beyondthesefourwalls · 1 year ago
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And You Will Find Me
Summary: The last thing Bradley expected when he was assigned to the unofficial “singles without a plus one” table at an old friend’s wedding was to meet who he thinks might just be the love of his life. But that’s exactly what happened. 
Pairing: Bradley Bradshaw x Reader (no use of y/n)  (can be read as Forgetful Boy and Pumpkin from RYEWID, but not necessary to read that first)
Word Count: 3.8K 
Warnings: Language, fluff, love at first sight. 
Notes: Written for @roosterforme's ‘80s Rocktober Playlist Fic Challenge, and as part of The Forgotten Moments Collection, but can very much be read by itself. Song selection is Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. 
The Forgetful Boy and Pumpkin first meeting one shot that I’ve been wanting to write since I referenced it in part three of RYEWID. The fact that I could do it for a challenge for one of my favorite people makes it even more exciting for me.  
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Bradley Bradshaw: Table Four 
He grabbed the gold trimmed cardstock with his name on it, sipping on a glass of bourbon as he made his way into the reception hall. It didn’t take long to find his placement with the elaborate centerpieces displaying calligraphic numbers. 
There were only two open seats left at the table, which was occupied by a group of people who were all staring down at their phones. He glanced around the rest of the venue, seeing all of the other tables bustling with conversation and laughter. He raised his eyebrows in surprise at the awkward silence that seemed to hang over this one in particular. No one seemed to know each other, and it didn’t look like they planned to make any effort to change that. 
He groaned to himself and wondered, not for the first time, why he had thought attending this wedding was a good idea. 
He hadn’t seen Sean in years, and had never even met Lucy. The two had been roommates for two years at UVA and had somewhat kept up with each other over the years, if only barely. They had always joked about how on the off chance either of them got married, they’d make each other's guest list. Bradley had laughed when he got the invite in the mail. He had waited until the last minute to send in the RSVP, but had ultimately decided why not? He wouldn’t know anyone there, and hadn’t managed to find a date in time, but he hadn’t been to Philly in way too long. He’d make a quick weekend out of it and see an old friend.  
He hadn’t realized until he got into town how awkward going to a wedding on his own would be. 
He sat in one of the empty seats, nodding to the guy on his right who forced a smile that looked just as awkward as it felt before turning his attention back to his phone. 
Bradley was glad he had thought to refill his drink before cocktail hour ended. 
He was scrolling through his phone when he saw a flash of orange out of the corner of his eye at the same time the seat next to him was pulled back. 
He glanced up briefly to offer a quick smile to the new arrival and looked back down at his emails, only to do the quickest double take of his life. His breath caught in his throat and he swore his heart stopped, only to start again three times faster. 
Holy hell. 
“Is anyone sitting here?” you asked, and Bradley had to blink a few times before he realized you were talking to him, because your voice was mesmerizing. 
“All yours,” he managed to say. He would have winced at how his voice cracked if he wasn’t trying to remember how to breathe. You offered a warm smile as you gracefully sat down. You were a vision in a long sleeve, burnt orange dress that looked like it would be silky to the touch. When he glanced down, he had to bite down on the inside of his cheek to stop from groaning when he saw the slit going up the side and the nude heels on your feet. You were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and you were sitting beside him fiddling awkwardly with your place card as he stared at you.
“I’m Bradley,” he finally managed to introduce himself, extending a hand out. You looked at him in surprise. 
“Oh! Hi.” You took his hand with a soft, gentle grip, your eyes locking onto his as a spark went through his whole body. Your eyes widened a fraction and he wondered if you felt it, too. He almost didn’t catch your name when you said it because he was so distracted by the feeling. “So, bride or groom?” 
“What?” 
You laughed softly, and he worried about going into cardiac arrest at the sound. “Are you here for the bride, or for the groom? I assume since you’re at this table it’s either one or the other and not both.” 
“This table?” 
You glanced around at your other tablemates, still busy with doing everything they could not to make eye contact with anyone else. Then you leaned closer to him, and he couldn’t help but do the same. You whispered to him like you were sharing something salacious. “The singles table. The ones who came alone and who wouldn’t know anyone else, and who they’re kind of surprised RSVP’d ‘yes’ to begin with.” 
Bradley let out a loud laugh, and you giggled right along with him. The sound was like music. It earned you both curious and maybe even annoyed looks from all those at your table. He hadn’t considered that before, but now that he thought about it, you were absolutely right. 
“Groom,” He replied, “College roommates. You?” 
“Bride,” you told him. “Ironically, also college roommates.” 
“Well would you look at that,” Bradley smirked, and he knew the amusement that sparkled in your eye was mirrored in his. 
He was interrupted from saying anything else from the DJ tapping on the microphone to formally start the reception. As the bridal party danced their way into the room to Celine Dion, he kept stealing glances at you. To his pleasure, you were stealing them right back. By the time Sean and Lucy were seated at the front table and the DJ announced that dinner would be served momentarily, Bradley could barely look away. There was a smile on your face that indicated you didn’t mind at all. 
It continued that way through the meal that was eventually placed on the table. You didn’t speak much as you ate, both of you feeling like you were disrupting the other six people spread out on either side. But you kept catching each other’s eyes and smiling before you looked away, and his cheeks were nearly hurting at how big his smile was.
Fuck. 
Bradley barely even knew your name, and he was already down bad. 
You leaned over to him during the speeches that started immediately after dinner, and he caught another whiff of your perfume. He tried his best not to noticeably take a deep breath of the scent. “Do we think the best man is already drunk?” 
“Oh, he absolutely is,” he confirmed. The man in question was laughing hysterically at a joke he just told, already swaying on his feet. “I saw him throwing back an entire flask right before the ceremony.” 
Your nose scrunched up in the most adorable cringe he had ever seen. “Yikes. I don’t really blame him though. The maid of honor is his ex-fiance. I’m pretty sure she left him for groomsman number three, but I can’t confirm.” 
He looked at you with wide, curious eyes. “Did Lucy tell you that?”
“No,” you laughed, mindful of keeping your voice down to not draw any attention to yourselves as the slurred speeches continued. “I drove up last night and then was bored before the ceremony today. Social media is very informative, you know.” 
Bradley choked out a laugh, absolutely amazed at you. “Are you a private investigator or something?” he asked, genuinely curious. 
You picked up your wine glass with a smirk, and you winked at him before you took a sip. “A journalist, actually. But close enough.”  
A journalist. Bradley filed that information away in a new folder in his brain that had your name on it. 
Clapping drew his gaze away from you, and he realized he had completely shut out the rest of the speech. He cleared his throat and joined in, and the two of you watched as the bride and groom did their first dance. It felt like it lasted forever, but that was probably because he was itching for it all to be over so that he could talk to you again. He wanted to know more about you. In fact, he found that he wanted to know everything about you. 
Everyone clapped again when the dance came to an end, and Bradley was turning to you before the DJ even finished announcing the beginning of the party. 
“What are you drinking?” he asked, and he thought the look you gave him was a mix between delighted and amused. Your eyes cut to your mostly empty wine glass where he could very much see exactly what you had been sipping on. He felt heat creep up his cheeks in embarrassment. 
“White wine,” you said anyway. “What are you drinking?”
He fought the grin that was threatening to take over his face. You were keeping him on his toes, and he found he quite liked it. “Bourbon.”
“Ah. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m about due for a refill.”
“Is that so?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. You glanced around the table where the other occupants were back to scrolling through their phones or focusing on anything that wasn’t another human being. He almost laughed at the look on your face when you turned back to him. You grabbed your clutch from the table and the two of you rose out of your seats at the same time without even having to say anything. 
“After you,” he grinned, and your smile made him dizzy. He ordered another whiskey while you got Pinot Grigio. He laughed when you told him you weren’t allowed another glass, because too much white wine apparently made for a very interesting night. He filed that little tidbit away, too. 
With fresh drinks in hand, you turned to walk back to your assigned seating. The lights had dimmed and the music had turned to something upbeat and very cliche, and the majority of the attendees had converged on the dancefloor. You navigated around them carefully. His hand hovered over your lower back, not quite touching, but wanting to. You drew to a stop when you were only a few feet from the table, your head tilted to the side. 
“I hate being seated at these tables,” you muttered. “Always makes me feel like maybe I shouldn’t have come.” 
Bradley had been thinking the same thing until you had sat down beside him and shook his hand. He couldn’t help but flex his fingers as he remembered how his skin had buzzed at your touch. He glanced around the whole venue again, not quite knowing what he was looking for until he caught sight of the patio through the large windows.
“Do you want to ditch and go outside with me?” he found himself asking before he could stop himself. He held his breath when your eyes snapped to his, slightly wide in surprise. But they softened quickly, and you nodded, tucking some of your hair behind your ear with your free hand. 
He held out an arm, and after only a moment of hesitation, you slipped yours into it. He almost felt like he was floating as he guided the two of you toward the open doors. 
The patio was decorated beautifully. It stretched almost the entire length of the building, and twinkle lights lined the ceiling and the pillars holding it up. Smaller tables and furniture were spread out amongst the concrete and the two of you settled into the soft cushions of one of the outdoor coaches. 
It was a mild night, even for early February in Philadelphia, and the heat coming from the fire pit in the middle of the table in front of you was enough for it to be comfortable. You sat in silence for a beat, but it wasn’t awkward. Your fingers danced over the rim of your wine glass and Bradley’s gaze followed as you brought it to your lips. You caught his eye as you swallowed, and he felt the heat creep onto his cheeks at being caught staring at you again. 
He cleared his throat, taking a sip of his own drink to gather himself. “So. A journalist. What do you write about?” 
“The hypocrisy of old men, mostly,” you shrugged, and Bradley’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. You laughed at his expression. “I cover politics,” you explained. Your joke registered with the context and he chuckled. 
“So just how hypocritical are the old men of Philadelphia?” he asked, and you seemed delighted that he was going along with it. 
“Eh,” you said, shrugging your shoulders. “Very, I’m sure. But I cover Washington, which is definitely worse. I live in DC.” 
Bradley’s breath caught in his throat. Excited disbelief had his eyes widening. There was no way. In the back of his mind he had admittedly already been thinking of how often he could feasibly make the drive from Andrews to Philly, because he knew he had to see you again. Tonight couldn’t be the only time, not with how he was feeling and how he was pretty sure you were, too. 
“Small world,” he finally managed, trying to keep his voice steady despite his racing heart, and now your eyes were widening back. The happiness in them was hard to miss, and, holy shit, you were excited about this. He felt the urge to pinch himself. 
“You live in DC?”
“I’m at Naval Air Facility Washington doing extended training at Joint Base Andrews,” he told you, still in a bit of disbelief, but feeling giddy. 
“Ah. Navy man, huh?” 
It took a moment for Bradley to realize his cheeks were red again. He doesn’t think anyone has ever made him blush before, or at least not as many times as you had tonight already. 
“Naval Aviator,” he elaborated. 
You smiled, and it felt like the whole world disappeared except for the two of you as you held out your glass. He raised his to tap against it in cheers. “Here’s to small worlds, then.” 
“And to college roommates,” he added, and your laugh took his breath away. 
The two of you sat there with your drinks in hand, and the conversation flowed effortlessly, talking about everything and anything. He found himself hanging onto your every word. He couldn't help but be drawn in by every single thing about you. He learned that you grew up here in Philadelphia and, like him, you were an only child. You got your undergrad in journalism and then a masters in political science and moved to DC before the ink was even dry. You were a little bit addicted to coffee and true crime podcasts, and you were a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan. He told you about growing up in Virginia and being in the Navy, and about his love of the 80s and playing piano. 
But you talked about more than just the surface level stuff, too. As the occasional sound of laughter drifted outside from the dancefloor and the fire pit glowed in front of you, you told him how sometimes, you wondered if you were really cut out for your career, because the nature of what you had to cover drove you absolutely crazy, and you felt like people focused on the wrong things. You tended to have a self-imposed terrible work/life balance and your anxiety crept up on you because you’d ignore it for too long. You weren’t close with your parents, and your bucket list was full of things you were scared you’d never be able to do. 
In return, he let you in on the reason he wanted to join the Navy in the first place, and growing up with a single mother and what it was like when she got sick. He confided how he had a bad habit of hesitating both in and out of the air, and how he didn’t really have any connections or relationships outside of the Navy that went more than just skin deep or a memory of what used to be. 
He shared more with you than he had with anyone else, and somehow, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. It was like he had always known you, or at least like he was meant to now. 
You were so caught up in each other that neither of you realized just how much time had passed. Before you knew it, the music from inside was starting to soften and the lights were turned back on, and the servers came outside to start collecting empty glasses and trash. 
“Oh wow,” you breathed in surprise, “We missed the whole reception.” 
You stared at each other in silence for a moment, and then at the same time, you burst into laughter. 
“Can I walk you back to your hotel?” he asked you once you had calmed down. You had mentioned how you were staying just a few blocks away, and the thought of you walking alone or getting a car this late at night didn’t sit right with him. It was strange, how he already felt the urge to protect and care for you. 
Plus, he wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet. 
“I’d like that,” you said softly, much to his relief. 
The bride and groom were inside wishing everyone goodbye, and you both took a moment to speak to your respective reasonings for being there. Neither of you lingered for long, and the balmy night air greeted you again when you exited the building after collecting your coats. 
You didn’t hesitate to link your arm with his when he held it out this time. He felt warm all over with you this close to him. Despite the late hour, the city was still alive with people out and about and laughter and conversation spilling out onto the sidewalk from every business you passed. He held onto you a little tighter when you walked by some decidedly way too drunk people, but you didn’t seem to mind. You kept the conversation going just as easily as it was when you were sitting on the patio, swapping embarrassing stories from your college days. You were walking through the park, nearly at your hotel, and it was when you mentioned something about dancing on a table at a frat party after too many shots of Fireball that he came to an alarming realization. He stopped so abruptly that you were slightly yanked back into his body, and you looked at him in concern. Before you could ask what was wrong, he was blurting the words out. 
“I never asked you to dance.” 
You gave him a confused look and then snorted in amusement. “I suppose you didn’t.” 
“Oh my god,” he groaned, tilting his head back and slapping his palm to his forehead. “I had the perfect opportunity to dance with you and I never asked.” 
You were still laughing, your feelings clearly not hurt at his lack of consideration. But he was already digging his phone out of his pocket and swiping open his music app. He held it out in your direction. “Pick a song,” he told you. 
“What?” you laughed. “Bradley!” 
“I’m serious! Pick a song.” 
He pushed his phone a little closer, and with an amused look, you finally took it. You bit your lip as you thought for a moment before you started typing, and then the soft sounds of Time After Time were floating in the air. 
“You said you loved the 80s,” you said almost shyly. But Bradley smiled, taking the phone back and slipping it into his jacket pocket. The music was muffled now, but you could both still hear it. 
“It’s perfect,” he told you. He held out a hand for you to take, and once you slipped your palm into his, he pulled you close. You rested your head on his shoulder as you began to sway. The night was quiet and serene as you danced, and he didn’t know what he did for his night to turn out this way, but he was so glad that it did. 
When the song came to an end, you stopped moving, but didn’t separate. You picked your head up and looked at him, your eyes locking together. You didn’t say anything at first, but eventually, you sighed and a soft, reluctant smile tugged at your lips. 
“I should probably get back,” you whispered.
“Are you sure?” he asked, desperate to stay in your presence for as long as possible. You had entered his life so unexpectedly, and he was wishing with everything in him that you wouldn’t be leaving it anytime soon. “You aren’t going to turn into a pumpkin once the clock strikes midnight, right?” 
You shook your head at his joke, giving him a playful wink in return. “I don’t know. This does feel a bit like a fairytale.” 
Your words made him grow a little more serious, and he swallowed thickly as a charged energy seemed to settle over both of you. You bit your lip as you stared, your gaze wide and saying a million things at once. You had the most expressive eyes he had ever seen. He wanted to look at them forever. 
"You know," he said, his voice lower now, like he was afraid to disrupt the moment by being too loud. He brought a hand up to your face, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear.  “This is not how I anticipated my night going.” 
The air between you crackled with unspoken words, his hand still lingering near your cheek. Then, in a move that felt natural and inevitable, he leaned in, and you met him halfway. Your lips touched softly, a spark of electricity passing between you. It was a kiss filled with promise, a taste of what could be. It was as if time stood still, the world around you fading away until it was just the two of you.
When you finally pulled away, both of you were left breathless. Bradley looked at you with a mixture of desire and genuine affection that should have scared him, but it didn’t. 
"Wow," you whispered, your lips curving into a shy smile. He knew exactly what you were feeling with that one word, because he felt it too.
He brushed his nose against yours, breathing you in. “Tell me I can see you again when we get back to DC,” he begged. 
You let your hand rest against his chest, and he was sure you could feel the pounding of his heart. “I was hoping so,” you said, and he breathed out a happy laugh of relief before kissing you again.  
Standing there under the soft glow of the lampposts, Bradley thought he might love you already. 
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Masterlist
Notes: I hope y'all loved this one as much as I did! I miss these two so much.
Special thanks to Mak and Em for all of their help, and to Mak for the banner!
Tag List: @roosterforme @mak-32 @wildxwidow @gretagerwigsmuse @lilyevanswhore @too-fangirl-to-fuction @fav-fanficssss @notroosterbradshaw @teacupsandtopgun @sometimesanalice @sunflowersteves @littlezee80 @je-suis-prest-rachel @khaylin27 @infamous-reindeer @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @yanna-banana @avengersfan25 @wkndwlff @sylviebell @lt-spork @indynerdgirl @greatszu
@mssleepy876b @kassieesworld @mizzzpink @a-serene-place-to-be @sexualparkour @sadpetalsstuff @almostgenerallyalways @alilstressyandlotdepressy @ccbb2222 @taytaylala12 @shelbycillian @mavrellover91 @vici111 @lunamooncole @blackwidownat2814 @pisupsala @bellaireland1981 @jynxmirage @shanimallina87 @na-ta-sh-aa @callsign-magnolia @chaoticassidy
*I do not give permission to copy/steal, translate, or publish elsewhere*
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sc0tters · 1 year ago
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Not Gone For Long | Quinn Hughes
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summary: you broke up with Quinn two weeks ago, but what happens when you two run into each other at a bar?
request: yes/no
warnings: none.
word count: 1.63K
authors note: I have had this idea in my head for literal hours icl but since I came up with it I’ve been dying to get it written. This is also my first attempt at writing an imagine for an NHL player, so I hope you like it!
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Never go to bed angry with each other.
That was the first rule that you and Quinn made when you got together and neither one ever believed that if it was broken it would soon bring the end of the relationship, but it did.
The two of you had spent two months fighting before you finally mustered up the courage to pull the plug on the relationship when he was on a two week road trip with the team.
And with that three years of a relationship were sent down the drain.
You never thought that leaving him would be easy. You knew that it would be tough on your heart as he was everywhere you looked, on billboards, the TVs at bars, even on the insides of your eyelids when you attempted to sleep.
Your best friends were your total support system during the last two months as they made sure that you never had more than a few seconds to think about the boy that you loved obviously not counting your time in your bedroom because that’s where he seemed to attack your mind.
The apartment you once dreamed of before Quinn was now the place you called home. It was a one bed place but it was all you needed as you settled back into the mundane life.
Unbeknownst to you Quinn had been a total wreck from the moment he walked back into the apartment to see it in a shell of its former self. If it wasn’t for his teammates he would have knocked on every door in Vancouver until he found you, but when the boys reminded him that you had left when he was gone for a reason it made him want to stay home instead.
Quinn wanted to be mad at you for leaving in the way that you did yet the only thing that replayed through his mind was how the last thing he said to you was “see you soon,” no kiss, not even a hug, he just walked out of the apartment. Leaving you by yourself for the next two weeks.
The moment Ellen learnt about the break up she went was on the next flight over on a mission to comfort her son. That night he cried so hard that his lungs ached and his throat burned.
It didn’t help that the Canucks had been through another subpar season, but his upset state wasn’t helping that as he hadn’t scored since you left. Sometimes he wondered if you still watched his games, each time that he’d skate onto the ice he’d search for your face in the crowd and each time he was left empty handed.
Somehow despite all this, your relationship didn’t actually end on bad terms, you two still loved each other and had truly learnt that absence really does make the heart grow fonder.
The fight that broke the camels back though now felt minuscule, if he didn’t want to come with you on your business trip to Paris you didn’t really care. You’d settle for those two weeks without him rather than the last two months, every day of the week.
Now it was present day and your friends managed to convince you to join them on a night out. It was going to be your first as a single woman. You had even managed to get a smile onto your face, not a fake forced smile but instead a real one.
Yet it felt like a balloon full of water burst above your head as you saw him.
Quinn had been dragged to the same bar by his teammates as they celebrated the fact that the season was over.
Your friend saw that you tensed up and as she followed your line of sight she was quick to apologise “we can go somewhere else if you would like?” She proposed not wanting you to have a bad night.
But as there were five of you in the group this was a moment you didn’t want to be selfish in “this bar is big enough for the two of us.” Your voice was soft as you shook your head not letting your eyes leave the boy as you stared more so in shock.
He looked like he had lost weight, hadn’t shaved so his facial hair was now growing out of control, the curls that you loved but he hated were now proudly sat on his head.
Quinn wished that he had seen his hairdresser though the second he saw you. He actually heard your best friends laugh first, it was funny how the sound irritated him.
When he thought he was dreaming or that his sleep deprived mind was playing tricks on him, he spun his head around locking eyes with you.
His cold beer glass masked the sweatiness of his hands as he chugged the last of the bland liquid before he got up “anyone else need a refill?” He watched as you walked off heading in the direction of the bar.
It was the perfect time to talk to you, yes he knew that it was selfish but part of him just hoped that you were as caught up by the breakup as he was.
So he made his way over to the bar, making sure to avoid the drunken men that walked into his path as he was desperate to never lose sight of your little green dress that he loved so much on you.
You thought he never noticed that when the told you he liked that dress on your first date you went out and bought it in seven other colours. But he did, Quinn noticed everything yet that original dress still remained his favourite.
The familiar sound of your acrylics tapping on the table sent shivers down his spine “hey,” his voice came out like a croak causing your eyes to go wide.
You stared at him through the corner of your eye knowing that if you faced him, it would have been over for you “hi.”
If you two hadn’t broken up his fingers would have been on your jaw forcing you to look at him “can you look at me?” He asked feeling the tears begin to well at his eyes “please?” The beg was enough to make your hearty break all over again.
You looked at him not caring that you makeup was now very much ruined as tears ran down your cheeks “I’m sorry,” you blurted out not knowing what else to say.
But it was also true, you did feel sorry about breaking up with him. You wished that you’d handled things better. Yes this was the best way to protect your heart but besides for that it was the worst possible option for every other thing.
Just like old times Quinn didn’t hesitate to comfort the girl as he wrapped his arms around her pulling her into a hug “I know,” he placed a kiss on your head ignoring how your tears were soaking his shirt.
The coldness of those tears hit him like a dose of reality, you left because the relationship had grown cold.
This was the first time he had hugged you since January, it was now April.
He never meant to stop putting in effort but one day it sort of started and he didn’t know how to stop it. And he was so stressed about hockey that he let the fights you two had fall into the back of his mind.
Whilst he had spent the last two months thinking you were the bad guy, he realised that it had been his fault all along.
That was almost the problem with the whole thing, you each blamed yourselves for putting the knife into the relationship.
Quinn swore that he had been doing it over time and you were just the one to give it the final push.
You finally got your breathing under control causing you to look up at him as your chin rested against the his chest “why are you here?” You asked not trying to be rude but you swore that if you were in his shoes even you wouldn’t want anything to do with yourself.
He let out a soft laugh as he dragged his thumb against your cheek “missed you,” he confessed as he watch the pad of his finger clean in the smudge of your mascara.
Hearing that he must have also had a rough time made you feel sick to your stomach “thought you would have hated me.” You mumbled still thinking that this was all a dream.
Quinn would have been lying if he said that your words didn’t break his heart “could never hate you.” He softly smiled trying to tell you that he meant every word.
As much as he enjoyed being with his friends he wanted to leave “come with me?” He asked holding his hand out for you to grab.
The way his hand interlocked with yours told you that this wasn’t a dream “we should talk somewhere a bit more private.” As much as you wanted to say that you could go back to his apartment and be fine, you knew that things needed to change.
And if they didn’t then you would be having to move on forever.
The stars shone down on Vancouver as you two snuck out of the bar, despite the fact that both friends groups watched the interaction neither decided to stop it.
Sitting in his car that parked at a lookout spot looking over the city as you two ate food from your favourite takeaway restaurant you learnt one thing:
You weren’t letting him go as easy as you did this time.
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hugmekenobi · 2 years ago
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The Bad Batch (1)
Chapter One: Aftermath
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GIF by @sinfulsalutations​ 
Hunter x femaleJedi!reader
Series Summary: You joined the Batch 8 months ago and everything was going well. But then, Order 66 happened and suddenly the galaxy around you changed. Now, not only do you need to be careful given your new ‘social status’, but you also need to navigate your feelings towards a certain Sergeant. 
Chapter Summary: You and the Batch have to deal with the way the galaxy has changed. And secrets get revealed along the way.
Genre: Friends (idiots) to Lovers
Warnings: Use of (Y/N) (but I’ve limited it as much as I could), swearing, canon-typical violence, character deaths, slight canon deviation (particularly in later chapters), the Force works according to what I need, angst, mild injury description, reader also digs herself a hole with some poor early choices
Word Count (Ch 1): 18.9K (so sorry, episode one is a long one)
Rating: 18+
Author’s notes: Like I said, just putting this out there cause I finished this last year and I just have it sitting in my docs and figured I’d give it a shot! Majority of the dialogue is from the show but my own parts and voice is in there too! I’ve written the reader to be someone who makes mistakes and isn’t a flawless character because that’s how I want her to be so I can understand if that’s not for everyone, I even got annoyed myself sometimes lol. But yeah, still very nervous about sharing this but if you do read, hope you enjoy! :) 
MasterList
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Kaller.
You watched as the young padawan left your group to head back to his master. You remembered when you had been his age. Life had been so different. You never imagined that where you were right now is how your life would’ve worked out. Fighting in a war? Or at least facing conflict of some kind? Sure, that seemed inevitable given the way your life was set out but going from a life of relative peace to a soldier (not that that label was very well accepted but it was what you believed), to a civilian, back to a soldier but fighting with a group of defective clones? No. Nothing could’ve prepared you for that.
“Credit for your thoughts?”
You smiled and turned to face the, more modulated, but all too familiar covered smokiness voice of Sergeant Hunter of Clone Force 99. You’d ran in to him and the rest of the group a long time ago- it was coming up on 8 months ago now- when they were on a mission on Devaron, one of the many planets you had settled in. You’d watched as they got themselves into a bit of bother with a rather large battalion of Separatist droids and you knew you had to help. With your assistance, along with their rather unorthodox tactics, the droids had been taken care of quickly and you found yourself not wanting to leave them so when Hunter offered you a spot on his squad, you hadn’t hesitated. At the end of the day, you were back doing what you enjoyed- helping people. Of course, something you hadn’t fully thought through and something you quickly realised was that, with them being soldiers of the Republic, you were often in the presence of a Jedi which wasn’t ideal. You huffed out a breath before replying, “That would just be a waste of your rather limited funds.”
