and Tony would have to finally give up the good alcohol, for her to ever reveal that little truth nugget.

 Portals weren't an unusual thing in the science labs, no matter how many times she had threatened the genius/deranged people she called her friends, that portals were a bad time waiting to happen.

 She was right. Darcy was always right, which was why it was super annoying that no one ever, ya' know, listened to her.

 But the portal that had Darcy immediately glaring at, with all of her only-one-cup-of-coffee-today fury didn't actually come from Jane or more shockingly, Tony. It came from some brightly dressed assholes in yellow hazmat suits.

 Joy.

 Of course, she threw her cup at one of the idiots head and of course when they started making grabby hands, she shoved Jane into one of the rooms made for a very specific reason; keeping The Hulk from squishing people. She slammed her hand on the red button that everyone said not to touch, and locked the furious and cussing scientist/future Queen of Asgard inside.

 She never claimed to have superb self-preservation skills, but she's sure someone would be totally proud of how she took a swing at another henchman, knocking him on his ass.

 It's her, she's the one proud of knocking him on his ass. She didn't even have the training for that move! And they said movies can't teach you things.

She's was still grinning manically, even when the blood dripped from her mouth from their retaliation on her.

 The alarms were still going mad and Jane was still cussing a blue streak when they shoved her none too gently inside the portal. Real creative, who knew A.I.M had the balls to even try that.

 And now she's currently tied to a chair in an empty room, which was more clichéd, so they're not exactly batting a thousand in her humble opinion.

 An opinion she voiced much to the displeasure of Squirrely Eyes whose scowl would make small children cry, luckily for Darcy she's witnessed Steve's Disappointed In You patented face, she's been through way worse.

 Just thinking of the man, that she has an adolescence crush from hell for, gives her the backbone to not give up. Because despite her bravado, she is absolutely fucking terrified, the hands behind her back are shaking and she can feel the tremor in her legs.

 But Steve, amazing man that he is, wouldn't back down, he'd fight, even if the whole world was telling him to back off, to move on, he wouldn't. He didn't. He stood up and he fought back with everything he had and then some.

 He helped Tony and Bucky in the best way he could, he made them a team again, it took a lot of time and so much shouting, she had to rush to her room, before she did something stupid, like cry in front of them.

 Or worse, punch them in the face.

 With Steve's pure stubbornness, they mended their relationship, the team started to fight the good fight again. The movie nights returned, and Darcy tried to help in any way she could.

 She made food for when they returned home bloody, she spoke to Bucky when late at night he'd wander the halls. She helped Tony get off his ass and talk to Pepper.

 She mostly avoided Steve, not that she didn't desperately want to talk to him, hug him, feed him hot cocoa. (Watching him beat the crap out of his punching bag was her favorite past time) But when they had first come back before she had even a chance to speak to him, Darcy had overheard Sam tease him about a kiss and then the name Sharon Carter had come up and she got her ass out of dodge.

 Afterward, she tried and spectacularly failed to notice his frown every time she sat on the opposite side of the lounge at movie night or made up some excuse when he entered the room. She was a big girl and Darcy knew that the only way this could possibly hurt this much, was a fact she wanted to bury, that she didn't have a crush on him, it was something, much, much worse.

 She didn't even hate Sharon, the woman was badass, of course Steve had gone for her, he deserved that after all he'd been through, something truly amazing.

 Darcy wasn't a hero, she wasn't a beautiful agent with scary skills.

 She was just Darcy, a woman who swore when she breathed, had sarcasm running through her veins and a scary addiction to caffeine. She was a college dropout turned lab assistant to her best friend, she'd never be good enough for a man like Steve, a war hero, a bonafide superhero and the bravest man she had ever known.

 But right now she was regretting every single step away from him, she was probably going to die by these bumblebees and he'd never know how much she-

 The crack against her cheek snapped her back into painful reality and Darcy groaned then glared when she tasted the metallic taste of blood. "What the actual fuck dude?!"

 Another slap and Darcy was getting real tired of this shit, "You weren't paying attention." He condescendingly told her, with a skeevy smile.

 "To what, your evil monologue?" Darcy took every reserve of anger she had left, which was a lot actually, and spat blood on his shiny black shoes.

 She smiled brightly at his disgust, "In case you haven't noticed, you took the wrong girl, I thought A.I.M was supposed to be the smart villains. I might be brunette, but I'm no Jane Foster."

 She gave him a ‘so there' look which he promptly ignored, the bastard.

 Squirrely Eyes leaned into her personal space and Darcy barely held in the gag at his overwhelming cologne, "And what makes you think you're not the girl we were after Darcy Lewis?"

 "First off, it's woman, thank you very much, I grew these boobs at thirteen and went through enough jackasses teasing me to deserve the title. Also, whaaaat?" she regretted mentioning the word boobs as soon as she said it, because now the only thing the creep was staring at was the girls, which, gross.

 Still talking to her boobs, The Pervert said, "There's someone very important who loves you, oh so much. A moron would be able to see it. And I'd bet he'd be willing to do anything to get you back. Like giving up a sample of his blood."

 Despite the situation, despite everything telling her, lies, lies, lies, her stupid heart was thumping with erratic speed, not in fear, but with something that felt suspiciously like hope. The traitor.

 "Thor?" She squeezed out because come on! He couldn't mean-

 Pervy Mcpervasin laughed in her face and Darcy scrunched up her nose because, hello no personal space, thy name is asshole.

 "I would have thought The Captain would have chosen a smarter woman, someone like Sharon Carter."

 She would have winced at his words, if she hadn't been too busy breaking his nose with her forehead. 

 Wow… where did that hot white anger come from? It's like she blacked out in a rage and woke up to his piggish squealing.

 He was holding his bloody nose with one hand, while she just blinked at him, "That'll teach you to respect personal space, numbnuts."

 "Ooo bish." How he slurred the words was still funny, even as he swung his hand for another strike to her face, only to be interrupted by an explosion that had the building rocking from the force.

 Her captor swung around to stare at the still closed door, Darcy let out a chuckle at his surprised action, "Oooh you're in trouble." She sing songed at his back.

 He turned to glare at her, "Ut up"

 "Seriously," Darcy continued, heedless of his garbled warning, "What kind of dumbass pokes that bear? Don't get me wrong, your plan was super-duper good, if not totally clichéd," She wasn't letting that go, it started off so well, "But… and this is a big, huge, don't-fuck-with-Captain-America kind of mistake. Your plan worked. He's here. So ya' know. Have fun with that, dead man walking."

 He was purple by the time she finished and with all that anger being directed at her, he reached out and grabbed her hair so hard her scalp burned, "I will ki-"

 The door burst in and a seething Steve, in all his Captain America glory, stepped into the room, "Let. Her. Go. Now." He clipped out of clenched teeth, the menace and screaming danger pouring off of him in waves. It would have been terrifying, if it didn't turn her on so much.

 Which was super awkward given the situation.

 "Told you so." Darcy snarked to the idiot still holding onto her head, Steve's gaze connected with her own and her breath snagged against her lungs at the intensity of his eyes.

 Maybe he did care about her? In a non platonic kind of way.

 But when he trailed those eyes over her face, (by the pain she was in, Darcy knew she looked like a bloody mess,) his blue eyes went savage in fury.

 "You have one second to take your filthy tainted hands off of her, before I tell the guy with a gun to put a bullet in you." Steve growled out taking a threatening step forward to reveal Bucky at his back and 0.1 milliseconds later, the -for once smart- man, practically tripped away with his arms up.

 "Smart move." He said before swinging his shield into an arch and knocking the portal hopping jackass unconscious and crumbling to the floor.

