#i started it on like the last day and then ran out of d-energy to get enough keys to finish the upper route but i didn't mind much

[journey-to-the-attic]

Luci's birthday event this year was cute! But pls I was caught between re-imagining it in a classic jtta setting and a DDVD setting and both are so cute to me I love Luci and his husband n daughter sm

Classic Jtta where Luci decides Ik should come with him to the human world because he can tell she's been missing it a bit, and he takes pictures of the places they go but gets IK to hide in them, and then he sends the pictures to the other brothers captioned 'There is no IK in this picture' and they compete to see who can find her in it first. Also someone at the art exhibit they go to mistakes them for father and daughter and when they say so Luci doesn't correct them bc yes this is his child now

DDVD Au where it's just an excuse for Luci to spend time with Zhao like in the event, but like times 100 on the romantic-ness bc Zhaolu are just like that in my heart, they're not in-your-face soppy but hang around them for long enough and you will see that the subtleties of their relationship are like a billion times more lovey dovey than that. The other brothers babysit IK and they video call every night, but otherwise it's just an extended Zhaolu date <3

ahh these are so cute <3

in some of the ‘there is no ik in this picture’ photos, it’s genuinely very difficult to tell where she is - you have to zoom in real close to get like a glimpse of an eye or something - and other times she’s just standing in plain sight in the corner. in terms of the latter the other brothers like to just pretend they can’t see her anyway, levi will send back the photo having circled a blank space on the wall like “is that her????”, and satan responds having circled an entire other person like “ik’s literally right there”

i also agree with you in that zhaolu would look like a very sensible and low-key couple on the outside, and on paper the most they do in public that makes it apparent they’re involved would be holding hand, but as soon as you actually witness them in real life it’d take you like a minute to realise “i think i need to leave these two alone”

[sukunas-wife]

hhey, I accidentally came across your channel and read everything that was there, it's too good. could you write a story about how Yuji grows up? how he starts fighting with opponents or something like that :D?

I suck at writing fighting I’m sorry 😭 I’m terrible honestly so I did it in a different way I apologize in advance 🥺🤍

Yuji growing up UNDER SUKUNA IS CRAZY because 1 Ryomen’s cursed presence is so strong that Yuji’s cursed energy happened to be tied up all cute and pretty with a little cursed energy ribbon made of Sukuna’s cursed energy.

The integration of the two led Yuji to be able to use Malevolent Shrine

🥹 Made his daddy proud the day the three of you were outside and someone tried to ambush your little family, Yuji’s eyes widened seeing his dad calmly bring his hands together “Domain Expansion, Malevolent Shrine.”

The world flashed before Yuji’s eyes with the sound of a bell and drip. It was after that moment when everything was clear little ⅘ year old Yuji pushed his hands together mimicking his father trying to be cool “Domain expansion! Malevolent Shrine!”

Neither you nor Sukuna expected it to work, until it did-

There was Sukuna protecting you from Yuji’s unstable barely registering domain. After everything was said and done. The two of you couldn’t help but look at each other. “Did… did he” Sukuna let you go, “Yuji..”

Yuji ran at his dad with the biggest smile, screaming “did you see that!? Did you!? Did you!?” When Sukuna picked him up, throwing him up into the air, “I did! We need to talk about your little domain.”

That’s where he started his training under his father because he knew no one else could train him as well as he could. It evolved to Yuji being able to use his own energy in fighting. It was the cutest thing seeing your son's little fist while he punched away at some poor little punching bag with his father there mocking him to get him angry to put more curse behind his hits.

“Aw, this sack of sand too much for you brat? Move- I’ll show you how to really put some curse behind it.”

Yuji watched how his dad pinned the punching sack to post and took a fighting stance, in his eyes he could see the red cursed energy glowing skeins his fathers fists and when he struck it was over. The post and sack were nothing, “I WANNA DO THAT!”

It was a beautiful and cursed sight, Ryomen Yuji, (the name changes based on how my brain works I’m sorry 🥹) , he had softer features, but he had developed similar markings to his father. The only thing keeping him from being his father was the vast size difference. He had even taken to using a robe similar to his dads older style.

Ryomen Yuji wasn’t a tyrant, but if he turned out, he very much could be just a cruel man as his father.

Especially when Jujutsu Sorcerer started to trail after him thinking if they could kill the son the father would bend.

They laid corrected in their own pools of blood.

His first solo fight was when he had turned 15 and he asked if he could go to the town to gay a few things of his own. You were weary feeling something was bound to happen, Sukuna pulled you into his side assuring you there is no doubt in his mind Yuji would be able to take care of himself, he would know, he trained him for the last eleven years.

So you let him leave, he was surrounded not too soon before reaching the village, “IT'S RYOMEN SUKUNA!”

His eyes were quick to move around the group “FOOL THAT'S NOT RYOMEN SUKUNA THAT'S-… even better, Ryomen Sukuna may be a monster but even then this boy looks well enough to know someone has to give a damn about him, we need to restrict him.”

There was Yuji imbuing his cursed energy into his fists, it was a scene to watch how he could punch through a man's chest like silk tofu. How easily he could take a man’s head in his hand digging his fingers into their back around their spine to separate them entirely.

He was ágile, being attacked from both sides by men with cursed tools. Blades on chains, swinging in opposing directions grazing his chest and back as he turned to doing his best to avoid them, he took one chain wrapping it around his hand and turning his back to that man pulling the chain I’ve this shoulder sending the man flying into the air. He turned facing the second who was still running at him catching him by taking his face in his hand and crushing his face in , taking the 2nd man’s blade he spun the chain around before slinging the blade at the falling sorcerer piercing his skull leaving him to fall dead to the ground. He carried on with brute force until another wave of Sorcerer's came, he was huffing but he was thrilled, every year of training, every technique and day spent bleeding, fighting and pouring every ounce of energy and raw brute strength and cursed energy.

“Domain Expansion” it felt like time froze, “Malevolent Shrine.”

Yuji’s domain wasn’t as vast as his fathers, but was equally intimidating. There he stood on the pile of skulls in front of the shrine, hands pressed together, “You will see true power.”

It felt like the domain shook when he uttered the simple word “..cleave…” It was a sure hit taking out every living being in the area.

—- —- —- —-

But of course, like father, like son. When Sukuna was going to leave you to go tend to “business” Yuji begged to go, leaving you home with Anya and for a girls week which turned to a girls month.

During this month your boys had learned one thing in battle, they could merge their domains in a way no one else would ever be able to.

Sukuna had heard rumours of some prestigious clan that wanted his head, and if its head they wanted, he decided he’d personally deliver it personally into their city and into their pathetic little lives. Why wait for the fight to come to his home and put his little family at risk when he could go to the fight and strike while the steel is hot and brittle.

That was until Yuji started to beg to go, no matter how many times Sukuna would tell him no he would persist he go with his father. Finally after talking to you, and even when you didn’t want to let him go, Yuji begged and begged using his little puppy eyed beg you caved and said if either of them came back hurt or didn’t come back at all you would remarry and forget about both of them. It was a bluff but the jealousy was enough to make Sukuna squint at you before whacking Yuji on the back of his head lightly, “Let’s go brat, the sooner we get this done the sooner we come back home and your mother won’t roll in her grave.”

Still Sukuna pulled you into him by your waist and kissed you making Anya and Yuji exaggeratedly “eewww” before he left.

They warped quickly now that Sukuna was in a snappy mood, “pfft, remarry, that woman couldn’t find a man worth one of my- oh?”

It was as if the invasion was anticipated, Sukuna used a lower arm to push Yuji behind him, “Stand back brat, I said you could come, I never said you could fight.” It was an instant, every archer and swordsmen surrounding the two had either been cleaved or lit a light. ”Now we’re really going to have some fun.”

Yuji trailed after his father watching how he barreled through everything and everyone with no regard, his actions were quick and precise. He made their way straight to the centre of the shinden-zukuri with ease. Yuji was astounded, his father would always make minimal movement with maximum damage, but this was different, he was just showing off. They were surrounded and the room was suffocating with the large amounts or pressure from cursed energy flowing. He backed up to Sukuna, and they stood back to back, Yuji was ready to fight, Sukuna was amused and having the time of his life, he would win and there was no doubt in his mind. The two fought in a way that reminded Sukuna of the day you fought by his side. A side of you not even his children would ever know. They danced in circles, taking life after life until they were forced closer, as if they had the same unspoken idea both of them expanded their domain not letting the other know.

The world shook in the wake of the combined domain, the humans witnessing the ethereal domain would die without fail.

The shrines combined to make a full size Sanmon gate, strikingly similar to the former shrine. The only difference was that Sukuna stood there like the god Vishnu, Two hands holding his domain symbol just above Yuji’s height level, the other two holding his tools up and on display, Yuji was a step below him with hands in the matching domain form. The two shared a single brain cell in that moment, “Malevolent Temple.”

It had no barrier, it turned into an open space, the hits were guaranteed. In the end when every living thing in the vicinity was reduced to nothing and the domain closed, it came to show even the former shinden-zukuri has been reduced to dust on the ground.

What he would’ve stretched over days of fun they had completed in mere seconds. But now that his eyes had been opened to this new found power he was intrigued and needed to know more.

This led to Sukuna dragging Yuji around with him to test the limits of their new found glory for weeks until he finally allowed Yuji to return home. You weren’t frantic when they returned because Uraume had calmed your beating heart once a week with the messenger birds you had begged him to take along. But you were scared because Sukuna did not slip into bed as he usually would, instead he scooped you up, threw you over his shoulder and brought you outside with him, “Let’s go woman.” Was all you heard as you were shaken awake and met with the morning's cold air, “kuna, love, I’m so tired.”

You felt Sukuna land a smack on your rump, “Just five minutes and I’ll carry you back.” You did your best to look back at him and you caught him looking back at you with a smug smile, “fine.”

He sat you on the steps to your home, where you saw Yuji, he had that look of excitement, his eyes were gleaming the way they would as a child when he’d see his father use a new technique.

“Mom! Mom! You’re going to love this!” You smiled as Sukuna rubbed his thumb over the back of your hand letting it slip from his hold as he made his way back to Yuji.

Tag List: Permanent because this doesn’t feel very squishy 🥺

@sakuxxi @mercymccann @certainduckanchor @najiiix @bakugou-katsukis-wife @amitiel-truth @souyasplushie @mylovelessnightmare @ynjimenez @dolliira @princessluvz

@simpforyoubitch @domainofmarie @ilovemybabies378 @anyaswlrd @cyder-puff

[steddieas-shegoes]

Hi! I've spent hours reading your Steddie stuff when I honestly should have been sleeping because work and adulting. Gotta be some of my favorite writing! You have requests/prompts open? I have 2! If you like them :) 1. The Soulmate idea of people having a moving animal tattoo representing their Soulmate. Steve has hyperactive bat who loves to drape itself around his neck quite possessively. Eddie with a retriever pup or something that likes to curl up over his heart. 2. Always a sweetheart Steve? No King Steve era thing. He bugs Eddie to learn about D&D to understand his kids better qnd our poor metal gremlin melts :) I'm Soft Boi, so sorry for no angst.

I'm posting the 1st one here, but on the second one, I am gonna just give a rec instead. Last Man Standing by @griefabyss69 (GriefAbyss on AO3) is kind of this request but taking it to filth level 😈 But anyways, this idea is so fucking cool my dudes. I love a good soulmate AU, and when it's something super unique like this, I lose my shit. I definitely think someone could make a slow burn with this idea and if anyone does, please let me know! - Mickala ❤️

---------------------------------------------------------

He used to hate it.

A bat was such a menacing and disgusting creature.

Anyone who saw it would give him a look that was equal parts apologetic and concerned.

But when Steve started getting left alone at home, when he only had surface level friends, when he cried himself to sleep because the silence wasn’t enough to drown out the negative thoughts, the bat wrapped itself around his neck, and he didn’t feel so alone.

He’d started sleeping with his hand on his shoulder just to feel closer to his soulmate.

Hoped that whoever it was wouldn’t be disappointed that he was theirs.

————-

Eddie convinced himself for his entire childhood that the golden retriever tattoo that ran up and down his arms every day was some sympathy soulmate tattoo.

There was no way his soulmate was someone this hyper.

And then Wayne explained there was usually a story behind the tattoo, something more than just the personality or energy of a person.

At night, the retriever would pace across his chest, eventually settling right over his heart.

He wondered what his tattoo representation was.

He hoped it was a bat.

————-

“Dude, it’s not a big deal. Just show us!” Tommy yelled to Steve from the pool.

Steve had managed to hide it from his friends for so long.

He wasn’t ashamed necessarily, but he definitely didn’t need Tommy and Carol or any of the rest of the basketball team to see it.

The tattoo often stayed hidden pretty well during the day, usually hid on his thigh or stomach. He got away with always wearing shirts for practice and skipped post-practice showers with excuses that he had a study group to get to.

But his pool was a problem, especially now that he was at an age where everyone wanted to come over to swim when his parents weren’t around, which was often.

He tried to make excuses, said he was just worried about the sun, worried about a creepy neighbor watching.

It only worked a couple of times.

Now it was night, so no sun.

The neighbor was on vacation.

And everyone expected him to strip down and get into the pool.

So he did.

Everyone stared in silence as the bat flew from his stomach to his back and settled on his shoulder.

It seemed like it wanted to be seen, but still wasn’t sure how it wanted to be perceived.

Steve could relate.

No one commented on it, probably too afraid that one wrong word would get them kicked out of the pool permanently.

When he went to bed that night, the bat took its place around his neck, his hand rested in its place against his shoulder, and he sighed.

“I hope you’re being seen,” he whispered into his empty room.

——————-

The golden retriever was completely still for more than eight hours the same night Starcourt exploded.

Eddie tried not to panic for the first few hours, knew it could be any number of reasons the tattoo wasn’t moving.

But after hour six, he called Wayne at work, worry carrying over the line as fireworks boomed in the background.

“It’s not moving. It- you said when it stopped it meant- they can’t be, though.”

“Eds, take a few slow breaths, son. C’mon now, you’d have known if he-”

“But what if mine’s broken? What if the connection isn’t right?” Eddie tried taking breaths, but it wasn’t working.

The more he thought about it, the more likely it was that his soulmate was gone.

By the time Wayne made it home from work, the retriever had moved from his forearm to its usual place over his heart, and Eddie was fast asleep on the couch, his hand resting on top of it.

—--------------------

Being dragged into more freaky Upside Down shit was not on Steve’s to-do list. Then again, it never really was.

He wouldn’t have even bothered coming with Dustin and Max if not for the fact that Dustin was terrified something had happened to his new best friend Eddie.

He tried to hide his terrible mood, but knew he was failing.

He woke up this morning to his bat already on his leg, seemingly asleep, though it was normally still around his neck or on his shoulder when he woke up.

It hadn’t moved all morning, and he was a little worried about what that might mean.

He was also getting more worried by the day that he’d never meet his soulmate.

He knew it was dramatic, but most people he went to school with had met theirs by now, their tattoos now permanently placed in matching spots on their bodies.

“Dustin, this is so stupid,” he reiterated for the hundredth time as they walked up to the boathouse door.

He kept thinking it to himself as they poked around looking for Eddie, as he was being held against the wall with a broken bottle to his neck by Eddie, as he felt a flutter in his stomach at the way Eddie was watching him as they told him about the Upside Down.

He didn’t take the time over the next couple of days to pay much attention to his tattoo, didn’t really consider the fact that what little time he slept, he was so out of it he didn’t even notice whether the bat was on his neck or not.

Didn’t think about it until a moment in the RV alone with Eddie, when something in his brain told him to check on the bat.

“Sorry, just. Can you wait one second?” Steve interrupted Eddie’s thought as kindly as he could.

“Uh, yeah?” Eddie responded, confused.

He slipped to the back, not bothering to close the curtain that separated it from the rest of the RV.

He lifted his shirt in hopes of seeing it, but it wasn’t there.

He groaned and unbuttoned his jeans, rushing to just check and see if the bat had moved at all.

He shoved his jeans down and frowned.

It was in the same place still.

On his inner thigh on his right leg.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, or what he thought was under his breath.

“Everything okay?” Eddie’s voice was much closer than he expected, making him jump and rush to pull his pants back up. “Shit, was that your tattoo?”

“Yeah. It hasn’t moved in a while.”

“Neither has mine.” Eddie moved in closer. “Actually, mine’s on my thigh too. Kinda makes it hard to check.”

“Which thigh?” Steve couldn’t help asking.

“Right.”

“What is it?”

“Golden retriever. Can’t really imagine who it would be,” he admitted.

Steve’s first and only pet had been a puppy. A golden retriever named Daisy.

She was his entire world for almost a year until she chewed on one of his dad’s expensive watches and ended up being given to a man who worked with him.

He cried for days after that, didn’t talk to his dad for weeks, not that that was difficult to do since he was gone more often than not.

He vowed that he would get another one the moment he was an adult.

That didn’t quite work out.

But his nannies all used to call him a retriever, his energy contagious in the best way, his playful demeanor a relief. As he grew up, it got dulled by his parents, expectations, society, but he knew inside, all of that was still there.

“What’s yours?” Eddie asked, shaking him out of his thoughts.

“A bat.”

Eddie tilted his head and looked at him, eyes squinting to take him in.

“A bat?”

“Yeah. He’s a playful guy, but kinda shy it seems like,” Steve’s smile was fond until it was sad. “At least until he stopped moving.”

“When did he stop moving?” Eddie ignored the fact that it was a he for now.

“I guess I noticed it the day we found you in the boathouse.”

They both stared at each other for a moment, possibly coming to similar conclusions.

“What about yours?” Steve asked quietly, though something told Eddie he already knew the answer.

“The day you found me in the boathouse.”

“I-”

“How-”

“Dingus, we gotta go!” Robin was suddenly yelling as the RV door slammed open.

They could figure this out later.

They would have to.

—-----------------------

As Steve sat by Eddie’s bedside in the hospital, he thought about how often the bat tattoo had been the only comfort he had, the only thing that kept him from being completely alone.

He thought about how Eddie had always done his best to include the people who didn’t belong anywhere else, how he’d put on a show to protect himself, but hated being seen.

Wayne watched him from the other side of the bed, silently judging him, probably trying to figure out how to kick him out.

But he couldn’t.

He felt the pull now.

Now that he’d been around Eddie, somewhat gotten to know him, how he was fearless when it came to the gremlins, was willing to give up his own life if it meant getting Dustin to safety, he could feel the tug on his heart.

It was inconvenient since they didn’t know when or really even if Eddie would wake up.

So he waited.

He waited for Wayne to kick him out. He waited for doctors and nurses to have answers. He waited for Eddie to wake up.

He waited to know if he’d be able to have his soulmate or not.

—-------------------

Eddie’s first word when he woke up was Steve’s name.

Steve let out an uncontrollable sob, curling down so his head rested in the sheets of the bed.

Wayne’s hand was on his back, his voice trying to speak to him and Eddie at the same time.

They’d gotten closer over the last few days, Wayne’s calm presence enough to keep Steve from completely losing his mind with worry.

But the pain meds in the IV drip seemed to catch back up to Eddie within minutes and he was asleep again.

“He woke up though. Your boy woke up,” Wayne said to him, holding his hand.

“Yeah. He did.”

—-------------------

When Eddie left the hospital, Steve insisted on pushing his wheelchair to Wayne’s truck himself.

The nurse agreed with little argument; The hospital was incredibly understaffed and overrun with patients from the “earthquake” and she had a million better things to do.

The walk down was mostly quiet, but not awkward.

“I think some of my tattoo is missing,” Eddie finally said, barely more than a whisper.

“From the bats?” Steve asked.

“Yeah. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. Doesn’t change anything.”

“No?” he asked, voice full of hope.

“Not a thing for me.”

—------------------------

They dated.

It was unconventional in every way.

Steve had never pictured himself with a man, but now he couldn’t picture himself with anyone but Eddie.

Eddie had to explain that they couldn’t just go out and hold hands like any of Steve’s other dates, they had to be careful.

It wasn’t always easy; Steve got frustrated and Eddie got insecure.

But they always ended their nights with soft kisses, with whispered words of comfort and promises.

They fell in love like that, the tattoos only the beginning of something that no one could have expected.

[cozage]

The Daughter's Return Part 3

Chapter 21: Freedom

Start From Beginning | Next Chapter | Table of Contents | Read on AO3

Characters: female reader x Portgas D. Ace Word Count: 1.1k

“It’s better this way, don’t you think?” Ace asked, looking at you with only love in his eyes. 

You blinked, looking around the small cabin. Just a moment ago, you had been…somewhere. It felt like a bad dream, one you couldn’t shake off. 

“It was all just a dream,” Ace reassured, pulling you closer into his side.

“It felt real,” you whispered, looking around. Something felt off about this place. You knew it was supposed to be your home, but it didn’t feel like it. 

“Y/N?” Ace put his hand to your forehead. “You’re burning up, love. Are you okay?”

“Where’s Marco?” you asked, sitting up in the bed and looking around. No, this definitely wasn’t your house. And yet…it was. 

“Marco?” Ace asked, but his voice sounded distorted when he spoke. 

“Yes, Ace. Where’s-”

“Marco!” he shouted, his voice getting further away now. It was as if he were down a long hallway, and you couldn’t quite reach him. “Marco!”

Your eyes flew open and you quickly sat up. Swords clashed together again, the noise of a battle raging around you. Where was your soft bed you were just in? Where was-

Marco appeared in front of your face, carefully watching your eyes as they darted around. 

“Do you know where you are?” he asked. 

“Marineford,” you answered as it all came crashing back to you. Your heartbeat quickened as you looked to the platform. The last time you had seen Ace…

“He’s fine,” Marco promised. “Luffy got him out.”

“You should’ve seen it!” Haruta shouted from next to you. “It was incredible! They did it just in the-”

“Once they get here, we’ll retreat. We keep fighting until then,” Marco commanded.

“Where’s Pops?” you asked. You had definitely woken up in a different place than where you had passed out. Marco shouldn’t be here. He should’ve been with pops, tending to his wounds. 

Nobody said anything. Even Marco averted his eyes from your gaze. 

Your heartbeat quickened. “Marco. Where is he?”

Marco’s voice was thick when he spoke. “He told us to take you and go. He’d hold them off until we got Ace out.”

“No.” You tried to stand, but you fell back to your knees. “No, Marco. We can’t leave him.”

“Captain's orders. We can’t disobey.”

“Like hell!” you screamed, shoving his chest hard. “We need to go get him.”

“We wait here for Ace, just like he said.” You could see how hard this was for him, to obey his captain even though he didn’t want to. 

Your father, who always loved and protected you. Who pushed you so hard you thought you would break. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t leave you like this. 

“He’ll die!” Desperation filled your voice. “We have to go back, please.”

“I won’t let you die too!” Marco snapped. You were about to shout back, but you could see tears falling down his face. “I promised him. Your body can’t take much more, so please…just stay with me and wait.”

You almost listened to him. You almost nodded in agreement, finally resigning your body to the rest it so desperately needed. 

But then Ace broke through the crowd, and a wave of energy washed through your bones. You were revitalized. You had to make it to him. He wasn’t far away now.

