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nochuvalencia · 4 years

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𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭? - pjm

⚠️‼️This drabble is short AND LATE AND SLOPPY. So there may be mistakes or wtv. AND THE SMUT ISNT HOT STEAMY SEX LIKE USUAL, ITS SUPER AWKWARD‼️⚠️

𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 :: jimin x reader

𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 :: When mending a broken friendship, the dark past always comes back to mind, no matter how much one wishes to forget it.

𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦 :: smut, angst

𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 :: 3.3k

𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 :: THE STORY TAKES PLACE WHILE THE READER AND JIMIN ARE IN HIGH SCHOOL, car seggs, unprotected sex, creampie, reader doesn’t orgasm💀, jim finishes super fast, the smut isn’t really for the readers enjoyment because it plays into the plot, virgin!jimin, reader is SUCH a y/n, Jimin is whiny asf, super short bc drabble.

“Remember prom night?”

You stared surprised over at Jimin through the blonde fringe that covered his cute almond shaped eyes as he uttered the sentence you had least expected him to which sent your mind spiraling down the tornado of memories which swirled inside it. He mentioned it, the night you both had wordlessly agreed never to bring up, he actually did it. After three fucking years of moving past it, he tugged it up into the present to invade your mind again. You froze in your seated position on his couch, staring over at the slightly younger male who sat before you, your eyes wide with concern as you set the glass full of wine that was perched in your hand down onto the cream colored coffee table beside you. You and him, your best friend of seven long years, had been sitting comfortably on his sofa reminiscing about past memories over a freshly opened/almost finished bottle of merlot when he chose to do the unthinkable. He brought up the night he silently promised never to talk about again. The night you carelessly robbed him of his innocent pride and stomped on his fragile teenage heart. The night you basically used him then discarded the event like yesterday's paper. The night you finally stopped thinking about a year ago but he never forgot. You stammered, looking down into your lap on which your hands wiggled away nervously like worms. Your mind went blank in an instant, being filled with absolutely nothing but the memory of the night you regret with your conscience .

It was the 30th of May in 2015. Prom night for you and it was already an absolute shitshow. You were crying hysterically into your palms as you sat in the passenger's seat of Jimin’s old 2003 Ford explorer. A crumpled corsage sat in your lap as you wept, black and gold stained tears falling onto the expensive fabric draped over your legs, but you didn’t care. You were heartbroken. Jimin sat awkwardly in the seat beside you debating whether or not he should comfort you because it rarely worked out well for him but against his better judgement, he laid a small, warm hand on your shoulder comfortingly, his eyes widening in surprise when you didn’t immediately try to swing on him.

In high school, you weren’t really one for emotion which is why many questioned your friendship with Jimin because he wore his heart on his sleeve 24/7. No, scratch that, the boy wore his heart on his face like a bullseye. The two of you could not be more different, but you were absolutely inseparable. Everyone at school thought you were a couple but became completely alarmed when you wound up dating the school's hottest linebacker, Kim Namjoon in your Junior year. You remained with Namjoon for almost a year until the night of your senior prom when he dumped you during the slow dance right after he revealed he had been cheating on you with a college girl, which led you to your current predicament. Jimin hated to see you sad, it upset him more than anything in the world so he was already on the verge of tears at the mere sight of you crying, which you quickly noticed after you peered up to be met with his wide tear filled eyes.

“Jimin are you about to cry?” you croaked out, wiping your eyes with the backs of your arms and looking over at him. The corners of your lips twitched up as he nodded, wiping his own eyes with the sleeves of his navy blue tux and sniffling.

“Aw you’re so cute.” you sobbed out happily as more tears poured down your face although, these were happy tears. Laughter filled the small space of the car as he removed his hand from your shoulder, using it to rub his eye and conceal the blush forming on his plump cheeks which you had already noticed. It was no secret Jimin had the fattest crush on you. Everyone knew. He couldn’t hide the loving way he stared at you or the blush that spread on his face when you complimented, or the cute stutter he developed when you teased him. It was adorable and you could admit that he was very cute, but you couldn’t reciprocate any feelings for him. You liked to tell yourself it was because he was a Junior and you were a Senior and the age gap sorta threw you off, but that wasn’t the real reason. In all truth, you yourself didn’t even know the real reason why you couldn’t like him back. You just didn’t feel that way about him. However, you felt bad for leading him on and dragging him along in your never ending friendship but he wouldn’t go away, no matter how mean you were to him. Not that you wanted him to, but you hated to see him sad. Like when guys called you hot and you didn’t push them away, or when you kissed Namjoon in front of him and he was visibly upset, or when you said ‘just kidding’ after every flirty remark or comment shot at him, but he didn’t care. He really just loved basking in the warmth of your presence, and you made him feel less alone in a world of bigger, better kids. He felt secure around you and it was okay if you didn’t feel the same about him.

“I just hate seeing you so unhappy.” his words struck you where it hurt and you stared at him blankly, your mind running rampant with thoughts.

Jimin was the best, he did so much for you. He was the purest, kindest, most gentle soul you had ever met and even though you let him down constantly, he remained by your side and there you were, sitting by a boy who was crying just at the sight of your distress. You didn’t deserve him. You didn’t deserve his generosity, his affection, his friendship, but he gave it all to you anyway, expecting absolutely nothing in return. How did you ever become friends with such an amazing soul. He was an angel. He stared back at you after he finished wiping the tears from his soft porcelain face, his brows raising in confusion at your hypnotized expression as he muttered, “what?” a wide smile spreading on his face. He was so precious. He deserved everything he ever wanted. You wanted to give him the world, but you couldn’t, so you gave him the next best thing and leaned in.

Your lips melded together as his eyes shut, immediately relishing in the feeling of the thing he’d been craving the most for the past three years and it was just as he’d imagined it, absolute heaven. The kiss was a bit rushed if he’d admit but it was more than what he wanted. After a few moments, he opened his eyes softly, just quietly observing the smeared gold shadow on your closed eyelids and the relaxed look on your face. He was loving every moment of what you were giving him and he never wanted it to end, but it had to. It was too good to be true, especially for him. You were thanking him, thanking him for all the things he’s done for you. Thanking him for all his kindness and friendship and he never meant to make you feel like you owed him anything, and you were heartbroken. Your soul was a fresh wound and he knew this was a rebound, a way to fill the newly opened void in your soul which was everything he swore he wouldn’t be. At that moment, he reluctantly took hold of your face in his hands, pulling you back and staring into your watery eyes as he shook his head.

“No, ____, it’s okay you don’t owe me an-.” he started and you cut him off, smashing your lips frantically back onto his as he released a frustrated groan into your mouth. As he moved his hands down to your shoulders, successfully pushing you away once more and staring sternly at your desperate expression as he continued speaking, stammering a bit after the intensity of that last kiss. “Anything, you don’t owe me anything o-okay, and I- I don-” he ran a hand through his ruffled blonde hair with a sigh, stress obviously evident in his features before you placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Jimin, I want to.” you replied, your voice basically a whisper as you stared sincerely at his frazzled frame, a weary smile making its way onto your lips. He was at total war with himself while you squirmed tirelessly in the seat beside him, flinging your shoes off and reaching over to undo his belt. He stared down at your hands with wide eyes as he muttered cautionary phrases, as if trying to convince himself he didn’t want this, which he really did. Jimin was a virgin. The biggest fucking virgin you had ever seen, like he blushed at the sight of a hotdog once. He had fantasized about you taking his virginity, obviously not like this, but he was content with what he was getting, even if he was trying to convince himself that he was not. You dipped your hand into the waistband of his pants and freed his embarrassingly hard dick as he continued to stare at your actions, his breathing picking up in pace and his eyes still wide like saucers. You climbed over the seat as you pushed the poofy fabric of your gold dress to the side and mounted his lap, his member still in hand. He stared up at you wistfully as soft but audible groans fell from his lips, his eyes widening when you glided his tip up and down your accumulating warmth, completely coating it in your slippery juices. That’s when his panic set in. He wanted to make sure you weren’t doing anything you weren’t comfortable with even as you sat on top of his lap quite comfortably.

“____, you don’t owe me anything, I m- I mean if you really want to like I’m totally fine but don’t feel like you have to please I don’t want you to do something you’re not comf- f- fuck.” his voice trailed off as you sunk down on top of him and to your surprise, he whined, letting his forehead fall gently onto your left shoulder. You moaned softly as you sunk down onto him, feeling him stretch you out quite nicer than you’d expected while you snake an arm around his neck for support. All logical thoughts vacated Jimin’s head at that moment as you were wrapped around him, your warmth putting him in a trance he couldn’t quite explain as the two of you sat still, breathing heavily and warming up the small space of the, now warm, car. You decided to move your hips, gyrating them forward while he moaned into your neck, his hands traveling wearily to the small of your back as if scared to roam anywhere else in fear of ruining the friendship even further that the two of you already have. His eyes roll into the back of his head at the newfound euphoric feeling which is all too familiar to you as you are no virgin, quite the opposite actually. His salacious sounds of pleasure spur you on even more as you slowly gyrate your hips into his, your clit brushing his base with every movement but you don’t care whether you feel anything or not because this is for him, not for you, right? You heard his moaning increase in frequency, then you remembered he was a virgin and he couldn’t possibly last this long. His hips began to weakly press up into yours as his breathing became shaky and his head fell back onto the headrest behind him and you finally made eye contact. He was so pretty, his face shone with sweat, plush pillow lips parted, his skin glowed pink. And he made the most salacious, beautiful sounds you had ever heard. You loved how vocal he was.

“____, I- I’m gonna…” he trailed off as his words morphed into a symphony of moans while he stared deeply into your eyes.

“Jimin no, hold it baby. Please not yet.” You shook your head, convincing him to hold it off and slowing the motion of your hips just a bit as he continued thrusting up into you slowly, his hips pausing frequently while he began to tremble softly. He shook his head as his eyebrows furrowed and the pleasure began to completely overtake his body.

“I can’t.” he cried out as he let out a string of loud whines and moans, his orgasm overtaking him completely while his white ropes paint your insides repeatedly. You moan at the feeling and intensity of his orgasm before resting your head on his shoulder tiredly. After a few moments of relaxation, you dismount him, a bit disappointed you didn’t get to cum but happy you made him happy as you stare over at his exhausted frame. His eyes are shut, head tilted back, and lips parted as he breathes heavily through them and you think to yourself. ‘I just used this perfect angel for my own benefit. To rid myself of the shame of being such a sucky friend.’ You used a boy who loves you unconditionally, a boy who would do absolutely anything for you to alleviate your own insecurity. Shame fills every single one of your senses. The guilt runs rampant throughout your body as you sit in silence and stare down at your hands. You overthink more than the overthinker that you think overthinks the most as you fight back the urge to cry. You soiled him, took his innocence, and you didn’t even have the guts to love him back before you did it. It was then you decided, he deserved so much better than you. He deserved someone that was going to treat him like the angel he was. Not you.

For a moment, Jimin thinks things will be different. For a hot minute, he really believes with his entire heart that things will change for the better, that he’s going to open his eyes and you would profess your reciprocation of his undying love for you and he grins as he finally opens his eyes. He smiled tiredly toward you before taking note of your weary expression. It was shame, regret, fear, written all over your face that brought a frown to his own as he realized, you didn’t want him and never would. He was usually okay with that fact but it hit him even harder that night as he stared out of the window and through the trees that blocked his view of civilization. He longed to have you as a lover but knew he would never be able to, but to lose you as a friend as well would bring upon a pain akin to breaking every bone in his body simultaneously. He just couldn’t do it. So he brushed his feelings aside for you for what seemed like the millionth time as he cleared his throat, still staring straight ahead. He couldn’t bear to look at you yet, at least not without bursting into tears and he figured you felt the same as your eyes remained trained to your hands in your lap.

“W-we don’t have to talk about it if you want.” he spoke after what seemed like a millennia of silence, his voice meek and broken. He saw you nod out of the corner of his eyes as the awkward tension in the atmosphere only grew thicker. He didn’t want things to be like this with you and he wished with his entire being that he could undo what just happened if he could have his old ____ back again. “So-” he began as if to start a conversation to alleviate the weird aura but was cut off by your voice. You almost cried at the thought of him trying to mask his pain to make you feel comfortable. You of all people, and you couldn’t watch him do that to himself.

“Can you just take me home Jimin?” you asked, your voice surprisingly normal as he nodded while the car rattled to life. The ride home was silent as the two of you sat, subtly facing away from each other. Not even a goodbye was said once you had reached your house. Well, Jimin tried to say goodbye but you had already jumped out of the car by the time he turned his head to send you off. He just frowned, scrunching his nose and driving off. Unbeknownst to the other, you both cried yourselves to sleep that night at the daunting thought of losing your best friend over a mutual careless mistake.

He didn’t want to leave you, no matter how hurt he felt because he knew, you had just been left by someone else and he wouldn’t do that to you, but you would do that to him. For months after that day, you sent him not one text, never called, never visited over the summer, even after you started your first year of college and left him behind for his senior year. Nothing. But he knew to give you your space, to let you come to him when you were ready, and you did. You texted him a quick ‘congrats’ after he graduated which quickly spurred into a long conversation which turned into an eight hour phone call of just catching up which turned into meeting up with him a few times after he started his first semester of college at the university beside you which turned into a friendship that picked up like it never left off. So that led you here, sitting in Jimin’s living room staring at him as you still have yet to answer his question that echoes in your head. ‘Remember prom night?’ a question so lighthearted in diction yet weighed so heavily on your mind for those silent for minutes of memory. But sadly, as much as you wish it weren’t the truth, you do remember prom night and you finally nod.

“Yeah” you breathed, finally answering his question as you both gazed longingly into eachothers eyes, the unasked and unanswered questions and reasons floating in the air around you while you sat in silence. His wide brown eyes are full of curiosity and hope that you would finally answer the unsaid question that had been plaguing his mind ‘did it ever mean anything?’ but you just couldn’t. The answer sat on the tip of your tongue that was firmly pressed to the roof of your mouth, but you didn’t have the courage to articulate them, not yet. You just stared back, hoping the pleading glint in his eyes would fade and all the remorse would finally leave your body but it didn’t, he still stared. You used him, his body, his mind, his love, his entire being. You used it all for your pleasure, unbeknownst to you at the time because for some twisted reason you thought blatantly playing with his emotions would in turn benefit him. You couldn’t explain why it happened, you could barely say it to yourself, so you remained silent for as long as you could bear before finally deciding to say something. Anything. You opened your mouth, fighting back the tsunami of bottled up feelings that threatened to fly out at any given moment before simply stating.

“Of course I remember, why’d you ask?”

#jimin fanfic #park jimin #JIMIN #jimin x y/n #jimin x reader #jimin smut #oneshot #fanfic #drabble #jimin oneshot #bts smut #bts fanfction #bts fic #bts #bangtan

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honey-dewey · 4 years

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Dye Day Disasters Part Two

Pairing: Shane ‘Dio’ Morrissey/Reader

Word Count: 1,594

Warnings: Mentions of spicy times, but nothing explicit.

Permanent Taglist: @phoenixhalliwell @star-wars-hell

Three months after you and Dio dye your hair for the first time, he makes a deal with you. You can go with him when he visits his sister if he gets to pick your next hair color. I’m sure that won’t be a decision you regret, right? (Spoiler alert, it isn’t.)

A/N: This is a shameless continuation of a story I posted yesterday, Dye Day Disasters. I have no shame and apparently no self control either. Oops.

You sighed, kicking your feet and waiting. You’d never been good at waiting, but with Dio, waiting patiently got you rewarded, so you were willing to sit by the door and simply wait.

Dio had gone out to the store for dyes and other stuff, and you and him had struck a bargain before he had left. You were both headed out to visit his sister, and he agreed that he’d take you with him for the visit if and only if he got to pick your hair color this time around. You’d relented. In the months since Dio had dyed your hair the first time, you’d gone through plenty of colors, your favorite still being the deep teal with blue streaks that made you look like a mermaid. But now, the fate of your hair was in Dio’s hands.

The door opened, and you eagerly jumped up, seeing Dio walk in with the bag of goodies. “Were you waiting on the floor for me?”

“No!” You lied, hugging Dio tightly. “C’mon, we’re gonna be late.”

Dio smiled, putting the bag down. “Calm down darling. Everly knows we’ll probably be late.”

You pouted. “We won’t be late!”

Grabbing your hands, Dio leaned in close. “Oh really? Because you do get a reward for sitting pretty while I was gone.”

So you were definitely going to be late. Dio rewarded you while you both showered, staying in until the water ran freezing. After that, you had to take care in covering the budding bruises Dio left all over your skin. Yeah, definitely going to be late.

And you were. Thankfully, not by much. Everly, who you’d only met once or twice, was eager to see you, happily hugging you and smiling when you winced at her tight embrace. “Oh honey,” she said. “Did Dio ruin you last night?”

“This morning,” you admitted sheepishly. “I’m gonna get even with him, I swear.”

Everly laughed. “Well, come in!”

You followed her through her house, Dio behind you. Everly chatted to you both, leading you into the garage, which was set up like a one man salon.

“This is where I do most of my work,” she said. “And if I’m not wrong, Dio texted me and told me we’d be using it.”

Dio nodded. “Just dyeing,” he said. “Nothing ridiculous.”

Everly groaned overdramatically. “Fine,” she said. “But, and do remind me to show off the photos, you looked so fun with bubblegum pink hair. Who’s first?”

Dio pointed to you. “They need bleach.”

You grinned. “Yeah. Learned that one the hard way. I was orange for a while when we tried to go from yellow to red.”

“That’s just basic color theory,” Everly said, pointing to the chair. “Sit. What color are we doing?”

Dio pulled Everly aside and showed her the dye, and she eagerly nodded. “Oh that’ll look so good!” She said happily, turning back to you. “But definitely bleach first, to make it pop.”

Still in the dark about your hair color, you said a silent goodbye to the slightly faded navy blue color you had now while Everly pulled a towel that was already bleach stained across your shoulders. “So,” she said, grabbing a bottle of bleach and measuring a decent amount into a bowl. “How goes it baby brother?”

Rolling his eyes at the baby brother comment, Dio began to tell Everly about life. You added bits when he missed something or said something wrong, but you mostly just listened as Everly bleached your hair.

Finally, once you were fairly certain you were going to fall asleep, Everly put the bleach bowl down and nodded. “Alrighty,” she said. “C’mon up now. I gotta fix all of that.” She gestured in Dio’s general direction and you suppressed a smile. “And it might take a while.”

You stood and Dio took your place, shedding his jacket and watching Everly in the mirror. “Have you talked to Brynn recently?”

Everly shrugged. “Yeah. She was here a few weeks ago,” she said, shaking out a cape and pulling it over Dio’s shoulders. “She’s doing well. We went dress shopping.”

Dio nodded, putting his chin to his chest when Everly pushed his head down. “That’s good,” he said.

“Yeah,” Everly agreed. “Oh, and Viv says hi. I saw her yesterday. She was disappointed she couldn’t see you.”

“She lives down the street from me,” Dio said. “She can literally walk to my apartment and visit.”

Everly laughed. “You know Viv. She won’t do it.”

Dio rolled his eyes, and you smiled. Sometimes you forgot how well Dio got along with his sisters.

“Okay baby bro,” Everly said, ruffling Dio’s hair once she was done, in her words, neatening him up. “Hop up. It ain’t your turn anymore.”

She didn’t make Dio get up, mostly because you and him didn’t need to swap places yet. Instead, she sat you in front of a sink and rinsed the bleach away, humming. “So,” she said, looking down at you. “When’s he gonna propose?”

You heard Dio drop something, and you almost knocked your head on the side of the sink in shock. “What?”

Everly laughed. “You two have been together for ages,” she said. “And when I mentioned I was seeing Dio, mom made me promise to ask when you two were getting married.”

“Everly, I will stab you with something,” Dio said, sounding strained.

“And we have not been together for ages,” you added. “It’s been two years.”

Everly rolled her eyes. “You’ve known each other for almost five though,” she said.

“Still not getting married!” You said, and Everly smiled.

“Okay, okay, I’m just the messenger,” she said, wrapping your head in a towel. “Dio. Up.”

Dio stood, sitting where you’d just been while you took his place. Everly dried your hair, asking Dio to turn some music on while she worked. He did, hooking her phone up to an aux cord and immediately flinching at her selection of music. “ABBA? Really?”

“Excuse you!” Everly said over the hair dryer. “ABBA is excellent!”

Dio said nothing, and out of the corner of your eye, you could see him tapping his foot along to the music.

“Finally, the fun part,” Everly said eagerly, turning the chair around so you couldn’t see yourself in the mirror. “Dio, wanna help?”

Dio eagerly got up, standing on your left while Everly took your right.

“Is it gonna be half-and-half again?” You asked. Dio shushed you, putting on gloves and beginning to carefully section your hair. So that was a yes.

Everly mixed the colors behind you, handing Dio a bowl and smiling. “Here we go.”

Between Everly and Dio, the process was much quicker than it was at home. Everly was done first, and began to prep Dio’s black dye while he finished up his side of your head.

Finally, when your hair was entirely coated in dye, you stood so Dio could sit. You tried to sneak a peek in the mirror exactly once, and found yourself unsuccessful and completely deterred from doing it again. Unsuccessful because Everly had put a black towel around your head and deterred because Dio pinched your thigh really hard. “No peeking.”

You pouted, making a very dignified face at Dio and humming along to ‘Killer Queen’ while Everly worked black dye into Dio’s hair.

Finally, he joined you, and you pouted in his direction.

“What?”

“You pinched me!”

Dio smiled. “Would you like me to kiss it better?”

Your pout disappeared. “Can I pinch you back?”

Sighing, Dio bared his arm, and you pinched the sensitive skin on the inside of his elbow. He didn’t even flinch.

“You’re both dorks!” Everly said from across the room.

You smiled, standing up and plopping back down on Dio’s lap, leaning against his chest. He immediately accommodated for you, shifting so you’d both be comfortable.

“Yeah, dorks,” Everly decided, sitting in her chair and swinging around slowly. She held up her phone. “Say hi to Viv.”

You both waved to the phone, and Everly sent the video. “Alright. Forty five minutes. Are y’all in the mood for a movie?”

The answer was yes, mostly because Everly put on Corpse Bride. It was one of Dio’s favorites, so you two stayed cuddled up and watched the first half of the movie. When Everly’s timer went off, you reluctantly stood and stretched, sitting at the sink again and damn near falling asleep as she rinsed the excess dye out.

After a very lengthy blow dry session where Dio was adamant you still couldn’t look, you were allowed to turn around.

“Oh my god,” you breathed, finally seeing your hair. “Dio, I love it!”

Dio smiled. “I knew you would.”

Your hair, which had been navy at the start of this ordeal, was now split between baby blue and a paler pink, reminding you of cotton candy.

Everly grinned. “He picked well. I have to say, not everyone can pull these colors off.”

After that, Dio’s hair was washed and dried, and Everly made good on her promise to send you home with Polaroids of Dio with highlighter pink hair. You waved goodbye, promising to come back soon.

“Did you have fun today?” Dio asked as you two got in the car to go home.

“Yeah,” you said, yawning. “I’m exhausted though.”

Dio smiled. “Get some rest. And thank you for trusting me.”

You leaned back, cradling your head between the car seat and the door. “Wasn’t any question about it Dio,” you said softly. “I’ll always trust you.”

“Always?”

“Always.”

#nypd blue #shane 'dio' morrissey #dio morrissey #dio morrissey x reader #dio morrissey x you #Pedro Pascal #My writing

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mrspanky · 4 years

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The Time We Lost: pt 1.

Jason Todd x Reader (female pov).

Content: Angst and language.

Readers note: Hi love, I hope you enjoy this! I had so much fun coming up with this story. Can’t wait to put out part two, because that’s when it really gets good. For the best experience listen some sad music while reading, I wrote this to the songs “Last Cigarette” by Ruby Waters, “What Are You So Afraid Of” by Videoclub, “All My Friends” by the Revivalists, “Ghost of Mine” by Kailee Morgue, and “I Didn’t See You Coming” by Fefe Dobson.

𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫𓅫

It was freezing outside.

You hated asking for help but you broke a little when you stubbed your toe on the pavement and didn’t feel anything through your boot, only to take it off on a nearby doorstep and realize that your toe was broken.

Should’ve worn sturdier boots.

You pondered what to do, stranded on the step, fuming. You knew where you’d end up going you just hoped he wouldn’t be there.

You were in the heart of the city but you remembered the way to his apartment like the back of your hand.