“You’re okay though?” Hunter asked, lightly touching your shoulder.
Even though his helmet was on, you could feel his eyes looking into yours. You pushed away the heat that began to spread through your body. The last thing you needed was to get that warm and fuzzy feeling you so often felt in front of the clone with enhanced senses. That had been getting harder and harder lately. Yes, upon first meeting him, you’d noticed that he was a rather attractive, but you’d hoped that feeling would only run surface deep, but you’d been wrong.
Over the months you’d been alongside him, that feeling only grew until it became a deeply engrained part of you. There were moments where perhaps you thought those feelings were reciprocated. A few months into your new membership, after spending your time sleeping in one of the ship’s passenger seats, the two of you began share his bunk in both the ship and their barracks because, according to him, ‘sleeping in one of those chairs wasn’t a suitable way to live or prepare for missions’.
Moreover, you were often paired up with him on these missions, but you convinced yourself this was nothing more than him being a good friend and sergeant. Yes, it was all platonic. Friends platonically shared a bunk and often woke up in each other’s arms. Yes, it could only possibly be platonic. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Hunter, can we do this already, I wanna attack some droids!” Wrecker complained loudly.
You drew your hood and mask up and followed Hunter over to where Echo, Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair were standing.
You took your weapon from the sheath slung over your back. You’d melted down a bunch of vibroblades to make this. It wasn’t quite the length of a sword, but it was close enough, and it was the nearest thing to a positive reminder of home you had.
“I still don’t understand why you use that and not a blaster. Logically, a blaster is more practical for a battle.” Tech observed.
“You know Tech, sometimes you don’t need to understand everything. This works just fine for what I need.” You replied simply.  
“Okay. Everyone ready?” Hunter asked.
You and the others nodded.
You took a breath to calm your pounding heart. This mission would be the closest you’d come to encountering the many Jedi masters scattered across the galaxy. You’d always managed to not stick around too long after the job was done. You tended to hang back, usually with Crosshair, avoiding any and all interaction whilst the others spoke to them, but you sensed this mission would have you in closer proximity than you would like. You couldn’t put a finger as to why you felt this way, a large factor was probably you and the group were the only reinforcements available so there wouldn’t be many buffers, but there was also something else that was bothering you- you were going to tell them after the mission today and you had no idea how it would go down or just how bad their reactions would be. You couldn’t dwell on it for too long though, Wrecker had dislodged the boulder and it had begun its course down the cliffside, so you all began your descent to the droids below.
--
It was child’s play really. You gelled well with the rest of them. Every droid you came across fell victim to a stab of your weapon and Wrecker didn’t need your help getting rid of the tanks, much to your relief. You weren’t sure you would be able to get away with that today. It was over relatively quickly. Chopping off the last droid’s head, you began walking over to where Caleb and his master were taking cover. Maybe you could hide behind Wrecker and go mostly unseen.
“If you’re done hiding down there, I suggest you launch a counter-attack.” Hunter said, removing his helmet. “Another droid battalion is approaching.”
“The General is the one who gives the orders around here.”
The Jedi Master put her hand up to appease the clone captain. “He’s right Captain this is our chance. Launch the counterattack.”
“Yes General.” He said a tad reluctantly before addressing the rest of the battalion. “Alright men let’s go!” He ordered before he, the Padawan and the General made their way out their bunker towards you all.
Wreaker pushed his way past Echo, leaving you a bit more exposed than you would like. “There you are little Jedi. You missed all the fun!”
“Watching your team in action was the fun.” Caleb replied with a smile.
“Care to introduce your new friends Caleb?” She asked.
Fuck. You watched as the General lowered her hood. That was Depa Billaba. There was a very strong chance she could recognised you. You adjusted your mask over your nose, making sure it suitably covered as much of your face as it possibly could.
“Yes Master. This is Wrecker, Hunter, Echo, Tech, Crosshair and…” He trailed off and looked past Wrecker slightly. “Sorry, I don’t think I caught your name earlier.”
You coughed and stepped forward beside Wrecker as you told her your name.
The Jedi Master let out a hum as she heard it. “Forgive me, that name sounds very familiar. Have we met before?” Depa mused, her eyes peering into your own.
You avoided her gaze quickly. “No.” You replied before retreating back into the safety of the group.
Hunter watched you carefully. He knew you didn’t like interacting much with the other people the mission involved but this time you seemed even more uncomfortable than usual.  
She stared at you for a moment longer before returning her focus back to the group as a whole. “While I’m not sure fun is the sentiment I would express. I agree with my padawan. Your exploits were quite impressive.”
“Exploits?” Wrecker repeated, confusion in his voice.
“Don’t overthink it, Wrecker.” Crosshair said, before walking off.
You followed him; you really didn’t want to be a part of this interaction.
“Thank you General.” Echo said.
“Now would one of you please explain where my actual reinforcements are.”
“Re-routed to the Capital. We’re all you’re getting.” Hunter answered.
“Ha! We’re all you need!” Wrecker added.
“Actually, if my intel is correct, the general will not need any of us. The Clone War will soon be over.” Tech said.
“Better tell that to the clankers headed our way.” Depa’s clone captain countered.
“I am referring to the encrypted comm chatter. Clone intelligence is reporting General Obi Wan Kenobi has found and engaged General Grievous on Utapau.” Tech explained.
“If he captures or kills Grievous, the Separatist command structure would collapse.” Echo theorised.
“And most likely the droid armies along with them.” Tech added.
“A fascinating theory yet unfortunately not something we can control from here. I suggest we focus on the task at hand.” Depa suggested.
“Any orders?” Hunter asked. “Or shall we do what we do?” He added before putting on his helmet.
“Let’s blow something up! Yeah!” Wrecker cried enthusiastically.
“Well Caleb, shall we let them ‘do what they do’?” She asked her young padawan.
“Only if I can go with them.” He answered happily.
“Very well.”
“Hey kid you ready for this? We move fast.” Hunter told him.
“Good, that’s the only way I know.” He replied smoothly before running off.
“I like him!” Wrecker said before him, and Echo followed.
Giving a quick salute, Hunter too ran off.
--
You had noticed the group had dispersed so you and Crosshair ran towards the squad too. You were keeping pace with Caleb at the back but as you were running, your body ran cold, and you knew it wasn’t the Kaller climate. Something was wrong, you could feel it. You knew Caleb did too because you both slowed down at the same time and that was when you heard the blaster fire. You turned around and your heart sank to your stomach.
“Master.” Caleb said, his voice filled with concern.
“Caleb, wait!” You tried to grab him, but he turned and began to run back to the sight where his master was fending of a group of clones.
“Master!” He cried out again, igniting his lightsaber.
Hunter and the rest of the squad too began to hear the blaster fire and stopped and turned around to see what was happening.
You watched helplessly as the Jedi Master took multiple blaster bolts and as you heard her final cry, you felt a pain that wasn’t just from this. It felt like the pain of an entire galaxy, and it took everything in your power not to fall to your knees. You couldn’t give yourself away. You inhaled deeply and saw Caleb making his way back to you, but you heard Hunter and the others approaching and as they did so Caleb stopped and looked warily at the group of clones.
“Stay away from me!” He demanded, before running off into the forest.
“Kid, wait!” Hunter called after him.
“What the fuck was that?” You asked, coming to stand beside Hunter.
“Wha, what just happened?” Echo asked.
“The comm channel is repeating one directive. Execute Order 66.” Tech explained.
“Yeah, I heard that too. What’s Order 66?” Wrecker inquired.
“I am not certain.” Tech said with a slight sigh.
“Well can you get certain?” You snapped aggressively.
The others all turned to look at you.
You sighed. “Sorry. Just shocked, that’s all.”
Hunter studied you for a moment before addressing the group. “Echo, Tech talk to the Reg captain. Find out what you can.” He looked to you and Crosshair. “We will track down the kid and make sure nothing happens to him. Wrecker, stall anyone who tries to follow us.”
--
The three of you ran into the woods. You knew you could find him quicker than Hunter could track him but until you knew what exactly this order was, your secret would have to remain a secret.
“He’s close.” Hunter said quietly.
You looked in the trees around you and you spotted a huddled brown figure on a tree branch. You nudged Crosshair and subtlety pointed up. “There.”
Hunter followed your gaze. “Come on down kid. We’re here to help.”
You noticed Crosshair fiddling with his sniper. “What are you- No!” You watched in horror as Crosshair fired on the branch and the young Jedi deflected the bolt.
“Liar!” He shouted before jumping away.
“What are you doing?” Hunter asked, stunned.
“Following orders.” Crosshair answered.
You just stared at him. “You don’t even know what the order is.”
“Stand down.” Hunter ordered, pushing Crosshair back. “Until we know what’s going on.” He walked off, tugging your arm gently to get you to follow him.
You shook your head at Crosshair before following Hunter.
“Good soldiers follow orders.” Crosshair said once the two of you were out of earshot before he walked after you.
--
The comm linked chirped and Wrecker’s gruff voice came through. “Hunter, you’ve got regs in bound.”
“Copy that.”
“We have a situation.” This time it was Tech’s voice.
“Tell us something we don’t know, Tech.” You answered.
“It appears the regs have been ordered to execute the Jedi.”
You immediately stopped walking. You felt lightheaded and your knees were definitely threatening to buckle and this time you weren’t so sure you could resist, so you leaned against a tree.
“What? Which Jedi?” Hunter asked.
“All of them. They’re saying the Jedi have committed treason.” Tech clarified.
“That would explain things.” Crosshair said.
“It doesn’t begin to explain things!” You snapped, pushing off the tree to walk towards him.
“I suggest you get back here.” Tech inserted.
“Can’t, haven’t found the kid yet.” Hunter explained.  
Crosshair turned and raised his rife. “Wrong.” He fired.
You watched Caleb fall and ignite his lightsaber and come running at Crosshair.
“Stop!” You shouted at Crosshair before trying to grab his rifle, but he pushed you back and continued firing at the padawan.
“Crosshair, stand down!” Hunter ordered.
Caleb landed a blow to the rifle causing it to fall from Crosshair’s grip.
“Don’t!” Hunter called out.
Caleb landed a hard kick to Crosshair’s chest, causing his to crash into the bottom of a tree.
You turned to face Caleb and spoke calmly to him. “Take it easy, kid.” You took a slow step towards him. “Easy.”
You heard the sound of Hunter’s blaster hitting the ground and he also began to slowly walk towards the boy. “We’re on your side.” He said.
Caleb turned and ran.
You shot Hunter a look and the two of you ran after him. As you approached where he was, you saw he had stopped at the edge of a cliff. You and Hunter both slowed your advance.
“Stay back!” He cried.
Hunter removed his helmet, and you followed suit by taking down your hood and mask.
“Just hear us out.” You said gently.
“No. You killed her!”
“The others did. We’re just as confused as you are.” Hunter replied.
You saw the fear and uncertainty in Caleb’s eyes. You inhaled deeply. It was worth a shot, so you reached out into his force signature. Caleb, listen to me.
Caleb turned his gaze towards you, his eyes wide with surprise. You’re a-
Yes, but I’ve not been a part of The Order for a long time.
They killed her. I can’t trust them.
They didn’t kill her Caleb. He wants to help you. Let him, no harm will come to you I can promise you that. Trust him.
Do he and the others know about you?
No. You knew there was no point in lying to him.
Then how am I supposed to believe I can trust them when you haven’t even told them who you are?
There were a series of reasons for why I- You can- Please Caleb listen to me.
No!
Caleb don’t- You shook your head slightly in mild discomfort. He’d pushed you out. You wouldn’t be able to communicate with him like that now unless he was the one to instigate it.
Hunter’s eyes darted between you both. He couldn’t think of how, but he could’ve sworn the two of you just had a conversation. He brought his attention back to the frightened padawan in front of him.  He slowly continued his approach.
“Stay back! Stay back!” Caleb shouted.
“We can help you. Come with us.” Hunter moved forward again and reached his hand out.
Caleb glanced at you whilst backing towards the edge. I won’t tell him, but I can’t go with you.
You nodded sadly but you couldn’t blame him. If you were in his position, you weren’t sure you would go either. Suddenly, you all heard the sound of regs heading in your direction and you knew your time was up.
“No!” Hunter called out but it was too late. Caleb turned and jumped across the river and with one last look back, he disappeared into the woods.
Perhaps, if you were smart, you would’ve followed him, but you didn’t want to leave your squad and you needed answers too. You’d kept it a secret this long, it would just be a little harder now. You and Hunter watched him go and out of the corner of your eye, you saw Crosshair approach.
“Where’s the Jedi?” He enquired.
“I stunned him when he jumped. He didn’t make it.” Hunter answered soberly before turning away.
Crosshair glanced at you. You only glared at him and turned to follow Hunter.  
--
The ship came out of hyperspace. “We are coming up on Kamino.” Tech announced.
“It’s good to be home. How long’s it been?” Wrecker asked.
“One hundred and eighty rotations in a standard cycle but galactic zone changes put the adjusted figure at around two hundred and five.” Tech explained.
“What?” Wrecker replied, face filled with confusion.
Echo sighed. “A long time.”
“You got that right!” Wrecker replied with a laugh.
Despite everything that just happened, you chuckled slightly. Something you never grew tired of was the dynamic between all of them. You adjusted yourself slightly from where you were platonically sitting on the floor, leaning against Hunter’s legs. You noticed that Crosshair was staring at you both.
“What?” Hunter asked, without opening his eyes.
“You sure that padawan died when he fell?” Crosshair asked.
“It was pretty easy to deduce, Crosshair.” You snapped.
Crosshair looked back to Hunter.
“Sure I’m sure. Why?” He replied, looking over at him.
“Well usually when someone falls you look down. Not across.”
“Or some of us don’t like to watch.” You added solemnly before standing up and moving towards the front window.
Hunter got out of his seat and followed you.
--
As you entered the rather wet and thunderous planet atmosphere, two ships set themselves up on either side of The Marauder. “Unidentified transport transmit your clearance code.”
“Clearance code?” Echo repeated. “Don’t they know who we are?”
“Must be a protocol drill.” Tech stated before transmitting the code.
“Authorisation confirmed. Proceed to landing bay one-tac-one.”
--
As the ship landed and you all walked out, you could not only see but feel that something was different.
“Shock troopers? What’s the Coruscant guard doing here?” Hunter thought out loud as he saw a group of red and white armoured clones walk past.
“Something strange is going on here. This doesn’t feel like a simulation.” You said.
Tech looked up from his datapad. “You are correct. This isn’t a drill.”
“Oh, man. What did we miss now?” Wrecker complained.
“The end of the war.” A shock trooper replied.
“Say again, trooper.” Hunter requested.
“General Grievous was defeated on Utapau. The Separatist leadership has collapsed. The war is over.”
“Just like I said.” Tech pointed out.
Wrecker gasped and sounded genuinely impressed. “It is just like you said!”
You weren’t so impressed. Kenobi- your friend- was probably dead now anyway. The end of the war did not feel right to you. Something was wrong and it wasn’t just the dead Jedi. As you were standing there, two regs carrying a stretcher passed you and a hand came free of its covering and a lightsaber fell out of its grasp. You took a step forward and stared at it and felt that cold feeling rush through your veins again.
“Is there a problem?” The shock trooper addressed you.
You tore your gaze from the weapon in his head and spoke calmy. “No problem.”
Hunter came beside you and brushed his fingers against yours. “We’ll just head to our barracks then.”
“Best hurry. There’s a mandatory general assembly at 1500.” The trooper informed you all as you walked away.
--
“It’s not just the clones on Kaller. All the regs are acting strange.” Hunter observed.
“Let’s test that theory.” Tech said before approaching an oncoming group of regs. “Excuse me, Trooper. What division are you from?”
“Step aside.” The clone responded roughly, elbowing Tech.
“Oh. Well, they seem the same to me.” Tech said frankly.
You gave him a small smile and patted his shoulder sympathetically as you walked past him.
--
“Ahh. Good to be back.” Wreaker said as you all entered the barracks.
“The smell’s getting worse.” You and Echo said in unison.
“You’re both still new. You’ll get used to it.” He said cheerfully enough, placing a hand on your shoulder.
“Speak for yourself.” Crosshair said, pushing past the two of you.
“Well, I’ll get the board.” Wreaker pulled out his vibroknife and began adding to the tallies that were etched on the wall.
You took off the strap that had your weapon in it and laid it down on the table in the middle of the room and sat down next to Hunter. Your knees touched under the table.
“Eleven more successful missions. Ha! Like there was any doubt.” Wrecker said proudly before heading to his bunk.
“Kaller wasn’t a win.” Echo added.
“Says who? We completed our objective.” Wreaker argued.
“Not every objective.” Crosshair said.
You glanced at him suspiciously. Ever since Kaller, he had been acting strange.
“Those two let that Jedi kid escape.” He continued, pointing in your direction. “Or do you want to keep lying to us?”
You clenched your fists tightly to stop yourself from doing or saying something stupid.
Hunter stood up and walked towards the window. “I don’t like to think of executing our commanders as a mission objective.”
“An order is an order.” Crosshair stated.
“Since when?” You questioned as Hunter turned to face him.
Crosshair stared harshly between the two of you before Echo spoke up.
“None of this makes sense. Those clones served alongside General Billaba for years. How could they turn on her like that?” Echo said, a hint of anger coming through.
“Because of the regs programming.” Tech replied.
You looked at him. “Come again?”
“What programming?” Hunter asked.
“It’s been well documented that the Kaminoans inhibited the cognitive functions of clones to engineer them to follow orders without question.”
“Ha! We sure don’t!” Wrecker said smugly, pushing his Lula toy into Crosshair’s face who was having none of it and pushed against it.
“Obviously we are different.” Tech said. “They manipulated pre-existing aberrations in our DNA, resulting in your brute strength, Crosshair’s sharpshooting skills, Hunter’s enhanced senses and my exceptional mind. My guess is we are immune to the effects of the programming. Though I can’t be 100% certain of it.”
You stole a look at Crosshair who only narrowed his gaze at you. You looked away. “What about Echo? He was a reg before he joined you, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, if all regs were programmed, why didn’t I react like the others?” Echo asked.
“The damage you sustained on Skako Minor most likely wiped out all your present behavioural modifications. You are more machine than man… percentagewise, at least.” Tech answered.
Echo sighed. “Lucky me.”
You gave Echo a sympathetic smile before a PA announcer sounded. “All personnel report to the staging area for a briefing on the state of the Republic.”
You grabbed your weapon casing and jumped out of your seat and walked towards the door. You needed this briefing. Maybe after it you would finally be able to make sense of all that happened.
“This is one meeting I don’t want to miss.” Hunter said, following you.
“First time for everything.” Tech said before he and everyone else made their way out.
--
You were stunned by the image on the screen in front of you. Chancellor Palpatine had certainly had a rough time of it. His skin looked like it was about to fall off his face, it was scarred and damaged to the point where if you hadn’t been heard so many of his previous senate meetings, you might have struggled to recognise him. But what shocked you even more were the words that were coming out of his mouth.
“And the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated.”
Jedi rebellion? They wouldn’t have- they couldn’t- would they? No. You had your issues with them, but you couldn’t believe this. You felt sick to your stomach.
“The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed but I assure you my resolve has never been stronger!”
You were too focused on the screen in front of you to notice Hunter glance up to the platform where the top Kaminoans were. With them he noticed someone he did not recognise.
“What is it?” Tech asked him.
He turned to him slightly but by the time he looked back up, the person was gone. “Nothing.” He replied. Then he felt a hard grip on his wrist, and he looked down to see your hand there before he looked back at you and saw that the colour had drained from your face.
“The Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire!”
“Galactic Empire?” Echo repeated quietly.
“For a safe and secure society.” Palpatine finished with a smile and applause rang through the assembly.
“Still don’t think the regs are programmed?” Tech pointed out.
You glanced around you; everyone was cheering in unison. Everyone was happy about this new reign. Everyone except the six of you. All this assembly did was confirm your suspicions. You couldn’t ever tell them what you were. Not only would that put you in danger, but it would put them in danger too. You had to do everything in your power to supress that part of you, you’d gotten good at it when you were on your own. You only started to embrace that part of you again when you joined this group. You had to do this, or you were screwed.
--
As you all walked down the corridor from the meeting, you were still trying to process what you had just witnessed.
“Galactic Empire? We’re soldiers of the Republic.” Echo said.
“Republic, Empire… What’s the difference?” Crosshair inserted.
You scoffed in disgust. “I can think of a few.”
“The systematic termination of the Jedi is a big one for me.” Tech responded.
“That being the main one.” You agreed.
Just then, Hunter held his hand up to stop you all. “We’ve got company.”
You all turned round and what greeted you left you quite surprised.
“Hello.” The young child said with a smile and wave.
“What’s that?” Wreaker asked, bending down.
“Adolescent human female. Origins… uncertain.” Tech replied.
“Or in layman’s terms, Tech, a young girl.” You said with smile and a roll of your eyes. You walked forward and kneeled down in front of her. “What’s your name?”
“My name’s Omega. I was wondering when you guys would come back.”
“You know who we are?” Hunter asked, nudging past Tech.
“Hunter, Echo, Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair and (Y/N).” She said looking back to you. “You’re Clone Force 99. Although-”
“Yeah, I know. I’m clearly not a clone but I helped these fellas out of some hot water, and they’ve needed me ever since.” You grinned up at Hunter who shook his head, a small smile on his face.
“Technically-”
“No, Tech. Everything I’ve said is true.” You turned back to him with a smirk.
Omega let out a small laugh.
“What are you doing on Kamino, kid?” Hunter asked.
“Her job, of course.” A smooth, calm voice answered for her.
You stood up and saw a female Kaminoan approach your group. “She is my medical assistant. One with a curious mind that causes her to wander. Come Omega, there is work to do.” She turned away and Omega followed her but not before giving you all one last wave.
You glanced at Hunter and the others and were pleased to see that they all looked just as confused as you were. In your time on Kamino and all that you knew about it, that was quite unexpected.
“This day keeps getting weirder and weirder.” Hunter said.
“Can’t disagree with you there.” You said.
--
You didn’t know if it was because you’d been living off rations for so long, but this canteen food was quite possibly the best food you’d tasted in a while. You were at what was now your usual table.
“Clones being programmed. Nothing controls me.” Wrecker said authoritatively, standing up at the table.
“Wrecker, it is a logical conclusion that your affinity for destruction would stem from your conditioning.” Tech explained.
“You take that back!”
“I am merely stating a scientific hypothesis based on factual data.”
“Well, I’ve got a fact for you. I like to blow things up because I like to blow things up!” He yelled, slamming his fists down on the table. “Got it?”
“Well, I’m convinced.” Crosshair sneered.
“Will you sit down.” You hissed, grabbing Wrecker’s arm, you didn’t want any more attention being drawn to you and the squad right now.
Hunter joined your table, sitting across from you. “An Imperial’s been sent to evaluate the clones. Everybody’s talking about it.”
“What kind of evaluation?” Echo inquired.
“Hopefully not mental. Clearly, we’d never pass that.” Tech said.
You couldn’t help but huff out a laugh at the looks on the others faces. Then another strange thing happened.
“Hello again.” Omega said as she sat down at the table next to Hunter.
You all just kind of stared at her.
“Omega. From earlier? In the corridor?”
You cleared your throat. “Sorry. Come on guys, back to basic human interactions please. Staring like this is just weird.”
Hunter spoke up. “Yeah, kid we remember. Don’t you have someplace to be?”
“No. I’ll stay.” She said before dipping into her food.
“You want to sit with us?” You asked sceptically.
“That’s never happened before.” Tech added.
“I like you. You don’t fit in around here either.” She said.
“What are you really doing here on Kamino, kid? Don’t you have a family somewhere? Parents?” Hunter asked.
“Parents?” She repeated, looking at him slightly puzzled.
“Check it out. The defects squad’s got themselves a new recruit. Another member added to the Sad Batch. Gotta say, I preferred it when they brought back the hot loner.”
Don’t be an idiot, don’t be idiot. You don’t want attention right now, you thought to yourself. So, you just joined the others in glaring at the two regs that walked past your table. You went back to focusing on your food, but you seemed to have lost your appetite now. Then all you heard was a squelch and you looked up to see Omega standing on the table, one roll in hand, the other seemed to have exploded all over the one reg’s neck and the side of his face.
“Who threw that?” He demanded angrily, eyes scanning the area.
“I did.” Omega said seriously. “Now apologise to my friends.”
“I like this kid!” Wrecker said.
“What did you say to me?” The reg pointed in her direction and began walking towards her.
“Whoa, whoah, whoa. Back off.” Hunter stood in front of him. “I suggest you keep moving.” He said firmly.
You and Wrecker both stood up behind Omega. You hoped this would be all you had to do.  
“Know your place, lab scrapper.” The reg started to walk away but as he did so a bunch of food trays hit him.
You all turned to look at Wrecker who was holding two more trays. “Oops.”
You put your head in your hands. “Wrecker, did you have to?”
“That’s it.” The reg said heatedly.
“Oh yeah!” Wrecker shouted before throwing the trays, those ones hitting another reg straight in the face.
“So much for lack of attention”. You grumbled to yourself before landing a punch to a clone that was coming from your left.
A quick look around told you that everyone was doing just fine, even Omega was handling herself and Crosshair… well, he was just being Crosshair, eating his meal, not phased by what was happening around him. That was until a clone kicked Echo into his tray and his food went everywhere… then he got involved.
You came round the table to go to the clones near Tech, but a clone stood in front of you. “You’d be better off getting out the way. Save yourself the black eye and sore ribs.” You stated.
“I’ve got a better idea. Come back to my barracks. Save us both the fight. Unless you into that sorta thing.” He said with a smirk.
“I just threw up in my mouth.” You said with a disgusted scoff.
“Sorry, guess I just thought clones were your type or is it only the one’s with a higher military rank?” He jeered.  
You glowered at him before darting forward and landing a punch to the right side of his face and a quick kick to the middle of his body sent him onto his back. He groaned. “Did try to warn you.” You said smugly.
You stepped over him and made your way to Tech. You both were able to easily deal with the few clones that came over but then you heard a crash. You turned to see Echo being tackled to the ground. You had to turn away quickly to push back another clone that had advanced towards you. As you did so you heard Tech call out.
“Echo, watch out!”
You looked and saw the reg bring down the metal tray straight on to Echo’s head and he slumped to the side. You ran over to the reg and pushed him away and knelt down by Echo. “He needs to go to the medical bay.”
--
Machines. That was all he could see. No, he couldn’t be back there. “No! Get them off!” Echo sat up quickly, pushing the scanners away.
“But my tests are not yet complete.” The small droid said calmly.
“Echo. Echo, it’s okay. It’s me. Omega.” She soothed, moving the droid to the side. “I understand. I don’t like being hooked up to their machines either.”
Echo looked at her and took another few breaths to calm himself down.
The droid spoke again. “Hello, CT-1409.”
“His name is Echo.” Omega pointed out.
“I am AZ-345211896246498721347. Your assigned medical droid.” The droid said with a spin of his body.
You walked through the medical bay doors alongside Hunter and were thrilled to see that Echo was awake.
“Ha told you he’s alive. You owe me two credits!” Wrecker said smugly to Crosshair who only shook his head.