 Steve was at her side in a second flipping open a knife to cut the zip ties locking her in place, when her hands were free, she rubbed at the raw skin. That would take a couple days to feel not so crappy.

 She barely had a chance to get up on her own power before Steve was hauling her up and checking her face over, "Are you okay? Of course, you're not okay, stupid question. Tell me where else it hurts, does anything else hurt, Sweetheart?" He was so frantic, that thankfully he missed the blush staining her cheeks and the popping of her eyeballs.

 Sweetheart?

 Darcy looked at Bucky who was still hovering in the doorway, to check if she was as slack-jawed as she felt.

 He only made it worse my smirking and winking at her, the asshole.

 "Doll? Are you hurt anywhere else, we need to get you to medical anyway, but I want to know." She snapped her attention to Steve's stupidly handsome face and those baby blues that screamed concerned and Darcy could feel her broken heart melting.

 "What, this?" She choked out, but when he looked more anxious and on the verge of carrying her out, by just her voice, Darcy made sure her next words were light and teasing, anything to get that look off his face.

 "It was just a love tap. Dude could take some lessons from me, I knocked his buddy out with one hit." She was still proud of that damnit, and it seemed so was Steve as the first smile she had seen from him yet graced his soft lips.

 "I know," He whispered, while stroking her cheekbone with his thumb, "I saw, you have one hell of a right hook, Sweetheart."

 Her breath hitched for the second time in a matter of minutes, not just because of the pet name (seriously? Did the man forget she had a name?) but by the tender (almost adoring?) way he was looking at her.

 She opened her mouth to say, something, she had no idea, but a cough from Bucky had Steve snatching his hands away from her face. Darcy ducked her head down, her hair falling like a curtain to cut off her hurt from him.

 What did she expect really?

 "We should head back." The former assassin said, she caught Steve's terse nod as she looked up, he motioned for her to go in front of him, presumably so she'd be safe between the both of them.

 Darcy, for life of her, would never know what exactly made her turn before the super soldiers, it might have been a shift in the air, an out of place noise, a feeling maybe. The obvious point is, she did turn before them so she was the first to notice, the not so unconscious man lift a gun to Steve's back.

 Probably the second more obvious soul wrecking point, was the split second she tried to push Steve out of the way, he noticed as well and turned back to shove her behind him, so Darcy got a wall of muscle for protection and Steve...

 God Steve, no, not him, not him.  

 The first bullet ripped through his chest, the second came from Bucky as he put one square between that fuckers eyes. But Darcy didn't care about that, all she cared about was that the love of her life was falling to his knees, with blood spreading over his beloved uniform.

 "Nonononononono," Darcy hit the ground hard as she crawled over to him, but she didn't care about her pain, "Steve, come on, open those baby blues I adore. Open them, Steve. Please?"

 But he wasn't opening them, and with a trembling hand she felt his pulse and gasped out an agonized sob.

 Bucky was white noise behind her, something about Tony and medic, but Darcy was ripping off her top, scrunching it up and and and,

 Her hands were red. Blood red. Steve's blood, oh fuck this wasn't happening.

 "I tried to move on just to see you happy, you can't be happy if you're dead Steve. You're not dead. You're not. Open your fucking eyes, Steve. I need you to be happy," She was rambling, she thinks this is what people like Jane would call hysteria or was it going into shock?

 His face was pale, snow like, he was…she wouldn't be able to survive this, she knew her limits, her capabilities and this was not one of them.

 Darcy could already feel the black void of nothingness stretching open her heart and it was frightening and cold and so very lonely without him.

 His chest wasn't moving, even as she tried to pump air into lungs with her hands and breathe life into his red stained lips. This was not the kiss she always dreamt of and gave up on, this tasted like death and desolation.

 "Steve, Steve, I love you, okay, I love you. So, S-so come on, don't l-leave me, I need you, I need your smile, and your old timey speak and your optimism to brighten my day. A-and I-I don't care if you don't love me b-back. I just need you to be alive. Please, please, Steve. Please be alive." Her head was over his heart, and she heard nothing, nothing.

 Nothing but her hyperventilation. There was no air, none. Oh, God.

 "I'll stop avoiding you."She whispered into his chest and clutched the material of both their clothing, "Please come back to me."

 "Kid!" It was a disjointed voice, like something you'd hear from the bottom of deep water, she ignored it.

 Because if she stayed right here, if she kept talking, if she kept her head right here, over the heart she always wanted to keep safe, he'd wake up.

 He'd wake up.

 He had too.

 Steve was invincible, larger than life, the man with a plan.

 He had a plan right? Did anyone? Did she?

 "Please."

 "Kid you have to let go, we have to-"

 "Get the fuck off me! No, don't leave him! He has a plan! Let go!"

 "Sorry, Darcy."Such soft words and a small needle.

 "Don't leave me, Steve." a whimper, then Darcy went limp like a rag doll, "It should have been me."

   Darcy gasped in oxygen and shot upright from a deep sleep. 

 Waking up was never a joyous occasion for her, she'd beg and plead to the Gods above to shut off her alarm and bargain with her soul just to have a few more minutes.

 But this was different.

 Darcy blinked trying to figure out just what was-

 Oh.

 She really had been hysterical if Bucky had to inject something to make her go to dreamland.

 Steve.

 Steve was dead, wasn't he? It wasn't an awful nightmare if the blood under her fingernails were any kind of morbid proof enough.

 Before she knew it her hands were under the tap and her skin was raw from scrubbing, ripping off her pants, where was her other shirt? Right, she basically gave Bucky a free showing when she tore it off her body.

 An amused chuckle left her, that slowly turned into a full blown belly laugh until tears streamed down her face, just picturing his face as she basically straddled Steve in only her bra, had her in hysterical giggles.

 Or maybe it was just hysteria, because she wasn't laughing anymore, the tears were streaming down her face when she opened the shower door and put the water to just the point of boiling, over her clammy skin.

 Maybe she should go find The Winter Soldier and ask for the really good stuff, because she had a feeling she wouldn't be sleeping or stopping the bone crushing sobs anytime soon.

 She was numb and in agonizing pain all at once, Darcy had never ever felt this lost and broken before, she felt fragile, like porcelain as she slid down the tiles and hugged her knees to her chest, the water beating against her skin.

  She tried to focus on one spot and not think of him, or how he always made her coffee when she was feeling down, or once ran in the rain to save her from a bad date, how he managed to make her a little less cynical by just being him.

 She tried to forget how stupidly in love with him she was, how she knew that she'd always be in love with him.

 Even now that he was gone.

 He was gone.

 Her head fell against her kneecaps, and long after the water had gone cold, she still couldn't stop thinking about him.

 How Steve died because of her, because of her stupidity. How could she let herself get captured? He always wanted her to get some training, but Darcy blew it off, no one was coming to get her after all.

 "Oh, Darcy." the soft whimsical voice of her best friend floated to her from inside the shower.

 She was wrapped up in Jane's arms before she could blink, her whispers of, "It's okay, it's okay." the only noise besides the streaming water.

 "It's not Jane, Steve's-" She couldn't even say it, saying it made it real and Darcy was far from ready to face her new reality.

 "Hey, it's alright," Jane, sweet Jane, swept away her wet hair and tucked it behind Darcy's ear, "He's alive."

 Her words were spoken in English, but Jane might as well been talking a language from another planet, for all the good it did Darcy’s sluggish mind.

 "...What?"

 "He's alive."

 Darcy shoved up to standing and turned off the shower, while Jane stepped outside and grabbed a towel to hand to her, Darcy robotically took it with numb hands and wrapped it around her shivering body.

 She shook her head slowly, not comprehending, "No, Jane. I saw him, he didn't have a pulse."