It had been so long, but it felt just like yesterday as you looked around remembering the landmarks that would lead you to your destination.

“Fuck”, you muttered.

There was the coffee shop you two used to go to. Overwhelmed by emotional memories of bad days, and days that hadn’t been so bad, you started to panic. You looked in your wallet. $7.00 looked back at you pitifully.

“That’s enough for a coffee, and if I get a coffee it’ll keep me warm, AND give me enough mental power to think of a solution other than going back to his place”.

Your mind was made up. You walked in the direction of the coffee shop with stubborn resolve. As you entered the door, you bumped into a man.

“Sorry”. You mumbled.

You weren’t really sorry, you were actually quite annoyed, but you were too tired to get into an argument.

“No, my bad”, said the man. Your jaw tightened.

“Tim”, you thought.

You’d recognize his and all his brother’s voices anywhere.

“Well what the fuck do I do? Do I say something? No, I don’t want to talk. Wait, but he might.. know if.. he’s home”. You sighed, and turned around.

“Wait, Tim?” Tim turned around, looked at you, and raised his eyebrows in realization.

“...Y/n?”

••••

“Y/n not to be rude, but you look like shit”.

Tim slid a coffee across the table to you.

“What happened?” He looked concerned. You sighed.

“I’m fine. I was just in the area and I was taking a walk and forgot how cold it was. I left my jacket at home”.

“Which is where..?”

“...Not too far”.

He furrowed his brow.

“You have cement on your shoe and there’s only one street in Gotham getting redone right now. It’s in the middle of the city. Not close”.

He paused and glanced down.

“Also you were limping on your way over to the table just now”.

“Damn”. You thought.

You’d forgotten that it was annoyingly difficult to lie to Tim.

“You’re not ok, are you”. He leaned in.

“Y/n, why are you really going to see Jason?”

You stayed silent.

He looked at you closely, seeming to make up his mind.

He sighed, and got up out of his chair, grabbing your coffee cup.

“Come on”, he gently took your hand.

“Tim..I don’t-“

“-He’s not home right now.” Tim cut in.

He helped you up, and started for the door, then paused.

“Look, I get it. But me and a couple of the other’s are just crashing there right now for a mission. You probably won’t even see him, and you really look like shit. Let’s at least get you a bed for a couple nights”.

You tried to consider his offer.

You didn’t really have any other options.

“Let’s face it y/n”. You thought.

“Todd manor is probably at least a little warmer than the streets”.

Even thinking that name hurt you deeply, but you pushed it down.

“Alright”, you solemnly nodded your head and let him lead you out the door, a wave of anxiety washing over you about the impending painful memory rush you knew was coming.

•••••

The red front door.

You hadn’t seen this door in ages.

He had been so excited to walk through it the first time. You remembered it so well.

He had called you on a Friday afternoon as you were getting ready to suit up.

You had thought he would be calling about the mission you two were working on, but that hadn’t been the case, and you had been so glad for it.

You teased him mercilessly and he teased you right back: But you really enjoyed his company, and you got excited whenever he called, as much as you would deny it back then.

“Hey. I’ve got news”, his voice had solemnly announced over the phone.

“I’m king of my own castle now. I’m gonna call it Todd manor”.

“You got the apartment! Wow. Your very own manor. Time for you to adopt a million kids”. You could practically hear him smirking on the other end.

“Well do you want to see it or not? I’m at the front door right now. I sent you my new address.”

Images of you grabbing your motorcycle and riding over as fast as you could, rushed through your mind. You had pulled up to see him standing there, right where you stood now. You had sauntered up to him, teasingly.

“Ok bird boy, let’s see the new cardboard box”.

He’d looked so happy.

You gasped quietly.

“Tim I don’t know if I want to do this”.

He looked at you quietly.

“He’s not the same, but if you see him, he’s still…Jason. You of all people know how stubborn he is. Not even death could kill that...personality of his”.

He smiled with a twinge of sadness.

“He’s not gone anymore”.

You looked at him, with panic in your eyes.

“Come on. The others miss you.” He opened the door, and you both walked inside.

It was just like you remembered. So much so that it felt like a dream you’d had over the past years countless times, of life before Jason had died.

Tim ushered you forward into the kitchen space. You looked up hesitantly, steeling yourself for whatever your eyes would be greeted with.

Positioned around the kitchen were Dick, Wally, Damian, and Jaime.

You tried to hold down your emotions. You hadn’t let yourself feel how much you’d missed them fully until now.

“Hey guys”. You smiled a little.

“Y/n?”

Dick’s eyes widened in surprise.

Wally was characteristically swift to reach you. He raced over and stood at your side, putting his hand on your shoulder.

“How are you?”

A tear fell from your tired eyes.

“I’m ok”, you smiled softly.

“I missed you guys”.

Wally’s brows were furrowed with worry.

You realized that none of them had ever really seen you cry.

You tended to be too embarrassed and see it as a sign of weakness, but you were too exhausted to hold back right now.

“We missed you too”, Dick said as he walked over.

“Yeah”, said Jaime. “We haven’t been able to find you all this time, we’ve all been worried”.

“I’m fine,” you shrugged. “Just needed to be on my own after...after... you know. And I have been, and I’ve been ok I just got caught up a little I guess. No big deal.”

Tim met Dick’s eyes in silent communication.

The older brother pursed his lips together with recognition and resolve.

“Let’s get you some food”.

After you finished eating you trudged upstairs to shower. When you got the water going, you let the steaming water run down your hair. It felt so good after the freezing gotham streets you’d been experiencing the past week. You sighed. You couldn’t stay here long. Everything was a reminder of what your life had been like before Jason was murdered and you went off the deep end. You didn’t want to remember all the hope that you had had, and how naïve you’d been. For a while after he died, you had broken away from everyone for this exact reason.

You wrapped a towel around you, and examined yourself in the mirror, wiping away the steam so you could see your reflection clearly. Over the time that Jason had been gone, you felt like you’d changed completely. Your naturally y/h/c hair was now a shade of y/c/c, and your previously youthful face looked hardened. Not necessarily in a bad way, you just felt sharper. “Amazing”. You thought. Stress had given you a jawline. You laughed to yourself bitterly. You needed a vacation. Badly. This past year of fighting crime on your own and making somewhat questionable decisions had taken its toll on you. You slipped into the large white t-shirt Tim had lent you, dried your hair with the towel as best as you could, and walked to the room he’d told you that you could stay in.

The room was Jason’s, but he wasn’t home so it was empty right now. It was going to be extremely painful to be around his things for the first time again and you were a bit overwhelmed already, but like everything else today, you didn’t really have a better option. You felt like you were invading his privacy somehow even though you knew it was technically fine. “This is so fucked up”, you thought. You hadn’t even ever been brave enough to not mask your feelings for him with banter, and now you were staying in his room while he was away because you had been homeless for the past week. And you had been homeless all because you couldn’t pull your life together after he fucking died and you couldn’t save him. “I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t fucking save him”, you whispered to yourself, holding back more tears as you reached the door. You took a deep breath, wiped your eyes and opened it.

Cautiously, you looked down as you closed the door behind you, not ready to face everything yet. As you began to turn your eyes upwards, you heard a noise in the direction of where you remembered the window to be, from the tour Jason had given you so long ago. Your fighting reflexes kicked in on instinct and you raised your fists. A red helmeted man entered your line of vision as you stared at where the noise had come from. Your arms fell limp to your sides as you registered what you were seeing. Who you were seeing. “...Jason”, you whispered.

To be continued...

#my writing #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #jason todd #red hood #the time we lost fic #batfam fic #young justice #dc fic #the time we lost pt.1 #jason todd angst #red hood angst

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official-weasley · 3 years

Text

Meant to Be (Charlie Weasley x OC)

What happens when Bill brings home a girl and Charlie is completely awestruck by her?

WARNINGS: mentions of alcohol & sex, curse words, angst

CHAPTER 7

Charlie

9 months later…

I woke up to the knock on my door. I put on some pants and went to see who it was.

“Peter, what’s wrong?” I looked at the clock on the wall.

It wasn’t even 5 in the morning.

“I’m just passing by to tell you that you should go to see Ernie before you finish work today.” He was leaning in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. “We are getting 2 new dragons soon and I think we’ll need more people.”

“Sure.” I nodded sluggishly and rubbed my eyes.

“I want to add a person to your team. I know you can handle it but I don’t want you working extra hours when we can expand our crew.” He explained. “What do you need me to do?” I yawned.

“I picked someone with an impressive resume. Ernie will have the paperwork for you to fill out and just make sure you send it back tomorrow morning.”

“No problem. I’ll get it done.” I gave him a thumbs up.

He grinned at me and walked away.

A newbie. This should be fun! I never got to train anyone before. Everyone that I work with was already here before I arrived so I can’t lie that I was excited about this. I knew that Ernie wasn’t in so early in the morning and by the looks of the clouds I wouldn’t be able to see the sunrise today so I decided to go straight to Aami.

He was outside now. He had his own little habitat and everything! His wing never grew as Tina and I hoped it would so he will never be able to fly. He obviously didn’t care as much as I felt bad about it. He was such a cheerful dragon and obedient too. I love every single beast in this reserve but I can’t help to admit that the little Fireball became my favorite. He wasn’t little anymore, he was a head taller than me now but I will always see him as he was in the nursery when I watched him drink chicken blood and brandy.

As I promised Peter I went to the Admission Office after work.

“Hi, Ernie.” I greeted him when I stepped inside.

“Charlie!” He grinned at me.

He was the most cheerful person I will probably ever get a chance to meet.

“Peter said you have some papers for me?” I leaned on the counter.

“Right! The recruit!” He clapped. “Not going to lie, was a bit surprised when I saw it. Don’t tell Peter that I peeked.”

“I won’t.” I chuckled. He placed the papers in front of me. “Any letters for me?”

“Not today, no.” Ernie looked through the pile of envelopes that weren’t delivered yet.

“Have anything to send out?”

“No.” I shook my head. “But I do need to sign these and I need to send them first thing in the morning. When will you be here?”

“At seven. Is that too late?” He scratched his nose.

“No. That’s perfect. Thanks, Ernie.”

I gave him a high-five and said goodbye. I looked through the papers while walking back home and stopped when I saw the name on the application.

Rhylee Pertinger

No way! I took a deep breath. It can’t be her. I couldn’t know for sure because I didn’t even know her last name. There are many Rhylee’s out there, right?

I hurried to unlock the door, placed the pieces of parchment on my kitchen table, and sat down. I went through them. No resume. No details about who she was or where she was from. Just the name. It would be too much of a coincidence if it was her! Merlin can’t mess with me so much.

I was doing good. Not great but good. Considering that Bill barely sent me a letter and that I didn’t see him since that Christmas break, it was safe to say that he knew something.

I never saw Rhylee after that and never spoke to her and I was planning on keeping it that way. Her coming here would be a disaster. I can’t work with her. She can’t be on my team.

Calm down, Charlie. This doesn’t mean anything.

I checked the papers again. She’s arriving in two days. I can’t panic for two days. I was doing so great bottling everything that happened for a year and nine months and I won’t stop now. Even if it is her, nothing has to change.

When we work we rarely speak and since I still remember just how breathtaking she was, I know my co-workers will be all over her so I can just go back to living my normal, busy life.

—

“I think we are all done here.” I looked at my watch. “And with 20 minutes to spare.”

“Wow.” John looked impressed.

“Peter made a mistake recruiting that girl. We are just too good.” Evan looked proud.

“Oh, right! She’s arriving today. Fresh meat!” Theo clapped his hands together.

“Please don’t scare her away.” I shook my head, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You better behave or I will fire you.” They all started laughing and we walked back to the village together to get lunch.

“Are you ready?” Peter came to our table just as we were finishing eating.

“For what?” I said with food in my mouth.

“Your new co-worker. She’s here.” He winked at me.

I got up and followed him to the main gate.

“I am so sorry, Charlie.” Peter put his hand on my shoulder as we were walking.

“What for?” I asked, puzzled.

“You will have a lot of trouble keeping your boys in line for the next few weeks.” He laughed.

“You lost me, Peter.” I wanted to laugh with him but I didn’t know what was so funny.

“I met the girl that’s joining your team. She’s about your age. Very pretty.” He started to explain. “She went to Beauxbatons and decided that Gringotts wasn’t really doing it for her anymore.”

My heart sank.

Gringotts?

Did he say Gringotts?

“Gringotts?” I asked, pretending to not know what he was talking about.

“C’mon, Charlie. We all know they have dragons down there.” He grinned at me. “She said that the work got boring so she applied for a transfer.”

He finally let go of my shoulder. I prayed to Merlin he couldn’t feel me stiffen up. There was no doubt in my mind now that I was right to panic two days ago.

It was her.

She was here.

Why?

I can’t do this. This was my safe place. I didn’t go home for such a long time, because I felt so guilty, that my parents actually came to visit me. And now she was here.

I wish I could say that I forgot all about her but it would be a bold lie. I didn’t. I still think about her from time to time. I still remember the feeling I had when I was with her. I remember every detail of her face and her body as if I saw her yesterday. I hated the feeling in my chest. The happy, excited feeling of seeing her again.

I sucked in a breath and suppressed it. Bottled it down like everything else from that few days at the Burrow.

“You okay?” Peter looked at me.

“Fine. A bit nervous. I am too young to boss so many people around.” I chuckled nervously, hoping he will interpret it as a joke.

“You’ll do fine.” He said with a serious face. “You have been working here for 5 years Charlie and I don’t regret putting you in charge of a team.”

“Thanks.” I smiled faintly.

It meant a lot coming from him.

We arrived at the gate and my legs stopped working when I saw her. I had to use every muscle on my face to keep my jaw from dropping. How could she be even more beautiful than when we first met? My heart started racing and I swallowed hard. This was not good.

She can’t do this to me! Can I fire her before she even starts working?

“Hi, Rhylee.” Peter waved at her and I was finally able to move again. “This is…”

“Charlie.” She grinned.

Was she happy to see me?

“You two know each other?” Peter turned to me.

Great. Now they are going to ask me how I know her. What am I supposed to tell them!

“Kind of.” I said, my voice barely audible.

“You’ll tell me later.” Peter whispered to me and pushed me forward.

Rhylee and I awkwardly shook hands.

Her touch sent shivers down my spine and I couldn’t stop the night we spent together rolling in front of my eyes.

There it was again. That feeling I got when I was around her. The feeling in my chest, pushing me toward her. I hated it. I hated that I couldn’t ignore it.

“I’ll leave you two alone…”

Oh, please don’t.

“And I’ll see you at dinner.” Peter waved at us and walked away.

Okay. Act professionally. You are her boss and she is just going to work here. No big deal, right?

“So, I’ll show you to your cabin first. And then if you’re not too tired I can show you around. Where everything is…you know…dragons…” I couldn’t look at her. I was looking straight ahead but I could feel her eyes on me. “…and stuff.”

I swallowed hard. I don’t think I was ever so nervous.

We walked in complete silence until we reached her cabin. Surprisingly, it wasn’t awkward at all. How could it be that I was enjoying walking through the Reserve with her in silence after not seeing each other for almost 2 years?

I wanted to say something. I wanted to know why she was here. I wanted to ask her why she came here. I wanted to know how she is. But I couldn’t gather up the courage to do it. She didn’t say anything even though I know she glanced at me a few times.

In the end, I decided to just stay quiet. I did say that I won’t talk to her outside work so at least I was doing something right.

“Here are your keys and my cabin’s right over there.” I pointed at the one between the two opposite hers. “We meet every morning around 7 in front of it and we go feed the dragons together.” I handed her the keys and she slowly unlocked the door.

She placed her bag inside and locked the door back up. She put the keys in the back pocket of her jeans, all while looking me straight in the eyes. The expression on her face was as if I was looking at myself in the mirror.

Awestruck but horrified at the same time.

She had to know I still work here. She had to know that we would meet sooner or later. Perhaps she didn’t think that she would be on my team or that I would be her boss.

Well, neither have I so welcome to my club!

We stood there for a few more seconds, looking at each other like idiots, and just as she opened her mouth to say something I gestured for her to move.

“Let me show you around.” I had to stop her from speaking.

I was terrified of what she had to say.

“We have 15 dragons in the Reserve and our team works with 5 of them. Up there…” I pointed my finger at the boulder to our left. “Is our Chinese Fireball, Gorra. Behind that hill is Ogto, our Ukrainian Ironbelly. On the other side…” I turned my head to the right now. “We have Ren the Romanian Longhorn, for which you already heard about.” I swallowed hard when I remembered that she asked me if Ren was my girlfriend. “And right next to his habitat is Bunny, our Common Welsh Green.”

She turned to me and I wished she wouldn’t have that look in her eyes. If it was possible, sparks would fly out of them. She seemed so excited to meet every single one of the dragons I just mentioned.

“The last one is the newest member of our family.” I tore my eyes off hers and turned around. “I don’t know if you’ve heard what happened at the Triwizard Tournament last year at Hogwarts when the Chinese Fireball stepped on her eggs.” She gasped and shook her head. “We only managed to save one egg and since it was cracked he couldn’t evolve properly so he can’t fly.”

“Otherwise, he’s okay?” She whispered.

I just hummed.

“I took care of him and still do. His name is Aami and he isn’t big on trust yet so I can take you to meet him tomorrow but I usually go feed him alone.” I looked at her to see how she will respond.

“I understand.” She said with a gentle voice.

“So in the morning, we feed them. Then after lunch we train them and then before dinner we feed them again.” I explained our daily routine while taking her to see where the Admission Office and the nursery were.

“If you want to work with hatchlings you have to talk to Peter.” We stopped in front of the nursery. “He allowed me to be with Aami before we could move him and I’m in charge of a team so if you have a wish to work with baby dragons I am sure he could do something about it.” I grinned at her.

I couldn’t stop my lips from spreading into one. I was getting soft. Getting comfortable around her again. This wasn’t good. I have to keep it together. But it was so hard. It was so easy to just talk to her even if she barely said anything back.

I know she was just taking everything in. She loved the dragons at Gringotts more than anything and I am sure she couldn’t wait to start working with the ones we have here.

I felt as if she didn’t change a bit. She was still emitting positive energy. She still had that playful look in her eyes. She looked excited and she was just overall a pleasant person to be around. The only thing that changed was the fact that she was nervous and she tried hard to hide it too. It made me feel more at ease but bothered me at the same time as I couldn’t shake the feeling she felt like this because of me.

“Charlie…” She started, her voice barely audible.

“It’s Friday today and we only work tomorrow, we have Sunday off this week.” I interrupted her. I didn’t know what she was about to say but her voice was telling me that she wasn’t about to ask a question concerning her orientation. “You can also work on your days off, of course.” I continued.

I was only doing my job after all.

“On those days you go to Ernie, who works in Admission Office which we passed before and he will appoint you to where they need more hands to help.”

She simply nodded.

I told her everything she needed to know. What am I supposed to do now?

“You must be tired.” I said, looking at nothing in particular behind her. “I’ll let you settle in.” I glanced at her and quickly looked away. I couldn’t deal with the curiosity with which she was looking at me. “On Friday we all usually grab a beer in the tavern. You can come if you’d like.” I blurted.

I was so weak gazing into her eyes. I already knew that her working here is going to be my downfall. I loved my job and I have to do everything to keep her from ruining it for me.

“I’ll see how long I’ll need to finish unpacking.” She smiled shyly. “Emm, could you tell me in which direction my cabin is again?” She looked embarrassed.

It was only natural that she felt a bit disorientated. The Sanctuary wasn’t exactly small.

“Why don’t I accompany you? I have to change anyway.” I offered.

I knew it was a bad idea but I have to be nice to her. She didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not her fault I’m feeling this way. She was my co-worker now and I need to make her feel comfortable at her new workplace.

We walked to her hut in complete silence. The questions of how she is and what she is doing here resurfaced but I didn’t say anything. I could sense that she wanted to speak but thought better of it.

We awkwardly said goodbye and I rushed to my home as fast as I could. I unlocked the door and shut it loudly behind me. I leaned on it and let my body slide down until I could feel the floor beneath me.

This is seriously not happening!

I was panicking again. I didn’t even know why but I knew this wasn’t good. It wasn’t good for me. I have been bottling everything up, hiding my feelings. Pretending that nothing happened, that I didn’t feel guilty about what happened that Christmas. Her being here made all of that come right back up.

All the guilt, all the sensations, all the memories.

The pain of the thoughts of what I did to Bill.

Everything.

I didn’t even know why Bill stopped talking to me. The letters just got rarer and rarer and now I’m lucky I get anything from him and when I do, it’s short and to the point. I miss him. I miss my best friend, my brother. I miss talking to him and telling him everything.

I was too afraid to ask him what was wrong. Too afraid to say something. Mum didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary so I knew he was okay but I knew that our relationship changed.

Did he know what happened between me and Rhylee? He couldn’t. He didn’t even tell me if he ever got around to asking her out that’s how much silence was between us.

I buried my fingers in my hair and started pulling. Why was this affecting me so much? Why did I have to put such pressure on myself? I can’t escape this time. This is my job. I could lie and apparate away from my family but I can’t just pack my bags and leave.

I can’t just run again.

But I can’t face her either. I can’t talk to her about us or how I feel. She can never know. She’d think I’m insane. This is the second time I’m seeing her. She probably forgot all about me.

Yeah!

That’s why she was so shocked when she saw me. She remembered that I worked here. That had to be it. And here I was, pounding my head like an idiot, overthinking everything again.

It’s my fault I feel like this and I have to get my shit together. I have to do it for my job. If I could talk about nothing else than dragons for seven years at Hogwarts and if I could study like an idiot for my O.W.L.s and my N.E.W.T.s to get this job I have to do everything to make myself comfortable and enjoy it as I did before she showed up. I won’t let myself ruin this!

I can’t.

It’s the only good thing I have going for me.

I don’t have a girlfriend. Yes, I did sleep with April three times. And I slept with two other girls but it was meaningless. I felt so empty doing it. It didn’t bring me any joy. It didn’t even come close to what I felt that night with Rhylee. So I just stopped.

I gave up all hope to ever find a girl like her and to be honest, at this point I wasn’t even trying. I’m better off alone. Most of the people here are single.

Why would I have to be the special one? Why would I have a perfect job and find the perfect girl?

I took a deep breath and held it in. I was hoping it would make all the feelings inside me disappear. At least it made me calmer. I took a quick shower and changed my clothes. A part of me wanted to just stay in tonight but I knew my friends would ask questions tomorrow and I can’t have them doing so in front of her.

I closed my eyes before leaving my hut.

You got this, Charlie.

Just breathe.

She’s just a girl.

I locked the door behind me and headed to the tavern.

“You drunk already, Theo?” I joked as I sat down.

“Sober as a Pixie.” He shook his head.

He looked disappointed that he wasn’t drunk.

“What does that even mean?” Asked John as he reached our table.

“I’ll tell you what it means.” Theo gestured for him to sit down next to me.

“Do you know Gerta?” He looked at every single one of us. We all nodded. “I asked her out before coming here.”

I pressed my lips together, trying hard not to laugh. Gerta was the only woman in the Reserve with whom nobody dared to mess. She was taller than all of us and she had strong hands, covered with tattoos. She started working here a little after I did and I always felt so intimidated by her.

“You’re joking!” Andrew shouted.

“You didn’t!” John slammed his hand on the table.

We looked at each other. We couldn’t hold it in anymore. We started laughing.

“And how…” I couldn’t breathe. Theo mentioned on several occasions over the years that he was going to ask her out but never mustered the courage to do so. “How did it go?” I tried keeping a straight face even though I knew I was failing miserably.

“At first she laughed.” Theo looked offended. This was too good. After all these years of teasing me, this was just what I needed today. “Then she slapped me so hard that everything turned dark for a second.”

I have never seen Evan laughing as hard as he was now. John was slamming the table with both of his hands now, making the beer glasses jump. I actually shed a tear, that’s how funny it was as I imagined Gerta slapping the complete shit out of him. I didn’t think anything could make my day today but boy was I wrong. This was priceless.

“Did you at least walk away?” I asked as I wiped away the tear.

“Of course, not! Don’t you know me?” Theo facepalmed himself.

“Oh, no. What did you do?” John asked after finally catching his breath.

“My stupid arse asked her if the slap meant no or was she just kinky.” Our laugher filled the air around us once again.

He didn’t do that! Why didn’t he ask her out in front of us? I would do anything to see that happening!

“And what did she do?” Andrew was holding his stomach.

His muscles probably hurt from laughing as much as mine did.

“What do you think she did?” Theo was now laughing with us. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop us and was better off joining us. “She slapped me again, on the other side.” He pointed at his left cheek.