“How you doing, Echo?” You asked.
“CT-1409’s condition is stable.” The droid answered. “But I have some distressing news for the four of you. According to your test results, you all appear to be genetically defective clones.”
The droid’s sincere and distraught tone meant you had to turn away to choke back your laughter.
“I will leave you to process the shock of this revelation.” He said gravely before going away.
“We’ve got a problem.” Echo announced.
“Not really. We’re more deviant than we are defective.” Tech interjected.
You studied Echo’s face, and you could tell whatever he had to say had nothing to do with any medical information. “You’re not talking about that are you?”
Echo nodded. “Admiral Tarkin’s here. He’s the one evaluating the clones.”
You scoffed in disgust which caused the others to stare at you.
“How would you know anything about him?” Crosshair asked.
“Uh… I had a life before you guys you know. I heard rumours.” You said quickly. You couldn’t tell them the reason you knew he was kind of an asshole was because of your time in the Jedi Order where you had argued with him as he helped the Order ruin the life of your friend. It didn’t surprise you that he was already an important person in this new Empire. He was definitely someone you needed to avoid, if there was even the slightest chance he recognised you, you all were fucked, and you couldn’t have that.
“This is the same Tarkin form the Citadel rescue when you, uh… How shall I put this?” Tech paused.
“Blew up.” Wrecker finished the sentence.
“And turned into that.” Crosshair added, taking his toothpick out his mouth.
“Way to be sensitive guys.” You said with a shake of your head.
Echo sighed. “Yes, and he’s not a big supporter of clones.”
“We’ll soon find out. We’ve been summoned by the prime minister.” Hunter said, crossing his arms.
“Guess he didn’t find that mess hall fight amusing. But I sure did.” Wrecker said.
“Come on. Let’s get this over with.” Hunter said.
You all made your way to go but Omega called after you. “Wait!” She darted in front of doorway. “The fight was my fault. I’m going too.” She said determinedly.
“Not happening. We’ll handle this.” Hunter said firmly before walking past her.
“But I-”
“Listen, kid.” Hunter turned sharply to look at her. “Our squad’s nothing but trouble. For your sake, keep your distance. Got it?”
Your heart went out to her as you watched Hunter walk away. “He was a little harsh, but he’s right. I love them all, but we tend to end up in tight spots and as you’ve seen, we’re not the most popular group there is. I’m sure we’ll see you around though.” You placed a hand on her shoulder before walking out the door to join Hunter and the others as they waited for you.
--
You began walking towards the prime minister’s office but as you were walking a shock trooper addressed you harshly. “Where do you think you’re going? The training facility is that way.”
You all turned to look at the trooper.
“Training facility?” Hunter asked.
“For a battle simulation. Admiral Tarkin has requested to see more of your squad in action.”
“Then we’re not being reprimanded?” Tech questioned.
“No, you’re being tested.” The clone answered severely.
I sure as hell am not, you thought to yourself, this was the last thing you needed. “Well, you guys enjoy that. I’m just going to head back to the barracks. Good luck, sure you’ll do great.” You said casually with a click of your fingers. You slowly etched your way out the group and began to walk past Hunter and the shock trooper. As you did so, the trooper grabbed your arm.
“That includes you.”
Hunter reached his hand out and he felt the others behind him take a step forward, but he caught himself just in time and waved them back. He was sure you could handle this yourself plus he didn’t want to get his squad into any more trouble.
You looked down at the grip the clone had on your forearm and looked into his helmet, an unimpressed expression on your face. “Is this not part of the clone evaluation?” You asked him.
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m sure you’re an observant fellow and those eyes of yours can see that I’m obviously not a clone.” You removed yourself from his grasp. “So, I’ll not be participating in Admiral Tarkin’s evaluation.”
“He requested your presence too. As far as he’s concerned, you’re an equal part of this squad so that means you’re being evaluated too.”
Shit, you thought to yourself. You could only hope enough time had passed and the hood and mask would be enough that he wouldn’t recognise you. You made your way back into the group, ignoring many of their quizzical stares.
“Now, go gear up.” The shock trooper ordered.
“So, we’re not in trouble, and they want us to fight more? Ha! Maybe this Empire thing’s not so bad after all.” Wrecker said merrily.
“I wouldn’t go that far.” You muttered as you headed to the training facility.
--
As the lift to the training facility began to rise, you kept adjusting your ensemble. You couldn’t afford any slip ups when you were doing this.
“It’s fine.” Echo muttered to you.
You glanced at him but before you could say anything else, you all were in the facility, and you kept your head down whilst Tarkin spoke to you all from the observation area where the prime minister was too. His suave voice echoed around the room. “The value of all clone troopers and other personnel…”
You didn’t need to lift your head; you could feel him looking at you.
“Is being challenge by the Empire. To demonstrate your effectiveness, a combat-proficiency test is in order. Take your positions.” He finished speaking.
“We’ve done these a thousand times, guys. You know what to do.” Hunter stated before putting on his helmet.
“A battle simulation? Give us a real challenge.” Wrecker voiced through his helmet before you all broke off into your positions.
You crouched behind one of the barriers that had Tech and Wrecker behind them too, whilst the other 3 took up their positions on the opposite one.
You waited a few moments before you heard the whirring of the training droids, and the towers came online and fired down on you. You knew Crosshair would be sent to the towers and sure enough, you saw him make his way over to them. You didn’t have a blaster, but you did have another vibroblade strapped to your thigh, so you took that out and threw it at one of the droids. It implanted itself deep within the face of the droid and it collapsed to the floor. You noticed a few more fall too as the other’s shots met their targets.
--
As Crosshair took the towers down, Hunter signalled you all to move in. You ran out from behind the barrier and drew your modified vibro-weapon. You picked your knife up from the fallen droid and dodged a few of the shots headed your way, managing to cut down a couple more before you took shelter behind another barrier. You couldn’t help but feel a bit irritated, if you could use your ‘special’ skillset effectively this could all be over so much quicker.
You peered out from behind it to see Wrecker doing exactly what you wished you could do: just taking on all the droids. You made eye-contact with Tech who only rolled his eyes. To be honest you were grateful for Wrecker’s antics at this point, you needed this to be over. Plus, it was enjoyable to watch him get so much fun out of a drill like this.
“What else you go? Gimme more!” Wrecker shouted up to the watch platform.
Admiral Tarkin thought this had been over much too quickly. This group hadn’t been tested nearly enough. “If the Galactic Empire is to be stronger than the Republic which preceded it, it’s soldiers must follow suit. Switch to live fire.”
The prime minister didn’t like that idea one bit. “Admiral Tarkin, I must protest. I don’t care so much about the woman, but live rounds could damage my clones and my facility.”
“For which you will be fairly compensated. Do it!”
The prime minister reluctantly nodded towards the Kaminoans at the control panel.
 --
You had been studying their interaction, something didn’t look right. You attention was brought back to the current situation as new, more advanced droids appeared in the area in front of you. This combined with what you had just seen above you didn’t look good. “Wrecker, hold on a minute!” You called out as he began running towards them. His shots were useless, even his brute strength didn’t have an effect.
Then it all went to hell.
You watched as the droids used live rounds, one of them hitting Wrecker. You darted out quickly, managing to cut the arms off the first droid. You ran over and grabbed Wrecker’s right arm. “You alright?”
“I felt that one.” Wrecker said, his voice straining slightly.
Tech had dashed out to grab his other arm so together the two of you were able to scurry behind the barrier before the other droid’s blaster fire made contact with you.
You sat helplessly whilst blaster fire surrounded you. Why was it the one time you actually needed to use the abilities you had the one time where you absolutely could not. If it got bad enough, you might have to anyway. You knew where that would leave you, but what about the others? A whistle brought you out of your head and you looked over to see Hunter giving the three of you hand signals.
“Oh! I hate hand signals!” Wrecker complained.
“They’re not too difficult to understand Wrecker once you know them.” You said, taking your knife back out and throwing it into the arm of one of the other droids. It didn’t do much to stop it, it just focused its attention on you causing you to duck quickly.
“Perhaps if you memorised them.” Tech suggested.
“Why don’t you memorise them?” Wrecker snipped back.
“We have.” You and Tech said at the same time.
“What we did on Felucia.” Tech clarified.
You jumped out from behind the small wall, jumping over the head of the droid that had your smaller vibro-blade in it, grabbing it as you did so. You knew that was foolish but if you needed to, you could talk your way out of it. You’d done it before.
You distracted the droids to allow Wrecker the time to move in. You slid on your knees, avoiding the blaster fire, and sliced through the legs of one of the droids. As it fell, you stabbed your weapon through the head of it, rendering it useless. Great, two down, lots more to go, you thought. You felt a blaster bolt whizz past your head as you ran quickly to where Hunter and Crosshair were taking cover. “How do you think we’re doing?”
“Could be better.” Hunter replied.
You saw that Tech was in the middle of reprogramming the droid. If all went according to plan, the playing-field should even out shortly.
--
Admiral Tarkin watched this display with intrigue. “These are rather unusual tactics.”
“The clones of experimental Unit 99 have a tendency to veer from standard combat protocol. Something that the woman who is a part of their group has also embraced.” The prime minister explained.
Tarkin peered down at you. There was something about you that didn’t quite sit right with him, and he needed to know what it was.
--
Oh, thank fuck, you thought. Tech had successfully reprogrammed the droid so now your life was simpler. With Tech taking down most of the advancing droids, the rest of you were able to finish the ones that remained. Everything seemed to be going fine… right up until it wasn’t. Tech had already started to struggle keeping the connection with the droid he was controlling and to make matters worse, a last droid appeared at the top of the training facility and fired at Tech’s droid. He fell to the ground.
“Tech!” You cried out. You saw Hunter throw his vibroblade into its arm and you used that to run up to it to stop it from continuing its fire in Tech’s direction but you severely under-estimated how fast it would react. Before you could use your weapon, it landed a kick to the centre of your chest that sent you flying backwards. You collided into Hunter, who quickly got to his feet and grabbed you. The two of you scrambled to get to cover. You leant back against the barrier and Hunter kneeled in front of you. “Sorry about that.” You said sheepishly, trying to get the air back into your lungs. “That was really dumb.”
“Are you okay?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I’m sure I’m supposed to feel like my entire chest has just caved in on itself.” You said with a laugh.
Hunter sighed, hoping you couldn’t pick up on the extent of the relief he felt. He looked away from you. “Crosshair, we need more cover fire!”
You looked to see how Tech was. He was still on the ground and that droid wasn’t stopping its assault. You needed one of them to come up with something quick or you really wouldn’t have much of a choice. If you had to die in order to save your squad, then you’d do that but at the same time you really hoped there would be another option. Crosshair’s voice then sounded.
“Wrecker, knife!”
You watched as Wrecker threw his knife into the air and Crosshair’s shot hit it perfectly. It spun in the air and hit the middle of the droid’s head, deactivating it. Out of all the shots you’d seen him do, that was by far the most impressive. You rested the back of your head against the block in relief. Your secret was able to stay a secret still.
“Here.”
You looked to see Hunter holding his hand out to you. Calm yourself down and just take the hand like a normal human being. Nice and casual, you reminded yourself. You took it and let him bring you to your feet. “Thanks.”
Hunter wanted nothing more than to keep that feeling of your hand in his for as long as possible, but he knew this wasn’t the place or time. Not to mention, you probably didn’t view it in the same light he did. He let your hand go once you were on your feet. “Nice work.” He directed to Crosshair.
You had made your way over to Tech and helped him to his feet. You glanced up at the observation platform to see Tarkin walking away. Please let that be the last I see of him, you thought.
--
Omega looked at the man who was studying the birthing pods and she felt a sense of unease.
“Extraordinary. Aren’t they?” The head scientist Nala Se said.
“That remains to be seen. Tell me about Clone Force 99.” Tarkin requested.
“They are medically defective clones whose cellular mutations enhanced traits desirable in a soldier.” Nala Se responded.
“And the woman who is with them?”
Lama Su told him your name before continuing with explaining your background. “She came back to Kamino with them the last time the clones were here. According to them, she assisted them on a mission, and they offered her a place on the squad. As far as I’m aware, she’s been with them ever since. Her tendency to stray from the normal rules also means she fits in well.” The prime minister replied.
Tarkin thought for a few moments, but your name didn’t ring any bells with him unfortunately. “Where did she come from?”
“They met her on Devaron. As to her original origin, I do not know.”
Tarkin pondered this before continuing. “How many of these enhanced clones do you possess?”
“Five are all that remain.” Nala Se answered.
“They could be an asset to your new Empire. Their female included, she’s bonded with them in a way I’ve not seen their fellow clones do.” The prime minister added.
“Yet reports indicate they exhibit a concerning level of disobedience and disregard for orders.” Tarkin countered.
“A side effect of their mutation.” Nale Se explained.
“Yet one that has never hindered the completion of their missions.” The prime minister inserted.
“Then they executed Order 66?” Tarkin asked.
“Since both the Jedi General and Padawan on Kaller were eliminated, one would assume-”
“Assume nothing.” Tarkin interrupted the Kaminoan prime minister. “Only the general’s death is confirmed. A counter-report filed by one of their own, says the Padawan escaped. Let us see where the loyalty of these clones and their friend truly lies.” Tarkin said before leaving the room.
Omega watched as he left. She didn’t like him, and she worried about what he had in store for all of you.
--
You removed your mask and hood as you entered the barracks and sat down at the table, head in your hands. What the fuck was that evaluation? Live rounds? What the hell? Apparently, Wrecker shared your unhappiness.
“Live rounds? They used live rounds! On us!” He said, throwing his helmet on the table.
“We were there, Wrecker. We know.” Tech replied.
“I tried to warn you about Tarkin.” Echo added.
“Yup. Major Dickhead.” You concurred.
“Who’s that Imperial snake think he is?” Wrecker voiced angrily.
“Stow it already. You got shot. It happens all the time.” Crosshair said coldly.
You stared at Crosshair and made eye-contact with Hunter who nodded back at you. Good, at least I’m not the only one who has noticed this, you thought.
“There’s a fundamental difference between taking fire in battle and being used for target practice.” Tech refuted.
“Exactly! We’re not dummy droids.” Wrecker agreed, looking at Crosshair.
“That much we agree on.”
Shit. You quickly put your hood and mask up and went to stand next to Crosshair as Admiral Tarkin entered the room. You felt Echo and Hunter’s eyes on you as you did that, but you didn’t care. You couldn’t exactly avoid him now so this was the closest you could get.
“That was quite an impressive display.” Tarkin said, walking down the middle on the line.
“Didn’t have much of a choice.” Hunter answered.
“Our new empire may have methods which seem a bit unorthodox but so does is this squadron. Particularly your presence here, (Y/N), is it?”
“Yes.” You said quietly, avoiding eye-contact. You felt his cold hands through your mask as they placed themselves on your chin, angling your face up to look at him. You resisted the instinct to tear his hand away and send him crashing into the barrack wall.
Hunter had to fight the urge to pull his hand off of you, but he noticed your left hand moving. The signal was clear, you were fine. He looked to the others who were all frowning in Tarkin’s direction, well, all except Crosshair who kept his expression neutral, and shook his head to stop any of them from saying anything.
“Your choice of weapon is rather unusual. How did you come by such a device?” Tarkin asked you.
“I made it myself. Gathered a bunch of vibroblades together.” You replied.
“And no blaster?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like them.” You answered simply.
Tarkin paused. In all his time in military command, he’d never come across an ordinary soldier who didn’t fight with a blaster by choice. Only the- no that couldn’t be possible. He continued his questioning. “You weren’t a part of this squad in the beginning.” Tarkin stated.
“That’s correct.” You answered curtly.
“Yet they allowed you to join them after only knowing you for a brief amount of time.”
“I made a good impression.” You said coolly.
“Clearly. Tell me, your military and fighting background, what was it?”
“Self-taught.” You lied smoothly.
“I doubt that. A person of your skill had to have received training from somewhere.”
“I pick up quickly, working with this squad helped me figure a few things out.” You replied easily.  
You were good. He had to hand it to you, but his suspicions were not yet quashed. Your voice and eyes felt familiar to him. There was only one way he’d know if he was right or not. “Take of your mask.” Tarkin ordered.
You felt your heartbeat start pounding in your ears. “No.”
“That’s an order.”
“Not one I’ll be following and if you try anything, you’ll end up in the medical bay.” You said defiantly.
Tarkin narrowed his gaze at you but before he could say anything, a clone voice grabbed his attention.
“You got a mission for us sir?” Hunter asked, wanting Tarkin’s attention to be away from you.
“Indeed.” Tarkin responded, releasing his grip on you, until either you slipped up or he had further information he would just have to wait. There was a larger issue at hand here. He walked to face the clone who spoke to him. “We have tracked a group of insurgents to the Onderon sector. They must be dealt with.”
You took a shaky breath as he turned away from you. That was too fucking close.
“What sort of insurgents?” Echo asked.
“Separatist forces intent on keeping the galaxy at war. If you neutralize this grave threat, you will be looked upon most favourably as I assess the needs of the Imperial army.” He informed you all before walking out of the room.
You felt all the eyes in the room turn to look at you. “Problem?” You asked casually.
“What was that all about?” Wrecker asked.
“What?” You said with a shrug of your shoulders.
“If you were trying to get yourself thrown in the brig, that was an excellent way to go about it.” Tech added.
“I wasn’t trying to- I didn’t- I-” You broke off with a sigh.
“What’s going on?” Hunter asked you, his tone softer than what it usually was, as he moved to stand in front of you and laid a hand on your shoulder.
You looked into his eyes. You hated this. You wanted nothing more than to tell him- to tell all of them- what you were but you couldn’t, the time where you could safely tell them was gone and now it was killing you inside, way worse than it was before. “Nothing.” You shuffled away from him. “Come on, we got a mission to get on with.” You left the room quickly and walked down the corridor to the ship.
--
Echo and the others came to stand by Hunter who had watched you go. “She’s been acting strangely. Have you noticed?”
“Of course, I have. She’s been different since the mission at Kaller.” Hunter agreed.
“I too have observed several alterations in her behaviour since landing here.” Tech added.
“Do we think she’s okay?” Wrecker asked.
“Why are we talking about this? She’s right, we have a mission to be getting on with.” Crosshair frostily.
Hunter glared at him. “Since when don’t you care?”
“Never said I didn’t but I think we all know why you do.” Crosshair replied. “I’m just focused on the mission as we all should be. Certain feelings should be pushed aside.”
Hunter turned away from him. He wouldn’t have this conversation again. “Come on, let’s go.” He could only hope there would be a moment where you would feel comfortable enough to tell him what you were going through.
--
You were sitting on the steps leading into the ship after Tech and Echo arrived, trying to push your anxiety and self-loathing away but to no avail. All that had happened had overthrown any denial you were able to hold on to.
You couldn’t convince yourself otherwise; your entire relationship with them had started with a lie.
You had lied about the biggest part of your life to your team. No matter how you acted around them, no matter how much of it was genuine, your lie remained, and that lie was going to have to stay a part of you forever and you couldn’t do it anymore. This part of you would either kill you or them and you cared too much to see that happen to them. After this mission, you would leave them, as much as that hurt you to decide, you knew it was the only way out. You’d been on your own before, you could do it again. You stood up and walked over to Echo who was staring at the datapad. “Find any more intel on the insurgents?”
Echo looked up from the screen. “Negative. Imperial files are locked down tight.”
“That’s annoying. Maybe Tech-”
“Yes, give me time. I’ll crack them.”
You turned to see Tech walking down the steps. “Yeah, I figured as much.”  
“I’ll say this for the Empire. They know fire power. You should see the new armoury.” Wrecker announced as he and Crosshair came over with what you assumed was a box filled with explosives.
“That impressive huh?” You asked.
“He actually cried.” Crosshair revealed.
“Hey, we both did.” Wrecker protested.
You let out a small laugh. That was the Crosshair you’d been familiar with, the one you’d seen glimpses of earlier was unknown to you, but it was good to see that he seemed his usual self.
“There’s no room on board for that.” Tech said.
“Yeah? Well, I’ll make room.” He sighed happily as he made went to pick up the container. “A new mission and unlimited explosives. Things are back to normal.”
“That’s not going near my rack.” Tech objected as he followed Wrecker on to the ship. “I refuse to sleep by a projectile again.”
You smiled fondly as you watched them go on board. You were going to miss that. “Hey.” You lightly grabbed Crosshair’s arm as he walked past you. “Where’s Hunter?”
Crosshair looked past you. “There.”
You turned to see Hunter walking through the doors.
--
Hunter noticed you looking over at him. He knew you shouldn’t affect him this way, in fact his life would be a lot simpler if you didn’t, but he couldn’t help it. Within two months of you joining his squad, you had grown to become a key part of him, and he couldn’t stop it, not even if he wanted to and right now, whatever was happening with you, was driving him crazy. He wanted to help you, but he didn’t know how, and he couldn’t know how until he knew what was bothering you which you clearly didn’t want to tell him or anyone else for that matter. A familiar voice brought him back to the current moment.
“Hunter!”
He sighed and turned to see Omega running to catch up to him. “I told you to keep your distance.”
“I know, but I need to talk to you.” She said.
He kneeled down in front of her. “Alright. What is it?”
“That Imperial officer, I think he has it out for you. I overheard him talking to Lama Su. He doesn’t like clones or (Y/N).”
Hunter let out a chuckle. “Ah, that’s nothing new for us. But we get the job done and (Y/N) has already made it clear to him she could handle any trouble he throws her way.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“A mission’s a mission. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Then let me come with you.” Omega pleaded.
“Kid, you’re not a soldier. It’s dangerous.”
“It’s dangerous here too. Things aren’t like before. We need to leave Kamino.”
From the distance, Hunter heard Wrecker calling for him. They were ready to go. “Change takes getting used to. You’ll see. Just give it time.” He stood up and began to walk away.
“Hunter.” Omega called quietly after him.
He turned to face her.
“Um, never mind.”
He carried on walking to the ship.
--
You stood next to Crosshair as Hunter approached. “She okay?”
“Ah, something about her I can’t figure out.”
“Well, she’s a kid, they’re not supposed to be easy to figure out. Hell, most adults aren’t.” You patted his shoulder before going on board the ship.
I’ll say, Hunter thought to himself as he watched you climb the steps.
“Well, I guess kids aren’t quite your area of expertise either.” Crosshair added before he followed you up.
--
Omega watched Hunter board the ship and watched as it flew away. She hoped they would be okay.
“Omega, come along. I told you to stay close.” Lama Se beckoned.
Omega turned away to follow her out the docking bay.
--
The ship landed in the Onderonean jungle, and you all left the ship, helmets, and masks on, hoods up. You could hear the sounds of many creatures roaring in the distance.
“What was that?” Echo asked.
“You don’t want to know.” Tech replied bluntly.
“Well, at least it’s not a swamp.” You added brightly.
“Close enough.” Crosshair griped.
“The Separatist encampment’s two clicks south. We’ll continue on foot and do a full perimeter scan.” Hunter ordered. He stopped Wrecker as he went to run past him. “Covertly.”
“Oh, come on. It’s been days since I’ve blown something up.” Wrecker moaned.
“Easy, Wrecker. Your programming’s kicking in.” Tech pointed out.
“Hey, don’t start with that!” Wrecker said before knocking Tech in front of him.
You smiled to yourself and shook your head at Tech. “Was that really necessary?”
“I was merely pointing out-”
“I know, I know.” You said with a laugh. “Come on, you’re the man with the scanner, lead the way.”
--
The rest of you followed behind Tech as he scanned the jungle area.
“How many droids we talking about, Tech?” Hunter asked.
“I can’t tell from this distance. Something’s blocking my scan.” Tech replied, hitting the side of the datapad.
“Clankers always travel together in packs. Let’s get a closer look at what we’re walking into.” Hunter said.
You all climbed up one of the large trees and laid down flat.
“Tell me what you see, Tech.” Hunter directed.
“I’m clocking twenty-five heat signatures ahead but zero droids.” Tech answered.
“Tarkin said insurgents, not droids.” Crosshair said.
“I’m not sure they’re either.” You pointed out as you peered through your macrobinoculars. You passed them over to Echo.
“She’s right. There are children down there.” Echo stated.
“Children? Out here?” Hunter said, confusion in his voice. He grabbed the binoculars from Echo and sat up as he looked through them.
You sat up and looked at him. “Something’s not right, Hunter.” You felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
“What are you waiting for? Give the order.” Crosshair instructed, the scope of his rifle focusing in on one of the people.
“Negative. Stand down.” Hunter ordered.
“What?” Crosshair responded.
“You mean, we’re not blasting any droids?” Wrecker asked.
“There aren’t any droids, Wrecker.” You replied. You felt the like there were many sets of eyes on you.
“Well, so what do we do?” Wrecker asked.
“We finish the mission.” Crosshair answered. “Make the call, Hunter.”
“We’re not alone. Now stand down.” Hunter commanded.
Just as he did so, a group of who you guessed were the so called ‘insurgents’, surrounded you all. You drew your weapon and kept your eyes on them.
“Let’s hear them out.” Hunter pushed your sword down. “Trust me.”
You looked at him and nodded. You followed his lead and put your hands behind your head, as did the others, but you noticed that Crosshair hadn’t yet done so. “Crosshair.” You hissed.
Crosshair only let out an incredibly irritated sigh before he lowered his rifle and raised his hands.
--
Before you began the walk down to the camp, the troops came and took some of the equipment you all were carrying, including the helmets. One of the soldiers took your hood and mask down. You went to quickly push them back up, but he held his gun up at you.
“Don’t.” He said sternly.
“Hey, easy with that.” Hunter said to the soldier, turning back to look at you.
“It’s fine. I’m sorry.” You said calmly, lowering your hands slowly. The others had their helmets taken so you would have to make do too. “I’ll leave it down.” Please let there be no one here who could possibly recognise me, you thought.
--
The sight which greeted you left you lost for words. Aside from a few soldiers, most of the people at the camp were ordinary civilians, not a weapon or threat amongst them. What had Tarkin been talking about?
“These aren’t Separatists. They’re Republic fighters.” Echo said.
“Why would Tarkin send us to attack our own forces?” Tech asked Hunter.
“Because we refuse to fight for an Empire.”
Oh, of course. It would truly be too much to ask that you could go an entire day without the threat of being recognised. That voice belonged to Saw Gerrera and you’d only helped him utilise some more of his forces after Obi Wan, Rex, Anakin and Ahsoka had assisted him earlier in the war. You stepped behind Wrecker, hoping his size would shield you a little bit. He turned back and glanced down at you, but you just shook your head gestured for him to turn back around.
“You’re Saw Gerrera. Trained by Captain Rex and General Skywalker to fight for the Republic.” Tech stated.
Hunter watched as the man stepped towards him and took his blaster out it’s holster.
“So, the newly declared Empire sent you to wipe us out?” Saw said, turning away from the clone in front of him.
“Well, we’re here to neutralise a group of insurgents.” Hunter explained.
Gererra chuckled and turned to face him. “Well… here we are. What are you going to do? Strike us down like you did the Jedi?”
Your blood ran cold as he said that. The images in your head so vivid it was like you were back on Kaller.
“Is that a request?” Crosshair sneered.
