#if i had the choice i’d much rather work for them then a ‘better’ team or a team w/ more money

[i-am-church-the-cat]

I love the way Williams talks about their racers. I just read this article about how both drivers reacted after the US Sprint and Grand Prix relatively, and the author makes sure to give context and explain why a driver is acting a certain way, even if it comes off as “rude”. Instead of just saying what happened and letting the reader comes to their own conclusions, the author just reinforces the validity of how the drivers were feeling/acting at the time.

Idk it just feels refreshing compared to other teams who kind of let one or both of their drivers fight it out on their own (or sometimes openly debases them *cough* Red Bull *cough cough*).

[chelseeebe]

cold as ice

sooo it’s been a long time coming.. steve’s grand return to my blog!! now i’m not really one for hockey romance or wtv but i saw this one picture on pinterest and it just spurred me on to write this.. whatever this is

18+ mdni! smut. violent themes. eddie is r’s brother though descriptors are not used so take that relationship as you want! steve harrington x female reader. hockey au.

the rink is cool, the clattering sounds of skates and sticks hitting the ice fill the arena.

it’s too early for steve to really give a shit about practice, waiting for the moment he’s allowed to crawl back into bed again.

the arena’s usually empty at this time of the day, not many people were keen to watch them scream at each other over failed passes.

but today, you sit in one of the seats, quietly watching as they warm up.

steve’s still fairly new to the team, only recently drafted, though things were looking a whole lot better if he knew you’d be showing up to practice regularly.

“who’s that?” he nods, sliding up to the small group congregated at edge. he’d just assumed you were somebody’s girlfriend dragged to practice.

“munson’s sister,” jason smiles, thumping him on the back, “don’t even think about it man.. not gonna happen.”

steve’s features crumple, confusion echoing his face, “well why not?”

they laugh, sharing a knowing look between them, a joke he wasn’t in on. tommy steps forward, clapping his hand on his shoulder, pitying almost, “you think we haven’t tried? eddie doesn’t play about her.. i wouldn’t even bother.”

his eyes travel back to your solemn spot in the bleachers, cocking his grin to the side.

he wasn’t one to ignore a challenge, and he certainly wouldn’t be now.

-

lucky for steve, the only reason you’d tagged along to practice was to use the rink after the guys had left. making use of the quiet hour between them practicing and the public flooding in.

he was smart, waiting for eddie to leave before sliding his skates back on, venturing out onto the ice to interrupt your peaceful routine.

“hey,” he calls from across the ice, slowly making his way over without startling you. “what’re you doing?” moving alongside you slowly.

“practicing,” you reply rather bluntly, ignoring him to spin around the cool rink, speeding off into the distance.

steve grits his teeth, just about skating fast enough to catch up, wrapping his arm around your waist and knocking you back into the plexiglass, all in one fell swoop.

“oops,” he smirks, mere inches from your face, “i tripped.”

you smile, a contained, coy grin that you’d hoped wouldn’t boost his ego too much, turning your face away from his.

“i don’t think we’ve met,” laying on the charm thick and heavy, just as he meant to go on, “i’m steve, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“i know who you are,” narrowing your cold eyes, “eddie told me you’re bad news.”

steve’s not shocked, not one bit. eddie hasn’t been particularly welcoming since his arrival, though he’d put it down to new team rituals or whatever.

his throat vibrates, humming his response, “i’m sure he did.”

how rude of eddie not to return the favour and introduce you to him too.

“i’m gonna ask you out,” poking his tongue into his cheek, “and we can either do it the easy way or we can do it the hard way, it’s your choice,” quirking his head to the side.

“steve,” you warn, dropping your gaze.

“so you choose the hard way, that’s fine,” keeping his hand firmly on the plastic, pinning you in place, “what’re you scared of? eddie?” blowing the air out of his mouth, “he’s not gonna know.. don’t worry.”

you hum, taking your bottom lip between your teeth, “he’ll kill you,” jutting your chin out, “i don’t think you want that.”

the words melt off of his tongue, resembling butter and all things sweet, “for you, i’d risk it,” a true smooth talker, knowing exactly what you wanted to hear.

your eyes roll back, dipping your chin, presumably to hide the flush he’d bought to your cheeks. worked every time.

“we can have dinner,” finding enough pride to meet his gaze again, forcing faux reluctance into your tone. he’s aware that it’s all a game, he’s rolled this dice a thousand times and knows exactly how it’ll land.

“tonight,” ordering, not asking, “i’ll pick you up, yeah?”

your lips purse, “fine,” the bright lights shine from your eyes, highlighting the flustered glow of your cheeks, “eight o’clock,” a feeble attempt to gain some control over the moment.

steve gleefully releases you from the makeshift cell he’d held you in, slowly moving backward along the ice, “wear something pretty for me,” flashing his teeth in a over bearing grin, darting off of the rink before anyone had the chance to spot you together.

-

he’s there at eight on the dot, nonchalantly eyeing the door, playing off the excitable beating in his chest.

you don’t emerge until the time on his dash reads 8:09. perhaps another attempt at flipping the ball into your court or maybe you were just late.

steve didn’t mind either way.

he leaps from the chair, making his way around the car before you even got to the road, opening the door with a grin.

“you look great,” he purrs, hanging onto the door as you step inside, lingering inches from his face, cocking your head to the side to thank him before sliding in.

he’s almost vibrating on the drive over, fingers nervously tapping the soft leather wheel, no doubt making himself look insane.

the drive seemed too long now, having chosen a restaurant out of town in fear of prying eyes that would guarantee he would never see you again.

you’re unconcerned with the food, hanging onto his every word, lapping up the barrage of compliments just dripping off his tongue.

“eddie can’t be that bad, can he?” steve asks, completely naive to the lengths your brother would go to keep him away.

you laugh into your glass mid-sip, flashing him a look that can only be taken as a warning. “you don’t get it,” mocking in the way you shake your head, “he’d eat you alive,” a scathing review of what he was getting himself into.

“i think you’d be worth it darlin’,” flashing his teeth in that trademarked steve harrington grin.

but it works, ducking your head behind your glass though it fails to conceal the crinkle by your eyes. a dead giveaway that his syrupy words were working.

“y’think?” emerging from behind the transparent glass.

“i do.”

steve had an abundance of confidence, maybe too much depending on who you asked. but it didn’t half work in his favour.

you were putty in his hands and he hadn’t even finished his spiel yet.

“you talk a lotta shit, steve harrington,” biting the inside of your cheek.

“but you like it, don’t you?”

your mouth twitches, biting at your bottom lip, reluctant to nod but you do anyway. relinquishing any and all last embers of self-respect you were desperately clinging onto.

-

he’s already eager to get you out of the restaurant and back into the passenger seat of his car.

there had been no doubt in his mind that he would win you over. what was a disgruntled older brother to him anyway?

nothing more than a tiny blip that steve could rather easily ignore. especially when you were the reward.

there’s inconsequential chatter on the journey back, words full of nothingness while all his mind can fathom is the feel of your lips against his.

he pulls into the tiny lot in front of your building, though you don’t get out, stewing in the passenger seat, waiting for him to make a move.

so he does.

steve leans over the console, his forefinger and thumb encasing your chin, tilting your face toward his. you take your lip between your teeth, stopping him before he can smash his lips to yours.

“you have to promise me..” you murmur, gazing into his eyes though they remain on your lips, “eddie can’t ever know.”

he hums in anticipation, almost drooling with excitement, “yeah.. i promise,” before moving in to finally touch you.

your finger jabs into his chest, mere millimetres away from sealing his fate, “i mean it, steve.. never ever.”

“never ever,” he echoes, still waiting for your permission to close the gap.

your head nods slightly, “oka-,” interrupted by his lips mashing with yours, taking your bottom lip between his teeth, adamant to not waste any more precious time.

your hand rests against his heaving chest, barely curling around the fabric, just enough to keep him close.

steve breaks away first, just to look at you with lovesick eyes. he knows that this will inevitably only end one way, but that’s okay. if being with you in the meantime is the prize, then the eventual fallout is negligible.

“shit,” he breathes, keeping the distance small and easily shortened, “you’re so beautiful,” fully meaning it but really only saying it to watch you squirm again.

“stop it,” abashedly hurrying to connect your lips again, noses knocking against one another with your careless action.

you taste like sweet wine and spearmint, delicate with the way your tongue swipes over his bottom lip, a soft murmur escaping your throat when his hand finds your thigh.

a welcoming new addiction, one steve wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to escape. ever.

-

being secretive meant a lot of days holed up in your apartment. unless of course both of you were needed at the ice. that’s when shit got really fun.

every single person on that rink truly believed your eyes were on them but only steve knew who you were actually looking at.

eddie was completely non-the-wiser, ignorant to the fact you and steve arrived just minutes apart, blissfully unaware of the violet markings trailing down your neck.

the thrill of having something to hold over him. no matter how loud he’d scream at steve or how hard he’d knock him down, steve knew that at the end of it all, he was going home with you.

personally, steve thought the tension was

palpable. that every single person in this building could tell that he couldn’t wait to get home to touch you again.

one particular eve, sprawled out next to you in bed, as you had been for days at this point, steve jumps up, grabs the clunky polaroid camera and starts coaxing you out of bed.

“come on,” he orders, wrapping his fingers around yours, “i got an idea.”

tossing his jersey in your direction, just barely catching it before it fallls to the ground again. “take this off,” running his fingers around the hem of your shirt, “and put this on,” he barks, already helping you lift the fabric over your head.

you grab onto his hand, furrowed brows, “what’re you doing?”

“i wanna take a picture,” having already noted the polaroid camera that sat on your shelf. he’d been thinking about it for weeks, only just comfortable enough to ask.

you hesitate but do as he says says anyway, letting the jersey fall around your body while steve watches with his jaw detached.

he nods towards the bed, in quiet amazement as the jersey falls around your bare thighs, riding higher when you move.

you lay back, steve crawling onto the mattress behind you, knees pressed together as he looms above. so perfect, sprawled out on the bed with his jersey on.

he gives no warning before snapping the picture, grinning to himself behind the plastic camera.

“i wasn’t looking,” you frown, grabbing ahold of his wrist before he can take another.

“that was just a practice one,” he coos, looking at you rather than through the viewfinder.

what he truly wanted was a picture that only the two of you would ever see.

“can i?” asking cautiously as his large hand lays on your knee, waiting for that small nod before spreading them apart, closing the space between you.

his hand skirts upward, brushing your thigh until it meets your core, keeping his eyes trained on yours for approval.

“yeah?” steve repeats, the camera still poised in his other hand.

you nod again, chest heaving as you allow him to manoeuvre your body, relinquishing full control over to him.

steve’s thumb traces the lace fabric, grazing your clit and down to your quivering hole. shuddering breath fills the room but you don’t contest it, relaxing into the mattress instead.

his finger hooks around the fabric, yanking it to the side, your soaked cunt waiting below.

“okay?” he reiterates further, dropping the camera onto the bed to pull his boxers, cock aching and starved, leaking with anticipation.

“please,” finally using your voice, a desperate, strangled cry that makes his cock twitch.

steve’s vision is clear, he knows what he wants from this. something that only the two of you will know had happened.

guiding his tip to your eager entrance, gently nudging inside as you wail softly, fingers grabbing at the disheveled blanket underneath.

he scrambles for the discarded camera, wanting to take the picture before completely losing it. the tension is palpable, longing for him to move while he’s adamant on getting the perfect shot.

“a-alright honey,” steve stammers, tugging at the hem of the jersey to cover where your two bodies meet.

the shutter clicks, your two bodies intertwined perfectly and yet completely unknown to anyone that may ever see that picture.

it takes everything in him not to scrap everything and just fuck you into the mattress. a couple more photos and he’d be satisfied.

something about this entire situation was getting him off anyway, your warmth enveloping him, squeezing and trembling as you wait patiently.

“please move,” you beg, a divine temptress with your hooded eyes and wetted lips.

he does so, agonisingly slow, causing your jaw to go slack, pinging perverted thoughts to his fuzzy brain.

his thumb finds your bottom lip, resting on the skin before you get the hint to wrap your lips around it. it’s taking everything for him to not cum right now, his fingers shaking on top of the button, pointed perfectly to capture his thumb between your lips, fingers caressing your warm cheek. cutting off just before the camera meets your eyes, no identifiable features, just in case.

the camera lowers as his hips still roll slowly, your composure slipping away with each gentle thrust. steve thinks that he could’ve asked for anything at this point and you would’ve let him. too drunk, too in-love to really think about it.

but he doesn’t push it, one more picture, just for him.

your cunt, keeping him inside, a picture to be hidden and cherished.

using his fingers to bunch up the soft cotton of his jersey, perfectly framing the meeting point of your two bodies. he fills you to the hilt, drawing a sweet whine from your plump lips.

barely stable enough to snap the picture, hands trembling the entire time before tossing the camera to the side, a flurry of polaroids lay framing your body. to be ignored until after he had made you cum a couple times.

steve thrums his full attention to you, your body even. his fingers still gripping his borrowed jersey, using the fabric for leverage as he thrusts faster, choking on his moans, overcome with the intensity of your cunt squeezing around him.

“so good,” he stresses, further spreading your legs to move closer, staying stood on his knees to watch your expression contort and change with every slam of his hips.

his hand leaves the jersey, disappearing between your soft thighs to find your neglected clit, drawling the sweetest mewl from your lips, eyes squeezing shut with the new found pleasure.

“oh my god steve,” moving your hips against his in slow rhythm.

you’d done something for him and now he was due to repay you fully, thumb circling gently around your sensitive clit, neglecting his own climax to ensure you got there first.

steve thighs burn, the feel of your heels digging into the dimples on his lower back were the only thing keeping him upright.

“c’mon honey,” he coos, ducking his head to watch you wriggle, thighs squeezing together as the sweat begins to pool on your temple.

falling apart at the seams with every nudge of his cock against your sensitive spot, trembling as the waves of your orgasm threaten to spill over.

steve can tell, can feel you tighten around him, desperately clawing the soft blanket beneath.

“that’s it baby,” in a gruff low growl, still teasing your poor clit, “you sound so pretty,” drinking in every delicate whine that left your soft lips.

“shit,” you cry, moving your hips against his in perfect rhythm, your eyes stuck shut as he smirks to himself.

steve’s pace stutters, a mixture of expletives and throaty groans fill the room, moving to clasp onto your hip instead. a mixture of ecstasy and desperation overcome his bones, helplessly rutting into you as you tremble.

“oh.. uhh,” he groans, fingernails leaving tiny crescent moons in the plush skin of your hip, “f-fuck baby, i’m gonna cum,” desperate to unload while you writhe beneath, overstimulated after your own orgasm.

his fist wraps around the base of his cock, leaving your warmth just before he cums, thick ropes of his release paint your stomach, no doubt his jersey too.

it could be cleaned, but seeing you come completely undone in the bright blue shirt again wasn’t guaranteed.

the room is stifling, clammy skin no longer sexy but irritating as he gathers the forgotten polaroids, collapsing breathlessly next to you, sharing one pillow as your sticky bodies mesh.

“oh god,” choking on your words, harshly thrown back into reality, “i don’t think i wanna see those.”

steve tuts, holding the small pile above your faces, “you’re amazing.. i like that one,” flashing the image of your lips wrapped snug around his thumb.

“euurgh,” you complain, “you can keep that one.”

his eyes roll back as he flicks through, tracing the outline of where your two bodies meet, “that one’s my favourite,” turning his head to watch your grimacing face.

your fatal flaw was your humility, not wanting to own how earth-shatteringly beautiful you were was really his only issue.

“you can keep that one,” you murmur, coming to face him, “actually, you can keep them all.”

steve ponders for a moment, taking in the soft curve of your lips, the way your eyes seemed to fill with stars when you looked at him.

“thank you for doing that,” completely sincerely, “i’m gonna keep that one in my wallet,” showcasing the one where your two bodies met, entirely undetectable to any poor soul that may open his wallet.

“you’re so gross,” shoving the stack of pictures out of your site, rolling out of the bed as you go, “i’m gonna shower.. you coming or are you just gonna perv at all your weird photos?”

“say less,” steve beams, leaping up, dragging you along towards the bathroom with a chorus of shrieks and giggles.

-

steve shuffles in the soft dawn light, reluctant to leave the warm cocoon of your bed for the icy rink and brutish behaviour of his teammates.

he groans while getting ready, it never getting any easier to leave you comfortable in bed.

the doorbell shrieks from the hall, your eyes meeting in a panic.

fucking eddie.

“eddie,” you frown, leaping out of bed, “he’s early,” scowling at the clock, “he wasn’t supposed to be here until seven,” gritting your teeth as you pull discarded clothes back onto your body.

steve looks at the window, a little far down to throw himself out of it before his eyes dart back to the bed, wondering if he could shove himself underneath.

you spin as the door pings again, shoving steve to the other side of your room, “just stay in here and don’t say anything, okay?” rushing out as your bedroom door slams shut.

the door opens and eddie waltz in, shoving the last of his bagel into his mouth as he makes his way into your apartment.

“you’re early,” you scold, worriedly looking around the messy room, praying your brother wouldn’t notice.

“was getting breakfast.. thought you’d be ready,” he mumbles through chews, eyes leaving yours to also glide around the room, at the clues of there being another person in this apartment. “is someone else here?” eddie asks, finding steve’s sneakers left neatly by the door.

“no,” you rush, furrowing your brow, “i’m the only one that lives here eddie,” only half-a-lie. steve hadn’t moved in officially, but it was pretty damn close.

eddie smirks, noting the two mugs sat in the sink waiting to be washed, “no? are you sure about that?”

“what’re you even talking about? i’m not in the mood for this,” sighing heavily.

“i don’t care if you’re dating someone,” he laughs, “you can tell me, you know?”

“i’m not.. you’re just, you’re being stupid,” standing with your arms across your chest, disapproving of his early morning nonsense.

“alright.. alright,” shaking his head, “whatever. if you don’t wanna tell me, that’s fine.”

you think fast, tempted to pull the fire alarm just he’d have to get the fuck out.

“i’m not coming today, i don’t feel great so.. you should go,” eager to usher him out of the door and far, far away from all of the shit you’d mistakenly left out.

he does as you ask, walking towards the door but not before stopping right before steve’s shoes, “nice shoes,” unable to keep his snarky remark to himself of course.

your eyes fall down to the large pair of sneakers sat by the door, obvious that they weren’t ever meant for you, “they’re.. they’re.. can you just leave please?” pushing him through the door, dismayed by his lack of care for your embarrassing time.

“see ya tomorrow?”

“yeah yeah tomorrow.. bye,” abruptly closing the door in his smug face, relieved to not have witnessed your brother beat your boyfriend to death just yet.

steve breathes a silent sigh of relief at the door clicking shut, unsticking himself from the wall to make his way to your bedroom door, only waiting for your signal to come out.

“oh my god, oh my god,” you exclaim, barrelling into the room, “too close,” steve’s hands catch your frantic shoulders, slowing down the panic in your eye.

“i know..” he affirms, keeping you steady, “but he’s gone, okay? it’s fine.. he doesn’t know and now next time we’ll just.. we’ll be more careful, yeah?”

your breathing slows, nodding along with his calming words, “okay.. okay,” leaning into his palm as his hand caresses your cheek, “you should go, i don’t want you to be late.”

what did that matter if you weren’t okay? hockey would come and go but he was intending to keep you forever.

“you gonna be okay? i’ll be back as soon as we’re done,” thumb tracing the indents by your mouth, wishing he could just bundle you along with him.

“yeah.. i’m okay, go,” breaking free of his clasp though your palm stays atop of his hand, nodding encouragingly.

so reluctantly he does, leaving you for a frosty morning on the ice. a couple of hours of really testing his ability not to pummel your brother into the ground.

“why’re you late?” eddie spits, damn near slobbers, standing from the bench to approach steve, without an ounce of intimidation in his body.

steve just scoffs, “two minutes.. you’ll survive,” ignoring the stiff man to shove his bag into his locker, slamming the door shut to find eddie’s stoic face just inches from his.

“you’re always fuckin’ late,” his eyes falling slowly to the floor, a disconcerting expression overcomes his features.

through gritted teeth eddie bites, “fucking asshole,” grabbing steve by the scruff of the neck and subsequently throwing him violently back into the lockers. his spine and head, colliding loudly with the metal, a groan escaping his lips at the sudden searing ache.

“what the fuck?”

“stay the fuck away from her!” bellowing into steve’s face, completely unnecessary for the distance between them.

the bridges connect in his head, albeit slowly. realising that ‘her’ was in fact you.

his shoes.

he’d kicked them off by the door last night like he always did, without much thought about the consequence of your brother spotting them.

steve shoves him backwards, unpinning himself from the lockers, letting his anger take over.

“so fucking what?” pushing him further back, “you gonna punch me because i’m dating your sister?” using the opportunity to gain an advantage over eddie, towering above with his brows furrowed.

“no,” eddie growls, “i’ll fucking kill you for dating my sister,” already lunging towards steve, fingertips scraping his shirt as he’s tugged backwards by a both very impressed and yet very frightful jason.

“calm the fuck down!” jason hollers, though his pleas fall on deaf ears as eddie scrambles through his hold, reaching out for steve’s static body.

holy fuck.

you’d told him it’d be bad, and yeah, maybe he had expected a black eye or a bloodied lip but he hadn’t prepared himself for this.

a rage so deep, so visceral that even tommy was ushering steve out of the locker room, a fearful glint to his eye that steve had never seen.

“fuck man,” tommy exasperates, holding his jacket between his fingers, “didn’t think you had it in ya..” amazement rippling through his voice, “you should definitely go though.. give it a couple days and.. he’ll be alright.”

steve wasn’t sure that was true.

a couple of days surely wasn’t enough for that anger to subside. he wouldn’t put it past eddie to creep through the window and strangle him in his sleep.

but he goes nonetheless, a slow, contemplative drive back to your apartment. wondering if this was even the best place to go. you’d be wondering, confused why he didn’t come back. you at least deserved to know.

the door cracks open almost instantaneously, revealing your tear stained face accompanied by your wobbling lip, appalled at the sheer sight of him, “what did you do? steve? what the fuck did you do?”

[dilemmaontwolegs]

Not A Verstappen: A New World {2}

Pairing: Charles Leclerc x fem!driver!reader x Lando Norris Summary: Unexpected allies and strange changes are happening both on and off the track. Warnings: 18+ only, mature content, we got another period WC: 2.4k F1 Masterlist NAV: Sibling Rivalry One || Two || Three NAV: Gridlocked One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six || Seven || Eight || Nine NAV: A New World One || Two || Three

Round One - Bahrain 2023 “Nice work out there,” Lance said as he clapped you on the back as you began your return to the motorhome smelling like champagne. 

“You too, not a bad start at all,” you said with a grin. It was the first race and already you had scored a podium for Aston Martin, albeit behind both Red Bulls. 

“Not sure your boyfriends would agree. Have you seen them yet?”