 She would have felt that? Wouldn't she have?

 Jane shrugged, "Apparently it's a super soldier thing, his heart rate slowed, just like when he was frozen for years, it allowed Helen Cho to work her magic. She explained it to me but I'm not that kind of doctor. He's only now regained consciousness. I was checking up on him for you, seeing as you were so…out of it when you got here."

 Darcy sucked in a breath, the relief hitting her in full force that her knees almost buckled under her,  Jane quickly led her back to her bed, where she collapsed against the mattress.

 "He's alive." she breathed, testing the words in her mouth, trying to make it tangible.

 "He is, I thought maybe you'd want to go get dressed and see him?" Jane had always known about her feelings towards Steve and she had always wanted Darcy to tell him outright, she thought Steve felt the same.

 But nothing had really changed had it? He was still dating Sharon, and now Darcy had almost killed him.

 Aside from her love confession to him while he was bleeding out, everything was back to normal, except now Bucky knew, which was disturbing to think about actually.

 "Darcy?"

 "No, not today, I can't today Jane." She was liable to do something stupid, like spill her guts again.

 Her friend opened her mouth, probably to go on a rant but the look in her eyes made Jane snap it shut, and nod tightly. "Fine, you get today but tomorrow you're seeing him."

 Yep, tomorrow she’ll say thanks for saving my life man, and sorry I almost ended yours. But that could wait.

 She just needed today.

Okay, so it had already been two days, fine three. But who was counting?

 Apparently, Bucky was, because every time she ran from Steve, his best pal was waiting in the shadows, lifting up a digit on his finger to show the exact amount of days, she had been sneaking around the tower.

 Fine, avoidance was her name and avoiding was her game, it didn't help that Tony, Natasha, and Clint kept giving her the damn side eye as well. Apparently, Bucky wasn't the only one to witness her breakdown.

 And now because the team was all honesty, all the time, she was forced to deal with all of the disappointment in their faces.

 Not Coolio dudes.

 Even Tony. Tony. Mr-conceal-don't-feel himself, gave a shake of his head.

 Well fuck that noise, by the time the fourth day came around and one more soft (but not that soft Bucky!) whispered ‘idiot' and she locked herself in her room with wine and ice cream.

 The perfect break up combo. Except she hadn't broken up with him. She scoffed in derision at herself, yep, she needed this.

 The knock on her door had her slamming down her- just poured- glass of wine, and stomping to the door in agitation. She swung open the door to give Tom, Dick or Harry a verbal beat down.

 Only it was Steve, and he was mighty pissed by the dark frown plastered to his face.

 Her knee jerk reaction was to slam the door in his face, only Steve was one step ahead of her, as he gripped the side of the door so hard his knuckles turned white and she feared for the metals safety.

 "Don't." He gritted out, while pushing himself through the door and effectively making her take a couple of steps back.

 The slam of the closing door made her jump and Darcy cursed at herself, she wasn't afraid of Steve, she would never be afraid of him.

 But nervous? Yeah, she could be that, especially since that too tight t-shirt and jeans made her want to climb him like a tree.

 And he smelled so delicious that she wanted to lick and bite at the skin that tease of a shirt gave away…wait when did he get so close?

 "You said you wouldn't avoid me anymore" Steve moved closer, his lips pulled into a thin line, "You're a lot of things Darce, but I never took you for a liar."

 "Huh?" She was beyond confused, not because he knew she was avoiding him, Steve was intelligent, Darcy figured he would put two and two together, sooner or later. She just thought she would have screwed up her courage by then.

 No, she was confused because he said she told him that, which was impossible because she never said anything about…oh, shity, shit, shit.

 It was like the proverbial light switch clicked on; He heard her.

 Which also meant he heard… "Oh, fuck." She breathed out, her anxiousness racked up to about a thousand and she was backing away so fast and looking for the damn exit sign.

 "So what is it Doll?" Her heart skipped at that, and at the intense way he was tracking her with his blue eyes "You have the courage to tell me while I'm bleeding under your hands, but not when I'm standing right here in front of you?"

 "Uhm…" Darcy's back hit the wall and Steve was suddenly right in front of her, so very, very close.

 Between a rock and hard place, she had the insane urge to giggle but stopped at the blaze in his eyes.

 "You love me." There might have been a fire in his eyes, but his words were so gentle, whispered like an intimacy they only shared.

 Those three quietly spoken words were about as subtle as a bomb going off in her silent apartment, loud, deafening and the inevitable wreckage would be irreparable.

 "You're dating Sharon." Darcy gasped out as his hand landed on her shoulder, his calloused palm making her shiver.

 "I'm not." He said but when Darcy arched an-are you shitting me-eyebrow, Steve shook his head. "I'm not, it was never like that between her and I."

 "But Sam said you kissed her." Why did she sound like a whiny teenager?

 "Was that why you refused to even look me in the eye, when I came back?" When Darcy said nothing, he let out a deep sigh of frustration, "It didn't mean anything, I tried to make it mean something at first, but I knew as soon as it happened that it was a mistake. I was going through a lot and well, I'm not proud of it, but I-"

 "Wanted to have something, just in case?" Darcy asked because she honestly got it, with Peggy and then Bucky, and to top it all off, the catastrophe that ended with Tony.

 Fighting against his teammates, it was a shitty time for him and he thought he might not make it back, she couldn't blame him, she never did.

 He didn't owe her anything, they weren't together, they were friends who occasionally binge-watched shows and sat talking for hours together.

 Even though she tried to hide it, he must have seen the pain flicker on her face because he was cupping her face in his large hands, "It was something like that, but I did come home, and when everything settled, I couldn't stop thinking of a mouthy brunette."

 "Tony?" She said just to sass him, he huffed out a laugh, staring at her with something that looked a lot like adoration.

 "No, babydoll, I couldn't stop thinking about you." Darcy couldn't look away now, even if she wanted to, " and when I realized that, I spoke to Sharon and she agreed that we were better off as friends. It was better that way. So that’s when I came to the tower hoping to talk to you, but you were doing everything in your power to be in the exact opposite place that I was."

 "Steve…"

 "So I thought, ‘She must not feel the same way I do' and it tore at me Darcy, but If you wanted space, I'd give it to you. I'd give you anything you wanted or needed." Steve pushed the hair out of her eyes, and tilted her chin so she was staring right into his deep and tender gaze. 

 He gave a sad sort of smile to her, "Even if that meant what you wanted wasn't me."

 Darcy knew she had to put it all on the line now and yes, she was scared shitless but, if this brave man could trust her with all of his feelings, then she could grow some balls and tell him some home truths as well.

 "I know I'm awesome. I know that." She had to be clear on that, because she knew she was kickass but, "You just always seemed so far out of my league, another dimension really."

 Steve got that look of anger again, the one she saw just as she opened the door, "What the hell are you talking about Babydoll?"

 "Look, just listen alright?" The nicknames weren't helping either, they were very distracting, in the best kind of way.

 Steve nodded once, tightly, so she rushed to continue before he could rant, which looked like he was on the verge of doing.

 "I'm not talking about the Superhero thing, although that's some of it, I'll never be an agent or a hero. I don't think I'll ever be able to really know about The Captain's world, because I don't go out and fight like you guys do. And that's fine, I can live with that, I help in the ways that I can. I accepted that a long time ago, what I really struggle with is this," Darcy reached over to lay her hand over his beating heart.

 The very thing she thought had died days ago, and just feeling it thump against her palm was memorizing.

 "This is Steve Rogers, the man that makes Captain America who he is. This heart has always been so pure and so good, that I don't think mine will ever measure up. I swear more than I breathe, I don't like a lot of people and I get pissy when the coffee machine breaks. I'm just Darcy and because of me this wonderful heart almost stopped beating."