“Enough.” Hunter said firmly. “We expected to find battle droids, not-”
“Civilians? Times change, targets change.” Saw interrupted. “Why don’t you take a look at the insurgents you were sent to destroy.”
Hunter studied at the group in front of him, they looked worried and afraid. These people weren’t a threat that needed to be taken out.
“Makes you wonder what else they’re lying about.” Saw said before turning to address his group. “Let’s mobilise. Pack up the camp.”
Hunter took a few steps towards Saw. He glanced back to see the others following but you weren’t where you had been standing when you first arrived. Wrecker coughed and tilted his head back. He then noticed your silhouette behind him. He turned back to face Saw. “What’s going on here? Who are these people?”
Saw stood up and responded to the clone. “Villagers, croppers, former Republic fighters, all now displaced refugees since Palpatine unjustly appointed himself Emperor.”
“According to reports, the Jedi made an attempt on the Supreme Chancellor’s life. His actions were a defensive measure.” Tech said.
You couldn’t help but scoff.
Saw paused. “You boys got yourself someone else?”
Stupid. Dumb. Idiot. Shit. Fuck. You could’ve kept thinking about all the words that described the stupidity of your actions, but you knew you would have to move out from behind Wrecker anyway, so you stepped out and as soon as you did so, you saw the flash of recognition in Saw’s eyes. You reached out quickly. Please don’t. They don’t know. I’ve been with them for a while and now more than ever they can’t know. Telling them puts them in danger and I can’t have that. Please.
Hunter looked between you and Saw. You had that same intensity in your eyes that you did on Kaller before the padawan jumped.
You let out a sigh of relief as he gave you the tiniest nod of his head. Again, you ignored the side-eye the others were giving you.  
Saw looked away from you and back to the clone with the goggles. “And I figured you for the smart one. With the Jedi decimated and the clone army under his command, Palpatine will have control over the entire galaxy. Unless we stop him.”
“The war is over.” Crosshair said.
“If we give up now, everything we fought for… everyone we lost, will have been for nothing. I won’t let that happen. The Clone War may have ended but a civil war is about to begin.”
You didn’t know what to make of this. You weren’t keen on the idea of this new Empire, but you didn’t like the war either, too many people got caught in the crossfire, too many people got hurt but this regime would probably do just as much damage. You couldn’t remember the last time there had been peace in the galaxy.
“With a handful of fighters and limited firepower? You don’t stand a chance.” Hunter said straightforwardly.
“Not alone we don’t.” Saw insisted.
“We should leave if we’re gonna make the rendezvous.” A soldier informed Gerrera. “What do we do with them?”
Saw paused and looked at the group in front of him. “The clones and others.” He paused slightly and looked in your direction, but he saw your gaze quickly drop down. He continued. “Once helped us free Onderon, so we’ll give them a choice. The old ways are done.” He pointed the clone’s blaster at him.
You took a slight step forward just in case.
“You can either adapt and survive, or die with the past.” Saw carried on as he turned the blaster around before he handed it back to him. “The decision is yours.” He finished before turning of the lamp and walking into the jungle with the rest of his squad.
You watched him as he walked away, and you reached out one last time. Thank you. You saw him stop for a brief second before continuing to walk on. You put your hood and mask back on and waited for Wrecker to gather the gear. You stood next to Hunter and pulled on his arm but just as the two of you were about to walk away, you both stopped. You made sure to stop a second after he did. You had that suspicious feeling again and you knew Hunter did too but neither of you could see anything. You glanced at him, but he just gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, you knew that meant he wasn’t sure what it was. You both turned to go, unaware of the probe droid in the treeline.
--
“At least with the Republic we knew where we stood. Tarkin and this Empire are a whole different story.” Tech stated as you all made your way back to the ship.
“Why are we debating this? We need to complete the mission.” Crosshair said.
You turned around sharply to stare at him. “Wake up Crosshair. They sent us to eliminate innocent civilians.”
“Who said they’re innocent?” Crosshair replied, holding your stare.
“What’s wrong with you?” Hunter said frustratedly, turning back to face Crosshair.
“Me? What about her display back there? That didn’t strike you as unusual?” Crosshair snarled, turning to look at you.
You avoided Hunter’s gaze as his eyes flicked towards you. “You don’t know what you’re talking about Crosshair.”
“Technically he’s referring to-”
“Not now, Tech.” You interrupted quickly.
“That aside.” Crosshair continued. “I’m following orders.”
“Exactly.” Hunter countered, taking a few steps towards him.
“Those insurgents are plotting against the Emperor.”
“Are you serious? Why does that matter? This Emperor isn’t providing safety or security, him and this regime are going to crush people and tear them apart. There’ll never be an end to the conflict that people have had to deal with for so long.” You said angrily.
Crosshair only glared at you before looking back at Hunter. “If you don’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done, then you’re not fit to lead this squad.”
You watched as the two of them stared each other down before that recognisable feeling of being watched returned to you. “Hunter, I think-” You didn’t need to finish your sentence, since Hunter had already drawn his blaster and fired it past Crosshair’s head. You looked to see a probe droid crash to the ground.
“We’re being followed.” Hunter said before brushing past Crosshair.
You all followed him towards the site where the droid fell.
“That is a probe droid.” Tech explained.
“Oh, joy.” You said sarcastically.
“Tarkin’s spying on us now?” Wrecker asked.
“The Jedi never did that.” Echo added.
“Not that you know of.” Crosshair refuted.
“No, they didn’t.” You argued, immediately regretting it. What was your problem? Were you trying to get yourself killed? Clearly you were suffering from an ill-timed case of word vomit. For months, no for years, you were able to keep this secret why all of a sudden was every word that came out of your mouth one that could lead into it. You glanced around the group; everyone was staring at you. Perfect.
“How would you know?” Tech asked.
“Um, you know, I hear things and from what I’ve heard, the Jedi were pretty stand-up guys.” Maker, what the fuck did you sound like? Never in your life would you have described the Jedi, or anyone for that matter, this way.
While he desperately wanted to know what was going on with you, he also wanted to save you from any more awkwardness. “Omega.”
“What about her?” Echo asked, turning his eyes from you to look back at Hunter.
You huffed out a breath and nodded a thank you as Hunter walked past you, before following him back to the ship.
“She warned me about the mission. And Tarkin.” Hunter replied. “She said not to return to Kamino, that it’s not safe for us anymore.”
Wrecker grunted. “Maybe she’s right.”
“We’re taking the word of a child now?” Crosshair asked stonily.
“I would not discount Omega’s insight. A state of heightened awareness is not unusual for an enhanced clone such as herself.” Tech said simply, looking up from his datapad.
You angled your head to face Tech as he leaned against the ship’s doorway. “She’s a what now?”
Wrecker just laughed. “Good one Tech, you almost had me.” He joined you on the steps of the ship.
“When Nala Se spoke of five clones, Tarkin assumed that meant us, but Echo’s a reg. The fifth is Omega. I confirmed my suspicions after analysing her DNA while we were in the infirmary.” Tech explained.
“And you waited until now to mention it?” Echo asked, a hint of exasperation in his voice.
“Well, I thought it was obvious.” Tech replied plainly.
“Hey, Tech, here’s an idea. If it seems obvious to you, it’s probably not to the rest of us. These are things that are good to know well in advance.” You said with a shake of your head, standing up and joining him in the doorway.
“We’re going back for her.” Hunter said, turning away from the jungle.
Crosshair stepped in front of him. “Disobeying orders again over a kid? Bad play, Hunter.” He pushed a finger into his chest.
Hunter just pushed his hand aside and stepped past him. “She’s one of us. We’ve added a new member before, and it worked out.” He said, glancing at you.
You met his stare, but you couldn’t help but feel the guilt of what you were doing come crashing through you.
“We’re not leaving her there.” Hunter continued before stepping past you and into the ship.
--
Lost in thought, you stared out the ship window, your eyes following the droplets of rainwater as they slowly trickled down. You found yourself picking two beads of water and waiting to see which one would reach the bottom first. It was funny, you knew of Kamino’s climate before coming here and the times you had the weather had always been the same, dark, and stormy, yet you were always surprised to see it be that way. You couldn’t imagine anything good was waiting for you all once you landed but you knew Hunter was right, Omega had to leave with you all. Tech’s voice took your attention away from the trickling water.
“I’m getting no response from com-scan.”
“That’s unusual.” You said quizzically.
“Indeed.” Tech replied.
“Bring us in. We’ll find out what’s going on.” Hunter directed.
Before you stepped out from the ship, you drew your hood and mask back up- to protect you from the harsh weather more than anything else right now. You all walked towards the- now sealed- bay doors but before you all entered, Hunter spoke. “Stick to the plan. Split up, find Omega, meet back here at the ship.”
You nodded and walked over to open the door and you weren’t comforted by what greeted you. The bay was encased in darkness, the usual hustle wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The eeriness of it made your skin crawl. You stepped forward but before you could make it very far, shock troopers came out, blasters drawn, and your group was surrounded in an instant.
“As expected.” Crosshair sniped.
“Shut up, Crosshair.” You hissed back. You looked over to see Admiral Tarkin make his way over to Hunter. Dammit. Your mask and hood would be useless now, that probe droid would’ve caught you without it. You could only wait with bated breath and hope that time and Tarkin’s general distaste for the Jedi would have meant he still wouldn’t recognise you.
“The Empire does not tolerate failure, Sergeant.” Tarkin said, his displeasure evident.
“There were… complications.” Hunter replied.
“Yes, the probe droid’s report was quite detailed. Conspiring with Saw Gerrera. And you made your position quite clear.” Tarkin said, directing his gaze at you.
At least he didn’t recognise you. You’d be dead already if he had, you thought before replying, “Yeah, that position being I’m not a fan of a system or an Emperor that likes to go after innocent civilians. Not to mention, some of his employees are assholes. Oh, sorry, that’s a big generalisation, I meant at least one of them is.” You responded, glaring at him.
Tarkin did his best to maintain his composure. The probe droid had managed to send an image of your face and he was annoyed to admit that your profile meant nothing to him but this attitude of yours was becoming a problem and it would have to be dealt with. He nodded to the shock trooper closest to you and smirked as the butt of his blaster made contact with your cheek and then your stomach.
You grunted and kneeled down in pain. “Make that two employees. That feel good?” You panted, looking back at Tarkin. You took Echo’s outstretched hand and stood up, taking a few deep breaths to get air back into your lungs.
“Quite. You would do better to learn your place.” Tarkin answered.
“You need to stop.” Echo whispered.
“I can handle it fine.” You muttered back.
“You might, but he can’t.” Echo said, jutting his head in Hunter’s direction.
You glanced over to see Hunter’s fists clenched at his sides; his jaw tight as he stared at Tarkin. Any other day, you would’ve let your thoughts run wild with what that could mean, but now was not the correct time for that sort of thought process so you just skipped to the last part of your routine and dismissed it as nothing special. It was nothing more than a leader who cared about the general wellbeing of his squad, if it had been anyone else, it would’ve been the same.
“I assume you know the punishment for treason.” Tarkin resumed, speaking to the clone sergeant.
You went to open your mouth again but Echo’s tug on your arm stopped you.
“Treason?” Hunter replied, shocked.
“Throw them in the brig.” Tarkin ordered.
--
This was how you would die.
This was the way Tarkin would kill you.
No, not by finding out your Jedi secret.
But by locking you in the brig with Hunter wearing only his blacks.
The material clung tightly to him, accentuating every ripple of muscle he had. You simply could not handle it. Yes, the two of you shared a bunk and when he had the time, you knew he would remove his armour and sleep in them, but it was usually always dark, and you were too exhausted to actually notice and appreciate what they did for him. You weren’t the most focused waking up either, so you’d never had, what you supposed was the pleasure given the way your body was reacting right now with heat spreading throughout it and your heart rate dramatically increasing, of seeing him in them.
Now it was happening at the worst possible time.
You were trapped.
In a tight space.
With every other squad member.
Who in the galaxy had you wronged to receive this punishment? To have him in front of you, looking like that, and not being able to act on every impulse that your body was wanting to do, was torture.
It felt wrong, not to mention a little bit creepy, to let your mind wander this way when there was no way his had ever done the same, but you couldn’t help it. This was going to kill you.  
“You’re staring.” Echo uttered quietly to you.
“Shut it.” You shushed back, no malice behind it, before turning away from Hunter swiftly and you sat down on the bench, so out of it that you didn’t notice the small child sitting in the corner of the cell or really register that Hunter had been looking at you just as intensely.
Hunter couldn’t help but look at you. If Tarkin wanted to give him a hard time, this was a good way to do it. Being trapped in the brig with you was doing things to him that he should be better at ignoring. Your top layer had been taken off you so you were left wearing your leggings and undershirt which meant much of your skin was exposed and it was making his mind create images and thoughts he absolutely should not be having. He began thinking about the various ways he could make the goosebumps on your arms disappear, but he stopped himself. It was not the correct time for this, it was never the correct time for it, but he couldn’t help himself. This was going to be a struggle.
“You’re staring.” Wrecker whispered to him.
“I’m not.” Hunter replied defensively, before looking away from you quickly and facing the back of the cell.
Echo glanced between the two of you as you both looked away from each other at the same time. He sighed internally. He couldn’t believe you both were so clueless. Everyone else could see how you felt about each other but nothing had happened. He’d lost track of the number of conversations he and the others had with each of you individually about it, only to be faced with pathetic denials and excuses from both of you. They’d even tried a couple of times to set up situations were the two of you were alone, to try and force one of you to talk because it was just getting ridiculous and still nothing happened. You both were, somehow, too oblivious to what you felt for one another.
“Well, the plan wasn’t a total failure.” Tech spoke up.
You looked at him and followed his gaze and there was Omega. Huddled against the wall of the cell. Wow, your brain had short circuited after seeing Hunter. How did you not see her? What happened next wasn’t helping either. You watched as Hunter made his way forward and kneel down in front of her, it took all your willpower to not stare at the muscles in his back.
“I warned you not to come back.” Omega said.
“Had to. We were looking for you.” Hunter responded, making sure he was keeping his eyes on her and not you.  
You couldn’t help but smile as you watched her face light up in surprise.
“Me?” She replied.
“What do you say, kid? You wanna come with us or did we get captured for nothing?” Hunter asked.
“You came back for me?” She repeated.
“That’s right. Or you can stay on Kamino if-”
“No, it’s like I said before. I want to go with you.” She said eagerly, standing up.
“How touching.” Crosshair sneered.
You turned to look at Crosshair before glancing back at Hunter as he stood up and stared back at Crosshair. You cleared your throat, trying to disperse the awkward tension that had arose.
“Uh, Hunter, how are we breaking outta here?” Wrecker asked.
“I’m working on it.” He replied sternly, his eyes staying on Crosshair.
“You know what you should work on? Explaining when you went soft. I have a pretty good idea though.” Crosshair said, his eyes focusing on you.
You looked away awkwardly. Apart from Echo, Crosshair had been one of the main people who had spoken to you about the whole Hunter situation despite your many denials. Even though he’d done it in his Crosshair way, you had never got the impression it was a serious problem for him. Until now.  
Hunter stole a glance at you before looking back at Crosshair.
“Stow it, Crosshair.” Echo said.
You noticed Omega glancing in your direction. You gave her what you hoped was a reassuring smile and stood up and walked just behind Hunter, so you were standing next to her.
“Don’t you see we’re locked up in here because of him?” Crosshair said angrily. “He had us disobey orders.”
“So what?” You asked.
“I never thought you disobeying orders was a problem.” Tech added.
“Yeah. We do it all the time.” Wrecker agreed.
“Good soldiers follow orders.” Crosshair said aggressively, taking a few steps closer to Hunter. “Every choice you’ve made since Kaller has been wrong. First the Padawan, then Gerrera. You’re becoming a liability.”
You shook your head in disbelief but when you saw Omega look anxiously back up at you again, you put your arm around her shoulder. Judging by your most recent displays, if you spoke up more, you would probably only make things worse.
“We can debate my choices later.” Hunter replied. “For now, let’s focus on getting outta here.” He took a step away from Crosshair.
You studied Crosshair as he went to sit down. He was clutching the side of his head. Something about him now just felt weird to you, he felt like a stranger. You felt Omega leave your side and watched as she made her way over to him. She was a medical assistant after all, maybe she could figure out what was going on with him. You sat back down on the bench and placed your face in your hands, wincing slightly as you forgot about the bruise that was forming on your cheek.
“Does it hurt?”
You lifted your eyes to see Hunter kneeling in front of you, his eyes focused on you. You shook your head. “Nah not really. There’ll be a bruise but it’s fine if I just leave it alone. I should’ve seen it coming though, there was only so much of my charming demeanour Tarkin could take.” You said with a small smile. Before you could say anything else, you looked past Hunter to see a shock trooper approaching. You stood up.
Hunter mirrored your actions and turned to see what was going on.
“CT-9904, you’re coming with us.” The trooper dictated, whilst another brought the shield down.
You took a couple steps to the right whilst Hunter darted in front of the trooper. “Oh, no, no, no. We stay together.” He said firmly.
The trooper only hit his blaster into Hunter’s stomach.
“Hunter!” You quickly made your way over to him and grabbed his arm to haul him back to his feet. “Are you okay?” You asked softly.
“I’m fine.” He replied, grimacing slightly as he straightened up.
“Yeah, being on the receiving end of one of those isn’t the greatest feeling in the world.” You let go of his arm and made to step towards the clone, but he held his blaster up.
“Stand down!” He ordered.
You and the others stilled and all you could do was watch as Crosshair left the cell and walked out the door with them. You didn’t know what they wanted with him, but one thing was certain, it could not possibly be good.
--
You were situated on the other end of the cell, opting to lean against the wall rather than the bench. You told yourself it would be more comfortable for your back and not because you had a better view of Hunter that way.
You straightened your back against the wall. It had been a while since you’d all been sent to the brig, and you were getting fed up. You couldn’t be bothered wrestling with your inner turmoil anymore. All it would take would be a simple flick of your wrist and the switch controlling the shield would be lowered and you all would be able to leave. You could deal with the other soldiers easily enough and then you could leave them and… and never look back.
You sighed sadly but as you looked to where Hunter was sitting, that feeling of sadness changed in to one of amusement as you saw Omega mimicking each movement he made. That was another reason to do this, at least you guys had actually done something to piss Tarkin off, Omega was just a kid and didn’t deserve this. You inhaled deeply. “Guys I can-”
“I’ve got it. Why didn’t I think of it before?” Tech interrupted before pausing to looking back at you.
“No, go ahead Tech.” You said quickly. Just because you’d been at peace with that decision didn’t mean you wanted to do it, doing that would still put them in danger so if Tech had a plan, then you weren’t going to stop him.
Tech moved Echo aside and sat where he had once been before continuing. “This isn’t a prison.”
“Yeah, well I beg to differ.” Echo said.
“This is a Kaminoan facility. It was built prior to the Clone Wars. There were no barracks or prisons when it was constructed.” Tech clarified.
“Well, how does that help us?” You asked.
“Because while these cells were retrofitted to hold normal individuals, they could not possibly account for someone like Wrecker.” Tech replied.
“Oh! You mean I could punch our way out?” Wrecker asked eagerly, standing up.
You glanced over to where the troopers were and noticed them looking back to where you all were.
“Ssshh.” Hunter and Omega both said.
“Oh. Right. You mean I could punch our way out?” Wrecker repeated at a whisper this time.
“If you punch the correct spot.” Tech confirmed.
“Right. Show me where.” Wrecker said, rubbing his knuckles keenly.
“If this is gonna work, we’ll need some cover. Form a wall.” Hunter ordered.
You, Echo, Hunter, and Omega stood up to conceal the area of the wall Tech was examining. Omega had taken up what was your usual position next to Hunter, so you just stood next to her.
Hunter glanced down at Omega and then looked over her head at you only to see you look back at him and shrug with a small smile on your face.
“Hit this. Here.” Tech directed to Wrecker before coming to stand next to you.
“Right.” Wrecker kneeled down. “Tell me when.”
“Now.” Hunter said.
Wrecker punched the area and quickly sat back down.
The rest of you stood casually and waited for the troopers to look away again.
Wrecker examined the spot that he hit but let out a grumble. “Nothing happened.”
“Are you sure this is going to work?” You asked Tech quietly. You needed to know if your services would actually be required.
“Try it again. A little harder.” Tech said.
“You’re all clear. Make it count.” Hunter said.
“Okay.” Wrecker said before pulling his arm back and crashing his fist into the metal wall.
Again, you all waited for the soldiers to look away from you.
“Oh, it still didn’t work.” Wrecker said.
You kept your eyes on the soldiers in front of you, but you felt Tech leave your side to examine the wall.
“Oh yes, it did.” Tech corrected.  “Look.” He pulled back part of the metal to reveal an opening behind the wall.
“I’ll never fit through that.” Wrecker pointed out.
“Astute as always Wrecker, but I was actually going to suggest-”
“I’ll do it.” Omega agreed.
“You sure, kid?” Hunter asked.
“I’m sure.” She confirmed.
“I’ll go with her.” You said, looking at Hunter.
He nodded. He knew you could handle these guards just fine; he didn’t need to be worried. “Okay. Omega, get to the console and hit the lever to lower the ray shield.” He looked back at you. “The guards are all yours.”
You smiled before glancing down at Omega. “Come on, Omega, let’s go.” You both stepped back and squeezed through the gap in the wall. You let Omega start climbing first, you followed closely behind.
“Incoming.” Echo warned as the group of shock troopers approached.
“Wait, where are the other two?” The guard at the front asked.
“You tell us.” Hunter replied calmly.
“Harm them and you’re a dead man.” Echo said.
Another one of the clones spoke into the commlink on his wrist. “Operations, we need a status report on prisoners 0219 and 0220.”
--
You and Omega paused as you heard this echo up through the vent, she had stopped just on top of it, you were just behind her.
Omega felt the vent buckle under her slightly and she glanced back at you.
You held your finger up to your lips and raised your hand to tell her to wait. You kept an ear out for what was happening below you and from the sounds of it, Wrecker was doing his best to provide an excuse, but he didn’t quite have the knack for that sorta skill, for as long as you knew him, he never had.
You kept listening and knew you had your opening once you heard the guard ask again for where the two of you were. You nudged Omega’s leg and gave a single nod of your head. As she hit the vent and came tumbling down with it, you jumped down quickly after her and you noticed that most of the guards were trapped under it, so your job had just gotten a lot simpler. “Hit the switch, Omega!” You called before landing a kick to the trooper that had gotten up to grab her and that kick sent him right into Wrecker’s oncoming fist. You took in the scene around you and sighed.
“What?” Hunter asked, walking over to you.
“Oh, nothing. Just thought I’d have more to do.” You pouted. “Omega did a lot of my job for me. Nice job, kid!” You said smiling at her.
Hunter chuckled before addressing the wider group. “We need to find out where they took Crosshair. Let’s move.”
--
You all carefully made your way through the hallways before stopping at the next new corridor. You sighed. “We’re not going to get very far without our gear.”
“They started moving all your things to the hangar. Your gear might be there too.” Omega suggested to Hunter.
“This way.” Hunter directed.
The six of you began to quickly head towards the hangar. You only hoped you would be able to find and help Crosshair in time.
--
The group of you silently made your way into the hangar and you were pleased to see that all your kit was there. You grabbed your hooded layer and hastily put it on, and you immediately felt comforted. You knew you shouldn’t have let it, but the ensemble you had put together provided you with a deep sense of security, something you’d only ever found at one other time in your life and that involved lying next to a certain someone in the quiet and darkness of space. You were losing one, so you were glad to still have the other.
You slung your sword over your back and tied your smaller vibroblade to your thigh. You looked around you to see the others finishing putting their gear back on, though Wrecker seemed to have lost something.
“Tech, power up the ship. The rest of us will go after Crosshair.” Hunter instructed, grabbing his blaster.
Yet again, you felt a disturbance in your veins as you heard the beeping of the door behind you. You turned to look towards it. “I don’t think we’ll have to go far.” Just as you said that the door opened. You and the others ducked swiftly before peaking over the crates in front of you and what you saw filled your heart with dismay. Amidst the shock troopers that ran through, came another soldier, armour all black, sniper rifle in hand. You weren’t fast enough.
“Is that… Crosshair?” Wrecker asked, his tone filled with disbelief.
You saw out of the corner of your eye that Hunter had stood up and walked into the middle of the room, so he was standing across from Crosshair. Your eyes darted between them, you had to be ready just in case. You wouldn’t let anything happen to Hunter.
“Best stand down, Sergeant.” Crosshair warned. “Make it easy on yourself.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Hunter replied.
“We should’ve killed that Jedi. You disobeyed orders.”
Your heart stopped. What had happened to him? You bit your tongue to stop yourself from saying anything that would only prove to escalate the situation. You took a moment to glance down at Omega who had taken cover by the crate you were positioned at. You laid a hand on her shoulder, hoping that it would provide some comfort before focusing your attention back on Hunter and Crosshair.
“I did what I thought was right.” Hunter answered.
“You never could see the bigger picture. Now surrender.”
One look at Hunter and the others told you everything you needed to know. No one here was surrendering.
“Is that an order?” Hunter asked.
“Heh. I guess it is.” Crosshair responded with a smirk.
“Well, I guess I’m disobeying that one too.”
You took a deep as the two of them stared each other down. You knew one of them was getting ready to shoot and you just knew Crosshair would be the one to shoot first so if it looked like Hunter wouldn’t be able to get out the way in time, you would be ready. “Stay close, Omega.” You whispered to her whilst keeping your gaze on the men in front of you.
You waited, everyone else tensed their blasters but you waited.
You’d had a lot of practice in patience. In everyday situations, you weren’t great at it but when it came to scenarios like this, you pretty much had it nailed.
You tuned out the thunder in the background and watched.
You exhaled deeply as you watched Hunter duck out the way of Crosshair’s shot and you turned back to face him, your back against the crate, as he hunkered down in front of you. “Don’t do that to me.” You chastised him but your voice was filled with relief.
Hunter couldn’t let his mind wander about what your relief meant in regard to him right now, so he only nodded at you before putting his helmet on and taking up position next to you.
“Omega, keep your head down.” You told her as blaster shots pinged off the crate and your surroundings. You cursed under your breath as the shock troopers threw smoke charges, concealing your view, well only partially concealing yours. You could sense where the others were, but you couldn’t reveal that without answering other questions and given Crosshair’s new allegiance, you most certainly couldn’t do anything to remove the smoke yourself. You and Hunter ducked as a blaster bolt fired past your heads. “Tech, we gotta move. Now!” You called into the comm on your wrist.
“I’m working on it.” Tech responded.
“Wrecker, clear the smoke on three.” Hunter directed.
“You got it, boss.” Wrecker replied, grabbing two crate lids.
“Omega, stay low.” Hunter reiterated. “One… two…”
“Three!” Wrecker finished, jumping up and hitting the trays together, the impact dispersing the smoke.
You watched as he flung the lids into the oncoming soldiers, one making contact, but Crosshair managed to get out of the way of the other before getting a shot away in Wrecker’s direction. You quickly moved a finger, keeping your hands at your side but it wasn’t enough, the bolt still made contact with the upper left part of Wrecker’s chest, and you watched with worry as he fell down. “Omega, don’t!” You grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her next to you just as a shot whizzed past. “He’s using Wrecker as bait.” You told her, keeping her from going again.