You sprang to your feet, ignoring the pain shooting through your leg, and ran toward him. You could hear Marco and the other commanders screaming from behind you, but you ignored them. You ignored the battle raging around you, the explosions raining down around you. 

You crashed into him with such force, the two of you almost went sprawling to the ground. Your lips smashed into his, desperate for any taste of him you could get. He was here. He was in your arms. The worst part of the day was over. You had Portgas D. Ace by your side. The two of you could conquer any mountain, fight any battle. As long as you were together. 

“You bastard,” you sobbed, pulling away from him for a moment. 

“You shouldn’t be here.” He brushed your hair away from your face and kissed the tears slipping down your cheeks. 

“Shut up,” you choked out, your voice getting caught in another sob. 

“Are you-” He shook his head. Questions could wait. “We need to keep moving,” he said softly. “Can you run?”

You gave a quick nod and laced your fingers together with his. You wouldn’t let him get away again. He was yours now.

The two of you began to run back to the commanders, Luffy trailing next to Ace. You almost made it to them, when a booming voice spoke, sending chills through your spine. 

“Fleeing as soon as they rescue Fire Fist! Can you believe it?” Akainu gave a dark chuckle. “Such a cowardly crew. Just like their washed up captain!”

Ace stopped mid stride, yanking you backwards. His entire body was rigid, fury ripping through his bones. 

“Ace!” You gripped his hand, forcing him to stay with you. He was warm, but you ignored the irritation on your skin. “He’s taunting you.”

“He can’t get away with saying those things!” Ace spat. “Don’t you have dignity?!”

You felt Marco grab your wrist, trying to pull you away. But you refused to leave Ace.

“Ignore it,” you screamed. “Ace please!”

“Whitebeard-“

“Died for you!” You sobbed, trying to bring him back to you. “So many people have died for you. Don’t make it in vain, Ace! Please!”

Akainu began to slink toward you, his voice booming through the battlefield. “You all can’t help it though, that’s just who Whitebeard is. A washed up failure!”

Ace’s body temperature spiked, flames covering his body in response to Akainu’s words. With a hiss, you dropped his heated hand. 

Horror washed over you as Marco yanked you into his hold, wrapping his arms around your body to prevent another escape. Ace looked at you, his eyes full of guilt. And then he seemed to recognize the opportunity he had. You weren’t holding onto him anymore. He was free to defend Whitebeard’s honor now. 

“Ace,” you cried out, trying your hardest to break away from Marco’s hold on you. “Ace! If you leave me alone I will never forgive you! Please-” Tears streaked down your face. “Please don’t leave us alone again.”

“I have to do this,” he said, glancing down at your belly, and then back to your eyes. “I love you. I love you both.”

“Ace!” You screamed again, but he didn’t look at you again. 

He turned around, walking toward Akainu. Toward his end.

--

Tag list! @taeyoge @teiza @tojislawyer @trafalgardnami @bloopbopsblog @dancingnewcat @dxestyi @flooofity @nyxthedragon01 @deadsnothere @h-rhodes1598  @morgyyyyyyy @trafalgardvivi  @fiestynatureweeb @frogpogjoghurt @beepboopcowboy @ms-portgas @luvyallbabes @appalost @zuchkaa @saybeyonce @stray-npc @kitsunechan707 @theyluvmesblog @heartysworld @aira-needs-sleep  @mothmomjay @ophelias-flowerss @aqualein @sehyojae @fanficwriter5 @forgotten-blues @amberash05 @firefistnoct @depressed-but-make-it-cute @stuckinthewrongworld@lizpoir

[soaps-hoe-141]

Drowning In The Depths

Sorry it took me so long yall, I have been sick af and with school starting back it is kicking my ass. Gotta love them STEM degrees, know what I mean?

Part 12

Pairing: Captain Price x Male!Reader

WC: 18.3k

Synopsis: Who said Price gotta be the Captain all the time? I am so sorry in advance

Warnings: NSFW 18+ smut, blood, canon typical violence

Darkness swallowed the team as everyone jostled against one another in the back. Well, almost everyone. Price and Gaz had both taken up positions in buildings on the North and South sides of the building in their individual sniper’s nest. Fuckin snipers. You had to stop yourself from snickering at the thought of the two of them laying on the floor the past day as if they were statues. It couldn’t be comfortable, that was for sure. 

You stopped yourself though, sniffing as you reached up to wipe at your nose and look around the dark compartment of the van. Konig was sitting next to you on the bench the team had apparently earned after your last successful mission. It certainly made the ride more comfortable as Watcher navigated through the darkened and ghostly quiet streets outside. The terrible thunderstorms overhead were the cause of it this time, and just as the thought crossed your mind a strike of lightning flashed just over Konig’s head where you could just barely see the windshield of the van. His dark hood was hanging loose as he leaned forward between the front two seats to whisper quietly with the young man who was driving, deep in conversation as he took another turn.

Meanwhile Soap and Ghost sat on the bench across from y’all. The bigger man had his knife out as he meticulously, or rather obsessively, honed the edge to a razor-like finish. His black gloved finger ran over the spine of the knife, catching on the serrations that were closer to the hilt before his gaze shot up to find you. The man truly had a sixth sense and it was beyond freaky now. Hazel eyes narrowed into slits as he caught you staring, a smattering of thoughts were undoubtedly going on behind that sharp gaze, before Soap captured his attention completely by tapping his knee against Ghost’s and whispering something into the other man’s ear. The Ghost-whisperer it would seem for he had tamed the wild beast in front of you with merely a touch and a couple words.

The big one certainly had his death stare mastered though, good lord. Your head shook subtly as you suppressed a shiver before you shifted back along the bench and leaned forward with your rifle laying across your thighs while Cerberus laid underneath the bench right beneath you. His nose knocked against your calf as he lifted his head to find your gaze, a slight tilt to it as he expected some command to come from you. There was nothing to tell him right now, not yet anyway. When no order came though the Dutch Shepherd’s tongue lolled for a moment until you reached down to run your fingers over his brindle fur. You could feel the weight of his head as it pressed into your palm for a quick moment. His head fell back to his paws a moment later and you leaned back into the wall of the van as you took a deep breath.

This drive was becoming anxiety inducing as another wheel dipped into a pothole and the thunder rumbled overhead. It felt almost like something was coming to a head, like the crescendo of a song was nearing and you could feel the melody of it in your very soul. The vibrations of an orchestra in the strings of energy that surrounded you and had you sitting on the edge of your seat even as you actively tried to calm yourself down, breathing as deep as you could.

Why was this making you so nervous anyway? You’d gone after plenty of the worst this world had to offer. Amaan was so far from tipping the scales of lecherous actions you’d been witness to that it wasn’t even funny. Hell you’d been right next to the fucking Admiral on that bastard’s worst days. Even on his good days Amaan was far from the worst in comparison to that demon. Al-Mustafa could have been a fucking angel when he was standing next to him, and yet here you were having to actively stop your knee from bouncing while also forcing yourself to put on the persona that was Speck. Not yourself, but the man you were expected to be in this situation. The operator. Master Chief. Your role.

Suddenly the answer to your question hit you like a slap in the face. Back then, when you had been faced with the Admiral, his heinous crimes, and your own very obvious mortality, you’d had nothing to lose. Everything you’d worked for had been stripped from you and your decisions and past had left you devoid of anything to care for. Your family, your job, your home, every cent to your fucking name had been thrust into the incinerator and you’d lost it at the drop of a hat.

Everything had changed now, you had someone, something, to stay alive for and to come back to. It was going to cloud your judgment. You knew that all too well. Hell it already had been affecting your judgment over the past days that you had been digging yourself deeper and deeper into the trench that was Captain John Price. It would only get worse from here on out and you found that the little voice that always told you not to get attached was surprisingly silent.

John Price was an addiction that even your subconscious would forever be unable to shake. You were bound and determined that the only thing that could tear you from him at this point was death itself and you’d put up a fight with any god or ferryman who came after you. Death had, had his chance to take you once before and he’d fucked it up. That fucker wasn’t getting you any time soon if you had anything to say about it. Besides who wouldn’t fight for those beautiful blue eyes and that endearing smirk when he knew he had you right where-

Stop thinking about him, Speck. There was a fucking job to do. Slowly you found your eyes turning to your left where the seat on the bench next to you sat empty. Where he would have been if it wasn’t for the fact he was already in position. A part of you was already missing him and it hadn’t even been that long. You craved the way his calloused fingers slid along your arm, the way his lips felt pressed against yours. The way his striking blue eyes pierced your very soul as he looked down at you with sweat dripping off the tip of his nose. Those quiet words of praise falling from between his lips, amongst other, dirtier words that had your cheeks warming in an instant even now as you sat in the back seat of the van.

A hard shove against your shoulder nearly pushed you sideways on the bench as you blinked a few times and your eyes focused on the other men around you. “You’re listening, ja?” You could almost see the raised eyebrows beneath the hood, the way his forehead creased sometimes when he only had his facemask on. Price’s forehead had lines like that, though his were a bit deeper and a bit more mature in appearance whenever his brows furrowed. Oh and the way the corners of his eyes creased whenever he smiled and made his typically serious face a bit more hospitable when he looked at you.

Fuck, Speck, would you pay attention? “Yes sir, I’m listenin’,'' your accent slipped out as you tried to pull yourself out of your foggy thoughts. You caught the attention of the other two men sitting in the back of the van as well as the southern twang lilted into your words. A moment of distraction and a shard of your past revealed, though they may have been jokesters and enjoyed a good laugh that in no way meant that they were stupid. They paid attention and they noticed the smallest of details, it was in fact what made all of you so great in the field.

Not a word was spoken though…Thankfully. Your past, your heritage, wasn’t exactly something you liked to advertise, it could ruin the idea of who you were. What you were. The idea that you were a chameleon would disappear in a cloud of smoke if they really started to hear that twang that was hidden so well in your voice. Or so you always told yourself anyway.

Ghost grunted out a quick, “We’re a minute out,” as he stood up from his and Soap’s bench. Shit you’d lost track of the time. You quickly followed suit as you stood up and pulled a magazine out of the tac vest before sliding it into the magazine well. It took only a quick pull of the charging handle to chamber a bullet from the magazine and you glanced quickly towards where Ghost was already unlatching the panel that had closed you all into the back. “Thirty seconds,” his voice rasped out into your ear as the van slowed to a stop and Watcher shut the panel between the front seats.

You clipped Cerberus’ lead on before you did a quick check of his gear, tightening the straps on his harness that wrapped underneath his belly. A moment later you joined the other three men at the two back doors. When the lock clicked on the outside the door opened a second later and Ghost jumped down beside the small ginger. The rest of y’all followed close behind the big man with Watcher bringing up the rear. The door shut behind you, though you couldn’t hear it over the pounding of the rain as the storm was raging around you now. You moved behind Konig with Soap on your left beside you.

The four of you lined up on either side of the door with Cerberus between your legs as you kneeled at Konig’s back and watched your side of the dark alley. The dog’s eyes were locked on you, you could feel their gaze as he awaited whatever command you were going to give him or even something as simple as if you were going to move. Watcher moved by you before he stopped to stand in front of a keypad and he plugged something into it. You could just barely hear him as he whispered something to himself and his mic picked it up, along with the sound of him typing numbers into the door’s lock.

It took a few moments before anyone finally started to move and when they did you weren’t surprised by the perpetrator in the slightest. A snort came from somewhere behind you though you heard it clearly in your ear just before a Scottish voice muttered under his breath, “Yer no singing right now are ye? Ye do know we’re in a bit a fuckin’ hurry, right?”

Just as fast as the questions slipped out of Soap’s mouth the quiet muttering stopped as well as the sounds of the young man pressing the buttons, both of them seeming to be distracrted by the other in this tense moment. Rain muted the sounds of shifting from behind you as you forced yourself to stay focused on the alley in front of you and not fall victim to the teasing these two were leveling at one another. “Aye, I am ye bastart. Ye can’t do any better, trust me we hear yer howlin’ every time we try to take a fuckin’ shower,” your brows lifted at the quiet words that came out of the smaller Scotsman. It wasn’t so much the words that had surprised you but the one who had said them.

Up until this point Watcher had been nothing but a sweet, innocent- as innocent as anyone on this team could be anyway -young man who might have seemed a bit too young but it wasn’t like he had ever seemed incapable, quite the opposite in fact. Watcher had been quiet maybe whenever everyone else was around, but never did he seem like the type to mouth off in the way he was now. Especially not to someone who was technically his superior even if Soap didn’t act like it sometimes. There were intricacies to the relationships in this team that you still hadn’t quite grasped it seemed.

“Well get on with it then Freckles, we don’t have all bloody night. It’s pishin’ it doon oot here,” you could hear the smile in his voice just before Ghost let out an exasperated sigh behind you directed at what you assumed to be both of the Scotsmen who were very nearly about to go at it in this fuckin alley if the annoyed huff from Watcher was anything to go by.

It didn’t seem either of them cared too much about the fact that rain was currently pouring down on y’all in fuckin buckets. It had soaked through your clothes nearly the moment you’d stepped out of the van and your equipment had been right behind it seconds later. There was no doubt in your mind if they kept it up, even your waterproof boots were going to give way to the torrential downpour overhead and you hated the feel of wet socks. That wasn’t even mentioning how bad Cerberus was gonna be stinking after this operation.

Just before the tension broke and shit hit the fan though a deep voice came over your ear piece. Deep, smooth, calm, and authoritative, “ETA on your entry, Bravo 0-7.” It was a question yes, including the little lilt up of his voice at the end, but it sounded more like an order coming from that man. Most things in your experience did, you weren’t about to complain about it though.

Without thinking about it the corners of your mouth turned up in a small smile. A rush that wasn’t adrenaline for once, but instead was happiness. A feeling you were beginning to grow a bit more accustomed to after so long without it. You stayed quiet though as Watcher answered the silent question in a hushed tone, “Fifteen seconds.” Ghost quickly relayed the answer before everyone went silent once more. There was a hollow grunt from Ghost who seemed like he was about to say something more but he instead elected to leave it alone once Watcher continued on with whatever it was he was doing. Best not to distract the young man anymore than he obviously already was.

Before Price could speak again the more feminine voice of Laswell came through the ear pieces, obviously broadcasted to the whole team, “Be advised there are two unknowns nearing your location. I estimate thirty seconds before they are on you. You need to get inside the building. Do not alert any guards. I repeat, do not alert any guards. We don’t know what is inside that building.” Your hands tightened instinctively on the weapon as you shifted and your knee dug further into the grime of the alleyway as rain water flowed down the paved road by you.

Watcher behind you was still doing whatever it was he was good at in an attempt to get y’all inside before shit hit the fan. No one said a word for fear it would tip the scales out of your favor too soon and y’all waited quietly on bated breath to get the clear from the ginger to breach. Again an American voice broke the silence as Laswell updated the team, “Fifteen seconds. Your side of the alley Speck.” Your hand shot down to the dog still lying between your legs as you quickly assured yourself that he was still lying on his belly there, as if he could move with the lead still clipped on him.

Both you and Cerberus were tense with anticipation, the only thought in your mind being ‘Don’t let this op go sideways already. It’s too fuckin soon.’ Just as the words played through your mind though water splashed up beside you as Watcher backed up to stop beside you and shove the items in his hand into a small pack at his hip and readied his weapon. Your focus however stayed on the end of the all even as the door opened behind you.

Footsteps, muted by the torrent, sounded off behind you as the other cleared into the building in quick succession. Laswell’s voice was counting down quietly in your ear as the men filed in behind you as quickly as they could. There was a light tap on your shoulder and your eyes darted up to find Watcher just as the young man hurried away from you and inside. You stood and shuffled backwards with Cerberus who backpedaled along with you until you turned into the doorway and Konig shut the door behind you.

Silence buzzed in your ears until the soft sounds of droplets of water hitting the floor found your ears. Your ears adjusted quickly to the lack of the noise as you looked around the dark entryway that you found yourself in. It was like the building was light and soundproof despite you knowing better. Or at least you knew what the building specs had revealed, who knew what was really going on in this fucking building though. No plan, no matter how amazing, survived a battle.

The illusion of the building being sound and lightproof dissipated in a moment though as the sound of rain hitting the roof sounded somewhere above you. While outside the darkness of the storm was interrupted by flashes of lightning that managed to illuminate the hallway though it was only for a few moments. It was just long enough though for you to see Soap at the end of the hallway and his gun pointed into the darkness with Watcher covering the other corner. Both men were holding their respective angles on anyone who might come down the hallway. 

A second later there was a strike of thunder that seemed to rattle the walls around you and also aided to ruin the illusion of sound deprivation, feeling more like an earthquake instead of a storm that was miles overhead. There was still no sound from the team though, even as Konig dropped his night vision into place much like the rest of the team had already done, you were just now noticing. A moment later Ghost finally broke the dead silence as his voice sounded over all the comms, “We’re inside. IR beacons on now Captain,” you reached up a hand to drop your own night vision into place. You reached to the back of your helmet then to turn the IR beacon as well and then Cerberus’ on the back of his vest as Ghost spoke.

It took a second before you heard Price answer in that calm, soothing tone that was all business and formality in the middle of this mission. And despite yourself it had the hair on your arms standing up in response, “Good copy Lieutenant, eyes on.” The big man didn’t bother to answer him and instead he moved up behind Soap as he took a second to survey both sides of the dark hallway.

The masked face turned back to find you as his hand came up and he directed you to follow up behind Konig and Watcher. The moment you gave him a nod he tapped Soap on the shoulder and the two men slipped silently around the corner. Stealth was your friend, at least for now, and was the only thing keeping the local law enforcement off of y’all and the rest of the building quiet as you moved through the building. Just one quick hand motion and Cerberus was out from between your legs as he came to rest at your right hip instead. Stepping up behind Konig you gave him a light tap on the shoulder and watched him mirror the same action on the young man’s before the three of you slipped around the corner and off down the hallway.

Watcher stopped at the first room as he opened the door quietly and his lean form moved with graceful, quiet speed you hadn’t seen from many. As you continued moving you found yourself appraising the skill with which he cleared the room, despite the fact that you knew it wasn’t actually your job to do so. To be so young it seemed he was well enough trained, maybe not as quick or experienced as the rest of the team but you had your suspicions that most of his skills lied elsewhere. Not necessarily just another jarhead with half a brain to throw into the fray when you needed bodies. 

Quickly though you and Konig moved past the room as you watched the hallway behind and Konig the hallway and stairs up ahead. It took only a few seconds before the sharp features of his pale face reappeared in the doorway and you turned to tap Konig as the three of you continued on down the hall. Approaching the second door that branched off the hallway you heard a low rumble come from your right and you hurriedly reached forward to tap the taller man in front of you on the shoulder. He paused for just a moment before he too heard the low rumble just behind him and he gave a stiff nod.

A quick hand gesture and the rumble stopped as Konig lined up on the side of the door before checking to make sure it was unlocked. When he looked back you were quick to give him a single nod as he returned his attention to the door and pushed inside. You didn’t catch what happened in the first moment. All you could see was Konig’s large body that seemed to swallow the nearest hostile as he wrapped his arms around the man’s neck and drug him to the side against the wall, as out of the way as the Austrian could get. You stepped inside in the next moment as you listened to the muffled sounds that came from the man that Konig was fighting to put to sleep.

The wide eyed face of a young man, you’d wager to guess even younger than Watcher, came around the corner in a flash. You barely had enough time to register the fear that had grown there. All you could see was the thought that he was in too deep, that his time had come even as he reacted in his own defense nearly as quickly as you. The silhouette of a handgun began to rise in what felt like slow motion in front of you. Instinct carried you forward as your right hand shot forward as quick as the strike of lightning that flashed outside and blinded you for just a moment. You didn’t need to be able to see though now that you had your hands on him.

Just as quickly as your sight was taken it returned in the midst of your next strike. His trachea slammed into your thenar web and you could feel the way it began to give way beneath the force of the blow. Dark eyes bugged at the sudden contact and immediately the gun in his hand dropped, a metallic clack echoing around the walls as it hit the ground, and he reached for his throat while he struggled to catch his breath.

In the next moment his throat was trapped between your forearm and bicep while his hands clawed fruitlessly at your arms. Nails dug into the fabric of the long sleeved, black shirt that clung to your torso and arms like a second skin. When that didn’t seem to work a primal instinct began to take over that few could have suppressed, and part of you would have gone so far as to say not a soul alive could have fought that urge down.

It was a desire to survive, to continue dwelling in this cruel world that every creature walking this planet had. His sharp elbows drove back into your ribs and you couldn’t help the quiet grunt that he drove from your lungs. The young man’s mouth opened wide in a scream that he couldn’t quite get out but damn did he try. You could even feel the muscles of his neck as they flexed beneath your forearm. A quiet hum passed through your lips as the wild and struggling actions slowly began to ebb into the hazy last ditch efforts to get away. Futile attempts but the human brain responded the only way it knew how, remove the threat and get away from it. Even if the brain knew it could never hope to accomplish that task.

As the fingers around your forearm loosened your gaze darted towards Konig across the room who was lowering the other man to the ground before he turned to find you. Cerberus was still standing idly beside you while his chocolatey eyes stared up at you with reverence as if you didn’t have a man currently struggling in your arms. When the other’s arms finally started to fall back to his sides you took a step back to lower him to the ground before he slumped to the floor and you stepped over his body to join Konig where he’d moved back towards the door. A single tap on the tall man’s shoulder and he stepped outside with Watcher as y’all continued on down the hallway.

Like a well-oiled machine you cleared every small room on the first floor and rotated with one another all the way to the stairs. As you cleared the final room on your side of the hallway, Ghost's voice rumbled through the ear piece, “Clearing the second floor now. Team three clear the third floor.”

You exited the room with a tap on Konig’s shoulder as the man answered back, “On the way up now.” He released the button on his mic before he whispered just loud enough to hear, “On you, Watcher.” The young man didn’t hesitate even for a moment before he mounted the first step on his way up. His head tilted up as he watched the top of the landing, taking the steps carefully as he went, doing everything in his power not to make a noise. Not a single shot fired so far and the guards weren’t alerted, hell this was going far better than any of y’all had dared to anticipate.

“Be advised, one just left his room on the second floor…” the man paused before continuing with an edge of nervous anticipation in his tone, “No clear shot on my end. He's approaching the stairwell on the north side of the building,” the Brit’s voice reached your ears though it wasn’t that of the man from before. This one was a couple octaves higher and missing the rough tone you loved so much. Watcher stilled on the stairs in response, just barely in front of Konig about halfway up the first flight of stairs. You couldn’t help but cast a nervous glance back the way you had come like you’d just assured y’alls mutual destruction by just daring to think positively for once.

A low rumble began in the dog’s chest that you silenced immediately with a quiet gesture of your hand. Konig took one more cautious step forward to come shoulder to shoulder with the comically shorter man just before a face came into view at the top of the stairs. Your stomach dropped as the middle-aged man froze with his fingers tangled through a long, dark beard. It took a moment for him to process what he was seeing, to register that y’all were the enemy and his life was in danger. The man tried to scream, he really did. At least he made the most honest attempt he could. His mouth opened and he tried to take a step back and turn. He put every muscle into action in order to take off back down the hall, probably to find someone, but his fate was never to walk down that hall again.