 The absolute quiet when she stopped talking was tense and suffocating so much so, that she wished Jane would walk in to drag her to work, just so she would be saved from herself.

 Steve's arms slammed against the wall beside her head caging her in and she let out a gasp at the several emotions mixing in his tortured eyes, "Just Darcy,? You say that like that hasn't always been perfection to me. Just Darcy, always made me feel like I wasn't alone in this world when everything else had been taken from me. Just Darcy, spoke to Bucky like a human being instead of the monster he thought he was. Just Darcy, drank with a broken Tony when he needed it at sent him after Pepper when he thought he didn't deserve it."

 "She threw Jane out of danger, made sure her best friend was safe before slugging an asshole who should never have put his hands on her, then faced a dozen armed men with a grin on her face." Steve wiped the tears that were falling from her eyes and then leant down to rest his forehead against her own,

 "You scared the living hell out of me when I found out that they had taken you, all I could think was that I was too late, I'd never see you again and that I wouldn't be able to tell you...then when I got there, you were taunting that son of a bitch, and I didn't know whether I wanted to strangle you or kiss you until you were too dazed to do anything else."

 For once in her life, Darcy was speechless, she had no witty reply or inappropriate response, she was stunned that Steve, gorgeous, wonderful Steve felt that strongly for her, she wanted to do a dance, she wanted to cry, she really wanted that kiss he brought up because it sounded…it actually sounded like…

 "Also, don't for one second blame yourself for that bullet," And there went her happy glow, her stomach plummeted and she felt nauseous just remembering that mess of a day.

 "Hey," Steve whispered trying to get her to look at him, when that didn't work he cupped her face again, which was becoming a habit of his, not that she was complaining. "I would do it again in a second. That might not be what you want to hear, but you'll always come first to me Darcy. You'll always be my top priority, so maybe it's a good thing you don't fight with us because I wouldn't be able to do my job otherwise. And yes it was touch and go there for a bit, but do you know what brought me back?"

 She had a feeling but you know what they say about assuming, so she shook her head, and prayed that the hope that was spreading through her body like liquid sun, bright and dazzling, wouldn't be crushed with his next words.

 "It was you, I heard your voice Darce, I heard you say ‘I love you' and I knew I had to fight my way back so I could tell you something as well," He leant down to kiss her jaw then her cheek, and finally her forehead.

 Only to lean back again to stare into her eyes, his lips breaking into a dazzling smile that set her heart on fire, "I love you, Just Darcy, I have for a very long time now and I'm hoping you'll say you love me too, because I'm wide awake now and I desperately want you to be my girl."

 When she stared wide eyed at him, because yes, this is exactly what she wanted but she didn't actually think it would happen, Steve for the first time that night, got a nervous look in his eyes as he searched her face.

 "Unless you're afraid of something else or?"

 She looked up at him and now that he mentioned it, "You're way too tall, and I'm super short Steve, things like that could be deal breakers." Her shit eating grin was instantly wiped off her face and she let out an embarrassed squeaking sound, when he very suddenly dropped his hands to her thighs and hauled her up against his firm body.

 Darcy wrapped her legs around his hips on reflex, her hands curling around his neck wasn't that, but it was on her bucket list, so.

 "There are ways around it." Steve growled out in his deep voice and holy shit if he didn't kiss her like right the fuck no-

 Oh that was much better.. His lips were smooth against her own, but his tongue was scorching hot as he licked his way into her mouth, and Darcy was surprised she hadn't spontaneously combusted yet, it was a kiss made for the silver screen. Or a porno. Especially when he moved his hips and she got hit with some mind blowing friction, enough to let out a wanton moan at the contact.

 Steve nipped at her lip in response to that moan and tangled his hand through Darcy’s hair, sending the best shiver racing up her spine, "Say it." He groaned against her mouth, his other hand grabbing a handful of her ass and squeezing it possessively, pushing her closer to him, like he wanted absolutely no space between them.  

 "God, you're beautiful Darcy. Made for me, Doll." Steve moved to her neck, licking a spot that made her legs tighten and instinctively thrust up against him, which made him groan and push her harder up against the wall.

 "Darcy," His voice was wrecked, a breathless growl, "say it."

 "Uhnmmg." That honestly was the best she could come up with, as his very talented mouth continued its assault on her neck and turned her brain into mush.

 But when he leant back, her whine of displeasure followed him. She blinked up at him, opening her eyes to his, only to wish she kept them closed because she was sure she was going to melt into a puddle just staring at him.

 Steve's hair was disheveled, his chest was heaving in breaths, but it was his eyes that had her almost undone. They looked almost feral, his pupils were blown wide in lust, Darcy's hand clenched his hair in response to that look, if this was only from a kiss, then how the hell would they survive the sex?

 "Darcy, I need you to say it, I need to hear it. Please." The hoarse way he asked made her finally pay attention to the question.

 Oh. Whoops. Well he couldn't blame her, she had been thinking about this moment for years,

 "Steve," She made sure she looked straight into his eyes, she carded her her hands through his hair and whispered, "I'm in love with you, I loved you when it almost killed us both, and I'll love you forever if you let me."

 "Always." He said instantaneously, kissing her nose, "So, does this mean you'll be my girl?"

 "Well, I don't know," She knew the way she said it was dripping in tease and trouble, he knew it too by the arch of his eyebrow, "You know how they say to always test drive the car before making a lifetime commitment?"

 Darcy couldn't help waggling her eyebrows, even when he snorted in amusement at her, "I wanted to take you on date first, Babydoll."

 Him nipping at her ear kind of ruined the absolute sweetness of his words, "Screw the date Steve, I want to start living our lives together, now."

 "Yeah," He said already walking to the bedroom with her in his arms, "Now sounds good Darce, real good."

 And it was good, amazing, perfect; their lives together. The sex was pretty fan-fucking-tastic as well.

That’s it my Darlings, thank you so much for reading! You have no idea how much I appreciate that ; ) Much Love.

[adrianfridge]

I have strong feelings about the future of Stiles’s love life. 

But before I begin: I’m not interested in shipping wars. Stiles is the sort of character who has chemistry with everyone, so every ship is valid. With that said, every ship also has its flaws, and I should be allowed to critically discuss them without being burned at the stake.

*takes a deep breath*

Okay.

There’s a high probability Stiles will end up with a girl in the finale. I’ve accepted that as inevitable. I mean, they could still pull a surprise Sterek, but it’ll probably be anti-climactic and forced (I visualize Davis writing it spitefully). In fact, no matter who Stiles winds up with, I know it’ll be poorly written just like everything else on the show.

Brace yourself because I’m about to dissect Stalia and Stydia. You’re allowed to disagree with my opinions, but that’s what this is: my opinions. about a poorly written show. I’m critiquing the writing. 

There’s a part of me that’s skeeved by Malia being with Stiles. Malia has spent puberty as a coyote in the wild, and technically, she’s never had a chance to grow out of the emotional maturity of a nine-year-old. So when she hooks up with Stiles soon after returning to her human form, I’m left with uncomfortable questions. Does Malia really wants Stiles or is he just the first guy to want her so she gets attached to him? What if she believes Stiles is her mate because kids tend to obsess over the objects of their desire? What if she’s only with him because she’s afraid to be alone? In the end, I think something genuine grows out of their relationship over time, and Malia definitely matures into her own person. I just have a hard time trusting Malia’s judgment when it could easily be the result of a very narrow focus--but I’m not denying that the chemistry exists.