“But he needs help.”
“I know.” You said, looking at her with a nod. You turned to face Hunter. “What’s the plan, Hunter?”
“Tech, we’re out of time.” Hunter called to the ship, looking away from you.
“Almost got it!” Tech called back, powering up the engines.
“When I say go, you both head for that ramp and don’t stop. Got it?” Hunter said, his helmet turning from Omega to look at you. “Echo, we go for Wrecker.”
“No way, I’m not-” You began to protest.
“I need you to be safe.”
Any quick retort you were about to give vanished from your lips. “What?”
“I meant I need you to make sure the kid stays safe.” Hunter corrected quickly. Now was not the time.
You sighed, of course that’s what he meant. “Okay.”
“Go!” Hunter stood up and repeatedly fired his blaster in the direction of Crosshair and the other troopers.
You grabbed Omega’s hand and the two of you ran to the ship, but you couldn’t shake the deep feeling within you that Echo and Hunter would need your help. Clearly Omega felt similarly because you both stopped at the same time. You noticed a blaster on top of one of the crates. You grabbed it and handed it to her. “Go to the stairs of the ship. Trust yourself and take the shot. You’ll know when.” You told her urgently. You watched her take the blaster with a nod, fear but also determination behind her eyes.
“What about you?”
“I’m going to circle back around this crate. Don’t wait for me.” You both split up, you making sure you moved to the crate closest to you, your eyes never leaving Crosshair.
Just as you got yourself situated, you saw Crosshair raise his rifle towards where Echo and Hunter were struggling to get Wrecker to the ship.
You lifted your hand, closed your eyes, and called on the Force to push him down. Just as you did this, you heard Omega’s shot hit his blaster and you opened your eyes to see Crosshair sprawled on the floor. You knew he wouldn’t stay down very long. With Hunter and Echo’s gaze fixed on Omega, you darted out and grabbed Wrecker’s feet to help bring him on board the ship.
Crosshair couldn’t understand what just happened, one minute he was getting ready to fire his rifle, the next he was knocked to the ground. He recovered quickly and stood up, drawing his other blaster.
“I told you to go.” Hunter said, voice straining slightly with Wrecker’s additional weight.
“That wasn’t going to happen.” You replied, ducking your head as some of Crosshair’s hurried shots rang around you. You all made it onto the ship, and it took off, leaving Crosshair and Kamino behind you.
--
“Ouch!” Wrecker complained as you stuck the needle in his shoulder between the gaps in his armour. “Hey, hey, hey. What’s that gonna do?” He asked anxiously as he saw the next needle you brought out.
“You’ll be okay. Just hold still.” You replied.
“Is this what you were looking for?” Omega asked, holding the stuffed toy up to Wrecker.
“You found my Lula!” Wrecker gasped, taking it from the small girl.
You used that moment to quickly stick the other shot into his neck.
“Ow!” Wrecker cried out.
“I saw an opportunity and I took it.” You said with a smile. “It’s done now, don’t worry.”
Omega giggled and moved out the way as Tech came over to Wrecker.  
“Hold still.” Tech instructed, holding out his scanner.
“Don’t examine me. I’m not a computer.” Wrecker said huffily.
“This will take just a second.” Tech responded.
“Get that thing away from me.” Wrecker grunted.
You huffed out a laugh and looked away from the two squabbling clones to see Omega heading for the cockpit. You took a few steps forward and turned around to look at Hunter, tilting your head in Omega’s direction, indicating that he should follow.
Hunter nodded and walked with you into the cockpit. He glanced at you, not knowing if he should speak first. He wasn’t sure how this was all was supposed to work.
“Go on.” You murmured. You stayed back a couple paces, waiting for him to go first.  
He took a deep breath before approaching Omega. “Your first time in space?”
“First time anywhere.” Omega replied, looking back at him.
There was a slight pause before he spoke again. “That was an impressive shot back there. Where’d you learn to do that?” Hunter asked.  
“I don’t know. She told me to trust myself but I’ve never fired a blaster before. I guess I got lucky.” She said, with a shrug of her shoulders.
Hunter faced you. “You told her to take the shot?”
“Figured you’d need to the help. I didn’t want anything to happen to you.” You told him as you came to stand beside him. “Or Echo, or Wrecker.” You included quickly.
Before Hunter could say anything else to you, Tech and the others wandered through.
You took that moment to step aside and sit down in the seat behind the co-pilots chair. That was a bit close. You chuckled as you saw Echo come through bearing much of Wrecker’s weight, it definitely looked like a struggle. “How’s he doing, Tech?”
“He got lucky, but he’ll be fine.” Tech replied.
“It’ll take more than a blaster shot to take me down.” Wrecker said with a laugh.
“You were down.” Echo corrected, removing Wrecker’s arm from his shoulder.
“Yeah, well, not for long.” Wrecker responded with a chuckled before grabbing his shoulder in pain.
“What’s the plan, Hunter?” Tech asked, swivelling his pilot’s chair slightly.
“I thought we could go off on our own. Lay low. But with Crosshair gunning for us, I’m not so sure.” Hunter answered.
“What about your friends? Could any of them help us.” Omega asked, looking back at Tech.
You barked out a laugh.
“That would be a short list.” Tech replied, before looking back out the window.
“I can think of one.” Hunter revealed. “Plot a course for J-19.”
“J-19?” You and Echo asked.
“We know a guy.” Hunter said, glancing between you both before looking back at Omega and turning the co-pilot seat towards her. “Strap in kid, you’re not gonna want to miss this view.”
You smiled warmly as you watched him and as you saw Omega study what Tech was doing to prepare the jump to hyperspace but that smile quickly became one of sadness. You were dreading the conversation you needed to have once you reached this new destination. You sighed and left your seat just as the ship entered hyperspace.
--
You stepped away from the cockpit and were just about to take your sword off and lay it down when you heard Echo say something that made you freeze.
“I still can’t believe Crosshair just fell down like that.”
“Yeah, that was pretty weird.” Wrecker agreed.
“Anyone see what happened?” Hunter asked.
“Oh, that was (Y/N).” Omega answered innocently.
Shit. You were rooted to the spot. You thought you’d gotten away with it.
“It couldn’t possibly have been her, she was nowhere near Crosshair. She was helping get Wrecker on board the ship.” Tech corrected.
“Yeah, how could she have done that?” Wrecker asked.
“Her attention was on Crosshair when he was getting ready to shoot. I saw her close her eyes, raise her hand slightly and the next thing that happened was he was on the ground.” Omega explained.
Fuck.
“Ha nice one kid, way to cheer me up. No way she can do that.” Wrecker said with a laugh. He turned to face you, expecting to see you smiling at such a ridiculous suggestion but instead he was met with your back.
Hunter had turned to look at you, only to see you frozen in place. Omega couldn’t have been right, could she?
“She does not possess such an ability.” Tech argued. “Only the…” Tech trailed off, turning to look at you. You had been behaving differently ever since Kaller and this could be a reason as to why. Was it true?
“Yeah, sorry Omega, only the Jedi can do that and she certainly isn’t one. We’d know.” Echo added. “Right?” Echo turned to look at you only to be met with the sight of your back at the other end of the ship. “(Y/N)?”
You couldn’t do it. You couldn’t lie anymore. You felt all their eyes on your back.
“I’m sorry, did I say something I shouldn’t have?” Omega asked worriedly.
You sighed and finished taking off your weapon. “No.” You probably would’ve had to tell them when you told them you were leaving, they wouldn’t have let you get out of that one without a series of questions. You squeezed your eyes tight before opening them and turning to face the many pairs of eyes that were focused on you. You might as well start over. You introduced yourself again with a new piece of information. “Hi. My name is (Y/N) and I used to be a member of the Jedi Order.”
Next Chapter>
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mmjmmj · 8 months ago
Note
Huskerdust ticklesss!!!! Lee husk if possible ;) please and thank you
(No pressure my darling!)
Ohohoho don’t worry my friend, Lee husk is DEFIANTLY possible!
Keep a note this is my first fic that I’ve wrote in 8 years so I hope he succeeded in making this the best fic I could possibly write so thank you! <3
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Your fuckin’ ticklish?:
Hazbin hotel | tickle fic|
Lee!husk
Ler!Angel
Husk had seemed more moody than usual, mumbling under his breath as he worked, that negativity didn’t go unnoticed, especially to Angel dust.
Angel dust watched Husk work as the rest of the Hazbin hotel group spoke with one another, until the others began to conclude to do their own things such as Charlie and Vaggie going to their room to nap, Alastor manifested into the shadows and disappeared into thin air to go god knows where, Nifty running off to go clean the hotel some more and finally Sir Pentious slithered away to go work on some wacky invention. This left the spider sinner and the miserable looking bartender to themselves though the two were barely interacting.
Angel decided to break the silence between the two, walking over to the bar and sitting on a bar stool, resting two arms on the bar and resting his head on his hands.
"What’s gotten in you today?" Angel asked, he couldn’t help but feel a little concern for Husk as he usually wasn’t this groggy at all.
Husk had his back turned, cleaning a bottle with a cloth that he uses to clean everything with.
"What do you mean?" Husk grumbled, that response was very clear enough that something was wrong with Husk today.
"I don’t know, you seem.. how do I put this..? More grouchy than usual,you know? Is there somethin’ up" Angel asked, it was a surprise to Husk that Angel wasn’t trying to dish out little flirty remarks to the bartender.
Husk turned to Angel, reaching under the bar and pulling out a bottle that he had near by, taking a big swig before his black and yellow eyes met Angel’s.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about." Yeah bullshit, something was defiantly up and Husk just didn’t want to admit it.
"Is it because you been missing me Husky?~ cmon! You can admit it, you know." Angel grinned leaning over the bar a little.
Husk scoffed before turning away, he thought too soon about Angel not flirting with him.
"Oh fuck you." Husk hissed.
Angel’s grin faded a little, deciding now probably wasn’t the right time to be trying to flirt with Husk, seeing as he did not want to hear it.
"Are you sure you don’t need a break or anythin’? You’ve been on your feet for hours. Cmon, come have a seat." Angel offered, patting his hand on the empty barstool next to him.
Husk thought for a second, he was getting tired, mentally and physically, bartending is not a very easy job when you’ve been working without a break for a good few hours. Husk took the offer, putting his bottle down, making his way around the bar to sit next to the taller sinner.
"Fine but not for too long, I still have things that need to be done before I can finish work." Husk told Angel, having a break kind of felt wrong to him, he never really took breaks, he’d only usually take one if Charlie would pretty much force him too, seeing him work for too long wasn’t a nice sight for Charlie either, In this case it was Angel to made him take a break.
".. hey, are you not gonna pour me a drink before you take your break?" Angel asked, Husk immediately went to get up but was stopped by Angel, placing his hand on Husk’s lap and pushing him back into his seat.
"I was jokin" Angel assured Husk. Husk sighed and relaxed into his seat, this kind of felt very comfortable.
Angel’s next move was try and get in to the bottom of this case to see why his alcoholic friend was in such a bad mood today.
"So, are you gonna tell me what’s up? Bad day, or are you just not in the mood today?"Angel asked, crossing his four set of arms as he waited for an answer.
Husk’s eyes narrowed a little, he didn’t really like talking about things that was stressing him out or putting him down, but seeing Angel this concerned for him made him gave in to speak.
"I just.. didn’t really feel like working today.. that’s all.." Husk mumbled reaching for his bottle to take a few swigs before finishing his drink, practically slamming it back down on the bar.
Angel frowned a little, he didn’t like that, Angel knew how stressful it was not wanting to work but having to anyway, though the two’s line of work was completly different but still work is mentally DRAINING.
"Maybe you should start taking more breaks, your overworking yourself a little, I mean your up awake before anyone else is just to work, you deserve more then one break, you know." Angel gave Husk some reassurance.
"Works the only thing I know.. there’s nothing better to do anyway." Husk grumbled, that negativity quickly coming back, oh Angel did not like this at all.
"Ohhhh bullshit! There’s more to this afterlife then workin’ even I have days off, so should you!" Angel reached over and lightly scratched his fingers under Husk’s chin.
Husk suddenly pulled away, a soft little chuckle escaping his lips which he couldn’t hold back, fuck. The room went silent, Angel’s eyes winded as he pulled his arm back.
"What was that?"
Husk immediately tried to cover up, stuttering over his words as he spoke.
"T-that was nothing! You should really keep your fucking hands to yourself." Husk muttered, his fur stood a little out of embarrassment.
Angel didn’t know what to make of it, he never would have expected that reaction from Husk, he was expecting more a low like purr then a chuckle, then the realisation struck him, no there’s no way, is Husk ticklish?
"… are you fuckin’ ticklish?" Angel asked in a surprised tone, this made Husk panic and tried to cover it up, there was no way he’d live that down, nevermind the group knowing he’s ticklish but one person? That was enough for him.
"F-fuck no! I’m not fucking ticklish! I don’t know where you would get that assumption from!" Husk trembled over his words, the stuttering only made things worse for him.
Angel couldn’t hide that grin that was now growing on his face, standing up as he looked down on Husk.
"That assumption is coming from that little chuckle that came from you when I scratched that little furry chin of yours’ whiskers! I was expecting some purrin’ not some fuckin’ chucklin’." Angel purred, Husky stood up backing away a little from Angel.
"You know.. i really should be getting back to work thanks for the break but you can go n-" Husk was cut off when two long arms grabbed the bartenders wrists and pulled him to close to Angel, pulling them up and holding both hands above his head.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Husk hissed, tugging at his hands that were now stuck above his head.
"Well I’m trying to help you lighten up! And I think I found just the way to do that, Whiskers~" Angel cooed, Husk had felt his nervousness hit the roof.
"A-And how are you going to do that? Come on, Angel this is fucking stupid, let me go!" Husk begged, he could feel his fur puffing and standing up when Angel said he was trying to lighten him up, knowing damm well what was going to coming his way next.
"Well I’m gonna tickle the moodiness out of ya of course! Now let’s see a smile!" Angel rose his voice, his lower set of arms reaching out for Husk’s sides, starting off the tickle attack with some quick paced ticklish squeezes to them, this made Husk jump immediately feeling his knees go jelly as he tried to wiggle his torso away from the tickles hitting his body.
Husk tried to hold in those giggles that were building up in his throat, threatening to escape through his lips once they opened, shaking his head at what Angel said about seeing his smile.
"Ohoho? Not breakin’ yet? Not to worry! This tickle monster is gonna eat you all up!~" Angel playfully growled, drilling his fingers into the little pressure points in Husk’s sides. The teasing and drilling was the right technique to make the grouchy, old bartender break and let those giggles slip through the passage that was now his open mouth.
Husk squealed out, beginning to giggle away at the ticklish sensations that were refused to leave his sides.
"A-Ahahahahahangel! You fuhuhuhuhuhuhucking bahahahahastard! Stohohohohop this!" Husk giggled away, his laughter sounded so different to his normal voice, Husk’s voice was low and raspy, his giggles were way more high pitched.
"Awww look at that! Looks like you’re just not some old boring bastard after all! Your a adorable little kitty!" Angel continued with the pet names, this actually made Husk feel his face burn up from embarrassment, Angel was tickling him and teasing him?! This was fucking heaven torture
"Dohohohohohohohont fuhuhuhuhuhucking cahahahahall me thahahahhat! Quhuhuhuhuhuit it!" Husk tried to sound serious but the tickling was preventing that, making the former overlord sound all silly and giggly.
"Quit it?" Angel asked
"We’ve only gotten started how c- oooooooh I see what the problem is, you want me to tickle somewhere else, don’t ya? Make my little whiskers laugh till all his problems have faded, that’s what you want, don’t ya?" Angel cooed, his fingers began to move up to scribble into Husk’s armpits, earning a now sharp squeal from the shorter sinner.
"EHEHHEEHEK! T-Thahahahahhaahahats n-nohohohhoot whahahahhat I fuhuhuhucking meant!" Husk whined; Husk was actually fucking whined! Seeing Husk like this warmed Angel’s heart up to the touch, circling his fingers on Husk’s armpits with enjoyment, Angel was definitely gonna have to do this to husk more often.
"Then what did you mean hmmm? It seems like to me you’re already enjoying this too much! Listen to that handsome laugh and how big that smile is! You’re adorable!" Angel teased, succeeding in making Husk get more flustered by the second he spoke, already aiming for a new spot, his wiggly fingers traveled down from Husk’s armpits to that soft, white furry tummy of his.
This made Husk shriek, immediately falling weak to the tickles. "FUHUHUHUHUHUHUCK AHAHAHAHAHANGEL NAHAHAHHAHAT THEHEHEHRE!" Husk begged, Angel went down with Husk, pinning the overlord to the ground, seating himself on his waist, letting his fingers do the work as they squeezed, scribbled and prodded away at Husk’s tummy like there was no tomorrow!
"Awww did I find a sweet spot? I think I diiiiiiid~ coochie coochie coo, Husky!~" Angel couldn’t help but laugh along with Husk, finding Husk go from the grumpy old bartender, to a now happy little ticklish kitten at his mercy to his wiggling fingers was adorable to him.
"IHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIT TIHIHIHIHIHIHICKLES SO BAHAHAHHAD! CUHUHUHUHUT IT OHOHOHOHOUT!" Husk shrieked out, cackling away to the tummy tickles.
Angel wasn’t that evil as a tickle monster, so he decided to give Husk a break, not wanting to completely destroy him… yet.
"There I stopped, now catch ya breath before I resort to let my claws tickle away at that tummy again" Angel purred, letting the bartender catch his breath.
"Ohohoho f-fuhuhuck.. t-that was ruthless.." Husk panted out, though husk was exhausted already a little sound could be heard rising from the back of his throat, Husk was purring!
Angel’s eyes widened, not expecting this at all from Husk, this to him was fucking adorable. "Are you fuckin’ purring?!" Angel exclaimed, Husk’s fur stood proud as his face now burned up with blush as he panicked to try and cover it up.
"N-no I’m fucking not purring, your hearing things!" Husk claimed, uh huh, his purring was still very loud and could be heard.
"You like this don’t you?" Angel purred, Husk became a lost for words, the room quiet, the only thing to be heard was Husk purring uncontrollably and loudly.
"Awww, don’t be embarrassed! That’s adorable!" Angel teased, giving a few pokes to Husk’s tummy. Husk giggled through purrs, trying to suck in his tummy.
"Shuhuhuhut up!" Husk whined, finding this all very overwhelming to comprehend. Angel retreated his fingers, a big playful looking grin on his face as he stared into the bartender’s eyes.
"Alright your break is over! Let’s get back to tickling this very ticklish tummy of yours, shall we~? alright imma count to 10 and when I finish countin’ I’m gonna make you shriek!" Angel cooed, his fingers twitching in anticipation.
Husk could not argue with any of this, feeling unable to get the words out, if he tried to speak he would just be a flustered, stuttering mess.
"Ten… nine… eight.. Seven.." Angel began to countdown, lowering his now wiggling fingers to Husk’s tummy, slowly, threatening to tickle him with every inch of his life.
"Six… five… four… three two one!" Angel counted down to end his counting, his hands’s shoot down and squeezing all over Husk’s tummy, making him shriek loud enough to possibly shatter a window.
"NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO FUHUHUHUHUHUHUCK! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHNGEL! EHEHEHEHAHAHAHA!" Husk screamed out, cackling away once more, kicking his little legs under Angel desperately, trying to get free, though he was actually enjoying this, but there would be no way he would admit that.
"Awwww listen to that laugh! Such a handsome little kitty I have here, don’t I?" Angel teased, his wiggling fingers scribbling up and down Husk’s tummy, making it quiver and suck in, trying to get away from those evil fingers that were attacking it with tickles.
"EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEK! THIHIHIHIHIHIHIS IS FUHUHUHUHUHUCKING EHEHEHEHEVIL!" Husk whined, his face burning up with blush, squeezing his eyes shut hoping this would make the tickles more bearable, which didn’t work at all.
"We’re in hell! Course this is evil! You’re my little victim who can’t escape out of my web! Meeeeow~" Angel cooed, now laughing along with Husk once again, having too much fun with all of this.
Angel’s fingers scribbled all over Husk’s tummy with pleasure, making Husk wheeze out and cackle away under the wiggling fingers that were attacking him, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes, unable to take this anymore.
"EHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHHAA OHOHOHHOHO PLEHEHEHEHEHEASE!! MEHEHEHEHEHEHERCY! MERCY! NOHOHOHOHHOHO MOHOHOHORE STAHAHAHAHAHAP!" Husk begged, Angel immediately stopped, not wanting to push any boundaries, letting go of Husk’s wrists.
Husk was a messy, flustered pile of giggles, giggling away as the purring came back straight away. "Ohohohohoho f-fuhuhuhuck.. t-that was brutal." Husk huffed out, Angel reached out and rubbed his hand on Husk’s tummy, helping him get rid of the phantom tickles that was still attacking his tummy.
"I’m glad you had fun too." Angel winked, knowing damn well Husk enjoyed all of this.
"O-oh s-shut the fuck up.." Husk whined, his purring rising louder from the tummy rubs, Angel was being very caring for Husk and you know what? This was actually cheering him up.
"Do you plan on going to work or are you gonna call it a day?" Angel asked, cocking a brow in question.
Husk calmed down a little, feeling capable to speak properly without stuttering now. "I’m.. probably gonna finish my jobs tomorrow now" Husk told Angel, Angel nodding in approval to that answer.
"Good… hey, since you’re not working now, would you wanna.. maybe go back to my room and watch a movie or somethin’?" Angel asked, standing up off of the bartender and reaching out to help him up.
Husk took Angel’s hand and stood up, he couldn’t help but smile, feeling very much cheered up, all thanks to that spider.
"I… I would love that.." Husk told Angel, which earned a big smile back from Angel.
"That’s great, cmon! Let’s go, I have a good taste in movies!" Angel claimed as he grabbed Husk’s hand and began to drag him to his room.
"Only if you’re not talking about your movies." Husk joked, earning a snort from Angel.
"Nah of course not!" Angel giggled, feeling very happy that he cheered up Husk, he was defiantly going to do this again if he catches his favourite bartender down in the dumps again.
123 notes · View notes
jester-lover · 2 years ago
Note
I just loved your idea 'Dorm Leaders with a Girlfriend Who Wears Suits', it was so cute, beautiful and wonderful, it would be great to have a sequel. Do you think about continuing? Can I order a sequel please? Please!
Note: I totally understand if you don't want to. Continue to do a wonderful job.
Hi anon! Thank you for your ask! The suit post was my most liked post! I’m very proud of it, and I think it helped me develop my writing style. I’ve been wanting to do a part two recently, so here it is. You didn’t mention what you wanted by saying sequel, and since I personally think the dorm leaders have been already done, I’ll do my favorite group, the first years!!
The First Years with a Girlfriend who wears Suits
Warnings: fluff, stupid gender roles being destroyed, very flustered boys, insecurity (not from the reader), talks of gender roles/identity, whoever reads this is so cool, reader is so hot and confident (did I mention she’s so hot)
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Ace Trapolla
Oh wow
No matter how much Ace tends to blab on and on, the moment he sees you for the first time he’s left speechless
He’s never met someone who takes up all the attention of a room in such a short time
Deuce, who’s sorta concerned at this point, pokes him and tells him to stop staring at you
But before his dark haired friend can stop him, ace runs up to you and asks for your number
Congratulations! You now have a little idiot boyfriend who would do anything you tell him to
He’s so obsessed with you his dorm members become a little concerned
Your confidence is so strong, you manage to talk him out of getting into trouble on multiple occasions
He knows your sheer presence captivates the students, so he asks you to be in your best suits for formal events
Pro tip: when you put on your uniform in the morning, ask him to help with your tie. He’ll be super flustered
You managed to make him feel shyer than he’s ever felt, butterflies in his stomach with every smile, slight glance or forehead kiss
He definitely takes you to a formal dance so that you can dip him during the romantic songs
“Y/N, I wonder how you stay so confident, I could never!”
Deuce Spade
I hope you understand that he’s willing to lay down everything for you
You definitely win over his mom, showing up with a bouquet of roses and being ever so polite
He’s so surprised someone so confident and beautiful like you would spend time with a wierdo like him
You quickly quell those feelings, he’s the only guy for you!
You help him fix himself up for special occasions, it always makes him feel special, it makes him feel worthy
Your confidence break’s open a certain floodgate in Deuce, suddenly he’s not as worried about appearing completely and utterly reformed every hour of every day
When he’s alone with you, dress shirts loose and ties loosened, he’s free to be himself
“Today has been so difficult, somehow you make it seem so easy.”
Jack Howl
A confident and strong girlfriend is perfect for Jack
Wolves mate for life, and he is so glad it’s you
You always know how to make him feel special, make him feel like the only guy in the world
His tail is wagging rn
You two tend to scare people together, him being really buff, you looking like a 1940s gangster
He opens up to you quickly, he trusts you more than anything
He definitely gets shy whenever you show up to any sporting event he’s playing in, but he plays better than he ever did
You tend to lead the relationship, often times leading him away to dates, spoiling him with presents
(He’s so househusband material)
“Hey! Don’t look at me like that, you know what you do to me…”
Epel Felmier
He wants to be with you, and he wants to be you
You have a level of courage in whatever you wear, while he’s forced to wear whatever Vil puts on him
Now, perhaps you should use your skills of persuasion to get Vil to allow him more freedom
This boy asks you so many questions
How does he appear masculine without Vil noticing?
How do you pair your ties and socks?
Why does his face get all hot every time you smile at him?
Answer him!!
He finds himself being more comfortable with himself around you, his insecurities of being less masculine go away for a brief second
He can be a man for you, and he doesn’t have to pretend
Epel is most grateful for your advice, a girl like you is hard to find
“I don’t even know where to start! We both radiate manliness right now Y/N!”
Sebek Zigvolt
He immediately deemed you sketchy the first time he saw you
Where you a threat to his Young Master?! He needs to keep a close eye on you!
You keep catching the cute mint haired boy staring at you, so you approach him and ask him why he’s staring
loudly
In front of everyone
He’s outraged! How can you make such a mockery of him? In front of Lilia nonetheless! (Cue Lilia, laughing so hard he’s doubling over)
Taking a pen out of your suit pocket, you scroll your number on his wrist, press a kiss to his cheek and walk away
Now he’s quiet, wondering what just happened
Guess he’s your boyfriend now
He definitely texts you good morning every day, asking what you wish to wear today, just so he can emotionally prepare for the fashion he’s about to see
He’ll never say in out loud, but the 70s era suits are his favorite thing you wear
Emotionally constipated crocodile boy has no clue what to do with himself
This one time he caught you without a suit jacket, your dress shirt untucked, just lounging on one of the shabby ramshackle sofas, you looked absolutely stunning, and he just stood there with his jaw open
��HUMAN! W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST SITTING THERE!? YOU’RE ABOUT TO MISS MY DUEL WITH SILVER!”
A sequel was never really in the cards tbh, but i read the request and this came to me. If you ever notice how extensively I write for Sebek, it’s because he’s my favorite hehe. Dialogue is my weak point. Thank you for reading!!!❤️
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danikamariewrites · 1 year ago
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Hi , love I absolutely love all your writing
I dont know if your requests are still open if they are could you write a azriel comfort fic if you're comfortable writing where his gf shows him her sh scars and they both cry in eachothers arms and hug eachother and az now has a shadow attached to her by her side when he's away to protect her ?