He didn’t even get the chance to turn his head all the way back around before a flash came from the end of Watcher’s barrel and then Konig’s. Blood sprayed the wall behind him as the light faded from his eyes and his body began to go limp. It would take a second for his body to realize that the brain had ceased to respond. No loud bangs echoed off the walls though, suppressors kept the sounds quiet especially with the cracks of thunder still sounding off overhead. 

Your shoulders tensed as you watched his body tilt forward towards the two men and he began to fall down the stairs. Without even really thinking about it the two men in front of you stepped forward simultaneously. The weight of the now deceased man hit their shoulders as they let his body lay softly against the stairs before they continued up and you followed right behind them. Avoiding the blood pooling onto the steps and the body that laid there now.

Watcher lifted his gun to inspect the dark hallway for only a second before his eyes returned in front of him and the two men in front of you continued on with that same slow and careful step that you all had been using since you left the van. Again the two men started up the stairs together as you brought up the rear of the group, Cerberus still steady at your side, a rock in this tide of uncertainty. As the three of you crested the top of the stairs two shots fired off back the way you had come. Fuck.

Voices rose in a flurry from the floor below as Ghost’s deep voice growled into your ear, “We’re compromised.” Yeah, no shit.

“Time to clean house lads,” Soap’s voice cut him off, sounding strained as more shots fired off from somewhere below.

More voices began to rise like a chorus from behind the closed doors of the third floor before lights flipped on overhead and blinded each of you with the nightvision. You scrambled desperately to pull the goggles up even as startled shouts hit your ears and you tried to adjust your eyes with a couple quick blinks. Bullets flew past you, slamming into the walls behind you before you heard the quieter pops of either Watcher or Konig’s rifles firing. When you could finally focus your eyes a man was lying dead a few feet in front of you and further down the hall one was coming out of another room.

Watcher was just getting his night vision goggles up while Konig was turning back to check on the both of you. His eyes landed on the ginger first before turning his green gaze to you. Cerberus’ jaws opened in a thunderous bark as a crack of thunder sounded just outside, though you had to admit the dog was easily loud enough to compete with it. All thought stopped though as you watched the door in front of you fly open. You were almost certain you could feel every muscle go rigid in response, a moment of hesitation that would undoubtedly be your undoing.

A figure peeled around the corner that Konig had missed in his worry. You tried to lift your gun but there wasn’t enough time. You could see from here, in this slowed down, distorted version of time, that he was going to beat you to pulling the trigger. That was before glass shattered somewhere ahead of you and the man fell with a hole in the side of his head. Your gaze darted around to find the source of the shot, but Konig was helping Watcher to his feet so it wasn’t one of you. Then John’s voice rumbled in your ear in a tone that was nearly a growl, “He’s down. Get al-Mustafa. That’s an order.”

Your eyes darted to where Konig was already moving forward with Watcher hurrying after him. There was no time to waste now that your cover had been blown. Konig shoved his way into the first door on his right and disappeared inside as you moved to catch up with the other two. You reached a hand down to check on Cerberus as the big dog moved at your side and you continued on past the door to follow Watcher. By the time the shorter man was pushing in to clear the next room Konig was coming up behind you to give you a light tap on the shoulder and you crossed the hall to the next door.

A hard shove inside with your shoulder and it started to give way only to come to a jarring halt as it slammed into something solid which was currently refusing to budge on the other side. Your brows furrowed then before someone shoved at the other side and the door slammed hard into your chest. A quiet curse fell out of your mouth as you took a step back and glanced Konig’s way as he pushed into the room next to yours easily enough while Watcher continued on down the hall past you and towards the last door already. Do not ruin the rhythm, Speck. Don’t be that fucker, get your shit together.

Get it together, get it together, finish this so you can get everything back to normal. Unclipping Cerberus’ lead you took a breath before you stepped forward and your boot collided with a door. The force cracked the wood which might as well have been paper thin at this point as it flew inward. Curses sounded from inside the room as you forced it the rest of the way open with a hard slam of your shoulder. When it finally gave in to the force you felt your teeth jar just before you caught sight of furrowed brows and the barrel of a gun rising your way.

Time was short but the distance between the two of you was shorter. Your gun slipped from your grasp as you shot forward and grabbed his wrist with one hand. You slammed it against the wall with enough force to make the wall shudder beneath it as you slipped further into his guard. The gun smacked against the wall uselessly as you did, your arms straining to maintain control with one hand around one wrist and the fingers of your other hand wrapped tight around the other.

The man growled out more than a few curses in Pashto as he tried to force you back through the door. Even as you held his arms wide and the gun away from your chest he still seemed only to be worried about keeping you out and away. It was like he was trying to get rid of you even as the sounds of gasps echoed from further within all in the span of a few seconds. All of the noises from within quickly turned into cries and sobs as you let your grip slip ever so slightly to wrap your hand around the barrel of the gun and force it from the man’s hand. It only took another half second to flip it around in your palm and shove it into the center of his chest. 

When you pulled the trigger the sound would have nearly deafened you if not for the headphones over your ears. The bang bounced off the walls around you as the man fell to the ground and you turned without thought to find the source of the noises from before. The man’s dead body was irrelevant now and you had no more attention you needed to pay it. Your eyes darted down towards the woman and the little girl she now held wrapped in her arms and as hidden from your sight as she possibly could be. Her face locked you into place as you immediately remembered the way she had looked so confused and pleading at you the last time you had seen her. Your jaw tensed and Cerberus whined at your side, sensing the way your mood immediately changed from business to uncertainty.

She had been at the other compound, you’d sent her directly back into the fray with the foolish hope that her mother would get her out of here, out of this life. Really it had been more like the hope that she could get out there. However even as you watched her you realized there was no recognition behind those eyes. This was the same little girl you had gone out of your way to speak to and she didn't even remember your face, and for some odd reason it made you muscles tighten in response. You were so used to people not remembering you, hell it was why you could do what you did, but you’d spoken to this girl. Killed another man right in front of her. Yet there she was not even realizing the deja vu you should have been causing her at this exact moment.

God you were getting sensitive lately, it was truly becoming pathetic as nearly everything was altering the course of your thoughts. You couldn’t think about that right now Speck, you’d come here for a reason and you had so much more to deal with than a child you didn’t even know. The reason you were here was somewhere else in this building, it wasn’t this little girl and her mother. Amaan was the cause of this girl’s suffering and you had a chance to stop that tonight. He was the reason that all of you were even here. The reason that you all had to be in this place with a dead man behind you and a woman and child who were begging quietly for their lives in front of you. Yet you hadn’t even gotten confirmation of an ID on him to prove he was even in this building.

Glancing towards the door you took half a step forward and leveled the barrel of the gun at the woman. Even as you did it though you felt the finger you had resting against the trigger freeze. You couldn’t kill unarmed combatants, and especially not a child. Not here and not now. Son of a bitch, you bit the inside of your cheek and glanced back at the door once before turning back to the two and growled out a quiet threat in Farsi, the only hope you had of keeping them alive and seeing this through to the end, “Do not move, do not leave. Try to leave and you will be shot. Stay here until we are gone and do not make a noise, do you understand?”

The mother’s eyes glanced at the man on the ground behind you before looking into your eyes once more as she pulled her daughter closer and then gave a few quick nods of understanding. You watched as the mother and Jasra disappeared into the small closet in the room and the door closed behind you as you left the room with a clipped, “Fuss.” The second you turned the corner though and started towards where you knew the other two would be clearing the final room another round of shots rang out through the third floor.

“FUCK,” the Scottish voice yelled out as he fell back around the door frame and his hands reached for his side. Too good, things never went this smoothly and you never should have let yourself believe that it would. You closed the distance in a flash though Konig was there a step before you, speaking words in German that you didn’t understand. His hand shot to grab a hold on the young man’s vest as he pulled him further away from the door. You didn’t stop to afford Watcher that same level of concern, not when the person who had done the shooting could have come out of the room at any moment, besides Konig could handle any first aid better than you could.

Slipping inside the final room you slid around the corner gun first as you came face to face with al-Mustafa who was standing securely behind his two wives with his arms wrapped around both of their necks. He had one hand wrapped around the grip of the pistol as he held it to one of their heads. Your eyes searched them carefully, analyzing and planning in the matter of a moment. There was no way you could fire off a shot and hope to kill the other man before he killed one of these two women though. Again time was short and you didn’t exactly have much time to figure out a way to get through this situation.

Especially not when you could hear the two men outside the door and you were already having to fight to turn off the side of your mind that held the worry and fear for the young man outside the door and everything that could possibly go wrong. Doubly so when you heard Konig’s voice in your ear piece, “Watcher has been shot. Soap, get up here now.” You didn’t flinch, you couldn’t, you were in the middle of a stare-off with a true piece of shit and you knew whoever flinched first was going to lose this match.

The ensuing chaos on the mic nearly broke you but it was still secondary as you continued to watch al-Mustafa. “Come on Amaan, there’s no reason for this. Just come with us,” play your role Speck, like maybe you wouldn’t have put a bullet in his head given the first chance. God you wanted to though, you wanted to kill him more than you’d wanted to kill anyone else before in your life. Your words, which had come out in Farsi, seemed to be a cause of confusion for Amaan though that lasted only a moment before he dismissed your presence as a whole in favor of searching for a way out from behind his two body shields.

There was fear that was evident in both of the women’s eyes and even though you couldn’t see it you knew that sweat was beginning to dot their brows as they watched the end of your gun rather than you. They were both expecting to meet their end one way or another tonight. You need to break that bastard’s concentration, your eyes darted down to the dog at your side who was a steady rock at your side. “Gib laut,” you mumbled to which Cerberus responded with a series of thundering barks directed at the man still searching for a way to get out.

The tension was instantly palpable in the room, the barks served to keep the other man on edge, no respite for the adrenaline fueled panic you knew was currently flowing through his system. Good, the last thing you needed was a terrorist with a fucking plan. “I don’t have a line of sight into the room, Captain, how about you,” Gaz’s voice came through your ear piece and you barely even had the chance to glance at the walls of the room to realize that there were no windows except for the one on the south side of the building.

Of course there weren’t, nothing could ever be that easy huh? It took a moment for Price to answer as well though you didn’t need to hear his answer to know what it would be. Still you enjoyed hearing his voice as he growled out in what you were beginning to learn was frustration, “Negative. Konig status report on Watcher.”

The Austrian was doing his best to hide his worry but it was painfully obvious as he answered, “Two gsw’s, one to the abdomen the other to the thigh, his plates caught the rest. Soap, where are you!?” You could hear the man outside without the need of his mic as his voice rose in what was nearing panic. The worst part about it though were the quiet grunts of pain that the young man was doing his best to choke down. However, as much as he was trying it wasn’t working too well as your imagination painted a vivid picture of Watcher leaking blood all over the hallway. With Konig’s huge hands pressing desperately over two flooded wounds as he tried to staunch the bleeding.

For the love of God, drown it out Speck, focus on the problem in front of you before you get yourself killed, idiot. You blinked once as you tried to push the thoughts into the back of your mind and forced al-Mustafa came back into your forethoughts. Your eyes caught sight of the women’s fear again, their gazes darting towards the door on their left and then back to you. Amaan’s eyes were everywhere but, his gaze was instead now drawn to the escape route he had planned out for himself. A flash of lighting struck outside followed by a series of three more strikes that you struggled not to let yourself get blinded by and instead keep your eyes on the man you were actually here for.

In the next moment though the power flickered and then everything went dark. Son of a bitch this shit needed to make up its fucking mind. Again shots rang out just before glass shattered as you hurried to flip down your night vision once more. When you finally managed to see what had happened the scene in front of you made your shoulders tense in response. A small pit settled in your stomach as you stared down at the floor.

One of the women was lying dead on the ground, the place where the bullet had gone through and left a hole in her skull covered by the headwear she wore. The other woman, presumably her sister, was reaching for and cradling her head as she drug the limp corpse into her lap. Sobs racked her body as she did and when the door to their left opened you lifted your gun instinctively at whoever was coming through. When three young girls quickly ran to their mothers in the dark though you felt that pit beginning to widen. Especially as you caught sight of the blood already soaking into the rug on the floor.

Holy shit. You let the barrel of the gun lower slowly before you reached up to the radio attached to your vest and spoke quickly, “One of the wives is dead, Amaan killed her. He’s gone, but I can still get him, Captain.” Silence took over the line as the sound of a second Scottish voice entered the hallway from a distance. Your mind was anywhere but the three men now outside the door though, you had other things to worry about.

You took a quick step up onto the bed and moved over it to the now opened window. Glancing out quickly at the torrential downpour your eyes narrowed as you inspected the narrow ledge of the window and the straight drop down. Time for retrieval was escaping, Price needed to make a decision and he needed to make it now before his opinion became obsolete. “Speck…” There was a hint of warning in his voice as he said your name, making your jaw tense once more as you glanced the other way down the street towards where Price was nestled in a building somewhere. You caught sight of Amaan’s retreating form as he tried to make his escape for the second time from your team. John was out of time to make a decision now.

“Fuck it,” you drawled out the words as you used the stock of the gun to clear out the larger shards of glass still stuck to the frame. In the next moment you were climbing through the window before you pressed the button on your radio and growled out, “I’m going after him.” It wasn’t a request this time, it was a statement. You were going after him. A woman had died and Watcher was injured and you couldn’t let his sacrifice go to waste…Not if the worst happened.

Glancing down quickly you found the awaiting gaze as you commanded, “Bleib,” and watched the dog’s focus narrow onto you and you alone. Both of you were now actively ignoring the crying children and the one woman still left to deal with the three children. They weren’t your problem to deal with anymore though, you had other things to worry about. Like how far this drop was gonna be and how you were gonna catch up to that slippery bastard. It was time to treat this just like any other obstacle course or training drill now. Just get it done, put this bullshit to rest. 

As you clung to the ledge of the window your eyes searched for the easiest path to the ground, and you could feel your fingers slipping just slightly as you fought to hang on. The shining gutter on the right caught your gaze as you swung yourself off the ledge of the broken window and towards it. Your hands couldn’t grip it all that well but before you slid down you managed to get your feet around it as you controlled your descent to the street below. It only barely broke what would have been a bone-breaking fall, but it broke it enough that you could ignore the pain in your knees and turn to yell up, “Hier.”

Only a moment passed before Cerberus launched himself through the window and you saw his head tilt down as he looked for you. Reminiscent of the way he had launched off the top of the training wall during the training run with full faith you would be there to catch him. It was all the same to him, work and training were no different. So long as you were there he couldn’t have cared less about the situation that he was in while doing it.

Your arms lifted as you took a couple steps back before the weight of the dog landed on your outstretched forearms and you cushioned his fall. Without another moment of thought you  issued a quick, “Fuss,” and then turned down the street and took off at a sprint, not bothering to check on Cerberus. There was no doubt in your mind that he had slipped into his place at your side. 

Where had Amaan been when you last saw him? You were struggling to remember now. He’d turned down a side road and disappeared between the buildings, you could recall that much at least. But had he been at the dead end of this street? He had been, right? Yeah of course he had. For sure…Maybe? Fuck.

“I’ve got eyes on Amaan,” the deep voice sounded akin to the rumble of an engine in your ear as he answered a question you hadn’t even dared to utter. “Three streets to your north, Speck. Move fast, I don’t have eyes anymore,” the callout made your head whip to your right just as you began to pass a side street. It only took a quick glance for you to catch sight of the man in question once more.

Oh yeah, you were definitely faster than that fucker. You could catch up to him easily, you just had to put everything clouding your mind out of it. None of that was important right now. All you had to do was get yourself and Cerberus out of this mess alive now. That was it.

You slipped in the wet streets as you took the hard turn and started after him. Ahead he darted out of sight back towards the west and you had to raise a hand to shield your eyes from the rain pouring into your face. Even your eyelashes were beginning to drip as the thunder continued to rumble overhead and another flash of lightning lit up the sky. Had you been standing still you might have even gotten cold with how wet everything around you was, but with your arms and legs pumping you didn’t exactly have the chance. Instead your skin felt like fire beneath the tight, black shirt and comparatively loose, black cargo pants you’d donned for the mission.

The dog beside you was focused ahead and for the first time it seemed you weren’t the only thing on his mind. Cerberus was well aware that the chase was on. You’d both been on enough together that it wasn’t all that surprising he had realized what was happening by now.

The gun in your hands and the gear strapped to your body felt like a weight dragging you down into the streets that were now turning into mud as you neared the poorer parts of the city. The water that had soaked into your shirt and pants was becoming a fifty pound burden as it slowed your typically light and agile form. You could only hope that Cerberus’ thick-furred body wasn’t feeling the same in these conditions. One of you slowed down was enough cause for concern, the both of you being drug down was beyond concerning.

As Amaan’s head whipped around to find you, you watched his form take another turn, he knew he was being followed. Lovely. He was trying to shake his tail and if you lost sight of him for too long he might very well be able to do that. Cerberus couldn’t track in these conditions…Well that was a lie, he could do it. It would just be painstaking and it was doubtful you’d end with your query in hand anyway, and you weren’t about to let Watcher get shot trying to get this fucker and then have to find out that the bitch got away again. And if the worst happened…Fuck why hadn’t you hurried the fuck up in that stupid fuckin room?

A pit opened in your stomach as your mind tried to backtrack. Son of a bitch you couldn’t be thinking about all of that. Drown it out and focus Speck, for the love of God and all that’s right and holy in this world fucking focus. He wasn’t the priority right now, not yours anyway. Konig was more than willing to take care of the kid and Watcher didn’t need your worry or your pity. Right now you needed to think rationally not with whatever the fuck else your mind was trying to force on you.

Even as the thoughts crossed your mind you heard the crack of the mic as words spilled through, “Someone get the fucking van. We’ve got to get the fuck oot of here.” Soap’s tone didn’t hold worry so much as it did urgency. A need to get out of what had turned into quite literally a bloody mess before things got even worse, or so you assumed. You weren’t exactly there to see how things were going since you left.

“On it,” Ghost’s deep voice answered back immediately just as the man you were chasing made another turn and forced your focus back to him completely. This slippery bastard was gonna be the death of your knees with all these fucking turns.

Catch him, stop him, hell kill him if need be. Fuck the info you could get from him at this point, you’d rather know this was over than worry about some intel. Just end his life and finish this bullshit. You turned the corner around a tall fence and were met with an empty dead end street. Your gaze darted back and forth from the collapsing building on one side and the tall, chain link fence on the other side as thunder continued to rumble overhead. “Where the fuck-”

Pacing back and forth in the alley your mind worked quickly towards a viable solution. One hesitant step forward and then a quick turn back and your eyes slid over the fence next to you. Mud had kicked up on it. No, that was way too high to be from anyone just running by. You froze as you looked at it for a moment, watching as gravity played its part and the silty mud dripped slowly down the fence.

This fuckin guy…

In the same moment you saw him through the small holes of the fence as he weaved around a car and disappeared from sight once more. It didn’t take you a second longer to start climbing over after him as you hauled yourself up towards the top. At least until you swung a leg over and then stopped, your eyes surveying the broken down cars and junk piled around the fenced in area. One hand braced against the top as you held yourself in place while the other still held the gun nestled tight against your shoulder as you waited a second.

Stop and take in your surroundings Speck, get your fucking head on right or you’re gonna get yourself killed. There he was. Your brows furrowed and then lowered into a look of frustration as you watched him. The figure's hands were clinging to the opposite fence as he desperately tried to pull himself up.

When he turned to glance back a flash of anger curled your lip up instantly and you couldn’t stop yourself. You lifted the gun and without even a thought your other hand steadied your aim as you fired at the man. Every muscle tensed as you watched him fall backwards off the fence, a yell of pain just barely audible in the rain he reached for his shoulder. You watched for another moment, still holding the gun up though you didn’t really expect him to move again.

But it was raining, it was dark, and you weren’t exactly shooting from a good spot as you straddled the fence. There was just barely a flash of metal that you caught before you instinctively dove head first off the fence and for cover. At least you could take comfort in the fact that the man was on the opposite side of the yard in complete darkness and without your technology to aid him.

Gunshots sounded off from the other side of the fenced in lot as your shoulder slammed into the mud below and you clamped your mouth shut. Don’t yell, that was the last thing you needed. You pushed yourself across the ground as you tried to gather your thoughts and your broken body. One hand was still holding the gun out of the mud as you used the other to push yourself up. You braced yourself against a broken down car as you searched the lot once more for movement. You could only hope he was too stupid to reposition himself. 

The thought that Cerberus had still been on the other side of the fence didn’t quite register until you heard the clink of metal and the scratch of claws on chain link fence over your shoulder. Fear rushed through you for the first time the whole mission as you heard another round of shots fire off from across the lot. You could only hope he was firing blindly into the night and that he hadn’t somehow caught sight of Cerberus in this darkness.

Your gaze darted up as confusion swirled in your eyes along with a hint of pain you were trying to ignore as well. Without any command the dog had leaped the fence as his resolve and patience finally wore thin and ran out. Mud and water sprayed up into his thick, brindle fur as Cerberus hit the ground. He didn’t even take a second to listen to anything you had to say. It was apparent that he was running on instinct, completely wild and untamed now. It wasn’t exactly something you would be inclined to praise in another situation but right here in the middle of a storm and with both of your lives on the line the longer you remained outside the wire you didn’t attempt to stop him this time.

Cerberus, a missile across the ground even in the bog that was this…Was this a fucking junkyard? Oh yeah without a doubt, especially as you hopped the decrepit car you had almost landed on top of. You tried to follow the dog but he was impossibly fast and a thousand times more capable of flitting into the opened skeletons of dead cars. He disappeared from sight as he dove through one frame of a car and scrambled out the window on the other side.

And then he disappeared from sight as you vaulted another car and tried to follow after him. As you jumped to the next car you heard a scream rip through the air. The sight of the person who uttered it was blocked by a stand of cars though as you continued to wind through the junkyard. Rain continued to pound down on your helmet and drowned out the splashing of mud and water as Cerberus wrestled Amaan to the ground. You weren’t there to see the way the skin tore as the man struggled to get away from the iron jaws around his forearm. Nor did you see his arm as it was nearly torn apart and off by the animal that was operating completely rogue at this point.

As you vaulted another car just beside the stand that was blocking your sight your eyes landed on the violently shaking head as Cerberus’ jaws and body kept the man pinned to the ground. Almost dragging him over the mud and now covered the man as you took a slow step forward. You found yourself reveling in the man’s screams, enjoying them. He was a vile man, a demon that had come to visit the mortal world and you couldn’t help the peace you felt watching Cerberus work. This man had killed so many, hurt even more both physically and emotionally with the death he had wrought on this realm. He deserved this. He deserved to feel a fraction of the pain he himself had caused.

“Speck!?” A voice yelled into your ear piece, raspy and deep and probably the only thing that could have caught your attention at this point. He always caught your attention. Your eyes darted around you for just a moment as if you expected to find the man somewhere around you before Amaan’s screams reached your ears again. Growls from the dog in front of you drew your eyes just in time to see the man’s free hand reach for the gun he’d dropped when Cerberus had initially taken him down.