You sighed and shook your head. Charles had out-qualified you, both Ferrari’s starting a row ahead, but in the end he hadn’t been able to finish the race. Lando wasn’t much better, coming in last with who remained in the race. 

“I’ll hunt them down after I find my mum. She’s probably lost and confused by now.” 

“She’ll get used to the paddock soon enough. It must be good to have her finally come to your races.”

“I’m not sure she would say the same thing,” you chuckled. “Did you see how nervous she was at testing last week? Thought she was going to have an aneurysm when she heard my top speed.”

“Dad was like that when I started too.” Lance opened the door for you to the Aston Martin motorhome and grinned at the cheer that erupted. The race had only finished an hour ago and already the motorhome was being dismantled to move on to the next destination.

“One more race like that and we’ll already have more points than we had all of last year,” Lawrence said as he threw his arms around both you and his son. “Sensational! That’ll show the bastards at Red Bull they have a competition on their hands this year.”

“Can’t wait,” you smirked at the idea.

Lawrence squeezed your shoulder. “Show them what a mistake they made, alright?”

“With pleasure. Thank you for giving me the chance.”

Lawrence sighed and took a seat at an empty table, pointing you to the one opposite and he sent Lance off to get changed. “You’re a great driver, there’s no disputing that, so I’m happy to have you on the team - especially if you keep performing like you did out there. You could have an entire harem for all I care.”

“I’m happy with two, thanks,” you said with a laugh. “It does suck not being able to go out and celebrate though.” 

You had received a warning letter before the season began with an outline on which countries you would be arrested in for showing any PDA, same with Lando and Charles. Bahrain was one and the next stop in Saudi Arabia was another. Lewis had tried to speak up but his influence couldn't change the laws that were going to be upheld and there would be no leniency. 

“I’d rather not have to bail you out of jail so early in the season.”

“I can cover bail, just don’t rip up my contract,” you joked. “Please.”

“That wasn’t right. I have a daughter so I know full well the different treatment you ladies get no matter what you do.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice as he jutted a thumb over his shoulder, “They don’t even seem to remember Checo’s scandal in Monaco last year. It just goes to show that it wasn't because their ‘core values’ were breached. Red Bull is led by misogynists. End of.”

“Well don’t hold back, Mr Stroll.” You grinned at your boss and sat back in your seat feeling even more comfortable with your choice in employer. You had offers from Williams and Alfa Romeo, as well as a reserve driver for Mercedes, but you were glad you took the Aston Martin seat, even if green wasn’t your best colour. “I feel like I should set you up on a soap box outside their garage.”

“I’ve found they don’t pay much attention to words, we’ll just have to beat them instead,” he said as he rose from the table and wrapped his knuckles on the wooden top. “Have yourself a good evening.”

“You too, boss.”

After showering and searching the motorhome and failing to find your mum, you went in search through the paddock, finally locating her in McLaren’s hospitality. 

“One race and you ditched me already,” you said to her as you stole one of their bottles of water from the fridge. 

“I knew you were fine, so I thought I would check in on sweet Lando,” she said with a sad smile. “He’s not too happy with his result.”

You snorted a laugh and she slapped your arm as she shhh’d you. “What? No one jumps for joy at last place. It’s kind of obvious.”

“Just go and check on him okay? I’ll see you all for dinner later.”

You watched her navigate her way out and trusted that she could find her way back to Astin Martin. Kristian was staying in the same hotel so she was going to get a ride back with him while you rode with Lando and Charles after finishing the debrief and interviews. She had the endless patience of a saint, except when it came to the media.

You rapped your knuckles on the door before opening it and found Lando pacing the narrow space, his phone to his ear. “-least yours was a mechanical failure, my car is just shit. Oh, she just got here. We’ll see you soon. Love you.”

He tossed his phone onto the table and opened his arms, welcoming a warm embrace after the terrible performance he had endured. His chest was still damp from the shower and he smelt edible like a key lime pie when you kissed his collar bone. 

“Proud of you,” he murmured into your neck where he buried his face and inhaled your body wash too. 

“Proud of you too.” 

He pulled back and shook his head like he didn’t believe you and you caught his face in your hands, forcing him to face you. “I am proud of you, baby. What you did today was much harder than me…the fact you still finished the race and held your head high shows how resilient you are. I probably would have done a Kimi and just fucked off mid-race.”

His chest bounced with a small laugh because you both knew it was true. 

“You are going to be a world champion one day, I know it,” you swore as you pressed your forehead to his and felt him shake his head. “You don’t have to believe me, Lando. I believe in you. You deserve it, you have the raw talent - and one day you will have the car to match. Then you will be unstoppable.”

The door swung open as Charles let himself in and you delighted in the way his face lit up upon seeing you both opening your arms for him to join. “Mmmm,” he sighed as he closed his eyes and tipped his head onto Lando’s shoulder. “What a fucking day…Can we go home yet?”

Round Four - Baku 2023 You were a shoo-in for a podium place. It was in reach for the fourth race in a row, until the pain began. Sudden and strong, you nearly missed the corner as the ache in your abdomen grew to a point you couldn’t ignore it. You felt even bump in the road, every force of the turns, the pressure from your harness.

“Fuck,” you growled through gritted teeth. “How many laps left?”

“Five, why? Woah, your heart rate is through the roof,” Chris exclaimed, not nearly as calm as Nicholas would have been.

“Yeah, kind of happens when I’m in pain,” you retorted as you thought you could probably handle five more laps. There wasn’t another option anyway. 

By the penultimate lap Charles had overtaken you and you saw his helmet turn your way ever so slightly, like time slowed as he passed. There was no way to see under his visor but you knew there would have been a look of concern on his face.

“Try to at least maintain your pace, Sainz is currently gaining.”

“I’m fucking trying alright.”

You managed to remain in fourth position as you crossed the finish line and then returned to the pits to see Charles’ Ferrari taking the last podium parking spot. You would have liked to have parked there but if it had to go to someone else you were glad it was him. 

“Where’s Lando?”

“Ninth.”

You laughed happily at the news that he had also made it to the points again and turned off your engine to start unstrapping yourself. You reached between your legs for the buckle and swore under your breath as you felt the sticky residue on your race suit that was definitely not sweat.

Charles had been celebrating with his team before the final weigh in but when he returned to take a drink of water he noticed you still hadn’t climbed out of yours. He could see Lando’s car a few behind as he arrived but even he was touching down on the tarmac and pushing his steering console back into place.

“Charles, you’re up,” Max interrupted the step he took towards you. “What’s she doing? She’s not crying because she lost, right?”

“I don’t know,” he muttered half distracted before realising what Max had said and rolled his eyes. “She’s not crying.”

He seemed proven wrong when you pulled your helmet off your head and he saw tears streaming down your face. Max turned to Sergio and pointed to the interviewer waiting by the Sky News cameras. “Mate, can you go first?” They didn’t wait for an answer as your face contorted with pain and your head fell forward. 

“Baby, you alright?” Lando asked as he reached you first, reaching in and taking your steering wheel out for you as you shook your head. “Here, let me help you out.”

“I can’t get out of the car,” you admitted as tears of embarrassment wet your hot cheeks. 

“That's okay, I can carry you,” he murmured as he reached for you but you slapped his hands away. 

“I can’t get out of the fucking car!” you snapped, immediately getting the attention of Charles and Max who had arrived too, only increasing the anxiety that you were feeling. “Please, just get my pit crew to jack up the car and wheel me to the garage.”

“Why?” Max asked as he crossed his arms, but then they dropped as he barked a laugh. “Did you pee in the car?”

“Fuck off, twat,” you grunted as Charles hit him on the shoulder with a, “Mate, it happens, leave her alone.”

You hunched over and clutched your abdomen as a cramp wracked your body and a pained groan slipped out. “Oh, oh shit,” Lando reacted first, knowing exactly what was happening after surviving three of your menstrual cycles over the winter break. 

“Charles, Max, interview time.” 

They both glared at the FIA official but Lando nodded his head. “Go, I’ll take care of her.”

Three Days Later Your knee nervously bounced as you sat in the doctor's room. “I never get periods during the racing season, something must be wrong.”

“Well, your test results were all normal.” She pushed her glasses back up her nose as she changed the folders she was looking at. “Are you feeling stressed?”

You pondered the question for a moment, not really having realised how different life was in Aston Martin and not having to hide your relationship. “Not really, no.”

“But you used to be,” she noted as she read through her past comments on your file. “Stress, as you know, can upset your hormonal balance quite significantly.”

“So I’m getting my period again because I’m not as stressed? That’s inconvenient.”

“It’s how your body should function.”

“I need it to stop.”

Reaching into her drawer, she grabbed a few pamphlets and laid them across her desk. “There’s certainly options, but they could have other side effects.”

You left the office with a prescription in hand but you weren’t sure how your boyfriends were going to take the news. They were always concerned about your health and wellbeing that it could go one of two ways.

“I thought the hormones would mess with you,” Lando said as he shook the box and heard the rattle of the foil trays inside.

“They are messing with me now.” You dropped down onto the couch as he passed the box over to Charles to read. “Who knew Red Bull could be so stressful?” you mused.

“Pierre, Albono, Kvyat,” Lando listed with a smirk. 

“I think you should take them, if you think it will help,” Charles decided as he placed the box back in your hand.

“There’s only one way to find out,” you shrugged, cracking the foil seal on the first tablet. “Plus, we’ll save a fortune not having to buy condoms.”

“Wait, what?” Lando’s face lit up like a kid at Christmas. “I thought this was to stop your period.”

“I mean, it stops them, as well as having babies, like a two-for-one deal.”

“I could get on board that.” His lips curled up into a sexy smirk as he dropped into the space beside you and draped his arm across your shoulders. His body was already stirring at the idea and he looked up at Charles who had gone to get a glass of water for you. “Tell me you haven’t dreamt of this day.”

Charles rolled his eyes but didn’t refute him as he handed the glass over and watched you swallow the little pill. “Of course I have, mon cher.”

“Sorry, boys, it takes seven days to work. You’ll still have to wrap it if you want to tap it.”

It was mean but you took some pleasure in the collective groan they made.

“Block out your calendar,” Charles chuckled as he bent down and kissed you. “Seven days and we plan to absolutely ruin you.”

You squirmed at the thought, imagining the feel of their cum dripping from you after they filled you and it drove you feral. You grabbed Charles and pulled him onto the couch as he laughed at the sudden urge you had to feel his body on yours. 

“Tell us what you need, chérie,” he teased while Lando’s lips found your racing pulse.

Your core clenched and reminded you of the emptiness within. “You,” you begged as your hands disappeared up their shirts and felt the hard muscles beneath your palms. “I need you to ruin me.”

Click here for part three.

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[oneatlatime]

A Precariously Stacked Pile of Random Season 2 Thoughts

These are notes I took as I watched the season. Usually after I’d already posted about the episode in question, and I thought of something I would have added to the post. Rather than edit them into my posts, I’m rounding them up and posting them all at once. As such, they are vaguely chronological. Unfortunately, because I made the notes legible to me and me only, I didn't bother to write down what episode I was referring to. I've also added some notes in as I was editing these notes. So this is also a bit of a scavenger hunt. Enjoy!

Iroh poisoning himself: dumbass moment or 5D chess?

My autocorrect corrects “Sokka” to Sock, and “Sokka’s” to socks. This causes double takes when editing.

Badgermoles have excellent eyeliner. Is that where the Kyoshi Warriors get their jaw dropping cat eye?

Why is Ty Lee spelled Ty Lee and not Tai Li? Why is Dai Li spelled Dai Li and not Dy Lee?

Sometimes Sokka makes me think of Mulan. Am I crazy?

Are the swampbenders’ moves based on a real martial art style too?

Why didn’t Aang use his swamp sense to locate Appa post-appanapping?

Where did Toph, who spent her whole life as a prisoner of her parents’ house and a moonlighting WWE wrestler until Team Avatar busted her out, get such emotional intelligence?

Why did Zuko’s dad put forward the plan to disinherit Iron in favour of him less than 24 hours after Lu Ten’s death? Why did he think that moving quickly was the right approach? Does the Fire Nation not do grieving periods? In what world was 'strike while the iron is hot' the correct course of action here?

Looking back, I’m amazed that season 2 didn’t end in Zuko’s redemption. I didn’t much like Zuko Alone, but I was sure that a season that included that much set up for a Zuko redemption arc would prioritise finishing that arc.

I haven’t even met this Firelord guy yet, but I am peeved that that twerp has a name as cool as Ozai.

Why haven't I met that Firelord guy yet?

I really thought that the older brother character in Zuko Alone would make an appearance later on in the season, giving Zuko a chance to flex some newly acquired morals. But the parallel to Lu Ten and the general message about the evils of war lands better if we never hear of him again.

Zuko in the first half of season 2 had me so annoyed that I was incredibly uncharitable to him in my write ups. Reading through some of the stuff I wrote while watching episodes, I kind of wince now. Zuko in the second half of the season was much less annoying. Which I feel bad for saying, because he’s clearly not in a good place in the second half of the season.

I would love to know why the writers decided to have Toph and Iroh meet in the wilderness. I think it’s a good choice, but I want to know how they came up with it, and why those characters? Is there anything about Toph (especially at that point, when we’ve known her for 1 episode) that suggests that she and Iroh should meet? Or would get along if they did?

Zuko has so many rock bottom fake outs this season: Zuko Alone? Nope, he gets worse in The Chase. The Chase? Nope, he gets worse in Bitter Work. Bitter Work? Nope, he gets worse in the finale.

I’m still peeved that Azula won a 6 on 1 showdown. Sorry, but that breaks immersion.

I bet the Blue Spirit could make lightning.

If water is the element of change, why does the Northern Water Tribe have such strictly defined traditions? I get that it's literally the element of change, in that water can exist in different physical states, but shouldn't the metaphorical interpretation also be true?

I like that Toph can think like an Airbender sooner than Aang can think like an earthbender.

What is Sokka’s boomerang made of? Is it metal? Because if it’s metal, does that mean that there’s a blacksmith somewhere in the South Pole? With a forge?

I still can’t get over how dumb the whole eclipse plot was.

Suki is TINY!!!

I mocked this guy’s 80s aerobics video leotard aesthetic, and I stand by that mockery, because this guy is ugly. Those colours are awful. But do you know who else has those colours?

Jet this season fascinates me. He’s positioned as genuinely repentant and legitimately seeking a second chance and I don’t believe him for one minute. Why don’t I believe him? This show has a theme of learning from mistakes and doing better, so shouldn’t Jet be a perfect fit for this show’s themes? I should be primed to believe him. And yet I don’t.

I have to applaud Iron’s enthusiasm for their new life in Ba Sing Se. A lot of that cheer (at least before the tea shop) is put on for Zuko’s sake. I don’t know where Iroh gets the energy to keep trying with Zuko after years of minimal results, but I’m glad he does.

I think Aang and Ty Lee should hang out. They have similar circus energy. Or maybe it’s that they’re the only two characters in the show so far who are remotely playful.

Aang = surface silliness, core of calm. Not that the silliness doesn't run deep, but he seems to have an untouchable anchor of calm deep within that rarely gets disturbed. Gyatso raised him well.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~Poetry bouncer ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

I need next season to have more Appa & Mono subplots à la their escapades in The Swamp. Not à la Momo’s Tale.

Tales of Ba Sing Se definitive ranking: Momo Aang Sokka Zuko Iroh Katara & Toph

I love that Momo still sleeps in the Momo bag from The Blind Bandit

Are Suki and her warriors sitting in the middle of some Earth Kingdom forest in their underwear?

So are Smellerbee and Longshot just done? Will they be back in season 3? What happens to their life now? They are known associates of an enemy of the state who was just executed. It doesn't look good.

Everyone on this show has big ears. Zuko has the smallest ears simply because he has the least amount of ears remaining. But everyone else? Big ears.

Can I have more Gyatso? I forgot how cool he was. More Guru too please.

Hakodilf.

Everyone in the SWT has such wonderfully fluffy hair.

I like Sokka’s boots. Southern Water Tribe boots in general.

If this is the grand total of the SWT, I have some bad news about population dynamics.

Is there a proper naval term for what the SWT are doing? They’re a stealth strike force that seems to be going after individual enemy ships, using both direct and indirect tactics. Not pirates, because as far as we know they aren't going for FN supplies. They're doing what submarines do, but above water. There’s got to be a proper name for that.

Is there a raft of FN corpses chilling in the waters in front of the NWT's big wall?

I saw ATLA described as a show where all the characters are Asian-inspired people of colour, but isn’t Suki a blue-eyed redhead?

I had no idea that you could decline an Agni Kai. Zuko should have done that.

Why are the Dai Li so in love with Azula? I get that they're pissed with Long Feng for getting arrested, but wouldn't the logical choice be to direct their loyalties to the Earth King rather than a wildcard princess? I'm not going to pretend for a minute that the Dai Li are loyal to the Earth Kingdom or to Ba Sing Se, but the Earth King is a known quantity. Seems to me that it would be easier for them to re-puppetify him, rather than a FN princess.

Katara & Zuko bonding over their missing mothers is the same “makes sense until you think about it for five seconds” as Song & Zuko bonding over losing their fathers to war. Technically the same, sort of, on paper, but actually kind of rude to equate them once you know the full story. Same with the parallel between Lu Ten and the older brother in Zuko Alone. The proper dead mom parallel is Katara and Jet. Although Katara doesn’t object to the Zuko comparison, so I have no grounds to do so.

I’m really glad that Katara didn’t remove Zuko’s scar with her spirit oasis water. Both because she kind of really needed that water, but also because one thing this show has always done right is permanence. No quick fixes, no fake outs, no take backs. Lu Ten is dead, and he stays that way. Princess Yue is the moon, and she stays that way. Half a dozen people’s moms are dead, and they stay that way. Aang is the last Airbender, and he stays that way. Zuko is scarred, and he stays that way. There are no hand waves, no easy fixes. All the characters can do is learn to live with it, and go forward. And I’m grateful the show is like that, because that permanence, as well as being a good lesson to learn, functions as a reward for audience investment.

Aang did come to a crossroads of destiny in the finale, chose his duties to the world over his friends, and got aggressively slapped down for it. I have a feeling that he’ll take the wrong lesson from that, since he was already inclined to shun that path.

Overall Season 1 was prettier.

Ty Lee was the cause of more than one Beat Up Sokka Quota fulfillment this season. Make of that what you will.

Will Zuko & Azula spend season 3 bouncing between the FN and Ba Sing Se? They could be heavily involved with establishing the FN governance over Ba Sing Se, since the city is already inclined towards royalty.

Favourite episode this season? The Guru. The Blind Bandit and The Swamp are tied for second place.

[e-dubbc11]

One More Sleep

Photos are not mine except bottom center, that is me with real life Ginger. All others are courtesy of Pinterest/Google.

Pairing: Billy Russo x F! Reader

Warnings: None really…little angst if you squint, maybe a swear word or two but mostly pure Christmas fluff, all the bunnies and all the unicorns. Alludes to smexy time.

Word Count: 5.7K-ish

Summary: Part of the Gingerverse. You and Billy were married in January and are excited to spend your first Christmas together as a married couple but he takes a job out of town close to Christmas and he may not be back in time to celebrate with you or attend your work ugly sweater Christmas party.

A/N: Title is a song by Leona Lewis off of her album, Christmas with Love. Real life Ginger did pick her Christmas karaoke song and another one that I put together in a Christmas karaoke playlist that I’ll link at the end. Frank and Reader have more interaction with each other in this one. It’s pure fun with a little bit of conflict. I hope you like it and enjoy your holiday season!🎄

As always, thank you for reading!  I appreciate it so much and comments, reblogs are welcome and encouraged. Don’t be shy to tell me your favorite part. 💕💕 💕

“Why can’t someone else go, Billy?” You asked with an elevated tone.

His open garment bag was on the bed, a few crisp suits and ties rested on top as he packed his toiletry bag. You weren’t the only one who was having a hard time with the fact that Billy had a job out of town so close to Christmas, he was too.

He hated disappointing you which is why he was trying very hard not to look at you.

Your arms were folded protectively across your chest as you leaned against the bathroom door frame while he angrily threw things into his bag.

“You think I wanna be away from you, baby?! It was either me or Frankie and I’d rather not take him away from his family this time of year. He was away from them enough when we were deployed.” He said.

His voice was low and angry. You knew he didn’t want to leave you but he had no choice, it was a big opportunity for the company and the team to travel to D.C. for a job. He just didn’t know exactly how long it was going to take.

This was supposed to be your first Christmas together since you got married back in January so when he told you about this job, you were very happy for him and the company but also sad that he might not be home for Christmas.

“I know, Billy. I just wanted to spend my first Christmas as a married woman with my husband.” You said, relaxing your shoulders and dropping your arms away from your chest.

Billy looked up from the bathroom counter and into the mirror to look at your reflection. He smiled that perfect smile at you, the one he always gave you when he didn’t want you to be mad at him anymore.

It was hard to stay mad at him when he flashed that smile at you but you weren’t really mad, just a little sad and disappointed.

He turned around and held his arms outstretched, he wanted to hold you.

“Come here, sweet girl.” He said softly.

Billy pulled you into his chest and kissed the top of your head. You snaked your arms around his torso and you could hear his heart beating against your ear. The tension in your shoulders eased as you closed your eyes and felt the warmth radiating off of his body; he always managed to make you feel better.

“Well, if I’m not home in time, that just means you get to spend Christmas Day with Ginger.” He said. “So it’s not all bad but I will try my hardest to get home in time.”

You could feel him smile against the top of your head.

“No, it’s not all bad. But if you’re not back in time, you’re gonna miss my ugly Christmas sweater party at work too.” You said in a disappointed tone.

Billy tilted your chin up so you were looking into his rich brown eyes, they looked like two endless pools of black ink and you never failed to get lost in them. He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to yours. You could taste the fresh peppermint on his lips as you delicately scraped your nails against his scalp.

“I know, I’m so sorry my love. But I put Frankie in charge of that job, your company wanted security for it, I guess in past years you guys have had some party crashers?” He asked.

This was the first you were hearing about your company hiring Anvil for security at your party so it caught you off guard.

“Oh! Yeah we’ve had some crashers in the past. So wait, Frank will be at the party? Oh, Ginger is gonna torture him. Did you tell him there’s usually karaoke?” You asked.

Billy gave you a devilish smile.

“No, but here’s the best part…I told him he had to wear an ugly Christmas sweater because that’s what your company wanted but that was a lie. He’ll be the only one from the team wearing one. He’s gonna kill me but it’s gonna be really funny.” He said with a wide smile and raised eyebrows.

“Billy Russo!! That is SO mean!” You exclaimed, trying to hold in your laughter.

He kissed you again.

“I know, but hey that’s what we do…we prank each other. This is a good one though! And don’t you dare say anything.” He said, pointing his long slender finger at you while you were biting down on your lower lip.

God, you loved him so much.

“I promise I won’t say anything.” You said.

“I love you, sweet girl.” He whispered in your ear.

You smiled affectionately at him and replied. “I love you too, handsome. Ooh I can’t wait to tell Ginger!”