“What are you idiots laughing so hard for?” Peter joined us and sat down.

“Theo asked Gerta out.” John managed to say before starting laughing again.

“What?” Peter looked at Theo in disbelief. “You…”

“There’s our new girl, mates!” He interrupted himself and nodded his head behind me, John, and Andrew.

We turned around and Rhylee was awkwardly standing by the bar, waiting for her drink. She was wearing an old oversized t-shirt and still managed to look so cute.

“That’s our new co-worker?” Andrew forgot how to close his mouth.

“How in Godric’s Hollow are you expecting us to do any work around here with her working alongside us?” Evan moaned.

“And guess what?” Peter smirked, looking at me. “Charlie knows her.” They all turned to me. “So I think she’s off-limits.” He winked at me.

“She’s Bill’s friend.” I said quickly.

I didn’t want them to ask any further questions. I already didn’t like the smirks on their faces.

“We made friends with the wrong brother.” Theo shook his head and if he was sitting next to me I would punch him in the gut.

“I don’t buy it.” Evan said.

“Buy what?” John wasn’t paying attention.

“I think Weasley’s lying to us.”

They were on to me.

“Interesting.” Said Theo slowly.

“What’s your theory?” They all turned to Evan.

I wish the ground beneath me would open up and swallow me.

“I believe him that she’s Bill’s friend.” Evan started. “But I don’t think the story ends there.”

I swallowed hard.

Why was I friends with these gits?

“C’mon, Charlie. Tell us.” They blinked at me like a bunch of girls at a sleepover.

“I…”

“Hi.” This was the first time I was glad Rhylee showed up. “I didn’t know where to sit and I only know you two.” Her eyes went from Peter to me.

“I don’t think we were properly introduced.” Theo stood up so abruptly that he banged his knees into the table.

He extended his arm and Rhylee shook his hand.

One by one they all introduced themselves and offered her to sit down. Thank Merlin she didn’t decide to sit down next to me.

“So you transferred here from Gringotts. You have to tell us about the dragons there!” Andrew broke the silence and I could see Rhylee appreciated it.

“I can’t really tell you much.” She smiled. “I am still sworn to secrecy even if I don’t work there anymore.” The boys started whining. “But I can tell you there are three dragons and one of them is an albino.” Her eyes kept escaping to me.

“Albino! Did you hear that, Charlie!” John bumped my shoulder.

I only hummed in response and tried looking anywhere but at her. They all knew one of my life goals was to see an albino dragon.

She told them why they are keeping dragons in Gringotts and what her job was. She told them that she was in charge of her own team and Theo teased me that she might steal my job. She told them about their feeding schedule and that the Norwegian Ridgeback has only been with them for a year and nine months.

A year and nine months.

That’s how long it has been since we last saw each other. And I still remember that she wanted to name the dragon Nyx. I wonder if she chose that name. I hated that I couldn’t ask her. I would give myself away that she is not just Bill’s friend and if I start a conversation with her, I am not sure I’ll be able to stop.

“How come you came here?” Andrew asked her.

“I was having a hard time watching the dragons be so secluded.” She admitted. “And…” She shook her head, stopping herself from finishing the sentence, and gazed at me.

They were all looking at her with raised eyebrows.

There were so many words on her lips that just couldn’t wait to escape her mouth. I knew she wanted to say more but for some reason, I knew she only wanted me to hear what she has to say. I sunk in my seat. I was feeling bad for her. This was as unfair to me as it was to her even though I had no idea what was going through her head.

A pretty girl like her…she has to be with someone. She moved on. Nobody is as stupid as me, obsessing over someone who I can’t be with and for a year and nine months too. For all I know, she could already be married and have a child.

My eyes scanned the fingers on her left hand. I couldn’t stop myself from looking.

No ring.

Why did I feel relief?

Why did I feel good about it?

“It was nice meeting all of you.” She emptied her glass. “I would love to stay and get to know all of you better but I’m quite tired.” They all started mumbling that it’s alright and that they understand as she stood up.

She said good night to us and walked away. I could feel her eyes on me before she walked away but I couldn’t look at her.

I wanted to stand up and run after her. I felt like I was going to burst into flames if I don’t. I wanted to tell her that I still think about her and I wanted to finally tell her how I felt that night. I wanted to bury my face in her hair and wrap my hands around her waist and kiss her so strongly that she would have to hold tight to me not to fall.

“You’re drooling, Weasley.” John whispered to me, disturbing my train of thoughts.

“Okay, now I’m with Evan. She is not just Bill’s friend.” Theo said after she was out of our hearing distance.

“The awkwardness between you two…” Said Andrew.

“And the way she was looking at you.” Continued Peter.

“What happened?”

They all turned to me after John’s question.

“I told you that she is Bill’s friend.” I said through my teeth.

They cornered me. They knew me too well to buy my lie.

“And…” Peter pushed my beer closer to me and gestured for me to say more.

“I can’t.” I said, my voice rusty.

I shook my head. They can’t know. I promised myself I will keep this to myself. That I will never tell anybody. I kept it a secret for so long, I can’t give up now.

“Charlie,” I felt John’s hand on my shoulder, “we’re your mates. What the fuck is going on?”

“Bill brought her home last Christmas. He fancied her.” I blurted out. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I was looking at the beer glass in front of me. I couldn’t look them in the eyes. “We got drunk together while the rest of the family was in the village and we had sex.” And I couldn’t stop talking either.

It felt so good saying it out loud. Admitting it. I told them everything. How Bill doesn’t know or at least I don’t think he does. How guilty I feel and how she made me feel and just how bad I feel that she is here.

Everything that I bottled up for almost two years came running up and I just couldn’t stop talking. I was a rat’s hair away from bursting into tears that’s how many emotions were running through my body but I blinked them away.

It might’ve felt good telling them this but I am not going to cry in front of them. We were drinking beer for fuck sake. We were adults. I’m not going to cry about a girl I barely knew. I already told them too much.

“Bloody hell.” Andrew was the first to speak after a long pause.

I was still staring at my glass. I wasn’t ready to see their expressions.

“Why didn’t you ever tell us about her, Charlie?” John asked gently.

I finally lifted my chin. They all looked like they felt sorry for me, as if they understood where I was coming from, as if they were on my side.

I had to be reading them wrong.

They can’t be.

Don’t they understand what a terrible person I am? What I did to my brother?

“I promised myself I would never tell anyone. I was doing so well. I didn’t think she would start working here.” I admitted.

“Doing well?” Theo scoffed. “You’re miserable, mate.”

I looked at him and then at Peter and Andrew who were both nodding in agreement.

“We might joke around a lot and tease you Charlie, but this is not okay. You still feel guilty after all this time and we can see that it’s tearing you apart.” Evan continued.

“Is she with Bill?” Peter asked carefully.

“I honestly don’t know. I never brought myself to ask.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Bill changed his attitude in his letters soon after and now I’m lucky enough if I even get a response from him. I don’t know how he could find out but it would be the only explanation why he’s not talking to me.”

Saying it out loud hurt.

I felt like I lost my brother.

And for what?

For a girl?

I was ashamed of myself.

“No wonder you never take a day off. You overwork yourself thinking it would help with all your problems.” John sounded disappointed.

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself, mate.” Andrew said gently.

“And what am I supposed to do?” I raised my voice. I didn’t want to talk about my feelings. Everything I felt on Christmas day came right back up but this time, it hurt twice as much. “Do you even know how pathetic I sound that I’m still not over a girl that I spend one night with? What a terrible person I am to sleep with my brother’s girl?” I buried my face in my hands.

“You’re not pathetic. You two had a real connection. Do you know how rare that is?” I looked up at Peter.

“It is?” I said more to myself than to them.

They all nodded.

“We might joke around with women but deep down we all want what Peter has.” Andrew admitted, putting his arm around Peter’s shoulder.

He was the only one of our lot who was married. Who was in a relationship for that matter. I knew that Peter met Tina before I got here and they seemed happy to me but he never really talked that much about her. John told me once that they got married rather quickly but that was pretty much it.

“I have that with Tina,” Peter explained, “what you described, Charlie. And if that’s really how you feel you have to talk to her.” I shook my head.

Was he mental!

What was this?

What happened to us messing around and drinking beer on Friday night? Since when were they giving me relationship advice?

“You have to clear the air otherwise it will eat you alive.” John followed his lead.

“Talk to Bill if you have to. I’m sure he would understand.” Andrew continued.

They were all losing it.

Understand? There is nothing to understand. Everything is clear as a Summer’s day. What am I supposed to do? Apparate to Egypt and say “Hey, Bill. So…yeah…I fancy your girl. You understand right?”

“I don’t know in what fucking fairytale land you are all living in, but this is real life and things are not that easy.” I chugged my beer and slammed the glass at the table.

“They are, Charlie.” Peter tried to convince me.

This was too much. They lost it.

“Stop it!” I shook my head and stood up. “We are not talking about this anymore. Not now, not ever.”

Why did I have to open my mouth?

“Forget about it and I’ll see you tomorrow at seven, okay?” I walked away without looking at any of them.

I felt their eyes piercing through me as I got further away.

I am not going to allow them to feel bad for me. I was the antagonist here. I was the one who made a mistake. I wasn’t allowed to be forgiven. I can’t be. Why couldn’t I just keep my mouth shut? Why did I have to be so honest? And the worst part was, this time I wasn’t even drunk.

#harry potter fanfiction #charlie weasley #charlie weasley fanfiction #the weasleys #weasley family #hp imagine #charlie weasley x oc #charlie weasley imagine #the burrow #harry potter imagine #weasley fanfiction #charlie weasley x mc #bill weasley #harry potter #wizarding world

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coldflame96 · 3 years

Text

Lunch Break

Summary: Tohru skips lunch to avoid being an inconvenience. Thankfully, she has a loving huband to set her straight.

Rating: G

Also found on AO3 and FF.net

Inspired by a RL situation with a friend of mine.

The store was busy today. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and she was starting to get hungry. They had just finished with the last customer in line.

“Hey, Tohru-kun,” Her supervisor got her attention, “I know it’s kinda late, but did you wanna take your lunch break?”

“Yes,” she sighed in relief. “Thank you, Kaori-san.”

She opened the mini fridge and felt her heart skip a beat. It was empty...She thought back to when she had left this morning and rested her head on the counter, groaning. She must’ve forgotten it in the fridge this morning.

“What’s wrong?” Kaori-san asked.

“I was in such a rush this morning I forgot my lunch,” she admitted shamefully.

“Oh, well that’s no big deal! Just go to the cafe around the corner. Kenji-kun is working and he likes me so just tell him I sent you and he’ll make whatever you want for free.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Eh? Why? Will your husband get jealous? He doesn’t have to know.”

She shook her head. “Kenji-kun is always working so hard I can’t trouble him like that!”

“Trouble him?” Kaori-san laughed. “Man, you’re really funny sometimes, Tohru-kun.” She frowned. She was sure Kaori-san didn’t mean anything by it, but sometimes it felt like she was a small child being dismissed even though they were close to the same age. She didn’t really like it...

“Oh! Good afternoon!” Kaori-san greeted as the bell rung.

Well...her shift was over soon anyway. Might as well just hold out until she got home. She would be fine.

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

She wasn’t fine. It had been a rough day. She ended up having to stay three hours later than initially planned due to a coworker calling off sick. She clenched her stomach. She was so hungry!

On shaky legs, she managed to let herself into their apartment. Thankfully, her and Kyo-kun had gone grocery shopping yesterday so there was enough there to make something easy.

Just the thought of eating made her stomach yowl in protest.

She set up two boiling pots of water, one for rice, the other for the potatoes.

She mustered up whatever energy she could to start peeling the potatoes, arms heavy with fatigue. She was really tired. Hopefully Kyo-kun wouldn’t be too disappointed if she tucked in early after dinner.

She heard the creak of the door. “Tohru?” Oh, so he was home already.

“Kyo-kun!” she jumped up from the table, apparently too fast as it made her woozy, and tried to run to greet her husband but ended up tripping on the way, strong arms keeping her afloat from under her shoulders.

“Whoa! Clumsier than usual, huh?”

This would normally be the time when she would defend herself, but her tongue was...stuck.

Kyo-kun, always so perceptive, cocked his head in concern. “Tohru, are you okay?” he stroked her cheek. “You look pale.”

Say something. “I-I’m fine, Kyo-kun.”

He wasn’t convinced. “You don’t really look fine.” He put a warm hand on her forehead, brow furrowed. “You don’t have a fever..”

She pulled away, careful not to be too abrupt. “I’m fine, really! I just feel a bit faint. Once I get something to eat, I’m sure I’ll be right as rain!”

“What, did you take your lunch break really early today or something?”

She giggled nervously. “Yeah, something like that.”

“What time did you eat?”

She froze, blanching. She was never a very good liar, and with the way he was staring at her now, she knew she wasn’t getting anything past him.

“Before I left,” she mumbled.

“Huh?”

She cleared her throat. “Last time I ate was...before I left.”

Kyo-kun gave her a steady look. “That was over 11 hours ago.”

She averted her eyes shamefully. His fingers crooked her chin up so they were facing each other. “Tohru, why would you not eat?”

“I-um-” she floundered, “I was in a rush this morning and I completely forgot to pack my lunch and I didn’t realize it until I was already there.”

“There’s a cafe down the street from you. Why didn’t you just order from them?”

“W-well, I-I thought about it but I didn’t really have time to go pick anything up.”

“So have someone else do it. You could’ve called me and I would’ve brought you something.”

She waved her hands. “Well, everyone was really busy and I didn’t wanna bother them and have them make food for me. It’s my own fault I forgot my lunch, not theirs and-”

He groaned, “Tohru, you’re not bothering anyone, that’s literally their job. They get paid to make food for people. Including you.”

She knew that. Of course she knew that. She’d been kicking herself for it all day. “By the time I had time for a break, I was already almost off anyway, so I figured I would just wait til I got home.”

He cupped her cheeks. “You should’ve eaten something sooner, a pack of crackers, anything. You look like you’re about to pass out.”

She jerked away. “I’m fine, really!” And then she swayed and soon enough she was in the air, tossed over her husband's shoulder like a sack.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” he asked nonchalantly, not even grunting with the effort of carrying her at all, which she vowed to file away for future use. “I’m taking my wife to bed.” Almost married for a year now and she still felt a tingle in her chest when he called her that.

“What?! But- but dinner!-”

“I’ll finish it.” And then he gently tossed her on their bed. “Last thing we need is for you to pass out while cooking.”

She wanted to argue, to protest, but the longer she sat, the more the energy left her. And all that was left...was shame. Shame at herself for not eating over something so silly, shame that Kyo-kun had to come home from a long day just to worry about her...Her throat got choked up and she felt her eyes go misty.

“Tohru?” He asked softly. He was always so kind, so much kinder than she ever deserved. Long fingers fanned her cheeks, wiping away the tears at the corner of her eyes and he was kneeling in front of her now at eye level. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m always being stupid and making you worry about me.”

“You’re not stupid and if I don’t worry about you, then who will?” She didn’t have much of an answer to that. “I’m not mad at you,” he sighed out, “And I don’t mind taking care of you. If you don’t want me to worry, then you should be better at taking care of yourself once in a while.”

She sniffed, nodding. “Right. I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.” He grabbed something out of his pocket. “Here.”

She scrunched her eyebrow at the wrapped snack. “A granola bar?”

“You need something in your system before dinner. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.”

He was always so rational. She smiled softly. “Thank you.”

He hummed in response, pushing her hair back to kiss her forehead. “I’ll come get you when dinner’s ready. Just sit here and relax for a bit.”

And then he was gone.

She obediently opened her granola bar, chewing in slow, careful bites. She really would have to be more careful, wouldn’t she? It wasn’t like Kyo-kun could trail her around to make sure she wasn’t hurting. She smiled at that visual image. Cute.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, sinking into the mattress, slowly getting through her granola.

“Oi,” she got a light bonk on the head and she jolted.

“Oh, Kyo-kun! You’re back already?”

He raised an eyebrow and then burst into chuckles.

“What?”

“I’ve never seen someone space out while eating a granola bar.” he stroked her hair. “You’re really adorable sometimes.”

She blushed and he just laughed some more and she felt her breath leave her a bit. He really was beautiful, wasn’t he?

“C’mon, come eat with me. I’ve missed you.” She knew he meant it. Kyo-kun didn’t just say things to butter her up. Before she could respond though, she was being hoisted from under her knees into the air.

She squeaked in surprise and wrapped her arms instinctively around his neck. “Kyo-kun, I can walk on my own,” she protested weakly.

He shrugged, smirking. “It’s more fun this way.”

He started walking out, effortlessly. Did she weigh anything to him at all?

“Nah, you’re pretty light.” he responded, and she stiffened as she realized she said that out loud.

“Am I?” She’d always thought she was pretty average sized.

“I’ve held kittens heavier than you,” he drawled.

She pouted, huffing, “Now you’re just bullying me.”

He snorted. “You love it though, don’t you?”

Well, two could play at that game. “Of course!” she chirped innocently, “I love everything about you.” And then she kissed his jawline sweetly and watched with delight as his cheeks turned pink and his grip slackened enough that she could slide down to the floor gently.

She saw the spread on the table and clapped her hands together. “Wow, Kyo-kun! It looks so good!” Then she grinned at him. “You’re so amazing!”

His face almost matched his hair now. “It’s not a big deal,” he mumbled, “It’s just dinner.”

They’ve known each other for almost half a decade now and he still got so bashful over the smallest things.

She threaded her fingers through his. “Thank you.”

The shy smile he gave her made it all worth it.

“Hey, Tohru?” he asked as she sat down to eat. She looked up at him curiously. “Please don’t do this to yourself again. Just call next time. You’re never a bother. Not to me.”

Of course she knew that. It had been clear to her for a long time, but it didn't stop her eyes from getting watery. Her traitorous brain still sometimes told her she wasn't worth it, and here he was to tell her otherwise. She wondered if she'd ever get used to it.

"Oi, don't get all weepy on me now," he scolded gently. "You need to eat."

She rubbed her eyes. "Right."

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

It’d been over two weeks since that incident and she’d been extra diligent to make sure she brought her lunch with her every day.

Kyo-kun had said she could call him if she needed to, but she still wanted to avoid doing that if she could.

She felt the rumble of her stomach. She had finished with wiping the counters, cleaning the windows, and organizing the snack areas. She should ask Kaori-san for a break soon…

"Hey, Tohru-kun," oh! And there she was! "There's a super hot guy over there checking you out! I know you're married so you want me to send him away?"

She scrunched her brow. Super hot…? She looked where Kaori-san was pointing and her eyes widened at the familiar copper hair.

"Kyo-kun!" She gasped.

"Wait, you know him?" But she was already running from behind the counter, only vaguely registering Kaori-san calling her.

She only had eyes for the man in front of her, still in his gi and looking so effortlessly handsome.

"Kyo-kun!" She grabbed his sleeve.

He smiled at her. "Oh, hey. That was quick."

"Wh-what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the dojo?"

"I'm on lunch. I wanted to see you. Have you taken your break yet?"

"Uhh, no, I was just about to…"

"Take it now." He nodded towards the counter where Kaori-san was watching them with rapt attention. "That's your supervisor?"

"Yes."

"Want me to tell her?" The woman in question narrowed her eyes.

"No, that's okay!" She waved her hands. "I've gotten a lot done already so I'm sure she won't mind! I can..ask her."

"Alright, I'll wait here then."

His eyes lingered on her as she carefully made her way behind the counter to grab her lunch.

"Sorry for the short notice, Kaori-san, but I wanted to take my break now if you don't mind."

"Just a minute, Tohru-kun," Kaori-san stopped her in her tracks. And then she lowered her voice. "Who is that guy?"

"Eh? He's my husband!"

"Him?" Then she put her chin in her hands. "Wow, no wonder you're always talking about him. You hit the jackpot, didn’t you?"

Tohru felt something warm in her chest and she whispered fondly, "Yeah, I did."

"Does he have a twin by any chance? Brother, sister, it doesn't matter to me."

"Sorry, Kaori-san," she said sheepishly, "he's one of a kind." And he’s mine, a tiny, possessive part of her brain whispered. "I'm going on break now so I'll see you later."

And she left before Kaori-san could give a proper response. In the past, she would be worried about coming off rude and she would probably apologize later, but she had a wonderful husband waiting for her and he was first priority.

And as they walked out hand in hand, she was reminded not for the first time and certainly not the last, how blessed she was to have him.

#kyoru #furuba #fruits basket #tohru honda #kyo sohma

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leafs-lover · 4 years

Text

Because Two People Got Drunk: 35

Chapter 35

Series Masterlist

A/N: Thank you to the anon who gave a suggestion for this. I honestly hadn’t considered it in the story; but it actually made sense given how little Fred and Y/N had spent talking about it.

Warning: Angst, swearing, mentions of cheating, smut

Word Count: 7100

You are in the lobby of the hockey arena waiting for Oliver. The twins are asleep in their stroller; you gently rocking it back and forth to help them nap. The game ended over twenty minutes ago and Fred went to the change room to help get him out of his hockey equipment.

It’s been a couple weeks since Fred’s injury; he has been home for most of it. When at the rink he has been spending his time with trainers off the ice. That was until yesterday, he managed to do a short session with the goalie coach and some basic drills but likely won’t be back until after Christmas.

You know it’s been hard for him, since that game the team fell into a slump. They have won a few games in regulation, but overall the team is struggling being outplayed and outscored. The hardest part for him is feeling completely helpless because he is sidelined.

As he started to improve he was able to spend more time with the kids; and Oliver has been loving getting all the cuddles from Fred. Today Fred decided to join you at Oliver’s hockey game.

You were a little unsure of the idea, not wanting it to be too much for him, but he reassured you he would be fine; and once Oliver heard you knew there was no way Fred wouldn’t come. After helping Oliver get in his equipment Fred told you he was beaming in the change room; his smile never fading, introducing Fred to everyone though he has already met them earlier in the season.

You look down at your watch; it’s almost 10:45, your stomach growling loudly. You ate breakfast at seven, but around now you normally would have a snack but forgot to pack something. The little baby in your belly really making the eating for two seem like a reality right now. Finally you see Fred leave the change room carrying Oliver’s hockey bag in one hand and holding his hand with his other.

Your son is practically skipping as he makes his way down the hall. As soon as he sees you he releases Fred’s hand and takes off running to you “Mommy!”

You catch him mid jump “good game buddy!” you say squeezing him.

“Did you see me?”

“Yeah you were great” you reply “you played awesome. Looked like your daddy in net” you say and he smiles at your words. The biggest compliment for him is being compared to his hero.

“Where is your dad?” you ask him realizing Fred hasn’t made his way to you.

“People wanted his picture” Oliver shrugs confused.

“Yeah people are excited to see him” you respond scanning around the hockey arena.

As soon as you sat down there was whispers and a couple kids came up asking for pictures. It’s something you have learned to get used to over the past few years.

Fred is always willing to take pictures with fans, especially kids. Every time he apologizes even though you have told him countless times you don’t mind. You love how he interacts with fans, and how taking a few minutes makes their day. While you understand how important fan engagement is, Oliver doesn’t understand the hype around it. To him Fred and all the other players are just people, normal people he knows.

“Did you see my save? The one I stopped with my stick” you hear Oliver ask and you dive into a conversation with your son about his game.

Your eyes find Fred standing with a woman and her son, who is Oliver’s age. You engage in the conversation with your son but can help and notice the large smile on her face, how her dark brown hair shines under the lights. While it’s not uncommon for Fred to talk to the parents of young fans, you notice how close she is standing and how her child doesn’t seem interested in him at all.

You gently set Oliver on the ground while the two of them continue to chat away. You drop random “uh huh” or an “oh really” but you lose all focus when you watch her hand touch his bicep while they laugh at something he said.

You swallow a lump in your throat and take a deep breath but it doesn’t stop you from feeling like the walls are shattering around you. You hear Oliver babbling away but his voice continues to fade away into the background. Your stomach almost jumps into your throat and your chest tightens. You tell yourself it’s nothing, that you don’t be concerned. And you almost believe it, that is until you watch her stroke up his arm.

“Mommy” Oliver pulls on your sleeve and grabbing your attention.

“Yeah bud” you say snapping your eyes down to his.

“I said I’m thirsty” he repeats.

“Oh” you reply with a shaky voice. You fumble into your bag and pull out your water bottle handing it to him. When you look back to where Fred was you notice he is gone and you turn your attention back to Oliver

Finally you feel the familiar touch of Fred’s hand on your back and he presses a gentle kiss to your forehead. Your entire body stiffens against his touch, you reach down to take the bottle back from Oliver to hide the real reason you pulled away.