Again your lip curled up in response as you aimed at the perpetrating hand and sent a round straight through the back of his palm. A fresh scream tore from his throat before he drew his hand back towards him in an attempt to protect it. Taking a step forward you knelt on his back before grabbing one of the zip ties that hung from the pouch at your waist. With one quick, “Aus,” the animal’s jaws relented and fresh blood pooled out of the wounds as he did.

His loud barks thundered in your ears even louder than mother nature’s ruckus overhead. It was still all a game to him, even if he had broken his hold for a moment he still thought it was just a game. There was no distinction between play, training, and work, and you’d used him not as a tool but as revenge this time. What the fuck were you doing?

“Speck, answer me!” His voice broke you from your thoughts again as you shot a glance down to the wire connecting your earpiece and the mic around your throat. Hurriedly you drug the man’s arms behind his back, smiling as he groaned out in pain and said a few garbled words you couldn’t make out in the storm. You tightened the plastic around his wrists before standing back up with your foot on the middle of his back to hold him in place. Amaan wriggled helplessly in the mud as rain still poured over the both of you in the dark din of the storm.

Swallowing hard, you took a deep breath and reached up to press the button on the mic, “Junkyard.” Well that was certainly descriptive now wasn’t it? Good God Speck, say something else, give them something else to go off of. What else could you give them?

Your eyes darted around the fenced in lot as you actively ignored the man still writhing beneath your foot. Think, Speck, think of something else to say, there had to be some other way to tell him exactly where you were. “I’m about a hundred and fifty meters from my last known,” silence encapsulated you for the first time that night, even the tumultuous skies overhead went quiet seeming to sense the urgency of this situation. Cerberus had fallen silent at your side as well, his eyes still watching the man at your feet in what was as close to a daring look as you’d ever seen, if a dog were even capable of that.

Seconds passed by as you waited for someone to answer you. Any reply at all to set your nerves at ease. Finally, John’s voice rumbled in your ear again as he asked, “Did you get him?” You could sense the hope in his voice even over the radio, a daring want for this to finally be over.

Your gaze slid to the man beneath you as you rolled Amaan over onto his back with your boot and glared down at him. His teeth were gritted and his lips peeled back over his teeth as he tried to hold back the sounds of pain he was no doubt feeling as he laid on several injuries to his limbs. “Oh yeah, Captain, you bet your fuckin ass I got him.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bloody hand prints painted the white metal floors and walls as the false panel of the van sat open in front of you. Your jaw tightened as you looked at the evidence of what had happened on this latest mission, the blood that had been spilled on both sides of this war tonight. You were standing at the back of the van with your knees pressing against the bumper, and despite how empty it made you feel you couldn’t find the will to look away from the mess before you. 

Even Gaz passing in front of your gaze couldn’t interrupt your rushing thoughts. Your mind went idle as you watched him spraying the blood out of the back, your arms crossed over your face as you stayed put. Mud still caked nearly every inch of your clothed body after you’d all but rolled in it back in that junkyard. While both specks of blood and dried mud decorated your face like the makeup a toddler would have painted across your skin. Even strands of your beard were stuck together with the dried, brown substance as it cracked every time you reached a hand up to run your fingers through it. You watched with every muscle tensed as the bloody water dripped out onto the cement floor before it disappeared underneath the van to head down the drain.

Not all of the blood was Watcher's at least, half of it belonged to Amaan after Cerberus had nearly torn his arm off at the elbow. You should have let him do it too. It was what that fucker deserved after he shot that poor kid. Sure Watcher had signed up for this just like anyone else had, but it didn’t mean that the whole team wasn’t still feeling this hit. Even you were as new to them as you were.

A door opened somewhere behind you and still you stared ahead as Gaz continued to clean up his friend’s blood slowly, seemingly as lost in his own head as you were. You certainly weren’t blaming him. “Speck,” the deep voice broke your concentration as you turned to eye the perpetrator with a cocked brow. 

John came to a stop beside you finally and you caught his gaze just as it landed on your face. He’d been in an interrogation with Ghost and Amaan for the past few hours as you all waited for the sun to set once more, not to mention the tail end of the storm that was still raging overhead. Your arms dropped from your chest as you turned towards him, your head tilting quizzically. Jesus you needed to get out of your fucking head, that was never a good place to be. “Did he talk? What’d he say?”

Blue eyes held you hostage in their gaze, his hand finding yours as he stood there. It was only for a fleeting moment though, not nearly long enough for either of you. Only a passing graze over the rough texture of your palm that was still dyed a deep red. His index finger felt like a feather ghosting over your skin just as the rest of his hand wrapped around yours. John’s thumb grazed over the back of your knuckles before he pulled away so that the only other man present didn’t see and shook his head in answer, “No he didn’t. I doubt he’ll talk any time soon, Speck.” At his words a flash of frustration passed across your gaze as your eyes flicked towards the door that led into the main room of the safehouse.

You’d been here before in this safehouse, been at the end of this interrogation once already. So why was the only thought crossing your mind, ‘They ain’t tryin’ hard ‘nough.’ They knew what they were doing, you knew that, but you couldn’t help but feel like you could do more. There was this need to seize control in such an unsure situation that scratched at the back of your mind, it was the way you’d been trained. Thrown at problems relentlessly and told to figure it out, it was the only thing in life you’d ever been good at. Or at least that was what you had always told yourself. 

Your features darkened but you didn’t give him a chance to see as you stepped away from him without a word and your eyes shot to the door as you headed straight towards the door back into the safehouse. Until fingers wrapped around your bicep and John intercepted your progress, putting himself between you and the door. “Just let me give it a go, John,” even before you finished though the other’s head was shaking. His strong grip stayed securely around your arm as his other hand came up to rest gently against your chest. Warmth spread into your skin from his palm as it laid against the gear you still hadn’t stripped out of. His head continued to shake even as you pleaded helplessly, “You’ve been in there for hours, he’s obviously not all that afraid of you. Let me-”

“No,” John’s firm answer resonated through the small garage and you heard the hosepipe stop behind you, though the gaze leveled in front of you held you frozen in place. This was the man who had soothed the raging inferno of your temper in the worst of times, and after letting Cerberus nearly tear Amaan apart that fire had burned out to a barely smoking ember as you questioned everything about yourself. You needed something to ground you and as the realization hit you couldn’t help the small huff you let out because of course you did. When did you not need him to stabilize your deteriorating mental state of late? Pathetic. “Go clean yourself up, Speck. Take a break.” Your jaw tensed as you neared an overt refusal of his suggestion. When he sighed deep though and you had to watch his head tilt as he leaned a bit closer, “You smell like shite, Love. Trust me, yeah? We know what we’re doing.” Trust him. Damn.

Your eyes hit the ground immediately as you took a step back to put some distance between y’all. Shrugging his hand off your arm his other hand fell off of your chest and the cold you’d been ignoring began to set into what felt like your very soul. A deep chill rushed through you though you kept your head on as you nodded a hesitant answer, “Yeah, John, I know.” You glanced back over your shoulder towards the van just as Gaz turned his back in an attempt to give some semblance of privacy. Surprising. Turning back to the Brit you found the ocean depths in front of you and took a slow breath, “Where’s the bathroom?” You watched as his shoulders visibly relaxed in front of you and he curled up the corner of his mouth in a half smile.

Nodding his head towards the other door that led off the garage he lifted his arms to cross them over his chest before answering, “Through the door and down the hall on the left.” You nodded slowly and turned, leaving him behind as you headed to clean yourself up. Cerberus lifted his head as you passed where he was laying against the wall. 

The smell of wet dog and the pungent, metallic tang of blood wafted up your way as you went, nearly choking you with the severity of it. Smells had never really bothered you before, but now you felt a roiling in your gut as you neared and unconsciously sped up past him. Cerberus’ head fell back down to the concrete as you passed, failing to signal or call for him. The Dutchie could wait until y’all were back at base, there wouldn’t be much you could do for the smell right now anyway. You’d let him sleep for a bit now, he’d earned that much at least.

Opening the door you stepped through the threshold, letting the darkness of the hallway swallow you into its embrace as your hand reached out to slide along the wall. You weren’t even sure you were actually walking, not until your fingers ran over the knob of a door on the left hand side of the walland you pushed it open. Fumbling for just a moment your hand searched the wall beside the door before you flipped the lightswitch on the wall and your eyes ran over the small bathroom. Your eyes froze as they found the mirror on the wall, swallowing hard as you took in the sight.

You hadn’t truly looked at yourself in so long now that it was hard to recognize the mud and blood covered man who stared back at you. Sure you had shaved in a mirror on occasion or seen yourself in the reflection of a window when you passed, this was different though. You hadn’t actually taken the time to gaze upon the visage of what you had become over what was now nearly three years. Hadn’t let yourself realize this was your life and you had ruined it. And as you looked at yourself you slowly began to realize you no longer recognized the man who looked back.

The deaths you had lived through had changed you, they’d rewritten the etched lines on your face and put patches of gray in your hair. You’d still been a young man when you’d lost them, as carefree as you could have been living that lie anyway. Your mind had still been that of a teenager and in some ways it still was, but you’d lost that bright, young smile and carefree attitude. They had made you callous to the pain of others and you’d lost some of yourself over the years. And what made it all so much worse was that you hadn’t even realized it until Cerberus’ teeth had been tearing flesh from Amaan’s forearm. Hell you’d been more than ready to kill a man who had simply been doing his job and Wade hadn’t deserved that.

Your eyes dropped to the sink below, blinking as you cleared your thoughts of the man you’d seen in the mirror. Taking a deep breath you flipped the water on, trying to smother the way your heart was racing and how clouded your mind was becoming. Water from the faucet ran cold over your hands as you tested the water before sighing and reaching up to the straps of your tactical vest. You stripped it off over your head with a vicious pull and threw it into the floor, the panic still rising as you fought to keep it together. Rolling your shoulders and head you felt the tension in every muscle and you could only wish for a shower at that moment, something warm to melt the ice forming in your veins. Fuck you wanted, no you needed a damn shower.

The skin tight shirt clinging to your torso was still damp and made chills rack your body as you stood there. Reaching down to the hem of the shirt you pulled the thin fabric up over your head and glanced down at the pink droplets of water left behind on your chest that had seeped through the fabric. Diluted by water and mud you watched as they slid down your chest and disappeared into the waistband of your pants.

Christ you were still thinking too much. You leaned down over the sink and cupped your hands underneath the water as the blood that had been caked on your hands and in the grooves of your fingernails began to wash down the sink. Mud turned the typically bright red into a darkened ruddy color as it added to the already dirtied sink. The stains on your hands slowly began to dissipate as you leaned your face towards the sink and dipped your head beneath the water. Running your fingers through your hair and beard you could feel the dried mud and blood begin to loosen in the strands, doing your best to clean up in the small space.

Slowly you lifted your head back up, running your hands vigorously over your hair as if they themselves were towels and in the same moment you heard drops of water hit the murky liquid still attempting to drain below. Your hands braced on either side of the sink’s bowl as you stared down at the rust colored water below. You should have been better, been there. Why hadn’t you been the first one through that door? Because you’d been too busy dealing with non-combatants. You should have been fucking quicker. The tips of your fingers tapped a steady rhythm against the side of the sink as you got lost in the realm of your thoughts once more unable to pull yourself from them.

“Speck,” immediately your head jerked up at the deep voice right behind you and your eyes shifted to his reflection in the mirror, focusing on the face that now stared back at you. The brunette beard drew your gaze first but only for a moment before it shot up to the deep depths of what was quickly becoming your only place of safety and calm. John was the one who broke your locked eyes as he turned to look out of the door before he closed it behind him with a soft, barely audible whisper of sound. In fact the only noise was that of the lock clicking into place though you barely even noticed because your eyes were glued only to that face, completely incapable of looking away. Stock still in his presence.

Turning your head cautiously you glanced over your shoulder, watching him now out of the corner of your eye. Even that was too much though and had your face and the rest of your body warming in response. The second he was there though your mind stopped whirling. How could it not when the only thought running through your mind was, ‘He looks good in black, he should wear it more often.’ The tempest that was raging had come to a halt in the eye of the storm the moment you were captured by his eyes. Standing back up straight you turned, just barely enough to look at him and with one hand still holding on to the sink for support for fear your knees were going to give out.

You watched him for a moment in the precarious silence of the room, in the whole building really, before his head tilted. The blue gaze was unable to stop its descent down your bared chest though, giving his thoughts away like a snitch. There was no doubt he was tracing the droplets of water that were dripping from the strands of your hair and beard and falling over your skin. Without meeting your gaze again and while he was still inspecting the scars and muscle along your stomach and chest, he asked in a voice still laced with concern, “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Good Lord that was the last thing you wanted to fucking do. Talk about feelings? Right now? Fuck that. There was no way in the fucking world you were gonna allow the boner killer that were your thoughts out. Your fingers loosened on the side of the sink as you turned fully towards him. You needed a distraction, something to pass the time. You needed him.

There wasn’t exactly much space to cover in the small bathroom, only a few inches at most. You were across the short space at the speed of light. Probably faster if you were being honest. One of your hands ran over his cheek before it wrapped around the back of his head to tangle into his short brunette strands there. Your lips pressed to his gently at first before something more needy and wanting overcame you.

His body went rigid at the initial contact, almost like he seemed unsure of what you were doing. Surprised maybe? At least that was until your hand slid against his hip to run across the small of his back and you pulled him closer. You could feel his muscles start to melt in response to your touch then before he was matching your neediness. Matching the desire you had for him at every moment of the day. His need for you was shining through just as much as yours was and God if that didn’t feel just fucking amazing.

For once it wasn’t Price jumping on you, in fact you could still sense some hint of hesitation despite his hungry, devouring mouth still pressed to yours. Your hips grinded against his and you could feel yourself twitching in response, still confined to the tight fabric of your pants. Desire and need and some tail end of an adrenaline high fueled your movements like throwing gasoline on a fire. When John pulled his mouth away to take in a breath your lips moved to the corner of his, pressing a kiss there and then down across his beard and caught the strangled sound of a groan in the air before it cut off.

You were insatiable in your need for him as you nipped at the thin skin of his neck, pressing ever closer to him in search of the warmth you knew radiated from him. Impulsively you sucked at the skin of his throat, not considering the hickey you were probably giving him as you listened to the deep rumble of his throat. It vibrated against your lips and you pressed a quick kiss to the spot before moving a bit lower to do the same thing, his body tensing again in response before melting once more.

Fuck. He tasted like the salty prick of sweat and the earth yet you still couldn’t get enough of it. Enough of him. The fingers that you had tangled into his hair pulled and his chin lifted up in response as you continued to mark his skin. As you continued to claim him as your own even though you knew that he wasn’t yours to claim but fuck he was, wasn’t he? That’s right. He was yours. Yours and only fucking yours.

Your body pushed closer as you shoved him back against the door, trapping him against you and the hard surface as you tried to control yourself to no avail. John didn’t seem to mind too much though as you listened to him let out a huff in response and then he was reciprocating. His hands pulled you impossibly closer as strong fingers grabbed at your hips and you felt him roll your body fluidly against his own. He was urging you on without even needing words and good God it was the sexiest thing you’d ever witnessed.

When his other hand ran over the expanse of your bare back you felt his calluses scratch across your skin, and a noise rumbled deep within you in response. Something primal and animalistic and you could feel John’s body shudder against yours in response. It was a noise you’d never made before that had his hands sliding over your skin and grasping harder at your hips. Searching for something neither of you seemed too certain about yet.

Fuck you wanted him though. You wanted to bury yourself inside of him and never pull out again. You felt like a King when he’d done it to you, you could only imagine how you’d feel sliding into his walls. He’d never let you though. But God did you want it, you wanted him. You wanted just about anything and everything he’d fucking give you or let you take. Fingers grasped at the back of your neck, digging hard into the muscle as you rutted your hips against him again.

You could feel yourself harden at just the thought of fucking him like a man gone feral, and you were well on your way to that exact point. “Spe-” his voice sounded strained as a moan escaped and cut off his pleading voice. When you glanced up through dark lashes you could see his teeth biting into his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood and part of you wondered if he had. God why was the thought of that so hot? “Speck,” he finally managed to groan out as your thoughts ran rampant with the many different ways you could ravage him right here in this bathroom. “We need to talk.”

Fuckin hell, John, not right now. The hand you had at his waist slipped around to his front as your hand groped blindly at his hardening length. He twitched beneath your palm as his cock strained for more. “Ya really wanna talk right now?” You could barely catch your breath enough to ask the question and to be fair he didn’t seem much better either. Your heart was racing in your chest and your head felt like it was swimming with so many things you couldn’t even begin to identify exactly what it was. At least whatever had been bothering you before was long forgotten now though.

Without waiting for him to answer your mouth was on his neck again as you pressed a trail of gentle kisses on your way up his neck. One after another they pressed into his skin until you felt the hairs of his beard tickling against your lips and the tip of your nose. He hummed in response for a moment before he finally tipped his head back again and groaned out, “Fuck no. Later.” Unable to resist your teasing mouth you felt his throat rumble against your mouth again with pleasure. Slowly, you made your way along the underside of his jaw with your fingers still pulling at the short strands of his hair to keep his head from tilting back down. You were holding him in place with just your body now and the gravity of the situation was starting to sink in.

You were in control. He was letting you do whatever you wanted to him and he wasn’t stopping you. God you could feel him still straining against the fabric that held his erection at bay, the buttons of his pants straining to keep the fabric closed now. Glancing up you watched his face as something close to a smile found his mouth at the attention you were paying to his neck. At the claim you were steadily etching across his skin in what would be small purple bruises in a few hours. Fuck.

Letting go of his hair, both of your hands made for his waist as you grabbed hard at his sides, your thumbs pressing against the bones of his hips hidden just beneath the muscle there. The moment you released his hair though his chin tilted down and you felt his fingers pull your face back in range so he could press his lips to yours. You pulled him off the door with a sharp tug and spun the two of you around slowly as your hands slid behind to grab at his ass. One palm for each perfectly shaped globe.

God he was perfect. All you could think about was how it would feel to sink inside of him, how tight his walls would grip your poor, neglected erection. What he would sound like and what it would feel like to hear him moan as you fucked him until the only thing his foggy mind could think about was you, and how good you felt. You wanted to fuck him stupid, and christ right now you certainly had the stamina too. God just to fuck him until he came on your cock like he’d done to you so many times already.

A strained moan left you at the thought as his teeth sunk into your lip and you pressed him back slowly into the sink. Without so much as a single thought going through your head your hands grabbed at his backside and you lifted him up sliding him backwards to sit on the rim of the sink. He grunted and you felt him stiffen again as he pulled away with a bit of surprise in his eyes. You froze in place with your hands still holding him tightly and with your hips slotted perfectly between his thighs, just a bit too far for either of you to feel any friction though. “Bloody hell, Speck,” his voice was quiet and just barely reached your ears as he watched your expression.

Dark brows furrowed and you watched the tip of his tongue slide out to wet his lips before he leaned forward to press his forehead into yours. His fingers dug into the locks of your hair that had grown out way too long these past months out here, pulling at the strands with a spark of something unidentifiable in his eyes. When your jaw tensed though you saw his mouth turn into a smirk before he muttered, “You’re always surprising me, Love.” The tension in your jaw dissipated slowly as you watched him without a hint of what was going through your head now.

Slowly your face tilted up until you felt your nose tap against his. When you leaned forward again though he pulled away with a teasing shake of his head. You couldn’t help it when your gaze darted down to his lips and narrowed, before you jerked him forward until he was flush with you once more and nearly falling off the sink. Grinding against him you muttered quietly, “Full of those, ain’t I Angel?” The corners of his mouth turned up just a bit more and this time he was the one who bridged the gap as he pulled at the hair still trapped between his fingers and he captured your lips once more.

It didn’t take long before your head was swimming in him once more. After y’all had been stopped last time that feral need for one another was boiling hot and you needed him. Every single thought was lost in the way he felt pressed against you. Lost in the way he kept one hand wrapped around the back of your head and the other was sliding around your throat and then down your chest slowly.

Blunt nails drug over your bare flesh before you felt fingers pulling deftly at the belt around your waist. You couldn’t help the smile that raised the corners of your mouth as he did. Something far more primal than you’d ever felt was clawing its way across your mind now. As his fingers moved on to the buttons of your pants you felt the friction as it grazed over your sensitive member.

You couldn’t stop yourself as you bucked forward towards his hand, your mouth falling agape with a low groan. John’s amusement came out in a short huff as his hand delved inside of the black cargos, pulling your member free quickly. The moan you let out was sinful before he shot forward to cut it off with a hard kiss. Strong fingers slid along your shaft slowly as he swallowed down your quiet groans that you couldn’t hold back despite your desperate attempts. It didn’t seem to matter though, John had no qualms with keeping them quiet himself at this point.

Fingers wrapped around your length as you leaned further into him with a groan. Begging him wordlessly for more. You tilted your head down and you could hear him give a low hum of appreciation at the weight of you in his hand. Your head had already been swimming before he’d even gotten his hand around you, but now? Now you were drowning in the attention he was lavishing upon you in heaping servings.

Still holding tightly onto his backside you knew you were denting his perfect flesh, dotting it with even more bruises. You couldn’t wait to see them. God just the thought was enough to send you near spiraling again. “Fuck John,” you managed to whisper as his free hand moved up to cup your cheek and his thumb ran over your skin with a delicate touch. It shouldn’t have been so intimate. You’d never meant for this to be sensual, you were in a bathroom for fuck’s sake. This should have been rough, quick, distracting, no room for thought. Yet here you were as he tried to hold your gaze with his. 

The need to be something more would never escape you when it came to him, you knew that somewhere deep down, but you couldn’t deal with that, not right now. His thumb grazed slowly along the head of your cock and you barely stopped another moan as you watched his deep blue gaze, your eyes half lidded and barely managing to stay open now. There was a smirk on his face as he realized he had you like putty in his hands once more despite that for the first time you didn’t want to be.

Fuck it. Your hips rolled forward with a fluid motion as you thrusted into his open hand and simultaneously pushed him further back onto the sink. When his head tilted, your eyes shot down to avoid his gaze and your hand slid over his hip and then around to the inside of his thigh.You drug your thumb slowly over the closure of his pants and your fingers dug into the flesh of his thigh he hummed in satisfaction. “When did you become a tease?” His voice was husky as his hips pressed up into what little bit of friction he could get from your feather-light touch. Meanwhile his own hand was still pumping up and down your throbbing length in slow, careful strokes.

Giving him a nonchalant shrug you answered back in a slow drawl, “What can I say?” You pressed your hips closer as your lips once more dipped in search of his neck, wanting to feel his pulse against your sensitive skin. They pressed lightly against the dark stubble, once more tasting the earth and salt of his skin which for once was absent of his usual chocolatey taste that you knew came from his cigars. When you pulled back again your voice was lower as you rumbled out a quiet, “You bring out the best in me, Angel.”

His chin tilted up just before you felt a heel hook around your thigh and he pulled you closer. The hand that was still around your length stilled. It was like he was frozen in place and in that moment you realized just exactly what you were doing to him. This was a two way street, he felt it too. You were doing to him exactly what he always did to you and you couldn’t stop the smile that bled through as you continued to press kisses against his neck and popped the buttons on his pants. The pulse that thudded beneath his skin almost felt like it quickened against your lips.