You turned and ran out of your bedroom toward the kitchen when Billy called after you.

“Hey, what did I say?!”

You yelled back from the kitchen. “Oh she’s not gonna say anything, Billy! Trust me, she’s gonna want that to happen more than anyone!”

He just shook his head and smiled.

God, he loved you.

**********

“Wait…so I need to make sure I heard you correctly. Frank thinks he has to wear an ugly Christmas sweater to the party because that’s what work wants him to do? So he ‘blends in?’” Said Ginger, typing away on her keyboard.

You turned your head to answer her. “Correct.”

A wide Cheshire cat smile stretched across her face.

“Aaaaaand Billy told the rest of the team to dress in their normal work clothes and not to tell Frank about it?” She asked.

You nodded. “Yes.”

“Oh my god, this is gonna be the best party ever! He also has no idea we have karaoke at this thing, does he?!” She asked, full of excitement.

“Nope!” You replied.

“He’s gonna be PISSED!!” Ginger said, clapping her hands together. “I gotta figure out which Christmas songs to sing!”

The wide smile slowly disappeared from your face. You were excited for the party and had the perfect ugly Christmas sweater but remembering that Billy may not make it back in time for the party OR for Christmas was a little upsetting. You tried to smile anyway but Ginger could see right through it.

“Billy may not make it back in time, huh?” She asked.

Shaking your head vigorously back and forth, you answered, “He said he’s not sure how long this job was going to take. Was I wrong to be upset with him for going out of town so close to Christmas?”

“You have a right to be upset, all you wanted was to spend Christmas with your husband and now you might not be able to…anyone would be disappointed.” She said.

You nodded.

“But hey, even if he doesn’t make it back, I’m gonna make sure we have a fun Christmas. Ok?” She said with a warm smile. “I’m gonna get champagne, breakfast food, oh and we’re soooooo sleeping at your place because…penthouse! Make sure my room is ready!”

Life was certainly better with friends like Ginger and you were probably just as excited as she was to see the look on Frank’s face when he realizes that he didn’t have to wear the sweater and Billy pranked him.

Even though it would be difficult, you were going to try and enjoy the rest of the holiday season.

**********

You tried to keep as busy as possible.

There were days where you went shopping with Ginger, or had dinner with the Castle family because Frank and Maria didn’t want you to be inside the penthouse all alone.

Before he left for his trip, Billy had put your Christmas tree up. You loved that the penthouse had high ceilings so you could pick out a very large tree but a real one didn’t fit in the elevator so you settled for a very real looking artificial tree. Nothing was more important to Billy than to see a smile on your face or make you laugh and he knew that setting the tree up would make you happy.

So most nights you would sit in the dark with only the tree lights on, drinking your tea, and looking at all of the ornaments. The soft warm glow of the white lights illuminated the ornaments in front of them nicely.

Your parents let you take the ones from your childhood that used to be on their tree, then there were the ornaments Billy had given you, and the ones that the Castle children had made for you that had their pictures on the inside. It really warmed your heart that they called you “Auntie.”

The busy streets below shined brightly with festive white lights placed in trees and buildings all around the city. There wasn’t anything quite like New York City at Christmas time.

Looking out at the moon, you wondered if Billy was doing the same. It loomed large encased in an ethereal glow while the bitter winter wind howled past the window. You suddenly felt cold; you missed him terribly and wanted him home but there wasn’t anything you could do about it except wait.

Billy had already been gone for a week, Christmas was four days away, and he still didn’t know when he would be coming home. A tear streaked down your cheek remembering the phone call with him earlier. That one did not end well.

“Wait, so you might miss New Year’s too?!” You had said, sternly.

Touching the palm of your hand to your forehead, you had closed your eyes, trying very hard not to get upset with him but the stress had been too much.

It was a little lonely working all day and then coming home to an empty apartment, listening to Christmas music and looking at the tree alone, baking cookies without him sneaking one when you weren’t looking, or taking a sip of your hot chocolate before giving it to you to make sure it wasn’t “too hot.”

“Hey, I’m not doing this on purpose, alright?! You know I hate being away from you but this is my job, sweet girl. You know this! You know who you married, I’m not always a 9-5!” He had yelled.

He was right. It wasn’t his fault; you knew who you married and it was good business for him but before you could apologize, he had ended the call. Billy was the closest person to you: It was just easy to take it out on him and he didn’t deserve that.

You tried to call him back but it went to his voicemail.

“I’m so sorry, Billy. I know some things can’t be helped and it’s not your fault. It’s good for your business and I’m happy you’re doing so well. I just miss you…I love you, baby.”

Billy shuts down when he gets angry and still doesn’t quite know how to navigate his anger so he keeps it all inside, and then it comes out sometimes in explosive ways.

You had a feeling you may not hear from him for a couple of days.

**********

“So he just hung up on you?” Asked Ginger.

You needed to have an after work drink and vent the next day.

“I shouldn’t have snapped at him, Ginger.” You replied.

“And you haven’t heard from him today?” She asked.

You shook your head.

“No…and I doubt that I will. I tried to call and apologize but he didn’t answer.” You said, taking a sip of beer.

“Well hey, our party is tomorrow, Christmas is in three days, and I know he’s not here with you but we’re gonna have fun alright?” Said Ginger. “Plus we get to bust Frank’s balls about the sweater. Maria said it’s a good one but she wants it to be a surprise.”

She started to laugh which brought a smile to your face and made you laugh too.

The two of you clinked your glasses of beer together.

“Thank you for making today better, Ginger.”

“You are very welcome!” She replied.

**********

December 23

It was your last day of work for the year. The company always shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, not completely but most of the employees have a bit of a break which is really nice but again, you didn’t want to spend it alone.

That was another reason you got upset with Billy; you have a week off from work coming up and before he went away, he told you maybe he would take a couple of days off with you but now that was also in jeopardy.

On your way out of the building, you could see the silvery gray clouds overhead and the air was dry yet it had a fresh scent to it. It smelled like snow. The scent brought you back to your wedding day when Billy smelled the snow coming…and he wasn’t wrong. The weekend he proposed to you, you told him it smelled like it was going to snow.

Until you told him, he had no idea incoming snow had a scent. You weren’t even sure that it did but it always smelled the same to you and your nose was never wrong. And now you were on your way home, about to get ready for your Christmas party but you couldn’t get Billy off of your mind.

You missed him.

It was difficult to concentrate on getting ready when all you could think of was Billy but luckily Ginger came over and distracted you as you were getting ready.

The two of you had matching ugly sweaters so you obviously had to show up to the party at the same time. The sweaters were red and green, wrapped in silver garland with red and green Christmas bulb ornaments on the front and back.

“These are gonna be such a hit!” She said, excitedly. “They are so loud but so fun!”

“The only thing that would make them better is if they lit up.” You said with a smile.

“Well, we’ll look for something like that next year, let’s go!” Said Ginger.

She pulled you out the door by your coat and the two of you headed for the elevator. On your way down to the ground floor, she reassured you it was going to be a great night, you were going to have fun, and maybe get your mind off of Billy even if it’s just for a little while.

You really hoped she was right.

When you arrived at the party, it looked like the company really outdid themselves this year with everything…the food, the decorations, and of course, the security.

Frank was hard to miss in his sweater…it was gray with snowflakes all over it and it had the body of an elf on it so Frank’s head was also the elf’s head.

You tried your best but you and Ginger could hardly contain your laughter.

“That’s uh, a nice sweater Frank.” You said, trying to control yourself.

Ginger was practically in tears, she was laughing so hard.

“Maria was right, that is a good one!” She cackled.

Frank folded his arms across his chest, trying to cover up the body of the elf but it didn’t help. The more uncomfortable he looked, the funnier it was.

“I’m gonna wring your husband’s neck when he gets back, you know that don’t ya?!” He bellowed. “I’m the only one dressed like this!”

Another member of the security team saw Frank in his sweater.

“Lookin’ good, Castle.”

“Yeah? You think this is funny, Wilcox? Keep walkin’ and go do your job!” Said Frank.

“We’ll be back later, Frank! Hope you’re ready for karaoke later!” Ginger said, walking away.

Frank stopped you while Ginger walked away to go mingle.

“Your husband’s a dead man, kid. Tell him right now, I’ll wait.” Frank said.

The smile disappeared from your face. “Yeah, he’s not too happy with me right now, Frank. I, uh, got angry with him when he said that in addition to maybe not being here for Christmas, he may not make it home in time for New Year’s either.” You said in a low voice.

The tears that welled up in your eyes was instant, almost like it was a reflex. You hated fighting with Billy but you were under added stress with the holiday’s coming, family obligations, parties, etc.

You explained to Frank that it was just a busy time of year and everyone had slowly been chipping away at your patience level and you took it out on Billy when he didn’t deserve it. You just wanted to spend Christmas with your new husband.

Frank put a hand on your shoulder and squeezed.

“I know what it’s like to not be with your family during the holidays, kid. I couldn’t thank Bill enough for letting me stay behind so I could spend this time with Maria and the kids. But I know that he hates that he’s had to spend this time away from you. He told me the other day when I talked to him. You are his family.” He said.

The side of your mouth curled up into a half smile as you gently brushed the tear away from your cheek. Billy Russo was your husband, the love of your life, and the person that made you happier than you ever thought you could be.

But no matter how many times you reassured him of your love for him, sometimes he was still scared that if he didn’t do everything perfectly, that you might end up leaving like his mother had done or anyone else that he had cared for.

Billy was strong; he was a survivor and had already gone through so much heartache that you tried your very best to make sure he knew he was loved and that you weren’t going to abandon him…ever. You showed him that he didn’t have to try so hard to be the perfect husband, the perfect lover, or the perfect friend because nobody was perfect.

You certainly weren’t. But you were perfect to Billy because you loved him more than anyone ever has. He finally had what he had always wanted which is why he tried so hard to not disappoint you and shutting down was easier than trying to say how he felt.

It was something that was always a work in progress with him; he needed to hear those words…”I’m not going anywhere, Billy. You can tell me, it’s ok. You are good enough.”

But sometimes, you would need that reminder too. You needed to remember that he needed that extra coaxing and encouragement so you could continue to help him put back together the pieces of that fragmented little boy inside that he desperately wanted to fix. And he worked very hard at that…for you.

“I love him so much, Frank.” You said with a hitch in your voice.

Frank smirked. “He loves you too, kid. It’ll be alright…you’ll see.”

“Is Frankie the elf gonna go tell Santa what I want for Christmas?” You started to laugh.

He couldn’t help himself; he started to laugh too.

“Ya know, we were having a nice moment and you had to remind me that I’m wearing this ridiculous sweater!” The gruff tone to his voice sounded even more intense but he was still smiling. “Alright, get outta here, go have fun and lemme do my job, yeah?”

“Thank you, Frank.” You said with a playful smile.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart…Bill’s still a dead man though.” He asserted. “Ginger was kidding about the karaoke, right?”

A sly smile stretched across your lips as you walked away.

“RIGHT?!!!” Frank called out after you.

“See ya later, Frank!” You answered back and waved.

Now you were ready to have a little fun.

**********

The lights dimmed a little lower after dinner, the bar was open, and it was almost time for karaoke. Frank looked more and more uncomfortable by the minute. Not only was he in a silly Christmas sweater, he was going to be subjected to Ginger’s singing until the party was over. She tended to hog the microphone at parties like this but no one minded because she was so entertaining.

If you asked Frank though, he would most definitely disagree which made her performances even more entertaining to see the grumpy look on his face. He couldn’t even leave the room because he had a job to do.

He held it together for the most part but the song that had him wanting to fling himself out into traffic was Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses. What’s not fun about watching Frank squirm while Ginger entertains the room? It definitely had you in stitches.

Bah, humbug!" No, that's too strong

'Cause it is my favorite holiday

But all this year's been a busy blur

Don't think I have the energy

To add to my already mad rush

Just 'cause it's 'tis the season.

The perfect gift for me would be

Completions and connections

left from Last year, ski shop,

Encounter, most interesting.

Had his number but never the time

Most of '81 passed along those lines.

So deck those halls, trim those trees

Raise up cups of Christmas cheer,

I just need to catch my breath,

Christmas by myself this year.

Ginger did her best to get everyone in the room to sing along too. “Come on everyone! Help me out here! Frank loves this song!”

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

But I think I'll miss this one this year

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

But I think I'll miss this one this year

Mingling around the room, you conversed with co-workers, had a couple of drinks, and then decided it was time for you to do a couple of songs.

Billy was usually your focal point, staring intently at you with his infectious smile that lit up any room. The way he looked at you showed everyone how much he was in love with you and that you were the only woman in the world for him.

The duet you and Ginger did of Baby It’s Cold Outside was a HUGE hit. The two of you were in matching sweaters, so of course you had to do a duet of some sort and you had a blast doing it. Frank did seem to enjoy that performance from the sly smirk you noticed across his mouth.

When Ginger walked away and left you by yourself with the microphone, you were nervous so you felt the need to explain the reason why you chose the next song. You gave them all the short version.

“My husband is out of town at the moment and I really miss him. So I keep hoping that it’s only one more sleep until I get to see him again.” You said softly into the microphone.

Snow is falling all around us

My baby's coming home for Christmas

I've been up all night inside my bedroom

He said that he'll be with me real soon

You weren’t quite the entertainer that Ginger was but your performance wasn’t bad.

So I wait

And I wait

But I've had as much as I can take

'Cause I've got 5 more

nights of sleeping on my own

4 more days until you're coming home

3 more dreams of you and mistletoe

2 more reasons why I love you so

I've got 5 more nights

until you're next to me

4 more days of being lonely

3 more wishes I can barely breathe

If I can make it to

Christmas Eve then it's

One more sleep

(one more sleep until it's Christmas)

One more sleep

(Can't believe how much I missed us)

One more sleep

(One more sleep until it's Christmas)

One more sleep

When you looked off to the side, you noticed Frank talking on the phone. His eyes kept shifting from the entrances to the room then to you and back to the entrances. You assumed he was just doing his job but you did wonder who he was talking to.

Now I don't think I can remember

A cold and lonelier December

And I find myself staring at the window

Wondering when you're

gonna get back home

It had been a little lonely the past couple of weeks but you had great friends that were there to make sure you were ok and didn’t have to spend the season alone.

So I try

And I try

But there is nothing I

can do to pass this time

I've got 5 more nights

of sleeping on my own

4 more days until you're coming home

3 more dreams of you and mistletoe

2 more reasons why I love you so

I've got 5 more nights

until you're next to me

4 more days of being lonely

3 more wishes I can barely breathe

If I can make it to

Christmas Eve then it's

One more sleep

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed movement over where Frank was standing. A tall slender silhouette glided into the room, the man’s back facing you as Frank talked with him.

Frank was all smiles when he embraced the other man, also in an ugly sweater; they were both laughing and pointing at the other’s sweater; he squeezed his shoulder and glanced over at you as the other man turned around to look at you.

Until we're rocking

around the Christmas tree

Until I got you sitting next to me

We got a lot of catching up to do

I just can't take this missing you

Even with the lights down low, you knew that smile anywhere.

As Billy came closer, you could see his sweater better. It was black and white with red along the collar, the cuffs and the hem. Pictures of reindeer, Christmas trees, snowflakes and candy canes were splashed all over it. The sweater was hideous.

5 more nights on my own

4 more days

3 more dreams

Mistletoe

I can't believe I ever let you go

5 more nights of sleeping on my own

4 more days until you're coming home

3 more wishes I can barely breathe

If I can make it to Christmas

Eve then it's one more sleep

It'll be one more

It'll be one more

(One more sleep)

It'll be one more

(One more sleep)

One more sleep

You weren’t even sure the microphone was back on its stand before you took off running. Before you could jump into his arms, he held his hand out to stop you.

“Whoa, wait one second sweet girl!” He said with a welcoming smile.

Confused, you stopped just short of crashing into him when he reached into his sleeve and pressed something. Lights all over his sweater started to twinkle and he extended both of his arms, welcoming you into an embrace.

“Merry Christmas, beautiful.” Said Billy, pulling you into his chest.

He squeezed you tightly and you, in turn, squeezed back. His body was a warm cradle for yours as you rested your ear against his chest. “Merry Christmas, handsome.”

Cupping your cheeks, his liquid brown eyes flicked from your eyes to your mouth as he leaned in to kiss you. His long slender fingers traced down the hollow of your throat and the bristles of his beard raked against your soft cheeks.

“Are you surprised?” He asked.

“I think you know the answer to that, baby.” You lightly touched your lips with your fingertips, trying to place the sweet taste to Billy’s lips. “Is that chocolate, I taste?” You asked him.

Billy chuckled. “Well when I stopped home to change into my sweater, I found the cookies you made.” He said.

“You sniffed out those chocolate chip cookies inside the sealed Tupperware?!” You asked.

He winked at you. “I found the peanut butter ones too. You’ve been busy! They’re delicious.”

“You are such a sugar junkie, my love.” You said with a playful smile.

The smile on your face quickly disappeared in favor of a slight frown while you tried to apologize to him.

“It’s alright, sweet girl. You already apologized…I’m—I’m sorry too. What I’m NOT sorry about is having Frankie wear this sweater! That is a good one.” He laughed.

Frank pressed his lips together in a straight line, a look of embarrassment washed over his face along with playful hate for Billy.

“The only reason I don’t give you a black eye right now is because y/n is so happy you made it home.” Frank growled. “Oh no, Ginger has the microphone again. What time is this party over anyway?! I can only take so much, kid.” He said.

You glanced at your watch. “Thirty more minutes, Frank. And are you saying you DON’T wanna do this again next year? Ginger will be disappointed if you don’t.” You giggled.

Billy couldn’t take his eyes away from you. His stare was incessant and made the hair on the back of your neck stand up but in a good way. He drew your hand up to his lips and planted a soft kiss along your knuckles sending delightful sparks down your spine.

“I’ll gladly go out of town for a job so I don’t have to do this again next year!” Said Frank. “But I like seeing you smile, sweetheart. And as much as I wanna slap that smirk off of his face, I like seeing this guy smile too.” He said, pointing at Billy.

“Come with me, beautiful. I wanna show you something.” Billy said into your ear.

Clinging to him tightly, you didn’t want to let him go but you let him lead you out of the room. His fingers laced with yours, you had to take two steps at a time to keep up with his long strides.

Frank called out after the two of you. “HEY!! Where do you two think you’re goin’?!! Don’t leave me here alone listening to this!!”

You and Billy left the room while Frank was forced to listen to Ginger do her best Mariah Carey impression.

Oh, I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know

Make my wish come true

Oh, baby, all I want for Christmas is youuuuuuuuu!!!

“Where are we going, Billy?” You asked.

He turned to look at you over his shoulder. “Just outside.”

As you got closer to the door, you could see the sidewalk was covered by a light dusting of snow, the street lamps illuminated the snow as it gently fell from the sky, and the cold winter air stung your lungs as he ushered you outside.

The snowflakes were so big, they almost didn’t look real and the surrounding city sounds were muted as a subtle smile stretched across your lips.

“I knew it…I could smell it on my walk home today. Is this my Christmas gift, handsome? You brought home snow!” You exclaimed, your hand tightening firmly around his.

Billy shook his head, clusters of snowflakes gathered in his rich brown hair and his eyes locked on yours. The feeling of butterflies in your stomach gradually intensified as he continued to gaze at you, not noticing people on either side of you passing by.

“I wish I could take credit for this, baby but have you noticed that it we’ve had snow during some of our biggest relationship milestones?” He asked, pulling you in close again.

He noticed too.

“When we got engaged…the day we got married…and now our first married ‘almost’ Christmas.” You replied with a warm smile. “I thought about that earlier today, actually.”

It was cold but with Billy’s arms wrapped around you, the cold didn’t seem to bother you. You could only imagine what you look like to the people walking around outside, holding each other in the snow with your ugly Christmas sweaters on with Billy’s actually flashing different colors but it was nothing less than perfect.

“It’s been ok the past year, hasn’t it?” He asked with concern in his voice.

You pulled away to look at him. “What do you mean, Billy?”

“Our marriage…I know we fight sometimes but I—“ He said before you cut him off.

Billy Russo wasn’t scared of anything. He had been to war, survived childhood trauma, and found the one thing he thought he’d never have…love. Not only did he fall in love, that person in turn, loved him back.

“Of course we fight, Billy! I’d be worried if we didn’t! How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t need to be perfect?” You asked him.

His lips curled into a shy smile. “At least one more time, sweet girl.”

“Billy Russo, I will always fight for you and I will never give up on you as long as you try…as long as we both try. I don’t need you to be perfect. All I want and all I need is you.” You said, trying not to let your tears fall but failing miserably. “I love you.”

You felt his warm breath against your eyelashes before he leaned in to kiss you, the scent of his cologne on his sweater was faint but still there, and his cold fingers wrapped around your neck like a necklace.

You drew in a sharp breath as his mouth slanted over yours, parting your lips with his tongue, kissing you desperately, and telling you over and over again how much he loved you.

“I love you too, baby.” He said softly. “You ready to go back inside?”

“Y-y-yes.” You replied, your teeth chattering slightly.

“We’re taking Ginger home with us, I’m assuming?” Asked Billy.

“Her room is ready and waiting.” You said. “She’ll be with us for Christmas too.”

A devilish smile extended across Billy’s mouth, a smile that you knew all too well, and with that smile, you knew you were in trouble as soon as you got home.

“I hope she packed noise cancelling headphones because, Mrs. Russo, your sweater is really doin’ it for me.” He purred in your ear.

You could feel yourself blushing as you replied.

“Oh…you’re not joking, are you.”

He had a feral look in his eyes when he slowly shook his head back and forth. You wanted him just as badly as you whispered back,

“Well…let’s go home then, Mr. Russo. You can probably get a better look at it if I JUST wear the sweater.”

Tag List: @wheresthesunshinesblog @rafaelakelley @idaoftheburningmind @snowkestrel @fakehappy27 @music-indie-tv @fictional-hooman @kayhi808 @munsonownsmyass @gijos @celestialams @k-marzolf @nutmeg17 @rosaleenablack @vaguekayla @qu1etwolf @danzer8705 @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes

Others that might enjoy: @itwasthereaminuteago @fluffyprettykitty @jvanilly @imagine-a-fictional-boyfriend

If you’d like to be added (or removed from) my tag list(s) for the ever so handsome Billy Russo, just let me know and thank you again for reading! 💕💕💕 If I tagged you but you didn’t want to be, just let me know and I’ll never do it again.

[nhasablogg]

I once read a fic that was about Spencer accidentally handcuffing himself to his bed cause he was practicing escaping them and Derek found him and basically nsfw things went down BUT what if you replaced the nsfw activities with tickles 👀👀👀

Spencer wouldn’t necessarily call himself someone who was prone to luck, other than the fact that he was born as a white male in the 20th-21st century, and really, he was one among many. Sometimes he even considered this a misfortune seeing as certain things were now expected of him which he very rarely managed to fulfill. He was skinny and fidgety and intelligent in a way which had always made him an outcast in certain areas of his life. And with outcast he meant severely bullied as a child and not always warmly received as an adult. And it was fine. He didn’t care. Who was he to wish for a community anyway.