Brave
Azriel x reader
A/n: hi anon, thank you so much. I’ve been wanting to write something like this for a while now. I used to struggle with sh as a teenager. I won’t go into my whole story but if you struggle with sh please know you’re not alone and I implore you talk to someone whether it’s a therapist, your best friend, sibling, parent etc. There are people in your life who love you very much and want to help you.
Warnings: mentions of self harm, mental health struggles, angst. Please don’t read if these topics trigger you!
As you were doing the dishes last night your sleeve slid up higher than you intended it to go. You knew Azriel saw your scars from the look on his face but he didn’t say anything about it. You knew he wouldn’t but it was time to come clean about your past.
Centuries ago, your mental health took a turn for the worst and you hit a low point. You were so depressed and convinced no one in your life cared about you. You felt so alone and isolated you just wanted to feel something other than that emptiness in your chest.
So you took out on yourself in the worst way. It went on for years without anyone in your life noticing. Or so you thought. Your mother found out and was distraught. She held you crying, telling you she was going to do everything to get you the help you needed.
You healed mentally and physically, but you were still self conscious about the scars you left behind. You had yet to tell Azriel about your past. Both of you took your time opening up in your relationship not wanting to rush anything. He only recently told you about what his stepbrothers did to his hands.
Tonight, you decided it was your turn to open up. Entering the sitting room you cleared your throat. Azriel looked up from his book at you. He gave you a small smile as you fidgeted under his gaze. Padding over to the couch you sat next to him.
“So…I know you saw the scar on my arm last night. And I want to tell you what happened.” Putting his book down Azriel held your hands, rubbing the rough pads of his thumbs across your knuckles. “You don’t have to if you feel like you’re not ready. I don’t want to push you to do something that makes you uncomfortable.”
The corner of your mouth twitched up as you looked down at your joined hands. “You’re not forcing me to do anything Az. I promise.” He dips his head motioning for you to continue. Slipping your hands out of his you move to roll up your sleeve to show your boyfriend the grouping of thin scars on your forearm.
Azriel’s eyes widened. He looked up at you, face scrunched in pain and confusion. “Centuries ago I-I hit a rough patch. Mentally. I thought I was useless and no one wanted me. I was lonely, I had no friends, and my family was preoccupied with my brother’s achievements.”
You started getting choked up. Your eyes watering with each word. It had been a long, long time since you had told anyone close to you what happened. But you were glad you were telling Azriel. He cares about you so much you’re sure that you’re in love with each other. You think he might be the one you spend the rest of your life with.
Clearing your throat you continue, “So I started hurting myself. It went on for a long time before my mother intervened. But I’m ok now. I saw a therapist and I’ve worked through it all.” Azriel reached out slowly, cradling your arm in his hands gently.
You feel tears fall down your face quickly. Blinking them away you weakly smile at Az. When he looks at you, you’re shocked to see tears of his own wetting his cheeks. It was rare Azriel cried in front of anyone. “Thank you for trusting me. I’m so sorry you went through that y/n.”
The softness of his voice broke you. It wasn’t like his usual quiet manner. This was pure hurt for someone he loves. Azriel pulls you into his lap, pressing his lips to the crown of your head as he rocked you lightly. You felt his tears in your hair as yours soaked his shirt.
You had never felt so cared for and accepted by anyone in your life. Azriel always knows how to comfort you, making you feel safe. “I love you, y/n. And I’m always here for you if those thoughts ever come back. Please, please know that you are wanted, and perfect, and you bring me so much joy.”
Leaning away from Az a little you cup his face, wiping away his tears with your thumbs and smile at him. “I love you too Azriel. Thank you, for always knowing what to say. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.” He leaves a slow kiss on your forehead before standing with you in his arms.
“Let’s get some rest, yeah?” “Yeah” you whisper, pressing your face into Azriel’s neck.
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beebotea · 10 months ago
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hey, are you listening — part 15
pairing : college au!xiao x f!reader . summary : in which uni students decipher vague tweets and emotions... + ie: second-year students y/n and xiao are forced to work through their term project (and feelings) as their friends attempt to meddle with their love lives ‘for the greater good’ . cw : swearing, slut-shaming, suggestive, reader she/her pronouns .
[prev] [masterlist] [next]
15. working
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act 1, scene 1
With an hour left before the end of class, Professor Lisa announced that she planned for the remaining tome to be used on the group project work. As there were only a few days left until the first submission checkpoint, it would be wise for all students to coordinate with their partners accordingly.
Y/N watched as her classmates started to shift around to find their partners. Her own friends leaving soon after, but not without checking in on their suspiciously quiet friend.
“Y/N?” Yanfei spoke up from beside her.
“Hmm?”
“Everything alright? You seem a bit down?”
“Yeah… just thinking i guess. I don’t really wanna talk about it right now but Lumine is free to tell you guys whatever. I don’t mind. I just don’t wanna talk about it all over again… Maybe aftewards.”
“No worries. We can talk anytime you need.” Yanfei gave you a gentle smile before leaving to look for her project partner Aether, waving to Heizou as she passed.
Y/N felt a hand on her head, ruffling her hair and she looked up to see HuTao grinning down at her. “You’ll be okay.” The brunette encouragingly patted her friend on the back (although it was more like a shove) before following suit to find her own partner.
Not long after, she heard the chair beside her being pulled out.
“Can I sit here?”
Y/N met eyes with Xiao, who waited patiently for her response despite feeling all kinds of emotions on the inside.
“Go ahead. We’re project partners after all.” There were so many things to be said, but so few words came to her mind as he took his spot beside her.
Moments passed and no further words were exchanged. It was as if the air was denser, harder to breathe in and harder to communicate through.
“So… are you feeling alright.” Xiao finally said, deciding to break the silence between them.
“Mhm.” Y/N responded.
“Are you sure? You seem… different.”
“Yes, I’m sure.” She gave him a curt smile. “I’ve just been… stressed so you don’t need to worry about me.”
It was hard for her to read the expression on his face. A little hesitant and a lot concerned, perhaps.
“Don’t push yourself too hard. It’s not good for your health.”
“Yeah I guess it would be pretty bad if I got sick since we’re working together on this project, huh.”
“Whether you’re my partner or not I’d prefer that you’re always happy and healthy.”
“I’ll be okay. Let’s just start working alright? We’ve already finished the first draft so I guess we could use this time to peer review each other’s work.”
“Alright.”
act 2, scene 1
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act 2, scene 2
Scaramouche looked up from his phone to glare at the boy wearing teal braids in front of him.
“The fuck you mean you nominate me?” He whispered loud enough for the other band members around them to hear.
“Well you’re probably the most acquainted to both of them out of the five of us. And you don’t have shit to do in this class either!” Venti argued.
“Fine.” Scaramouche said as he roughly pulled his Venti’s beanie down to his eyes, before treading off to find a seat near Y/N and Xiao.
“I think we can probably get the submission draft done by tonight if we keep working on it.” Y/N said, looking up from her screen as she reached the half-way point of Xiao’s part of the report.
“Yeah, probably. I’m down to push through and get it all over with tonight.” Xiao agreed, thinking it would be the best decision as it would lessen the workload on Y/N's shoulders.
“You guys don’t have any plans tonight?”
“I don’t think so.” He felt as if he was missing something...
“I thought you guys had band practices Tuesday evenings.”
Oh right. That's what he forgot. “Oh shit." He said, mentally facepalming. "We do…”
"It's alright then, Xiao, no biggie." Y/N reassured him that it would be alright for them to finish the day after until she was cut off by a familiar voice.
"Or, you can just come to band practice with us and work before and after we practice." As if appearing like the Cheshire cat, Xiao's indigo-haired cousin spoke up from the seat directly behind the partners.
"Scara?"
"Oh so you've finally noticed. Venti's here too." He smiled at her.
"Are you guys stupid? This is a 9am class! Why are you even here?"
"Tch. It's always why Scara but never how's Scara, huh." Scaramouche rolled his eyes at her for unknowingly sounding too similar to Aether. "But like I said. Come with us to band. We won't mind an audience. Right Xiao?"
"Yeah. I'll walk you home after too." His cousin agreed. "It's better that we finish this submission sooner rather than later for you. It'll take some stress off of your shoulders, Y/N."
Despite her constant inner turmoil, Xiao never failed to make her heart skip a beat and almost forget all of her worries. He always remained attentive and caring, making her feel safe and special regardless of what was happening around them.
"Pfft-stress? From what? Colouring in your business analysis charts with crayon?" Scaramouche cackled from behind her. "You're in business... what could be so stressful about your course load? I've seen Childe submit a picture of a marketing poster he made out of Crayola marker and get an 85%. It wasn't even scanned to be submitted as a PDF. Straight up PNG to the submission folder."
"Lay off it, Kuni. They're in different programs." Xiao rolled his eyes at his cousin.
"Yeah! Shut up, nerd. Don't you have problem sets to finish or something?" Y/N stuck her tongue out at the Inazuman in retaliation.
"Whatever. So you coming to practice or what?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll go."
a/n: verrryy overdue bc i have this course called collaborative exercise where we need to p much complete an arch project in like four days (i.e. i wake up at 6:30 am to get to uni at 9am and i get home at 7pm allll week). i think next chapter will also be p reading intensive too so theres ya heads up :DDD hopefully i can get the chapter out in time but if not, my apologies. hope you enjoyed <33
taglist  —
@ashhh-14 @sanghyuksgasolinestationscream @yuminako @bananasquash​ @scaramoo​  @lovely028​ ​@apinu @yukii-1 @ttalgi @yelleloww​ @bobaducky​ @sukunasrealgf​ @yukiesora​ @kissingkzuha @neigesprincess @aether-darling​​ @shinsukeee
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around1302 · 2 years ago
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EPILOGUE: SIX YEARS LATER
SPARE PARTS: a series
LONDON
(W) strong language, oral (male receiving)
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THIRD PERSON’S POV
FOUR YEARS LATER
Cheers ring throughout the arena, thumping so loud even the floors shook. Charlie watches off stage, hands over an agape mouth as she tries to process just how proud she is – which is a pretty impossible feat. Amelia’s screams deafen her from the left, her own jumping adding to the shakes and only making her husband worry because a woman only two months from her due date definitely shouldn’t be moving like that.
(Even if she insists she knows what’s doing by the third time round).
“Oh, my God, this is going straight to his dick,” Liam laughs, whistling so loud that a few fans nearly spot them hidden behind the curtain. It was absolutely essential no one saw them – this wasn’t their night in the slightest.
“Thank you so much London!” Louis belts to the crowd one last time, trying his best to soak those emotional final few moments in before descending and joining his friends backstage.
They all scream, engulfing him in a suffocating group hug Amelia’s forced to bow out from early. Louis is clearly high on adrenaline, nearly shaking with the thrill of it all, as his former bandmates lap over each other to congratulate him.
“God, it felt so weird at first,” he pants, nodding his thanks toward the crew member who handed him a water as they all made their way to the tour buses. His tour buses, “being up there alone, but it was incredible. I just want to go out there and do it all again.”
“Good job you’ve booked a whole ass tour then,” Niall grips his shoulders, kissing the back of his sweaty head.
“Lou, you were fucking ace!” Zayn shouts over the phone Liam nearly forgot he was holding. It’s a miracle the signal and battery even held up in the 02, especially from Zayn’s hotel in Florence.
“How’s the exhibition going?” Louis responds, taking Liam’s phone to face Zayn for a minute.
The five of them climb onto the buses, each taking a minute to gasp at how different it is. Like slipping on an old cardigan, they all expected to see the red leather they were so used to and the posters they’d chosen and the always stocked mini fridge. This bus is all Louis now.
“So good,” Zayn begins to break up as the bus quickly sets off to Louis’ London apartment, “I had a buyer yesterday, meeting with him after tomorrow’s gallery opening.”
Everyone gives their congratulations, then Louis hangs up the phone before Zayn turns into nothing but a blob of pixels, handing Liam’s phone back to him.
“I’ve never seen a crowd like that,” Niall shuffles on the sofa he would never say is uncomfortable, but, well. It’s no Spare Parts tour bus. “So impressive mate.”
Amongst the pumped up conversation about Louis’ first solo show, Charlie feels her silenced phone buzzing away in her back pocket. Pulling the device out, she can’t help the small smile that makes it’s way onto her face – earning knowing groans from the others.
There’s only one person who can elicit that smile.
“Just answer it.” Louis chuckles.
“It’s just because I told him to call if there was an emergency–”
“Answer it before I do!” Amelia intercepts, throwing a cushion at Charlie. She barely catches it before it hits her face, so as she stands to take the call, she sticks her tongue out at her best friend.
And a finger.
Charlie hears a muted, “love you too!” as the door to the bunks close and she’s alone.
“Hi,” Charlie accepts the FaceTime, unable to hold back her smile as her husband comes into frame. “Everything okay?”
“Look,” he holds up a toy, specifically a 2 year old Rubik’s cube that aims to help with colour awareness. Charlie thought it was dumb, but it’s hard to argue with Harry when it comes to Reagan. “Our kid’s a genius.”
Charlie scoffs. The cube has one side completed in red, all four squares.
“Our kid’s two years old,” Charlie cocks her head, “but did she really do that?”
“Yep, we sat there for like an hour–”
“We?”
“Well her fingers aren’t the strongest.”
Charlie breathes out puffy laughter.
“Who did the cube?”
A pause. Tired eyes crinkling at the seams.
“Okay, so I physically did it, but she told me where to go!”
“Rae can say, like, five words, she did not.” Charlie loudly guffaws. Then she realises Harry’s been whispering this whole time, so she quickly clamps her mouth. “Is she asleep?”
“Yes,” Harry yawns, “took fuckin’ forever.”
“Hey! No swearing with Rae in the house.”
“She doesn’t know what they mean, Char.”
“And what happens when we send her to preschool with that in her vocabulary?”
“God, I don’t know. Do we go to jail?”
Charlie rolls her eyes, Harry cracks a lazy smile.
“How was it?”
“Oh, H, it was amazing. He was so good.”
“I’m sad to have missed it,” he yawns again, “I always knew he’d kill it solo.”
“Mm,” Charlie props her chin on her palm, “go to sleep baby.”
“Not tired.” Harry lies, his fringe tickling his lashes as he shakes his head.
“You just yawned three times in five minutes.”
“I want to stay up.” He nearly sounds like a sulking child.
“I’m not going to be back till gone midnight.”
A pause. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Charlie chuckles, “we’re nearly at Louis’ apartment and I promised I’d actually stay at this party.”
“Do you have to?”
“If ready-to-burst Amelia is, I hardly have an excuse.”
Harry softly laughs, and Charlie wants to wrap herself in that laugh. In fact, she’s wanted to go back to her husband and her daughter and their dog for hours, but she can’t hide away from yet another party.
“I’ll be back at 12:30.”
“Okay babe,” Harry yawns. Again. “Have fun. Give Louis my congratulations.”
“I will,” Charlie let’s her eyes drop over Harry for a minute. After three years of marriage, the sight of him in sweats and blankets and messy curls is no less sexy than when he’s in his silk shirts and his–
“You’re pulling that face.” Harry snaps her out of it.
“What?”
“Your eyes,” Harry shifts, Daisy’s fur visible in the corner of the screen as she clearly hogs her side of the bed, “you sure you don’t want to come back early?”
The door to the bunks open and Liam’s head peaks through, “Charlie, we’re here.”
“Okay, I’ll be one minute.” Charlie smiles, standing up.
“You alright, Harry?” Liam shouts.
“I’ll be one minute,” grits lilts, shooing Liam out with a smirk.
“I really need to go now,” Charlie’s attention reverts back to the screen, to Harry. “I love you. Stay up.”
“Always,” Harry has to have won some kind of world record for yawning at this point, “I love you.”
2 YEARS LATER
Thousands upon thousands await him, chanting and cheering for him as the final recognisable song from his (carefully curated) pre-show playlist slowly fades to a halt.
He should be jumping up and down on the spot, breathing short, sharp breaths and recounting the lyrics he always forgets (and probably will always forget). He should be hyping himself up to play his first ever stadium alone, he should be warming up or fuck, praying.
But no. He’s nowhere to be found.
He’s late.
“Fuckin’ unbelievable,” his manger, Jeff, paces over Ibrox’s backstage, about ready to quit, steam leaking from his ears - cartoon or not, his top client is always the one to make that happen.
Jeff could accept late six years ago. It was nerve wracking, opening a tour alone after a controversial departure from the band. Plus, he was well aware of his reputation, Jeff knew what he was signing on for.
But the man’s twenty-eight, for fuck’s sake. The man’s not some stupid early twenty-something who sees this whole thing as a fun little quest he gets to dictate. Over the years, and especially through the pandemic, he finally matured. He finally realised that being punctual is actually okay! And more than that, it doesn’t give your manager and crew kittens three minutes before Golden is supposed to blast to 50,000.
… except when it comes to pre-show blowjobs from his wife.
“Oh, my God, baby.”
Harry throws his head back, fingers taking turns in fisting the cushy sofa beneath him and raking through Charlie’s curls. Her tongue swirls his tip, her own insistence for punctuality urging her to make him finish as soon as possible. She looks up at him through long lashes, knowing eye contact while she mouths him like that will have him tipping over the edge in no time.
It was never even supposed to happen. She only went in his dressing room to wish him luck, see how he was doing, give him a chaste kiss if anything. And, if she was a little honest with herself, she wanted to see his outfit before the world did.
Catching him half-dressed with the hair that told her he’d been nervously messing with it for half an hour, well. Who wouldn’t drop to their knees and kiss their way to his cock in their mouth?
“Yeah, shit,” Harry pants, forcing his head to roll forward so he can watch her. “How do you just seem to get better at this?”
Charlie smiles around his prick, injecting butterflies into his stomach and–
“Harry, I’m going to ask one more time.”
“One minute!” Charlie surfaces, barely able to breathe as she shouts at Jeff this time. Jeff’s grumbles are audible from the other side of the door, as are the sound of feet shuffling away.
If there’s one person Jeff isn’t going to yell at, it’s Charlie.
Harry’s eyes widen, embarrassment heating his neck, but Charlie’s hand pumping his shaft silences him till he’s biting blood into his bottom lip and announcing,
“Baby, I’m gonna–” he doesn’t have to finish his sentence before her mouth is back on him, and he’s coming down the back of her wonderful throat.
The noises he makes as he finishes only spur her to suck him through his orgasm, all the way till he’s pulling her away and twitching with sensitivity.
“Okay, you need to go.”
Charlie stands, wiping her mouth and shanking his boxers and trousers up for him while he lays back, dazed the fuck out of his mind.
“Huh?” He barely understands a word she’s saying, let alone able to comprehend where he is and what he’s about to do.
“You have a show, H,” Charlie straddles his lap to fix his hair, styling it quickly in the way she knows he likes. Harry’s hands instinctively fly to her waist, grinning lazily as she fusses over his fucked-out appearance.
“That might’ve been your best work, sweetheart.”
“Shut up,” Charlie mumbles behind a smile. He pecks her swollen lips.
Standing up, she adjusts herself, too. Her hair that had been ragged at by a feral Harry, her lipstick that was practically cheekstick by now. Her top, that he’d messily yanked down during their initial make out session when he insisted he just had to bite at least one mark into her breasts.
“Okay, you have two minutes,” Charlie checks her phone, grabbing his white tank and jacket from his coat-rack. Coming round from the head, panic starts to set in.
“Shit,” he mutters under his breath, standing up. Charlie turns around, noticing that gone-off look in his eyes which tells her he’s either about to brush it off completely or melt into a panic attack. Neither are exactly great coping mechanisms, but Charlie really needs to prevent the latter right now.
“H, it’s nothing.”
She throws him the tank, waiting for him with the jacket. He glances at her, that postcoital glow long gone. Anxiety was starting to seep into those gaps she had managed to close just a few minutes ago, but were starting to crack at the seams.
“50,000 is not nothing.”
Charlie puts his jacket on for him, afraid he’d stand there forever if she didn’t.
“50,817.” She corrects. He scowls. “Sorry.”
“Look, of course it’s not nothing. It’s a huge deal. But I know you,” she grabs his face, forcing his eyes to still on something solid. A stray curl falls against his forehead, framing his furrowed brows. “You’re going to get on that stage, and you’re going to fucking kill it.”
Harry huffs a breath, unconvinced.
“Honey, you’ve done it before.” Charlie smiles softly, brushing away the strand.
“Yeah,” he mutters, “with you.” He nudges his nose against hers, and Charlie wants to cry at his vulnverability. It’s rare she sees a Harry like this. For as long as she’s known him, he’s remained stoic in the face of fear, and although he’s not as rigid as he used to be – he’s never one to panic so much.
Endearingly, Charlie can pinpoint when he became much more of a worrier to one day, one person.
“H,” Charlie firms up, “it’s just like that. You have your band, you have me and your friends and–”
Harry interrupts the beginning of Charlie’s pep talk by grabbing her face and kissing her, hard. As if he was pouring out all of his nerves into her mouth and something in her lips and her tongue managed to just kill them. He pulls away, pepping light kisses against her cheek and jaw, making Charlie chuckle softly as his hair tickles her face.
“Okay, okay,” she leans back, forcing him away from her skin, “round two after the show, yeah?”
Harry holds his pinkie out. Charlie rolls her eyes, and holds her pinkie out. They kiss their respective thumbs and Harry nods.
“You got this.” She scrunches her nose, and Harry swears he feels his heart drop out of his stomach, which, how? After all this time, how does she still manage to do that to him.
It needs to be studied.
As he leaves his dressing room, Charlie gives him a swift slap to the ass, laughing as he turns and playfully scowls (despite knowing full well he loves it). She says a silent prayer for her husband as she follows him toward the stage, the sound of thousands of impatient fans already deafening.
They round the corner to backstage, where the team and Jeff are minutes away from breaking down themselves. Jeff nearly drops to the floor in relief at the sight of Harry, but wastes no time in calling tech over to mic him up.
Charlie gratefully smiles at Sarah, taking a fussing Reagan from her arms. Harry turns to let the team thread his mic through his jacket, and finds his remaining anxiety instantly dissipating at the sight of his daughter wearing entirely too big headphones and fisting at Charlie’s t-shirt as she complains about said defenders.
“Hi, princess,” Harry coos, reaching out for Reagan to grab his finger with her little hand.
“Daddy, you look funny.” Reagan giggles, wiggling enough for Charlie to set her down.
“Heey,” Harry lilts, getting the go ahead from the tech man before bending to his four-year-old’s height. “You don’t think I look handsome?”
Reagan shakes her head, brown curls bouncing against her cheeks.
“You look like play-dough.”
Charlie snorts, because she kinda hit the nail on the head. Harry’s band are giggling, too, as they prepare to get on stage. Harry narrows his eyes at them all.
“Do I have to wear these?” Reagan bashes her fists against the headphones.
“Afraid so, Rae,” Harry adjusts them so they sit a little looser on her head, but she’s still unhappy. “Your ears are too little right now,” he tries to explain, but if he knows his daughter at all, he knows she’ll be upset throughout the whole show because her hairdo’s squashed.
That’s Auntie Amelia’s damning influence.
“I don’t want to interrupt, but–”
“Yeah, yeah,” Harry stands, not deaf to the chants for him outside.
He kisses Reagan’s head, then turns to his wife.
“How’s Daisy?”
“Daisy’s fine,” Charlie sighs around a smile. Of course Harry’s worried about their dog right now. “Lia and Niall texted, she’s passed out on the sofa.”
Harry nods, clearly trying to delay the inevitable. So Charlie hurries it along for him, knowing he could stand there and ask stupid questions all evening to avoid that initial opening.
“Don’t fuck it up.” She winks, pinching his chin. Harry breathes short laughter from his nose, his lips squashed as Charlie pulls him for one final good luck kiss. Reagan sticks her tongue out at the sight of her parents’ affection, to which Harry does the same back and earns a tinkling of giggles back.
Charlie lifts Raegen so she can blow a kiss to her dad, currently jumping up and down and getting a few final stretches in before the opening to Music For A Sushi Restaurant fills the stadium, the screams become deafening, and Charlie watches as her rockstar husband takes the same stage her rockstar self did last year.
@lilfreakjez @be-with-me-so-happily @sirtommyholland @tpwksm @b-reads-things @tiaamberxx @daphnesutton @mleestiles
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rebelscums · 2 years ago
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Safe and Sound (Captain Rex x Jedi reader)
Rating: Severe Angst | Capture | Torture | Mentions of SA | Fluff
Summary: After being held captive you finally rescued by the one person you thought of for months
Pain…
An unpleasant feeling that occurs to one’s body from the result of an injury or disease.
But this…
This wasn’t pain.
No.
This was far worse.
The pleas on my tongue died in my throat a long time ago, the only sound I could force out were screams. The cuffs locked around my wrists cutting me off from the force.
How long have I been here? Days? Months? …Has it been years?
My legs felt numb and the dried blood caked the tattered dress to my skin. The only solace I had was the cool stone floor from the cell that numbed the bruises along my body.
“I’m counting on you to infiltrate here.” Anakin pointed to a cave opening at the bottom of the mountain, “While Rex and the boys will create a distraction here.” He pointed towards a landing platform at the top, “I will be infiltrating the other side. It will be up to one of us to rescue Master Ploon.”
“I understand.” I nodded firmly.
“And me?” Ahsoka asked with her arms crossed, “What will I be doing?”
“You have been tasked another mission with master Obi-wan in a peace treaty negotiation amongst the people of Lothal.” Anakin gave her a pointed look, “Understand?”
Ahsoka let out a defeated sigh less than pleased with the situation.
“General.” Rex spoke up.
“Yes Rex?” Anakin looked towards the trooper.
“Wouldn’t it be safer for the commander if one of us accompanies her into the facility?” He scratched the back of his neck, something he did when he was nervous.
A uniform of chuckles surfaced throughout the main group of the 501st. As a Jedi Knight, I couldn’t be happier since the Jedi council assigned me under general Skywalker’s command. It’s not only been keeping me busy since the death of my master, but I have made some pretty great friends these past few months. Especially with an captain by the name of Rex.
I glanced over to the captain who has consumed my thoughts since I’ve arrived. A blush came across my face as quickly as it left when we made eye contact. I couldn’t help the feeling of warmth spread throughout my chest knowing he was worried for my safety even though I was a Jedi.
He was so handsome and strong, but more than that. He was extremely smart too and thoughtful that was why he was made captain. His brotherly personality and charisma always brought a smile to my face whenever I would see him. It made me wonder what it would be like to be more than just friends with the trooper. Images flashed of what our first date would be or if he had a favorite restaurant. What food did he like?
I glanced towards my longtime friend Anakin who had a raised an eyebrow towards me. A wave of embarrassment spread through me as I quickly lifted up the shields in my mind. I coughed focusing towards the layout of the mission on the hologram.
Anakin leaned back and crossed his arms with a knowing look, “I am sure she will be fine, Rex. She is a Jedi knight after all.”
Echo nudged his brother teasingly as Rex straightened up as he regarded his general, “Of course general.”
“Alright. Grab your gear, we leave in fifteen.” Anakin stated before leaving the command room. He spoke my name with a tilt of his head to follow him.