“Ready?” he asks taking the stroller from you, while you take Oliver's hand as he skips in excitement. The drive is filled with Oliver’s excited chatter from the back seat, you stare out the window not having much to say.

Fred’s hand reaches across the car finding your stomach, slowly rubbing over your bump. You relax into the seat, Fred chuckling while Oliver rambles on about his friends on his team. You replay the scene from the arena over and over in your head, you remember she was in the stands; her son having played against Oliver. But did she look towards Fred, did his eyes wander?

“Can I mom?” Oliver calls out and Fred gently nudges you with his hand.

“Hmm what was that?” you ask being brought back from your trance.

You feel Fred glare at you from the side of his eye “Kyle said I could have a sleepover at his house” he repeats “can I?”

You chuckle slightly knowing this is one of his friends on the team, after every game or practice he always has something funny to tell you that Kyle said or did. “I’ll have to talk to his parents” you respond.

“Yeah talk to them mommy” he cheers and Fred laughs shaking his head.

“We will but not today, we have the party this afternoon” Fred says pulling into your driveway.

As soon as the car is in park Oliver jumps out the car “when’s the party daddy?”

“In a couple hours” he says grabbing Noah “after lunch.”

Oliver runs into the house leaving his boots and coat in a pile on the floor and making his way to the living room. You take the twins and follow him while Fred takes his hockey equipment to air out. You have a relaxing afternoon, Oliver plays with his Lego and various toys, the twins nap and play on their activity mat. You rest on the couch scrolling through your phone aimlessly.

Multiple times over the next few hours you feel Fred’s eyes find you. His eyes are soft but full of concern. He can sense something is wrong, but he also doesn’t know if it’s just the pregnancy dragging you down today. Instead of asking he gives you time in case you are just tired, thinking maybe you just need some time to rest.

“The boys are cute” Kathy says giving you a hug while you stand at the snack table. You laugh lightly seeing the twins in plaid shirts and vests, one of them held in Fred’s arm while Oliver immediately took off to find his friends. You didn’t dress them, Fred actually had their coats on before you came downstairs so you had no idea all your boys were matching until you got here.

He bounces them in his arms and shoots you a smile when he catches you staring. He aims them towards you and their green eyes light up when they see you. A half smile crosses your face, but Fred senses the emptiness behind it and a scowl crosses his. You look away with a displeased groan grabbing a cup.

“How are you doing?” she asks as you pour some water.

“We’ve been good; now that Fred’s symptoms are mostly gone it’s been better. Oliver loves having him around though” you respond taking a sip.

“That’s great but I asked how you are. Seems like something is going on” she says softly. “Having him at home the past few weeks should be good. You two are almost nauseating to watch sometimes. You came in after him, and haven’t spent a second beside him and don’t think I didn’t see whatever that was” her index finger pointing between the two of you.

You laugh a little and turn towards her “we’re fine” you lie.

You hear her groans as she grips your hand pulling you down the hall to the bathroom, locking the door behind you. “Spill.”

You roll your eyes and back up against the counter. Anyone else wouldn’t have given you a second glance, some would have bought your fake smiles and those that didn’t would have assumed it was hormones or exhaustion from the pregnancy. But not Kathy; she knows you too well.

You start by telling her how it’s nothing and how you are overreacting; that you are likely reading too far into it. You get into the woman at Oliver’s hockey game, how they seemed to be really close, too close. You tell her how when he said something she touched his arm and gently grazed over his muscles.

You ramble for twenty minutes and at the end finish by saying how you have no idea what they talked about. It could have been about him donating time or merchandise for a charity event; that they were so far away you couldn’t hear anything.

You expect her to tell you you’re overthinking it. That it could have been nothing, or maybe she was trying to flirt with him but that doesn’t mean anything. That you can’t get upset over what strangers do. That just because she flirted with Fred it doesn’t mean he flirted back.

Instead she takes a deep breath and walks over to you, wrapping her arms around you. She holds you for a few minutes saying nothing. The silence is deafening; you swear you feel the walls closing in around you before you finally speak.

“During the playoffs last year when I was pregnant Fred kissed someone else.”

You can tell by her silence and that her eyes not meeting yours that she already knew that.

You thought saying those words would be liberating; finally telling someone what he did. Instead you feel yourself fall apart, sobbing into her shoulder. Your hands tighten around her back, clenching on the fabric of her sweater. Your body shakes against hers; warm tears staining her shirt.

Her hands gently run up and down your back; soothing you. You grip her shirt tighter, swallowing the lump in your throat until your eyes begin to dry.

“Sounds like you and him have some stuff to talk about.”

You thought this had been left in the past, you had accepted and processed it and dealt with all your emotions. But now after watching what should have been a harmless interaction you realize you have some unresolved feelings and paranoia. Likely because you never had a dedicated conversation about everything that happened.

You basically shut Fred out for days while you processed everything. You wanted to calm down and think over everything; make sure you didn’t say something you would regret. Once you had your time you were going to invite Fred to share your bed again and begin to have the conversations needed to move on.

Then the car accident happened. Fred tried to talk with you after but at that point it didn’t seem important to you. You had long decided you were going to forgive him, and with everything that happened focusing on your recovery and the twins seemed more important than tearing open old wounds.

You and Fred should have sat down; even for a brief conversation. What happened today should have been nothing, it shouldn’t have triggered you the way it did. Fred didn’t do anything besides stop to take a picture with a child; this woman decided to touch him. And he was at your side in under a minute of that happening, making it pretty obvious he got away as quick as possible. If your trust hadn’t of become fractured seven months ago you wouldn’t be in your head right now.

Once you return to the party you feel Fred’s eyes immediately find you. He can see the redness in your eyes and the puffiness of your cheeks. He knows you have been crying, but what makes it worse is you are blocking him out. You can feel the pleading of his eyes, but you can’t bring yourself to make eye contact.

He watches while you get a snack, while you chat with some of the women. He smiles watching you and Oliver decorate stockings, part of the Christmas crafts the team has set up. He laughs watching when Oliver shakes his, spilling the excessive amount of glitter onto your lap. To everyone else you seem happy, like you are having a great night.

You feel his eyes burning a hole in you and eventually find his gaze, his entire face lights up; he thinks maybe he was right, maybe the pregnancy is just tiring you out. But Fred sees the emptiness behind your eyes, the hollowness in the half smile. You swear you hear his heart fall as you pull your eyes from him.

“You ready for Santa” you ask walking up beside Fred a few moments later; bouncing the twins in your arms. They coo in response having no idea what you are saying. But Oliver who is clinging to Fred’s neck cheers in response.

“When is Santa coming daddy?” he asks eyes lighting up.

“I heard that his sleigh landed on the roof a few minutes ago” he says and you watch as Oliver’s eyes go wide. You hear some jingling of bells and Oliver drops down eagerly running to the group of children. The entire room erupts as he walks in, but Fred places a hand on the small of your back pulling you into his chest.

“You okay?” he asks softly leaning close to your ear.

You give him a small nod in response, his breath on your neck would normally ignite your core, send a dampness between your legs but today it doesn’t. Today it irritates you but Fred doesn’t stop trying to break your walls down.

“Don’t lie to me” he says pulls Lucas from you, his hand resting gently on your hip as he places a soft kiss on your temple.

“It’s nothing” you lie shifting on your feet to pull away from him ever so slightly.

“Are we seriously going to play this game (Y/N)” he groans. “Just tell me.”

“Not here” you hiss in response.

“So it is something” he says.

“Yes” you retort. As you begin to walk away you hear Fred sigh loudly but he uses his better judgement and doesn’t follow you.

He joins you for a family picture with Santa, and even asks Sid to take the twins so the two of you can get a picture just the two of you. Apart from that he gives you space while also remaining close.

You can tell he is bothered he comes up beside you a couple times and tries to talk to you, but each time his mouth falls shut and he saunters off. He has no idea what he did, and how could he? How could he know you’re actually bothered by something that happened months ago?

After buckling everyone in the car Fred climbs out of the back, you place your bags and coats on the floor before closing the door. When you turn around Fred is waiting off to the side. He opens your door for you but instead of getting in you walk into his chest.

After the immediate shock Fred’s arms wrap around you. You feel the tears prick the sides of your eyes, but you sniffle them away. He feels your body gently heave and tightens his grip around you, holding you close; his body keeping you sheltered from the crisp Pittsburgh air.

You sigh against him and pull away, wordlessly climbing into the car. Fred gently shuts the door and gets in the driver’s side, you can tell he is confused but he says nothing starting the drive home. It’s a silent drive, you staring out the passenger window, Fred turns the volume of the radio down until it’s almost inaudible, you don’t need to turn around to see that all your sons have fallen asleep.

Once home you carefully take Oliver to bed and tuck him while Fred does the same with the twins. You change into some pyjamas and begin your night routine. At some point Fred comes in the bathroom to brush his teeth. Normally he would wait in the bathroom for you, his hand resting on your bump, groaning when you reach for another product instead of being done and ready for bed. You would shoot him a playful smirk and he would resume his post patiently waiting for you finish.

But not tonight, tonight he leaves once he is done; letting you finish your routine alone. You wash your face, brush out your hair and pull it into a loose bun on the top of your head. When you are finally done you find Fred sitting on the end of the bed waiting for you.

“Hey” he says seeing you nervously playing with his hands

“Hey” you reply shooting him a soft smile. You sit beside him curling your legs up on the mattress.

“What’s going on?” he chuckles awkwardly.” I replayed today through my head a million times from every angle and I have no idea what I did” he huffs. “We had coffee in bed before the boys woke up and it was great. We had breakfast and got ready for hockey everything was great until the party. Something shifted and I don’t know what. Did I leave some dishes in the sink or some socks on the floor? Did I say something stupid, like what did I do?”

“Nothing” you whisper.

“No don’t say nothing. Something is wrong so tell me. What did I do wrong?” he shifts closer to you and rests his hand on your ankle. You see the pleading in his eyes as he gently lifts your chin.

“You didn’t do anything” you repeat, Fred shaking his head running his hand through his hair frustrated at your response. You grip his hand and bring it back down to the bed “you didn’t do anything…today.”

“What does that mean?” he scoffs.

“After the game when you were walking back to the lobby you were stopped for pictures and what not by some people” he nods slightly. “Well a woman came up to you, dark hair.”

“Yeah her son wanted a picture” he explains.

“Right well I saw that, but then the two of you talked for a couple minutes. She was standing really close and I saw her touch your arm, and I don’t know it made me jealous or something.”

“Babe I didn’t want anything to do with her, I basically ran back to you right after that. I mean she’s not my type you don’t have to worry” he replies.

“Wait I don’t have to worry because she isn’t your type” you rise to your feet walking away.

“That’s not what I meant, they are two separate statements” you hear the sound of his footsteps getting closer. “Even if she was my type you wouldn’t have to worry, you’re it for me babe” he comes up resting his hands on your hip his voice low and in your ear. “You’re the only one I have eyes for. Nobody else elske.”

“But that hasn’t always been the case” you say pushing his hands off your hips. “I mean seven months ago you kissed someone else.”

You hear him sigh behind you and you take a large gulp. You turn around to face him seeing regret fill his face. His face falls and you blink through your pain before continuing “seeing that today bothered me and I know it shouldn’t. I knew nothing happened but it really bothered me. Eight months ago it wouldn’t have, but after finding out about you…I…I don’t know” you shake the image from your head, trying to compose yourself.

Fred walks over to you and wraps his arms around you “I get it babe” he sighs .

“I guess I thought I was fine. That I was over it, it didn’t bother me. But it does bother me” you say choking on some sobs. Fred tightens his grip on you, completely engulfing you in his arms while you begin to sob against his chest. You clench his t-shirt while warm tears roll down your cheeks.

“Let’s talk about it then. Whenever you’re ready, and as much as you need” he says hands finding the back of your neck to hold you tight against him.

“I want to” you take a deep breath and wipe the side of your eye “now.”

You walk over to the bed and sit down crossing your legs, Fred joins sitting a few feet from you waiting for you to start. You sit in silence for a few minutes trying to find the words, not knowing where to start.

“I know you love me” you grab his hands in yours. “I know you would do anything for me, our family. But it’s not easy. We only got together because I got pregnant, if I didn’t I don’t think we’d be here.”

As you talk you watch his facial expression change; he stares at you like you’re crazy. Like he has no idea where that is coming from; because he never felt that way and doesn’t want you to. And it something that has been mentioned a few times, and you know it irritates him when anyone thinks that way. But it kills his to think you believe it.

“I don’t think that’s true babe. I mean yeah that brought us together, but we took our time. We built this right and we wouldn’t be here after all this time if we only were together because of you getting pregnant. It was almost two years after we got pregnant that we finally figured out or feelings and got together. If we were only together because of Ollie we would have been together from the start and it likely wouldn’t have been so hard. We both wouldn’t have gotten hurt so much in the process.”

“Okay but I get insecure because of that, and women constantly throw themselves at you which doesn’t help. But I was able to ignore it befre, let it all become background noise until you kissed someone. Now I see someone flirt with you and I can’t help but be jealous” you say through foggy eyes.

“I know I’m not always easy to be with” he shifts to be closer to you, pulling you into his lap “but I love you so much.”

“I never doubted that” you whine against his chest looking down in your lap. You nervously pick at your nails, trying to avoid eye contact “I just. I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m saying or what I want.”

Silence fills the air and you sense his hesitation “do you still want me, to be with me?”

“What” your head snaps up finding his dark eyes glazed with tears “of course I do.”

“Still want to marry me” he whispers afraid of the answer.

“Yes Frederik of course I do.”

“Do you want me to go to a hotel, give you some time –“

“No Fred I don’t want that” you almost snap at his questions. “I just need you to know that what you did hurt, and sometimes it still bothers me. The last time you cheated on me I was pregnant, and I’m pregnant again now so it’s hard. It’s hard because I want to trust it won’t happen again and I do trust it; until something happens and I doubt everything.”

You hear him mumble a fuck against your hair finally putting together your struggles. You practically hear the wheels stop turning as he finally has connected all the dots that led to your pain. It’s not that you are worried about him cheating, you are worried the stress of the pregnancy will get to him and it will happen again.

His hand rests on your waist, hesitantly finding its way onto your bump. You hear Fred sniffle as some tears land in your hair. The past 12 weeks you have had fears of Fred cheating on you again, dreams of that day and thanks to your pregnancy they have been vivid.

In some dreams it’s almost like you are replaying that day, you get sent a picture. Another dream or more like nightmare is you walking in to your bedroom and he is in bed buried deep inside another woman. You know these are just dreams but it doesn’t help your anxiety.

He runs his hand up and down your arm while you soak his shirt with your tears. He continues to try to soothe you but his attempts fail and you begin to sob uncontrollably. He holds you tight, you don’t even know for how long.

Finally your body relaxes and the tears in your eyes have dried, bottom lip stopped trembling. Your vision is still slightly blurred but you tilt your head to look at Fred showing your puffy cheeks. His face is wrecked with emotion; eyes wet with his own tears.

“I hate when you cry, but it’s so much worse when I’m the cause of it” he says laughing through his tears. You bring your thumb up to wipe his away, he gently rests his cheek against your palm.

“I love seeing you pregnant, I always have. There is something about seeing the woman I love carry my baby; words can’t even describe the feeling” you smile slightly at his words. “And I am so sorry I took what should be an amazing beautiful time” his hand lands on your stomach and he softly strokes over it “and put seeds of doubt into it. But tell me what you need to make this better. Whether it’s a night away, or a puppy or if you need to hit me whatever it is lets do it.”

“I don’t need or want to hit you” you laugh slightly. “And a puppy would be way too much work right now.” Fred’s lips gently land on your forehead as he rocks you back and forth. You relax into his touch bringing your hand through his beard and onto his chest. “I don’t know if there is any one thing; if the situation was reversed and I kissed someone do you think there is one thing that could fix it?”

He doesn’t respond. You don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t know or doesn’t want to say it; not that you were expecting a response.

“Honestly I’m drained; me and the baby just want to curl up under the blankets and get some sleep” you sigh.

“Okay” he whispers pulling his hands away from you.

Your body is weak as you crawl out his lap; slipping under the cold sheets. Fred sits at the bottom of the bed not sure if you want him to join. You fold the blanket on his side down and tap the empty space and he quickly fills it, not needing to be told twice.

He lies on his back not bothering to pull the blankets up his body. His gaze locks on your ceiling, but you can see his pupils shifting as he replays the conversation; or maybe that night eight months ago. You slide closer to Fred and rest your hand on his chest, using his bicep as a pillow.

His hand lands on your back and he pulls you in close, almost as if he’s afraid he’ll lose you. You can feel the tension exuding off of him and can hear his uneasy breathing. After the night you had you are mentally exhausted and practically fall asleep instantly, though you know Fred will be awake for hours.

The next morning you wake up on your side facing away from Fred, some of the morning light beginning to trickle through your blinds. You don’t need to look at your clock to know you are earlier than normal; the kids likely sleeping for another 45 minutes.

You roll over and Fred is staring at the ceiling the same position you left him in last night. The bags under his eyes and red in his pupils telling you he didn’t sleep well. While you were emotionally drained and fell asleep relatively easily, you felt Fred tossing and turning beside you which woke you up multiple times.

“Hey” he whispers a faint smile finding his face when he sees you. “How’d you sleep?”

Shifting in your sheets, you embrace the exhaustion carried over from the night before. Normally you would try to fall back asleep until the twins cried over the monitor or you hear Oliver footsteps running down the hall towards your room.

“Okay” you yawn. Fred smiles lightly brushing your hair from your forehead.

“Not sleep good?” you ask, he shakes his head in response.

“How could I?” he sighs turning his gaze back to the ceiling.

“Sorry” you whisper.

“No you don’t have anything to apologize for. I fucked up and your feelings are valid”

“I kind of feel better, I think maybe I just had to get it all out. Tell you how I was feeling” you say crawling over to him. It’s not a lie, you didn’t necessarily need anything to happen or for Fred to do anything He just needed to know how you felt, be aware of the problem. Maybe if you hadn’t brushed it under the rug many months ago your feelings would be resolved.

“I’m glad” he responds his lips hesitantly press to your forehead. You melt into his touch, your hand sliding up his shirt feeling his warm skin under your nails. You tilt your head gently pressing your lips to Fred’s.

You can sense his hesitation as you crawl on him sinking into the kiss. You know he can taste your morning breath but he doesn’t care, opening his mouth to allow you entrance. His lips are slightly chapped like usual as your tongue swipes along his lower lip; he moans when you suck on his lower lip pulling it back slightly.

His hands tentatively find your hips holding you on his stomach. Your tongue slides inside his mouth, your hand finding his rough beard and gently rakes through it. Your mouths move in sync with one another, his hands slowly begin to wander around to the back of your thighs before returning to your hips. You gently grind down on him, feeling his tip separated by some thin fabric between your cheeks. After a few minutes Fred pulls away leaving the two of you gasping for air.

“I’m sorry I made you feel like this. I never want you to be insecure, especially because of me” he whispers. He gently pushes you onto your back, him resting on his side. “You’re it for me, my other half; my better half. You complete me and I never want you to worry. No other girl has a shot with me” his mouth attaches to your neck peppering you with soft kisses.

“You are the only girl I want to curl up beside after a game. The only girl who will make me watch the Notebook only to turn it off with 15 minutes left because it’s too sad to finish.” You roll your eyes at that but can’t help a grin from crossing your face.

He crawls on top of you; your hands stroking along his biceps. “You’re the only girl I want stealing my sweaters, the only girl I want to kiss” he briefly presses his lips to yours. His knee gently finds a spot between your legs spreading them open a couple inches.

You moan ever so lightly you aren’t even sure Fred heard it until he smirks against your lips. “You’re the only girl I want to make those sounds come out of.” You clear your throat and bite your bottom lip as Fred’s mouth presses to the side of your neck. Your eyelashes kiss your cheek your body squirming while wetness begins to pool in your core.

“You’re the only girl I want to touch” he gently presses a kiss to your jaw bone, a finger trailing down your arm. “The only girl I want to taste” he licks along your collarbone. He places warm open mouth kisses on your collarbone finding its way to your sweet spot.

A light giggle falls from your lips as his mustache tickles your ear. You know Fred is enjoying this but he won’t touch you further until you allow it.

“Freddie” you moan and feel him smirk against your neck.

“Yes smuk” he mumbles against your skin as goosebumps begin to form.

“I need you” you moan out softly. Before you even finish getting the words out your shirt is off, his large hands finding your breasts, easily cupping them in his palm. His movements are soft and gentle as he waits for your response.

He massages your breast in one hand; gently rolling the nipple through his finger. You gasp at the feeling, them being slightly sensitive from the pregnancy. Fred eases his touch but doesn’t pull away; his mouth dipping down to suck on your other breast.

Your back arches in response soft moans escaping your lips. You expect him to continue down your body but he continues to work on your breasts for a few more minutes. You feel your cunt dripping your hands finding his hair. Instead of tangling your fingers in his hair you try to push his large frame down further and earn a deep seeded chuckle from him.

“Someone’s eager” he mumbles against you; soft curse words fall from your lips. His hand slides down your body slipping inside your pyjama pants. His fingers graze over your folds coating them in your juices. He smirks against your breast “very eager eh” he jokes feeling your wetness.

His large hands easily push your pants down your legs, they bunch just below your knees. He continues to suck on your breast while his hand caresses up the back of your thigh. He gives your ass a squeeze, pulling your body down the bed until your pussy finds his thigh.

He flexes his muscular thigh, your pussy trembling on him. You begin to slowly roll your hips in search of more friction. Fred lets out a soft moan at the feeling of his muscles pressing against your throbbing clit.

His hands find your hip, rough fingers digging in, encouraging the motion of your hips. His lips still wrapped around one of your hardened nipples. Breathy whimpers leaving your mouth as you grind your hips against him; earning a few low groans from him. Your moans turn to whimpers needing more contact.

“Fred please” you whine voice thick with need and desperation.

He releases his mouth from your breast and slowly trails down your body. When he reaches your pelvis he sucks hard likely leaving a mark; his nails digging into your hips. He hooks your legs over his shoulders his mouth places soft kisses on the inside of your thighs.

His arms wrap around your waist, pinning you to the bed as he bites up your thigh. Your head falls into the pillow and your eyes rolling into the back of your head. Even though he has barely touched you the anticipation almost has you going over the edge.

You gasp when his lips finally attach to your clit, placing some soft kisses on your folds. He pulls back, lips ghosting barely a centimeter from your skin causing your hips to buck up. Fred flattens his tongue and licks a stripe up; a dark groan leaves Fred’s throat tasting your wetness. Your back begins to arch but his grip tightens holding you to the bed.

His tongue slowly slips inside your walls and your hands tangle into his messy locks, gripping tight to the scalp as his tongue moves in and out of you. Your thighs tighten around his head, Fred groaning under you. His nose presses into your clit as whispered curse words fall from yours.

He flicks his tongue inside you, curling in your walls. His teeth gently graze your folds; you breathe out a fuck as the coil in your abdomen gets painfully tight. You aren’t sure if Fred heard you or if he can sense it, until you hear him hum in response.

You tremble knowing you are hanging on the edge, “I’m gonna cum” you manage to pant out. You feel Fred smirk below you but he doesn’t let up, continuing to fuck his tongue in and out of you.

Your eyes squeeze shut as the coil inside you snaps; your orgasm washing over you. Fred works you through your high groaning as you flutter around his mouth. An incoherent noise leaves your lips the heels of your feet digging into his back. Finally you come down from your high Fred’s tongue slowing. You are breathless as your eyes flutter open looking down to meet Fred’s gaze. His mouth releases your swollen bud and he drops your legs; pulling your pyjamas back up your legs.

He slowly crawls up your body, your juices dripping from his beard. He places a trail of soft kisses up your chest. Your hands release his hair sliding down to his beard pulling his face to yours. You guide his mouth to yours moaning when you taste yourself.

His tongue slides in but before you can deepen it you hear a cry over the baby monitor. You pull apart with a groan; Fred’s head turning to the screen.

“I think he’s still asleep” Fred says after a couple minutes “got a couple more minutes” he mumbles against your neck. He falls beside you pulling you into his chest while your head turns to look at him. He softly brushes your sweaty hair from your forehead.

“I’m sorry for yesterday” he says softly “and more importantly seven months ago.”

“I know” your lips gently press against his.