However, you were certain you felt it quicken when your fingers slid into the waistband of his underwear to graze over the length of his cock. The man beneath your mouth and touch shuddered and squirmed against you, nearly begging for more before you pulled his length free. Your mouth stopped its relentless assault on his neck as you leaned away for just a moment before your forehead tilted down to lay gently against his shoulder. John copied the motion as you felt his beard scratch against your cheek, the longer hairs grazing over your skin and making it tingle with an itch that you ignored.

Both sets of eyes turned down to watch as your hands moved in sync along the length of your erections. Precome welled from the tips slowly and you could feel his calluses catching along the veins of your cock and you knew that yours were doing the same along his. Especially when you heard a mumbled, “Shite,” into your shoulder as he tried to keep himself quiet. The pressure was building though as your heart began to beat a solid rhythm that you felt not only in your chest but throughout your length as well.

This wasn’t the same as being buried inside him but you’d take what he was more than willing to give. Best not to push your luck for now and you’d take anything he gave you in truth. Twisting your wrist at the head of his cock you heard him gasp before his hand let you go and his head tilted back. “Bloody hell, Speck. I can’t-” You repeated the motion and his words turned immediately into a moan as his head tilted back.

There it was. He was losing himself in the moment as you continued to jerk him off, eating up the sight of him getting lost in the way you could make him feel. His mouth was babbling nonsense as he tried to keep his thoughts together and failed miserably. God almighty, you could listen to these breathless gasps for air and his quiet pants for the rest of time and be completely happy standing right there between his thighs.

Blue eyes disappeared behind pale lids and his cheeks flushed red before your eyes. The collar of his shirt dipped just barely low enough that your gaze could pick out the dark dustings of hair at the top of his chest along with the smallest hint of his collarbone. A treat for your eyes just as much as every facial expression was. Good God he was beautiful and you could feel a near painful throb in your length just as you thought it.

When his cheeks flushed deeper your hips bucked forward instinctively, your cock searching for something and something it found as the head of your dick ran along the underside of his. The moment you felt that little bit of friction you just couldn’t stop yourself as your fingers wrapped around both of your leaking erections. Newfound need had your hand pumping quicker and it was obvious both of you were feeling yourselves getting closer and closer to the finish line. Hell John’s mouth was held agape as he tried to catch his breath while the rest of his body worked relentlessly to reach that peak.

One hand held painfully tight on to your shoulder as the other seemed to dig into the side of the sink. His muscles tightened but it wasn’t the same as last time even though you weren’t sure what he was doing. Not until you felt his hips thrust up towards your hand as he tried to speed his climax along. His member ran along the underside of your own as he moved and you sucked in a breath just barely holding in a long moan and instead let it out in a quiet hiss that was covered up by a soft groan of pleasure. “John,” you paused and he hummed in response with his eyes still closed while your hand continued dragging up and down your lengths. “Angel, you’re being too loud. Someone’s gonna hear us.”

John whimpered deep in his throat before it escalated into another moan and you watched as he tried his best to bite it back. Teeth dug into his bottom lip before he leaned his head forward and forced his eyes open to find you. Blue hues searched your face half lidded and lazy as he gazed at you. The blush across his cheeks deepened and the Brit let his mouth fall open again as he panted into the stale air of the bathroom. “Sp-” Your thumb ran over the head of your own cock and gathered some of the precome before continuing on to graze over the tip of his.

This was a completely different man in front of you now. You’d broken him down and God it felt good to know that you even held that  power over him, over anyone really but especially John Price. Even more though was that you had him at your very whim right now, there was no doubt in your mind he’d have given you anything in that moment. John was completely under your spell and you’d never felt more in control of another human being as you did now. “Shhh sweetheart, I’ve got you,” your voice was quiet as your eyes stayed locked for as long as the other could manage. When you said that you had him though and you implied that he could trust you, that he could let go of that dominant persona he always seemed to exude, that was when the last of his resolve evaporated.

You rolled your hips forward again in a fluid motion and as you did the last hand you’d been holding onto him with shot up. Your palm slapped over his mouth and you just barely managed to muffle another whine that would have undoubtedly given the two of you away. John’s head fell back hard and smacked against something behind him but the both of you were too far gone to really piece together what exactly had just happened. Heads so far in the clouds someone could have been firing a gun outside and you would have been none the wiser.

With your hand still muffling the noises he couldn’t hold back and the way he continued to thrust in your still pumping hand you knew he was about to finish soon and you doubted you were going to get a warning. Not with how he was still panting into your hand and the flush on his face only seemed to get deeper by the second. Hell the throb in your own member was beginning to edge nearly into pain as the pressure continued to build, just aching to be set free. 

Fuck you were close, so fucking close now. You couldn’t help the low grunt you let out as your hand tightened around the heads of your erections. Pumping one more time your eyes darted down as you felt his body stiffen and his cock twitch in your hand. Your eyes landed on his cock just in time to watch his cum paint the back of your knuckles and the front of his black cargos. It almost felt wasteful in that moment but in the next you couldn’t even remember what you were thinking about.

He whimpered against the flat of your palm as his body spasmed once and he thrusted into your hand again, another shot spraying along the head of your cock and dripping slowly down your length. Your eyes darted up to find his beet red face as you quickly continued to pump up and down the length of both of your members. Letting him ride out his orgasm while you still hungrily chased your own.

Slowly his muscles unwound and John slumped back against the wall and mirror behind him. Pale eyelids lifted tiredly and revealed the ocean hues to you once more as you pulled your hand away from his mouth finally. You slid it slowly to his cheek as you cupped his face with one hand, still chasing your own climax with the other to no avail. 

The air was too warm against your skin though. Everything felt too tight and too close even though he still wasn’t close enough. You couldn’t imagine how John felt with his t-shirt clinging to him. God why hadn’t you pulled that fucking thing off of him already? You wanted to see his chest now, that gorgeous fucking body that you knew was hidden beneath as you still tried to find your own release.

It was escaping you though, dancing tantalizingly out of reach. When one of Price’s hands wrapped around your wrist and stopped your rapid chase as he mumbled out, “What’s wrong, Love?” The hand that had been cupping his cheek fell away as you ducked your head and your hand fell away from your throbbing member.

It felt like all the energy dissipated from your limbs the moment he stopped you as you leaned forward and relaxed into his chest. Your forehead nudged lightly against his shoulder as his arms wrapped around you and you felt your length dragging against the fabric of his pants still throbbing painfully as the pressure at the base of your cock begged for release. Your own hands settled at the small of his back as you continued to roll your hips forward against him unconsciously. 

As you turned your face into his neck you answered quietly, “Nothins’ wrong. Just tired.” He hummed his acknowledgement of your statement as his fingers traveled slowly down your back and side until he halted at the bone of your hip, his thumb rubbing slow circles into it as he took a pause. You waited a moment before you questioned him quietly, “Why’d you stop?”

John’s shoulders moved up in a quiet shrug before he muttered out, “Thought you said you were tired.” You pulled back to look at his face and found a lazy smirk on his features before his fingers tightened around your hips to keep you from moving too far away.

Your brows furrowed before you gave him an annoyed huff of an answer, “Tired, Angel, not fuckin stupid.” The smirk turned into a look of amusement as his hand trailed across the muscle of your stomach. John’s fingers wrapped gently around your length as you thrusted up into his hand unable to control yourself. You were already nearly gone before he got here, and he was only igniting that inferno again that you’d been afraid had danced too far out of reach. You should have known better when it came to John Price though.

His hand slid down your length once before he released you and lifted his hand to his mouth. You asked a silent question with a tilt of your head but he didn’t need to respond as he spit into the palm of his hand and returned it just as quickly as he’d pulled it away to your length. The burn of his calluses disappeared as his saliva and cum slickened palm slid over your sensitive skin. A much needed relief as his hand tightened around your length and you felt your release racing forward once more. It was crowding in on you so fast now that the fog in your mind was returning with a vengeance. The fog you’d been chasing earlier and been unable to find shelter in was now clouding every thought as you struggled to remember why you’d even been upset.

Your lips parted in a silent gasp as he trailed his thumb against the underside of your cock and then over the head. Leaning forward you tried to capture his lips for a kiss but he pulled away and instead your chin tilted down and you felt your forehead rest against his chin as you panted into the stale air once more. Your gaze traveled slowly down his front to where his hand was pumping steadily over your member. 

Closing your eyes for just a moment you missed it as he added a second hand to the mix. It was the straw that tipped the scale as you hissed out a quiet, “Holy shit.” There was a pulse in your length and then your whole body went rigid. Your hands fell a bit lower on his sides and you jerked John forward to press his chest to yours. You let your eyes shut for a moment and you somehow managed to hold back a moan that would have most definitely traveled beyond these walls as you focused instead on the way his hand felt still traveling up and down your length.

A moment later your muscles began to unwind as you relaxed into the grip he had around your shoulders and John’s hand pumped slowly as the last vestiges of your climax began to dissipate. Everything stayed silent for a few long moments while you regained your thoughts and the fog over your mind cleared in that post-fuck haze. Even though you had been the one in control he still had your head in the fucking clouds. It wasn’t fair and truly you couldn’t have cared less. Not in that moment…Not ever.

[millenialfanfictionaddiction]

Being Team Japan’s Manager

Manager is Stressed

Team Japan x GN! Manager (platonic relationship)

Warnings: Manager is feeling stress (I didn’t go into specific stressors because I wanted to make this as general as possible), Stress symptoms (sleep struggles, overthinking, lack of eating/overeating, etc. I tried to keep them neutral but I did have to give a little something), MEGA FLUFF

AN: this is a special request for @rae-is-typing! I apologize if it looks weird, it’s because tumblr hates me and I had to move it all over to word and then back again : D

• Honestly YN, I don’t know how you do it

• Literally, if it were me, I would have had a mental break down the first week of dealing with these idiots

• On the surface, it seems as if you have everything together

• I mean, you not only deal with your life but the lives of countless man-children

• Where as most people’s day starts at 8am and ends around 4-5pm

• You’re essentially on call 24/7, 365

• Literally you can’t even use the bathroom without Hinata or Bokuto knocking and asking what you are doing

• “Hey Yn, are you in there?” Bokuto and/or Hinata say knocking on the door

• You 👉🏻 maybe if I stay quiet they won’t think anyone’s in here….

• Honestly it’s a pipe dream Yn

• Just ignore them YN they will go away…

• Suddenly the door burst open and Bokuto and Hinata are in a full panic

• “OMG YN WE THOUGHT YOU DIED OR WORSE FAINTED!!” Bokuto screamed as Hinata is now hyperventilating

• And thus, the curtains close on your .02 seconds of peace and quiet

• Sakusa comes from beside saying, “you two really need to straighten out your priorities.”

• Then Iwaizumi is coming up yelling at you for leaving the door open to the bathroom 🙄

• You seriously cannot win

• Butalas everyone has their breakpoint YN and honestly I’m surprised you lasted as long as you did

• The Olympics were coming up and you were dealing with your own personal issues in your home life

• Seriously adding more stress to your already stressful life

• You never seemed to have time to do anything

• And you know how they say “things always come in threes”?

• You seriously cannot catch a break!!

• Your stress levels are skyrocking and with stress comes the unfortunate stress symptoms

• Some days you forget to eat while some days you feel like you can’t stop eating

• You’ve so little and yet you feel like you don’t have time to sleep

• The days seem long but yet you can’t accomplish anything 😩

• Honestly it’s just a nightmare

• You choose to suffer in silence, not wanting to bother anyone with your issues

• You know everyone else has problems and you don’t want to be that person to add more to someone else’s plate

• Deep down, you knew it wasn’t healthy to hold it in

• However everyone has their breaking point

• And our amazing YN’s cup has finally ran out

• You woke up feeling exhausted and it was a chore just to get yourself out of bed

• The stress was finally wearing on you and you needed a break

• Thank god tomorrow was the weekend, you just had to make it through today

• You headed to work, already looking forward to the 5pm whistle

• The guys were on their usual bullshit so you knew you’d have very little reprieve

• Yaku was the first to notice something

• “Hey Yn- you look run down?” He says as you look up at him

• “Dang Yn you look like you just got hit by a bus!” Atsumu chimes in

• You 👉🏻😐 thank you for that…

• Unfortunately you have very little time to breathe because Aran and Iwa surround you

• “Hey YN! We need you to get copies of the training schedules out to everyone,” Aran says

• “Yeah and I need you to go through the guys training manuals and replace the old sheets with the updated ones. It has to be done today Yn!” Iwa shouts

• Unwillingly adding more to your already tipped over plate

• “YN I need you to fill up all the volleyballs too,” the coach chimes in

• “Oh and we got a new sponsorship for some energy drink so we need you to make that pronto YN!” Ushijima just throws in there

• Meanwhile, the other dummies are all adding more and more until finally

• You break

• The tears start the flow and everything in your mind blanks as the damn of emotions finally cracks

• Everyone just stares at you, some in confusion and some in horror as you essentially break down on site

• “Hey YN, are you ok?” Aran asks, cautiously approaching you

• You just keep crying while trying to speak

• “N-no e-everything’s not-not ok!” You cry out, “I-I’m so-so T-tired and I-I can-can’t do T-this anymore!”

• The gym is filled with your sobs as the guys slowly began to realize how much they’ve been putting on you

• They have come to rely on you as their support, their go to person

• But they never took the time to check on you

• “Oh Yn, come on, let’s go sit on the bench,” Komori says, grabbing you and hauling you over

• Everyone follows in silence as you try to control your tears and your breathing

• It’s so much at once and all you can think about is how you’ve failed them

• “I’m s-sorry, I-I’ll get to wo-work,” you cry as Sakusa sits down beside you, essentially holding you in place

• “You’ll do no such thing Yn, take a break,” he says as the rest of the team nods

• They all feel horrible for neglecting you and not realizing how much stress you were under

• They just keep piling it on, not knowing the stress you were also dealing with in your personal life

• “YN, we are so sorry,” Hakuba says as the team nods

• “If we would have know Yn, we wouldn’t have been so hard on you,” Bokuto adds

• “It’s oh-ok, I-I need to d-do my j-job,” you stammer out

• “No Yn, you need to take care of yourself,” Iwa says

• “You need a break Yn, a few days off!” Kageyama chimes in

• “Yeah you need to get away from us for a while,” Hyakuzawa says

• Bokuto, Hinata, Atsumu 👉🏻 offended 🙄

• “Guys we have so much to do before the Olympics and I can’t just leave!” You cry out

• “YN if you aren’t going to take care of yourself, then I’m going to haul your ass home right now,” Iwa yells

• You 👉🏻👀 I mean…

• Iwa 👉🏻😐

• “Just take a few days Yn, take some time to rest and we can help you handle everything! I mean we have an entire team of capable men here!” Yaku says

• “I’d say 60% at more are capable,” Sakusa interjects

• Again Hinata, Bokuto and Atsumu 👉🏻 offended 🙄

• “If you think that’s best,” you say, deflated

• “YN we love you and we want you to be healthy! We would die if we didn’t have you cheering us on!” Komori says as the entire team nods frantically

• You sigh in defeat, knowing you need the rest

• “Ok but if you need me, make sure to message me!” You say, leaving the gym

• “We’ll be fine YN! Try to sleep and just breathe or something,” Aran says

• “WAIT YN HASN’T BEEN BREATHING THIS WHOLE TIME?!?” Bokuto screams

• Omg run YN, run while you still can 😂

[yume-chin]

Hey hey! Could i request rise Donnie x reader?

Where reader’s LOVE language is physical touch but since Donnie is not always happy about it they try their best to not cross the line. Till one day they really needed a hug and asked Donnie, Voice breaking a bit, if they can have a hug.

D is Hella confused but allows it

Anon! I'm so sorry! I misread the request and did literally the opposite of what you asked.

To solve this problem I will leave the text as it is but I will also write a second parallel chapter with the real request you made of me.

The initial part will be almost identical to this one, however the ending will respect your request.

I hope you will appreciate both anyway, happy reading.

••═════════════════════════════════════════••

Rise Donatello x Reader

જ⁀➴ Here for the alternative chapter

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Request: Yes

Warning: just bad english

Genre: She/her

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Total words: 974

Text words: 836

••═════════════════════════════════════════••

Ever since you met Donnie, your boyfriend, you've been fighting your habits.

You have always been an extremely affectionate girl, fond of hugs and walking holding hands with the other person.

All this gives you energy and happiness, the joy of feeling the other person's skin in contact with yours, feeling their warmth and the tranquility that they transmit to you through touch.

All this was like oxygen for you. Or at least I thought so until you met your current boyfriend Donatello.

From the first moments of your acquaintance he immediately told you that he wasn't comfortable with physical contact and this left you particularly surprised, and at the same time disappointed.

You, a person who loves physical contact, would have had to completely change your habits for us to create any sort of discomfort for your boyfriend.

Not that it destroyed you, let's be clear, you would do anything not to make him feel bad and respect his wishes, but it's still difficult to keep your love for physical contact in check.

However, you tried in every possible way not to hug or caress him except when he specifically asked you to.

It was difficult at first, but over time you got used to it.

You had started to appreciate the company much more when you were in the same room talking or simply when he asked you to keep him company while he worked on some new invention of his.

Every time he asked you to follow him to the laboratory and keep him company your heart exploded with pure joy.

You entered the room and sat on a chair next to him, carefully watching everything he did.

And even if it didn't seem like much to you, to Donnie it was the most important form of love you could give him.

The simple fact that you were there to keep him company, getting curious about what he was doing and occasionally asking about the two creations, made him understand how much you cared about him and how much you wanted to get closer to his world unlike his family.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Today too was a day like any other, you had finished class and immediately headed towards the turtles' den.

As soon as you arrived you were greeted by a super enthusiastic Mikey who immediately ran towards you to hold you in a super hug.

Not seeing Donnie around, you thought he was busy with one of his inventions, which is why you decided to only mention your presence.

You approached the door of his laboratory and knocked -Donnie, I've arrived, if you need me I'm here, I love you-

Immediately afterwards you went back to Mikey who in the meantime had also been joined by Leo and Raph.

The four of you remained chatting about this and that.

You had talked about your school day while the three turtles had talked about their last patrol.

As you continued talking, however, suddenly Donnie came out with a more tired face than usual.

You had looked at him with concern but instead of speaking he grabbed your hand and dragged you inside his laboratory.

Once he entered and closed the door however, he released your hand to return to his chair.

Not understanding exactly what was happening, you approached your boyfriend -Donnie, what's going on?- you tilted your head to try to look him in the eyes, but without succeeding.

Instead of getting an actual response you only managed to hear a small huff from the boy.

-Donnie, if you don't tell me what's wrong I can't help you...- you gently place a hand on his shoulder trying to give him a minimum of tranquility to make him talk.

Unfortunately, however, there was no response.

Now totally lost in worry with both hands you grabbed the soft shell turtle's face and turned it towards you so that your gazes met.

-Donnie, I know you need your space but I'm here, I'm your girlfriend and I want to help you. I'm worried. It hurts me to see the person I love in this state, so please, tell me what's wrong- you caress his cheeks with your thumbs.

Viola remained there looking at you with slightly shining eyes and finally, with a trembling and uncertain voice, she opened her mouth -c-can I have a hug...?-

Your heart skipped a beat for fear of not having fully understood what you had just been asked.

However, as soon as you realized that those words had really come out of Donnie's mouth you smiled sweetly -Of course you can love-

You pulled him into a big hug and he seemed to melt.

His muscles, which until a moment before were stiff, had softened and held you in that embrace.

Donnie sighed and seemed to calm down.

-Donnie, remember that you can always count on me-

He nodded in response but didn't say anything, he just remained there, enjoying that embrace full of love and tranquility.

••═════════════════════════════════════════••

I want to remind you that requests are open, feel free to write to me if you have any kind of idea ♡

A big hug ♡

[nimblermortal]

Nimblermortal's Covid Survival Tips 2023

because what's the point of having this if I can't make it easier for the next person?

First symptom for me was a mild sore throat. This started around noon; the next morning I woke up with no symptoms but feeling terrible, which I interpret as the medical "sense of impending doom" that is a real symptom.

Charmin toilet paper. This stuff is softer than Kleenex. Get you a whole roll and a shopping bag. Don't have a runny nose for a symptom? Don't care, it'll come.

Blankets you can kick on and off. I spent two days "cycling" - chills, fever, then lucidity. You need to be able to both vent and huddle.

If you are scientifically inclined: Keep a thermometer nearby. I regret not taking my temperature during the cycles, I'm really curious about whether I was running hotter or colder during the hot stages. That said, you will definitely not have enough energy to take your temperature during these stages.

Some sort of infinite podcast. It doesn't matter what it is. Honestly I recommend Critical Role even if you don't like D&D live plays. You do not care what is going on here, the point is white noise that you don't have to change. Make sure the device is plugged in. I could only nap while there was white noise happening - and when I say 'nap' I mean 'I don't know if I slept or not, just that I was face-down and some time passed'.

Advil. This will lower the fever. If you can, wait until the second day - the fever helps burn out the disease, but this only applies to the first 24 hours. But don't let the fever get too high. I ran a steady 101 F/38.3 C for two days, which is fine. You can take one every 4 hours up to 6 times a day. For me the best effects only lasted 2 hours and I was ready by the fourth (but also a stubborn pig who tried to hold out; there's no advantage to this after the first 24 hours).

Small dishes. People kept trying to feed me and I couldn't finish anything. Small dishes, plain foods, let yourself have the ability to win at meals. (Note: this may not apply to you, but I'm the sort of person who used to be sent to elementary school with a single small potato because the cafeteria was too noisy for me to eat but I needed to win at lunch.) If you're preparing just-in-case, you could put some in the freezer

Immune boosters. My aunt swears by Sambucol, which is elderberry and vitamin C and zinc. Zinc matters more if you are male. My take on the Sambucol advantage is elderberry taste good.

Non-caffeinated tea. Something that goes down the throat easy. I had a sore throat to start with, then after the cycling I've got a progressively increasing cough; warm beverage nice. (I also craved a masala tea in the middle of the cycling, so caffeine might be nice, but you probably want to let yourself sleep.)

Vicks vaporub. Apply directly to the forehead liberally once the coughing starts. The package says you can do this 3 times a day.

Don't worry about cough medicines unless you have one you trust implicitly. Mum says they're not very effective, so you want that sweet, sweet placebo effect.

Someone to watch over you. Partly to make sure you don't get it worse than I had. Mostly because when I'm weak and sick I get clingylonely and I need someone to assure me I am loved. I had the same problem with the vaccines - shivering under the blankets calling weakly for Hyacinth because I was alone and Sad. Honestly the covid has been less intense but longer.

Recovery time. Covid heals a lot slower than comparable sicknesses. Whatever you think your return-to-work day might be, add at least two days to it. (I thought I was getting away with something last Wednesday, tried to work Thursday, and survived for one hour.)

More recovery time. This thing heals very slowly. I haven't had symptoms in a week - aside from having to plan for being able to do single-digit numbers of tasks in a day. And 'digesting a meal' is a separate energy task from 'eating a meal' is a separate energy task from 'preparing a meal' is a separate... (No really, I had to plan energy expenditure for digestion.) At a week out, I am still having to make room for daily hour-long naps and activities interspersed with lying down - though at least now I can embroider with a TV show during these periods. Give yourself lots of time, even when it feels stupid.