I gave a smile towards my newest group of friends. They were all brave and amazing soldiers.
I looked back to the trooper that has been on my mind since I first met him, “I’ll meet you at the docking bay then?”
“Yes commander. Uh, I’ll be there.” He answered with a nervous chuckle.”
“Uh, I’ll be there!” Hardcase mocked his brother.
Rex rolled his eyes, “Alright, enough boys. Time to get to work.” Rex stopped the teasing and the boys fell back into their serious selves.
“Come on lover boy.” Echo patted his brother on the shoulder.
I looked towards my old friend once we were far enough away from the troopers, “Stop giving me that look.” I muttered.
“You know I only worry for you. Fraternizing with a clone trooper is an act of treason. Let alone with my captain.” He stated.
My heart dropped at the reminder, “I know.”
The two of us stopped in front of the door that led to the hanger bay.
He turned and placed a hand on my shoulder, “You know I only care about your well-being. You’re my oldest friend aside from Obi-wan, I just want to keep you safe.”
I nodded, looking to the ground, “I just want to what you have.”
He understood the meaning and squeezed my shoulder gently, “What I have is dangerous.”
I looked up at him then. The yearning in my heart growing even more for the trooper I have been fighting alongside, “From my understanding, love is dangerous.”
That was the last meaningful conversation I spoke with my friend. I figured that we would be able to talk more after, perhaps find a reasonable way through the conflicts of my heart and the order. It was a routine mission. That is what I told myself. So how did it end up like this?
“Wake up Jedi!” A kick to my side forced me to roll onto my side.
“We’re not done with you until you break.” A Zygerrian soldier drags me by my ankle, my head lolling to the side to weak to fight.
Being cut off from the force did more than just take away my strength, it took away my tether to all living things. It felt as if I were a shell in my body, empty from the world around me.
“We have master Ploon! Where are you?!” I could hear Anakin’s voice blaring in my comms.
“I can’t get out!” I yelled into my comms running from a group of Zygerrian’s chasing after me.
“We’ll come get you!” I heard Rex’s voice and my heart sped up.
“No! There’s too many!” I used the force to throw two out of the way.
“We can help!” Rex yelled, it seemed he kept his comms on as he talked to Anakin, “We need to do something general, send me in there!”
“No! You need to get away from here now!” I ordered, anxiety creeping it’s way into my chest knowing the fate of him and any other trooper that rushes in here.
My lightsaber was struck from my hand as five guards rushed me from all sides. I struggled out of their grip with no avail seeing more rush to their aid.
“I won’t leave you!” I could hear the anger and frustration lacing Rex’s voice.
“I know. Live to fight another day Rex.” I spoke softly as weapons surrounded me from each side, “Anakin, save them.” Was the last thing I said before electricity left me in a painful sleep.
“I like this version of you Jedi.” Malketh, the leader of this group of Zygerrian traders spoke as he pressed a foot to my chest.
He sat in his golden throne, making sure his Zygerrian soldiers dragged me up the steps to lay at his feet. I didn’t respond, something that Malketh quite enjoyed.
“Seems like we will be receiving a few guests from the senate.” He spoke.
That left my heart jump at the thought of help coming for me.
My eyes opened to see him clap his hands, summoning a few trained slaves to his command, “Make my new slave look presentable. Do not take off the cuffs.” He ordered.
Before long, I was sitting beside his feet, dressed in white silk and trimmed in gold that covered the marks on my body. My head felt fuzzy as serum they gave me rushed through my body. A tactical measure to keep me calm and most of all quiet.
“Welcome, senator Amidala. What brings you to my peaceful establishment.” The way Malketh said establishment so proudly would make anyone cringe in disgust.
“There has been word about your business growing.” She spoke calmly, “The senate is intrigued with how you have grown popular and wishes to discuss business.”
Malketh clapped his hand with a boisterous laugh, “Haha! I knew they senate would come crawling around eventually.”
“Yes, we believe you will become a great ally to the senate.” She spoke with a smile that could fool even the darkest of skies.
“An ally...” He ran his fingers through my hair and the heaviness from my head prompted me to lean against his throne.
I could barely see what was in front of me; everything becoming a blur. The sound of my friends voice only coming across as a muffled dream.
“Yes.” Padme’s voice confirmed as she eyed the Jedi she has become close friends with since Anakin introduced her.
“What would you like to know first?” He asked.
“We would like to know more about your slaves and how well… trained they are.” Padme stated.
“Ah of course!” I could feel the heat of his breath as he leaned over me, “This is my newest slave.” He said as he tugged my head up towards the senator, “She is still in training. Lotus supplements help dull her mind so she becomes more pliable for… Certain activities.”
“Interesting. I would love to see more of your facility to learn more of your methods.” Padme smiled grimly.
“That can be arranged.” Malketh let go of her hair causing me to slump back against his throne. He stood up with a calm expression, “Though your two guards will have to remain here for safety purposes of course.”
“I understand.” Padme motioned for her guards to stay as she left with Malketh and a few of his men for an in-depth tour.
My eyes closed barely registering the muffled screams and thumps against the floor.
“It’s going to be okay.” A steady voice spoke, “We’re going to get you out of here.” Anakin said as he used his lightsaber to brake the cuffs from my wrist.
A strong rush of the force came hurdling back into me as I gasped for air. It didn’t sloth the pounding or muddled feeling in my head from the supplements.
A strong calming voice spoke my name causing me to cry.
“I’ve got you.” Rex lifted me into his arms.
“Get her out of here. I’ll go get the senator.” Anakin ordered.
“What about Malketh. He deserves to be killed for this.” I heard Rex growl.
“Leave him to me. He will be brought to justice.” Anakin stated before leaving.
My head curled into Rex’s neck as he hurried toward their ship, “We’re going home.” Was the last thing I heard before succumbing to the dark once again.
I don’t remember much as I woke up to find someone looking over me.
My heart beat picked up as I screamed. I wanted it to stop, I wanted them to stop… Please, no more.
“Hey hey no it’s okay.” Kix pulled his hands off his body, the stethoscope held in his right hand, “It’s me Kix. You’re safe now commander. It’s okay.”
My quick breathing slowed down until eventually I was able to process where I was. I was on a ship… More specifically in a medical, Kid’s medical wing.
I looked up to the soldier, my face softening. His shoulders relaxed when he noticed my relaxing state.
“I’m glad you’re back commander, we all are.” He gave me a friendly smile, “Now that you’re awake I’m going to be continuing my check up. I will be walking you through it step by step and be asking you a few yes or no questions. Is that alright?”
I gave him a soft nod, indicating that I didn’t want to speak just yet.
“I will not do anything unless you give me your permission.” He spoke seriously, “But, know that I must check all of your wounds to make sure nothing severe has happened.”
I nodded again which prompted him to step further.
“Right.” He reached over a grabbed a hollows that shown brightly with a sexual assault check list, “I will need you to check off where they…”
I held my hand out to stop him from talking, talking the holopad from his grasp.
“Anything that wasn’t mentioned, you can input it at the bottom.” He continued.
I skimmed through the list quickly checking all of the torture I was put through. Kix waited patiently as he looked over my vital signs. When I handed him back the holopad he looked over the checklist and extra notes of abused with a furrowed brow. He didn’t elaborate further when he saw that I refused to look him in the eyes.
He set the holopad aside, looking at me calmly, “I am checking your breathing to see if you caught anything that would affect your lungs.” He spoke slowly and waited for my confirmation.
When I nodded he proceeded to slowly press the cold metal to my chest. I flinched, shutting my eyes and forcing myself to not relive what happened in that horrid place.
“I need to check the bruising around your neck. I will have to use my hands for this.” He said.
I tensed at the thought, but nodded once. The faster he did this then the faster I could find little comfort in my quarters. Kix slowly reached out to touch my neck, his fingertips cold against my skin. It reminded me of the countless times I was held down to the cell floor. I couldn’t help the cry that left my throat as I squeezed my eyes shut. Images of Malketh wrapping his hands around my throat as he…
“Are you alright?” Kix’s voice brought me back to the present.
I opened my eyes to see his hands held up. I straightened up a bit, wanting to be more in control of myself as I nodded again for him to continue.
“I suggest keeping your eyes on me so that you know you are safe.” Kix recommended before continuing with his administrations, “From what I can see I will need to apply bacta.”
I nodded before he fingers sliding across my neck which had me clenching my fist. Kix was right, it helped a little knowing it was only him tending to my wounds instead of causing them.
“You’re doing well commander.” He moved his hands from my throat and collar bone, “I have already taking care of the cuts on your arms while you were asleep. I have been informed by a medic bot that you have received cuts, deep bruising, and bites throughout the rest of your body. I must ask you if you would like my help in applying bacta to your chest and abdomen.”
I shook my head, quickly as I reached out for the small tin that was filled with the ointment.
He nodded in understanding, handing me the bacta. He stood up and drew curtains around my bed, “This will give you some privacy. I am just outside this curtain if you need anything.”
After I confirmed, he left me to tend to the wounds litter my skin. It took me a few minutes before I could pull down the patient gown, finding nasty bite marks along my chest and wounds from the shock and daggers the Zygerrian’s would use as they took their turns.
Tears we brought to my eyes as I carefully began to apply the bacta to my skin. I cried out as the stinging brought fresh memories to my eyes of countless sleepless nights as pain rippled through my body. Everything hurt, aches in ways that I never thought possible and I had been into battle many times. What hurt the most causing my short movements, was what had occurred lower down my body.
As soon as my chest and abdomen was done, I slowly turned to sit on the side of the bed, my feet swinging over the edge. I covered my chest with the gown facing away from where Kix left before pressing a button on the bed to alert the medic that I needed him.
He drew back the curtain, letting out a short breath as he took in the grousing scene in front of him. Lash marks, cuts, deep purple bruising, and lines left of electricity rippled throughout his commander’s back.
I slowly pushed the bacta towards him, keeping my head facing the wall in front of me. I could hear the sound of his footsteps getting closer before the weight of his body sunk into the bed.
“I’m going to grab the tin now.” Kix stated.
Even thought he warned me, I flinched even the moment his hand reach for the tin. Kix immediately slowed down his movements.
“I’m going to apply the bacta now.” He said gently and waited for me to nod before he began.
The burning sensation of my fingernails digging into the palm of my skin as I pushed away all of the memories. The torture… Their laughing… The way their breath smelt against my face like on a hot summers day in Tatooine.
“I’m finished.” Kix murmured, “If you could lie back I can examine the more internal problems.”
Kix carefully helped me back into a more comfortable position as walked me through what he was going to do next.
“I will checking your intimate areas for any tearing or damage.” He spoke, pulling a chair towards the end of the bed, “Take your time, but when you are ready, please place your legs into the stirrups by your feet.”
There was a long moment of silence as I worked up the courage to open my legs willingly. After being forced for so long, I never wanted to do it again and yet here I was having to do it in front of a friend.
Kix waited patiently until I finally lifted my legs. He spoke through everything he was doing and I was okay, up until the moment he breached my intimate areas.
I screamed out an aching cry, pushing myself up the bed as I called out for one person. The only name I have said since being captured. The one person I begged to save me from all the pain I was put through.
“Rex!” I cried out squeezing my eyes shut as I rolled into a ball despite the pain shooting throughout my body.
I repeated his name over and over as if I were back in that cell. His name being the only one I would cry out to save me as they…
I didn’t hear Kix excusing himself to go find his brother nor did I hear the door opening as more than one pair of footsteps rushed in. The only thing I could focus on were the memories that lashed out at me and the cry of Rex’s name falling from my lips.
My ears perked up to the sound of my savior’s voice, soothing me as he called out my name. I looked up to find Rex by my side, seeming so real unlike the previous hallucinons I had of him.
“It’s alright.” His eyes held so much honesty, something he could never get rid of, “You’re safe and sound.”
I sobbed as I gripped onto him, wrapping my arms around his neck. He quickly sat down on the side of the medical med, accommodating my weight on his side.
I cried silently throughout the rest of the examination, clinging onto Rex as if he were my lifeline. He whispered soothing words into my ear as he ran his fingers through my hair. It felt vastly different from Malketh’s strong grip. It wasn’t long before I fell into a deep sleep.
“She has suffered tearing in her intimate areas and will need to apply this cream twice a day for two weeks until it heals.” Kix told Rex as I slept.
“I understand.” Rex confirmed, “Can I take her back to her room now?”
Kix nodded, handing him the cream, “Just be careful and I suggest staying by her side for a couple of days until she adjusts. It seems you’re the only one she needs right now captain.”
Rex looked down to the Jedi Knight that he dreamt of every night since he thought he lost her.
“I will do my best.” He said and he meant it.
Muffled voice rose me from my sleep. My breathing picked up as I scanned my surroundings, slowly calming myself down once I realized I wasn’t back in that cell.
“How is she?” Anakin’s voice sounded on the other side of the door.
“She will heal physically… But she is in a fragile state right now general.” I heard Rex reply.
“She is a strong girl.” I heard Padme conclude, “She will make it through this.”
“Can we see her?” I heard Ahsoka ask, “I brought her favorite snacks.”
“She’s resting right now, but I’ll let her know you stopped by and want to see her when she wakes up.” Rex said.
“We’ll leave you two be then.” Padme spoke gently, “Come along Ahsoka.”
I heard two sets of footsteps leave my door before Anakin spoke up again.
“Rex…” He spoke his friends name gently, “The council understands that she needs a friend right now, but once she is fully capable to resume her duties as a Jedi Knight then that friendship must end.” Anakin patted Rex on the shoulder, “She cares deeply for you and I know you feel the same so try not to get caught.” He joked.
“Yes sir.” I could hear the small smile in Rex’s voice.
I saw his boots, bright from the light in the hall before the door shut behind him, leaving him illuminated by the soft glowing stars from my window.
“You’re awake.” He murmured softly as he walked slowly to my bed, “General Skywalker, Senator Amidala, and commander Tano were just here asking about how you were doing.” He handed me a small glass of water from my nightstand.
I nodded accepting the glass gratefully, sipping the cooling liquid.
“Kix tasked me to tell you what you will need to do to heal your wounds for the next couple of weeks.” He said.
I looked to my nightstand where he pointed at a bottle of pills and a tin, “You need to take a pill once a day to get your immune system back up and you need to apply this cream twice a day for two weeks on your…” His voice trailed off as red creeped up his neck onto his cheek.
He coughed and straightened his shoulders back up, “If you need anything, I will be right here.” His eyes held so much love and sincerity.
When I didn’t reply he slowly began to stand up, “I’ll come check on you tomorrow.”
Anxiety welled inside me, at the thought that this might not be real. That if Rex left then I would wake up back in that cell.
I quickly sat up despite the pain and grabbed onto his wrist, “Rex.” I pleaded his name silently begging for him to stay.
“As much as I love my name falling from your beautiful lips sweet girl, I need you to say what you want me to do.” He spoke gently.
I brought his hand up to my cheek, feeling the warmth of his hand against my skin. He felt real, his hands so much gentler than the ones I was forced to feel.
“You were the only thought that kept me alive. I prayed to the force every night that I could see you one last time… I know this sounds stupid, but I wanted to come back here to finally ask you on a stupid date.” I huffed out a laugh, one that Rex returned, “I still don’t know if this is real… If you are real, but please. Stay with me.”
“I would leave the GAR before I ever left you.” He stated.
What Rex said meant more to he and I then anyone would ever know. A smile bloomed on my face, something that felt rare after going on so long without one. I patted the empty spot beside me and waited patiently for him to climb in. I repeated to myself over and over that this was Rex, my Rex and nobody else. I wanted him beside me more than anything and I wouldn’t let my anxiety of what happened mix in this love I held for him. Rex slowly wrapped his arms around me as I settled into his side, breathing in his scent that left me feeling at home.
“Sleep well my love.” Rex murmured into my hair, “I’ll watch over you.”
“Thank you Rex.” I breathe out.
I was finally home and though it would take time to adjust back into my old life I knew that I could do it with Rex by my side. Baby steps.
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jamietarttsnorthernattitude · 11 months ago
Note
For this week’s word-
Wales. Welsh. Dad. Mean. Bad.
Thank you thank you my friend. I’m guessing you’re looking for something in the Colin’s Bad Dad category but surprisingly, I only had Wales once! And not in said fic, sorry. Instead please enjoy this snippet from not to me, not if it’s you:
The problem was that half the Greyhounds were scattered across the globe, taking advantage of the remainder of their International Break. Colin, Dani and Zoreaux had gone to Wales, Mexico and Canada, respectfully, after they losing in the group stage of the World Cup. Bumbercatch had followed to Switzerland after their loss the week before. At least Roy assumed he was in Switzerland. With Bumbercatch, you were never quite sure, and Roy knew better than to ask.
I did find Welsh(man) in the story though!
Maybe he should apologise for his play in the match, too, which had no doubt suffered from the guilt the Welshman felt as soon as the words left his lips on the bus. The guilt that had wrapped around Colin’s spine since then, growing like a tumour. Just as Colin decides to change seats and apologise to his teammate, Dani deposits himself in the empty seat next to Jamie.
LOTS of Dads, but I offer you a snippet you basically wrote from all you can take with you is that which you’ve given away aka Roy Kent’s A Wonderful Life from after Roy spots Jamie for the first time:
“There he is over there,” Clarence says, pointing.
And Roy’s immediate thought is denial. There’s no fucking way that’s Jamie Tartt. The man looks a decade older than his 26 years. He’s moving stiffly, more like Roy did in the twilight of his career than the spry footballer Roy watched perform a joyful roundoff in Amsterdam less than a year before. There are bags under his eyes, and to Roy’s great concern, Jamie’s hair looks lacklustre, drab, and unconditioned. It’s not even styled. Even from a distance, Roy can see those same grey eyes that practically twinkled in Roy’s presence are dull and unfocused. All of his sunshine, all of his inherent Jamie-ness, is gone, snuffed out by some invisible force.
“That can’t be him,” Roy whispers in disbelief. “God the kid looks so sad.”
“Ah, but it is. In a world where you never existed, Jamie Tartt has no constant presence of Roy Kent on his wall to guide him, to inspire him, to give him hope. Without Roy Kent as Captain, Jamie declined a transfer to Richmond and instead ended up at Burnley FC.”
Only a short car ride from Manchester, Roy realises with dread. Only a short ride from his Dad. Maybe it wasn’t such an invisible force that stole Jamie’s light after all.
Back to Colin for mean:
Jamie resembled a kicked puppy after Colin’s comment. Calling someone a dog was a term that Colin thought received a bad rap unfairly. Dogs were loyal, friendly and fucking adorable. Jamie might not be the fittest on the team, in Colin’s opinion, but the grown-out walnut mist and the smile Jamie wears more often than not lately, certainly qualify under the adorable category. And the only time Jamie’s not friendly recently is if he’s given the prick signal. Okay, he could still be a prick, but it was no longer in a mean-spirted way, more in a funny, sarcastic way.
And bad:
“It’s not like he’s ever laid a hand on me. I’ve never been afraid of him. Sometimes, I’d just rather not talk to him. Like now.”
“Colin, how does the stuff he says make you feel? I know you say it’s not a big deal. But does it make you feel good when he acts like that to you?”
“Well, no,” Colin says, and Jamie stares at him expectantly. “I guess if it makes me feel bad, but Dads can just be tough on their kids.”
“You think Ted’s like that to his son?” Jamie raises an eyebrow. “Come on, you saw Ola with Sam, practically thinks sunshine comes out Sam’s arse.”
“Sometimes I think sunshine comes out of Sam’s arse,” Colin counters.
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enkisstories · 6 months ago
Text
The wrecking of the Steadfast (Ch. 6)
Rey and friends are reunited and need to decide where to go from here. The decision is taken out of their hands when General Pride's Sith troopers attack New Harvest and force the group into hiding in the forest. And they still have that shaky ally former General Hux tagging along... But while in his inner monologue Hux leans heavily into his "Future Emperor Armitage I." image, his words and actions beg to differ.
Read it here: Chapter 6 or from the beginning
Outtake:
As the rebels made their way to their speeders, Finn stepped in line with Hux. Reading the room, Rey left her bike to Finn and took the seat next to Poe in the car instead.
“Makes one wonder, huh?” Finn said. “Think kids are in the cards for either of us?”
“Why not? I had a thorough education in how not to parent.”
“Yeah, same, and thanks to the same shithead.”
They mounted the bike. Only after they had followed the speeder for some time already, did Hux speak up again: “But without an army, we can neither secure our territory, nor expand it. We need soldiers, and they don’t drop out of trees battle-ready.”
“Oh, I don’t know”, Finn snarled. “In the end it’s a matter of motivation. Maybe ask the former career criminal you’re dating what makes him throw his life into the line again and again?”
“Our POE?”
“Used to be a smuggler. In his defense, if I got that right, by the time he realized what company he’d fallen in with, he had been in too deep already to easily quit.”
“Oh, I can empathize with that! To some degree, at least.”
“Did you know that I wanted to run away? I wasn’t a defector to begin with, just a deserter. I wanted to stop doing your dirty work, but couldn’t commit to actively opposing it.”
“What? When did that happen?”
“Right before my past caught up with me, showing me the folly of my plan. I don’t know if that helps at all, but… those doubts concerning your decision? We all experienced that at some point, one way or another. Chances are you’ll run away and we’ll have to pull you out of some roadside ditch before all is said and done.”
“You fully expect that?”
“I’ve been there myself.”
Hux saw Finn let go of the speeder bike’s handlebar and reach for his blaster. That was an odd follow-up to what had sounded like encouragement up until now.
“Hey, hey! I’ll…”
Finn drew the weapon and almost without looking fired three shots in quick succession into the underbrush. Following the line of fire with his eyes, Hux now saw a person sized crimson-red object between the trees. It quickly dived behind a large rock, but another one that had been standing right next to it keeled over. And now it became apparent that those things were not just people-sized, but also people-shaped.
“Sith Troopers?”
“Two less now”, Finn confirmed. “The third dodged.”
“Did you feel them in the Force?”
“Haha, no! See, I relied on the sensors in my stormtrooper helmet for years. When I had them no longer at my disposal, I felt blind and deaf. But I quickly adapted, and now don’t need the aid anymore. My senses are much sharper than they were before.”
[...]
Four troopers emerged from the trees, a trio and the survivor of the first trio that Finn had attacked. Moving in formation, they kept pelting Finn’s and Hux’ bike with blaster shots, pinning it on the spot, unable to escape. The passengers slid off and dashed behind the nextbest tree. It was wide enough to provide cover for both of them and return the fire from there.
“Pinned behind a tree instead of a speeder bike is what we in the field call an improvement”, Finn snarked.
“You see me at my cheerfullest at the good news”, Hux replied. “So what next?”
“You can’t tell?”
“I usually point at stuff and then it explodes.”
“Well, we’re the extra steps between those two points.”
Finn reached around the tree and fired.
“Damn! Missed. – One on your side!”
Hux shot and scored what would have been a perfect hit. The Sith trooper, however, didn’t even notice it.
“The blaster is doing nothing!” Hux complained, after two more of his attacks had bounced harmlessly off the Sith armor, only for Finn to drop the target with a single shot.
“You have to hit the weak spots”, he told Hux, re-adjusted his aim and down went another Sith trooper.
“Which would be…?”
Finn gave no verbal answer, but the next moment Hux felt his vision blur. The two remaining Sith faded out, only a handful of points of interest on their bodies shone brightly.
“Can you see?”
“Yes, but…”
The highlighted targets were moving and additionally tried to shoot Hux while he took aim at them. The strategist simply lacked Finn’s trained reflexes and the Force couldn’t grant them to him the same way Finn used it to convey the armor’s weak spots to his companion. When he realized that his method wasn’t working, Finn retracted his mind and the world returned to normal. The Sith troopers had momentarily ceased their fire and retreated behind cover.
“Switch”, Hux whispered.
“Huh?”
“Switch sides with me, Finn! By now they should know that shots from your side mean death, while I’m harmless. I bet my revoked pension they’ll advance on my side any moment.”
“Okay.”
Finn maneuvered around Hux, who slid to the right. They waited a couple of breaths and indeed both remaining troopers approached from the direction that would have exposed them to Hux’ line of fire. Only now they met Finn’s instead and went down in short succession. The duo’s could have been a flawless victory, if not for Finn groaning:
“Ouch! One of the bastards hit me into the arm!”
“Sucks. I know you’re averse to arm injuries. Partial to the leg, weren’t you?”
Finn turned around, preparing to give a sharp retort, but the companion flashed him a genuine smirk.
“Battlefield banter. You do that in the Resistance. Did I get it right?”
“Uh… yes. Yes.”
“Alright.” Hux produced a neatly folded handkerchief from his pocket, folded it once more and pressed it on Finn’s wound, then secured it with a bandage.
“Whoa, you’re always prepared!”
Hux shook his head. Here, covered by the dead of night, hiding behind a bug-infested tree, he admitted to his fellow defector:
“Prepared for a variety of situations in which I have only a vague idea how to use the stuff I brought.”
There. He'd said it and was still alive.
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fives-lover · 2 years ago
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Into the Forest I Go
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Forgot to post this yesterday, sorry!
This fic is part of the @cloneficgiftexchange! I hope you like what I did for you @burningfieldof-clover
I tried so hard to figure something out with romance since you like it so much but it’s not 100% my thing. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
Blaster fire crisscrossed the field in front of you while you and the men attempted to gain a better position and gauge droid movements. You could hear the screams and groans of the men getting shot all around you until you got closer to the front to report something to General Skywalker. Everything behind you was drowned out by the humm of lightsabers, metal, and robotic voices.
Those sounds were soon drowned out by your own heartbeat and the amount of adrenaline rushing through you.
The battalion had barely gained any ground and hundreds of droids still marched closer with tanks mixed throughout their ranks.
“The scouts and I found a better position to take out that tactical droid, sir!” You yell over the overwhelming noise. You wanted to get back to the trees and analyize the situation, acting as one of the snipers instead of sprinting across an open field filled with injured or dead friends.
“Good! Get back out there and try to take it out! Everything else will go into chaos! Don’t miss!”
“I never miss!” You ran back to your assigned squad to fill them in before taking your rifle to higher ground.
Droids filed their way through the forests surrounding you but you weren’t too worried, you were one of the best at keeping a low profile and sneaking through unseen, waiting to take your shot. The thick underbrush surrounding your group provided excellent cover as long as none of the clankers used any heat sensors.
“I’ll make my way up that hill while you three climb some of these trees and watch my back. Start firing on my mark.” The men nodded and you made your way through the forest.
Your targetted spot was getting closer when you heard something behind you and darted behind and up a tree, finding nothing. You stayed there for several moments until you were sure that whatever it was had moved on. On the way back down you were shot and came crashing, landing hard on the leaf-covered ground and losing the rest of your breath.
Rex commed you, “are you okay?! I told the others to stay where they are. Don’t move, I’m on my way!”
“Keep pushing forward, Rex,” you wheeze, “this mission is more important! We have to take that base, and we have to do it soon!” You moved to sit up and bring yourself to lean against the tree but couldn’t move well from the open gash in your side and clenched your teeth as you used every bit of energy you had left to drag yourself just a few more feet. “I’ve got my rifle and some cover. Keep pushing forward,” you order.
“I will save you if it’s the last thing I do,” he replied before cutting the line.