He was around nine - no dad, mom acting in a way he yet couldn’t comprehend - when he decided that luck was not on his side and that he would have to fight for everything in his life other than a splash of white male rights, and so he had never really considered himself very lucky.

Until Derek Morgan entered his bedroom one random Friday evening without having been invited, that was.

“What the hell?”

“I would say the same thing - because how the hell did you even get in here - but I have frankly never been happier to see you in my life.”

“Reid, what- is it an UnSub? Wait, we’re not even working a case.”

“It’s not an UnSub.”

Something flickered across Derek’s face. “Is it a lady?” His wagging eyebrows were enough to have Spencer flushing, until he added “or a gentleman, I don’t judge,” which really had him wishing the ground would swallow him whole.

“It’s not. Shut up.”

“Are you really in a position to be rude to me here, pretty boy?”

Derek was, of course, right. Spencer shifted, grateful that he was at the very least sitting on the bed rather than the floor which had been his first choice before he’d changed his mind about forty minutes ago. “Sorry, sorry, just- get me out of here, please.”

Derek hummed as he approached him. “Well, you did say please. But I gotta know how this even happened first. You owe me that much.”

“I think you owe me an explanation as to why you’re barging into my apartment.”

“I think I barged in just at the right time, didn’t I?”

Spencer relented. “I was trying to practice my escape skills.”

“Ah. And then you couldn’t escape.”

“Something like that.”

“What was your plan for this exact scenario then?”

“I have brunch plans tomorrow with Garcia and she would eventually realize something was up and find me. Or the cops would. I don’t know.” He pulled at his trapped arms, grateful that the handcuffs at the very least weren’t messing up his blood circulation. They were merely tight enough to stop him from slipping out, cuffed to his sides in a way that didn’t hurt. He’d decided he wanted to start slow, not realizing he wouldn’t get any further than this.

“That would be like 15 hours from now.”

Derek was blinking incredulously at him. It was embarrassing. Maybe being found by Garcia in 15 hours would’ve been better.

He averted his gaze. “I know. I just- I guess I wanted to prove myself.”

Derek sat down on the mattress next to him. “To the team?”

“And myself.”

He sighed. “We’ll have a proper talk about this eventually. I guess I should get you out first. Where’s the key?”

“Uh.”

“Spencer.”

“I’m not sure?”

Derek moved his gaze to the ceiling. “Of course you’re not. Why would this rescue mission be easy.”

“I thought I’d get out without it, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, well, clearly you overestimated yourself.” Spencer caught the moment Derek regretted his words, but he couldn’t blame him. Spencer had been doing too many stupid things recently in an attempt to prove himself. A bad decision during a case and a scolding later, he’d started doubting his abilities as an agent in the field. Hotch had told him he could stay behind the scenes if he preferred, but that his analytical skills were useful in the place of action too. And so Spencer had tried to improve.

Clearly it wasn’t working.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No, no, I get what you mean.” He leaned his head back. “Just get me out of here.”

“How exactly am I supposed to do that without a key?”

“You’re an FBI agent, aren’t you?”

“Ha ha smartass.” He poked Spencer’s side, most likely out of habit, but Spencer, who couldn’t move away from it properly, tried to jerk back which merely resulted in him slamming himself against the headboard. “Jesus, sorry, sorry.” But Derek was laughing and Spencer was too, maybe out of nervousness, maybe because this whole situation was ridiculous.

“It’s okay,” he said, suddenly blushing for the second time since Derek walked in on him. “I wasn’t prepared.”

“Downplaying your ticklishness, I see.” He leaned closer, grinning. “I have you right where I want you, you know. I could even tickle your neck since you never let me do it without freaking out.”

Spencer could feel the ghost tickles beneath his chin, which wasn’t helped by the fact that his collar was touching his neck already. “You wouldn’t.”

“Are you so sure about that?” He wiggled his fingers in the air. “It would be soooo easy. You wouldn’t be able to stop me.”

Spencer started giggling, which was probably the most embarrassing thing he’d done during this whole interaction. “Derek.”

“There we go. There’s that smile.” He leaned back again with a laugh. “I won’t do it, but it’s fun teasing you.”

“You’re an asshole.” Spencer turned his head away from him in an attempt to compose himself, and as he did - surprised squeak, sigh of relief - he caught sight of the key on the floor in front of his closet.

“Hey,” he said later, when he’d been freed and fed and, yes, somewhat tickled to death. “Why did you come here?”

Derek put down his burger. “I was bored. You weren’t answering your phone. Was gonna bug you to entertain me.”

Spencer let out a laugh. “Well, did I?”

“Oh, very much so.”

[sunshine-overload]

[BSTS] Hinata Prestorm Reward 4* Card Story

chapter 1 -starless costume storeroom-

aogiri: Alright, there are no problems with Team W’s outfits, all the parts are here too.

hinata: After checking them we place them in the cardboard boxes and leave them in this storeroom. Man~ Stage outfits really are so cool… I want to have one of my own already~

aogiri: Team P and B’s outfits should be arriving here soon.

qu: Good work you two. Is this where you’re checking the costumes? Team B’s arrived so I’ve brought it over.

hinata: Oh my god, B’s costumes! They’re finally here!

menou: I’ve got Team P’s here, this box is pretty heavy.

aogiri: Thank you, will you be leaving them here?

menou: I forgot we even had a room like this.

qu: Probably because not many people come in here normally. By the way, are you two the new recruits I’ve been hearing about?

hinata: Yep! I’m Hinata.

aogiri: My name’s Aogiri.

qu: Aogiri… Ohh, so it’s you. I’ve heard all about you already. I’m Qu, I apologise for how demanding our team’s leader has been of you.

aogiri: No it’s alright. Rather, I think it’s a great opportunity.

qu: Quite the positive one aren’t you. I think you’ll get along well with Hari.

menou: Hmm~? So this are what our outfits look like this time.

aogiri: They’re nice designs once again aren’t they. The way Starless’ outfits are easy to move in yet don’t sacrifice any of the style is wonderful. Getting to actually feel the outfits like this is good research, I’d like to incorporate these sorts of design choices as much as I can.

qu: If you work here as both a cast member and a designer you’ll get to test what the outfits feel like first hand.

aogiri: I’d like to properly reflect everyone’s opinions in the designs, so if there’s anything you’d like in particular don’t hesitate to ask me.

menou: Is that so? I think costumes that don’t get all wrinkled when you sleep in them would be good.

aogiri: When you sleep in them…?

menou: I get yelled at because of it all the time.

qu: That’s because costumes aren’t built for getting slept in on the floor before the show starts.

hinata: Hey hey! Can I open B’s box?

aogiri: Sure, go ahead.

hinata: Woaahh, I can’t even, these are so amazing…! Who are the goggles for? They’re super cool!

aogiri: Whilst maintaing the sense of unity in the outfits, these small accessories have been added to give a sense of ‘Team B’. I see, this is a good reference.

hinata: How nice… They’ll all get to go on stage wearing these… Hey Aogiri, could you make me a costume design that suits B too?

aogiri: Sure, come back to me when it’s decided you’ll be getting on stage. Let’s get back to work for now.

-

chapter 2 -starless hallway-

hinata: Hey hey, Miss! Are you free right now?

saki: Is something the matter, Hinata-san?

hinata: I want to show you something cool! Come on come on.

-costume storeroom-

hinata: Look look! These are Team B’s new costumes!

saki: By new do you mean they’ll be used for the fourth anniversary performance?

hinata: Yeah exactly. This is Mizuki’s, here’s Lico’s. Ran’s and Kongou’s… You can easily tell which is which can’t you~? My favourite is Heath’s though! What do you think? Cool isn’t it?

saki: Yes, it’s very pretty. Is it ok for them to be out of the bags like this though?

hinata: I took them out just now. Cause I mean, you can see them better this way right?

saki: You can’t be doing that. We should get them packed back up right away.

kasumi: She’s right~

saki: Woah!

hinata: Uwah!?

kasumi: Ah, sorry. I tried to enter the room normally but I guess my presence still wasn’t very pronounced.

saki: T-that was quite the shock, Kasumi-san…

kasumi: You shouldn’t be taking the stage outfits out on a whim. What are you going to do if they end up getting lost or dirtied?

hinata: Got it, sorry.

kasumi: Saki-san, we’ll be opening up the store soon, I’ll escort you to your seat.

saki: Yes, thank you.

kasumi: Ok, make sure you put those outfits right back where you found them now~

-kasumi and saki leave-

hinata: Whoops, I got scolded. But… these costumes really are just so cool. Heath’s especially! Ahh… It really is the best… One day, I too will…

-cg

aogiri: Hinata, what are you doing?

hinata: Wah! How long have you been watching for?

aogiri: Just now, I saw that the light was on so wondered if anyone was in here. That outfit you’ve got…

hinata: I know I know, I’m putting it away. What will I do if it gets lost or dirty, right? It’s one of B’s precious outfits, I wouldn’t let that happen.

aogiri: …….

aogiri: No, it’s not that. I’ll help you tidy up.

hinata: Hmm… You really are a nice guy after all, Aogiri.

aogiri: I’m not sure why you had to attach ‘after all’, but thank you.

—end

[good-wine-and-cheese]

Tiger & Bunny 2 thoughts

Just some overall thoughts I’ve been ruminating on about the second series. Spoilers under the cut, naturally! She’s a long one, sorry lol

I’m going to start by saying that I enjoyed it. Like, it was still a fun show to watch for sure, and one I’d pick over a lot of others out there. In general I don’t think it’s quite as good as the first series, but it had a lot to like about it!

What comes to mind is the way it handled serious topics. I know even in S1 there were serious topics that were weighty and treated with dignity, but S2 handled the conversations about them quite a lot better, I feel. The talk between Kotetsu and Kaede about her wanting to be a hero was very good, and Lunatic and Kotetsu talking over Legend was really quite good. I had expected that to end in melodrama, but because these are mature adult characters it went over pretty well. I even liked the conversation between Karina and Ryan, about him feeling like he was trying to protect her as a girl all the time and wanting to do better about it. Those were conversations we really didn’t see much of in S1 and it was nice imo.

Also everyone was competent quite a lot of the time! Early in S1 we saw a lot of clunkiness - which was part of the charm of them being bad at teamwork, but seeing them work well together is good since we can really see that they’ve grown as characters and as a team. Even seeing Kotetsu with fans of his own was a lovely touch! He’s developing! He has a fan base!

It was nice to see characters like Agnes be treated with dignity and being a main character’s crush. No one made fun of her weight, and it wasn’t made fun of through the “audience lens” either, which was nice. Same goes for the treatment of Nathan which is a relief given how important their arc was in The Rising.

Character parallels! They did this a lot with Barnaby and Kotetsu, having Barnaby kind of becoming Kotetsu a lot and I enjoyed when they did that. I’m a sucker for that sort of thing.

Overall, I think when the series was focusing on character narratives, interpersonal relationships and that sort of thing it was really good! That’s what I’ve always loved in T&B and it was still strong for its character writing.

So now comes my observations and critiques.

Not a critique exactly but the animation did stand out a lot. I know the clunky CG has got to be a budget thing, but I also just found the style to be a little....rounder, softer. I enjoyed them looking a little more angled and bold, they looked a bit “cute” this time around which is fine, but it did distract me just a little.

I also notice that this series - both parts - was more narrative-driven instead of character-driven. It’s hard to explain this, but I found a lot of the time it felt more like we were being fed plot beats and the characters were reacting to them, rather than being fed character beats and that becoming part of the plot.

An example of what I mean here is that in series 1, Ouroborous was introduced as the major villain specifically in relation to Barnaby’s backstory. First it was Jake, but then we found out that Jake wasn’t to blame, and kept following his story. So the villains and the plot arcs were all related to his story specifically. In series 2 though, we keep following Ouroboros as villains which...I think was the right choice, given where we left off, but it also felt like it was less tied to the characters’ narratives now, so it didn’t have the same weight any more. The characters are now just responding to what’s happening around them, they’re not actually involved in it personally. This also kind of resulted in rushed storytelling or completely brushing past character moments that should have had an impact but didn’t because there wasn’t time to sit and stew on them. So, so many character opportunities were missed in an effort to follow some storyline.

My next observation would be that I think the series was trying too hard to be a superhero show. Which sounds funny because it is a superhero show, but I mean in the implementation of fight scenes. Tiger & Bunny is at its best when it’s about the day to day lives of the people behind the masks, paying damages and bickering and stuff like that. The fights were never that interesting in this series and part of that I blame on the animation budget, but some of the time it really felt like fighting was just shoehorned in. I just think it suffered a bit as a result.

On this next point I think I might be a bit in the minority, and I feel it’s also a bit mean of me, but I really don’t think the new heroes added much benefit if any. Magical Cat had a little to add, what with her narrative with her mother, but Thomas and Subaru really didn’t give us anything. I feel they were meant to be a Kotetsu-Barnaby parallel so we could have the same bickering antics without having to pull Kotetsu and Barnaby’s characterisation back, but they just didn’t have the same charismatic delivery at all and I found their conflicts annoying.

There was potential for Subaru to provide some intrigue, what with his old team and his poignant critique of commercial heroism, but that was just a throwaway line that went nowhere. And Thomas was kind of a nothing character to me. Yes they each had a little bit to give to S2′s narrative and I appreciated what we did get, but I just feel like with their addition the cast became a bit over-crowded, and we didn’t get the time to have strong character-focused episodes for the rest of the cast that we really would have benefited from. It felt a bit like everyone had massively reduced prominence and just got kind of sidelined into a couple of tropes in order to give time to establish these new characters. I’m not opposed to them existing, but IMO they should have been in, like, a spinoff series first that introduced them and then added to the main cast. Or something.

This one is super an opinion piece and not really a critique I guess but I think a queer couple should have been canonized. Part 1 went very hard with FireSky especially in their episode, and if the creators were too wishy-washy to make Taibani be a couple they at least could have given us that. I dunno I just think that would have been a good piece for the story especially when they WERE really pushing it.

And I am sure this last critique was anticipated so I saved it for the last....ohhhh my god what was with Lunatic. What was that. Like, his character episode was wonderful don’t get me wrong, but there was just such a fumble of his character as a whole this season, I think. It felt like they didn’t quite know what direction to take him. Having him just kind of show up as the director was strange, we didn’t get any background as to why that happened and it would have helped to understand his motivations. Because as far as I’m aware he never had any reason to doubt his role as Lunatic before. Why did that change? It’s clear his mother was in poor health so that might be why, and he wanted to be good for her in those last years, but we don’t know. He just went from proudly being Lunatic to being the director to being Lunatic again and it was a bit inconsistent.

I don’t mind that as much though, I can handle them being a little confused on his characterization; what really made me mad was the death scene. Like, I would be okay with him dying, it would absolutely hurt and I would cry but it could have been done well! They did not, however, do it well at all. For being one of the show’s most popular characters, they very much did him a disservice by having his death come after being effectively body-controlled and death punched and then the two main heroes just kinda stand there and let him fireball himself. Bruh. And THEN to make it worse absolutely NO resolution is given to that! He’s just gone! The director is just gone! No one mourns or anything! Dude!!! Dude. Give the man some respect oh my god.

If they were going to have him die that way, he needed another episode. A character focused episode that takes place in those last couple hours of his life, going through why he’s willing to take his own life and why there is no conceivable way that Tiger or Bunny could have saved him (I personally am of the opinion that he was too wounded for it to matter, so he opted to go out with a bang) and then a proper scene at the end to mourn his passing (or idk imply he didn’t die, shut up I can dream). But yeah. On the whole that actually made the last episode such a letdown for me. It was just such a cheap death that didn’t affect the characters at all where it should have.

I’m actually okay with Kotetsu losing his powers and possibly not being a Hero any more, I didn’t mind that ending for him, I think he’s still going to help the heroes and maybe train new recruits and always be with Bunny, but yeah, his narrative ending that way makes sense to me. That last episode just bummed me for the Lunatic stuff.

I think I would have liked the series a lot more if that last episode just didn’t happen. It was such a bad fumble, and the villain sad backstory reveal was cheap, and her death was cheap, and basically all of the wrap-up was very, very cheap.

I’ll say again I still liked the series, when it was good it was good and despite the hefty critiques I’m leveling against it I did really enjoy it a lot! I just don’t think it has quite the quality that series 1 did. I would love to see a resolution - a movie, another manga, something - but I don’t think where we left off narratively-speaking is bad, exactly.

I do predict we will get something though, because there was a very deliberate scene in which we saw Ouroboros Lady facing three shadowed figures....higher bosses of Ouroboros, I think. They probably wouldn’t have given us that scene unless there was an intention to resolve that somehow, so I expect some sort of story down the line. Maybe not an anime, but something.

[purplealmonds]

ACON3D reached out to me for a collaboration, and I used it as an excuse to draw my and @eggdrawsthings​‘ Star Wars OCs! I’ve been chipping away at this for the better part of a month, and despite the struggles, I’m pretty happy with how it came out! ^_^

Having used SketchUp for both my professional and personal work, I’m a HUGE advocate of using 3D to streamline my workflow. Utilizing pre-made models instead of making them from scratch is a game-changer! 

Extensive notes on my process below the cut.

Default 3D Model:

For this collab, I was to use one of the many 3D model resources sold by ACON3D to create an illustration. I chose the Joseon Dynasty - Thatched House by Team Truffle. The render below is just a fragment of the lovingly crafted set design - I recommend searching it up! (I’d provide a link, but Tumblr’s external link policy might nuke this post from search results if I do)

Customizing the Model:

Modified and added some props to make the scene more thematically Star Wars. 

From top left to right:

Building Column - Altered the shape and added motifs inspired by Mandalorian architecture. Mythosaur skull mounted on top is also modeled from scratch!

Uj Cake - Surprisingly few images of this snack despite it being mentioned in many fanworks - I think I used a photo off of Wookiepedia as reference for this.

Cutting Board - Pretty straightforward - a cutting board for the cake to sit on top of. It’s not visible in the final render, but I leveraged the kar’ta motif as a fancy inlaid pattern.

Vibroblade - Basically a replica of Din Djarin’s, though much of its design isn’t visible in the final render.

Buy’ce - This was my first time modeling a helmet in SketchUp, much less a buy’ce. Geometry is a hot mess, but it got the job done.

Xing’s Beskad - Referencing my Mando OC’s weapon of choice. Overall design’s taken straight from the beskad’s blade shape, guard, and grip – though I tried to give it more of a katana-like aesthetic.

Tooka - Or rather, a limb-less and tail-less tooka. By far the most primitive of the models, but I just needed it as a placeholder which I would draw details on top of.

Voorpak - This space chinchilla was...hmm. There were discrepancies between the creature’s original concept in The Wildlife of Star Wars: A field guide (small and 8-legged) and its first appearance in The Bad Batch (dog-sized and 6-legged). Needless to say, I was a tad irritated to find out I modeled and posed two extra legs before realizing they were extraneous.

Phong’s Saber Staff - Probably one of the more complex props in this spread, but Jamie’s detailed reference sheet sped up the modeling process considerably.

Vent Covers - Replacing some of the floor boards in the foreground to give this set a more sci-fi vibe.

Door - Once again, customized the screen design and panel patterning after Mandalorian motifs. This and the column will be the two biggest alterations to the set, so I took extra care to get the designs just right.

And this is what the props look like on set. Colors turned off so the lighting (which I later scrapped) is clearly defined.

Sketch:

Now’s the bit that I finally add the characters and creatures into the composition! For this one, I did have a vague idea of what I wanted out of it story-wise – some kind of low key scene with Phong and Xing hanging out at the latter’s dwelling. To help sell the casual vibes, I had Xing dressed only in his cuirass and blacks. Definitely not because I was struggling to draw his armor. Perish the thought!

Ink:

Ah yes, the cleanup stage. Arguably the most crucial, time-consuming, boring, yet satisfying part of this process.  While much of this work is retracing what’s already been drawn, the concise line art eliminates much guesswork in the next steps. The goal here is to have a clean blueprint, so I don’t have dedicate bandwidth to fixing errors in anatomy, prop position, etc. 

I try to keep element of this comp well organized. For instance, Phong’s face alone has layers for their eyelash, iris, bottom eyelid, eyebrow, nose, mouth, bangs, braid, ponytail, hair ties, ear, and face - all clustered into a group, which is then clustered within a bigger group containing the remaining parts of their body. Definitely overkill, but I like running a tight ship for pieces I can take my time with!

Color Flats:

Full disclosure: the color flats shown here are a lie. I didn’t land on these colors on my first try; it took innumerable rounds of trial and error. Color palette iterations ran the full gamut from monotonously drab to eye-searingly vibrant then back again. Lighting changed from high noon to overcast to night time in quick succession. Certain elements were individually altered to pop out more, then on second viewing, dialed back because they popped out too much. The colors you see below a grudging compromise of all the directions which it was pulled: 

This GIF below is a more honest depiction of the utter chaos which was the evolution of this illustration’s identity crisis:

Shading:

I suppose after that GIF showing these next steps is bit of a moot point, but here we are anyways! I used Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers to start lighting the color flats. I start out with the polygonal lasso tool to block out the big shadow shapes, then go back with a textured brush to soften edges where necessary.

At this point, my layer count was going upwards of 900+ and file size at over 1GB. If I so much as turned off a layer, my computer threatens to have a meltdown. So consolidated these lighting layers by making them universal - one layer for darks, another for contact shadows, etc. 

Final Render:

I guess this is where the magic happens? Textures, material renders, secondary & tertiary lights, atmosphere, etc. all kind of just happen at once. It’s a lot of stuff to describe in blow-by-blow accounts, and I’ve rewritten this several times already because Tumblr keeps prematurely closing out my unsaved drafts, so I’m gonna leave it at that!

[fortheloveofwonderland]

Pretty Woman | S.R

My gif

Summary - Spencer and the reader meet each other in a rather unconventional way.

A/N - I don’t want to give too much away with my summary so that’s all I’ll say on the matter. I wrote this for the wonderful @smurphyse Starts in readers POV /// indicates a change of POV. Italics in the middle are told in 3rd person. Thank you @andiebeaword for proofing this for me ❤️

Pairing - Spencer Reid / Fem! Reader

Category - mild angst, fluff

Content Warnings - talk of sex work, swearing, mentions of alcohol, I think that’s about it!

Word Count - 5.5k

Masterlist

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

Some days, I just had to question my choice of career.

For the most part, I adore my job and usually I wake up with a heady excitement to start the day. No two days were the same. When I start each day, I have no idea where it’s going to lead me. 

Some days however, as I applied the dark red hue to my pouted lips, it was a drag just to get out of bed. 

I tousled my hair with my fingers, giving myself a once over in the full length mirror. 

I looked damn good, there was no denying that. The black silk dress clung to every curve of my body and gave an allusion of class. 