[s0urw00lf]

Protectors- magic bullet

Derek hale x reader

Hi ok so this took so long to wright omg, anyway I hope you like it there's not a lot of moments between Derek and reader but I added a more at the end

Ps (Her healing looks much like Derek’s except the color.)

Y/n stood behind Derek as he bent down looking at a drop of blood. “Do you know whose it is?” She whispered, bending down behind him. “No, it’s like the scent is covered” he whispered back. The pair heard something causing them to look around on high alert. Y/ns senses were more heightened than Derek’s in times like these. Y/n turned her head forward seeing the alpha climb the side of the building across from them. Seeing this she sprinted towards it assuming Derek was right behind her, she was right. She knew when she saw Derek running right beside her jumping over objects trying to catch up to the alpha. They climbed to the roof of a random building and Derek sniffed the air trying to catch its scent while y/n tried tracking its energy. Y/n jumped to the next roof about to start running after the alpha again but before she could a gunshot rang through the air causing her to turn to where the sound came from only to see Derek fall back and off the roof. Y/n quickly ran to the edge of the roof and muttered a spell to somewhat break his fall.

Once y/n saw that he was on the ground and alive she jumped off the roof using the same spell she used on Derek to break her fall. Once she landed she ran to Derek who was perched up against a random building. “Damn it Derek” she whispered shouted as she reached him falling down to her knees lifting up his sleeve to see the bullet wound letting out some sort of a blue smoke. Derek’s face winced in pain as he leaned his head back against the building. “Here let me try and take some of the pain” she whispered, grabbing his arm but before she could mutter the spell Derek’s other hand slapped hers away “no don’t you're gonna use too much energy.” He huffed out. Y/n looked at him as if the was the dumbest thing she had ever heard “you do know it is my job to protect the people I live and you are at the very top of the list right?” She asked before putting her hand right back in the place it was causing him to glare at her. “Glare all you want to wolf man we’re not leaving until you let me take some of your pain away” she said muttering a spell causing her eyes to glow the vibrant purple and purple lines began to flow up hers and Derek’s arm. His tense body relaxed at the feeling of relief. “Come on we gotta go before whoever shot you comes to finish off the job” she said before helping the wounded werewolf up.

Time skip————

It is now the next day school had just let out and Derek and y/n met at the back of the school. “So did you find him?” She asked Derek who was very ill looking. He leaned up against the school building “no” he huffed “did you?” He asked. Yn sighed worried “no but I did find out he’s going out to Allison’s today, she may have the bullet in her house, considering Kate’s here” she mumbled the last part but she knew Derek heard her. “What?” His head shot up at this. “Oh nothing, just your physic ex-girlfriend is in town. No biggie” y/n sassed finding her nails interesting. She then shook her head and helped Derek up as he now could barely walk without any assistance. “Whatever we’ll talk about this when you're not on the brink of death, plus school just let out so they should be in the parking lot” she said. When they reached the Parking lot they stopped right in the middle of the road when Derek unexpectedly collapsed bringing y/n with him. She heard a tire screech and a ‘Jesus these guys are everywhere’ coming from inside she immediately knew it was stiles and she let out a breath of relief. “Der you gotta try and control your shift if not that then your eyes” she whispers as Scott and stiles came running from beside stiles jeep “what are you doing here” Scott asked. “I was shot” Derek said, breathing heavily. “He’s not looking so good dude” stiles says to Scott

“He can't, I've been trying to heal him all night, it was a different kind of bullet” y/n spoke up from behind him. She was behind Derek keeping him upright. “A silver bullet?” Stiles asked, leaning forward a bit. “No you idiot” “wait, wait, that’s what she meant when she said you have 48 hours” Scott said in recollection. “Wha- who said that” y/n asked, her voice stern. “The person who shot him” Scott replied. Before y/n could say anything Derek’s body tensed and his eyes shifted again. Scott looked around in panic “what are you doing stop that” he said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, I can’t” Derek growled. “Derek, get up” Scott commanded. People around them started to get impatient honking their horns ready to leave the school.

Stiles helped Scott lift Derek off of y/n and put him in stiles jeep. Y/n grabbed Scott’s arm “Scott I need you to find out what bullet she used” y/n commanded voice stern. “How the hell am I supposed to do that?” Scott asked. Derek spoke up from the jeep “she’s an argent, she’s with them”. Scott looked at Derek “why should I help you, y/n I’d help but why you?” He asked. At this y/n pushed Scott’s shoulder back becoming defensive “because you need him I can only teach you so much, but if he dies, I will kill you myself, and it will be a slow and very painful death” she threatened. “Find the goddamn bullet” she ordered. Scott looked at her for a second “fine, I’ll try”. At this y/n smiled and patted his shoulder muttering ‘good choice’ and got into the jeep and stiles took off. Stiles drove impatiently as he called Scott repeatedly. He turned to Derek “hey- try not to bleed out on my seats okay? We’re almost there”he says. Y/n perks up at this and Derek asks the same question she was about to ask “almost where?”. Stiles sighed and looked at y/n through the rear view mirror and said “to your house”. “What no you can’t take me there” Derek says. At this y/n looks at him in confusion “wha- I can’t take you to your house?” Stiles asked as if he had just heard the dumbest thing in the world. “Not if I can’t protect myself” he said “umm excuse me?” Yn spoke up from the back “I can’t leave you to protect us both y/n” Derek says rolling his eyes “hun I’m literally made to protect multiple beings at once… it’s my job, but if it makes you feel better fine” she mumbled the last part.

Stiles speaks up from the driver's seat aggravated “so what happens if Scott doesn’t find your little magical bullet hmm? Are you dying? '' he said, waving his unoccupied hand. “No I have a last resort” he said. This was news to y/n so she leaned forward “care to fill me in on it” she asked as Derek pulled up his sleeve. Upon seeing the wound stiles gagged in disgust turning the car engine off “oh my g- is that contagious? You know what you should probably just get out.” He said disgusted using his arm to cover the view of the wound. “Start the car” Derek growled. “I don't think you should be barking orders with the way you look, okay? In fact, I think, if I wanted to, I could probably drag your little Werewolf ass out into the middle of the road and leave you for dead.” Stiles threatened with a boost of confidence. Y/n sat back entertained by her boyfriend and brother bickering with each other. “Start the car or I’m gonna rip your throat out… with my teeth '' Derek threatened. Y/n almost laughed out loud at the look on stiles face as he cranked up the engine. Y/n sat for a second before a sharp pain pierced her brain causing her to let out a gasp and pulled into a vision.

“Y/n” she heard her voice being called as she looked at her surroundings but she couldn’t see anything just plain white. “Who’s there?” Y/n said taking a defensive stance ready for anything. “Calm down child” the voice said. “Who are you? What do you want from me?” She asked. “Y/n I’ve been waiting to speak with you, your mind is very strong” the voice said. “Yeah it’s like that for a reason, who are you?” She asked again, still looking around, “I don't have a lot of time, your mind will only allow it for so long, listen, protect those around you. But don’t get pulled into ill intentions.” The voice said. “What the hell does that mean?” She asked. “Language” the voice said slightly louder. “Sorry?” Y/n said. “What does that mean? Who around me has ill intentions.” She asked. “Don’t let the need for power cloud your judgment” the voice said. Y/n shook her head confused just as she was about to ask another question she was pulled out of the vision

When she opened her eyes she saw stiles pulling into the animal clinic, “what the hell are we doing here” she asked. “Scott told me to take you here, never mind that, what the hell happened to you?” Stiles asked. “A vision?” She replied looking down thinking about what the voice said . “You get visions?” He asked surprised. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had one but this one was different” hearing this Derek turned to her and asked “different how?” before she shook her head dismissing what he had just asked and got out of the jeep and helping Derek out and into the vet.

Once settled Derek took his shirt off making stiles Gag once again at his wound “okay, you know, that really doesn’t look like anything some echinacea and a good nights sleep couldn’t take care of” he said covering his view of the wound y/n was looking around for anything that could possibly help Derek “if the infection reached his heart it’ll kill him” she said opening a drawer filled with herbs. “Positivity just isn’t in your vocabulary is it?” He asked exasperatedly. “If he doesn’t get the bullet in time- last resort” Derek said, looking like a small gust of wind could knock him out. Y/n turned towards him still not aware of this “last resort” so she asked “you ever plan on letting me know what this ‘last resort’ is?” While folding her arms. “What she said” Stiles said, mentioning to the girl behind him. Derek pulled a tool out and placed it on the table “your gonna cut my arm off” he huffed. At this the two groaned stiles in distress and y/n in annoyance.

“What if you bleed to death” y/n heard a very faint heartbeat getting louder. She walked out of the room and to the entrance of the clinic she saw Scott on his bike. At the sight y/n let out a breath of relief abt he had been holding in since Derek had been shot but she was still afraid that it wouldn’t work. Scott jumped off his bike and ran through the door of the clinic “Y/N? STILES?” He yelled y/n grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room where stiles was holding the tool to Derek’s arm “I leave for five seconds!” Y/n yelled, taking the tool from stiles. Stiles sighs in relief “oh thank god” he says “you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares”.

Derek looks at Scott “did you get it?” He asked and Scott pulls out a bullet and gives it to Derek who immediately it’s the tip off and pours the gunpowder on the table before collapsing to the ground. Y/n ran to Derek's side and stiles to the other “oh god is he dead” stiles yelled in distress. “No he passed out you idiot” she said, placing her hand on his chest to send a to his heart hoping it would wake him up and it did. Derek sat up immediately and stood up using the table to keep himself stable. He grabbed a lighee and put the flame up to the powder and blue smoke evaporated from the powder making the powder now available to heal Derek so he took it in his hand and put it into his wound making him from to the ground writhing in pain while shifted. Y/n found the sight hot but she wouldn’t comment on it… right now.

After about seven seconds Derek was finally healed and the color returned back to his face. When y/n saw that he was completely healed she went to hug Derek but Scott cut her off ranting about Allison and the argents making y/n roll her eyes and groan “am I ever gonna get my boyfriend back to myself” she mumbled leaving the two. Stiles followed behind the girl and asked if she needed a ride soon after hearing Derek was taking Scott somewhere. The girl took his offer and let him drive her home where she waited about an hour for Derek to return.

Y/n was standing in the mirror when Derek entered the room sighing. “You left” he said. “Yeah well you had a date with Scotty boy and I was tired so…” she replied turning towards the man “a date huh?” He teased grabbing her hips pulling her closer to him smirking. “Yes, a date” she said, biting back a smile. They stared in each other's eyes for a second before Derek leaned down and kissed y/n softly. She bought her arms to wrap around his neck kissing back. He pulled away, putting his forehead to hers. She smiled looking into the green eyes that she had grown to love so deeply “I was really worried you know” she said. “I know, but I also know that you won’t let anything happen to me” he said, meaning every word. And he was right, y/n would give her own life to save anyone she loved, especially him. “Let’s get some sleep, after you take a shower because you stink, stiles wasn’t lying” she said the last part before running out of the room knowing the mention of stiles aggravates Derek because in his words ‘I have had enough of stiles for a lifetime’. About an hour later Derek entered the room with his hair wet and in sweats. “It seems like you’ve been shirtless all day.” Y/n teased. Derek payed down next to y/n “don’t act like you don’t like seeing me shirtless.” He said. “Oh no I love seeing you shirtless, you should have seen yourself when you were healing” she said, raising her eyebrows smiling. Derek turned towards her in astonishment “are you saying I’m hot when I’m in pain?” He asked smirking “whaaat nooo I would never” y/n said dragging out her words. “I was in pain y/n!” He said incredulously. “I know but I can’t help it… you were flexing your muscles and everything” she said sheepishly “go to sleep” Derek said still in disbelief making y/n let out a laugh. “Ok seriously I’m tired goodnight der” she said and he replied with a good night.

@bellabadacadabra

[katnisspeetaprim]

Scar

So I couldn’t resist writing this. I also wrote it in like an hour whilst listening to Agust D so yeah sorry if it’s bad, it’s more a self indulgent piece if anything! I was also racing against the battery in my Bluetooth keyboard so yeah, there’s that too.

Summary; You like Yoongi’s fake scar a little too much...

Warnings; Established relationship, implied sexual content, tho no actual sex, swearing, public ass grabbing, gender neutral reader, kinda dom!Yoongi.

Word Count; 841     Masterlist

You couldn’t be more proud of your long time boyfriend Yoongi, as he filmed the music video for his new Agust D song ‘Daechwita’.

When he offered you to come to watch them film that day, you thought that it would go the same way as the other times you had seen BTS shoot however, Yoongi had never looked quite like this before.

He was currently sporting a fake scar that ran down the right side of his face and black hair. Those two things combined gave him a whole different energy you couldn’t help but think.

You watched from the side lines as he performed, captivated by his movements, he was a man that exuded confidence in that moment, in comparison to his usual stoic self in everyday life. As he continued to shoot, your eyes kept wandering back to the scar on his face, unable to look away for very long. Was it weird to be attracted  to a fake scar?

‘Alright let’s take a break’ The director announced, pulling you out of your thoughts. As everyone started to disperse, Yoongi made his way over to where you were standing.

You handed him a bottle of water as he approached you.

‘You’re killing it Yoon! I can already tell the MV will be amazing!’ You praised him as he took a sip of water, smiling over the brim of the bottle.

‘I’m glad you think so. I can’t wait for ARMY to see it.’ He said proudly. After knowing him for so long, you knew how seriously he took his music and work in general, so it made you happy seeing how far he’s come from the start of his career in the music industry.

You unconsciously bit your lip as he spoke to you, unable to fully focus on his words. The scar was even worse close up. Without thinking, you lifted your hand up and gently ran your fingers down the length of the prosthetic. Yoongi quickly reached up and grabbed onto your hand softly. ‘What are you doing? I don’t want the makeup messed up.’ He frowned slightly. Ah so he really didn’t know the effect he was having on you...You swallowed dryly before you answered.

‘Sorry, you just look so hot with this scar, plus the hair isn’t helping either.’ You moved your hand from his grasp, and fondled a few strands of hair that fell in his face, carefully, as to not mess up the styling. Yoongi’s face scrunched up in confusion, but he also had the ghost of a smirk appear across his lips too.

‘I should have guessed something like this would turn you on.’ He turned his head, trying hard to contain his laughter.

‘Hey don’t laugh at me!’ You chastised him, lightly pushing his shoulder.

‘Besides..’ You continued, ‘I thought afterwards I could meet you in your dressing room and let you fuck me any way you want.’ You leaned forward and whispered the last part in his ear with the most breathy and seductive voice you could muster, which you knew would get him worked up. Yoongi’s eyes suddenly darkened as he turned back towards you, smirk playing on your face, lower lip between your teeth, waiting for his reply.

He took a quick look around to make sure that nobody was paying the two of you any mind, before he roughly grabbed your ass and pulled you flush against him, causing you to let out a surprised gasp. You could already feel the beginnings of a bulge in his pants. He took your hair in his hand and pulled your head to the side,

‘You think it’s funny to tease me like that in public?’ He growled in your ear, causing a shiver to run down your spine.

‘You’re gonna do what you said and wait for me in my dressing room.’ He continued in the same way. ‘Make sure you’re ready for me on your knees when I get there.’ With that, he roughly pushed you away from him and in the directions of the dressing rooms, as he made his way back over to the director to strike up a conversation like nothing happened.

Goddamn... You loved being manhandled by him, even if it was something simple like the push he had given you just now, it never failed to get you hot under the collar. You could already feel the arousal building up between your legs as you hurried to do as commanded.....Now you just had to remember which dressing room was his.

[cozyhatchling]

Aww! I just read your little Kaveh headcanons! I was wondering if you had an idea of what would happen if Kaveh got lost cuz he didn't hold Alhaitham's hand. I wanna draw a little thing but I can't think rn (hope dis makes sense lol)

Ahh, I'm so glad you liked it! I was just gonna do some headcanons but ended up writing a little drabble, hehe~

Little Kaveh and Carer Alhaitham Fic:

Hold My Hand

Kaveh was having an absolutely fantastic day.

Going out with Alhaitham was a good day in and of itself, but today was particularly special; one of Kaveh's favorite museums had been closed for renovations for nearly two years, and it had just reopened the previous weekend. Alhaitham (who was incredibly thoughtful despite insisting otherwise) had surprised Kaveh with tickets to see the new exhibits, and the pair had chosen today for their visit.

They had been exploring the museum for hours, but Kaveh was still overflowing with happy energy even as the sun began to dip below the tops of nearby buildings. An announcement that the museum would be closing in fifteen minutes echoed through the halls, passing in one of Kaveh's ears and right out the other.

"Haitham, look!" Kaveh pointed toward an advertisement for an exhibit further down a long hallway: it was a huge scale model of one of Kaveh's favorite ancient buildings in the city. He was practically vibrating with excitement as he scampered away down the hall and turned a few corners until he reached his destination several rooms away.

The model was just as spectacular as Kaveh could have ever hoped. He poured over all the little details, circling around the exhibit and reading all the plaques, babbling excitedly and pointing at parts he recognized.

"Haitham! Isn't this the best?" Kaveh bounced happily as he turned back to his partner, only to find himself alone in the room. Excitement immediately drained from his mind, replaced with cold anxiety at being left alone. The last vestiges of adulthood his brain was clinging to fell away, and suddenly the empty room felt huge and terrifying.

"H-haitham?" No response. "Dada? Dada!" Kaveh ran to the entrance of the room, trying and failing to hold back the tears that filled his eyes when all he saw beyond the doorway was yet another empty room. It was very close to closing time now, and imagining himself locked away in the dark all alone had Kaveh bawling openly in seconds.

"D-dada!" he sobbed, standing frozen in the doorway, eyes screwed shut and hands clenched in the front of his shirt. He was spiralling, small and alone, until-

"Kaveh!"

Kaveh's eyes popped open and his crying momentarily ceased as he was suddenly enveloped in a warm embrace. It took only a split-second of processing before he recognized his dada's arms around him, and his tears began again, this time filled with relief. He clung to Alhaitham's shirt and sobbed into his shoulder as his carer slowly rubbed his back.

"Kaveh, you know not to run off like that..." Alhaitham's voice was low but not angry. He gave Kaveh a few more moments to calm down, then moved away so he could gently wipe the tears from his baby's cheeks. "This is why you always hold my hand, remember?"

"S-sorry, Dada... Didn't mean to..." Kaveh, scared his dada was mad at him, nearly started crying again, but Alhaitham stopped that line of thought with a quick kiss to Kaveh's forehead.

"I'm not mad at you, Kav. I was just worried." The taller man straightened up and took Kaveh's hand firmly in his. "The museum is closing soon; how about we head home, and we can come back and explore more another day."

The prospect of returning to the museum later cheered Kaveh somewhat, and he followed Alhaitham toward the entrance with little fuss. His head still felt fuzzy and small, but his dada's warm hand in his assured him that he was safe and all was well. He knew that Alhaitham would always take care of him; even though others might see the man as distant or even cold, Kaveh knew the gentle, kind carer beneath, and loved Alhaitham for it.

By the time they exited the museum, the sun had fully set, and the city was lighting up around them. Alhaitham pulled Kaveh into his side, sheltering him from the winter chill. Kaveh peered up at him, eyes hopeful.

"Dada? When we get home, can we have soup an' playtime?"

Alhaitham sighed. "You aren't tired out yet?"

Kaveh grinned; he saw right through Alhaitham's apparent exasperation. "Nuh-uh!"

"...Fine then. But you can't complain when Dada says it's bedtime, alright?"

Kaveh nodded and smiled brightly. Though the cold fear of his earlier ordeal hadn't melted completely, it was being thawed by the prospect of his warm home and comforting partner. Kaveh leaned into Alhaitham's side, relaxing against the man as his mind drifted toward happier thoughts.

I'm not a huge fan of the ending, but I think this turned out alright, I hope you like it!

If anyone would like to request headcanons, check out this post! (They won't be full fics like this, just lists.) I also have an ask game active~

Thanks for reading!

[m2ok]

Hey, I absolutely love your writing!! 💕 I was wondering if you would ever consider writing for Alex from cod?

Honestly I haven’t thought much about it, but I’ve since done some research (I looked at tik Tok edits of him) and gotta say I’m a big fan! I’m not entirely sure what his personality is, so I made him sorta of a Soap/ Price mixture :) feel free to request something for him if you’d like :D for now have some headcannons!

Alex Keller Headcannons

Alex Keller X M!Reader

A/N: let me know if this is super ooc for him or what his personality really is :)

This guy I think you could’ve met at a civilian. Honestly I’m picturing a meet cute, he gives hallmark vibes. Maybe you worked at the new coffee shop he frequented, or your dog ran away from you in the park and he happened to run into the little guy. Whatever meet cute trope you’d like I think would honestly work.

I think he’s one of those people where you think he’s an open book because he’ll tell you his entire life story, but you find you don’t know much about him afterwards. He doesn’t say how he feels, just what happened to him. It would take you a little bit to figure out that he hasn’t opened up as much as you thought he had.

I’m getting golden retriever energy from him honestly. He just seems like he’d follow you around throughout the day just to be around you.

maybe a mountain dog, because I think he’d be fiercely protective on the battlefield. Of course he knows you can take care of yourself, but if he’s your boyfriend he’s naturally going to worry about you.

If you do happen to get hurt you can guarantee that whoever did it is going to die a slow painful death as long as time allows. Alex doesn’t forgive that kind of thing easily if at all.

Just a little bit dumb I think. Not in the field, of course, but when it comes to everyday basic things I think he’s little dense. Like he’d put plastic in the microwave and pull out a melted container with a little pout.

He can cook breakfast foods, but nothing else. Pancakes? Absolute king. Soup? No way. He’d somehow burn the broth.

Very much adhd vibes. He will pull you into a bunch of shenanigans that get you in trouble just because he had the idea last night at 3 am.

Very gentle and soft, he likes to be the little spoon and he has no issues admitting it. He’ll just yank you down on the bed and wrap your arms around him yourself.

Definitely the type to brag about you any chance he could “everyone, this is my b o y f r i e n d y/n”. He would also start calling you his husband before you guys were married.

He’d also always ask you to marry him just because he can’t help himself. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you could be helping him trim his beard or just cooking something for him and he’d just “marry me” with the softest little smile on your face.

You’d just laugh and go “give me a ring next time and maybe I’ll say yes”

Little did you know he already had a ring tucked away in his pocket. He didn’t plan on proposing just yet, but he kept it away just in case he found the perfect moment and couldn’t pass it up.

I think he’d only have a bit of the proposal planned out, he knew what he wanted to say but he didn’t know where. It would probably be in the same place you first met because it had sentimental value to you both.

As a husband I think he’d want to settle down pretty quickly. He’d retire from the military and live in a nice little house from you in a cute little town. It would be one of those towns where you could walk everywhere you needed to go and everyone knew everyone.

I cant get the imagine of him and blue jeans on with a carhartt jacket and beanie on. I just think he’d look so fine.

He likes hiking absolutely. I imagine you living somewhere that has a really close by hiking area. He just loves nature so much and loves to be in it.