“If something bothers you please tell me” he says and you smile lightly in response. “And if you need to talk about what happened more, bring it up. No matter what.”

“I will, promise” you smile

“No matter how uncomfortable it’s better for us to talk these things through now then let them stew inside.”

“I know” you nod against him. Fred smiles down at you and brings his lips back down to yours. You gently play with the baby hairs on the nape of his neck. The kiss is soft and slow; his tongue swiping inside your mouth. When you pull away Fred’s forehead gently presses against yours.

Your hands gently play with his beard, a wide grin glued to your face. Fred crawls beside you his hand finds your stomach “any movements yet?”

“I’m only 13ish weeks babe” you laugh “that probably won’t happen for another five weeks or so.”

“I know I just love the little kicks” he places another soft kiss on your cheek when you hear another cry from the nursery.

“I got it babe” he whispers crawling out of bed. When the door closes you find your shirt knowing your time in bed will be ending soon. You hear the nursery door open on the monitor, and your gaze meets the screen. You feel your heart skip a beat watching Fred.

He pulls Noah from his crib, blowing a raspberry on his stomach. Noah’s little laugh is loud enough you can almost hear it down the hall.

He engages in a random conversation with him while changing his diaper and getting him ready for the day. Before he finishes Lucas stirs in his crib and Fred turns his attention to him repeating everything with him. After finishing he leaves the nursery and you hear his footsteps on the hardwood and the door slowly creaks open.

The twins faces light up when they see you and Fred crawls back into bed handing Noah to you. “Hi buddy” you smile pressing a kiss to his cheek. The four of you lie in bed, Noah babbling away on your stomach; Fred’s arms wrapped around the two of you.

You all lie in bed, you curled up beside Fred the twins crawling over you. You and Fred fall into an easy conversation the twins cooing around you. Lucas is sitting on Fred’s chest and you laugh when Noah sits on his face. It’s an easy morning; something you didn’t get when Oliver was this young. When he was around this age you and Fred were in separate apartments. It was during the span when you weren’t sleeping together; and your interactions were sometimes awkward.

You grab Lucas from Fred’s chest and Fred grips Noah’s waist lifting him off his face. He puts him on the mattress and begins to tickle your son, his little laugh erupting. His laughter echoes off the wall getting louder; it’s so loud you almost don’t hear the door creak open. You look over and see Oliver yawning in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. He slowly climbs up in bed beside you.

A large grin spread across you face watching as Fred wrestles Oliver into the bed and tickles the boys. Their laughter fills your bedroom and your heart watching your four boys. You rub your hand over your stomach smiling, knowing soon there will be another baby making your king sized bed seem even more crowded; just the way you like it.

Next Chapter

#because two people got drunk #frederik andersen #Freddie Andersen #fred andersen #frederik andersen x reader #frederik andersen fic #frederik andersen smut #freddie andersen smut #freddie andersen fic #freddie andersen x reader #fred andersen smut #fred andersen x reader #Fred Andersen Fic #nhl fic #NHL Smut

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flowerpowell · 4 years

Text

The Royal Holiday Romance (Liam x MC)

PART FIVE

A/N: We’re almost done with this mini series! Thank you to everyone who leaves feedback - it’s such a motivation to keep writing! I hope you’ll enjoy this chapter as well!

Rating: G

Tagging: @gardeningourmet @delightfullypinkglitter @twinkleallnight @kingliam-rys @sfb123 @iaminlovewithtrr @gkittylove99 @texaskitten30 @kingliam2019 @queen-arabella-of-cordonia @lodberg @shanzay44 ❣

“Lunch?”

Victoria smiled at the message Liam just sent her. She had just shot her scene of the day and was packing her bag to head back to the hotel.

“Gladly.”

“I can be at your hotel in twenty minutes, is that alright?”

“Perfect :)”

Twenty minutes to change her clothes and refresh herself wasn’t a lot but she wanted to see Liam so bad that she was actually glad she didn’t have to wait too long. She was falling for him, slowly but steadily. It was the first time she let herself catch any feelings after having her heart broken by a senior in her drama club, when she was a freshman. The guy who had been her crush for a few months, broke up with her on the day she told him she loved him, claiming he couldn’t be in a serious relationship with a freshman because he had a promising career and she didn’t.

Victoria shook her head trying to get rid of the memories. It was a long time ago. And Liam was different. And most importantly, he wasn’t any famous or concerned about his career.

~~~~

“I’m telling her today,” Liam murmured, putting on his coat. Drake’s raised eyebrow suggesting he didn’t believe his best friend’s promises.

“I really am. That’s why I invited her to lunch today. I’ll be honest with her.”

“I hope so. She was honest with you and it’s only fair you tell her the truth as well.”

“I know. But you can’t blame me for not wanting her to see me as the King. I really enjoyed being just Liam with her.” Liam sighed. Why was his life so complicated?

“I understand but I also think that if you want to continue it, no relationship should be based on a lie,” Drake replied.

Relationship.

Liam smiled at the thought but his smile quickly disappeared. He wasn’t sure if she would want to continue this relationship or whatever it was after learning the truth. Dating a King wasn’t anything like dating a normal guy. She said she didn’t like being in the center of attention, which was why she was struggling as an actress but being a King’s girlfriend or wife would be putting her literally in the center of attention.

What wife? Liam, stop thinking about it. You’re getting ahead of yourself, yet again.

It was so easy to think about it, though. He felt understood, he felt like a part of him, a long forgotten part of him was unlocked again with her. And it was mostly because… she saw him as Liam. He was just Liam.

If only my life was easier.

~~~~

“I don’t understand why this place is so empty this time of the day! The food is delicious,” Victoria commented as she took another bite of her lasagne.

Liam bit his lip not wanting to admit it was the most popular place in the town but he closed it for them to have a conversation. He didn’t want to risk anyone recognizing him before Victoria learned the truth.

“And the owner is so nice! I don’t have that many followers but maybe if I posted a picture from here on my Instagram, it’d get more customers. Oh! Or I can ask Hana to post the picture! She has twenty million followers!” Victoria took out her phone and snapped a few pictures.

“That’s so kind of you,” Liam noticed. He was falling more and more in love with her. She cared about people she didn’t even know and she wanted to help them. She’d make a great Queen. Liam couldn’t stop thinking what it would feel like to be cared for by her just the same, if she was his wife.

“Victoria, there’s… something I wanted to discuss with you,” he started. Victoria put down her phone and locked her eyes with his.

“Did something happen?”

“No… Yes. Well…”

“Okay, wait, I think… I think I get it,” she said sadly.

“You… You do?” Did she google him? Did someone tell him he was a King? Did—

“I do. You had a great time with me but I live in America and you live here and I’m an actress, well, a crappy one if you ask me but whatever, and you don’t think it’s gonna work out and maybe it’s better if we’re friends.” She finished and Liam’s eyes widened.

“That’s not exactly what I planned to say,” he ran his hand through his hair. It was a nervous twitch that he had and the one Victoria always noticed.

“You probably would say something more elaborate with your lovely accent; mine is just a short, harsh, American version of it,” she tried to laugh but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“I… wasn’t trying to break up with you… I mean… We’re not dating…Or are we?”

“No… I think? I don’t know… I thought, after yesterday…” she trailed off and quickly composed herself. “I probably got carried away. I’m sorry. I understood it all wrong. Of course we can be friends.”

Liam blinked a few times trying to understand her chaotic speech. She truly was the most interesting woman he ever met.

“No, I thought the same. I mean, about dating. I mean…” Goodness, he was awkward. For someone who gave speeches on a daily basis, he was very inarticulate at the moment. “I never asked you properly to be my girlfriend but I would very much like you to be one.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “So that’s what you wanted to talk about? I assumed you wanted to stop seeing me.”

“No! Never!” The owner of the restaurant looked up from his phone at Liam’s raised voice. “I don’t want to stop seeing you. Quite the opposite, I was hoping we could see each other more but I wasn’t sure if you would want to.” Because I’m the King of the country, my schedule is busy and I lied to you, he added in his thoughts.

“Why wouldn’t I want to? Liam, I might have met you recently but I feel like I know a lot about you. And I told you a lot about me, too. And… And even though, I’m not the first to jump into a relationship like that, I feel that what we have… would be a good base for our… relationship. I think,” she mumbled.

Liam closed his eyes. She did know him. She knew him better than all the nobles he’d known for ages. She got to know the side of him that was unavailable for everyone else. She got to know Liam. And he couldn’t pretend he didn’t like it. He loved being Liam. Not King Liam. Liam. Just Liam. And he could be that with her.

“Does it mean… you do want to…” He started, unsure of where he was going.

“Be your girlfriend?” He smiled at her faintly. “Absolutely.”

~~~~

“So just for the record.” Drake was pacing back and forth in Liam’s bedroom. “You met up with her to tell her the truth… But ended up asking her to be your girlfriend… Without actually telling her the truth?”

“So it may seem.”

“Are you crazy?!”

“Drake, please. I know what you’re trying to tell me but I have no idea what to do.”

“Um… tell her truth?! Maybe?”

“I wish it was that easy,” Liam huffed.

“Would be easier if you told her who you are from the very beginning.”

“I know! I tried! I couldn’t! I don’t… I don’t want to lose her,” he added quietly.

After lunch, Liam took her on a walk and they spend a whole day talking and kissing. He felt so happy he couldn’t say anything. To say he scared to lose her would be an understatement. He was terrified.

“Listen, Li… You know I want the best for you but the chances that you’ll lose her are higher when she doesn’t know. The longer you wait… Let me just say, it may end very badly for you.”

Liam sighed as Drake left his room. He knew it. He knew he shouldn’t wait so long with telling her. But for some reason, being with her made him forget about being a King.

How could he ever bring that up?

~~~~

He couldn’t tell her.

They met up every single day for almost two weeks and the topic was never brought up. He couldn’t. When he was with her, he forgot about the whole world.

Every evening, when he came back to the palace, with a lovesick smile on his face, he couldn’t look Drake in the eyes because he knew what his best friend would tell him.

And he’d be right.

But Drake never saw the way Victoria looked at him. He didn’t know how Victoria made Liam feel. And he could never know, how nearly impossible it was for a King to find something like that.

He was equally surprised and happy that Victoria still hadn’t figured out who he was. He once broached the subject and Victoria told him she never checked the Internet or television or read any magazines. She said she hated gossip and didn’t want to read anything about her online. Liam sighed with relief at her words. His secret was safe, at least for a little longer.

He was also happy when Victoria told him she prolonged her stay in Cordonia. She finished shooting all of her scenes but decided to stay a bit longer, at least until Hana would be finished with her scenes. Which meant she was staying for at least five more weeks.

That meant five more weeks with her.