My issue with Lydia is she's highly sexual so there’s an assumption she must end up with a guy from the cast. I firmly believe her relationship with Jackson is toxic--she emotionally manipulated him, and he verbally abused her. What she had with Aiden was a rebound, and her thing with Parrish is more of a sexual release. With that said, let’s not sugar coat Stiles stalking Lydia so he could know everything about her because that’s apparently romantic (*gags*). Stiles may not be a bad guy overall, but stalking should never be condoned. When they do get to the state of a healthy relationship, it’s platonic. Lydia kissing Stiles to help him avoid a panic attack is the sort of thing a highly sexual friend would think of. And Stiles kissing Lydia after she literally saves him from being wiped from existence is an understandable reaction from a guy who’s dealt with Lydia not noticing him for years. Basically, I don’t see where the romance is between these two--but I’m not denying that the chemistry exists.

Now that I got that out of the way, I should point out that I’m not gonna make any predictions for Stiles’s love life because if there’s anything I learned over the years of watching Teen Wolf, it’s that it doesn’t have to make any fucking sense. Davis could even throw in a curve ball: Cora Hale.

The actress who plays Cora may return to the show for the final season. She and Stiles had a flirty thing going on for the brief time that Cora was around in Season 3A. My grudge with Cora is a meta critique. 

Cora’s character was created to fill the gap Erica left behind (the actress left the show). You can tell because Cora’s introduced out of nowhere (how did she survive the fire? what was she doing in South America?) and placed in the same exact peril that Erica was supposed to go through. There’s not much I can say here except that it’s difficult to embrace a character when I clearly see the writer pulling strings behind the curtain.**

[**Malia has the same problem because there’s a high probability she was given Jackson’s arc after the actor left the show (with the caveat that Stiles wouldn’t hook up with Jackson, though a Stackson shipper can dream).]

Additionally, there’s speculation among Sterek shippers that Cora was formulated to be a female version of Derek--buying into the Sterek chemistry while scrubbing out any queerness. I’m not here to agree or disagree, only to observe that Cora does share traits with Derek, which one can write off as family resemblance. However, I will admit that I can see Davis pulling something like this because Sterek is a sore spot for him; I can also see some executive making the decision because queering up the fan favorite would alienate certain viewers. I’m ambivalent toward what, if any, connection Stora has with Sterek; I’m only pissed this debate exists because it shows a lack of care in crafting Cora as her own person, separate from Derek’s brooding shadow.

That’s my mental block, I suppose. I see Cora as merely a character and not a person. Stiles is a person in my head, even Malia has become a person separate from her clunky introduction. But Cora? She was only developed for half a season, and it’s going to be one hell of a move if Davis tries to build on that in the space of the last half-season of the series.

The point of all this is: GAH. No matter who Stiles ends up with, there’s going to be upheaval. And I’ve set my expectations low. We should all set our expectations low for this one. 

If Teen Wolf has taught me anything, it’s that everything can be adjusted in fandom.

[sawthingsiimagined]

#XD30 - SIX | DOUBLE TROUBLE

[Chickens And Waffles - Jace]

I suddenly had stomach pains as I sat against the dusty window pane at the 24 hour diner. How did I get here? Why am I here? A part of me told myself that I should have stayed at the pool party but I let her, and him, convince me to ditch the party and walk down the street to Rita's 24 Hour Diner and Bar. Truth is I was hungry but it also helped that I was able to escape the party. Everyone was being weird. Of course I'm some rising star, now that FLAME is on tour with SISSY, but I would prefer if the attention would gently escalate instead of this rough catapult of flashing lights we are suddenly experiencing.

Beside me was Teecie, the beautiful dancer I randomly met at the pool party, her friend Tracey who also dances, two more of their girl friends, TJ, along with a few guys from FLAME's production team and across from me was the drummer, Demarion. I tried not to look at him. It was so awkward that he came over at the party to not only speak but to have a full conversation. It was weird mostly because of what my sister texted me on the bus. I felt like I knew about a part of this dude that I didn't need to know. I should have told Jada where I was going but she was too busy, on her Snapchat and Instagram Live, trying to capture the party. I could do without that. I texted our best friend, Adrienne, before my phone died and told her that I was going to grab food before I returned to my room.

We all sat in the half full diner and chatted for a while. This was my first time in a long time getting to know people outside of my church. I didn't even talk to people at school and I wasn't a part of any other social group. It was uncomfortable yet interesting all at once.

"What about you Jace?", Tracey asked breaking my thought. "What do you mean?", I asked knowing that I wasn't paying attention to where the conversation had landed. "You're so cute.", she laughed excusing my short attention span. "Have you ever been skinny dipping before?", she asked.

"Um, I can't say that I have. The only time I'm undressed in water is when I take a bath. And sometimes I'm tempted to wear shorts in there.", I said trying to make a joke to divert the attention from my inexperience. They all laughed. Teecie really found it amusing. I glanced up and Demarion had a simple grin on his face as if he was expecting me to go on. Little did he know, I'm not a comedian, neither did I want to be here much longer. I looked back down at the menu. I had already ordered Chicken and Waffles but I pretended to look at the menu as if I was going to order something else.

"See anything else you want to order before our waitress goes back to the kitchen?", Demarion asked. "You've been eyeing that drink menu for 20 min my man.", he said with a light chuckle.

"Nah man. I'm good. It's just interesting how they come up with so many different drink combinations.", I replied. "You should try one.", said Teecie. "Oh no, I don't drink.", I said. "But it's the night before the first show!", exclaimed Tracey. What they are not about to do is gang up on me. I never had the desire to drink; not for leisure nor for celebration. "Nah, I'm good.", I said. "I don't really think it's for me. I might get crazy and I need to stay focused." "Cutie, you are our star. We are only here because of you, your sister and SASSY. We got you. Don't let us peer pressure you though. I just think you should loosen up and prepare for the road. Tomorrow is Night #1 and will set the tone for the rest of the tour.", Teecie said with the most gorgeous grin I've ever witnessed. "So let's kick it off with some fun.", Demarion said. "Hey waitress, can you get us all a round of Fireball shots.", he yelled across the room.

I didn't know what a fireball shot was but I did know that I didn't want to hear, speak or think of any type of balls right now. First the text my sister sent, then they are talking about skinny dipping and now drinking. I may as well pack my luggage for hell because there will be a seat there with my name on it if I let them talk me into this.

"Yo, I'm really good. I probably should be headed back anyways. We have to be at the arena at 8am.", I said attempting to sound serious yet cool.

"I got you my man. I'll make sure you get there. I have to be there at 7.", he said. The musicians have to be there an hour before us to make sure their instruments are setup correctly so by the time we arrive, all we have to do is start the soundcheck.

The waitress came back quicker than she had returned all night. Turns out that Fireball shots are some type of alcoholic beverages in small glasses. I've literally been under a rock for the past 20 years. It was at that moment that I found my escape.

"Guys I'm not 21 so I can't drink.", I whispered to the table as the waitress passed out the drinks. "Chile, I've been drinking since I was 14. You're good. She didn't even I.D. us.", said Tracey as if everything she said was ok.

"If I may do the honors.", TJ said while standing up. Nobody asked him to say anything. He should be in his room sleep or rehearsing the lights. Shoot. I was getting upset. "This toast goes out to all of us. We’ve come together in celebration of the beginning of an amazing tour. Cheers to the man of our camp, Jace. Here's to sold out shows and lots of hoes!", he finished. I was outdone.

Everyone took their small glasses and chugged the alcohol down. I tried to lift mine but the scent of spicy cinnamon almost made me gag. My phone was dead so I couldn't pretend that someone was trying to contact me and step outside. Everyone cheered and then Tracey's nosey self noticed that I hadn't taken my shot.