Mediocre at putting things together. Furniture with instructions is no issue and simple things like a birdhouse or a shelf he can do, but nothing extravagant (nothing can beat Price I’m so sorry I love him so much he’s so perfect)

Another imagine I can’t get out of my mind is plaid. Specifically as your bed sheets. It would be like a thick, comfy sort of sheet. Nice and soft and great for cuddling.

His love language when it comes to showing it I think is gift giving. It doesn’t have to be extravagant either like he’ll just find a cool rock and give it to you. Or a little paper crane he’s made

On top of that he’s a fantastic gift giver around the holidays or your birthday. He just loves seeing how happy you get when you open something and find it was the exact thing you mentioned months ago.

Definitely buys presents all year around that way the tree is absolutely packed when Christmas comes around.

If you don’t celebrate Christmas he does his absolute best to follow your traditions and be respectful of how you celebrate if at all. To him the holidays are all about spending time with those you love, no matter how it’s done.

Overall I think he’s a very kind, open, loving partner. He loves you with his whole heart and doesn’t have a lot of issues showing that.

[ecoamerica]

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[selenitesdawn]

Can you do more Max stuff with a gn reader please?

I will gladly do so. I have a few Max requests and will get back to writing as soon as possible. Have this small piece of mind until then. Hope you enjoy it <3

Meteor

pairing : max mayfield x reader

warnings : just fluff <3

summary : max and y/n watch the night sky together after an exhausting day.

first person pov

This day definitely didn’t go as planned. Today was supposed to be awesome. And not just a little awesome. But like the event of the year type of awesome. To be precise, Max and I planned on watching a meteor shower tonight. Dustin told us about it like a month ago and we have anticipated that day since then. I’ve never seen anything like that before, so obviously I am super excited. And to watch it with my girlfriend is the cherry on top.

So, as naive as I am, I thought nothing could ruin today. But then, just my luck, everything that could have gone wrong, just went straight downhill. The day began with sour milk. Which I, by the way, ate a whole bowl of cereal in, just to notice that’s its sour on my last spoon. It continued in school with getting a D in biology, my lunch spilling on my pants, my bike breaking on the way home (which made me walk 40 minutes!!) and me stumbling over an empty can just 20 meters in front of my front door. And now I feel like I’ve ran a marathon and all my limbs just scream “SLEEP”.

The second I enter my room I dial up Max, telling her about my awful day.

“I don’t feel like going out anymore.”, I say exhausted, plopping onto my bed like all my life energy got sucked out.

“Oh come on y/n. We waited so long for this! I understand that you’re exhausted but you’re gonna regret it if we don’t go.”, Max replies in a disappointed tone.

“It’s not just me being exhausted. I’m just super unlucky today. It’s- Wait. Oh god.”, I breathe out. It’s what I think it is. Isn’t it? Oh god I think it is. I run over to the calendar, noticing that I didn’t check today’s date.

“What is it y/n? Hello?”, Max asks from the other end of the line.

“It’s Friday the 13th. My unluckiest day of all.”, I whisper quietly into the phone, trying to underline the seriousness of this.

“Well, duh Dummy. Dustin said the meteor shower takes place on the 13th July. That’s nothing new.”, Max states unaffected.

“Yeah but it is also Friday. Which makes it- you know what, whatever. I didn’t connect the pieces. But this is bad. That’s why I’m so unlucky.”, I just reply dramatically, falling back onto my bed.

“Okay baby, you know I don’t like to do this, but I know just how superstitious you can be. I mean you still carry that little piece of garlic around wherever you go-“, Max starts arguing.

“Okay but why where there vampire hunters around back in the days? There are literal kits of vampire hunting stuff, that is proof! No one knows whether-“, I argue back.

“Yeah and back in the day, women who were smart and had red hair got burned at stake.”, Max interrupts me.

I stay quiet after that, knowing that I can’t argue against that. And whatever I say would come off just wrong.

“Whatever. The point is, you come with me tonight or else I won’t grant you a single kiss until this month is over.”, Max demands, sounding surprisingly serious.

“Wow that is awful. You know, if I come with you, considering my luck; we won’t see a single meteor tonight.”, I answer confidently, testing if Max is serious.

“I’ll risk it. See you at the hill at 9, bye bye.”, is the last thing she says before she hangs up.

This girl.

After napping for what felt like an entire year, I pack my things and my skateboard, leaving the house at 7pm. It usually takes me around 30 minutes to get to the hill with my board, but I got to be extra careful today. That’s at least what I thought. Somehow I still manage to fall five times, getting to the hill at around 8:30pm.

I spread out a blanket and lay on it, watching the sky above me. It is quite peaceful to lay here, especially after that stupid day. Even after that great nap, I still feel tired though. I must have drifted away, since I didn’t notice Max laying next to me.

“Hey love, glad you came.”, Max says to me smiling, putting her hand on my cheek as she turns my face towards hers.

“I had no other choice really, had I?”, I answer back, obviously teasing her a little.

“Hm, not really I suppose.”, she replied sweetly, pressing a little kiss on top of my nose.

Max gets up from besides me and starts searching for something inside her backpack. It takes her a while to find what she is looking for, so I close my eyes again and listen to the wind blowing through the grass. There is nothing like spending time with Max. I could lay in the middle of a dump with her and it would still be the best thing ever. She always manages to make me feel comfortable wherever we go. It almost feels like home is.. wherever she is.

“Open your eyes, I have something for you.”, Max whispered softly.

I open my eyes to see her sit in front of me, smiling from ear to ear. As I lift my body up, I see her holding a bracelet in her right hand. And it looks beautiful.

“Wow Max, is this for me?”, I ask as she hands it over to me.

“I made it myself. It protects you from any bad luck. Especially on Friday the 13th’s. It’s not the best but.. it has all your favorite colors in it.”, Max replies happily.

“What are you saying? It’s beautiful Max!”, I say as I put it over my hand.

The pearls reflect the moonlight, creating a beautiful sparkle. It fits perfectly, somehow it has just the right size. Like Max measured the scope of my arm. As I keep viewing it, I see one pearl has the letter “M” on it.

“What stands the M for?”, I ask, knowing the answer already.

“For Max. Obviously. So you never forget who made it for you.”, she replies proudly, taking my hand into hers.

In that very moment all my worries wash away and my day suddenly seems not so bad. Max once again manages to make everything ten times better. I kiss the back of her hand and giggle, surprised that Max supports my irrational fears.

“I love you Max. Thank you so much, I’ll never take it off.”, I smile.

“I love you too y/n. And your little.. habits. Even the garlic thingy is… kind of cute. I guess.”

We just lay there after that, admiring the night sky. When Max sees her first meteor, she excitedly points at the place where she saw it, hoping that I could see it too. I think deep down she knows that there is no way I could have seen it, but her excitement is just too cute.

“Do you see that? How beautiful! My first meteor.”, she exclaims excitedly, shaking my arm.

“Yes, I saw it. How exciting.”, I smile softly, just happy to see Max as happy as she is.

She latches onto my arm and watches the stars excitedly. Her eyes sparkle even brighter than my bracelet, her cheeks must hurt from smiling as much as she does. It’s the most beautiful view. Not even the meteor shower can compete.

“I’m so lucky to see this. With you. Together. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here right now.”, Max says quietly, cuddling into my side. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

“Forever.”, I reply softly.

“Yes Dummy. Forever.”

[stxrliasfics]

Catharsis - Jamie Campbell Bower Smut

Pairing: rockstar gn!reader x jamie (enemies to lovers kinda sorta ???)

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 5.3k

(just now realizing i never explained: D/N stands for “Drummer’s name” and B/N stands for “Bassist’s name” sorry just in case you were confused LMAO)

༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛

A/N: I have returned from hiatus with something new!!! To start off the new year, I present to you this wonderful masterpiece that was really intended for my two beautiful friends (they're big Jamie enthusiasts!)

Some say it’s better to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That was utter bullshit to you. And maybe you were too callow to seemingly miss the meaning, but if your enemies were burning alive right in front of you, you wouldn’t even piss on the fire to put them out. Especially if it were Jamie Bower.

You’ve known him since you joined your band, replacing the former lead guitarist. There was limited interaction between you two from the start. 5 years since then and there has still never been a praising comment from him. It was always constant nitpicking at your solos or the way you played your parts entirely. He didn’t want to cooperate with you at all. You’ve come to realize that.

“You two need to get it together,” said your bandmate, D/N. The morning had started off just fine at rehearsal until Jamie was yelling about you continuously missing a note. “We have two more days until we play this fucking show and you’re acting like babies.”

Jamie glared your way as if the message was really intended for you. As if YOU were the problem. You glared right back at him, mentally boring holes into his skull with your bandmates in the crossfire of tension.

He took the strap of his guitar off his shoulders, threw the instrument down, and muttered something as he stomped off stage.

“Dick,” you called. The sound engineers came running with their clipboards and exasperated looks on their faces. 

“Can someone go after him? We’ve barely made it through set,” One of them argued — a burly bald guy with a prominent Yorkshire accent. D/N hurried off the stage in pursuit of Jamie. You turned the volume off on your guitar, set it by the wall of amps, and sat down on a stool. Truly at a loss, you didn’t know which direction to take. You didn’t want to stay somewhere you weren’t welcome. Five years was long enough — but you couldn’t just give up that easily. You didn’t want to be seen as weak, you didn’t want to sulk around anymore and hope to gain the approval of someone so cruel. So you got up and turned your guitar back up. 

When D/N came back with no Jamie in sight, relieving air filled your lungs. Your body relaxed. 

“Come on, we’ve got a show to play, yeah?” You put your guitar strap back over your shoulder. 

“But Jamie—,” B/N started.

“He ran off somewhere,” said D/N. “Got in his car and drove off.”

“We can practice without him,” you said, turning to the sound engineers. “Go on. We’re ready.”

The last few days of rehearsal surprisingly went by with no problems. There was a “Hurry up and get it done” frame of mind settling into everyone, so there was no time for Jamie to start throwing a tantrum. Neither of you two looked at each other for those last few days. You focused your energy more on your excitement for the big day as you stared out into the stadium, imagining all of the bright faces drunk on echoing notes ringing their ears. Everything was good until the show on Thursday.

For more content catered to the fans, you thought it would be a good idea to strap a tiny camera to your forehead, showing a different point of view of your playing. The headband that held the camera was unbearable. So much so that you could feel the elastic digging into your skin, itching below your hairline. Refraining from clawing at your skin, you kept your focus on your fingers dancing on the fretboard and the stinging in your muscles.

During the last song of the night, the last hurrah for the closing show, your eyes closed briefly and your body was thrown into the shockwave of the moment. When they opened, smoke carried off your vision and everything felt lighter. Before you knew it, you were flying above clouds of hands carrying you away. The exhilaration pumping cold through your veins, you lost awareness until you were brought back to the forefront. Every piece of you…except for the camera.

“Fuck, fuck, FUCK!” Jamie’s yells could’ve been heard all throughout backstage as he stormed after you, face red with anger. The show was done and everyone was starting to pour out.  

You whipped around at him. “It was an accident!” The elastic strap was still itching the skin of your forehead. 

“Hey, chill out,” said B/N, stepping in the middle with outstretched arms to hold you two apart. Jamie smacked their hand away.

“The camera. They lost the camera!” he was still glaring at you, harder than ever before. 

“It was an accident! We can get it back.”

At this point, Jamie had stepped away from the boundary B/N placed and was getting closer to you. Hell’s blaze burned bright in his eyes. “It wouldn’t have gotten lost anyway if you weren’t being such a dumbass.” 

“Get out of my face,” your voice dropped low and your eyes hardened. He took some steps back, jaw still clenched, and urged out his last word as always.

“You are the most useless thing that’s ever happened to this band.” 

You watched him edge back out to the stage where fans cheered on his return. Your bandmates surrounded you with somber expressions, yet avoided the crossfire. 

Apparently, the camera was found, but no one had told you that. When you arrived back to your flat the next morning, you had closed yourself up in your bedroom and slept the pooling anxiety away. Jamie’s words hit right at your pride. Useless rung in your ears to the beat of his tone. And you were really starting to believe that, but there was no way you were letting this continue on any further. Screw Jamie. Screw the band. You were out.

The biting wind of mid-November had come in for another time. Streets were covered in cold rain — normality for England. It had been raining nonstop for a few weeks. Cleary skies seemed rare. Your days lazing around the house were all the more dreary. With your band on a short break, you were left to dwell in your bed. Your final thoughts forced you to make a stomach-churning move — a compulsive decision that could possibly break the bridges. 

You were going to talk to Jamie. 

The night before, you were pacing the room with your phone in your hand. Every thought that bubbled up into a word didn’t make sense. Every sentence frayed into a mere memory. It would’ve been difficult to get up with him, considering that you two weren’t really on speaking terms. He did reply to your message hours later. With a thumbs up emoji. You started to get irritated but a thumbs up was better than no response at all. 

You planned to meet up at a cafe near your flat that morning. It was still rainy, so you made sure to grab an umbrella. You rehearsed everything that you were going to say over in your head, silently mouthing it to yourself as you reached the place. Jamie hadn’t arrived yet. There was no sign of his light blonde hair given. You ordered a small coffee to hold your patience in the meantime. 

Heat transferred from the paper cup, warming your frostbitten hands. If it weren’t for all the eyes around you, you would’ve used it to warm your face as well. Possibly fans trying to scope out. Their eyes left you as soon as the cafe’s door jingled and Jamie walked in. 

His hair was tied up and he was wearing all black. Standard Jamie attire. Further more, this made him recognizable amongst the teen fans gawking at you two. You could see his hardened demeanor although he tried to be stoic. When he sat down in front of you, your throat had dried up and everything you wanted to say flew south. You went bitch. 

“Hi, Jamie,” was all that could come out. It didn’t even sound like you. All shaky and weak. Sometimes confrontation wasn’t your strongest suit. It didn’t help that you couldn’t see his eyes. Was he looking at you or behind you? 

“About the camera,” you tried your best not to stutter. “I’m sorry for being ignorant about it.

A short exhale meant to be sarcastic laughter escaped from Jamie. His face stayed blank. 

“You’re not going to say anything?” you poked on. 

“What do you want me to say?” his voice was foreign. Softer than what you were used to but still housed a cold undertone. 

“The way that you’ve been treating me lately. I’d like an explanation for it.” 

He looked out of the window with his arms crossed on the table, not saying a word.      

“What’s your problem with me, mate? I work my ass off and you act like I do nothing. If the camera thing was the last straw then once again, I apologize. I seriously didn’t mean to do it.” 

He looked from the window to the table, watching it in a few seconds of silence. The whole time you watched and waited.  

“I don’t have a problem with you,” he said. Thinking you had imagined it, you eyed him in confusion. 

“You wouldn’t just shit on me for nothing, then.”

He only gave you a shrug. You probed further. 

“What is it? What do I need to change for you to like me?” you hissed. “What’s your problem with me?—” 

“Excuse me. We’re big fans of your music,” Two girls who looked like they were no older than 15 came up to your table. “Could we please have a picture?” 

“I’m so sorry, we’re in the middle of a private meeting,” you apologized. The girls frowned and issued profuse apologies for interrupting you two before Jamie butted in. 

“We can give you our autographs if you have something for us to sign, though!” 

Once again you had to do a double take as Jamie was now smiling. He sounded so sweet. Of course, that was the mask always on display for anyone outside of the band. He held a genuine smile when talking to the girls, taking in every word they said to him. When the girls left, however, he returned to his normal self. You wondered how he made it seem so genuine. Maybe he wasn’t just faking it with them. 

“So?” you said. He turned back to you. 

“So?” he said. That nonchalant tone of voice irked the hell out of you. He didn’t care. Was he even listening to you? 

“I want an explanation. An apology. Something!”

Jamie shrugged again. It took all your might not to smack the shit out of him right then and there. 

“Fine,” Gritting your teeth in uproaring anger, you began to sit up with your still full coffee in hand. “I’m out of the band.” 

You pushed the door to the cafe open, holding back the hard lump in your throat and trying to take a deep breath before it all went out. You had let it all go. Everything you worked hard for. You regretted it, but it didn’t matter. You could get anywhere on your own. Fuck everything. 

Ever since that day at the cafe, there had been no contact between you or anyone from the band. Radio silence. It wasn’t until one Saturday evening that B/N called about a party. You had no plans to go out. Still, it wouldn’t have hurt to show your face. You were sure your bandmates hadn’t known about your self-dismissal. 

You got ready at 9:00, 15 minutes before you were to meet up with them. Silently, you hoped that a certain someone wouldn’t be there. Really, you didn’t want to face anyone right now. Something about it was too embarrassing. 

All of your friends were meeting up at a nightclub. Big and fancy, it was. One of the biggest in the city, perhaps. Only high-profiled people filled it up. Your band had played here before. 

It was one of the club's usual busy nights. Anything that you could think of went down here. It was a chance for everyone to go buck wild and let loose for one night before they got up in the morning with a bottle of aspirin and an unkempt tie. For these to be important people in the industry, you’d think they’d be more civilized. Then again, you thought of what industry you were apart of. Yeah. A band manager snorting coke off of a pornstar’s chest wasn’t surprising. 

Through sweaty bodies and seizure-inducing lights, you couldn’t see your bandmates at all. You dialed B/N’s number and hoped that they would be able to hear you over the thumping music. During which, some drunk asshole had bumped into you rather harshly, nearly knocking your phone out of your hand. You gave the guy a side-eye and held the phone up to your ear. 

“Hey,” B/N’s voice came through the speaker after the second dial tone. “You on your way?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” you yelled over the music. “Where are you?” 

“V.I.P. room. It’s at the back,” they said. “Fair warning, though—”

“What?!” you covered one ear with your index finger to try and hear better. 

“I’ll just tell you when you come over. I’ll be waiting outside of the curtain.”

Their voice was replaced by the beep of the call ending. You huffed out a sigh of annoyance, still pushing past a bunch of people. You finally saw the V.I.P. lounge and B/N where they said they would be. They waved you over.

“Hey,” you said. This area of the club was quieter since there weren’t any speakers nearby.

B/N looked to be on their toes. You couldn’t put your finger on it. It was like they wanted to tell you something but it wouldn’t get past their lips. 

“What’s up?” you spoke again. 

“Jamie’s in there,” they said lowly. As soon as those words left their mouth, the purple curtain shielding the V.I.P. lounge drew back. Your eyes shifted to an emerging Jamie holding a giggling person's hand. He didn’t look up at you. Neither of them did. You rolled your eyes. 

“So?” B/N said. 

“So,” you shrugged. “I’m not going to let that ruin my night.” 

Again, you tried to seem nonchalant. In truth, WANTED a reaction. Just a simple glance would do. You wanted to be seen. Maybe just to shoot him an even meaner look than what he would’ve given you. And you knew that he had seen you. Why wasn’t he saying anything? No thoughts on the meeting from a few weeks ago at all? 

To further prove your point that you didn’t care (and why would you?), you wasted the night away by downing drinks. Not too many, but enough to get you a little buzzed so that you could take on the rest of what the night would bring. You sat in your invisible bubble at the bar, contemplating exactly why you would care. Why it was so important to get Jamie’s attention. You downed a shot of your drink. It fired up your insides in a quick flash, starting from the tip of your ears and down. There was no use in thinking about this. What more could you do? 

Floating into your absent land, the smell of spicy cologne filled your nose. You felt someone lean into you from the side and whisper in your ear.

“I need to talk to you,” the voice said. You turned to see it was Jamie. Shadows danced in his piercing eyes, the same way they did whenever he was trying to be intimidating.

“What do you want?” you said in a monotone.  

“Please. I’ll be quick.” 

The two of you disappeared to the upstairs lounge in the club. There was a bar up here too, occupied by people having more civilized and controlled conversations. You ambled over to the black couches nearby and took a seat, Jamie sitting beside you. You stayed in awkward silence for what seemed like forever. From beside you, the man was engaged in thought, trying to find something to say. He had his hands clasped as if he were saying a prayer and held it close to his mouth. 

I don’t have all day, you mused. His sigh filled your thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” he started off. He wasn’t looking at you. His eyes were trained on the floor. 

You waited for more, then said, “How do I know you mean it?” 

“No, I do. I really do mean it.” 

“You still haven’t answered my question,” you said, looking at him. “Remember?” 

“I don’t hate you,” he replied. Not at all.” 

There was a flash of amusement on your face. That was the only emotion you could find.

With another sigh, he repeated like a broken record, “I don’t hate you, Y/N. Quite the opposite.”

You quirked a brow as if to tell him to go on. He wanted to. His lips were moving as if grasping for something in the air and pulling it to his cords. 

“I-I don’t know,” his voice went low.  

“You know what, you’re a dickhead,” you took another sip of the sharp tequila. “Good job. Good fucking job.” 

“On what?”

“You’re just…so hard to figure out. I don’t get you.”

“I didn’t mean what I said that night. When I said you were useless to the band and all that. That’s not true at all.” 

A satisfied grin was urging on your lips as you had gotten what you wanted. You hid it with the rim of your cup. Down went the last drop and you set the cup down. 

“I admire you, Y/N,” he went on. “A lot, actually.” 

“So what’s up with you being a dick to me then?”

“I guess…I’m jealous of you.”

The way his words edged out so hesitantly, you didn’t believe it. Because why in the world would Jamie Bower be jealous of you? But his demeanor, the softness in his body language — if he were playing a joke on you, he did a damn good job at acting. 

“Oh, bullshit,” you said dismissively. 

“You’re an amazing guitarist, and you're the most poetic person I've ever met,” he rattled on. “You're everything I want to be and I just...hate that I'm not, I guess. You’re the backbone of our band." 

Really looking at him this time, you could tell he meant it. There was sincerity hidden in that black heart of his. You never thought you’d see the day. There was no room in you to take this in. 

You stammered, “I—uh—got to get going.” 

Jamie shot up from the chair when you did and trailed after you. “Wait, Y/N. You’ve had too much to drink,” he said. “Let me take you home.”

“No, I’m fine.” you waved him off and walked back downstairs. The beating music in the main part of the club filled your ears once more, pounding a headache into your head. You wanted tonight to be a brain fog in the morning. One that you couldn’t remember for a long time. You couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or if it was the praise you always wanted getting to you. Your face was hot and flushed from being flustered as you ran out of the doors. You could sense that he was still following you. His presence loomed over like a shadow. 

“Y/N,” you heard him call, proving your suspicion right.

“I’m calling a taxi,” you said, searching your coat pockets for your phone. 

“Listen to me. I meant what I said back there. I really, really admire you.” 

“That doesn’t just take away the constant hell you’ve been putting me through this whole time,” you argued. “What? Out of envy? Get fucked.” your fingers typed aggressively on the keypads. 

“Y/N,” you felt him grab your shoulder and spin around. Your legs turned to jelly from the sudden touch. You hated that. Jamie was so close you could feel nearly every fiber of him. Smoke from the cold night air escaped past his parted lips. “I’m so, so, sorry. Please, if I have to get down on my knees just to keep you in the band then I will. I’m sorry for being so shitty.” 

Too nervous to meet his eyes again, you looked to the concrete. Your heart was racing so much, fluttering butterflies trapped in your throat. 