And five more weeks of hiding the truth.

~~~~

Victoria was walking to her hotel straight from the set. It was a beautiful day, sunny but cold, and she decided to take a longer way home. Besides going on set and dates with Liam, she didn’t walk anywhere by herself. She didn’t have to. Liam showed her around and she felt she knew Cordonia very well. She was strolling along the street, admiring the view when she noticed two girls, teenagers maybe, pointing their fingers at her and laughing.

Oho, someone does watch my crappy movies and recognizes me.

She smiled at them and walked past them, ignoring the laughter.

Victoria didn’t even manage to walk five more meters before she noticed a woman sizing her up.

Another fan? She wondered as she smiled lightly. The woman didn’t like it. She came up to Victoria and jostled her.

“What are you doing?” Victoria asked but the woman spitted on her.

“Whore!” She yelled, making all the passersby stop and look at them.

“Excuse me? I think you mistook me for someone.” Victoria took a step back. She never played a whore in any movie and she was sure the woman made a mistake.

“You’re a whore! Leave our King alone, you American bitch! You won’t get famous using him!” The woman yelled. Victoria quickly backed away, noticing a few people taking photos. She ran back to her hotel room and closed the door. To calm down, she took a long shower and made herself a cup of tea.

“Tori?” She heard Hana call out.

“Here!” Victoria answered from her bedroom. Now that she was calm, she decided to go online and see why people were taking pictures of her and what happened. She had an uneasy feeling that the woman didn’t make any mistake, however, she still didn’t understand what she was saying.

“You okay? I’ve heard someone attacked you on the street?”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t an attack. I think a lady mistook me for someone. But some people took pictures of me and I want to check if they wrote anything.”

Hana nodded and sat down next to her friend as Tori opened a new tab and googled her name. Both Victoria and Hana raised their eyebrows when they saw the headlines:

American Media Whore Seduces the King! How Victoria Brooks, an actress known to no one is using King Liam to get on top. EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS.

With shaking hands Victoria opened the article, chewing on her bottom lip nervously. Hana looked at her concerned.

“I don’t understand, Tori… You met the King?”

“I didn’t! I never even saw him!” Victoria was nearly crying. “He never showed up at the dinner and I never heard of him again!”

Victoria closed her eyes as the page was loading. She always hated attention but it seemed like she couldn’t escape it. But who came up with such lies?

The page loaded and Victoria saw pictures of her and Liam; their date in the park, when they were leaving her hotel, them kissing on the beach… But what did it have to do with the King?

She turned to Hana and saw her friend, staring at the photos with her eyes wide open in shock.

“That’s… the guy you’ve been seeing?” Her voice was almost a whisper.

“Yes. That’s Liam. I just don’t understand it… Is he related to the King? Or what?”

“Tori… This is the King. Liam. King Liam. He’s the King of Cordonia.”

#choices #the royal romance #the royal heir #king liam #playchoices #liam rys #king liam x mc #liam x mc #trr #choices trr #trr liam #my fic

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aurora-the-kunoichi · 4 years

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For The Love Of Shell - Chapter Forty Five

Another installment of my bullshit! It’s looonnnggg too!

Full Story Here

It was the soft chirping of birds that awoke Leo first, stretching his long limbs above his head he yawned having had the best sleep he had in almost a year. The scent of their activities still lingered in the air and when he moved his arm over the large bed Leo the spot next to him empty and cool. Lurching up from bed he looked to the spot Aurora laid a few hours ago still crumbled from the weight of her body.

“Damnit.”

She had left sometime in the early morning leaving him alone and unaware of her departure. Letting a heavy sigh leave him Leo flopped back down on the bed groaning in frustration. He had hoped that……who was he kidding, what did he really expect? That an apology and a few orgasms would set everything right in one night? Being alone this morning without so much as a goodbye was what he should have expected. But it didn’t make it hurt any less. Last night was more than miraculous, having her in his arms again, kissing her, hearing his name fall blissfully from her lips again was everything he had wanted, everything that he missed.

Short lived as it was Leo would savor last night’s memory until the end of his days. He had just hoped it wouldn’t be the last time he would get to enjoy her in that way. He wanted forever.

The walk of shame back to the healer’s quarters was agonizing. Once he entered through the threshold of the healer’s quarters Leo found his two youngest brothers sitting next to Raph who was now strong enough to sit up in bed. Thank god for the mutagen that coursed through their veins. As they saw him enter Donnie and Mikey jumped to their feet running towards their leader bombarding him with questions.

“Where have you been?” Donnie questioned pulling his eldest back to Raphael.

Mikey grumbled behind his brothers as the genius guided him towards their recovering brother. “We were worried sick about you!”

Reaching the hothead Leo watched his younger brother eye him up and down as if he were gauging his current mood. Then Raph closed his eyes and Leo saw his nostrils flare and his tongue dart from his mouth. Ever so slowly Raph’s lips curling into a devilish grin. “I can smell her on ya fearless, you didn’t do what I think you did, did ya? Because that could possibly make things worse with her.”

Donnie cocked his head giving both his brothers a puzzled look, “What are you talking about? Smell who on Leo?” Leaning towards his older brother Donnie scented the air around him and released an uncharacteristic growl. “Oh…” his three fingered hand came to rest over his mouth startled by his animalistic reaction.

Mikey shrugged his shoulders copying Don and Raph and they watched their little bother’s eye dilate releasing his own deep rumble. “Aurora.”

Raphael adjusted himself to face his red-faced brother. “Ya had sex with Aurora last night.”

Donnie’s brown orbs flashed with anger; his mouth snapping shut in a thin line. Mikey’s baby blues burned into his soul showing disappointment in his brothers’ inability to take things slow. Their icy glares made him want to hide in his shell, something he hadn’t done since he was a child.

“How could you have been so careless? Where is she now?” his genius brother growled angrily at his eldest for the first time in his life, the vibrations of his reprimand giving Leo goosebumps of shame.

“I…I don’t know, she was gone when I woke up.” Leo felt so small right now with his three brothers glowering at him. Did he ruin everything by going to her room last night? He was the one who broke her heart, and he went to her room. But he had gone in fully intent on just talking to her, to apologize, hoping to repair some of the damage he had done a year ago. Sex had not been the plan. They had fought together; she had saved Raph and his lives. He thought it was a good change to mend fences, did he just mess it all up?

“I can’t believe you did something so irresponsible Leo? You entered into her room in the middle of the night after an emotional battle. Did you actually think she would be able to tell you no? You broke up with her Leo, knowing full well she is still in love with you!” Donnie’s posture was tense, his fists clenched but he was looking down at the floor unable to look his brother in the eye.

The last sentence stung, and Leo grew slightly angry himself. “I’m in love with her too you know! I didn’t plan on having sex with her; I just went in there with the intent on just talking and telling her I was sorry and that I still loved her. She had been avoiding me like the plague since we first saw her, I just needed to get her alone, to explain things. One thing led to another and it just…happened.”

“Sex doesn’t just happen bro.” Mikey cut in dropping down next to Raph, his arms folded over his chest.

The turtle in red grumbled testing his wound with a tentative push of his two fingers. “If you forgot Leo, we all love her, she’s not just yours…...” Letting out a frustrated huff Raphael pinched the bridge between his eyes. “All I know is it better not be another year before we see her again because you couldn’t keep it in your pants oh fearless leader.”

Soon Gyoji and Master Splinter made their way into the large room. Gyoji stopped a few feet from the brothers while Splinter moved next his eldest.

“My son,” He started. “Your brothers were worried when you disappeared last night. They insisted coming to find you, but I told them you would return when you had finished with what you felt you needed done. By the look on your faces, I gather it did not go as planned?”

“No Sensei.”

Splinter’s hand came to rest on Leo’s forearm making the leader look down at the aging rat, “We must remember my son, time heals all things. There is no manual for life, mistakes are bound to happen so we must be patient and learn from our failings. Give Aurora time, her love for you all is boundless and nothing will sway her from those feelings. Yesterday’s trials were hard, but they set us on the path for reconciliation. I will give you a bit of good news though my sons, you will see her yet again today.”

The news brought smiles back to their faces as all expect Raph stood to hear more.

Splinter turned to Gyoji who took the invitation to address the family. “Honored ones, the kingdom thanks you for your help in saving our Daimyo, we are forever in your debt.” Gyoji bowed to them in respect and continued. “Despite yesterday’s horrible events, the award ceremony for the Battle Nexus Championship will still be held in Michelangelo’s honor. It will be held when the sun is at its highest this day. The second-place winner will also be recognized.”

Mikey got excited smacking Raph in the arm but regretted it instantly hearing his brother groan in pain. “Oh sorry bro! Dude, I’m so sorry…..so, she’s still here?”

“Yes Ms. Yoshi is still present in the nexus and plans on attending the ceremony. You all will be allowed up at the podium with your brother as he accepts his award. The Daimyo doesn’t want you separated from each other. Raphael the healers have informed me you as well enough to be brought up as well so you don’t miss this joyous occasion.”

Raphael rolled his eyes watching Mikey’s face nearly burst from happiness. “Yea, it’s joyous alright. He ain’t neva gonna let us live this down.”

“Nope.” Was Michelangelo’s quick response brushing off imaginary dust from his shoulders.

When the time came, Raphael with the help of his brothers was settled into a wheeled chair, gathered their belongings and made their way to the Daimyo’s platform high above the battle nexus’s arena. The other three brothers towered over their father but remained behind as the old ninja master lead the way.

As they made their way up into the Daimyo’s personal perch above the championship the blonde and purple of Aurora’s hair came into view. She was currently kneeling before the seated sullen ruler speaking softly. Her right hand was resting atop his large one in comfort and the edges of his lips lifted to a small smile. He pulled it from beneath hers and rested his massive palm on the top of her head before running it downs the side of her face to give her a gentle pat on her check. The Daimyo nodded and spoke a few whispered words which in turn made the kunoichi smile.

They watched the private interaction until the pair became aware of their audience and stood to greet them.

Aurora was dressed in black pants with grey knee-high boots. Her upper half was covered in a sheer blue shirt with a white tank underneath and a long necklace that hung just below her breasts. The blue in her attire did not go unnoticed to Leo who found it difficult to keep his eyes off the woman. Just hours before she was beneath him, naked, writhing…….calm down. This is not the time or the place.

“My friends,” The Daimyo started softly, breaking from Aurora to approach the family of five. “I know this trip has been a mix of ups and downs.” The old man swallowed hard as if trying to bury his anxious sadness. “We are in your debt for your help yesterday and of course from a year ago. If it wasn’t for you five.” The Daimyo turned slightly to address Aurora as well who stayed a few feet away. “This dimension and no doubt the rest would be in peril. You will always be honored heroes of the nexus and are always welcome with the highest regard. But this day is a happy occasion; we honor Michelangelo for his triumph in the Battle Nexus Championship as well as Aurora for runner up.” His hands reached out for the pair. “Come, it is time to present you to the people.”

Without hesitation Mikey approached the Daimyo, he was quick to bow and the ruler’s sad eyes brightened just a little at the youngest gusto. Turning to Aurora the Daimyo held out his hand which she took and he pulled them forward to the massive opening bring them into view of the mass crowd below. As they looked down at the swaying masses the arena erupted into applause.

The Daimyo took both their hands and raised them high which made the roaring thunder rise to near ear splitting decimals.

“My fellow warriors!” the sorrow that filled his voice was gone. Strong and booming followed his words as he put on a show for the masses. “This year’s Championship was found with great success! You honor us with your courage and strength! This year we are graced with a new champion and runner up in their first year to compete. Not only are they fierce fighters but also part of a team that has saved its Daimyo twice! Our runner up is a human from 3rd Earth Aurora Yoshi!”

He held her hand higher in his excitement virtually pulling her from her feet. She stumbled a bit trying to stay on her tippy toes but a palm to his side stabilized her enough until he realized her predicament and lowered her down to the flats of her feet. “Last year she stopped an arrow from finding its place in my skull and helped us defeat Tigerclaw and his army.” From his robes he pulled a bright purple ribbon with a silver medallion attached at the bottom. He lifted it high and passed the ribbon over her head settling it around her neck. “We thank you for your part in the championship and your help in keeping this kingdom safe.”

Aurora nodded and was turned forward one more time to be presented to the crowd.

As the Daimyo turned to address the crowd once again Mikey turned to find Aurora smiling at him. She held out her hand which he accepted getting a squeeze. He couldn’t hear her over the ruckus from below and the bellowing of the massive man before them, but he could read her lips, ‘I’m proud of you.’

Then he was abruptly pulled from her view and brought to the edge of the platform, his hand was raised with the same enthusiasm and the crowd screamed. It started slowly; muffled words swelling into his name growing in volume until everyone in the arena was chanting. Mikey ate up the attention bowing and adding a little flare with a back flip.

The Daimyo came up to Mikey resting his hand on his shoulder, “Michelangelo proved himself worthy yesterday to be among the hall of champions. He also along with his brothers alongside Aurora saved this dimension twice over with the defeat of Drako and… my son Ue-Sama yesterday and ending the war with Tigerclaw last year. We are forever grateful!”

Pulling another ribbon from his robes, this time a vibrant orange to match his mask and a large gold medallion at its end the Daimyo presented Michelangelo with his award. Mikey bowed his head to accept the award with pride. As he stood back to his full height he found his family’s admiration beaming with each face he saw. “You honor your family with your skills and your dedication to your craft Michelangelo. You should be proud of yourself because I know your family is.”

With slow hands the ruler turned the young mutant to face him; Mikey could see the tears in his eyes. Despite the happy face he was showing the Daimyo was in pain, an immense amount that he was now struggling to keep contained. His smile thinned and faltered so Mikey reached up giving him a much needed embrace. This was when he could feel him shaking and waved his hand to Aurora.

The kunoichi took the cue and pulled the Daimyo from his grip and away from the prying eyes of the crowd.

Mikey did one more bow and waved, “See you all next time!” before throwing a smoke bomb disappearing from the ledge getting another roar from the captivated crowd.

The Daimyo allowed Aurora to escort him from the balcony and too Splinter and his sons. “I am truly thankful for your help yesterday, all of you. But I’k sure you all wish to return to your homes for rest.” His hand rose waving Gyoji over. “Aurora you will be sent home today, Gyoji will return you to the location he retrieved you from. Old friend I’m sorry but your son is not yet healthy enough to take the trip through the dimensional portal. The energy within would rip his wound wide open. Raphael must remain here until his wounds have healed more.”

“We shall stay behind as well if that is alright with you?”

“You and your family are always welcome.”

Letting go of the large man Aurora went to her bag and swung it over her shoulder. “Thank you my Daimyo, and thank you for everything. I am sorry about Ue-Sama, I truly am. But I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of him or Drako.”

“As a father I hope you are right about my son but as a ruler I hope you are wrong.”

Leo could feel the panic rising in his chest. He hadn’t thought about what would happen when this was over. She was leaving again and they would have no way to contact her. How long would it be before they saw her again? He moved on instinct stepping towards her, his hand came out to rest on her shoulder. “W-when will….where?”

At the contact Aurora looked over her shoulder and tried to keep her composure as his beautiful blue eyes bore into her soul. She knew what he wanted but she wasn’t ready to give them her location. Not yet, soon but not yet.

Splinter’s paw came down on his forearm and Leo released her shoulder, “My dear when you are ready you know where to find us. Our door has and will always be open to you my child.”

As the white portal opened to her destination Aurora turned to the Daimyo and bowed and turned to do the same to Master Splinter. “Till next time.” She called before slipping through threw the light and disappearing from their life again.

The Daimyo saw the expressions on their faces as the portal snapped shut swallowing up their kunoichi. His hands came down on Leonardo’s and Splinters shoulders. “Come my friends let us go get lunch.”

It took two more days for Raphael to be well enough to travel home. Gyoji conjured up another portal, the swirling white light meant home, a proper shower and pizza. The Daimyo face grew solemn and reached down to the old rat. His large arms wrapped around Splinter’s small frame but was careful to do no harm.

“My friend please treasure your sons for you never know when it will be the last day you will see them.” They could hear his old voice struggling with his words as he clung to the old rat. Then his head lifted and looked at the four brothers and smiled passed his sorrow. “Give her time, she still loves you all. I could see the inner turmoil tearing her apart.”

“Until we meet again my old friend. I shall do my best to come see you more often. My sons are grown and require less observation so I should be able to get away.”

A gentle smile lifted the ruler’s lips, “I would love that my old friend. I look forward to it.”

With one final bow the family of five said their farewells and stepped through the portal into the large space below the city streets that was their home.

As they crossed over the threshold into the lair Donnie’s com rang and a very worried April came over the speaker into the genius’s ear. Pressing his finger to the device in his ear he began to listen to their friend. “Yes April, Raph is doing fine. Thankfully the mutagen in our blood has sped up his recovery tremendously. He’ll be back to giving us hell and crushing skulls in a week or two. How did you know? She what? For how long? I see, yes you can come over. See you in 20.”

“How did April know about Raph already?” Leo asked helping their Sensei to the kitchen table.

“Aurora…..I guess she’s been in contact with April the past couple weeks. Aurora called her yesterday when she got back to our dimension letting her know about the fight and to check up on us. She’s ahhh coming over with pizza for us and sushi for sensei.”

Leo looked back at Donnie as he filled the kettle for tea, his mouth open in disbelief. Aurora had been missing for a year and she had started talking to April a couple of weeks ago and April didn’t tell them? The blue leader was upset but refused to vocalize it since he himself might have dashed their chances to reconnect with Aurora themselves. Finishing up filling the kettle Leo started the burner and set the kettle on top of the stove. His attention returned to his injured father helping him to the bathroom.

“You’ll feel better after a shower Sensei, and your tea will be ready when you get out.”

Weary and tired Master Splinter thanked his son before closing the door. He was looking forward to a hot shower and his own bed tonight, of course after a hot cup of soothing tea. After a few moments Leo heard the shower start and the shower curtain pull closed. Assured his father was ok Leo returned to the kitchen and started to prepare the tea leaves and steeper for his father’s tea.

Looking up from his task Leo found his brothers scattered over the lair. Seeing Raph sitting on the couch pressing his finger to his covered wound Leo sighed making his way over to his brute of a brother.

Sitting down next to him Leo grabbed Raph’s hand preventing another jab to the bandage setting it down on his lap, “What the shell are you doing Raph?”

“Feeling.” Raph grumbled crossing his arms over his chest wincing at the shooting pain in his side. “Is that ok with you?”

“Why w…” before he could finish, the whirlwind of April tore through the lair heading straight for Raph and himself. In her left hand she carefully balanced four pizzas and on her right slung a bag from their favorite sushi stop. Setting the goodies down on the coffee table April sat down next to the two turtles and immediately started fussing over Raphael. After a few moments Raph visible softened to their human friend and allowed her to clean his wound with the fresh supplies Donnie had just brought over.

April had gotten into the familiar rhythm of taking care of her friends each time they came home from patrol battered and bruised. Over the past year as the operations of the purple dragons increased she saw more blood and dark marks on the brothers than she cared to witness. Thankfully none had been life threatening until this day. This was the first time a wound could have been mortal. When she had gotten the phone call from Aurora she could tell Aurora had been worried. The attack on the family was troublesome and set her on edge. Even the hitch in Aurora’s voice as she gave a short detail of the attack sent a heavy chill through her body. Looking to the Leader next to Raph she took note of his bandaged hand and winced remembering the story behind it.

That hand saved them both, Raph and himself by grabbing the business end of a sword. The sharp metal sliced through his palm and fingers like warm butter before coming to a halt from the pure strength of his grip. It was a testament to Leo’s commitment to his never ending training and continuing pursuit to perfect his body. Leo was always looking to get better, always ready to defend his family and had proven many times the dutiful leader always putting himself in danger to keep his family safe. Splinter had made the right choice to put the blue banded terrapin in charge.

After ever bit of food she had brought into the lair was consumed by the guy’s ravenous appetite April watched Leo shift in his seat suddenly looking a little suspicious. His bandaged hand ran over his blade crown and released a long drawn out sigh. Even before he said anything she knew who the question would be about.

“Have you seen her since she contacted you?” His usual commanding voice wavered at the subject of his question.

“I haven’t seen her yet but I know she’s back in the city somewhere. She keeps promising to meet up for dinner but her current project has kept her pretty busy.”

“Current project?” Donnie cocked his head at the notion from across the kitchen table.

“Not sure yet, she’s being pretty secretive about it but she assured me I’ll get to see it when it’s done. Not gonna lie, I’m super stoked. It’s been way too long. How did she look?”

Leo watched April from across the table asking about Aurora. He could see the hesitancy in her features like she was playing with something fragile. She didn’t want to upset him but she wanted to know. Then the soft smile turned excited and she nearly jumped from her chair.

“Wait! Who won the Battle Nexus Championship?!” Her big beautiful eyes scanned each brother waiting anxiously for an answer.

“You mean SHE didn’t tell you?” Raph laughed leaning back on his chair testing the strength of the old metal on the vintage chair.

“All she told me was it was someone I knew.”

Mikey’s sudden push of his chair sent the thing teetering dangerously on the kitchens platforms edge as he stood. His thumbs hooked under the straps of his harness and pushed them forward as if they were suspenders. The soft ridges of his eyes wagged as he stepped away from the table and took a sliding side step towards April. “You anglecakes, have the privilege of looking upon a bona fide multi dimensional battle nexus champion.”

April could barely contain the squeal of excitement for the youngest brother. Jumping from her chair she ran into his arms giving him a long hug. “Mikey I’m so proud of you! I knew all that extra training would pay off! Did you get a trophy or something?”

“Yeah I got a gold medallion and there will be a statue made in my likeness in the hall of champions. You should have heard the crowd, it was killer!”

“Who did you beat to win?” April asked letting go of Mikey returning to her chair.

“Aurora.”

“Oh damn.” April gawked at Mikey.

“Yeah tell me about it.” Mikey’s smile grew.

Donnie shifted in his chair trying to get the woman’s attention and leaned towards April setting his chin in his hands batting his big brown eyes, “So are you going to give me Aurora’s new phone number?”

April gave him a half hearted smile shaking her head, “Sorry guys, she told me not to give you the number yet. She’s not ready yet and Don if you hack my phone to get it none of us will hear from her again. Don’t push the issue and let her come back on her own time. I could tell by the tone of her voice the other day she was struggling with seeing you guys, she misses you all, just know that.”

April stayed for another hour before having to return home to get ready for work in the morning. Soon after, the lair was dark as the turtles and their sensei retired to their own beds for some rest. It had been a stressful few days and the comfort of their own sanctuary brought sleep early.

It had been a few weeks since their return from the battle nexus championship and things were returning back to normal. After two weeks of highly resented rest Raphael was healed enough to be able to return to patrols with his brothers.

Their current location was running over rooftops heading towards the newest lead their genius brother had figured out for the Purple Dragons. The chill in the night air indicated the change to fall, from what trees that were dispersed around the city started to change colors.

“You better be right about this warehouse Donnie, wrestling was about to start.”

“Yeah yeah Raph, from what reliable sources I found something big is going down with the Purple Dragons tonight. Rebecca wanted us to check it out first before she sent in the Calvary. The one word that kept popping up in the black market chat sites kept saying something about weapons.” Donnie used his bo staff to help himself vault over the next roof landing just behind Leo who had stopped holding his hand up in a silent order to halt.

As they crept over to the warehouse in question the four brothers looked down into the alleyway finding several large trucks with their doors open awaiting their unknown cargo. There were only a few bodies below watching the trucks so Leonardo signaled the move to the roof of the warehouse to get a better look. A skylight in the far corner of the roof gave the best vantage point and they made their way over peering down below.

“Jackpot.” Raphael whispered happily pulling his sai from their holsters on his harness. As usual the large mutant was itching for a fight.

Below was the largest gathering of the Purple Dragons they had seen so far. From what they could see there were at least 50 of the scumbags crowded around a hulk of a man. The first thing they noticed was his stark white long hair braided midway down his back. With the stature almost comparable to Raphael and with a large purple dragon on his left arm that spanned from his shoulder all the way down to his fist, this guy looked like bad news.

The promise of a challenge made Raph giddy with excitement.

“That has to be their leader, Hun. We’ve never seen him before and from the way they are all looking to him screams man in charge.” Leo mused scanning over the inside of the warehouse finding several large crates on the opposite side of the gathered Purple Dragons.

Catching their attention a door adjacent from the gang members swung open and several heavily armed men filtered into the large space below coming to meet Hun. Soon after, a tall but well built man in a black leather coat and dark aviator sunglasses entered moving his way through the armed men coming almost nose to nose with Hun.

Leo looked to his brothers and held his finger to his mouth needing silence and carefully lifted the skylight giving them a chance to hear the exchange from down below.

The man in the leather coat spoke first pulling his glasses from his face addressing the gargantuan boss and his lackeys. “Hun, I presume.” He started, smiling when he got a quick nod from the large man. “I presume we have a deal then? I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but your reputation and size of your operation makes you a valuable ally. Plus, I need results sooner than later. If I give you these weapons you and your men will keep an ear to the ground and report back to me any type of unusual activity in the streets. After that large ship assembled itself above Manhattan a few years ago the government has been on high alert now fully aware we are in fact no longer alone in this universe. There has been a little birdie chirping in my ear and there has even been talk from your own men of four large green mutants taking out your operations lately. I want to know if there is any truth to these accusations and if so I want them taken alive. I would like to study them to find out what makes them tick. From what I’ve heard they were highly trained and have enhanced strength. They could be some use to me.”

Hun eyed the large crates with interest all the while cracking his oversized knuckles. “So you’re telling me the government is gonna give us these weapons to be their look out? All we gotta do is keep an eye out for the weird freaky shit and let ya know?”

The man sighed pinching the bridge of his nose, “No, this isn’t coming from the government you idiot. If they knew I was supplying a hostile territorial gang with weapons, my funding would be cut. This is under their radar, off the books you hear me you big baboon. This cannot get back to me you hear me.”

“No need to get nasty, I hear ya. How do I get a hold of you if I come across these….freaks?”

The movement to quick to see the man pulled a small white card from the breast pocket of his jacket and handed it to Hun. “Call this number and ask for the name on the card.”

At those words Leo turned to his brothers giving them a tight frown. Not only were these animals about to get weapons from some government reject but they were looking for them as well? This wasn’t good. Leo moved away from the opening and addressed his three brothers quickly, “We have to stop this, those trigger happy idiots can’t get their hands on those high tech weapons. We need to figure out who this guy is and what section of the government he’s part of. Donnie contact Rebecca and get some back up over here asap.”

Donnie nodded and turned away to contact the chief of police and Leo turned to his other two brothers who were awaiting their instructions. “Once Donnie is done we’re gonna cut those lights and take them out. We know the skill set of a Purple Dragon, but those government men look like they’re expertly trained along with those weapons, so be careful with them. The plan is just to keep them busy until the Calvary shows up, they can take it from there and keep things legit. Stay safe and alive.”

Donnie hung up his com turning back around, “They are on the way, should be here is 10-15 minutes.”

Returning their attention back to the gathering below Leo motioned for the genius to do his thing. With one push of a button on his wrist the large space below them was plunged it into darkness. The reaction was almost instantaneous bringing loud and angry cursing from within the pitch black void.

Taking their cue Leo lifted the skylight fully and the four brothers drop down into the darkness ready to stop the exchange no matter the cost. Thankfully with all the confusion of the lighting failure their presence to the unwitting party had gone unnoticed. This gave them the upper hand and the element of surprise which they took full advantage of and attacked. Quickly and quietly the four turtles took out the first 10 Purple Dragons before the rest of the large room’s inhabitance became aware of the threat.