"Oh no, pretty boy! Throw that thang back!", she said so loud that the other people in the diner turned to watch. Everyone cheered and co-signed. At this point I was out of my body looking at myself, judging myself and ready to go home. I looked up and Demarion was staring straight at me. That's when I noticed he had weird colored eyes. They were a dark, blue-ish, grey type color that almost looked navy. I’ve never seen a person of his complexion with those color eyes. His bushy eyebrows arched inward as if appeared angry. He had this street yet artsy look about him that made him look like one of the cool guys you see on Instagram. He even had tattoos on his neck. He stared at me and I immediately said to myself, "this boy is the devil!", based on the way his eyes were glaring at me. Suddenly I heard nothing. It's like the sound was sucked out of the room. I couldn't hear him but I saw his lips move. He mouthed, "I got you."

I then picked up the small glass and chugged the shot. I immediately wanted to throw up all over the table but I kept my eyes on him as he licked his lips and smiled. 

Everyone cheered. I was ready to go. This guy really just convinced me to drink alcohol. Teecie hugged me. She smelled so good. Like peaches and cream. "Now that wasn't so bad was it?", Tracey asked. I wanted to say, "Trick yea," but that was rude and I don't use words like that towards women. "It wasn't that bad," I said.

"Well good because I ordered you a Long Island.", TJ said. I didn't know what that was either but if this boy wasn't talking about an actual body of land in the Atlantic Ocean he could keep it. The waitress brought the drink over. I immediately decided to just go ahead and try it. Nothing could be worse than that Fireball shot. I took a sip. It actually tasted pretty decent. Anything was better than that shot right about now. One sip turned into three and three sips turned into large gulps. Before I knew it we had talked and laughed and I had finished a drink. The food still hadn't come. I was starving and disappointed in myself as I sat there drinking like I was a pro-liqour-ologist . I didn't feel 'drunk' like the people look on tv. However, I did feel 'loosened up' and comfortable.

I was sipping drink number two when a guy in a black polo ran through the doors toward us followed by a police officer. I just knew I was headed to jail. 20 years old and drinking illegally. The prisoners are going to eat me alive. I pushed the glass over to Teecie. I felt bad for a few milliseconds for pushing my crime onto her. I didn’t even know her age.

The guy in the polo came over and asked me to get up. When I didn't comply, obviously I was little tipsy so my reaction was delayed, he grabbed me. Demarion stood up and demanded, "What the hell is this?" The guy in the black polo, which read ‘Security’ in the upper right corner, pointed to the tv above the bar. "There has been a shooting. I am here to retrieve Jace and to ask you all to get back to your hotel rooms safely. The premises are being checked but this police officer will escort you through the shipping corridor of the hotel.", the security man said. He was a middle aged, heavy set white man that smelled like outside and smoke from a grill. I started feeling nauseas and felt myself about to fall. I remember seeing Demarion race over and I heard him say "He's with me. I'm the drummer in his band. I'll help you get him to his room."

At that moment I immediately thought about my sister and became terrified. I screamed, "Where is Jada?! Where is my sister?!" "Jada is secure.", security assured. Still afraid I attempted to stand on my own again only to buckle over and throw up all over the security man's shoes.

All I wanted was my sister and those waffles. I was the chicken. I covered my face feeling totally embarrassed.

That's the last thing I remember.

[loveiscosmicsin]

The Final Frontier

Older Glompto/Promptio is a blessing, and yet my heart’s in a drought. Give me lots of content for this ship and those two in their thirties, please and thank you. Ao3 Link

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“You had me at hello, goodbye and everything in between.” - Shannon L. Alder

-

Prompto Argentum had the perfect plan.

It’s a mission that had constantly been on his mind for the last five weeks. Weeks spent rehearsing in front of Iris, enduring much-needed pep talk from Noctis and Ignis, and kicking nasty thoughts of not being good enough. All that’s left is for him to just go for it. Go big or go home sort of deal, go where no man has gone before: asking Gladiolus Amicitia to tie the knot.

Yet, Prompto got tongue-tied when he felt ready to propose.

The timing was never the issue, Gladiolus’ undivided attention easy to summon for brief periods away from rebuilding Lucis and shadowing the king. Instead of feeling confident after streaming late-night videos of best proposals of all time, Prompto felt a little out of his league. Gladiolus was out of his league. But for whatever reason, they’re been steady for ten years.

There wasn’t any doubt in Prompto’s mind that Gladiolus was the future Mr. Argentum or he himself be Mr. Amicitia. It didn’t matter. The surnames clicked better than what he expected after a moment’s deliberation. Anyone who knew how the Sworn King’s Shield was with words would want him on the spot. Gladiolus always made it look so easy with how he connected to people and it’s not even reflected on the fact that he’s a blue blood. The impressive eagle tattoo and the muscles were something a little extra for Prompto to appreciate.

That’s why if Prompto was to propose to his boyfriend then he’s going to take the grease-monkey goddess’s mantra and do it right. Because they’re practically a little bit married, just needed a ring to go with it.

He may not have a theater troupe to reenact a favorite film or a carriage drawn by a team of glorious chocobos, but Prompto’s heart was in the right place. He was ninety-seven percent positive that Gladiolus wasn’t a fan of outlandish ceremonies. He had to make the moment special, just enough to stun him for a good minute before saying yes.

Prompto met Gladiolus when he was in high school, fifteen and eighteen respectively; Noctis introduced the two of them. The bodyguard definitely fit the bill for intimidating thug more than bodyguard, that was probably the point. The blond thought of him as nothing more than mean-spirited guy who could break cinder blocks with his head without batting an eye, and there were times that that assumption was justified: Gladiolus was a jerk at times. But Prompto had never met a more driven and compassionate man.

Maybe that’s why Prompto was drawn to him and didn’t realize it at first. The livewire was determined to get Gladiolus to crack a smile and laugh at his puns, bad as they were and recycled as they were. (Of all people, Ignis laughed at his jokes long before Gladiolus did, Ignis.) Occasionally, the joking got Prompto in trouble and Gladiolus had always been there to bail him out.

It was probably love somewhere between the lines of that relationship. Maybe it happened when Gladiolus playfully returned the jabs or the day the two laughed to the brink of tears and the older man noticed that the blond had dimples, calling them pretty. Or when Gladiolus suddenly recited poetry word for word and Prompto had no idea what he was saying but listened because he was so pleasant to listen to. This might be reaching, but it had to be that day when he and Noctis showed up at Prompto’s house unannounced, a bloody gash over the Shield’s eye and a startled prince at his side. No, it had to be during the epic road trip where Prompto proved he could carry his own weight and had Gladiolus’ back in battle. Maybe it got more serious when the world got fucked up beyond belief some years later.

Prompto sighed into his hands, blowing exaggerated huffs of air at imaginary crumbs on the counter. Now wasn’t the time to be wistful of the memories. Long story short, they had been through thick and thin, the final chapter to the King of Light’s story recorded for the legends, and the lucky ones got their happy ending, remembering the beloved that helped pave the way to this conclusion. But tales don’t end there, new ones had to be written. This tale had just begun when the blond let it simmer on the back burner of his head. It was what he wanted to do when this was over, only to have recently shared the idea to his friends.

He stared at his palm, a ring crafted of orichalcum with a matte finish, a relic he had picked up during his travels. It wasn’t around any skeleton’s finger and it definitely wasn’t the Ring of the Lucii 2.0 so Prompto can safely declare it safe to wear. Though the thought didn’t occur to him until after the light was restored to the world, it screamed ‘instant noodle-loving, Coleman pack rat bibliophile’ when he found it. Not literally, of course. The size was perfect and it didn’t look like just any conventional wedding ring.