But the slit that ran all the way up my thigh and the low cut nature of the bodice contradicted that. 

I was riding a very thin line between elegant and slutty, which was precisely the desired effect. 

I’d been doing this long enough now that I had become an expert in walking that line. I knew exactly how to dress to be alluring but not suspicious. 

For all anyone would know I’m just a woman going on a date. It was imperative that no one knew what I really was. 

I slid my feet in my black heels and grabbed my clutch purse, deciding against a jacket. 

I gave myself one last look in the mirror. My eyes could tell you that my smile was fake, if you cared to look for long enough. Most people didn’t. 

Some days I wish I could just call in sick. The last thing I felt like doing tonight was parading myself around like a piece of meat for men to gawp at. 

But unfortunately, that was not an option. Especially not tonight. 

So I focused myself on the task at hand, produced my best smile and left the apartment into the DC night. 

///

Moral gray areas seemed to be my forte. You’d think with my high IQ and my unequivocal logic that I would know better than to get myself into these situations. 

Taking the vials of dilaudid from Hankel’s dead body: definitely a moral gray zone. 

Fleeing to Mexico without telling my team where I was going: certainly morally gray. 

Finding myself with my hands wrapped around the neck of the pregnant hit woman who’d had me incarcerated: most assuredly gray. 

And now I found myself sitting at the bar of an extremely upscale establishment with a glass of scotch in my hand knowing that this would unquestionably fall into that category. 

I could feel each beat of my heart as it drummed against my rib cage. I tried to keep my trembling hands busy by playing with my glass. 

The nerves wracked my whole body and I had to undo the top button of my shirt just to help me breathe. 

I didn’t have the confidence to pull this off. I didn’t have the gumption or the conviction to go through with this. 

I tapped my fingers on the side of the glass trying to keep my breathing at a steady rhythm. 

I couldn’t go through with this. I am not equipped for this. I pushed my drink away and went to slide out of the bar stool. But before I could move I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

My heart raced rapidly, and I knew I couldn’t let them see the fear in my eyes. It would be all over if they saw how nervous I was. 

I inhaled sharply before slowly turning my head over my shoulder. 

Her red lip was turned up at the corner and her eyes held a hint of mischief to them. 

“Spencer I assume?” Her voice was like honey and it only caused my heart to beat more erratically. 

I nodded, my mouth completely dry the second I’d laid eyes on her. She was beautiful, easily more beautiful than any woman I’d ever laid eyes on. 

And in just looking at her, my IQ was slashed to next to nothing. 

“I’m Y/N.” She laughed softly and it floated like music to my ears. “Is it ok if I sit?” 

Again I simply nodded, all my words getting lost somewhere between my brain and my mouth. 

Of course I’d wanted her to be pretty, it would be hard to feign interest in her if I didn’t find her attractive. And ultimately we both knew why we were here and for the end result of the night it would help if we were attracted to one another. 

But did she have to be this goddamn stunning?

///

I’d begrudgingly gone out tonight, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. 

But when I’d laid eyes on Spencer, I had a complete change of heart. 

He was young enough and certainly attractive enough that my night was instantly better than I had planned for. 

He had kind eyes, a soft, awkward smile. It was hard to believe looking at him that he was the man I’d heard about. 

But I suppose, looks can be deceiving. I certainly hoped mine were. 

I ordered myself a martini, noticing all the while that Spencer looked extremely nervous. 

He fidgeted with his hands seemingly at a loss for what to do with them. I placed my hand gently on his wrist which stilled his movements. 

“First time?” I kept my hand on him, using my other to pick up my glass and sip from it. 

He swallowed hard, his gaze lingering on my lips.

“Is it that obvious?” He offered me a weak laugh. 

“I’ve been doing this a long time, sugar, I can always tell when someone’s new to the scene. It’s just a date, Spencer, loosen up.” 

He nodded but it didn’t quell his nerves. He took a long sip from his scotch. 

“It isn’t just a date though is it?” His eyes landed on mine and they were an incredible hazel colour. 

“Well, I prefer that term over any other.” 

“We may as well just cut the pleasantries and stop beating around the bush, right?” His nerves seemed to vanish in an instant and his eyes grew darker. 

“What are you saying, Spencer?” I leaned closer to him, making sure he had a good view right down the front of my dress. 

His eyes briefly left mine and glanced down at my cleavage just like I knew they would. 

Men were so predictable. 

“I’m paying you to be here. I’m paying for you to uh…” he looked over his shoulder, checking no one was in earshot. “I’m paying for you to have sex with me. So maybe we should just get down to business.” 

I smirked at him, enjoying the confidence in his voice. I always liked a man who knew how to take charge. 

“It’s your dollar, Spencer.” I shrugged, downing my drink in one. “If you want to cut to the chase, we’ll cut to the chase.”

///

She was sliding out of her stool no sooner than she’d finished her drink. And it was only once she did so that the nerves washed over me again. 

I honestly wasn’t sure how I ever thought I could pull this off. Maybe if she’d been less attractive I wouldn’t be so nervous. 

But she was clearly way out of my league, that much was evident by the looks we got as we left the bar together. 

“Put your arm around me, Spencer. At least pretend you’re having a good time.” She whispered as we walked towards the hotel lobby. 

I wiped my sweaty palm on my slacks before doing as I was told. I wrapped my arm around her waist and settled my hand on her hip.

She leaned in close to me, her own arm wrapping around my waist mirroring my actions. 

“How long uh…how long have you been doing this?” I pathetically attempted to make small talk.

She glanced at me as we walked. 

“Long enough.” She shrugged. “It’s not often my dates are as attractive as you though Spencer.” 

I audibly whimpered at her words like some kind of woeful puppy. God I hope no one else heard that sound. 

She smiled though, pulling me closer as we headed to the front desk. 

She released me from her hold so she could lean on the desk, no doubt giving the concierge a good look down her dress like she’d given me earlier. 

I wondered briefly, while she inquired about a room, how she’d found herself here. 

She was beautiful and well spoken meaning she probably had a good education. What had gone so wrong in her life that she’d turned to this?

Obviously I couldn’t ask such a prying question, not without the same speculation coming back on me. 

Soon she was turning to me, curling her finger and beckoning me closer. Like a puppet, I bent to her every whim. 

“Pay the man, dear.” She smiled sweetly at me and for just a fraction of a second I could picture us as the couple she was trying to pretend we were. 

I swallowed that thought as I fished in my jacket pocket for my wallet. Careful to obscure my credit card information from her, I slotted my card into the machine. 

Rooms in luxury hotels did not come cheap and I tried not to gasp at the number that was displayed on the screen. I chewed my lip as I tapped in my pin, not for the first time tonight wondering what the hell I was doing. 

Once I paid and secured my card back in my wallet, the concierge handed her a key. She thanked him with a flirtatious smile. If he knew what she really was, what I really was, he was polite enough not to say anything. 

She took hold of my hand, hers was so small and dainty in my much larger one. 

And with a smile that could bring a thousand men to their knees, she led me towards the elevator. 

///

The room rates in this place were through the roof and it didn’t surprise me one bit that it didn’t even seem to phase Spencer. 

I knew enough about him to know he had money, lots of money, so the rate of a high class hotel room plus the rate of a high class prostitute were nothing to him. 

I dragged him towards the banks of elevators, feeling somewhat nervous myself. 

He just had to be attractive, didn’t he? I swear it’s easier when they’re ugly. 

The truth of the matter was I’m sure I would enjoy having sex with Spencer, it wouldn’t be a hardship to pretend I found him attractive. 

And that was what worried me. 

The elevator doors opened and I pulled him inside by his hand. I pressed the button for the fifteenth floor and once the doors were closed I focused my attention on him. 

He looked like a small animal about to be thrown to the lions. His eyes wouldn’t settle on one place, constantly flicking around the elevator and he drummed his fingers on his thighs. 

I didn’t understand why he was so nervous. Was it all part of his act? We both knew this certainly wasn’t his first time, so why did he seem so scared? 

Was it a game? Did he enjoy the women he paid to sleep with him thinking he was shy and inexperienced? 

It didn’t fool me. Not even for a second. But I’d play along. 

“What’s wrong, sugar?” I sauntered closer to him, placing my hands on his shoulders and pressing my body flush against his. I pushed my breasts into him, my lips hovering just over his earlobe. “Having second thoughts?”

I felt his body shudder at the way my breath fanned over his ear. And I felt the familiar shifting in his pants. 

“N-no.” He swallowed hard, his tongue swiping over his bottom lip. “Not at all.”

“Good, because you’ll still have to pay me regardless.” I smirked at him and pushed myself away from him just as the doors opened again. 

I took him by the hand and led him out of the elevator. 

///

I would implore any straight man to have not looked at her ass as she led me from that elevator. 

I’d already caught a good look at her breasts in that sinfully tight dress and normally I am much more of a boob guy. 

But her ass looked out of this world. I was already partially hard from the way she’d pressed against me in the elevator but now I was standing to full attention. 

God I hoped it wasn’t obvious. 

My palm was sweating against hers and I’m not sure if she noticed or not. If she did, clearly she didn’t mind. 

My head was a goddamn mess, my brain was no better than a bowl of jello as she led us towards the hotel room I’d just paid an arm and a leg for. 

Was I seriously doing this? I had to have lost my mind, right? 

The sound of my heart beat filled my ears as she pressed the key card against the electronic pad on the door. 

She pushed it open with her hip, tugging me inside with her. 

The door closed behind us and I was frozen to the spot. 

I watched her gracefully move about the room as though she was floating on air. She seemed to be inspecting the place, making sure it was up to her high standards I supposed. 

And then she moved back towards me and I felt like her prey. Her eyes were dark and her red lip was once again turned up at the corner dangerously. 

She placed her hands on my shoulders and I sank into her touch. She gripped me tightly so I couldn’t get away, not that I would go anywhere even if I could. 

I had succumbed to her even though I knew it was wrong. I was powerless to her and she knew it. She knew she was in control. And she was thriving off of it. 

She backed me up into a wall, caging me in with her hips. There was absolutely no way she wouldn’t have been able to feel how hard I was. 

“So, Spencer,” she was staring at my lips. “What do you want from me?” 

I swallowed again, trying desperately not to look at her own lips. If I did, it would be game over for me. 

“You know what I want from you. We both know why we’re here.” I tried to keep my voice steady. 

“Do we?” One of her hands trailed to my face and her nails grazed my cheek. 

My eyes fluttered at her touch and I’m sure I even whined a little. 

“Y-yes. I t-think so.” I stuttered, tripping over my words. 

Suddenly her hand clamped tightly around my jaw, digging her nails into my skin. 

Her eyes were darker than before but it was a different kind of darkness in them now. It scared me a little if truth be told, but it turned me on a lot. 

“I know all about you Spencer.” She spat, her demeanour changed in an instant. 

“I-I don’t understand.” I swallowed. 

She couldn’t know, surely? She couldn’t have possibly seen me through me, had she? 

Her hands went back to my shoulders and she jerked me away from the wall, quickly tossing me to the bed.

///

I stood over him, staring at him on the bed. It was a shame he was so pretty, I would have quite liked the chance to have known him under normal circumstances. 

I hitched up my dress and crawled onto the bed, my thighs pressing against his hips. 

He looked like a deer caught in headlights as he looked up at me, scared and confused. But the tent pitched in his slacks told me exactly what he wanted. 

I placed my hands on his chest, moving his tie aside a little. His eyes grew wider and at first thought it was because he was pleading with me to take his shirt off. 

But then I felt it.  

My brows knit into a frown as I stared down at him. The guilt washed over his features in an instant. 

“What the fuck is that?” I kept my hands on his chest, running his fingers over the raised areas under his shirt.

“Uh…is there any chance you would believe me if I told you it was a heart monitor?” His voice cracked and pitched as he spoke. 

I clenched my jaw and made quick work of tearing open the front of his shirt. 

Beneath the fabric was a series of wires stuck to his skin with tape. 

I looked back into his eyes and the fear behind them was doubled. 

I opened my mouth to speak but before any words could come out I faltered as a loud thud came from behind me. 

I leapt off Spencer just as two men flew in the room, guns drawn and pointing right at my head. 

“FBI, don’t move! You’re under arrest.”

/// 

Spencer paced the bullpen, running his fingers through his hair that JJ had spent the last half hour taming for him. 

His firearm and badge laid on his desk. He felt naked without them and wanted nothing more than to have them on his person. 

But of course he couldn’t. 

He scratched his chest, the tape beneath his shirt causing him to itch. 

JJ grabbed his fidgeting hands. 

“Stop that.” She laughed a little. “Would you calm down?” 

“Easy for you to say Jennifer. You’re not the one going undercover.” He growled a little harsher than he meant to. 

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m her type.” JJ rolled her eyes, letting go of his hands. 

“Remind me again why I have to be the one to do this? Luke or Matt would be so much better at this than me.” 

“Luke and Matt scream FBI Agent, kid.” Rossi suddenly patted him on the shoulder, making him jump a little but Rossi didn’t seem to notice. 

“And if they are killed, people will miss them.” He gave the older man a sardonic smile.  

“No one’s getting killed, Reid.” Emily rolled her eyes. 

“How can you be so sure? She’s a prostitute who kills her John’s, Emily.”

“After she has sex with them.” Luke helpfully reminded him. “So as long as you don’t seal the deal, you’ll be fine buddy.” 

“This is a bad idea. Horrible really.” Spencer shook his head and started pacing again. 

“You have experience with crazy women.” JJ shrugged. 

He shot her a look he hoped conveyed how fucking annoying that sentiment was. The last person he needed to think about right now was Cat Adams. 

“Thanks all of you. You’re so helpful.” He grunted. 

“You’re going to be fine, Spencer.” Emily stood in front of him to stop his pacing. “We’ve made contact, set up the meeting. All you have to do is get her to a hotel room. We’ll do the rest.” 

“If she even so much as thinks I’m FBI, I’m dead. You realise that, don’t you?” 

“That’s why Luke and Matt aren’t doing this and you are.” She smiled softly at him.

“Right because without my gun I look like a teacher's assistant.” He rolled his eyes. 

He was almost positive he couldn’t pull this off. He was sure she would see right through him and would surely kill him. 

But the rest of his team didn’t seem worried. That only filled him with more dread. 

***

Spencer tapped his fingers on the glass, trying to keep his eyes focused on the bar. They had eyes on all the security cameras so he didn’t need to keep an eye out for her. 

He had an earpiece in one ear, concealed by his hair and the wires from the microphone strapped to his chest were still itching. 

The earpiece crackled as he pushed his drink away, considering just leaving altogether. 

“I’ve got eyes on her.” Emily’s voice sounded in his ear. “She’s heading your way.” 

Seconds later Spencer felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“Spencer I assume?”

The team watched him through the various cameras as he sat in silence staring at their unsub as she took a seat. 

“Spencer, say something.” Rossi goaded him. “Anything.” 

“First time?” She had her hand on him, and used the other to pick up her glass. 

Spencer swallowed, his gaze lingering on her lips, they all saw it. 

“Is it that obvious?” He offered me a weak laugh. 

“I’ve been doing this a long time, sugar, I can always tell when someone’s new to the scene. It’s just a date, Spencer, loosen up.”

“Get her up to the room, Reid. The sooner she’s upstairs, the sooner we can arrest her.” Luke’s voice was in his ear. 

“I’m paying you to be here. I’m paying for you to uh…” he looked over his shoulder, checking no one was in earshot. “I’m paying for you to have sex with me. So maybe we should just get down to business.”

“Atta boy.” Rossi whispered. 

Their unsub seemed pleased by this and they watched as she slid out of her chair and Spencer followed her. 

As they were heading out of the bar she said to Spencer, “Put your arm around me, Spencer. At least pretend you’re having a good time.”

They saw him wipe his presumably sweaty hand on his slacks. 

Luke smirked to himself, clicking the button on the radio that directed him to Spencer’s ear. 

“You know for a murderer, she’s pretty hot, Reid.” 

Spencer glanced up at one of the cameras as they entered the lobby, shooting Luke a subtle annoyed look. 

“How long uh…how long have you been doing this?” He tried to ignore Luke in his ear. 

Luke switched off the radio again and they watched as Spencer and the woman approached the desk and she procured them a room. 

“Pay the man, dear.” 

“Don’t worry, Reid, you can expense it later.” Emily spoke in his ear again. 

They continued watching in silence while he paid and then she was soon leading him towards the elevators. 

It was clear Spencer’s nerves were starting to get the better of him. Emily hoped he could keep his head clear just until he got in that room. 

Once in the elevator she moved closer to him and the agents froze, knowing if she pulled a stunt now, they’d never get to him in time. 

“What’s wrong, sugar?” She got closer to him, placing her hands on his shoulders and pressing her body against his. She got really close to his ear. “Having second thoughts?”

“Lucky it wasn’t his other ear.” Rossi sighed.

“He’s crumbling. She’s pulling down his defences.” Tara looked at Emily. 

“He’s got this.” Emily assured her. 

As they left the elevator Luke watched Spencer’s eyes glance at her ass and he noticed exactly what she was doing to Spencer.

“Oh he’s crumbling all right.” He chuckled. 

Emily picked up the radio and spoke into it again. 

“We’re going to lose visual as soon as you step in that room Reid. We’ll still be able to hear you and we’re right down the hall. Just stay calm.” 

“And whatever you do, don’t have sex with her man!” Luke called before Emily shut the radio off. 

///

“It’s not what you think! Would you just listen to me!” I banged my hands on the metal table over and over again, screaming at the top of my lungs. 

One minute I’d been on top of Spencer in the hotel room and the next I was being handcuffed and dragged to the FBI headquarters.

They’d left me alone in a room, an obvious tactic to try and wind me up. Admittedly it was working but not for the reasons they thought.

“Goddamnit would someone just come and fucking talk to me!” I yelled again, still banging the table. 

The door finally opened and he walked in, looking much more in his element now than he had done earlier. He was carrying a stack of case files under his arm. 

“Are you done?” He raised an eyebrow at me, leaning on the back of the empty chair. 

“No I most certainly am not! I don’t know who you think I am but-“

“We don’t think anything.” Spencer pulled the chair out and it scraped loudly on the floor. He slid into it and leaned on the table. “We know exactly who you are, Madame Rouge.” 

I frowned at him, leaning on the table to mirror him. 

“I have absolutely no idea who that it is, but it certainly isn’t me. I’m telling you, I-“

Spencer slapped the files on the table and started opening their covers. He spread out numerous photographs of dead male bodies all with bullets to the groin and forehead. 

“Twenty five victims in three months. That’s almost impressive.” He shrugged, sitting back in his chair. 

“You think I did this?” I scoffed. “Can I have a pen and a piece of paper?”

Spencer frowned at me heavily, narrowing his eyes on me while he tried to read me. 

I’d never give him the satisfaction. 

He contemplated my request for a moment before pulling a small notebook and pen from his pocket and sliding it across the table to me. 

I gave him a smug smile as I took, quickly scrawling down what I needed to before sliding it back to him. 

He frowned at the number I’d written on the page briefly before looking back at me. 

“What is this?” He sounded fed up. I knew how he felt. 

“That’s the phone number of Jessica Mendes at the CIA.” I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m an undercover agent, you moron.” 

///

I stared at her for several long minutes after what she said, playing her words through carefully in my head. 

I couldn’t make sense of it, and I could usually make sense of everything.

“There weren’t any credentials in your personal effects.” I was frowning heavily, inducing a headache. 

“I’ve been undercover for months. I don’t carry my creds with me, that would just be dumb.” She rolled her eyes. 

“And why exactly are you undercover? And why did you take me up to a hotel room?” I didn’t believe her, I couldn’t believe her. 

The number was no doubt some kind of distraction. She wasn’t going to pull one over so easily on me. 

Just because she was pretty, didn’t mean I would just lap up her lies.

“We’ve been tracking this guy, no one knows his real name and so far no one’s been able to get close to him. He has an army of minions who pick up prostitutes off the street and forces them into an underground sex trafficking ring. 

I am the same age and same general body type as all the women we believe have been taken. I was sent undercover to try and lure out his men. I thought you were one of them.”

It sounded legitimate. My expression softened a little. I still didn’t want to believe her. 

“I think it’s a little too convenient that we would both happen to be undercover.” I folded my arms, not wanting to buy it. 

“Call my supervisor.” She tapped her nail on the notebook. “She’ll tell you everything.” 

Before I could respond there was a light tap on the door. We both looked towards the sound as the door opened and Emily stepped inside. 

“Reid, she’s telling the truth.” Emily sounded as disappointed as I felt. “We just got a call, this is Agent Y/L/N with the CIA.” 

“Thank you.” She smiled smugly, pushing herself up from the chair. “I assume I’m free to go?” 

“Of course. We’re really sorry for the inconvenience.” Emily stepped aside to let her pass.

I watched her go, the way her hips swayed as she walked drove me crazy. 

A deep chuckle snapped me out of my daze and I tore my eyes away from her to see Luke smirking at me.

“You know Reid,” he nudged my arm. “I wouldn’t hold it against you if you asked her out after this.”

///

What a night. 

I was so sure after so many months undercover that I was onto something tonight. 

It was the suspicious nature of the call I’d gotten about the meet up tonight, it wasn’t like any I’d had before. 

It had got my hackles up instantly and I’d been so sure it was because I was getting close. But I’d been wrong. The call was suspicious but only because it came from the FBI. 

And now I had to drag my ass to Mendes and explain to her how my cover had been blown and how months worth of work was now completely pointless. 

I hit the button for the elevator to take me out of Quantico. I wrapped my arms around myself as a shiver passed up my spine. 

Maybe I should have worn a jacket after all. 

I sensed his presence moments before he cleared his throat. Years of CIA training meant I always knew if there were eyes on me. 

Except tonight apparently. I’d had no idea the FBI had been watching my every move. I felt foolish. Maybe being undercover had turned me soft. 

I turned slowly to see Spencer awkwardly standing with his hands stuffed in his pockets, a meek smile on his lips.

“Uh…I’m sorry we blew your cover.” He shrugged. 

“It’s ok. I’m sorry I blew yours. I guess your hunt is still on for…Madame…whatever you called me.”

“Madame Rogue.” He offered. 

“Right.” I tightened my hold on myself. “I’m not sure if I’m more offended that an FBI Agent thought I was hooker or that he thought I was murder.” 

“I mean, If you were either of those things…you’d be an incredibly beautiful one.” The blush spread to his cheeks in an instant and it was just about one of the cutest things I’d ever seen. 

I didn’t mean I wasn’t going to tease him a little. 

“Smooth.” I smirked at him.

“Yeah, as I was saying it I realised how utterly unsmooth it was of me.” He pulled a face. “I’m not really known for my skills of talking to pretty women.” 

“Did you just make a joke?”

“I don’t know…did I?” He frowned in confusion. 

“Yeah because Pretty Woman…the Julia Roberts movie about…” I trailed off when I saw his confusion grow. “You know what, never mind.” 

The elevator doors finally opened and I gave Spencer a small smile as I backed towards it. 