As flashlights were found and turned-on, streaks of green whipped by in the streams of light startling the men.

“It’s them!” Someone yelped in the darkness before being silenced by Raphael.

“Someone get those goddamned lights back on now!” Hun growled before being tackled to the ground by the hurdling weight of Leonardo. Immediately the large man began to fight the unexpected weight holding him to the ground. Leo watched the man’s eyes widen in shock blocking a blow from his fist. Hun couldn’t make out too much in the darkness, but he could see his large silhouette hovering above him. “Get off me!”

Finding that Hun was stronger than he anticipated Leo was able to get a few blows in before he was unceremoniously thrown over Hun’s head landing on two Purple Dragons. Getting to his feet he avoided as much of the lights that desperately searched for the hidden attackers. Leo leapt from the ground swinging up into the rafters to find his brothers who were now scattered around the warehouse.

Mikey was the farthest way taking on four gang members single handily. Donnie was fiddling with something by the crates hopefully figuring out a way to keep the guns from the Purple Dragon’s greedy hands. And then there was Raph who had just found Hun and like two unmovable forces colliding Leo could have sworn he felt the shockwave from their kinetic energy.

Then Leo noticed the strange man and his subordinates staying back away from the fight. One of them was working on a tablet just behind the man in the glasses. What was he doing?

Thankfully most of the Purple Dragons were down for the count not including Hun who Raph was still working on, so all they needed to deal with was the governments men. When the lights hummed back to life engulfing the once dark space Leo knew what the man was working on. To Leo’s horror Mikey and Raph were out in the open exposed in full view of the strange government man and his men. He watched the man pull his glasses from his face and wicked smile curled up his wide mouth.

“So you are real?” he laughed manically stepping closer to the two visible turtles.

Hun looked up at the beast he was fighting and stepped back in shock, “F-freak! There are freaks in the city!”

“Freaks?” Raph growled at the large man. “You’re the freak asshole. You’re the abomination to this city, stealing and killing for financial gain.” His large fist reared back and slammed into Hun’s face sending the man sprawling back head over heels.

Now Raph and Mikey stood in the middle of the room weapons in hand ready to continue the fight. Leo watched from above, his attention on his two brothers and on the genius high in the pile of crates. Donnie finished and turned to look at his eldest brother giving him a thumbs up.

As the cluster of men started forward towards Raph and Mikey, Leo pulled a kunai from his hip and threw it down embedding into the floor of the warehouse. The blade a warning stopped the government men in their tracks. Their eyes rose to the ceiling and followed the large green mass land a few feet from them blocking their view from the other two turtles.

“Another one? Interesting? How many of you are there?” the man cooed stepping over the blade to face the large mutant in blue.

Leo stood his ground folding his arms over his chest, “What kind of government official hands over deadly weapons to a gang well known for their brutality and violence?” his voice was dripping with venom taking a step forward.

The men behind the new threat took notice and started to engage but the man held his hand up stopping their movement. “What are you? I must know.”

“That is none of your business and you will leave us alone.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that mutant. It’s in my nature to know the unknown and you are making my head spin with excitement. I’ll find out what you are and if I have to dissect you to do that, then so be it.”

Leo growled at the thought of his brothers tied up opened up like a can of sardines. His hands clenched into fists ready to wail on the man but Donnie waved at him getting his attention. Signaling the emanate explosion Donnie swung up into the rafters waiting impatiently for his brother.

The strange man followed Leo’s line of sight and found another mutant swinging up to safety, “And there was four.” He hissed returning his gaze back to the mutant before him.

Leo side stepped and looked back to see Raph and Mikey already gone. Pulling a smoke pellet from his belt he threw it to the floor engulfing him in a dark blue smoke. In the confusion he slipped to safety. As Leo was clear Donnie detonated the bomb sending debris flying everywhere, flames roaring over the crates engulfing them.

As the men got to their feet they all converged on the leader helping him to his feet.

“Sir, we have to get out of here.”

“Bishop!” another called.

“Yes, yes let’s head back to base. I have a report to write.”

@imthegreenfairy88 @bluesakurablossom @alonia143 @ravn-87 @blossom-skies @tmntspidergirl

#tmnt #tmnt leonardo #tmnt raphael #tmnt donatello #tmnt michelangelo #Fortheloveofshell #chapter forty five #tmnt fanfiction #tmnt fandom #tmnt fic #TMNT TMNT fanfiction

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clara-licht · 4 years

Text

Just Out of Touch | Part Two

PART 2 OF 2

Summary: Midtown’s Academic Decathlon team managed to score a field trip to the one and only Stark Industries Headquarter located in Stark Tower, leaving behind a Peter Parker who was not allowed to join for “faking” documents regarding SI internship. In a strike of fortune (or unluckiness) for the team, they had Tony Stark’s own daughter to guide their tour. And she was not happy.

Join their trip through the industry with glimpses of a certain arachnid and a young Stark’s relationship!

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Word Count: 10.4k

Warning: cursing

Note: thank you so much for your enthusiasm in this story! I really didn’t expect this to take off like it did! I hope you can enjoy this one, although I think this chapter might be a little confusing and rushed, especially the ending. As promised, I posted the badges’ designs used in this story yesterday, so check it out by clicking the link below if you’re interested.

Title Inspo: BTS & Zara Larsson - A Brand New Day

Part One | Badge Designs | Best of Me Masterlist | Marvel Masterlist

——————————

Ned looked at MJ, confused. "What was that?"

"I'm not sure." MJ frowned. She glanced at Hecate's exhibition next to Spider-Man's.

Despite being acquainted to Spider-Man, the public knew little to nothing about the vigilante called Hecate. They just showed up out of nowhere one day, focusing mainly on kidnapping cases. Unlike Spider-Man, medias never really said anything incriminating against them, seeing as all they did was found kidnappers, beat them, and returned the children to police stations.

Police officers were wary due to their violent nature against the kidnappers. They always made sure the criminals were beaten half to death. Public supported them, saying kidnappers deserve it, so law enforcers couldn't really do anything.

Yet it seems that (y/n) had something against the hero.

Once everyone was gathered and Mr. Harrington finished his headcount, (y/n) led them back to the elevator, asking FRIDAY to take them to 25th floor.

(Y/n) blinked as something dawned on her, "Merda, I forgot to explain about the tower before the Museum." She clicked her tongue, irritated. "This is why we have interns to do tour!" She grumbled.

The students glanced at each other, confused and unsure about what to do. They didn't want to upset their guide (more than she already was anyway) by saying something they probably shouldn't.

The elevator dinged and they exited. Instead of a reception table like the Hall of Heroes, they were met with cubicles upon cubicles.

"An office?" Flash scoffed, "What are we going to see here? How to sell a phone?"

(Y/n) turned to look at him with a heated glare that made him flinched, "That's exactly what you're going to see. What, do you think an industry can survive only with R&D? Do you even know how real life works?" She snapped venomously, eyes glowing dangerously.

"I'm sorry for his attitude, Miss Stark." Mr. Harrington hurriedly intervened, pushing Flash behind him. "He's just a bit too excited to see the labs, you know, coming from a science school and all…"

Thankfully, a middle-aged woman came and interrupted before (y/n) could possibly curse Flash out. "Welcome to Stark Industries' Marketing Department!" She greeted them with a cheerful grin. "My name is Sarah Keynes and I'm Public Relations Officer! Midtown High School, right?"

"Yes, they're from Midtown. I assume the presentation is ready, Mrs. Keynes?"

"She was basically burning Flash not even a minute ago and now she's so professional-looking, that's awesome." Yasmin whispered to Jason.

Jason nodded and whispered back, "It's like earlier didn't happen at all."

(Y/n)'s back was straight, hands clasped in front of her, chin lifted just a bit, and her expression was mild. She made eye contact with Sarah and her eyes were calm. No one could tell she was livid just a moment ago.

Sarah smiled, "Indeed it is, Miss Stark! We know you will be punctual as you always are. If you would just follow me."

They followed Sarah to a meeting room of sorts on the floor where a small group of people, mostly wearing intern badges, were standing in front of the room. In the middle of the room was a big table surrounded by chairs, which they were asked to sit on. (Y/n) sat on the back of the room, leaning against the wall.

"Once again, welcome to Stark Industries' Marketing Department!" Sarah exclaimed.

"We have some of our team members who will join us in learning about our department here," she gestured at the group of people beside her who waved at the students, "and I promise we're all friendly here, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Let's begin now, shall we?"

One of them, a man in his early thirties with an employee badge, thanked Sarah before opening their presentation.

"Hey guys, my name is Roberto Salvatore, Advertising Manager. Let's start with…"

(Y/n) tuned out once Roberto started the PowerPoint slides. She already knew everything about their Marketing Department, Pepper made sure of it.

——————————

"This is so boring." (Y/n) lamented as she slouched on the table, a tall stack of paper sitting in front of her innocently.

Peter, who was doing his homework, looked at the dejected figure beside him. "Can't help it, you're going to take over the company one day, after all."

"But why do I have to read all of this now?" She pouted. "Why would I need to know every single detail about marketing! I bet dad didn't even know any of this when he was CEO."

"To be fair, he did admit he was a shitty CEO."

(Y/n) grumbled, "Not helping."

Peter let out a laugh and gently ruffled (y/n)'s hair, (y/n) halfheartedly swatting his hand away.

"Hey, Pete."

"Hm?"

She turned her head, now her cheek was pressing against the table and she could look at him directly. "If I don't want to take over SI, will you?"

He tilted his head slightly and looked back into her eyes. "It's called Stark Industries, (y/n). It belongs to Starks."

"I'm dad's only child, as far as we know. Maybe in the future I'll have a younger sibling, but if I don't or we don't want to, who will take over then?" She wondered. "And I know I won't be able to manage the whole company alone. I'm not like Pepper. She always said I'm so much like dad, and you know how he is."

Peter dropped his pen in favor of holding (y/n)'s hand and squeezing it.

"You know Mr. Stark won't force you if you don't want to."

(Y/n) gave a non-committal hum.

"And you know I'll always have your back."

(Y/n) gave another hum.

"So if you ever need help, I'm always available."

(Y/n) suddenly sat up and stared at him with wide eyes. "Wait, you said that Stark Industries belong to Starks only, didn't you?"

"…Yeah?"

She grinned mischievously. "If you marry me, you can take my last name and be a Stark so you can take the company too!"

"WHAT IS THIS ABOUT MARRIAGE?" Tony's loud voice boomed, saving the now red and speechless Peter from having to form any sort of reply.

"PORCO CANE! YOU'RE STILL CHILDREN AND WHO SAID I'M EVER ALLOWING YOU TO MARRY-"

——————————

(Y/n) spent the time working on her newest project schematics through her phone, sometimes looking up when a discussion topic seems interesting. Despite Flash's remark earlier, the group was actually interested in and was invested through the presentation, throwing questions related to the topic here and there. The marketing team had prepared some quizzes related to the presentation and answering students now had a gift bag with them.

"That's a wrap, guys! Let's give an applause for our marketing team!" Sarah clapped her hands, prompting the others to follow.

Realizing the presentation was over, (y/n) glanced at the clock on her phone before putting it away and moved to the front of the room.

"We still have some time before lunch, so I might as well tell you things about the tower I forgot to earlier. Is it okay if we use the room for a bit, Mrs. Keynes?"

"Of course!"

"Thank you."

As the marketing team left the room, (y/n) turned on the projection and put in her credentials. Anyone could access their account from anywhere in the building as long as a capable device was available. This was for the sake of convenience.

(Y/n) found the file she was looking for and accessed it. A hologram of the tower sprung out in the middle of the table, making the group awed.

"You are currently in Stark Industries Headquarter here in Stark Tower. This tower was previously named Avengers Tower, but after the team's fall out, dad sold it. There were complications-" She stopped, frowning.

"Didn't the Vulture's daughter go to your school?"

Some of them squirmed uncomfortably on their chairs.

"Liz was our senior before she moved to Oregon." Betty answered softly. Memories of Liz still hurt her sometimes. She was good friends with her, after all.

Of course, (y/n) actually already knew this.

——————————

"Pete, hey, look at me. Come on."

Grunting, he slowly opened his eyes despite his pounding head that screamed at him to just pass the hell out. He squinted; the soft light emitting from the park's lighting was somehow blinding to him. He didn't notice that it was drizzling until a few drops slid down from his eyebrows.

"(Y/n)…?"

(Y/n) smiled at him. "Hey. Let's get you out of here, okay?" She spoke softly, careful of his senses.

Her words made him realize where he was. "How did you find me?" He asked, voice raspy.

"That's for later. Come on, can you climb down?"

Without replying, Peter gently held (y/n) close to him and jumped down. (Y/n) didn't let out any sound, as if she already guessed Peter was going to do that.

She led him to a car she stole from her dad and strapped him in before reaching for a towel and a soft blanket on the backseat. She gave him the blanket and used the towel to rubbed his hair slowly.

Peter was quiet as he let her dry him. He wasn't drenched; the sky was kind enough not to give a storm and gently pour some droplets instead. Still, he was thankful for the blanket warming him.

Once satisfied with her work, (y/n) threw the towel back to the backseat, went into the driver's seat, and drove away.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Peter looked out the window, sighing heavily. His whole body ached. The pounding in his head hadn't gone away. He was almost 100% sure that he had a concussion.

"Aren't you supposed to be in homecoming right now?" (Y/n) asked again, stealing glances at him while trying to still focus on the road.

For a moment, Peter didn't reply. (Y/n) didn't pester him and kept driving in silence.

"He's her dad."

"Hm?"

"The Vulture. He's Liz's dad."

(Y/n) glanced at him. He looked dead tired. And hurt.

"Liz? The girl you have a crush on?"

Peter nodded slightly. "He hijacked Mr. Stark's moving plane. I had to stop him."

"And you did."

"Yeah, I did…" He trailed off. "But why don't I feel good about it?"

Nobody said anything.

——————————

"Yeah, anyways, he tried to steal our moving cargo and Spider-Man stopped him. Dad then realized it was more of a hassle to leave this tower since it's powered by the arc reactor."

The hologram zoomed at the bottom of the tower, showing the huge arc reactor beneath.

"People would actually kill for its blueprints, you know?" She shook her head. "So he bought this tower back and made it the headquarter for SI. This tower has 100 floors, because dad likes the even number, and top 5 floors are private residential area and private labs."

The group started murmuring amongst themselves. Private residential area?

"When I said residential, I mean it. We live here when we're not out of the city, it's convenient. Of course, dad still has several other houses, but personally, I like this tower the best."

Because it's closer to Peter, she thought.

Besides the arc reactor, one of the reasons Tony had bought the tower back was for Peter. He realized that he couldn't stop the kid from being Spider-Man, with or without the suit. Helping keeping him safe was the least he could do, and if having Stark Tower means easier for Peter to reach when he needed something, then Stark Tower shall remain.

It had nothing to do with (y/n) blowing up at him for taking Peter's protection (the suit, not something else, you dirty minded) and asking (forcing) him to be more active in their mentorship.

Nothing at all.

(Besides, Tony had also developed a soft spot for Peter. He looked at the boy and saw a much better version of himself.)

"The floors are divided into the departments; Marketing, Human Resource Management, Accounting and Finance, Legal, and Research and Development. Other departments like Production and Purchasing are on other branches of SI. Most branches have R&D labs because dad, as I quote, will go crazy if he doesn't have any lab to mess around after a shareholders meeting." She rolled her eyes.

(Y/n) swiped away at the hologram, effectively shutting it down. "Okay, that's it. Now let's go get lunch."

——————————

The cafeteria was bustling. (Y/n) told them they had $40 inside their badge and they could buy any food they wanted from the cafeteria simply by swiping their badge to pay.

"Gather in front of the elevator at 1.30 PM on the dot. Now go eat."

As the group dispersed, she headed back to the elevator and asked FRIDAY to take her to the top floor.

A voice called out her name when she stepped out from the elevator.

"(Y/n)!"

For the first time that day, (y/n) let her lips curved up to a genuinely pleased smile.

Peter was sitting on the sofa in front of the TV, a messy sandwich in his hands and soot on his cheek. His clothes were clean, although his hair was dirty with dust and she could smell something burnt. He must had changed his clothes. It wasn't hard to figure out what he had been up to as he did tell her he was messing up with DUST earlier.

Something must had blown up.

"What did you explode today, Mr. Scientist?" She asked playfully.

"Nothing!"

(Y/n) raised an eyebrow, still smiling.

"…I connected wrong wires when trying to fix DUST's heat sensor."

Chuckling, she shook her head amusedly and made her way to the sofa. Peter handed him a wrapped sandwich after she sat down which she accepted gladly.

"How's your presentation going?" Peter asked between bites.

(Y/n) peeled the sandwich wrapping away, showing the gorgeous rib sandwich practically dripping with warm barbecue sauce. The smell was heavenly.

She took a big bite, moaning quietly as the flavor burst on her tongue.

"I love ribs." She mumbled, still chewing.

After she swallowed, she heaved a sigh. "Presentation was boring. I still have some to do after this, but really, it just feels like a waste of time."

Peter hummed thoughtfully. "What is it about anyway?"

(Y/n), already prepared to answered any questions that he might shoot her, answered easily with a lie, "That upcoming high school internship program dad came up with."

Peter stopped chewing. "That's real?" He asked, frowning.

"Of course it's real!"

"I thought it was just a joke or something to cover my alibi…"

(Y/n) stopped chewing as well and put down her sandwich. "You know, I'm not supposed to tell you this yet," she started slowly, "but dad is planning on making you the head of internship program."

If (y/n) hadn't anticipated it and held a hand in front of Peter, his sandwich would've flown away with how hard he practically jumped out of his seat.

"WHAT?!"

"You're his first of his only two personal interns, who also happen to be the only two interns of SI still in high school. He said it's an obvious choice, to make sure the upcoming high school interns will be more comfortable." She explained, putting Peter's sandwich on the table in front of them. "Pepper agrees with him, so there's that."

Peter's eyes were wide.

"No, no, that's an awful decision!" He stammered. "I'm not leader material! I barely even know what I'm doing! I-I'll mess it up!"

"Pete-"

"You saw me! I blew DUST up because I connected wrong wires! That's such a newbie mistake! And what about Spider-Man? I barely have enough time now, I'll neglect my responsibilities!"

"Hey-"

"And my school! Nobody believe I'm an intern in the first place, but head of program?! Principal Morita will have my head for lying extensively! They already disregard my internship papers anyway-"

(Y/n) pulled Peter down to sit back on the sofa and gently grasp his chin.

"Hey, look at me."

He did.

"Remember what you told me when I said I can't take care of SI alone?"

Peter didn't answer, but his eyes that looked back at (y/n)'s had calmed down slightly.

"I'll always have your back. So if you ever need help, I'm always available." (Y/n) smiled at him. "You don't have to worry about messing up, Pete. You're not doing it alone. Harley will take the position with you and I'll always help if you need me."

Peter sagged on the sofa, crossing his arms. "Still…"

"Also," (y/n) scowled, "this time I'll make sure they believe you, so now worries for that one."

"What do you mean?"

(Y/n) only smirked at him, offering no explanation. "Finish your sandwich, Spidey. I have to go downstairs soon."

Slightly grumbling, Peter reached for his sandwich. "Oh, where's Harley, by the way? I haven't seen him today." He asked before biting into his sandwich again.

"I think he said he wanted to mess around in R&D today."

"Maybe I should visit him later."

——————————

When (y/n) went back downstairs after leaving a pouty Peter with a peck on his cheek, she was greeted with the sight of Ned massaging his shoulder with a grimace amongst his friends. She was actually familiar with Ned and MJ's faces, having seen their pictures whenever Peter told her about his school day. Keeping her dad's words about formality in mind, she didn't show her familiarity at all.

Although now Ned was acting weird. She knew that gesture meant he hurt his shoulder, but what happened during the short time she wasn't there to supervise?

"Mr. Harrington," she called the startled teacher, "is everyone accounted for?"

"Y-Yes, Miss Stark. We're all here and ready to continue."

"Anyone needs bathroom breaks before we leave?"

Several of them lifted their hands.

(Y/n) looked around before catching an intern's eyes.

"Hey! Uh, Miss Macready!"

The intern looked surprised like a deer caught in headlights. Maybe she didn't expect to be called out by her name by the company owner's daughter that day.

She approached (y/n) hesitantly. "Yes, Miss Stark?"

(Y/n) was pleased when she saw her intern badge and found out that she knew the intern's name. She remembered seeing her around when she was in Finance Department.

"Can you show these students to the closest bathroom? I need to address something right now."

"Right away, Miss Stark."

The Finance Department intern, Mindy Macready, beckoned the students to follow her, leaving (y/n) and a handful of the leftover students in front of the elevator. Mr. Harrington had gone with the rest.

Seeing the students were occupied with talking between themselves, (y/n) moved closer to Ned who was still massaging his shoulder and talking with MJ in hushed voices.

"Mr. Leeds."

Ned turned around quickly, expression not unlike Mindy when (y/n) called her earlier.

"(Y/n) Stark knows my name…" He muttered in disbelief.

Ignoring his mumbling, (y/n) asked, "What happened to your shoulder?"

He hadn't even gotten over his surprise of (y/n) knowing his name, but now she noticed his pain?

Ned could only gape, leaving MJ to respond, "A kid in our class is a jerk."

(Y/n) narrowed her eyes in displeasure. "And does this kid called himself Flash?" She sneered.

At this point, MJ wasn't surprised that (y/n) had known about Flash. She deduced that Peter must have told her a lot more than just Flash anyway, so she only nodded curtly.

"You don't have to tell me what happened, I'll find out later. Thank you, Miss Jones."

(Y/n) took them to visit Legal Department where the Director, a surprisingly young man on his late 20s or early 30s named Isaac Latimer-Reed, talked to them briefly about what his department deal with. SI's Legal Department didn't only handle cases related to their products and company name; SI had included legal aid in each of their employee's contract. Tony had put some of his best lawyers to work in the company instead of just for himself. Shall an employee ever find themselves in a situation where they needed legal aid but couldn't afford it, SI had their backs.

"So if someone is in a fight with her husband or something, you can help them, I don't know, divorce him?" Flash asked with a frown. Why something so trivial? He had thought. "Isn't that against privacy?"

"It's not something that simple." Isaac said. "What if that fight results in violence? What if one of them had lifted a hand against the others? Our employees are free to talk to us and give us enough reason to make a case. We had freed quite a number of our employees from their abusive family simply after they just told us what happened."

Isaac smirked, "They didn't stand a chance against us. No matter how hard you try to hide a rotten core, the smell will always escape."

His dark expression made the students gulped and stepped back a bit.

(Y/n), on the other hand, smirked alongside Isaac.

She had always liked the man. He was quite a shrewd man who wouldn't stop pursuing "justice". That was how he got to such a high position despite his young age. Tony knew he needed someone sharp who could be ruthless in his Legal Department, and Isaac was the perfect candidate.

"We are against violence here in SI." (Y/n) said out loud, gaining their attention, "Any kind of abuse or bullying is not tolerated. Whether it's verbal or physical, direct or implied, we do not accept such behavior." She glanced at Flash who definitely had a sweat rolling down the side of his neck.

After some Q&A session, (y/n) thanked Isaac for his time and led the group away.

"Miss Stark?" Zoha called out. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but can we get some water before proceeding, please?" She asked, Yasmin nodding beside her.

"Follow me."

They stopped by the closest kitchenette. As she promised, it was fully stocked. For a small kitchen in an office, it was quite bizarre to see baskets of chocolates, cookies, and snacks beside plates of fruits and nuts. A coffee and tea station on the side of a big fridge and a juicer and blender beside it didn't seem quite… right either.

"You can eat and drink whatever you want but finish it here. We're heading to the labs after this."

She let them snacked around in the kitchenette for less than 10 minutes before whisking them away.

"We have a lot of R&D labs." (Y/n) explained, "In this tower alone, R&D span from 61st Floor to 80th. Each department usually have 10 floors max, but since dad is biased, R&D got more attention."

"Excuse me, Miss Stark?" Charles called. (Y/n) looked at him, waiting. "What does R&D interns do? Are they classified to do experiments by themselves?"

"Not really." She answered. "Level 1 interns mostly make reports and do research with or for their supervisor. Sometimes they'll get to help with the fun part, but that's for level 2 interns, usually."

"And level 2 interns?"

"Product testing, chemical experiments, engineering trials, they're allowed to do them all under supervision or with their supervisor's permission. Level 3 interns don't need supervision, but they still have to report."

The elevator dinged.

"Come on."

The floor they were at was spacious. Unlike the offices with their rooms and sections, the lab was mostly just open space with tables and cabinets. On the far end of the room was glass doors leading to testing rooms, while on the other end was a white door leading to the floor's supervisors.

"Welcome to Medic Lab!" A man in his 40s greeted them with a smile. He was tall and lanky with dark hair and equally dark eyes with laugh lines around them.

"This is Dr. Henry Clark, this lab's Assistant Director. He'll be Director soon though." (Y/n) introduced. "Dr. Clark, Midtown Science and Tech."

Henry blinked in surprise. "Midtown? Isn't that-"

"Yeah, it is." (Y/n) cut him off.

"Is he here?"

(Y/n) shook her head, "No, he's upstairs. He's going to T04E later, I think."

"Bring him here sometimes, will you? We're extremely grateful that you're here a lot, but we need both your brains sometimes too, you know!" He laughed. (Y/n) only smiled at the man.

Being very interested in the health department, (y/n) spent a long time in this particular lab. Unlike Peter who was more into engineering, although he did help out in various labs sometimes.

"Who are they talking about?" Abe whispered.

Henry turned to the confused students, "As Miss Stark said, my name is Henry Clark and this is Medic Lab 01. We focus on the medic field in this lab, especially on the chem side. Medicines, to put it simply."

He brought them further inside, passing through several scientists having heated discussion over a white board filled with numbers and equations.

"While focusing on pure chemistry, we also work closely with the lab above us which focus on chemical engineering. Sometimes with H03BE too, but they're more likely to work with people from Tech Labs instead of us." He stopped in front of a table filled with equipment and solutions where 2 interns were waiting for them.

"What is H03BE?" Ned asked.

"Oh, sorry, that's the code for labs!" Henry apologized. "That one is also medic lab, but for biomedical engineering."

"How about this lab?"

"What does the code stand for?"

"This lab is H01C, because this is the first lab in 'health' department and we play with chemicals. Only scientists and interns in R&D use them though, since it's more just to make reports easier to categorize."

"Officially, this is just Medic-1." (Y/n) added.

They gathered around the table. "Currently, we're trying to find a breakthrough in our Alzheimer's disease cure and how to deal with autoimmune issues. We almost got it, really." Henry continued.

"I'm still most excited for the cancer research though." An intern with fire red hair said with a grin.

"We're going to a little fun test with you guys to see your potential! Maybe you're good enough to be an intern here and might get scouted!" Another intern with cropped black hair exclaimed.

"What do you mean by scouted?" Cindy asked.

(Y/n) spoke before Henry or the interns answered, "I will explain that later, it's part of this trip program."

When (y/n) had told Peter she had presentation for the internship program, it wasn't exactly a full-on lie. SI planned on scouting students from field trips and it just so happened that the owner's daughter was guiding one. She was supposed to explain it on the last session.

The group looked at each other with grins. A chance to be an intern in SI? Hell yes!

"You're the boss, Stark." Henry grinned. "Let's begin, shall we?"

It was a simple enough test. They were given written reactions such as (2C12H22CaO14 + O2 → 22H2O + 21C + 2CaO + 3CO2) and they had to figure out which chemical solution it applied to and conduct it. Being from STEM school, most of them could figure their reaction out, although some who clearly didn't pay attention in chem class struggled. Finding out which solution was easy, but how to make it react?

Ned grinned as grey snake-like foam rose from his heated calcium gluconate. So far, he was the fastest guy to successfully figure out his reaction, only being beaten by Zoha.

"You're fast!" Henry said as he looked at Ned's petri dish. "Can you explain what you did?"

"Yeah, it's simple." Ned answered. "C12H22CaO14 is formula for calcium gluconate, and it reacts with O2; oxygen. But calcium gluconate doesn't just automatically react with oxygen. It was completely fine touching air before we started, so I heated it up and it reacted."

"Very good." Henry complimented with a smile. "Now do you know why it becomes like this?"

"The molecular structure expands due to the heat. This grey foam formed because any water contained inside vaporized and hydroxyl groups within the compound were dehydrated."

"And in conclusion?"

"Calcium gluconate rapidly decomposes after being heated."

"Great job!" Henry complimented again. Ned thanked him happily before Henry moved on to MJ who created a bright blue flash and loud sound that sounded like woofing, shocking Jason beside her.

MJ grumbled under her breath, "Out of all things, they just have to give me nitrogen monoxide and carbon disulfide to burn."

As Ned took pictures of his grey foam (after Henry said he could, of course), (y/n) stood beside him and peered at the petri dish.

"That was quick. I thought you're more into coding."

Thankfully, this time Ned could hold his surprise and just grinned at the girl. "Chemistry is fun when it's actually conducted and not just lectured on. How do you know I like coding?"

"Peter told me about you and Miss Jones." (Y/n) answered simply.