Prompto dropped the ring into a Cup Noodle he just prepared and buried it in the stringy noodles and vegetables. He knew Gladiolus loved to eat them right after a workout. At one point, the big guy admitted that he loved Cup Noodles almost a little more than he loved Prompto. He could hear the wedding bells now.

It was just too bad that someone got to the noodles first.

“Nooooct! Nooooo!” Prompto cried out, lunging to secure the stolen cargo as the hapless Lucian king tilted the cup up, soup and all going down in two gulps.

As crazy he was for thinking it at that moment, Prompto should’ve guarded the Cup Noodle with his life.

“What’s with you?” Noctis demanded as he leaped back, dropping the Cup Noodle.

It was all in vain. The bottom of the container was empty. The soft, merry harmony of wedding bells that had went through the gunslinger’s head became a jarring cacophony of cymbals being repeatedly clashed together by a band of not-so-talented goblins.

Prompto wanted to tear his hair out, but decided against it remembering who his biological father was. He would like to keep a full head of hair for as long as he could, not go bald early. “The ring was in that!”

Noctis went pale as a sheet, clutching his stomach. It didn’t take him long to figure out what ring he spoke of. “You got to be kidding me!”

“You didn’t feel that going down? At all?”

The king balled up his shirt, looking unwell. “No.”

Instead of throwing an obscene comment accusing Noctis of swallowing things bigger than rings, Prompto defeatedly threw himself on the counter. “I can’t believe you ate the ring, man.”

“Ate what?”

Gladiolus entered the kitchen with a towel draped over his neck, shirtless and glowing radiantly from post-exercise. The blond’s jaw would be on the floor at the sight if he wasn’t so wired from the fact the ring was in his best friend’s stomach.

“The noodles!” Prompto yelped, his voice cracking as he trashed the evidence. “That I made for you!”

“That’s pretty generous of you, but I was thinking over what you said about eating healthy.” Gladiolus announced as he walked straight for the refrigerator. He pulled out a plastic container. “I’m gonna stick with a kupoberry salad for lunch.”

“Yeah? That’s great, honey boo bear because I care about you staying healthy.” Prompto patted his boyfriend’s rear with a grimace though the professed sentiment didn’t come close to matching his inner thoughts:

Whaddaya mean you’re going healthy now? You just gotta throw a curve ball at me, don’t cha? Why today of all days you decided to listen to me? At any rate, it doesn’t even matter. Big guy could’ve swallowed that ring or dumped it down the drain.

Prompto forced a laugh and as if there was any way that Gladiolus had overheard his inner monologue, he added, “Love you.” He winced, despising how weak that sounded aloud.

Gladiolus raised an eyebrow at this, reaching out to touch the shorter man’s forehead before laying a big smooch on it. “Love you, too. Catch you later.” He shook the salad in a sort of inconspicuous farewell to the king and Noctis meekly waved back.

Once Gladiolus was out of earshot, Prompto gave the finger guns and clicked his tongue, “Start gagging.”

Noctis crossed his arms with a scowl. “Prompto, I can’t just throw up on cue.”

“Noct, I love you, man.” Prompto, undeterred and unsatisfied by that answer, laid his hands on the king’s shoulders. “You’re the greatest buddy in the whole universe and I couldn’t have picked a better best man, but that ring is coming out of you, one way or another.” He pointed to a package of bran muffins. Fiber always got the job done and best friends don’t stick fingers in each other’s mouths, induced vomiting’s just a little too far. “Eat these.”

Be it that maybe Prompto was ten years early or ten years too late, he needed to hear it from Gladiolus’ lips. Some part of him is relieved that he could delay the proposal a little longer.

“Anything for you, I guess,” Noctis sighed, taking a bite out of a muffin with disinterest. That piece fell out of his mouth. “Ugh, stale. You know, you went about this all wrong. Said 'today’s the day I’m gonna spill my guts to the majestic eagle guy’.” He picked up a muffin and threw it at the blond’s shoulder. “'Noct, can you do it for me? The words aren’t coming out.’”

“I don’t say say that.”

Noctis gave him a stern look.

“Okay, okay, once that ring’s out, then I’m going to propose. For realsies this time.”

Obviously, the anxious gunslinger couldn’t follow Noctis all day, they both had other things to take care of. Lucis couldn’t stabilize all on its own and the king left after choking down four muffins. Besides, Noctis promised to let the blond know when the ring would be ready. Well, that was long before he set his phone off to silent and Prompto’s calls had to go to voicemail. That was criminal. Still, there are other ways around this, a second assurance.

“I came as soon as I could. What’s the emergency?”

Prompto may had told a tiny fib to get Ignis to come over. He felt a little guilty for that.

Before the prince consort could remove his jacket, Prompto took his hand and laid a box of sandwich bags on it.

“Iggy, when Noct poops, you go in there and scoop it up in one of these and call me ASAP.”

Ignis weighed the box of bags, running the clear packaging between his fingers with an undecipherable expression and gave the blond a sarcastic, “Ah-ha.”

“Please, Iggy,” the blond clapped his hands over his head, knowing that the gesture would fall short in the blind man’s range of perception. “I’m begging you.”

“I fail to understand the nature of this request,” Ignis deadpanned, “though I doubt your explanation or Noct’s would prove worthwhile.”

Prompto made a noise of discontent.

The corners of the prince’s lips curled in amusement. “But if you were this forthright with Gladio, I’m most certain he would appreciate it.”

The blond gasped. “The all-knowing daemon strikes again.” Whatever excuse he had to gain Ignis’ attention, it wasn’t anywhere related to the proposal and Noctis hadn’t been with him since this morning. Ignis had eyes and ears where they shouldn’t be other than on his body, but he knew everything going on.

Ignis frowned at the nickname received about a seventh sense that emerged from his blindness. “Enough of that. I receive plenty provocation from my husband. This is your future at stake here, Prompto.”

“Thanks for your blessings all-knowing one.” Prompto whispered, hoping he wouldn’t be heard as the older man had his back to him. “Don’t poison our water supply, burn our crops, and deliver a plague onto this house.”

Ignis flicked him across the forehead. “I heard that.”

-

“What? You’re leaving?” Prompto bolted upright from his comfortable position on Gladiolus’ chest. He immediately regretted it when he saw the room spin.

Gladiolus nodded, stroking the blond’s shoulder. “Gave you a heads-up three weeks ago, remember? You’re the first person I told.”

Prompto searched the older man’s face in silence.

The Shield chuckled. “You don’t remember, huh?” He held out a finger inches away from the blond’s nose. “You’re giving me that same look you made three weeks ago.”

“Does a behemoth ever forget?” Gladiolus opened his mouth and Prompto interjected, “No, no, they don’t do there. I didn’t forget.” He scoffed, “Pfft. But refresh my memory where you’re going and how long again?”

As Gladiolus explained, suddenly all the words became white noise and it would’ve been the perfect opportunity for major ad-libbing, Prompto’s mind drifted off to a whole separate train of thought:

Ohhh… That’s why Ignis had me try on clothes and brought like five outfits. Knew they were a little too fancy for casual wear. Still can’t get over how that man has a great sense of fashion no matter what. Did Gladio tell him what we’re doing just so I can be reminded?

“So,” Gladiolus broke Prompto out of his thoughts and none the wiser of how he spaced out completely, “are we still good for dinner tonight? Like I said, I head out pretty early.”

“Yeah, sounds perfect, big guy.” Prompto grinned, patting his boyfriend’s hand. Or it would’ve been if he had the damn ring on him! All the more reason to get it as soon as possible.

-

“It’s been six hours and you still don’t feel you gotta go?” Prompto exclaimed once he finally cornered the wayward king.