“I need to go and debrief with my supervisor.” 

“Can I give you a ride? It’s late and I don’t want you…”

“Out dressed like a hooker?” I filled in for him.

“It’s late.” He repeated. “Let me give you a…shoot…I took the metro to work.” 

“It’s ok, Spencer, really I’m-“ I was cut off by a set of keys flying towards Spencer as if out of nowhere. 

He fumbled, pulling his hands from his pockets to catch them. 

“If you get so much as a scratch on my car, kid, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.” An older man with entirely silver hair and beard patted him on the shoulder before walking off again. 

Spencer smiled softly at me and motioned for me to enter the elevator which I did, with him following close behind. 

He pressed the button for the ground floor and the doors closed, and once again we were alone together. 

Another shiver passed up my spine and I held myself tighter. 

Spencer glanced over at me and before I knew it, he was stripping off his suit jacket. He cautiously moved closer to me and draped the jacket around my shoulders. 

“Thanks.” I wrapped the jacket around my body, melting into the scent of him that was now all around me. 

He was looking at me in such a way I’d been looked at before by men. Only when Spencer looked at me that way, I really liked it. 

When he went to move away I found myself reaching for his shirt collar and pulling him closer to me. 

He rolled his bottom lip between his teeth and swallowed hard at the close proximity. 

“I uh…” he started but trailed off when he couldn’t think what to say. 

“You know, Spencer,” I kept him close and he kept his hands at his sides as if scared to touch me. “If you actually wanted to…you know…I wouldn’t charge you for it.” 

A strangled whine left his lips and I knew I had him. So when I pulled him even closer and crushed my lips against his, I knew he’d kiss me back. 

Maybe it wasn’t all bad that my cover had been blown and the operation had gone south. 

At least it had led me here, to the BAU, to this specific elevator with this specific man. 

And I hoped that maybe we could explore a different kind of undercover operation together. 

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

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[and-to-you-its-just-words]

Been rewatching Warehouse 13 recently

And instead of working on the project I’m supposed to be working on, I can’t help but think of how much better Warehouse 13 would do with today’s audience. Which makes me think of what a reboot would look like and bare with me because I need to get this out of my head:

Let’s say it takes place about 10 years after the Season 5 finale. Obviously you’d want the OG cast but I don’t think you’d be able to properly capture what made the show great then now even with them all so you’d have to introduce new characters too. But the original team is still around:

Myka has been made a Regent for the Warehouse for her specialty in languages and history. She loved being an agent but having always worried about that Warehouse/real life balance, she accepted the Regent job when it was offered by Mr. Kosan. She is no longer with Pete; they realized shortly after they started dating that they’re better as friends (which they still are) Myka and HG finally got on the same page about their feelings and have been together almost 7 years, married for 4. We see her not in every episode but whenever the team needs her specialty or someone is in trouble. Ideally I’d give Joanne the chance to write a couple of episodes since I know that’s what she’s doing now.

Pete -hear me out- is the new Artie. You’d think it was an odd choice -even the agents do- but when Pete had been whammied one too many times, he seriously considered leaving the Warehouse. He didn’t think the Regents were being serious when they offered they job; Pete knew only a fraction of what Artie did, and he was never any good at remembering things. But his heart, easy nature, and willingness to get what needed doing done put him at the top of a very short list. It seemed like a good middle ground - less in the field work, still at the Warehouse. His team loves his leadership style even though Pete consistently worries that he’s doing a bad job. But Myka has faith in him enough for the both of them. Pete is happy for Myka and HG but still hasn’t found “his one.”

Artie is…not dead (if that’s where you thought this was going). But he has finally stepped away from the Warehouse. He had been serious about making things with Vanessa more geographically serious and after a rather heated conversation with the good doctor, he realizes that he could be the one to make the move and be closer to her and her work at the CDC. Of course that makes things sometimes rather rocky because he feels as if he’s sacrificed a part of himself for Vanessa and he thinks she doesn’t take that seriously. So in order to settle his mind, sometimes Artie goes artifact hunting on his own. He likes the challenge of it. Even if it means he bumps into the agents (and gets in the way) more than once. Finally, Pete offers him a consulting position if only for everyone’s sanity. Artie has trouble deferring to Pete’s authority which ultimately leads to tension in a few episodes. This was the best I could do for Artie because while I do think fans would be upset not to see Artie a couple of times, I didn’t really want the character back. Partially because there are times I find his character quite off putting.

Claudia at this point would be a Caretaker in active training. She still goes on missions from time to time, but most of her days now consist of learning everything she can from Mrs. Fredrick. Mrs. Fredrick is sporting more and more grey hair these days and she is reaching the end of her run as Caretaker. I went this way because I would want to keep Mrs. F around for a little bit because she’s such a great character but also needed to give some kind of growth for Claudia. Claudia currently seeing a Software Engineer named Harper who is non-binary. Things get sticky for Claudia when Mrs. Fredrick takes her through what it means to not age like everyone else and Claudia has to consider if Harper is “her one.” With Pete in Artie’s old position and Claudia training to be the new Mrs. Fredric, there is fun back and forth between the two of them about who is who’s boss. Ultimately it’s agreed that if Claudia is on a mission then Pete is in charge and if Claudia is operating on behalf of Mrs. Fredrick, she’s in charge.

Steve is the senior agent in the field. He would be the character that the new characters have the most interaction with. He takes them through their first bag and tags, assures them when things don’t go as planned, but also lays down the rules and seriousness that this job requires. He can’t always be out in the field because he has taken on Leena’s artifact sorting job as he is the only one currently on staff with the ability to let his own feelings wash away so the artifacts can speak. This is shown in several episodes, so the audience can see more how things work in the Warehouse and also to cause a little hijinx. He’s been seeing and living with a Bistro owner named Hal from Featherhead for about 5 years and he’s starting to think that he really can make having a relationship work. The jeweller in Univille is looking more and more enticing each time he’s in town, and Steve surprises himself one afternoon when he leaves the jeweller’s with a small velvet box and a thin gold band in his hand.

Abigail - would really rely on if the actor wanted to come back. Because I while I really loved her character and thought it sucked she came in right at the end so she didn’t get much character development, I could totally see her character deciding that the Warehouse life wasn’t for her and having been long gone by the time the reboot starts. If we did keep this character she would get more screen time.

Helena - Continues to consult for the Warehouse, but is currently a University English Professor. The high school thing was fun when she was Emily Lake, but Helena finds she prefers the attitudes of young adults to teenagers. She also is back to writing books under a pseudonym (only to avoid prying eyes) and every time a critic likens her to the works of HG Wells, it sends her wife into a giggle fit. Myka’s work as a Regent comes with the delightful benefit of a private jet when she’s needed in South Dakota, so they live out of state. As much as she and Myka love working together on a Warehouse case out in the field, they make a concerted effort not to be out in the field with each other too long if only for the Irish setter back home named Lolly who hates it when they’re away. It’s terribly domestic of them and sometimes that makes them both feel a little boxed in, but they both know that having a life outside the Warehouse is worth it. An episode in the first season would put them in a position to discuss becoming foster parents.

I’d love to devote an episode to an artifact that ties back to Leena and do a bunch of flashbacks with her. Only downside to this is that it has almost been 10 years since we saw her last and she would need to look how she did then. But maybe we play a what if episode where she’s still alive so that Genelle Williams can have an episode

If I can find a way to bring Vanessa back more regularly than she was in the original show, I will. If only because I loved her character and think she was severely under used.

There would probably be 2 or 3 new agents, 4 if count the poor tech specialist who has to deal with Pete’s lack of computer savvy. Ideally two of them have the same chemistry as Eddie and Joanne did, but as everyone knows, that’s hard to come by.

Big bad of the first season would be someone related to Mrs. Fredrick, potentially someone wronged by her or another agent who was in the running for Caretaker and failed.

Anyways, that’s what has been lurking in my head for the last couple of days, let me know what you think!

[uvobreakmylegs]

Prey

got a request for a monster!Uvo as well as a request for an Uvo fic where he chases the reader. hope it’s cool that I combined the two of them

@ramwrites​ and I are in agreement that werewolf is the best type of monster for Uvogin

werewolf!Uvogin

Warnings: death, blood, gore, body horror, little bit of smut, graphic depictions of violence, mentions of cannibalism, attempted suicide, implied kidnapping, reader does not have a good time

Thin rays of sun that were able to slip past the branches of the trees hit Uvo's back as he went about his work, placing another upright log on the now considerably worn down tree stump and bringing his axe down upon it, slicing the wood in two and tossing the pieces into the pile to his right before he grabbed another unchopped piece from the pile to the left. Based off of the sun's position in the sky, it was only a bit after midday. Uvogin had been going at this for a while now, his sweat staining the white tank he wore.

Though the sweating wasn't because the work was in any way debilitating. Any other day of the month Uvogin would've been able to chop the same amount and not even break a sweat.

No, today was different because of what was happening tonight: a full moon.

Even though the night was still a long ways off, Uvo could already feel the very beginnings of his transformation shuddering through him. Faint, but still noticable. Unfortunately, with the ever present fact that nightfall wouldn't come for hours yet, there was little he could to other than to keep himself busy and distract himself lest the anticipation kill him. So he continued to chopping the logs, even though the amount he had cut already was bordering on excessive.

In the midst of his distraction, his ears perked up when he heard the faint rumblings of a car engine. His senses of smell and hearing were always pretty good even when it wasn't close to a full moon, but those senses were ten times as sharp now, and he could clearly hear as the car came in closer and closer.

Whoever they were, they wouldn't be the first people to have approached him today. Already he'd been asked two different times for directions to the nearby campgrounds, the first time by an elderly couple who were likely well into retirement, and the second by a group of individuals who had also gotten lost. The woman from that group who went up to him told him more information than he'd needed to know, informing him of how theirs was a company sanctioned team-building retreat. She had a piece of gum in her mouth and smacked it loudly as she talked, and because of his sensitive hearing, the sound of it became distressing to the point that Uvo had to keep himself from clawing his ears off.

Everyone in that group deserved to die because of that woman alone.

Uvogin didn't stop what he was doing even when he heard the car drive past and then suddenly brake, just continuing as he was while he heard the sounds of a car door opening and someone stepping out. Words were being spoken; what was being said exactly he couldn't say, but based off of previous experience it was easy enough to guess.

The car door slammed shut and the engine rumbled again as the car began to drive further down the dirt road. It'd be back in a little bit – over that way was a dead end. But Uvogin quickly switched his focus to the footsteps he heard walking through the unmarked pathway and headed towards him.

“Excuse me?”

He heard your voice call out to him, and Uvo finally turned to face you. Upon making eye contact with him, you smiled and held up a map as you called out again “sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could help out with some directions? We're looking for the Visca lake campgrounds, but I think we've been going around in circles.”

You didn't come any closer when you said that, though it seemed to be more out of a desire to not intrude on his space as opposed to being nervous about the axe he was holding. There was a hopeful look in your eye, though you also seemed ready to apologize for bugging him if he instead told you to fuck off.

Already he knew he liked you much better than the bitch from earlier.

“Sure,” he replied.

Uvo set the axe down and walked towards you, his hand outstretched so you could hand him your map. You smiled and handed him the map without any hesitation, coming up beside him as he unfolded it and scanned the paper so he could give you an idea of what direction you needed to go. The height difference between the two of you meant that he needed to lean down a bit as he pointed out to you the appropriate road that would get you to your destination.

“The road to the campgrounds is here,” he told you.

Despite the way he had tried to accommodate the height difference, you still needed to stand on your toes to see where he was pointing. Your arm came up briefly before you swiftly pulled it back. Like you'd been tempted to place your hand on his forearm to better balance yourself but stopped yourself since the two of you were complete strangers. Though Uvo wouldn't have minded too much if you had done so. Taking advantage of the way you were right next to him, he inhaled, memorizing your scent for later.

Uvo then moved his finger towards the left as he continued “we're around this area, so you'll want to drive back the way you came and take the first right you see. Then you'll want to take another right to get onto the campground road. As long as you don't fuck up turning, you should get to the lake in about ten minutes. Maybe less.”

“Ah, okay!” you responded, taking back your map as you looked over the route he'd pointed out to you. As you were desperate to make sure you got his directions right so you wouldn't need to be in the embarrassing situation of messing up his instructions and needing to go back to him for further clarification, you didn't notice the way he was looking you over or how he inhaled more of your scent.

Your hair smelled of something flowery, some kind of hair product you must have used that morning before you drove out here. Your clothing also had a rather soapy smell, though it wasn't as noticeable as the product in your hair. Beneath all of that, he was able to take in your natural scent that was free of any products or chemicals, as well as... Perfume? An odd choice for a camping trip, he thought. Then another smell hit him, one that surrounded you but you were definitely not the source of.

Oh.

It was the unmistakable scent of another man.

The perfume made more sense now. You'd said 'we' earlier as well, so chances were you'd come here with a boyfriend for a romantic weekend getaway and his smell has just gotten all over you after spending several hours cooped up in a car with him.

Not terribly displeasing. A boyfriend being in the picture might make things a bit more interesting.

“Okay, I think I've got it,” you said, snapping him out of his thoughts, “sorry if I took up too much of your time.”

“No problem,” he answered, “I get a lotta people asking for directions, so I'm used to it.”

“Really? That sounds like it gets annoying. Why don't they put up signs or something?” you asked.

“They do,” Uvo said, “but they usually get taken down by vandals.”

More like self-righteous teenagers who'd found out the truth about him and couldn't stand the fact that the elders of the nearby town allowed Uvogin to do as he pleased and thought they could thwart his killing sprees by taking down the signs leading to the lake, like they could save any innocent vacationers if they weren't able to find the campgrounds. Those kids had yet to learn that if they managed to deprive Uvo of his prey, he'd be forced to go to their own town and hunt there, maybe snatch up one of them or their families. The older folk in charge of the town understood that, and they'd decided that it was better to let the occasional out of town stranger be his prey than risk him coming in and picking off whatever stragglers he could find in their community.

People vacationing in the wilderness died all the time, after all.

“Vandals?” you asked. There was the slightest bit of concern in your voice, and when your eyes went slightly wide as you looked at him, he couldn't help but muse at how cute you looked like that.

“Just dumb kids,” he explained, “there's a small town a little ways back and I reckon they don't have much to do around there.”

“Ah, I see. Do you think we'll need to worry about them bothering us?”

“Nah, they wouldn't do anything,” Uvo said, “besides, they know that I'm out here today, and they know better than to bug me.”

You laughed a bit at that, any deeper meaning to his words going over your head.

“I can't blame them. If I was one of them I'd be too scared to do anything to get on your bad side.”

Uvogin just smiled.

A voice then called at the top of the path, and you both looked to see a dark-haired man around your age standing there. He called out what Uvo assumed was your name, and you waved to him, calling out a short “coming!” before you turned back to Uvogin.

“Thank you again for your help. I really appreciate it,” you told him.

“Once again, not a problem. Hope you two have a good time.”

You smiled and nodded at him, and then began to walk back over to your boyfriend. But before you had the chance to bid him goodbye, Uvogin spoke again.

“You wanna know something that's not in any visitor's guides?” he asked.

“Huh?”

He grinned at your slightly confused expression as he explained “if you go down to the southern side of the lake, there are these really beautiful cliffs in the forest. A lot of clearings that show a pretty good view of the sky, too. And it's a full moon tonight; if you want to make some memories, you should check it out when it gets dark.”

Clearly intrigued, you turned back to face him, asking “really? Why isn't that part advertised?”

“The locals want to keep parts of the lake to themselves,” he said, “but I think it's something that you might appreciate.”

“You sure you won't get in trouble for telling me?”

“Not if you don't say anything,” said Uvo, raising an eyebrow as he smirked.

“Ah, gotcha,” you said. Behind you, your boyfriend was starting to look a bit suspicious, and his lips soon formed a frown. You weren't paying him any mind at the moment.

“What's your name?” you asked.

“Uvogin.”

You held out your hand as you introduced yourself, and he humored you by giving you a handshake.

“Thank you so much for everything,” you said, “maybe we'll see you again while we're here.”

“Maybe.”

With that, you finally turned and made your way to your awaiting boyfriend, who gave Uvo one last narrowed glance before he turned his attention to you as you eagerly pulled your map back out and began to tell him the directions that had been given to you. Your boyfriend only gave one more glance towards Uvogin before focusing his full attention on you, looking over the map with you before the two of you made your way back to the car. He seemed rather boring, Uvo thought to himself. Yet before you made it back in, you stepped up and kissed your boyfriend on the cheek. Uvo saw the way your boyfriend stiffened and the blush that reached his ears as he sat down in the driver's seat to escape your random but sweet action. You laughed as you entered through the passenger's side, and Uvo kept an eye on the two of you until he saw your small, light blue car pull away and drive down the road.

When the two of you were gone, Uvo went back to chopping wood, picking the axe back up and slicing the log into two even pieces. He didn't expect that anyone else would come blundering into the forest before evening, but if they did, he wouldn't pay them much mind. If he killed every single person who came in to enjoy the lake he would quickly lose that particular food source and then need to find another area to hunt.

No, the only ones that were on the table tonight were the company group and you and your boyfriend – he wouldn't bother hunting down that elderly couple as it wouldn't be interesting in the slightest to go after them. The larger group had a good number of people in it, so there would be no need to seek out anyone else. Honestly he shouldn't even bother with the two of you, but Uvo thought of you again, thinking over every action you had taken, from the way you had approached him to how you held out your hand when you introduced yourself.

The little bit of affection you had offered to your boyfriend also came to mind but he brushed that thought away. It was unimportant, he told himself.

No, he shouldn't bother with the two of you, but he wanted to see how your naive little expression might change when you saw him next, after the moonlight had transformed him, and hear how you might scream and cry as he hunted you down.

He grinned at the thought, and when his axe came down again, it sliced the log and the stump beneath it clean through.

The true beginnings of his change had started hours ago when the sun sank past the horizon and the moon slowly rose in the night sky. Just little things, like the way his teeth began to shift in his mouth, or how the black tips of his claws were starting to show beneath his fingernails, slowly pushing up beneath the nails and trying to force themselves out so he could have an easier time tearing apart whatever unfortunate victim happened to be closest to him.

His skin was starting to shift a bit in places as well as it began to detach from the muscle beneath, and he was hit with an overwhelming urge to run outside and allow his transformation to complete so he could go wild as he always did on a full moon night.

But he waited, forcing himself to focus on the fire that was burning before him, to wait until it had gone out completely before he stepped foot out of his cabin.

It had turned into something of a ritual for him; when he had started it he could no longer remember. It was purely ceremonial, and at the heart of it he knew that it did nothing to add to his hunt, but after being alone in the woods for so long he supposed he was entitled to a bit of superstition. And at this point, it would have felt wrong to do it any other way. When the fire went out, the moon would be at the highest point in the sky, and when he left the dark cabin and bared himself to the moonlight, his werewolf form would tear through and he would track down the victims he had met earlier in the day, the ones whose scents he had remembered after he'd chosen them for his prey. Didn't matter much in what order he got them, just whatever scent he came across first.

Although maybe tonight it mattered a little bit. If he could manage it, Uvogin wanted you to be the last one to die tonight. After the group from the company retreat and your bland looking boyfriend, he'd hoped he could then have you for last. Something about that made him feel like that would be the only appropriate ending to the night.

But that all depended if he could manage to remember that after he'd transformed.

The light of the fire was growing more dim, and he was having a harder time sitting still, his entire body itching to burst through the cabin door and let the moonlight take him.

Not yet, he told himself.

But soon.

Those black claws were showing a bit more now, and at least two of his fingernails had popped off, blood coating his fingertips as his hands clenched onto the skin of his legs. That same skin shifted once more as he did so, and after a few moments he felt something trickling down his thigh, and when he glanced down he could see in the faint glimmer of firelight the hole in his skin that he'd torn open, and the dark fur beneath the human flesh that was still covered and the blood dripping down his leg.

Not yet not yet not yet

A few more agonizing minutes later that had seemed endless in his mind, and finally the fire he'd begun earlier was reduced to a smoulder, the flames dying out and the wood glowing red as the fire reached the end of its life.

Now

No sooner had he thought that Uvogin had thrown open the cabin door and ran out into the woods that surrounded him, bare as he gazed up at the full moon as he allowed himself the moment that he'd been holding off on.

There were multiple changes simultaneously and Uvogin was barely able to comprehend all of what was happening to him because of it. There was always a pain that accompanied his transformation, and while it was a pain that he was used to at this point, it was pain nonetheless.

At the sight of the moon his green eyes turned yellow and his pupils narrowed into slits, while the bones in his body began to shift and grow. It started with his spine, extending and pushing out through his skin and almost causing a ripple effect through his whole body. His bones were snapping and stretching beneath his skin, growing as his muscles were expanding and making him into even more of a giant than he already was. Claws on his hands and feet tore through the flesh that surrounded them as those parts of him extended, the skin ripping open and allowing more of the fur that was hidden underneath to show through.

When he felt the flesh around his shoulders stretch out in an attempt to accommodate the transformation he sped up the process by reaching up and tearing it away with his own fingers, the black claws easily ripping in and pulling the skin away like a latex glove. Soon the skin that had been on his arms sat around him in pieces on the grass and he began the same process with his chest and legs, tearing away his flesh in messy strips and allowing the fur that had formed on his body to be exposed, matted with blood and looking almost black in the light of the moon.

His skull went through the same process as the rest of his body, and he felt his face crack into several different pieces before the bones began to remold themselves and pushed outward, taking the shape of a wolf's muzzle while his teeth extended and shifted to fit properly in his newly formed mouth. When his ears began twisting and pushing upwards into sharp points was when he tore at the skin on his face, pulling it off as he had done with the rest and throwing it to the forest floor.

When the last of his human flesh had been removed, his transformation was complete. The man who had stepped out of that cabin was gone and replaced with a large, bipedal wolf whose yellow eyes dilated as he looked up once more to the moon. Lifting his head up, he arched his back as he let out a howl loud enough that echoed through the woods and across the surface of the lake. Those that heard it in the nearby town quietly whispered their prayers to whichever gods they worshiped while those who were visiting the lake's campsite merely marveled at the sound.

If Uvo was in a different mindset he might have thought of you in that moment, and what you might be thinking when you heard him. If you had any clue of the danger you were in.

But in this moment, there was no thought of you or even saving you for last as he had tried to so hard to ingrain into himself. There was no thought of doing this in any order or trying to end the night correctly as he had mused about earlier.

The only thing going through Uvogin's mind was the need to kill.

As luck would have it, he'd managed to kill the ones from that company first.

There had been more of them. More that were wandering around their campsite, more that were talking amongst themselves, and in general just making more noise that, combined with their scents from earlier, allowed him to find them first.

There were actually more of them in that group than he'd anticipated, and as he killed off the last woman in the group, gum falling from her mouth as he twisted her head completely around. Uvo then looked around at the carnage he'd left in his wake. It was hard to tell with the way they were all in pieces now, but the number of people group had easily been in the double digits. That would probably cause a bit of trouble, as it would be hard to try and cover this up. This would easily make the news. Annoying, as Uvo would need to make sure to lay low for a bit, and it could possibly lower the amount of potential victims in the area when the next full moon came.