“Let me take you home,” he said again. “Please?”

“What happened to your friend from earlier?” you said. The image of them holding hands flashed in your mind.

“Someone to fill up space, I guess,” he muttered. Both of his hands were placed on your shoulders, forcing you to look at him. There was a sense of sudden gravitation towards this man. Something that was so unfamiliar you were questioning yourself. Could you still hate him even after this? 

“You really are something, Bower.” your whisper was carried by midnight’s wind. 

It was like the space between you was getting tighter. Your eyes traveled to his lips which were half covered by the lights of the nightclub. You didn’t get any closer but paid attention to the way his soft lips moved as he spoke.

“Will you let me take you home?” 

You nodded. “I’ll just tell B/N that I went with you then.”

For the first week of the new month, you distracted yourself with music. Your bandmates still knew nothing of you quitting, as far as you knew. Your mind was still consumed with Jamie Bower and that night at the club. How quiet and frail the air seemed during that car ride. How his goodnight made you burn up more than the tequila you were drinking. Everything you did to ignore it didn’t work. You guessed that it could’ve been some obsessive type of thing. What other explanation was there?

Currently, you were stationed at your desk, scribbling down lyrics and humming along to match them. Nothing would work along with these words. You kept scribbling and erasing, scribbling and erasing; until finally, you cracked and threw your pencil at the wall. 

You forced yourself out of the chair to go to the fridge. The only thing that could put an end to this madness right now was a bottle of good ‘ole Jack, which you happened to have. Call you careless for drinking so early in the morning, you didn’t give a shit. It was nice and ice cold. Mind-numbing enough to delete whatever it was you tried to explain to yourself. 

You slumped down on the couch, watching some talk show when a knock came at your door. You were too lazy to get up and hoped that it was for someone next door. 

The knock came again and you grumbled. “Come in!” you shouted.

“It’s locked,” a voice said from behind the door. It seemed you had no other choice. You got up from the couch, annoyed. And much to your dismay upon opening the door, Jamie was there. 

“Oh,” you said. 

“Can I come in?” he said. He was wearing a black top and a pair of skinny jeans. Sunglasses adorned the top of his head. You nearly dropped the bottle.

“Uh—yeah—sure.”

You stepped aside to let him in, cursing yourself inwardly for somehow manifesting this. How lucky it was to have him show up on the day of your self-concentration. 

“I came to check on you,” he then said, answering a question that was just forming in your brain. Was he reading your mind or something? “I hadn’t heard from you in awhile.” 

“I’m fine,” you plopped back down on the couch and felt it dip when Jamie sat beside you. 

“You told me that you’d call the day after and you never did.” 

“Forgot,” you muttered, taking a sip of your drink. 

“Jesus, Y/N, it’s only 9 in the morning.” 

“Don’t pretend like you care.” 

“I do. Or else I wouldn’t have come here.” his cold and calloused fingertips grazed the hand that held the bottle of your ease over and over. You had a faint realization that it would slip out of your grasp, but it didn’t. Something else had caught it while you were under Jamie’s hypnosis. He had the bottle in his hand. You watched him set it down on the coffee table in front of you. 

“I still don’t know if I trust you,” you said, half-jokingly. 

A small smile formed on his lips when he turned to you. “I understand. I only hope to earn it as time goes on.”  

You sensed your lips tugging on to a smile as well and bit the inside of your cheek to hide it. 

“You know I do care,” he said, almost in a whisper. He was closer to you now. Like magnets, you were pulled to each other; pulling to the ecstasy that lay in this tension. Only then when your noses were touching, you realized what you were doing. But in his warmth, nothing else mattered. You thought all of the butterflies would be washed away under sweet oak whiskey only to find them return at his touch. Maybe this was a form of trust. 

“I’m sorry,” Jamie pulled away immediately. “I’m so sorry.” 

“No, don’t,” you said, grabbing his face with both hands to hold on to this last moment. You didn’t want it to end here. Not with how good everything felt in this moment. Your heart was skipping beats. You thought you would go into cardiac arrest. Your whole world was engulfed in Jamie. 

When he pulled away a second time, you both were panting for air. He rested his forehead on yours, eyes clouded with hazing lust. You thought they looked beautiful.

“Y/N, I have to be honest,” he said in between the sound of your soft pants. “I want you. If you’ll let me—” 

Your lips collided again as your hands roamed his body. You could smell the tobacco leaves protruding from him, getting drunk off of this scent alone. You moaned softly into the kiss. 

It felt like your entire being was pulsating, waiting for this magical moment. Jamie had to have felt the same too. He looked as if he could lose it at any moment. 

“Do you want to stay here or go to the bedroom?” you asked. “There’s more room.” 

“Whatever you want,”  he replied and started to trail pecks down your neck. You moaned, biting your bottom lip. 

“Let’s go then.”

Jamie followed behind you like a lost little puppy as you carried him upstairs by the arm. Once the two of you were inside your bedroom he spun you around and picked you up, placing you on the bed. You giggled as he climbed on top of you. 

“I don’t have a condom,” he muttered into your neck. 

You reached over to your nightstand and opened the drawer, pulling out a blue box of latex condoms and a bottle of lube, throwing it over to him. He snorted a laugh, picking up both. 

“Why do you have these?” 

“Just in case, you know,” you shrugged and watched him examine them. “Hurry up. You’ve already got me riled up.” 

Jamie chuckled. “I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous.” 

“Awe, someone’s jealous?” you slid your hands under his shirt, contacting the warm skin and bones underneath. You felt him shudder. Perhaps because your hands were freezing cold. 

“Very,” his hands traveled to your thighs. “Can’t have anyone else touching you.” 

“Already possessive, are we?” you helped him lift his shirt over his head, throwing it to the floor. Both of your clothes had been discarded, stored away in the confines of your worlds with the least worries. 

Once you two were prepped, you took advantage by wrestling him to the sheets and climbing on his lap. Seeing him in such a vulnerable state shook you all around. His nails grazed your thighs, leaving faint and temporary red marks. Soft gasps came from your lips as you sunk down on his cock. The feeling of it twitching inside drove you even madder, your heat quivering around it. You began moving your hips with Jamie's eyes holding you. His hands gripped your hips. You moved faster and faster, moaning at the immense pleasure in your core.   

“Jesus, Y/N,” he groaned, admiring the view of your sweaty body. Every thump inside sent you into overdrive. It was like a fire had started in your body, carrying off from your chest down to your toes. Your hands grasped at his pecs. You leaned down, breathless, bouncing on his thick cock as if your life depended on it. His punched-out moans vibrated your eardrums.   

“That feel good?” you gloated with a smile. 

“Fuck yeah,” was all he could muster. You began marking his neck with hickeys, sucking and biting while you drove his soul out, letting out a pleased hum when you found your spot. “You gonna come?” he says, deep voice penetrating your ears. You moaned again, digging your nails into his pecs. Your body shuddered as your orgasm hit. Jamie held you tighter. You never thought you’d be this close before. 

You didn’t stop moving your hips, wading through the aftershocks and overstimulation with tightened eyes. Not long after, Jamie had come too, letting out a relieved sigh as he spilled into the condom. You thought it to be twisted how you wanted to feel every bit of it. Greedy, almost. How you wanted to just get rid of this god-forsaken barrier and feel ALL of him. It wasn’t nearly as good as having it drip out of you. 

A small gasp left your throat at the loss of heat when he slipped out. But he was still hanging on to you as he sat up, edging his tongue in your mouth one last time. 

You broke away from him, saying, “I can’t believe we just did that.” 

“Me neither,” he replied. “That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, though.” 

You scooted away from him and watched as he removed the condom, throwing it in the bin and grabbing his clothes. A frown was about to slip on your face, realizing it was all over.  

Jamie must’ve noticed when he glanced at you. It took him no time to slip his clothes back on. 

“Why the long face?” he said, sitting down beside you on the messy sheets. 

“Nothing,” you gave him a thin smile. “Just…where exactly do we go from here?” 

“Well, I don’t want to stop talking to you or anything.”

“I don’t either. It just feels weird.”

Jamie’s brows furrowed. “Weird?” The look made you a bit nervous. 

“Not like a bad weird,” you explained quickly, laughing. “I mean, we’ve never been on the best of terms, Jamie. We just fucked.” 

“True,” he smiled. “I do hope that this…situation doesn’t affect us. I want us to be on good terms. Not just as bandmates, you know?” 

“Of course.” 

He pecked you on the cheek and stood up. “Gotta get going,” he said. “We’re heading to the studio today. Do you want to come?”

“Don’t know if I can,” you chuckled. 

“I never told them you left. Don’t worry. Your spot’s always open.”  

The two of you said your final goodbyes that day. It was like nothing had ever happened. You were left with nothing but a ghost of your time. Crawling up into your bubble again, you wondered just how much more confusing Jamie Bower could get from here. It wasn’t very fun when you were still figuring him out.

[twilightknight17]

Today (it’s not tomorrow til I go to sleep) on P3R, we spend a lot of time in Tartarus, I’ve got some questions about why everyone I know is such a mess, yet another couple is competing to be worse parents than Nyarlathotep, and six days of exams.

So with the Priestess down, we can get past that barrier in Tartarus, so up we go to the next set of floors. I was expecting more green hallways, but instead I got, uh…

Mementos was weird from the beginning, but like… it saved the REALLY weird stuff for a lot further down. This is area 2, and we’re stuck with Bigface and eldritch eyes.

When I reached another gatekeeper shadow, I got it! But then there was another one immediately after. :(

Disappointing Igor is the worst. But at least I figured out what the stupid dice’s weakness was, so I got it the second time. Everyone keeps talking about how Akihiko is going to be better soon and he’ll be able to help, so I guess we’ll head home for now just in case there’s more gatekeepers immediately ahead.

The takoyaki thief at the shrine is named Maiko, and she’s adorable. I really like her. ^_^

………….oh no.

Her parents are getting a divorce, and she is NOT doing well. And apparently they spend more time yelling at each other than talking to their kid and making sure she’s okay.

Minato doesn’t have the energy for righteous fury, but I do.

Mitsuru wants me to look at the command equipment instead of going on a rage-fueled rampage, so off we go. I dunno why she thinks we can fix it. Just let Ikutsuki do it.

…...that seems concerning.

It’s a video of Ikutsuki working on a report and talking to himself. He’s pondering the full moon shadow, and whether it’s a sign that “it’s starting”.

Apparently he also tells himself puns. This man...

You can’t actually tell Mitsuru about what you saw??? Like, did I fix it? Was this a plan to get me to see this video? Mitsuru, what even.

Ugh, fine, I’m gonna go study.

I’m finally a Regular Guy instead of a pathetic wet blanket.

In the next few days of school, Junpei texted and asked to hang out in the afternoon. I guess this is the new side-story things they added? It’s a little weird, though, because it shows up on the map like this:

It’s not a social link, though. We went to the arcade and hung out and talked, but there were no points or Velvet voiceovers or anything. Just chilling and playing some… uh… “very interesting games”. XDDD

It did up Junpei’s stats, so that’s good. But it’s not a social link. I am still stuck with Kenji as my Magician. X’’’D He’s not around, though, because pretty much everyone is knuckled down to study for exams. So I ended up spending a lot of time at the bookstore. Even though Bunkichi and Mitsuko make me sad.

My space is being invaded, though. By the French.

But just call him "Bebe".

I'd rather not.

I can’t actually start his link right now because he hangs out in the home ec room, and all the clubs are shut down for impending exams.

...is this gonna be on the exam?

I bought some food that needs to be refrigerated, and the mini fridge in my room spontaneously broke. However, the downstairs fridge is full. Which, like… guys. Who is using all these ingredients? It keeps telling me I can’t use the kitchen, so how have y’all filled the whole fridge?

Instead of going to Tartarus, we’re having study sessions to get ready for exams. It’s going, uh… well? I think?

And I’m spending more time with Maiko, because all my links at school are unavailable.

MINATO. WHY IS THAT EVEN AN OPTION.

…..man, I am so worried about this kid.

I made it through midterms and answered all the questions correctly because no one asked me about algebra! So hopefully that’s enough to get me a good grade and a reward from Mitsuru. Speaking of Mitsuru, I ran into her biggest fan in the hallway after my last exam.

Wouldn’t we all be happy?

I also ran into my fellow student council member, who can only say a little bit to me before freaking out because she can’t talk to guys. Minato’s dialogue options are golden.

Off to see Maiko again, only to get interrogated by this dude.

First of all, Minato’s in high school, so… neither? Second of all, who are you? You didn’t even introduce yourself. Maiko just called you “Stripey”. And I might know who you are, but Mina doesn’t. From his perspective, you’re just some other guy Maiko knows.

I’M SO WORRIED ABOUT THIS KID

Anyway, now that exams are done, Akihiko has been cleared to fight again, and apparently found another persona-user while he was in the hospital. But apparently, she also wouldn’t be capable of fighting.

This is why you don’t jump the gun, Akihiko.

So I guess next time, we’ll head back into Tartarus to see what Akihiko can do.

Random side note: I keep meaning to mention that they’re still wearing the SEES armbands. I’m wondering now what prompts the spiffy uniform upgrades to the shoulder-guards and stuff we saw in the trailers.

Second random side note: If hanging out with your non-social-link friends for side stories buffs their persona stats, I wonder what hanging out with Ryoji will do? Buff Than? Debuff the final boss? XDDD

[neonghostlights]

Don’t Fear The Reaper Chapter 03

Chapter Three to the Don't Fear The Reaper Series. Please make sure to check out the other parts. Series Masterlist can be found on my page.

Chapter Song: The World Has Turned And Left Me Here by Weezer

Summary: Dani Crawford didn’t expect to spend her days wandering around Hawkins, Indiana as a ghost. She also didn’t expect her only chance at peace to come from local metalhead Eddie Munson. When he becomes all she can rely on in hopes of solving the cause of her demise, the lines between life and death become blurred.

Pairing: Eddie Munson x f!oc (OC is given a name but NO physical descriptions are used)

Warnings: Death (MC is literally a ghost), Breaking and entering, Cursing, 18+ only, Minors DNI

Word Count: 2.1k

Eddie didn’t tell Dani what he planned to do today. He didn’t lie when he said he had some business to take care of. But, he also needed to start gathering some intel without making himself look even more like an ax murderer to the student body.

He figured the best place to start was the very judgment free zone that he had created with blood sweat and tears. Sitting at the head of table in the drama prop room, surrounded by his D&D club members that had just excitedly bounced into the room, ready for their favorite time of the week. He knew that nothing, no matter how weird, left the four walls of that room. Eddie couldn’t help but wonder if Dani would like the game. Or would she think he was a loser for playing?

Pushing the thoughts out of his head, Eddie waited, arms crossed against his chest and leaning back in his chair to exude the energy of relaxation. He wanted to broach the subject gingerly due to the inability to explain his sudden interest in the subject. Eddie clapped his hands loudly to get the attention of his members before launching into his campaign.

After the campaign, Eddie was packing up before he interrupted the loud chatter of his friend in front of him, excitedly discussing the campaign. Eddie loudly cleared his throat, “So, have you guys seen the posters for that missing girl…Danielle something?”

There was a brief silence before Mike Wheeler spoke up. “You mean the missing posters that have been up for months? Yeah, I think we’ve all seen them.”

“Oh, I was just wondering if anyone knew her.” Eddie said, glaring at Mike for the tone he had used with him.

“She was in my AP Calculus class but I didn’t talk to her ever. She was super quiet and sat in the back.” Jeff offered.

“Did she ever talk to anyone? Mention anything?” Eddie asked, maybe too eagerly.

“Why do you want to know, man?” Gareth cut in abruptly. Jaw clenched.

Everyone in the room froze and looked at Gareth's tense face.

Ever the peacekeeper, Jeff was the first to break the silence, “I never saw her talk to anyone in class. Ever. I didn’t ever see her in the hallways outside of class either,” Jeff shrugged before grabbing his bag.

“I was just wondering. Just thought it was weird that’s all.” Eddie said, facing Gareth who still seemed off.

Eddie proceeded to tell every one that could go home and to not miss the next meeting. Eddie didn’t miss the way Gareth practically ran out of the room.

Dani laid on Eddie’s floor, staring up at the vent in his ceiling. Noting how she had a similar vent in her room as well. Eddie explained he was late due to some ‘business’ and a D&D campaign. Dani didn’t want to know what kind of business he had to take care of, but judging by the amount of weed he had with him she could only assume.

She hadn’t told him how much she had struggled after she left his trailer the night before. Apparently being a ghost brought the inability to sleep. She was never able to seek refuge from her raging mind.

She felt like she was finally hitting the stage where she was starting to grieve herself. Each hour of this existence seemed to weigh heavier than the last. Guilt was bubbling in her thoughts for laying the burden of her murder investigation on Eddie but he seemed so eager and willing to help.

“Do you know Gareth Emerson?” Eddie said abruptly. Forcing Dani to forfeit her staring contest with the ceiling vent.

“No. Can’t say I do. Why?” Dani said while sitting up to make eye contact with him while he sat on his unmade bed; staring intensely at an index card. He had been mostly silent and avoidant when he got home, despite saying his campaign had gone well. He blamed his mood on the brain storming.

“I asked the guys at Hellfire today about you. Just to see if any one and at least heard of you. And Gareth acted really weird about it. He didn’t say if he knew you he just seemed…off.”

This had piqued Dani’s interest fully. “Off how?”

“Like he got really tense and snappy about it. Look, I’ve known him forever. He’s a good guy. I don't think he could have done anything to hurt you or any one. But…”

“They said the same thing about Ted Bundy.” She said slowly, trying not to offend Eddie about his friend.

Eddie sighed before standing up from the bed and pinning the index card with Gareth's name under ‘Suspects.’

Their investigation for that night didn’t get very far. Especially with Eddie being so distant due to his concern for his friend. Only one good thing came out of the meeting though; a plan, and not a very good one.

Eddie reassured Dani of his lock picking skills, but this was way too risky. Due to her inability to get in a car, which was tested by her and Eddie when she walked straight through his van causing Eddie to fold over in laughter for some reason, she promised to meet Eddie in a sketchy alleyway between the general store and diner at midnight the next night. Eddie told her since it was a Saturday the officers would be too busy patrolling back roads and stopping house parties to drive by the station.

It was Eddie who came up with the idea to see if the police knew anything about the case that they weren’t sharing with the public. And since neither of them could just waltz in and ask, this was the next best thing.

Dani walked to the creepy alleyway to find Eddie perched against the wall, cigarette hanging out of his mouth and arms crossed. He was dressed in his typical all black attire, seemingly blending in with the shadows. He showed no sign of the same fear and anxiety that wracked through Danis mind. “How are you so calm? Is breaking and entering something you do on a regular basis or something?” Questioned Dani, alerting him of her presence as she walked towards him.

He gave her a big smile that made her heart drop to her stomach, she decided to ignore that concerning feeling for now. “Yes, how'd you know this is a hobby for me?” he said with a smirk. “And it’s obviously not a usual thing for you since you're late. I thought I was being stood up.” He pointedly looked at the watch that sat on his wrist, pretending to be annoyed.

Dani smiled and rolled her eyes at him. Ignoring the way her gut kept reminding her not to get too comfortable with him.

“Okay well are we gonna stand around and look cool or are we gonna do this?” Dani pointed at the cigarette hanging out his mouth.

“You think I’m cool?” He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and crushed it beneath his boot.

“No.” Dani said while turning to walk towards the station.

She didn't have to turn around and look at his face to know that he knew she was lying.

Dani was the first to walk into the building to scope out the place and make sure no one remained in the office after hours. After seeing the coast was clear, she went back outside to stand watch while Eddie picked the back door lock. The door was hidden enough from the mainstreet but still not secluded enough. He pulled out a few little tools from a little black pouch and got to work. Tongue sticking out in concentration while muttering that he never thought he would be breaking into this place instead of trying to break out.

He was able to pick the lock and open the door open wide, bowing to allow Dani to walk back inside first. “Ghost ladies first.” he drawled, earning himself a playful eye roll from Dani as she walked past him and back into the building. Looking slowly and squinting into the darkness. “Oh, shit! I forgot '' Eddie cursed loudly causing her to jump and look around for the threat. Eddie simply pulled out a black object from his back pocket and slipped it over his head.

“Really, Eddie? A ski mask? You didn’t think to put that on while you were outside in the open picking a lock?”

He shrugged, the mask successfully blocking out all features except for his eyes. All she heard was a muffled reply that she didn't bother asking him to repeat. Why he thought his eyes wouldn't get him recognized was a mystery to her but she decided to bite her tongue.

“Over here.” She heard him call from the darkness. Pointing towards a door that had ‘File Room’ written on a plaque above it. Eddie jiggled the door to find it was locked before bending down to quickly pick this one also. Once it was open they both slid in and shut the door quickly behind them.

The room was small, Dani assumed it was because there weren't many cases to file in Hawkins, Indiana. Eddie made fast work of opening the filing cabinets that lined the walls until he grabbed the one he was looking for. Placing it on the small table that sat in the center of the room, Eddie opened the manilla folder that had Dani’s full name and case number written on it. They both noticed how thin and empty hers looked compared to the others that were in the cabinets.

Dani peered over him to get a good look at the contents. The first page was a copy of Dani’s photo and a copy of a missing poster with the same photo on it. Eddie thumbed to the next page which seems to be the missing persons report filled out by her dad. Eddie and Dani both read through the page which didn’t have any new information for them. The only item of interest was the fact that her dad hadn’t reported her missing until four days after he had last seen her, this fact made Danis stomach drop in disappointment but she didn't say anything. Eddie seemed to notice the same thing because he gave Dani a sympathetic glance before switching to the next page.

The last page in the folder was a typed report covering the case. It was only one page and didn’t have much on it. The top of the page stated Danis name , age, and physical description. Following that was what she was last seen wearing and when. What surprised Dani was the notes following which detailed that Dani had moved here after the death of her mother and according to her father and teachers she seemed unhappy and withdrawn. The paragraph after that stated no foul play was suspected and that she was runaway. Since she was legally an adult there would be no further searches.

“That’s it?!” huffed Eddie, flipping the page over to see if it held any more information.

“They think I’m a runaway, No one else is looking for me.” She said quietly.

Eddie could see the devastated look on her face. He pulled off the ski mask and set it on the table beside her file to look at her fully. “No, Dani. I’m looking for you. I’m not going to let them forget about you.”

They stood in that dark room just staring at each other in mutual understanding before they heard the front door of the station opening and the lights clicking on in the next room. Heavy footsteps sounded through the empty station, whoever it was sounded like they were coming right to the file room.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Eddie said while looking around the room for another exit. The only way to get to the back door of the station would be to walk back into the main room and pass whoever was out there.

“The window! Quick!” Dani yelled while pointing towards the wall. Eddie quickly snatched up his ski mask and rushed to the window. He forced open the rusty latch before throwing his legs through and landing on the ground.

“HEY!” Is all they heard from inside the building before they took off running to where Eddie had hidden his van.

Dani met a still adrenaline rushed Eddie back at his trailer about half an hour later. They both took one look at each other before doubling over in laughter on his trailer porch.

A/N: Thank you for reading. Comments and reblogs are appreciated! Why do you think Gareth was acting so weird?

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!