You were forced to stay in one spot whether you liked or not and decided to tell one of your squad members to make his way to a better position and take the tactical droid out then began moving some of the brush around you for better coverage to hide behind.
“Fuck,” you grumble under your breath upon lifting your shirt to look at the full extent of your wound. “Why did I have to decide to train as a scout and sniper in training instead of a damn medic or some shit?”
You lean your head against the tree for what felt like years when you heard movement to your right, the direction the clankers were coming from, and gripped your rifle tighter. It wasn’t good for close-range fighting but it would have to do; you had lost your knife in the fall, but it wasn’t like you’d be able to move around enough to use it well anyway.
Sliding down the tree some, you prepared for a fight and aimed the blaster in the direction of the noises coming closer. Everything stopped. The only sounds you heard again were the birds and squirrels. Still, you raised your weapon, prepared to use it at any second, and jumped when you heard your name - the gash in your side bleeding even more.
“Fuck, Rex! Did you really have to scare me like that?!” You asked, moving some of your cover out of the way for him to get closer. “I thought I told you to leave me until that base got taken.”
“You did. I also said that I’d save you if it was the last thing I ever did,” He shrugged and moved closer to raise your blood soaked shirt up and look at your side, “and it looks like it’s a good thing that I did.”
“You’ve always been dramatic about that kind of shit. I was going to be fine until the base got taken. Like you should have done before finding me,” you growled.
“We took the base. I made sure everything was going to go smoothly after helping route out any remaining clankers. So, I followed orders. Now shut up and let’s get you out of here.” He moved to your other side and pulled your arm over his shoulder to help you up after securing your rifle across his back and contacted Kix, “get some space opened up for her. She’s probably going to pass out from blood loss before we get back.”
“I’m not going to pass out. It would have happened already.”
“Just like when you said that everything was going to be fine on Kashyyyk just before all hell broke loose?”
“How was I supposed to know all of that was going to happen right that second?!” You chuckle before putting your free hand against his chest and whispered, “stop, I just heard something.”
Rex handed you one of his blasters and crouched to hide behind a large bush, making sure to look in every direction possible but wasn’t sure what you had heard.
Blaster trained in one direction, you stared down the spot that you heard the rustling. Rex followed your gaze but still didn’t see anything until you fired. A commando droid dropped like one of the acorns falling from the surrounding trees.
“We need to keep an eye out for more. How much further to the base?” You whisper, clenching your teeth on your way back to standing up.
“Another couple of klicks.”
“Fuck.”
He chukled, “yeah.”
~~~~~~
Rex had been right; you passed out about three-quarters of the way there. Upon seeing the two of you, Kix immediately kicked out a shiny with a minor injury for you lay on the cot.
“She’s going to need a lot of stitches but I can’t do anything without completely taking her shirt off,” Kix assessed, “either you need to hold up a blanket or something for some privacy, stand guard at the door, or just let everyone see her. Up to you.” He got up to gather the supplies.
Rex didn’t know what he wanted to do. He didn’t want to leave your side but he also didn’t want anyone seeing you shirtless. He eventually decided to stand with a blanket spread between his arms between you and any prying eyes, keeping your dignity while also staying close.
~~~~~~
Waking up, you look around bleary eyed. Panic set in when you didn’t know where you were or how you got there. Last you knew, you were still in the forest hobbling alongside Rex and keeping your head on a swivel on the lookout for more clankers.
Jumping to sit up, a hand rested firmly on your shoulder and the man shushed you until you came to your senses. He got up and left the room. Several minutes later, Rex all but burst through the door.
“How are you feeling?” Rex asked, gently placing a hand on your shoulder.
You sarcastically laughed, “like shit.”
“Well, it isn’t too bad if you’ve still got you sense of humor,” he shuffled closer on the crate next to your cot, “don’t scare me like that ever again.”
You roll your eyes, “not exactly something I can promise in a warzone.”
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lifeontop · 1 year ago
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twelve chairs
An echoing room. A circle of chairs. A dozen people from all walks of life. There’s a lawyer. A dentist. A high school teacher. A cashier. A student. An Avenger. I don’t remember what the others do, their introductions have already been removed from my brain’s memory.
Someone (a feminine voice) is speaking. I can only register broken pieces of her speech. “…Wanda”. Without my permission, my voice joins the choir of “Hello Wanda” that rebounds off the walls of the worn down room. My eyes flitter to take in the surroundings. The room is small and bleak, the only decoration is a wooden cross on the wall. The white paint is peeling off the walls, revealing a layer of green paint underneath.
“I realized I couldn’t get through the day without my glass of red wine anymore.” I hear Wanda explain in the background. I’ve heard this story a hundred times before. Day after day, different people recount the same shameful story of how the thing they thought was their saving grace, the solution to all their problems, turned out to be their doom. It’s the story of so many women and men who were struggling to stay afloat and reached for the only thing that would help them survive. And when that very thing destroyed the lives and relationships they had fought so hard to build, they stuck to it, sinking deeper and deeper into their addiction.
My mind doesn’t stick around to hear Wanda's story. It’s no different than the lawyer’s story, they become undistinguishable after a while. With every mouth that utters the words “I couldn’t stop anymore”, the room seems to shrink, the walls closing in on me until they suffocate me and force me to escape to the outside world. For some reason, today my limbs don’t move, they stay seated on the wobbly iron chair.
I have been where my companions are. I have woken up in the morning with my brain screaming for the bottle. But I got over it. I changed. I dried myself out and rewired my brain until even thinking of taking one sip felt forbidden. And I was doing well. For five years, I was the only owner of my thoughts and feelings. Every word that left my mouth was mine. Every step taken, mine. And then, suddenly, it all came to a halt. Like someone had pulled the emergency break on my world. Half a bottle of vodka is all it took.
One sip. I feel fine. This isn’t so bad. Two sips, I won’t get drunk, I just want to loosen up and have a fun with my friends. Three sips. The voices in my head are growing quiet. The silence is blissful. Four sips. I can stop at anytime. Five sips. Why do I feel so nostalgic for this burning sensation that is spreading through my body? It keeps me warm, it makes me feel alive.
Six months pass by in a flash. The familiar warm feeling quickly becomes a heaviness that weighs down my body and strangles my thoughts. I get into more arguments. I fight with people I never want to fight with. I see the hurt and disappointment on my loved one’s faces. I am trying to stop. I can’t. I need someone to talk to, to confess my weakness. I don’t have anyone. The loneliness is driving me crazy.
I am ripped back to the present by someone calling my name. “Y/N! What is your story? Do you want to share with the group?”. Eleven pairs of eyes are staring at me, through me.
My story? My story is that of a person who made one bad choice, bringing out the worst version of themselves. It’s the story of someone who lost control and fell for their biggest fear. It’s the tale of a person that I don’t recognize when I gaze at my reflection in the mirror. A dark creature that I don’t want to be.
My mouth doesn’t open. My body finally awakens from it’s rigidity and I feel my legs carry me across the room, through the door and into the rainy afternoon that awaits outside. The doubt that has been clouding my thoughts for weeks seems to have dissipated. I know who I am. I am not an alcoholic. I am a person who drinks and struggles to stop. But I can and I will stop. I have done it before. I will do it again.
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bloomingdead · 7 months ago
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What do you comprehensively about focus of the heart? It’s definitely a project that’s certainly *there* with some talented folks on it.
This ask has been sitting in my box for a while, and I’ve resisted responding to it because I really don’t want beef with anyone on the project. My personal experience with those I have engaged with has been unpleasant, but that doesn’t fault their product nor everyone working on it. Also, I may jump around quite a bit because a lot of my feelings on FOTH have nothing to do with the game itself (it’s still in development) and everything to do with the “discourse” and reasons surrounding its creation.
Let me preface by saying, I’m incredibly impressed that the artists involved were able to come together to create a project inspired by the fandom they all love so much. Artist groups are a really great way to gain visibility as an artist. You could be making art that never reaches the people who would want to see it, but if you group together with other similar artists and support each other, your audiences begin to overlap and grow. That seems to be working really well for the people behind FOTH.
I should also warn that I am not the biggest fan of “fanon” content. I haven’t read a fanfic in its entirety in at least 10 years and I don’t make much content other than the occasional doodle and think-piece ramblings. I have nothing against shipping, headcanons, and AU’s. I partake in all of these myself, I have no issue with it. What I do have an issue with is people who say a creator intended for fanon that doesn’t exist in canon. Or people twisting dev’s words to their benefit, pulling things out of context to bolster their opinions. This has created conflict in the past between me and an artist or few on this project.
Shipping is very popular in the Horizon fandom, and has been since the first game was released. Zero Dawn provided us with many potential new friends for Aloy, some of which many fans were left confused as to how Aloy truly felt about them. After all, Ashly Burch who portrays Aloy is pansexual, and she claimed that over half the characters she’s played are queer. And Aloy, although inexperienced and unsure of herself in Zero Dawn, was definitely left flustered at some point by many of the popular shipping characters.
So why did it take the release of Burning Shores, a DLC that finishes with Aloy declaring her romantic attraction to a new companion, for the fandom to put together a dating sim? The Burning Shores DLC was released on April 19th 2023. The first post on the Official FOTH Tumblr was made on June 7th 2023. Their “About Us” post from the same day, says in the second sentence that they decided to create the game, “in the wake of negative internet discourse about fandom shipping.”
Negative discourse? What does that even mean in this context? Are they referring to devout fanon members harassing the game devs and Kylie Liya Page for the creation of Seyka as Aloy’s love interest? Who the fuck, other than people mad about Seyka, were creating fandom discourse around shipping Horizon characters at that time? Kylie Liya Page has literally been cyberbullied from the day the game came out. Yes, it’s died down considerably, but the only negativity surrounding shipping in the fandom was created by the very people who love shipping the most. Kylie was still experiencing the thick of this “negative internet discourse” six months ago.
So many of the very same people who desperately wanted Aloy to get her first romance, are the ones who were most off-put by Seyka’s story. It wasn’t good enough, it was forced, rushed, chosen “for me.” No, Seyka was chosen for Aloy, not you. A lot of people seem to forget that the role-playing element in Horizon is more of a tone-check. Heart, Brain, Fist. You’re not choosing Aloy's response, but how she responds. Is she going to address this compassionately, pragmatically, or stoically? Your attitude will be remembered in future conversations, but your choices have no effect on the quests or ending of the game. Your options in quests are to complete them as intended, or don’t do the quest. 
We were never going to get multiple options for Aloy’s romantic partner in this game. She could still have another! Seyka doesn’t have to be the endgame, most people don’t end up with their first love. But how shitty would it be for us to lose Seyka completely as a character in the third game, because Kylie doesn’t want to come back and face that abuse again, or because the devs don’t want to subject her to that or lose more fans over it? What if they get rid of Seyka with a shitty write-off, and then Aloy ends up alone? We’ve now seen that she’s capable of opening her heart and experiencing that kind of character development. It would suck to have that taken away.
When you’re allowed to do whatever you want in fanon space, why go out of your way to harass the creators of the canon? Why bully fellow fans for having different opinions than you? You were already imagining these made up relationships that don’t exist, why does Aloy having a canon love interest ruin that? Why is Aloy having a canon love interest a disruption to fanon? It isn’t a disruption to fanon, clearly, as the creation of and support for FOTH has proved. Not only just by simply existing, but by their inclusion of Seyka in the game.
I was accused of being a bigot because I posted on my own blog that Aloy reads as a lesbian to me. I was harassed after Burning Shores came out for joking that we now have more proof of Aloy being a lesbian than bisexual. I’m a silly little lesbian, I see gay bitch, I want a lesbian. But that’s an opinion that exists in my mind, and on tumblr. It’s definitely not something I’m going to bring to the devs and accuse them of dancing around. Because still, as it stands, Aloy is most likely coded as pan/bi. It doesn’t warrant me or the thousands of other lesbian fans being harassed over a headcanon, though.
To me, and probably most people who genuinely feel normally about this game, there are way bigger issues in this fandom than anti-ship. There have been way bigger concerns surrounding how the developers and actors have been treated by the fans. There are way worse attacks conducted by fans who love shipping content than those who hate it. There have been worse attacks on people in this fandom by people "defending" their favorite ships than by outsiders in the gaming community that invade our spaces to tell us how mannish and ugly Aloy is. The people who think shipping is the biggest point of discourse in this fandom are most likely the same ones perpetrating it.
FOTH portrays their product as bravely pushing the boundaries on something that is going to receive backlash because it is shipping content. It represents itself as an amalgamation of all the shipping content in the fandom, dedicated to it. The language applied is intended to attract anyone who is cool with shipping, which I’m pretty sure is over 95% of this website. Definitely over 95% of the Horizon fandom. A genius move, from a marketing standpoint.
“What? That’s ridiculous, why are they facing negative discourse for a silly little dating sim? I’m cool with shipping, they get my support.” 
It is ridiculous, isn’t it? Tumblr is full of shipping, how is a tumblr account for a dating sim finding itself in a position where it has to preemptively address negative discourse on the first day of the official blog existing? It’s because the negative discourse they’re warning against isn’t aimed at shipping, it’s aimed at the aggression seen from the creators on their personal blogs in regards to their favorite ship. But they opened with the discourse statement so that if they ended up receiving criticism from the people they bullied, there’d be a potential for fans of their project to blindly defend them because FOTH prefaced that all their haters just hate shipping. 
That one statement from their account tells me that FOTH seems to be picksy-choosing what issues in this fandom warrant concern. Apparently, calling Aloy a lesbian is a bigger offense than sending death threats to actors and developers. Apparently, the worst discourse to happen in the Horizon fandom is because of those who defended Seyka from unwarranted hate and not the people who were enraged with her addition to the series. Apparently, FOTH wants to ignore all the harassment the devs of Horizon went through, but keep their fans aware that any so-called hate (criticism) that the FOTH creators face is simply unjustified and toxic. They opened their blog with an attempt to alienate anyone who might ever have a reason to criticize the game.
I won’t be playing FOTH, I have little interest in it besides innate curiosity. The closest I get to touching dating sims is fantasy RPG’s though, so I likely wouldn’t be playing it regardless.
As I stated in the opening, my feelings about FOTH have nothing to do with the game itself and rather the people behind it and the circumstances that brought it to fruition. I don’t think every artist behind it has the altruistic goal of simply creating something fun for everyone in the fandom to enjoy, I think some of them are just scratching an itch. If they were looking for something productive to place their frustration into, they found it. I’d be interested to know which pairings end up being the most fleshed out, and which ones are lacking. Especially since every artist got assigned to a character they genuinely enjoy. DM me privately to place your bets. 
So, I guess, TLDR; I’m not going to try and stop anyone from playing Focus On The Heart, but I don't trust all the people working on it nor their intentions. For Reasons™.
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planckstorytime · 5 months ago
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: A World Beyond Anger (Part Seven)
VII. This Isn’t About Saving the World – It’s About Me
My thoughts kept returning to the Gi tribe. Why did I find them so evocative?
In their pursuit of nonexistence, they cultivated their anguish, focusing it to corrupt a sacred relic. Their wishes and dreams could empower this materia – maybe they could’ve wished for a better life, a spot in the lifestream to accept them, or the fortitude to endure undying eons. But they didn’t. They did not want hope. They only sought deeper and deeper despair that could finally bring them the peace of oblivion. In the depths of their woe, they forged a power to bestow death to everything:
“Steeped in our one desire… Purest of materia no more… With pain and spite made black.”
Spite is one hell of a motivator. I felt so betrayed by the ending of Remake that I genuinely wanted Rebirth to be abhorrent. I stopped wishing for a game that would make me like the series as I once did, because I knew that hope just heralds disappointment. Caught between contradictory feelings of love and hate, I always felt dishonest to myself no matter what mindset I kept toward project. When I tried to be positive, I felt like I was dismissing my own hurt feelings; when I accentuated the negative, I had to force myself not to like the elements that I otherwise appreciated. I needed this internal argument silenced. Like the Gi, I couldn’t abide in limbo any longer.
A confluence of emotions got tangled up with these silly games. They mutated into a kind of cathectic reservoir, into which all the excess frustrations of my life flowed. Remake released in April of 2020. At that time, I had recently lost one of my best friends to a drug overdose. My beloved dog, whom I’d had since childhood, was dying. I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship. The United States political situation deteriorated further and further. And of course, a little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic struck. At the time, the world seemed cruel, and I resented my lot in life. I thought that the release of a piece of media that I’d anticipated for so long would help me feel better, but that escapism just resulted in more pain. With the literal years of isolation that followed (plus a nearly fatal snow storm), trapped at home and unable to see the people that I loved more than anything in the world, I just kept revisiting that disappointment, again and again. When every day is effectively the same, you endlessly repeat the same motions, the same feelings. In that manic state, FF7R became a sort of emblem for me, reminding me that I can’t have nice things and should not expect better from my life in any regard.
Life got better, though. Sort of. Daily life remains as challenging as ever, and new trials never stop emerging. At least I’m not locked up and scared anymore, though. Yet that game, and its impending follow-up, stayed stuck in my craw throughout the intervening years. I wish that I knew a less severe word for “trauma”, as I do not wish to trivialize the experiences of people who’ve suffered actual hardship – but this particular bugbear of mine acted as a conduit that would involuntarily drag me back to one of the worst periods of my life. Reliving that pain over and over, even as I turned these games into veritable lightning rods for my redirected negative energy, took its toll on me. The solution, to me, was to convince myself that I hated everything about them – that the hurt they gave me was all they ever were and all they ever would be. At least then they would be so unappealing that I’d never risk getting hurt again.
The results speak for themselves. I tried out Rebirth anyway, and it left me as conflicted as ever. This time, though, I feel like I’ve found meaning in that imbalance. I saw my petty struggle mirrored on the stage of a digital melodrama, and I gained a new perspective. The narrative focuses heavily on people and groups grappling with grief and spite, and the consequences of letting those demons consume you. Dyne’s rabid fury steers him to his end, denying him the chance of ever holding his daughter with an unsullied hand. Red XIII and Aerith both temper their impulses to maim Hojo after all the misery he’s inflicted upon them. Tifa divulges her previous desire for vengeance against Shinra, but how that hatred wasn’t sustainable. Cloud increasingly loses himself to murderous urges. Sephiroth’s new plan apparently hinges on a harvest of spite and sorrow from sufferers cursing their fates. Through these cases, Rebirth admonishes against obsessive anger, no matter how justified, because the true victim will always be the one reenacting their prior trauma. To draw from Aerith once more:
“It’s true that the pain and the anger we carry can make us stronger. But at what cost? What toll does it take? I believe true strength doesn’t come from any of that. True strength comes from our ability to forgive – to forge ahead in the hope of making things right. It comes from ourselves.”
It would be nice to have our problems solved for us – so that we had no reason to be angry to begin with. For me, that would’ve come in the form of a perfect adaptation: one with all of the charms that I love and none of the aspects that I hate. Y’know, just something made specifically for me, with no one else considered. Nobody’s that lucky, though. Not me, and certainly not the Gi:
“The Gi cannot rest until our sacred treasure has been restored to us. Moreover, in redressing the crimes of her ancestors, the Cetra may help us let go our ancient grudge.”
The only one who can let go of a grudge is the one who holds it. If the Gi got their Black Materia back, all it would accomplish is an extinction event. There’s no forgiveness there. The Gi must attain their peace through different means. Anger and depression must give way to acceptance – acceptance of others’ faults, acceptance of the reality of your situation, and acceptance of all the seemingly contradictory feelings swirling about that are, nonetheless, still yours.
I keep imagining alternate worlds. What if Square Enix had done this or that differently, and given us a better story? I can picture a game that would be easier for me to love. I see the contrast between what could have been with the real product, and it seeds dismay. Do these dreams help after a certain point? I realize that I cannot hide from my reality like Cloud does in the closing minutes of Rebirth. Contentment will never reach you when you’re holding out for something that will never happen. Hoping for a different fate gets you nowhere; despising your current one sends you backwards. When we linger on what we wish to be different, those unfulfilled desires, the futile hopes to rectify the past, invariably trap us in a state of permanent agitation. Only through embracing what we’ve experienced, the good and the bad, can we truly move beyond it.
As outlined earlier, I believe the third entry will likely flow with this theme, resolving on the cast achieving peace with themselves and their past woes. If it does not, so be it. I intend to internalize this lesson, even if Square does not. In the most unorthodox way, Rebirth spoke to me, and I will both acknowledge its flaws and consider its wisdom. I don’t think I’ll ever fully support the direction they took with this series. Maybe someday there will be a mod that serves as a “fan edit” to remove the distasteful elements. It’s halfway there, considering that most important scenes are intact, and the fact that you can skip Zack’s interludes on subsequent playthroughs. Until then, I have to accept a simple truth: I had fun, despite everything that bothered me.
At times, I frightened myself with how much I enjoyed the game. Knowing ahead of time that the ending would bite me in the ass, I even considered quitting to avoid that bitter sting. I thought, “What’s the point in pressing on if it all ends in disappointment?” Well, what’s the point in living, then? Sometimes we’re so afraid of pain that we would deny any chance of joy along with it. You could guess that such impulses might arise from our death drives, a primal push towards stasis.
No, I choose pleasure in the end. I choose life. Even if you know it will eventually end, I think there’s value in the transient moments of bliss. Just as it’s worth it to bond with a fictional flower girl, even knowing her tragic fate, because that story is worth experiencing regardless.
Believe me, the last thing I expected to get out of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, given my history,was a message about how life is worth living. You can’t wallow in impossible dreams, you can’t stew in impotent rage, and you can’t give in to a wish for nothingness. You must cherish what you love and accept that one day, it will fade. Nevertheless, it was real.
I won’t let my agreement or disagreement with Square’s story decisions dictate my enjoyment on principle anymore. Maybe the next game will stick the landing. Maybe not. Going by past performance, it’s likely to get 90% of the way there and then trip at the finish line. My cautiously optimistic outlook from my previous essay did not stick with me, so I cannot say that my uncharacteristically harmonious relationship with Rebirth will persevere either. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this ordeal, it’s that unexpected outcomes occur precisely because you don’t know everything. Either way, I’ll be back here in three or four years. Until then, I’ll do my best to live in the moment and be true to my feelings as they are now.
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– Hunter Galbraith
Interview translations credit to @aitaikimochi and @ShinraArch.
Further Reading
Freud, Sigmund, et al. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Norton, 1989.
FULL ESSAY: https://planckstorytime.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-a-world-beyond-anger/
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the-void-writes · 1 year ago
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“maybe i’m too busy being yours to fall for somebody new”
Thank you so much for the beautiful prompt! 💖 I ended up with a brief and messy Jasio thing here lol, but I hope you like it!
For context: In another universe, Jason survives the war on Preston after Will and his friends sacrifice themselves. Jason wanders Earth's wastelands for years on his own until he stumbles into Paradise, where he reunites with Rio and his team. They get Jason reacquainted with living in a community, trying their best to help him through his trauma along the way. During this time, some long-forgotten feelings start to resurface between Jason and Rio.
Paradise AU - Broken Sun
“I’ve missed you so much.”
Rio glanced over at his old partner, frozen stiff by what he had said. It was just the two of them in Jason’s living room, in the house that had been graciously provided by King Gazali. Their little group of employees was all that remained of Preston, of the company that had taken the lives of their dear children. Rio nearly lost himself after Jin’s death, but he had been fortunate enough to still have Avery and the others.
Jason, on the other hand… It was a wonder he was still sane. He lost his students, his family, his husband, his son— He had nothing left to live for, and yet he still made it to Paradise, after years of isolation in a rotting world. Vesely’s work had cost him everything, and the things Rio had done only furthered that progress. That was why it shocked him to his core when Jason said that he missed him.
“What do you mean?” Rio asked, mindful of his tone.
Jason kept staring ahead at the bright fireplace. “Do you remember how often the train between the buildings broke down? The whole tunnel would be dark, and we’d just hang out until the lights came back on. You made sure we were always talking so I never had to think about how small the tunnel was.”
Rio felt his face twitch at the memory, but he kept it under control. “Avery kept asking if you were claustrophobic. I told him to shut the hell up.”
“You did.” Jason chuckled. “We didn’t hide our relationship very well, did we?”
“It didn’t matter if our friends saw. They were the good ones.” Rio closed his eyes. “I’m sorry if it caused you any grief— I mean, in addition to everything else I did.”
Jason shook his head. “Rio, you’ve always been one of my closest friends. We know everything about each other. Your kindness and comfort mean everything to me.”
“Seriously? Even now, that’s how you see things?”
Jason closed his eyes. “You’re right, I’m sure it sounds ridiculous. I broke your heart, after all. You don’t owe me your friendship.”
“Hold on— Jay, I’m the one who lied to you.”
“And I pushed you away. The truth is we both hurt each other that day. I would understand if you didn’t want to talk to me.” 
He turned his pale, hollow eyes to Rio and forced himself to smile. 
“You’ve got a new life here, and people who love you. I couldn’t be happier for you.”
Jason started to get up, but Rio took his hand.
“It’s not complete, Jay— It’s never been complete without you.”
He brushed his long hair over his shoulder with a sigh. They shouldn’t have been having this conversation, Rio knew, not with Henry’s death so fresh in their minds. As much as he hated himself for bringing it up, it was just too easy to be open around Jason. He could always talk to him about anything.
“You were everything I ever wanted,” Rio said. “I’ve never looked at another person the way I’ve looked at you… You’re the only one, Jay. It’s always been you.”
Familiar feelings stirred as they stared at each other, small flutters of affection that were thought to have been buried long ago. Rio held out his hand and stroked Jason’s cheek, partially thankful when he didn’t pull away from him.
“I’m so glad you had Henry,” Rio said. “He was perfect for you, and I could never replace him in a million years— But it still fucking hurt to let you go, because I knew I would never love anyone else the same way again.”
Jason’s eyes were stinging. “Rio…”
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I know, it’s the worst fucking timing. Just ignore me, please, and don’t blame yourself for dumping me. If you want to be friends again, I have no problems with that.”
Rio waited in silence for his answer, but was shocked out of his embarrassment when Jason put his arms around his neck. 
“Would you kiss me?” he whispered.
“What?”
“If you really still love me, would you please kiss me?”
Rio shook his head in disbelief. “Jay— You lost your husband—”
“You were right, Henry was one in a million.” He pointed to Rio’s chest. “So are you.”
“But—”
“I’m not saying I’m moving on. I’ll always love Henry, but I’ve always loved you, too. I’m sure it sounds crazy, but Rio… I’m just so tired of being alone.”
Rio’s heart broke at the weak sound of his voice. He brushed Jason’s hair behind his ears, letting his fingers twirl the strands together.
“Then I’ll be right here for you,” he said, “if that’s what you want.”
“Yes, please.”
Rio shuddered as Jason pulled him closer, clenching his hand in his long hair as he kissed him. The small hint of stubble on his face scratched Rio’s skin— Finally, he understood how it felt. He leaned further into Jason as all his worries melted away.
“I forgot to say it,” Rio said, “but I missed you, too.”
Jason took his hand. “I know, darling. Thank you.”
“Aww, Jay, you’re the only man I know who would thank a man for missing him.”
He laughed. “Then maybe you should do the talking. I’m a mess.”
Rio smiled and held his face. “It’s okay, Angel. I’ve got you.”
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