But it had still been worth it.

Uvogin felt more like himself again now that the murderous urges had been sated. Able to think a bit more clearly, more rationally. And he was able to remember you and what he'd hoped for early on. He could imagine it: your scared expression as you watched him kill your boyfriend before he slaughtered you like the rest, your screams cutting short as he bit into the skin of your neck and tore out your throat.

Now that his hunger was taken care of, he left the campsite of the now-dead group. Right now all he wanted was to find you and your boyfriend.

Remembering what he had told you of the southern side of the lake, he took a gamble as he headed off in that direction, making his way through the woods at speeds much faster than a regular human would be capable of. He stopped when he felt the wind blowing again, and lifted his nose in the air, trying to see if he catch anything.

….. There

It was faint. Very faint, but he managed to catch a familiar human scent.

He turned and headed off in your direction. It was too far away to get your exact location, but it was enough that he could get at least an idea of where you were.

Continuing towards the south side of the lake, he stayed close to the shoreline until he found your little blue car from earlier parked close to the lake, a tent set up not too far off from it. Your scent became a bit more clear as he came closer, and yet when stopped to scan the area, his eyes looking for the slightest bit of movement and his ears straining to hear any bit of noise, he couldn't find you.

A bit annoying, but based off of the way the two of you had left things, you should still be in the area. It was just a matter of hunting you down.

Uvo stalked about the campsite, just in case he missed something while also puncturing two of the tires on your car and cutting off that potential escape route. Satisfied that neither of you were on the site or next to the water, he walked back into the woods, following after the little bits of that fragrance he'd latched onto.

As he walked, he thought to himself with some amusement that you'd actually taken up his suggestion. Uvogin had found that most people didn't bother, either because they were too dedicated to the plans they'd made before arriving or because they didn't trust that the landscape was as beautiful as he'd made it out to be. In fairness, it mostly all looked the same to him, but there had just been something about that particular bit of campground that made him enjoy hunting there more. So it was even more perfect that the two of you had ended up there. Most likely you were just doing what you felt like and didn't feel like adhering to any particular schedule.

His ears perked up as he heard a low voice in the distance. Not yours. Probably your boyfriend, then. Focusing himself so he could move silently, Uvogin weaved through the trees, his eyes searching for you while he listened for more noise from either of you.

When he heard your voice next, he had definitely gotten closer. Your voice had sounded odd, though. Almost breathless.

He found the two of you in a larger clearing that stood beneath one of the cliffs he had spoken of. You were laying with your back on the grass, dressed in a swimsuit with only a shirt over it. Your boyfriend was in a similar state with the moonlight falling onto his bare back, and it looked like both of you were a bit wet, some drops of water still on your skin and hair still damp. So the two of you had gone swimming before you wandered over to this area to mess around.

You said something to him before the two of you shared a kiss, and you moaned into it when he slipped his hand under your shirt to grab at your chest.

It certainly wasn't the first time Uvo had come across a pair of lovers in the woods. Such encounters usually ended with one or both betraying the other, as several times in the past one would push the other into Uvo's path in an attempt to save themselves after having a passionate make-out session only moments before.

Uvogin stepped out from the treeline and waited for one of you to notice him. You let out another moan, and to him it sounded like it was slightly exaggerated. Was your boyfriend not that good? Not too surprising, based off of Uvo's impression of him.

If Uvo had been the man on top of you, he was certain he could do much better.

….. Where did that come from?

Uvo didn't get much time to wonder about that as he heard you let out a sharp gasp, and when his eyes refocused on you, he saw that you were looking right at him. Your eyes were wide and your skin paled as you stiffened, your hands grasping at your boyfriend's arms.

“What's wrong?” your boyfriend asked when he noticed your reaction.

Keeping your eyes on Uvogin, you answered him in a small whisper “there's something over there.”

Your boyfriend turned his head to where you were looking, and he went stiff as well when he saw Uvogin's werewolf form.

It was quiet in that clearing, free of any noises from any woodland animals or even the insects, as anything that was in that immediate area sensed the danger and were desperate to keep silent. No, the only sound Uvo could hear was your breathing that became more panicked as you struggled to keep it under control and the way your boyfriend tried to shush you while he broke out into a cold sweat. You two were both under the impression to stay still and not make any sudden movements for fear of provoking him.

Then your boyfriend whispered your name.

“When I move,” he breathed out, “I want you to run back to the car and get out of here. Even if I'm not with you, you have to take the car and leave.”

As he spoke, your boyfriend slowly moved his hand over to a pack beside you that Uvo hadn't noticed at first. Still, Uvo grinned. He thought he could take him on?

You tried to protest but your boyfriend wasn't hearing it, only repeating his instructions to you and trying to make you promise that you would do as he said. You didn't want to; that was clear, but when you looked back over to Uvogin's form outside the treeline, you shuddered once more and agreed to leave with a short nod.

Uvogin waited for the boyfriend to make his move. He looked just as terrified as you were, but he was clearly trying to be brave for your sake, and his resolve seemed to steel when he got a hold of whatever he had been searching for in the pack.

“Now!”

Your boyfriend yelled as he shot up and charged at Uvo. For the first time since seeing him, Uvogin felt mildly impressed with your boyfriend; he'd been genuine about wanting to save you over himself. Not like he wouldn't still die for it as he was still incredibly weak, but there was something to be said about the willingness he had to face down a beast like Uvo for your sake.

You must be something special to make a man go that far for you.

The thing your boyfriend had pulled out turned out to be a can of bear spray as well as a medium-sized hunting knife. Uvo managed to doge the stream that had been aimed at him easily on account of how badly the hand that held it had been shaking. The boyfriend ran back a bit, unwilling to get too close to Uvogin even with the knife. He tried to aim it again, but Uvo used his claws to slice at him, slashing upwards as he aimed for his throat.

Somehow, he missed the boyfriend's throat and only managed to hit the side of his face, opening up his cheek and taking off his ear. The boyfriend cried out at that, one hand going up to his bleeding cheek while still trying to incapacitate Uvo with the bear spray. But with the way he stumbled about, it was almost too easy for Uvogin to grab him by his face and hurl him into the trunk of a nearby tree. He hit headfirst, and there was an audible cracking sound that came from the impact. Uvogin didn't even bother to watch the way his body hit the ground, experience telling him that he was definitely dead.

Uvogin was much more interested in you.

You were still in the clearing. At first you had done as your boyfriend had told you and bolted the second he yelled, running back to your campsite. But you stopped and turned back when you heard him cry out when Uvo had slashed at him. You wanted to help him but you also knew there was nothing you could do, and so you were left standing in the clearing, your whole body shaking as you struggled with the decision to stay or leave your boyfriend behind.

It was cute how loyal you were to him.

And loyalty certainly wasn't a bad quality.

When you saw your boyfriend die you froze, tears streaming down your face as you looked between the now dead man and the thing that had murdered him. You were clearly in a panic, your legs trembling as your brain struggled to figure out what to do, where to go from here. Certainly you had to be aware that you'd lost any chance of getting away like you'd been told to do, right?

Apparently not, as when Uvogin stepped forward you bolted, running back towards the camp. Yet Uvo found a sense of relief with that, that you wouldn't just sit there and let him kill you and end it so early.

For whatever reason, that last thought displeased him.

But he brushed that away as he chased after you only moments later, not bothering to be quiet with his movements and instead being as loud as possible, breaking apart any low-hanging branches in his wake as he howled into the night air once again.

You had only made it a little ways past the car when he emerged from the forest and lunged towards you. It seemed like you were trying to get away on foot given the damage to the car. Already there was a scent of blood in your wake, as the soles of your feet had already been cut up on the sharp debris of the forest floor.

You turned towards him just in time to see him raising his clawed hand over his head before he sliced it downwards. Through what must have been some bit of luck, you stumbled backwards at that moment and all he managed to do was give you a flesh wound.

You hit the surface of the gravel road hard, crying out in pain at the force of your fall as well as the cuts that were on your arm, your hand immediately grasping at your wound as you desperately tried to use your legs to get yourself off of the ground.

Then he was on top of you.

He opened his jaws wide; you saw as he did so, and attempted to crawl out from under him.

He snapped his jaws shut on your throat.

And you went stiff.

It was quiet for a few moments.

And then a small rush of air escaped from your mouth as you let out a breath you had been holding.

Almost.

He had almost killed you in that moment.

The pointed tips of his teeth were pressing lightly into your skin, not quite hard enough to make you bleed, but that would change if you shifted your neck just slightly.

Why had he stopped?

He stayed there, hunched over you, his arms caging you in while his maw was around your throat. He felt the pulse in your neck beating wildly, almost causing vibrations against his teeth. You had stopped struggling, your legs still while you continued to clutch at your wounded arm, the only noises coming from you now being your uneven breathing.

What was he doing?

His yellow eye glanced over to your face, and he found that you weren't even looking at him. You were gazing in the direction of the night sky, where the light of the moon shown down on you like a spotlight, but it didn't even seem like you were even looking at that. Your eyes were wide as you breathed hard, and Uvo had to wonder if you were currently seeing your life flash before your eyes. That perhaps your mind had accepted that this was the end of your life and was remembering as much as you could before Uvogin would sink in his teeth and sever those major arteries in your neck.

Were you satisfied with all that you had accomplished up to this point, or were you disappointed and felt that you should have done more?

Moments passed like that, his hulking form engulfing yours with no movement from either of you. He took in a deep breath, and he once again caught some of the flowery smell of your shampoo, though it had largely faded by now, and you smelled much more like the woods after the hours you had spent there. More like pine and tree leaves, and the fresh water of the lake, and....

Uvogin let out a short grunt that made you whimper and you clenched your eyes shut as you believed this to be the end. You had no clue that Uvo could smell your arousal coming from between your legs. It had come from the way you'd been fooling around with your boyfriend earlier – there was no way you could have been turned on by this.

Uvo thought again of what he had seen when he stumbled upon the two of you, and that odd thought that had interjected at one point. You had been on his mind almost all day, and he thought it was because he wanted to kill you. And now you were beneath him and the moment couldn't have been more right, and yet now that was the last thing he wanted to do.

It hit him then. The different urge he'd had about you since he had seen you earlier in the day, since he had seen the way you treated your boyfriend; the way you had kissed that man had stuck out in his mind. Hardly any different than any other couple he had seen who were too big on PDA, yet combined with the way you had first come up to him, had smiled and thanked him, and introduced yourself so willingly while also asking for his name had made all of the difference in the world.

His days in the woods were lonely. It was something Uvo was well aware of but had thought he could handle, and he had done so for several years now without issue. But now that he knew you, with your actions and your touch and even the sweet scent of your arousal that he wished more and more that he had been the cause of, another second of being alone sounded more like torture.

Still, the biggest reason he had stayed on his own for so long was that he had accepted that there would be few in this world who would be alright with spending the rest of their lives with a man-eating monster. And any that he may have wanted to keep alive despite that probably wouldn't have been worth the trouble. Keeping someone else with him would also mean he would need to put in the effort to keep them alive, and if he had them unwillingly he'd need to make sure they wouldn't be able to get away, either by restraining them or locking them up.

He watched you, watched the way your face stayed scrunched up as you waited for him to finish it. He wanted you, but were you worth the trouble?

When Uvogin pulled off of your neck and sat back up, you meekly opened your eyes in confusion and trying to anticipate what horrible thing he would do to you next. You yelped when he grabbed you by the back of your shirt as he stood, pulling you up to your feet and setting you in front of him. With one hand on your shoulder and one on your hip, he turned you so you were facing away from him, making sure you were steady on your feet.

He leaned down so his maw was right next to your ear, and in a voice that sounded more animal than human, he growled out a single word:

“Run.”

With that he pushed you forward. You stumbled a bit, your brain still processing what he had said as you barely took a few steps away from him. Then, like a lightning bolt had hit you, you finally seemed to understand as you snapped back and made a beeline for the woods. Your bare feet were loud on the cluttered forest floor, and he occasionally heard little gasps and soft whimpers of pain when you cut your foot open further on a rock or a sharp branch.

Uvo waited, wanting to give you a good head start before he began to chase after you. It would be easy to track you, especially with how much you were bleeding now, but he shuddered with barely contained excitement, eager to chase you down but knowing that he needed to give you a decent head start or else it would be over too quickly.

If you proved yourself worthy of keeping alive, then he'd take you back to his cabin.

And he really hoped you wouldn't let him down.

…. But then something felt wrong.

Uvogin's eyes narrowed as he sensed that you were still within the immediate area and not moving away from him as he had expected. The direction you had gone in was the same one the both of you had come from; the patch of woods and the clearing where he'd found you in the pathway. There wasn't anything there that you could have fallen over or gotten stuck on, so why....

A new thought occurred to him, and Uvo growled lowly to himself as he hoped he wouldn't see what he felt he might when he found you next.

You were back in that clearing, sitting next to your boyfriend's fallen body. Your body was facing the direction Uvo had arrived from, both of your hands in front of you as looked down at your now former lover. There were tears rolling down your cheeks as you sat there.

A wave of disgust hit Uvogin as he found he was correct and was thoroughly disappointed with your actions. He'd given you a chance to get away and you'd wasted it by sitting around crying. Clearly he had given you too much credit.

You heard him as he began to walk towards you, and he noted the way your hands slipped beneath your boyfriend's slightly upturned body, your head still downcast.

He stood across from you, letting out a huff that made you flinch. But still, you didn't move from that spot.

As he opened his jaws your head shot up and you lifted your hands from beneath the body.

Just as you did so, something sprayed into his nose, eyes and his open mouth. Something that stung and made him gag. Fuck it burned, and Uvogin let out a howl of pain as he clutched at his face.

The bear spray-!

Something sharp then dug into the flesh beneath his collarbone, and the pain from the bitter spray was accompanied by the sensation of a knife blade stabbing into him.

With another howl as he was now blinded, he swiped a hand in your general direction and heard you yelp as he simultaneously clawed your shoulder and forced you to the ground. With his hearing now being his greatest sense, he managed to pick up the clatter the bear spray can made as the force of his blow made you drop it, and he moved one of his feet to stomp at it, crushing it and making it useless.

Uvo roared again as he swung about wildly, trying to catch you once more, but you managed to avoid his attacks and made your way into the woods again as he heard your labored breathing and footsteps growing fainter and fainter.

He clutched at his face as he tried to make himself calm down, trying to will away the pain and regain his sense of sight and smell.

…. Not bad.

Even with the rage he had felt in the moment, he found himself relieved, almost happy that you had caught him off-guard. You had gone as far as to use your boyfriend's body as a prop, to make him think that you were too broken up about his death so he would lower his guard. Had you been a bit taller, you could have done a decent amount of damage if you'd managed to stab the knife into his throat.

The knife was still in him, he realized, and after regaining a little bit of his sight in his left eye, he easily pulled it out and threw it across the way.

Now you had no weapons, but he was also at a disadvantage as his eyes were still watering and he could no longer smell you as clearly, the harsh chemicals of the spray making him internally wince every time he breathed through his nose. If he wanted to catch you, he would need to rely almost entirely on his hearing to search for you.

The sounds you were making were quite distant now, but he grinned to himself and stayed there a while longer, letting you get further away.

The direction you were going had no civilization, there was only forest for miles, and he was happy to let you get yourself more and more lost if it meant that his hunt would continue.

By the time dawn was nearing, signaled by the sickly pale color the sky had turned to, Uvogin had managed to chase you further into the wilderness, up through the trees and near the edge of a cliff face. Throughout the night there had been times where you had slowed or stopped completely as you tried to regain your strength, taking advantage of your smaller size and slipping into places that he couldn't easily get to. You also had several brief spurts of energy where you had sped up suddenly, more determined than ever to get away from him while you threw various stones and branches back towards him, though you never tried anything else as bold as you had with your trick from earlier as you didn't allow him to get that close again.

But as you stumbled to the edge of the cliff and looked at the steep drop before you, it was clear to him that your fight was gone. He knew it even before you fell to your knees on the sharp rock. The chase had ended, and just in time, as daylight would be here soon, and when that came he would revert back to his human form.

It had been one of the most memorable hunts he'd had in years, and even though your will had been broken in the process, by now he was certain that he wanted to keep you. To have a little partner in his solitary life, someone to keep his bed warm and wait for him to return home in the evenings. The scenario was nice to think about, and he especially liked the idea of you cuddling up to him during the colder months of the year, trying to keep yourself warm with his body heat to fight the chilly air that would sneak inside. Maybe eventually he'd get you to give him sweet tokens of affection like you'd given to your boyfriend, perhaps a kiss on the cheek before he went out to hunt.

And maybe every once in a while, if you were still insistent on putting up a fight, Uvo might let you out during a full moon and make you think you had a chance to escape, just so he could hunt you down and drag you back to his little home in the woods.

The thought of it gave him chills, and he wondered how long he would need to wait before he could let you out.

You were lightly swaying in place as you looked to the ground below while Uvo was consumed in the thoughts he had about you. He assumed that you were just waiting for him to finish it – your willpower was dried up, and there was no way you would try to run around him or do anything as stupid as try to climb down the cliff face.

He had no clue where your thoughts had taken you in that moment.

Realization shot through him when he saw your shoulders sag and your body began to fall forward over the edge.

Uvo rushed forward and grabbed you by your shoulder before you fell off and he threw you back, a good distance further and far rougher than he had been intending, as you wailed weakly when you hit the ground.

If you were willing to kill yourself to escape him, he'd need to wait some time before letting you run about the woods again.

By now, you were covered in dirt and blood and whatever else had stuck to you from the forest while you had run from him. Your skin was covered in cuts that he and the forest had given you and it would likely be some time before you would be able to properly walk again based off of the state of your feet. When he approached you once more, you clenched your eyes shut again. By now you were past the point of tears and just waited for him to finish you off.

You jolted at the feeling of his fur brushing against your skin when straddled you once more, but just as before, the killing blow you were expecting never came. You opened one eye, and just as you did so, the first rays of the sun shone over the landscape beyond and hit Uvogin.

You watched in silent horror as the fur that covered him caught on fire and began to burn. He was briefly consumed by the flames before they vanished into puffs of smoke. His bones were snapping again, breaking into pieces and retracting back into their normal size while his muscles and skin rippled and shrunk back down, tightening around his fingers as the claws also retracted and vanished beneath the skin. As his wolf face broke apart and reformed, there was a look of shock in your eyes as you saw the beast on top of you become more and more human. And that shock soon turned into a realization when you found that you recognized the man who was on top of you.

His transformation back to his human form was over in a matter of seconds, and when it was over and his green eyes looked back down at you, you stuttered as you tried to find your voice.

“U-Uvogin?” you asked weakly.

He grinned, pleased that you had remembered his name.

Without another word, Uvo leaned down over you so he could begin the process of properly claiming you as his.

[fortuositywritings]

I Said No (Wanda x R): Pt 6

Summary: You kissed Wanda. Where do you go from here? Camping. You go camping is where.

Challenge: Take a shot of preferred drink (water for you youngsters, stay hydrated) every time you read "s'mores".

Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5

Wanda is beyond frustrated. It has been eight hours since you kissed her on the ferris wheel. Eight painful hours of rewinding the moment in her mind over and over again, wondering what it means because you haven’t said anything about it. You acted no different when you met back with everyone else. No different when Laura asked with a knowing smile how the view was from the top. No different on the car ride home nor when you said goodnight to her like you did to everyone else even if she had lingered behind a little longer in case you maybe wanted to say something while no one else was near.

It’s like it never even happened and now she’s wondering if she’s somehow messing with her own mind. 

No, it definitely happened. Maybe there’s a reason. Maybe you’ll explain. Maybe she needs to sleep. 

She can feel Nat stirring beside her, signaling her to close her eyes and feign sleep.

“I know you’re awake, Wanda. You’re going to have to do better than that,” Nat says. Wanda huffs. She should know better than try to pretend in front of the spy. “What’s wrong? You’ve been tossing and turning all night.”

Wanda doesn’t think Nat would like to hear the reason for her restlessness, but she also knows she can’t get away with lying, so she chooses to say, “I don’t think you would want to know.”

“Wanda,” Nat sighs, almost defeatedly, “I know I have my reservations about you and Y/N but I meant what I said. You are both adults who can make your own choices and if this is really something you both want then I’ll be here for you and her both. I know you might not believe this, but I’d much rather be here to help you prove me wrong than you two go and prove me right.”

Nat is lying on her back now staring at the ceiling waiting patiently for Wanda to say something. Wanda follows Nat’s lead and stares at the blank ceiling trying to get her thoughts in order. Wanda doesn’t like talking about her feelings. She’s one to figure things out on her own but if she doesn’t get answers soon, she is going to go insane. Nat knows Y/N well enough. Maybe she knows why Y/N acted so indifferent. So Wanda decides to trust Nat. “She kissed me.”

Wanda turns her head to see Nat’s expression. Nat’s face remains stoic. “Are you mad?” Wanda asks warily.

“No, but I am surprised,” Nat says with what Wanda could swear is amusement. “I didn’t think she had it in her to go against anything Clint or I say.”

Wanda smiles, “You don’t give her enough credit.”

“Maybe. I think I also give you too much credit. I thought it would be you to do it. You Maximoffs tend to be relentless until you get what you want.” Wanda chuckles acknowledging that sometimes she and her brother annoy the rest of the team until things go their way. “So she kissed you. What’s the problem?”

Wanda’s good mood comes back down as she falls back to reality. “I don’t know if there is a problem is the problem,” Wanda groans in frustration.

“You’ve lost me.”

Wanda can’t have this conversation lying down so she sits up. Nat does the same, giving Wanda her full attention. “It’s just, it’s so push and pull with her. She flirts and I flirt back. Then she says she can’t so I let it go, but later she pulls me in again but then reminds me we can only be friends only to kiss me at the fair. And now she’s acting like it didn’t even happen and it’s all so frustrating,” Wanda vents.

Nat takes a moment to process everything. “You have to keep in mind that Y/N doesn’t do the whole relationship thing. She tried it once and well it didn’t work out. Now when things get serious, she likes to ignore them or as I’m sure you’ve noticed she likes to joke her way out. So if you want to work this out, you’ll have to find a way to talk to her without her freaking out,” Nat advises. 

The mention of a past relationship piques Wanda’s interest. “Y/N’s been in a relationship before? She’s never mentioned it.”

Nat smirks shaking her head, “Of course out of everything I said, that’s what you got. Tell me, have you told her about the robot boyfriend you had not too long ago?” Wanda looks down at the bedsheets in embarrassment. Nat wants to laugh but decides to give Wanda a break. “Look, if you really want to know you can ask Y/N later, okay? Now get some rest. You shouldn’t let guy, girl, or robot problems keep you from sleeping,” she finishes chuckling and gets up from the bed. 

“Where are you off to?” Wanda still goes to lie down but looks up at Nat with tired eyes.