“And whatever you told Ignis earlier made my life harder.” Noctis sighed, putting his hands on his hips. “Surprisingly, he can’t be deterred from the false calls you pulled. He wants results.”

“I know, I know!” Frustrated, the plucky blond threw his hands up. “But without the ring, this would be a bust.”

“Better think of something. Gladio’s going to be gone for a month.”

“A month?” Prompto was desperate, but not before an idea hit him. “What if I just cut you open?” Noctis was stupefied by the suggestion so the other man added sternly, “If you love us, man, you would do this.”

“Surgery?” The king was flabbergasted. “L-look, just let buy you a new one…”

“That’s not the same!” The blond rubbed his chin, eying the king’s midsection. “I knew that watching the medical dramas would come in handy one day. You won’t feel a thing. Probably.”

“You’re not performing surgery of any kind.” Noctis narrowed his eyes. “Why couldn’t you just slip the ring in a book and give that to him?”

“Um, dude, that’s like how you proposed to Iggy. Learned Braille in secret and wrote the question out yourself. It’ll be copying if I did something like that.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Rude. At least one of us don’t got a ring in his belly. That’s new.”

The king rubbed his forehead into his palm. “Are you sure you put the ring in those noodles?”

“Yeah, and that’s how we got here.”

“Fine,” Noctis sighed, shaking his head. “But I’ll do anything, but not surgery.” He added immediately before Prompto pressed further.

-

“So when I asked if we’re good for dinner, I thought it’ll be just the two of us. Uh, no offense, Your Majesties.”

“Pardon the intrusion on your soirée,” Ignis elegantly swirled a glass of white wine between his fingers. “We thought this would be a more fitting get-together before sending you off.”

“Don’t mind me.” Noctis poked at his plate in annoyance. “Prompto won me over with a free meal… by candle light. Real romantic.”

“Is there a reason why you’re not touching your food?” Gladiolus asked.

“I had a big lunch.” The king replied, cheekily, shoving vegetables into a cloth napkin.

“Right.”

Gladiolus had made reservations at a high-end restaurant. Prompto made it a condition that Noctis be present while Ignis wished to be a spectator to the grand proposal. At a compromise and invitation, it was a double date. Everyone was dressed in their finest tonight.

Prompto barely tasted his food and water did nothing to save his parched throat. He didn’t want to risk touching Gladiolus with clammy hands. “I got something really important to ask you and it can’t wait until you get back.” After receiving subtle nods from Noctis and Ignis, Prompto took a knee, albeit rather slowly, his foot was trapped around a leg of his chair. He wiped his hands down. “Gladiolus Amicitia, will you marry me? Come on, crown citizens, let me hear you! Tap your glasses in the name of love!”

Ignis commenced with the polite chinking of glass tapping before the patrons of the establishment joined in. He turned his head when Noctis didn’t join right away and the king groaned.

“Wow, I wonder if I was this obnoxious before proposing to Ignis.” He said under his breath.

“You knighted your husband Gentleman of the Bedchamber before crowning him as the prince so shush!” Prompto sniped in a hushed whisper.

“I’d appreciate if everyone forgot that time.” Ignis protested calmly, voicing his dissent in the word choice. “Or choose not to mention it in my presence.” The tapping of glasses ended and the entire room waited on bated breath.

In all the commotion, Prompto realized that he was forgetting something. He laid his hand on the king’s stomach from beneath the table. Noctis gave him a look, but it wasn’t any less uncomfortable for Prompto either. It gave him some comfort in knowing where the ring was. This was more for Prompto’s belief in luck and reassurance that this would be nothing less of perfection.

“I don’t have the ring on me,” Prompto admitted in a half-truth to the Shield. Technically, it was in someone. “But trust me, it’s nearby and I’m pretty serious about this. About you.” He clutched the front of Noctis’ suit tighter and prayed. “About us.”

Gladiolus grinned. “Yeah, I’ll marry you.”

“What? Just like that?” Prompto lowered his hand. “Did someone rat me out?”

“Nah, ever since you asked me where we’re meeting in the afterlife, figured you’re gonna pop the question eventually.”

“At the ice-cold pool of Jetty’s right next to the chocobo farm! You do remember!”

“We ain’t dead yet so don’t try going before me.” Gladiolus rolled his eyes, but Prompto wasn’t fazed by it, not when the Shield’s grin was the brightest he’s ever seen. “I love how you purposely sing off-key in the shower. I love that you pour cereal while wearing one of my favorite jerseys. I love how your smile’s liquid sunshine even when the weather’s shit. And nothing’s sweeter than that look you get on your face when you gotta show me a cute animal you caught on film.”

Prompto’s stomach had performed a hundred somersaults and at least a dozen backflips by now. “Oh em gee.” His eyes were starting to water, yet he couldn’t avert his gaze, smirking endlessly like a fool in love.

“I love you even more when you say things like that.” Gladiolus fondly stroked the blond’s goatee. “When I’m not feeling by best, you boil the best ramen and we eat straight from the pot. Where I’m getting at is… Yeah, I love you and I want the rest of my life to be with you.”

Prompto reached up and weaved the Shield’s loose ponytail between his fingers. “H-hey, I’m supposed to be the one proposing here. You’re stealing my thunder.”

Gladiolus inched closer until their foreheads were touching. “Needed to set the record straight,” he whispered huskily. “Before we get hitched.”

When they kissed, whatever doubts he had before, it was the perfect marriage proposal in Prompto’s mind. Applause went off like fireworks. If he wasn’t on the floor, his right foot would be raised just like in the rom-coms.

“Was that perfect or what?” Prompto was beaming from ear to ear as he waltzed to Noctis’ side as his fiancé and the prince consort made way towards coat check.

Noctis was walking exceedingly slower than usual. “I’ll give you that…”

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Need to head to the restroom… right now.”

“The ring’s coming? We’re having the ring today?” Prompto cupped the king’s stomach. What timing. “Hey, big guy, Ignister, we’ll be back.”

Gladiolus nodded, waving a hand that bore a ring fashioned from the foil of after-dinner mints, a temporary accessory until the real ring could be procured, before the older man turned his attention back to the counter. Ignis called the ring charming and vintage, praising the ring maker. It still made Prompto giddy with joy as he pointed it out to a random couple in passing:

“That’s my fiancé.”

And once more to every guest, employee, stuffed animal, and inanimate object along the way for good measure. He was certain to indicate where said fiancé was even when he had to squint, turn his head, and visually and physically lead them there.

“What are you doing?” Noctis’ face was flushed, ducking away before people got a good look of his face. “I don’t need you in there!”

“Of course I’m coming in with you! You’re having Gladio’s ring. I can’t miss that for the world.” The plucky blond threw his arm around the king’s shoulders. “You know, Noct, this is the best day of my life. Scratch that, I mean, I still have other milestones to look forward to like being a dad. Maybe. Still gotta talk to my future hubby about that. And uh, launching my own magazine, but I’ll get there eventually. I’m not rushing this at all.”

-

“So that’s what you meant when you said it was nearby.”

“But I promise you I washed, steam-cleaned, and polished it a good thousand times before giving it to you.”

The Shield chuckled, watching the band glimmer in the light. “Well, I’m always on Noct’s ass.”

“And now you got a bit of him around your finger.”

Gladiolus gave Prompto a hard look, one that spoke of how unimpressed he had to learn of this a year later.

“Right. That was bad, but think of it this way: not everyone can say their wedding ring was blessed by the King of Light. I mean, once it finally cruised through the digestive system and he pushed it out, it still counts. We couldn’t been happier. Right?”

“Ask me again in another ten years.”

“Gladioooo!”