"You can just call me Ned and her Michelle, you know." Ned said. "A friend of Peter's is a friend of ours too. He talked about you a lot."

(Y/n) flushed a bit, "He did?"

"Yeah! It's as though we know you already!" He chuckled.

She silently glanced at the grinning boy.

Maybe I should try to make more friends…

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Flash frowning at his paper while grabbing cesium and-

Is that water? Wait-

Before Flash could drop the alkali metal into a flask of water, (y/n) quickly reached her hand out.

CLINK!

A loud clink sound echoed as water dripped down from the table to the floor, stopping Flash from dropping the cesium.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" (Y/n) yelled.

Everyone in the room halted.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU PUT THAT IN WATER?!" She yelled again, eyes glowing with anger.

"Uh, I…" Flash mumbled out. His eyes moved quickly from (y/n)'s furious face to the small petri dish with cesium in his hand.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR HAND RIGHT NOW?! HUH?!"

"It's, uh, it's iron salt…?"

(Y/n)'s face grew even redder as she tried to held back her anger.

Henry approached them and gently took the petri dish away from Flash who was shaking with fear. "This is cesium, young boy. It reacts violently with water. If you had combined the two, that glass flask would explode and hurt you." He explained.

(Y/n) snatched the paper containing the reaction assigned to Flash and scoffed, "You were supposed to form valence oxide and took cesium? Cazzo! Do you pay attention in class?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO MIX FERROUS AND FERRIC IN BASIC SOLUTION! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW IRON SALT IS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE?!"

Trying to calm the girl down, Henry patted her shoulder, "Calm down, Stark. This is also my fault for including cesium on the table. Everyone is okay, that's the important thing."

"But what if I didn't notice what he held, Dr. Clark? What then? His parents may have signed the papers allowing him here and swearing not to blame us for accidents, but you and I know those papers mean little to parents whose children are hurt!"

(Y/n) snapped her eyes back to Flash, "You're from STEM school, for fuck's sake! And you're in this decathlon team! You're supposed to be smart," she emphasized, "yet you can't do this simple experiment?!"

Flash, clearly offended, snapped back, "It's not my fault that you put unsafe things here! What kind of work environment is this?! You just put danger on my life and I can sue you for this!"

"Flash!" Mr. Harrington tried to scold, but (y/n) had grown even angrier.

"VAFFANCULO!" She shouted angrily as she took a step closer to him, the anger in her eyes looked so close to snapping.

And maybe she would have done something to Flash if the lab's sliding door didn't suddenly open and Harley hurriedly rushed in and held (y/n)'s arm back.

"Whoa there, calm down, Princess Stark." Harley soothed, "FRIDAY told me there was almost an incident and I heard you screaming your favorite Italian word, so what happened?"

"Why don't you ask this figlio di puttana?!" (Y/n) gritted out, although the glow in her eyes had started to settle.

Mr. Harrington quickly grabbed Flash who was just opening his mouth to retort back and put him behind his back with a quick glare, warning him not to say anything stupid.

"I apologize, Miss Stark, I truly do, please forgive him! I'll make sure he won't do anything stupid anymore!" He bowed his head.

Knowing (y/n) was still too pissed off to say something intellectual, Harley answered, "I'm sure it can be forgotten. It's okay. Can someone tell me what happened, though? I might have to report this upstairs later…"

Henry sighed, "The young man almost put cesium in water, but (y/n) stopped him."

Harley nodded, "Okay, and?"

"What do you mean, 'and'?"

The sandy-haired teen snorted, "There's no way (y/n) would just tell this guy to go fuck himself if she stopped him in time."

"Flash mouthed back, saying he would sue SI or something." MJ interrupted.

Realization dawned on Harley and he nodded again. "Yeah, that sure can pissed Princess Stark off."

When he turned his glance on (y/n), her face had lost almost all of its redness and her eyes were no longer glowing, but he could still see repressed anger in them.

"Do you want me to take over?" He asked gently. "Peter is in T04E, do you want to go there instead?" He asked again, murmuring softly.

(Y/n) heaved a heavy sigh and rest her forehead on Harley's shoulder. "It's fine, I can continue." She mumbled. "We're scheduled to go to T04E after this anyway."

"Alright, alright." Harley patted her head. "Want me to come with you?"

Feeling her nodded against his shoulder, Harley cleared his throat. "Alright then, let's forget about what happened here and move on, shall we? Dr. Clark?"

"Ah, yes," the good man stepped closer to them and clasped his hand, "that's all for today, everyone. Good job on your work! I hope I'll see you again, maybe as an intern or even an employee here someday."

The group hesitantly chorused a thank you before Mr. Harrington hurriedly ushered them out from the lab to follow Harley and (y/n) and before long, they were back in the elevator again.

"Okay guys, we're heading to Tech Lab now!" Harley said cheerfully. "It's one of my favorites, if I'm being honest! This particular one, especially."

"Why? What's in the lab?"

"He's just allowed to make things explode. Can't do that in medic-researching labs." (Y/n) said shortly.

Harley just grinned at her.

The elevator opened.

"Welcome to Tech-04, guys!"

Unlike Medic-01, Tech-04 was more… chaotic.

Medic-01 was relatively quiet, maybe some discussion here and there with liquid upon liquid sloshing around. Sometimes small pops when wrong solutions were mixed. Tech-04, on the other hand, was filled with a lot of noise.

Someone was groaning and then grumbling at a circuit board in front of them, a solder whirring (should it even whir?) on their hand.

Two people were arguing loudly over hologram displaying blueprints.

Another person was hitting a small bot with what looked like a small hammer, making loud clanging sound every hit.

Some tools were accidentally dropped, the metal hitting floor sound followed by a loud 'sorry!'.

Heavy machines made weird noises that sound so unfamiliar to a high schooler's ears.

Harley and (y/n) walked in, unbothered by all the noises around them. The group flinched at sudden noises, but they followed the two silently.

"Usually we take tour groups to Tech-01, but they're doing something classified right now." Harley explained. "Since you guys are from STEM school, we thought Tech-04 is the best place to visit since every cool stuff happens here." He grinned.

"Holy shit are those arrows?!" Tyler screeched out.

"Those were supposed to be Hawkeye's prototype multifunction arrows, but after the Accord debacle, Tony dumped them."

"What's that?" Cindy pointed at black bracelets on a display. "It looks like normal bracelets…"

"Black Widow's widow bites." (Y/n) answered.

Cindy tilted her head, "Bites?"

"Electroshock weapon."

"W-Weapon?"

"You just saw Hawkeye's weapon, what makes Black Widow's surprise you?" (Y/n) scoffed, still feeling irritated from before.

"W-Well…"

"Tech-04 is the best lab because a lot of Avengers weapons were designed here!" Harley exclaimed. "Almost all of them had something that came out from this lab sans Tony because he doesn't like people touching his stuff. A bit stuck up, isn't he?" He chortled.

(Y/n) rolled her eyes at him. "Can't help it. The last time he trusted his stuff with someone, Stane dealt him a bad hand."

"Not true, the last time was when he left JARVIS with me!" Harley argued.

"That was because he had no choice, dumbass."

"Still counts!"

"Sure."

Sniffling, Harley turned away from the girl.

"Anyway, we have another test for you all! You got tested in Medic-01 to see your chemistry knowledge, here in Tech-04 we'll see your engineering skill!"

They gathered around a big white table, scraps and tools scattered on top.

"Nothing hard, just make a simple bot in 20 minutes. You can use everything on this table. Don't forget to name them, we'll take a look and judge them. Who knows, maybe someone will like your work and want to scout you."

"Time starts now!"

Harley left the group who immediately began working and stood a little to the side with (y/n).

"How are you feeling?" He murmured.

(Y/n) tilted her head up, softly hitting her head against the wall behind her. "Still a bit annoyed, to be honest. That little piece of shit." She grumbled.

"I feel like I've seen him before."

"That's Flash, Harls."

"Flash?" Harley turned to her, startled. "That Flash? The one Peter talked about?"

She nodded.

"Well… Fuck."

"Fuck, indeed."

For a moment, they stood there in silence, watching their assigned group tinkering with various tools while chattering within each other. (Y/n)'s eyes followed Flash's every movement like a hawk.

"I think he did something to Leeds earlier." She mumbled.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, but Jones confirmed it."

Harley hummed and looked around. His eyes caught a tablet sitting on top of a cabinet near them. He pushed himself away from the wall.

"Wait here."

He approached the cabinet and grabbed the tablet before going back to (y/n).

The tablet, a standard StarkPad issued for every department in SI, was locked with password. They easily unlocked it with the lab's code.

Harley quickly accessed FRIDAY with his credentials.

"FRI?"

"How can I help you, Harley?" Her voice came out from the tablet.

"Can you show us security footage from- when was it again?"

(Y/n) snorted.

"Don't laugh! You didn't tell me!" Harley complained indignantly.

"Footage on the trip group after lunch please, FRI."

"Right away, (y/n)."

——————————

"Hey, fatso!"

Ned and MJ didn't respond, continuing eating their lunch in peace.

And that peace was interrupted when Flash clasped Ned's shoulder and pulled him back hard, making him fell from the backless chair. "When I call you, I expect an answer!" He sniggered.

Unluckily for the two, Mr. Harrington was in line waiting for his meal, completely missing the exchange.

MJ quickly stood up and pushed him away to help Ned. "What the hell, Flash?!" MJ exclaimed angrily.

"Not my fault he's so heavy he can't stand gravity pulling him down." Flash snickered.

"Why you-"

"It's fine, MJ." Ned assured, putting a hand on her arm. "What do you want, Flash?" He asked tiredly.

Flash ignored MJ's heated glare (an amazing feat, really) and smirked at Ned. "Why haven't we heard anything about Parker, huh? If he's really an intern someone would've said something, right? Especially since we're from the same school."

Ned rolled his eyes.

"We only visited the Museum, Flash. Do you think he works there? He's probably in the labs a lot."

"Pfft, there's no way he's in the labs! That fucker can't even do anything right! The only thing he can work as is probably a janitor or something."

He reached out and gripped Ned's shoulder, nails sinking into the muscles tightly, ignoring Ned's wince. "So how about you stop lying and tell us the truth, hm? You're just embarrassing yourselves."

Already fed up, MJ grabbed Flash's wrist and forcefully removed his clutch on Ned's shoulder. "How about you stop bothering us, huh? Why are you so obsessed with Peter anyway? You in love with him or something?" She hissed out.

"I'm just saying that people deserve the truth after hearing stupid lies over and over again!" He snatched his hand back, huffing indignantly. "Fucking Penis Parker…

"You're the one spreading the news, Flash. Peter never really said anything." Ned mumbled, one hand massaging his sore shoulder. He could actually feel nails indent through his shirt. Flash's grip was just too tight.

"Oh shut up." Flash scoffed and finally left them.

——————————

"I'm going to kill him."

"(Y/n)…"

"Don't stop me, Harley."

The angry glow on her eyes returned, this time even brighter. Her (e/c) eyes almost looked like neon blue. Her face was completely blank, only the wide glowing eyes showing just how much anger she was feeling.

Harley held unto her shoulders and crouched down slightly to match her eye level. "Calm down, (y/n). Your eyes are glowing."

"As they should."

"No, they shouldn't!" He whispered-shouted. "Come on. Take a deep breath."

(Y/n) gritted her teeth.

CLINK!

"My bad." Zach said, reaching down to take a screwdriver that fell from the table.

CLINK!

Mr. Harrington frowned. "Did I knock it over?" He mumbled to himself, grabbing the fallen wrench.

CLINK!

"Shit, my pliers!"

CLINK!

"What-"

"An earthquake?!"

The table was shaking violently, throwing tools down to the floor. Above them, lights were flickering on and off.

Alarms started blaring.

"EVERYONE UNDER THE TABLE!"

"WATCH OUT FOR SHARP TOOLS!"

"COME ON GUYS MOVE IT!"

"(Y/N) STOP IT!" Harley tried to shout between the panic screaming.

(Y/n)'s (e/c) eyes were now fully neon blue, glowing brightly in the dark room. She took a shuddered breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Harley…" She whispered. "I can't."

——————————

"How do you get used to your power?"

"Hmm?" Peter looked up from his on-going web fluid. "Practice, I guess…"

"What did you do?"

Peter put the flask on the table. "That depends on which power I try to control. Like my super strength, for example. I practiced juggling eggs and tomatoes without crushing them. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be."

(Y/n) hummed and looked up to the ceiling, contemplating.

"How about you?" Peter asked.

"Me?"

"Yeah. Hecate is always mindful of the children they saved. Their control is amazing."

"…That's Hecate. Not me."

Peter dropped his arms. He removed his gloves and walked towards the girl and plopped down beside her on the sofa.

"We've talked about this, (y/n). Hecate is you and you are Hecate."

"Sure doesn't feel like it." (Y/n) mumbled.

"Is it because of the pronoun?"

"Hm…"

He propped an arm on the backrest. "Didn't you come to the conclusion that you're bigender?"

"Yeah…" She sighed. "But that just makes Hecate feel more like a separate being than me."

"Why are they not you?"

(Y/n) removed her stare from the ceiling to Peter's face. "When I go out as Hecate, I don't… I don't feel like (y/n) Stark." She said softly. "When I don Hecate suit, I just… changed, I guess. Hecate feels like a different person. Hecate doesn't think like (y/n) Stark and they sure as hell doesn't act like (y/n) Stark."

Her voice dropped. "Their control over their curse is also better than (y/n) Stark's."

Peter shuffled closer to her and pulled her into an embrace. He buried his fingers into her hair, gently playing with them slightly. "Spider-Man feels like a different person too. But for me, I know that it's because of the mask." He murmured against the side of her hair. "Why do you think they feel different?"

"I'm not sure…"

"Also, it's not a curse, (y/n). It's a gift."

"A gift? Given by HYDRA?"

"Where it comes from doesn't matter. How you use them does."

"Yet I can't even use it without hurting someone as (y/n)."

Peter pulled back, looking straight into (y/n)'s (e/c) eyes. "How about this; if you ever feel like you're not in control of your power, you tell me. I'll try to help you."

"Can you?"

"We can try."

——————————

(Y/n) kept her eyes firmly shut. She could hear everyone screaming in fear as everything in the room shook. Small tools even started to flew around, narrowly missing some people.

Harley tried to shout words of encouragement to calm her down, but to no avail.

It was only when his hands holding her shoulders were replaced by another pair and a familiar voice murmuring out her name did she finally open her eyes.

"Peter?"

"Hey, Hecate." He smiled.

She shook her head. "Not Hecate. This is (y/n). Hecate wouldn't lose control like this." She whispered.

"Listen," Peter said softly, "Hecate is in you, whether you feel like they are or not. Hecate is you, (y/n). You can be both Hecate and (y/n) at the same time."

(Y/n) shook her head again.

"Close your eyes, (y/n)."

She did.

"Now think of the times you went out as Hecate. Recall those feelings. How did you know to stop when a child, bruised and hurt, was near you? How did you know not to harm them?"

And that was the thing with Hecate. They may have a violent nature when it came to despicable people who decided that taking a kid from their parents was a great money source, but when faced with said kid, they would cease all action. They may thirst for the blood of those people, but they would never harm a hair on a kid.

Because they knew what it was like to be that kid once.

——————————

"And that's how I became Spider-Man." Peter concluded.

"I wonder if that kind of spider still exist."

"Well I know that I killed the one that bit me."

(Y/n) snickered. "So your power comes from an experimented spider, huh?"

"Yep! And you?"

"Same as you."

"Experimented spider bit you?" Peter frowned.

"Nah, they experimented on me instead of a spider."

"Wait what-"

She stretched her stiff shoulder. Sitting for too long did that to your muscles. "Where do you think I was before I live with dad?" She said nonchalantly. "HYDRA took me when I was about 6. Thought I was a great asset, really. Made me do lots of jobs too. Dad found me during a mission."

Peter almost choked on his own saliva. "W-Why did you never tell me?"

(Y/n) blinked. "You never asked." She deadpanned.

After Peter regained his bearing, he braved himself to ask another question. "Where's your mom now?"

"Died."

He almost choked for the second time.

"Dad didn't know I'm his daughter, so he tried to track my mom. Turns out she died a few months after I was kidnapped, so, yeah."

"(Y/n)…"

"I guess that's why kidnapping cases irked me so much." (Y/n) hummed thoughtfully. "Children don't deserve that kind of horror. I remember being so scared those first few weeks."

——————————

As he guided her through breathing exercises, the shaking around her finally started to cease as her heartbeat slowed down.

(Y/n) opened her eyes to find Peter's own warm brown eyes looking straight to hers. "How are you?" He asked softly.

She bit her lower lip and hung her head in shame.

"Hey, come on, eyes up here, Princess Stark." Peter lifted her chin up.

"…I haven't lost control like that since years ago." She murmured. She didn't dare to even steal a glance at Peter's face. She kept her eyes down to the floor, letting the shame fill her.

"(Y/n)-"

"What the fuck is Penis Parker doing here?!"

Peter turned his head, finally seeing his decathlon team for the first time. "What the-"

"And what the fuck was that?! It doesn't feel like earthquake! What kind of freak shit is this?!"

Peter was about to speak when he felt (y/n)'s shoulder shaking under his hand. Eyes widened, he looked down at her only to find her already glaring at Flash, eyes alarmingly glowing again.

So he did what he knew would definitely distract (y/n) from possibly killing his classmate.

Peter grabbed (y/n)'s cheeks and quickly pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

And distracted she was.

"You're,"

Peck,

"Okay,"

Peck,

"Just,"

Peck,

"Ignore,"

Peck,

"Him",

Peck,

"Alright?"

Finally pulling his face away, he could see (y/n) blinking owlishly at him. The glow in her eyes had gone, replaced by the beautiful (e/c) he loved.

He didn't bother to see how Flash or the rest of his teammates reacted to seeing him, the nerd of the group, openly kissing the infamous daughter of Tony Stark.

He did, however, registered Ned's delighted giggle and MJ's sigh.

Unfortunately, (y/n) seemed to still be aware of her surrounding and caught Flash's squawk.

(Y/n) closed her eyes and sighed. She side-eyed Flash with a slight glare.

And before Peter realized it, Flash was flung back to, thankfully, a chair behind him. It was still a hard shove and his back would be aching as hell, but at least it wasn't to (or even through!) the wall, Peter rationalized.

(Y/n) quickly removed Peter's hand on her cheeks and approached the now mildly terrified Flash. She grabbed the front of his collar.

Peter didn't stop her. Her eyes may seem brighter than normal, but the absence of neon blue glow was a good sign that she was in control. That was purely (y/n) Stark needing to vent her anger by threatening a bitch out and not Hecate. Peter knew better than to get between a woman's wrath and the object of her animosity, after all.

Yeah, a little threat wouldn't hurt, would it?, Peter thought amusedly. He had it coming after all.

"Listen to me, figlio di puttana," she hissed out, face only inches away from Flash's, "if I ever see or even heard about you being a bag of shit like you are ever again, you won't know what's coming for you."

"I-"

"Don't ever say or even think about Peter and anyone close to him anymore, you fucking hear me? You touch a hair on them, and the end of the world will seem mild compare to what I would do."

Silence fell upon the room.

The trip group was still shaken over the 'quake', and add that to seeing their teammate got thrown back by an invisible force, they were just… stunned. They didn't even really register that Peter was in the same room as them. Aside from Flash, Ned, and MJ, at least.

"Well, this is a disaster."

Tony's voice rang in the lab, catching the attention of everyone in the room. He stood in front of the glass sliding doors, dressed in impeccable suit and wearing a pair of sunglasses despite the lack of sun in the lab.

His eyes swept upon the room. His employees seemed fine, just a bit surprised. They were already used to unforeseen incidents, he supposed. His interns slash pseudo-sons also seemed fine, if not a bit miffed. The group was still shocked, which was no shocker (pun intended).

But then he saw his daughter in the middle of threatening someone, eyes wide and shining, teeth gritted.

He sighed.

At least he knew his scientists would be no problem. They had signed confidential agreement to keep everything happening while in work to themselves in their work contract, especially if it included any of the Starks. The group, on the other hand…

"People, remember your NDAs. You all, follow me." He gestured at the group before turning away.

After a few steps, he stopped as if he just remembered something and looked back, "Oh, and Pete? Take her upstairs, will you? Stay with her."

"Of course, Mr. Stark."

"Harls, come with me. I need the whole story."

Harley nodded but said nothing, prompting Tony to turned away again and started leaving.

"Come on, let's go." Harley told the group.

Ned worriedly made an eye contact with Peter, but Peter only shook his head.

Hesitantly, they started leaving, but not without throwing curious looks towards Peter who already pulled (y/n) back from Flash.

"Go now while you can, faccia a culo." (Y/n) jeered. "I can't promise your life if you don't."

Gulping, Flash hurriedly stood up and ran out of the labs.

Before following the group, Harley looked at Peter and (y/n). "Are you two going to be okay?" He asked.

(Y/n) didn't answer, but Peter slung an arm around her shoulder and held her close. "We'll be fine. Sorry for the interruption, Harley." Peter apologized.

"Nothing to be sorry of. Everything will be okay, so don't think too much about it, okay, Princess Stark?" Harley smiled at the girl.

(Y/n) nodded once.

With a final look between Harley and Peter, Harley left the lab to follow the group.

Peter gently held (y/n)'s hand and pulled her towards the private elevator. He took them to the penthouse, straight to her room.

Once inside, he sat her down on her bed.

"How are you feeling right now?"

(Y/n) sighed heavily.

"Mostly angry." She mumbled.

Peter hummed. He sat beside her, an arm behind her to sneak a hand and hold her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes tiredly.

"What happened?" He murmured.

Slowly, (y/n) started telling her story, from when she first went downstairs to meet the group until when Harley and her watched the footage.

"I've been on edge the whole day," she confessed, "and I guess that video just pushed the limit."

"It's not your fault, (y/n)."

(Y/n) scoffed, "Maybe not all, but part of it is. I couldn't control my power, Pete! That's just a recipe for disaster!" She yelled in frustration. "It's been years since that happened! I thought I had this under control!"

Peter squeezed her hand. "Alright then. We'll train. We'll practice until you're absolutely sure you can use your power freely even as (y/n) Stark." He said with a smile.

"But how?"

"We'll figure it out."

Although not entirely satisfied with Peter's answer, she only nodded.

"By the way, why did you lead the trip? I thought you said you had a presentation." Peter asked, changing the topic.

Rolling her eyes, (y/n) answered with a slight scoff, "I lost a bet to Harley."

——————————

Tony stood in front of the meeting room. Peter's decathlon team was all sitting in front of him, his teacher and bully included. Harley had told him about what happened earlier. Needless to say, Tony was not happy.

He had thought of Peter and Harley as his sons; his children aside from (y/n). The fact that Peter had something going on with (y/n) didn't matter, it was a bonus in his eyes. So knowing that Peter had to deal with a bully every day was not something he could really tolerate. Not to mention that said bully also angered his daughter enough to lose control.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He had asked Harley earlier.

"It wasn't my story to tell, Tony." Harley had answered.

His eyes swept across the room once more. He saw their teacher, Harrington, if he remembered correctly, was openly scolding Flash.

Good, he thought, at least the teacher isn't just ignoring this problem.

"Alright!" Tony clapped his hand loudly. "Let's just keep this short, shall we? I'm supposed to be in a meeting right now and Pepper is not happy that I left."

His face turned serious. "Your parents signed NDAs for you to be here. You are not allowed to say anything about what you saw in this building to anyone, including your parents, or you will regret it. Even if we can't get to you directly, your parents are on the line here, and losing them would be a great loss for you, wouldn't it?"

Some of them gulped nervously. Flash just looked terrified.

"Just remember that I have better lawyers than you ever will. Capisce?"

Once he saw them hurriedly nodded, he grinned. "Okay then! I'll let you ask me questions now for compensation after that incident. Gotta take care of my daughter's problem, right?"

The group looked at each other, still miffed and hesitant to ask anything. They just got threatened to lose practically everything they had, after all.

However, Ned, who already had no intention to tell anyone about what happened thanks to Peter anyway, raised a hand.

"Yes, you, uhh… Fred!"

"It's Ned." Harley rolled his eyes. Tony pointedly ignored him.

Even wrong, Ned still felt joy in knowing that Tony knew him. "Hi, I was wondering about Harley's badge? Don't interns have half-white badges?"

Tony gestured at Harley to answer. "Well?"

Harley scoffed at Tony before answering, "Yeah, mine and Peter's are special badges since we're this dude's personal interns."

"Personal intern?" Abe chimed in, face curious.

"He's hopeless, trust me. This whole building would've burned if it weren't for us." Harley snickered, blatantly ignoring Tony who was glaring daggers at him.

"I'll let you know that I'm perfectly fine being alone in my lab." Tony huffed. "I've been doing it for years and I'm fine."

"Uh-huh, sure, old man."

Betty, pushed by Ned's nonchalance, raised a hand as well, "Mr. Stark? What is the requirement to be an intern here? Harley and Peter are our age, so does this mean we also qualify?"

Cindy also raised a hand, "Earlier we had tests in the labs. They said we can get scouted, is that true?"

"Ah yes, you were supposed to be given the internship program information at the end of the tour!" Tony said. "Basically, we have a new internship program for high school students. The interns will be handpicked by your 'test' results."

When Tony offered no other explanation, Harley added, "We just put the information on our web. Just go to Stark Industries' official website and click on the Internship Program. Sorry guys, you were supposed to get full session on this, but (y/n) was the one who had to give the presentation and she's not… available."

"Or Peter. He's one of the head of that programs after all. Wait," Tony stopped, looking at Harley incredulously, "you're the other head of the program. Why don't you give the presentation?"

Harley only shrugged with a grin.

"How is Parker already an intern?" Flash asked in disbelief. "And Head of Internship Program?!" It seems that his terrified daze from earlier had dissipated, which was really quick. He was quite a thickhead, after all.

Tony squinted at him, scrutinizing. This kid just never stop, huh?

"I scouted him myself." He announced.

Flash was taken aback by Tony's nonchalant answer, but he pressed on, "But why?"

"Because he impressed me. Genius kid, really. Better than nearly everyone I've ever known. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend." He quickly said, already losing any will to interact with children any longer.

Before he left, he did add, "Also, Mr. Thompson, is it? I'll have a meeting with your parents and the principal soon, so get ready."

Flash's eyes widened.

Once he left, the room erupted in chaos.

"What just happened?!"

"Peter is really an intern!"

"Not just an intern, but already head of a program!"

"HE KISSED (Y/N) STARK OMG!"

"Who cares?! We almost died again!"

"But we might get to intern here too!"

"No, no, back up! We almost died! And by what?! What was that?!!"

"Wasn't it (y/n)?!"

"How did she do that?!"

"I don't know! But you saw what happened to Flash!"

"I guess (y/n) is Hecate then." Ned whispered to MJ. MJ nodded.

"She looked like she hated her power earlier." MJ muttered. "No wonder she snapped at you when you asked about Hecate."

"OKAY EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" Harley shouted, trying to gain control over the group.

One by one, they started to quiet down.

"I suppose this is the end of your trip. Remember the NDAs; not a word!" He said, which the group answered with a chorus of yes. "Great! Now follow me to the lobby!"

——————————

"You okay, il mio tarassaco?"

"I am now. Sorry about earlier, dad."

"Nothing to worry about. I really have to go to meeting now, but we'll talk later, okay? Take it easy after this, maybe just sleep or mess around in your private lab, if you want to. Don't overexert your power."

(Y/n) smiled gratefully. The public may saw her father only as an egocentric hero, but she knew better. He always tried to be the best dad and she was grateful for it. Tony Stark wasn't a perfect dad, but he tried. He knew better than to be like his own father. Even if his daughter was an accident he only discovered a few years back, Tony knew there was little he wouldn't do for her.

"Okay. Love you, see you later."

"Love you too."

As she ended the call, Harley rushed towards her and pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry for putting you through that hell, Princess Stark! It was that stupid bet!"

"HARLEY I CAN'T BREATHE!"

Harley let her go with a sheepish grin. "Are you okay now?"

(Y/n) rolled her eyes. "Everyone asked me that. I'm fine. How's the situation?"

"Tony threatened them with the NDAs." He shrugged. "I don't think they really connect you to Hecate, but Ned definitely did."

She nodded in understanding. "Leeds is fine, I think… Peter trusts him."

"He won't tell anyone. But if he knows, MJ definitely does too." Peter piped in.

"You trust both of them, don't you?"

"Yeah, they're great."

(Y/n) smiled at him, "Maybe I should try befriend them then. Share my own secret like you did too."

Peter smiled back.

——————————

Bonus:

"Dude! You're the story of the year!"

"What?"

"Everyone's talking about you and (y/n) now!"

MJ sipped on her drink. "How is she anyway?"

"She's fine. Excited to meet you guys, actually." Peter answered.

"But we met her already?" Ned frowned.

"As a friend, Ned."

"Ooh…"

For a moment, no one said anything as they chewed on their food. "Hey, so (y/n) is really Hecate, right?"

"Ned! Shh!"

The End

——————————

Dictionary

Merda: shit

Cazzo: fuck

Vaffanculo: go fuck yourself

Figlio di puttana: son of a bitch

Faccia a culo: assface

Il mio tarassaco: my dandelion*

I looked these terms online, so they may not be 100% accurate. I’m sorry if I make any mistake!

*My Dandelion: a few months ago, I got into doll customizing and decided to make my own (y/n) Stark into a doll form. When I plugged in her hair, it had poofed up like a dandelion and stayed like that for weeks while I worked on her face-up. I got used to calling her Dandelion after that. Because of this, I’ve been nicknaming (y/n) as Dandelion.

Afterthoughts

Wow it’s over already... This story was an experience. It started as a fun little thing to celebrate my birthday with and to finally tell Meggie my handle to a 16k-word mess. Thank you so much to everyone who read, liked, reblogged, and commented on Part One! I hope you like this part too :)

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Just Out of Touch Taglist

@spn-assemble-seven @racewife2004 @lukesbabylon @serendipitous-amor @sovereign-parker @ifangirlninja @lyzalovealk @lookuptotheskiesandsee @tommysparker @starlight-starks

Permanent (Marvel) Taglist

@marvelexi @lou-la-lou @spiderbibby @hello--zuko-here @everydaymj

Mutuals

@allegra-soleil @spideygirl2003 @delicatepeterparker @parkerpeter24 @terrifictomholland @quackeroos @angel-spidey @greenorangevioletgrass @the-crazy-fanfictionist

#peter parker imagine #peter parker #peter parker x reader #spiderman x readr #spiderman imagine #stark!reader #tony stark #tom holland #mcu #marvel fanfic #field trip trope #peter x reader #peter x you #peter parker fandom #peter parker angst #just out of touch

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