“Going to go for a hike with your girl,” Nat teases as she grabs her clothes and clothes for you.

“She’s not my girl,” Wanda says, tucking her head into her pillow to hide her blush but Nat still caught it. She also catches when Wanda mumbles, “yet.”

“And there’s that bratty Maximoff attitude. I see you’re feeling better now,” Nat laughs and leaves the room without giving Wanda the time to respond, not that Wanda was planning to because Nat was right. Wanda was feeling better now having talked it out with someone. She’ll do as Natasha said and ask you later. With that she closes her eyes and tries to get some sleep.

You didn’t fare too well last either, much like Wanda. You were trying so hard not to think about your kiss with Wanda, but it’s all you could think about. You don’t know what possessed you to do it, but you know you should not have done it. You should not have done it because now all you can think about is doing it again, about doing it again and letting her kiss you back. You shouldn’t have kissed her because you don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, including yourself. It’s happened to you once before and you’re scared because it is happening to you again. 

So, you tried to play it cool. If you act like it was a friendly kiss that didn’t really mean anything, then Wanda will take the hint and when she inevitably goes, so will your feelings. No harm done. Friends kiss sometimes, right? At least that’s what you’ve been trying to convince yourself all night until you fell asleep.

You awaken from your two hours of Wanda-filled dreams by gym clothes smacking your face. You groan, “No, please. Not today, Nat. I barely got any sleep last night.”

“Oh, not you too,” she comments, rolling her eyes at you. You lift your head at that to look at her confused by what she meant. “Come on, some exercise will take your mind off whatever kept you up,” she continues with a knowing smile as she takes a sip of her coffee.  You narrow your eyes at her but eventually give in. Maybe she’s right and it will help you take your mind off of Wanda for even a moment. 

You still need the energy though, so you steal her coffee as you pass by her with your clothes in hand.

The one time you actually hoped Nat would be right, she wasn’t. You’re an hour into your hike and your brain has no vacancy for anything other than Wanda. You want to scream. Instead you push yourself harder. Another hour goes by and your head is still spinning, except this time it might also be because of the lack of oxygen reaching your brain. You go to lay on the dirty ground and attempt to catch your breath. Nat stops, not hearing your footsteps behind her. 

She looks at you a little worried. You are heaving and you are sweaty and you are frustrated and it’s official; a pretty girl named Wanda Maximoff broke you. You start chuckling and soon a full resounding laugh comes out of you like you heard the funniest joke. Nat goes to sit by you warily but doesn’t say anything.

Your laughter dies, replaced by a solemn attitude. You sit up, your shoulder touching Nat’s. She still doesn’t say anything and you’re thankful for that. Without looking at her, you tell her earnestly, “I really like her.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighs.

“She told you,” you say, no surprise in your voice. You were clued in this morning with Nat’s knowing smile. Nat hums in confirmation. “I know you and Clint warned me, but-”

“But we were wrong,” Nat cuts you off. That has you looking at her, your eyebrows raised in shock. You never thought you’d hear her admit being wrong so blatantly. She laughs, “Don’t get used to hearing that. Seriously though, you don’t need someone telling you what you can or cannot do. It wasn’t right for us to try. So, I’ll tell you what I told Wanda, whatever happens, I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Aww, look who’s taking accountability. Little Romanov is all grown up!” you joke. She rolls her eyes and nudges you saying, “I guess serious talk is over.”

She knows you too well. You smile anyway in appreciation. You both get up and start making your way back to the car. You feel lighter after that conversation. On your walk back, you begin to think, maybe you can give it a shot with Wanda now that it seems Nat and Clint are giving into the idea of you two together. You smile at the thought of you and Wanda together. You can make it work, you think. That is if you can allow trust in yourself to not hurt her and trust her not to do the same. But you have time to work on that. 

When you reach the car, a daunting thought stops you. You don’t have time. “She’s leaving soon.”

Nat opening the car door simply says, “Yeah, guess you have to decide what you want to do quickly.” 

“I’ve decided,” Clint says to everyone at breakfast. When you and Nat had gotten to the house, almost everyone was still asleep. You and Nat only saw Sam and Laura up in the kitchen. You’d guessed the fair wore everyone out yesterday. You and Nat helped Sam and Laura make breakfast. Well, Nat helped. You had been told to sit at the table and let the adults do the cooking. How were you meant to learn if they didn’t let you? At least Wanda had let you help.

Wanda, as if summoned by your thoughts, had appeared then. You saw her hesitate walking into the kitchen. You knew you messed up by ignoring what happened between the two of you. You gave her a smile and patted the seat next to you hoping to alleviate the tension. Luckily for you it seemed to do the trick. You two were back to your usual selves though you both knew you would have to talk about what happened at some point.

Everyone came downstairs one by one and when breakfast was ready, you all headed into the dining room to eat together. Everyone was having their own side conversations but they all hushed down when Clint spoke up saying he decided something.

“And what did you decide?” Laura asks him. You try hard not to laugh, recognizing the same tone she gave you two days ago when you told everyone you were going to the fair. Wanda sees you try to hide your amusement and pinches your side to get you to stop. Being ticklish, you nearly squeal but hold it in. By the way Wanda’s eyes spark up, you know she noticed. You give her a warning stare and mouth “no”.

“My sweet, beautiful wife,” Clint begins sweet talking your cousin, but you’re not paying too much attention as Wanda is trying to tickle your side discreetly with one hand and you are trying hard to keep it away. Across the table, Pietro is not paying attention to Clint either, instead watching you and Wanda interact. He feels so dumb for not noticing it before, but seeing you bring out the playfulness in Wanda, which he hadn’t seen in the longest time, you could make him feel like the dullest bulb in the box and he wouldn’t complain. All three of your attention is brought back to the subject at hand when Clint says, “I’ve decided we’re going camping today!”

The kids, Peter, Sam, and you let out a cheer. You squeeze Wanda’s hand that you managed to catch in yours. You don’t feel any excitement coming from her so you turn to her. She looks discontent at the thought of camping. “Oh, come on. Don’t say you don’t like camping.”

“Pietro and I have not gone camping but the thought of bugs and sleeping on the ground does not sound appealing,” she says tentatively.

“Thank you. She gets it,” your cousin says and Nat nods her head in agreement.

“Don’t listen to the two buzzkills. They never want to do anything.” You ignore the scoff and “excuse me” they give you to instead try to convince Wanda. “I promise it’s going to be fun,” you look into her eyes, practically pleading with her. She huffs, closes her eyes, and says, “Fine.”

“Yes! What about you Pietro?” you ask her brother though you already know where one twin goes the other follows. “Yeah, let’s see what camping is about. Maybe we can share a tent,” Pietro flirts throwing a wink your way, mostly teasing to see his sister’s reaction. You ignore his last comment and start chanting “Camping! Camping!” until Peter, Cooper, and Lila chant along. You don’t notice the glare Wanda throws her brother or said brother trying to hide his smirk.

You take two cars like you had yesterday. This time you ride with Nat, Sam, Wanda, and Peter. Cooper and Lila refused to let Pietro ride in Nat’s car, wanting him to ride with them. Nat is driving with Sam sitting in the passenger seat after having called shotgun. You sat in the middle between Peter and Wanda, having offered her the window seat. The ride to the lake where you usually went camping isn’t long, only about an hour and a half away, but you find yourself falling asleep twenty minutes in when Wanda rests her head on your shoulder to take a nap. 

You and Wanda wake to the car door slamming shut. You both look out the window and see you’ve arrived and it had been Nat who stepped out of the car. From the car, you can see her stretch and take in the view with a disgruntled face. 

“Well someone’s excited,” Sam said sarcastically, having noticed Nat’s attitude toward this trip also. All of you in the car watch her as she sprays a ton of bug repellant on herself while grumbling, “Stupid Clint. I should be relaxing somewhere with AC. But nooo, Mr. ‘I’ve decided we’re going camping’ and Ms. ‘I promise it’s gonna be fun’ want to go camping. Fun my ass.”

You can’t help but laugh when she mocks you and Clint, and everyone in the car joins in. Nat turns to glare at all of you through the windows. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. Just don’t come crying to me when you can’t stop scratching your legs tomorrow. Now chop chop. We’ve got things to bring out.” 

She leaves to help Laura out of the family car that just pulled up beside Nat’s own. She’s always so grumpy when you go camping. At the thought, a joke pops in your head that you can’t help but repeat out loud, “Yeah, she’s never really been a happy camper.”

“Did you just? Nice one!” Peter gives you a high five. Wanda and Sam shake their heads at you but you can see Wanda trying not to smile. Sam catches it and throws his head back groaning, “Bad puns? Really? I gotta start writing things down.” He pulls out his phone and goes to his notes to start a list. “Okay, confident but geeky, talk about Star Wars, bad jokes. Am I missing anything, Wanda?”

You and Peter look at her confused. You are especially intrigued to know what Wanda has to do with whatever the hell Sam is talking about when she flushes and kicks his seat. “We should go help now,” she says, opening the door and hurrying out. You follow behind asking, “What’s he talking about, Wanda?” 

She ignores you. Peter reaches you and says, “I thought it was a good joke.”

Everyone helps out setting the tents, Clint wanting to get that out of the way first. No matter how much of a downer Nat can be on camping trips, you’re always glad she’s there or no tent would stand a chance holding upright. There are three sturdy tents set up a little ways away from the dock by the time you finish. Peter, the kids, the twins, and you run over to the dock in excitement, you pulling Wanda along with you. None of you are in the proper attire to jump in as Laura points out. “Hey, go put on your swim suits if you want to get in!” she shouts from where the rest are setting up everything for grilling.

You all turn back around to put on your swimwear. Best not to anger the pregnant lady. Before you can take a step forward, you feel like someone sweeps you up in their arms but it happens too fast to be sure and suddenly you are falling into the water. Everyone turns back around at the sound of you hitting the water. When your head springs from the water, you look for the culprit and see him smiling at you next to Sam. You do the only thing you can think of as revenge. You pretend to drown. “Help! I can’t-” you spit water everywhere waving your arms hysterically. You can hear footsteps running on the dock but ignore them to see Pietro’s reaction. His eyes widen and in a blink he is gone. 

You hear a splash. Correction, you hear three different splashes. You knew one had to be Pietro and you’re right. He pulls you into him with one arm, saying, “I got you. I got you.” 

You turn in his arm and say, “No, I got you.” He looks confused and you take the opportunity to wriggle loose and dunk his head in the water. The second and third splashes had come from Peter and Wanda, you note, when you hear them behind you say, “Y/N!” and “Are you okay?” You can’t answer because the sight of Pietro coming back up spluttering has you cracking up. 

“I thought you couldn’t swim,” Peter says. This time you do answer, “I told you guys, I was learning on the job.”

Peter starts laughing then, swimming towards Pietro, who took it easy laughing as well. “She got you so good. You should have seen your face,” Peter chuckles. You grin, but that smile falls when you look at Wanda and find her glaring at you.The joy on your face morphs into confusion. You ask, “What’s wrong?”

“That wasn’t funny, Y/N.” She leaves you there with your mouth agape and heads to the shore without another word, swimming past Peter and Pietro who are basically water fighting. You float there for a second wondering what just happened. You don’t know what to do but you think you have to fix it somehow. 

You swim after her. Pietro and Peter stop splashing water at each other, turning their bodies to look at you as you pass by them now able to touch the ground with your feet. Pietro teases, “Oooh, someone’s sleeping on the couch tonight.” 

You wanted to point out that you have been sleeping on the couch the whole week and that technically you’ll be sleeping in a tent tonight. Instead you splash some water at him behind you and try to walk faster against the water to catch Wanda. When you are close enough, you reach out and pull on her wrist to get her to stop walking. You walk around her to stand face to face. She pulls her arm free from your hold and crosses her arms in front of her body looking everywhere but at you. You see her clenching her jaw in irritation and if you’re honest with yourself, you find this angry Wanda pretty attractive, but you remember she’s mad at you and you focus on the matter at hand.

Unbeknownst to you both, everyone’s watching. “Oh, she’s mad mad. Let’s see Y/N try to joke her way out of this one,” Sam says chuckling. Clint and Nat turn to him, Nat smirking and Clint chuckling. Laura is preoccupied putting sunscreen on the kids to be aware of what is going on.

“Oh, come on. Sure, Y/N is smooth but I know Wanda, and that girl is stubborn as hell,” Sam says confidently, remembering the time Wanda had not spoken to her brother for three days because he went to a party with some of the guys forgetting he was supposed to go to the movies with her. 

“Want to bet?” Clint says. 

“20, easy.” Sam shakes Clint’s hand. Off in the water, Peter and Pietro are having a similar conversation. Peter asks if Wanda is actually mad. Peter doesn’t live on the compound and has not had much interaction with Wanda, so it makes sense to Pietro why he would ask. Pietro laughs, “Oh, yes. One time I forgot to go to the movies with her and she did not speak with me for days. She has the same face now.”

You don’t really have a plan here, so you start the way you always do, using humor. “Wanda, are you actually mad? Am I in hot … water?” you flick some water for effect. She doesn’t find it amusing. She scoffs at you, but at least she’s looking at you now. “The water’s cold and jokes won’t get you out of this one.”

“We’ll just have to sea about that,” you try again. You didn’t think she could look more peeved, but look at you making the impossible happen. She says, “It’s a lake,” unamused, and she moves to go around you. So humor is a no go in this situation.

“What did I tell you,” Sam boasts, seeing Wanda look more irritated. “Easiest 20 dollars, I made.”

“Just wait,” Clint says. Laura goes to sit beside him and asks, “What’s happening?”

“Wanda is mad at Y/N. Sam bet Clint 20 dollars that Wanda will stay mad at her,” Nat explains. Suddenly, Sam doesn’t feel so confident when Laura shakes her head at him like he just got played and says, “Oh, Sam.”

“Okay, wait, wait, wait.” You step to the side making sure Wanda doesn’t leave. “I’m sorry. It was just a dumb way to get back at Pietro. I didn’t mean to upset you or freak you out,” you say, pulling her arms apart from where they are still crossed. “The last thing I want to do is make you mad or sad or any of the -ad’s.” You see her tense shoulders loosen up so you add, “You already know how I feel about Brads.”

You know you made the right choice when you hear her giggle at your last comment. You smile and tug on her arm. “So are we good? Or do I have to pull out the famous puppy dog eyes?” you jest and she gives you a real laugh when you actually go for the puppy dog eyes along with a pout. She shoves you playfully and you nearly stumble backwards but you hold onto her arms and pull yourself forward. In consequence you end up closer to each other and Wanda takes the opportunity to pull you into a hug. 

“Just don’t do it again,” Wanda says. You wrap your arms around her waist, welcoming in her hug. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Now let’s go swimming,” you say quickly. She barely catches what you say before you pick her up and take off back in Peter and Pietro’s direction, Wanda laughing the whole way.

“What the hell was that?” Sam refuses to believe what he just saw. 

“Easiest 20 dollars I ever made,” Clint chuckles.

“No, see she’s gotta have some kind of persuasion powers or something. Why isn’t that girl on the team? We could just give her a microphone before we go fight and have her convince the bad dudes to turn themselves in,” Sam says as he reluctantly takes out a twenty dollar bill and gives it to Clint.

Pietro is very much on the same boat as Sam. He decides he needs to learn your secrets. Peter says, “Maybe the movie she wanted to watch was really good?”

You have your fun in the water, especially when the kids and Sam join you deciding they want to play chicken fight. Cooper goes against Lila and despite her being younger and smaller, she manages to push Cooper off Sam’s shoulder. Pietro holds Sam up as he goes against Peter. Sam cheers when Peter falls backwards into the water. Most would be surprised by the win but it was mostly your fault, not having a good stance when trying to hold Peter on your shoulders. 

You go to fight against Wanda next; she takes Sam’s place on Pietro’s shoulders and you sit on Sam’s shoulders. Cooper and Lila count down and when they yell go, you and Wanda are pushing each other’s shoulders. Wanda removes a hand from your shoulder and reaches for your stomach, but you catch her arm quickly. “Not today. You’re going down, Maximoff!”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that-” Wanda begins but doesn’t finish. You can feel her grip loosen on your shoulder when she gives you a look of befuddlement. “Actually, I don’t know your last name.” You smirk, taking this as your opportunity, and say, “Good. Now you can see how I felt.” Then you push her shoulder and she loses her balance. You can smell the victory, but the smell wafts away when you see what looks like a red mist coming from her and hurling towards you. You are practically flung from Sam’s shoulder into the water. 

You resurface, spluttering water. You look around for the person of interest and head towards her when she gets up beside Pietro. “You cheated!” you yell. You’re not actually mad but you are a sore loser. She sees you coming toward her and Wanda can’t help but laugh at how silly you look trying to stomp over to her intimidatingly when you are moving so slowly against the water. “I thought you and I had agreed on no powers.”

“No, you said no more mind reading,” she corrects you with a pleased smile on her face. 

“Well new rule, no powers in general and wipe that grin off your face, no one likes a smart-ass,” you huff. She replies whilst giving your cheek a poke, “Then wipe that pout off your face. No one likes a sore loser.” You shake your head to get her finger off your face, making her laugh again.

Pietro challenges Wanda next and before either of them have a chance to decide who will be carrying them, you dive under Wanda and between her legs, making her yelp in surprise as you lift her up on your shoulders. You hold on tight to her thighs and then reach for her arms to keep her steady. She giggles when she looks down not able to see you behind all the hair in your face. She helps you out and pulls your hair back out of your face. You look up at her, who keeps her hands on your head, and smile in thanks.

You look at Wanda’s opponent. Pietro, who is situated on Sam’s shoulders, is already looking at you like he’s thinking something over. Then he looks above you at Wanda and challenges, “If I win, you have to tell me what Y/N said to not make you angry anymore.”

Sam under him adds, “Yeah, I wanna know why I lost 20 dollars!” You give him a look of bewilderment. Wanda thinks it over and decides, “Okay, but if I win, Sam has to stop trying to be geeky like Y/N and Peter.” You pinch her thigh and Peter shouts “Hey!” at being called geeky. She ignores the two of you, continuing, “And you have to stop flirting with Y/N.”

“Why? Are you jealous, Wanda?” her brother baits her. Your ears perk up awaiting her response.

“No, you’re just annoying,” Wanda says trying to sound nonchalant, but Pietro knows her well. He continues badgering, “Well, what if Y/N likes it?” 

You decide to partake in his teasing her and add, “Yeah, Wanda. What if I like it?” You look up at her with a cheeky smile and find her already looking down at you with an eyebrow raised and her tongue poking at her cheek, a look you feel says “you don’t want to test me”. Gut feelings shouldn’t be ignored, you think, so you look back to Pietro, “Sorry, I guess I don’t like it.” You follow with a dramatic whisper, “Totally jealous.” She tugs your hair in retaliation for your comment.

“So, is it a deal or not, ‘cause my shoulders are starting to hurt,” Sam says. The twins agree and you are thankful Sam got the ball rolling because you didn’t know how much longer you could hold up Wanda. Peter counts down this time. It’s over in less than 3 seconds. It seems Wanda likes to cheat. Everyone sees the red mist fading after Pietro falls into the water. 

“That’s not fair. You used your powers. That’s cheating,” Pietro says when he comes back up and Sam nodding in agreement while Wanda defends herself saying they never said they couldn’t use powers. You tell Wanda to take a breath and close her nose and then fall backwards to get her off your shoulders. Another few minutes of swimming pass by before Clint yells for all of you to get out and go eat. You all head to the little cabin that has the restrooms and showers. Laura meets you there with towels. Those of you that jumped in the lake enter the showers with clothes and all to wash away the lake water and then head outside to rinse off. 

Clint watches you hand your towel to Wanda for her to dry off first. You say something that makes Wanda let out a resonant laugh and in turn makes you smile vibrantly. He’s only ever seen you look at someone like that once. He grimaces at how that turned out. And Wanda he’s actually never seen act like this, so jubilant and lively, playfully rolling her eyes and pushing you away after you make a stupid joke. It brings a smile to his face despite the voice in the back of his head saying this can’t end well.

As everyone eats, they unintentionally group off to have different conversations. Clint, Sam, and Peter stand by the mini grill, Laura and Nat sit in some camping chairs complaining about the bugs, the kids are drawing things on the ground with a stick they found, and you, Wanda, and Pietro are sitting on other camping chairs.

Pietro and Wanda tell you stories of when they were children, both their eyes seem to almost glaze over as they reminisce on fond memories. Though their storytelling styles differ, Pietro with his animated gestures and Wanda with her attention for detail, they both have you captivated. You offer them a few stories of your own childhood, including the ones you found embarrassing like the three different times you called one teacher “mom” and the time you walked straight into a pole talking to your crush in middle school.

“So you weren’t always so smooth as I hear you are,” Wanda comments through her laughter.

“Nope, this awesome personality took years in the making,” you joke, making Wanda shake her head at you. Pietro comments, “Yeah, not everyone can be born with it like I was.”

Wanda laughs at this, which offends Pietro and soon the twins are bickering much to your amusement. Wanda recounts times Pietro was very much not so smooth with the ladies including things he’s done that caused certain girlfriends to leave him, Pietro obviously having excuses as to why something happened. He fires his shot at her when he tells her she can’t begin to talk about relationships when she’s only had one and it was 3D printed. 

You tune them out after this due to shock and confusion. You’re shocked that Wanda’s only ever dated one person. You never really thought to ask about her exes because you thought it might bring up some bad memories knowing she had just gone through a breakup not so long ago. So you also find it shocking that she was so brazenly forward about wanting to try something with you if she doesn’t date like her brother does-like you do which you don’t even consider dating. You kind of want to smile thinking about it. You just know that she has people left and right who would kill for a chance to be with her, but she likes you. You are trying hard not to let it go to your head but can already feel your ego growing in size. The confusion comes from the 3D printed comment. You’ll have to ask about that later.

“-ask Y/N.” You bring your attention back to the conversation when hearing your name.

“She doesn’t do relationships. She’s too busy playing the game and winning,” Sam chuckles standing between the twins’ chairs. You hadn’t even noticed when he joined you three. You don’t know where they were in the conversation and don’t want to explain what you were thinking about if you ask them to repeat the question because you were distracted, so you decide to go along with Sam. You fake a laugh and say, “Yeah, tried it once and it wasn’t for me.”

“You? In a relationship?” You nod at both of Pietro’s questions. “With who?”

“Her name’s Skye and no, she doesn’t live here so don’t try going around town asking about her. I may not have known you for long, but I can just tell you’re both nosy.” You point at Pietro and Sam.

“Then don’t leave us wondering. What happened?” Sam asks. From the look in his eye, you know he won’t let it go. You don’t feel like recounting the details of how you were falling for someone who left you saying they couldn’t do relationships because they were distracting her from trying to do something important. It was a blow to the gut then; you’re sure your face would show it. You don’t want to be a drag. 

“Nothing exciting. She told me relationships weren’t for her at the time,” you say nonchalantly,  shrugging your shoulders like it doesn’t still hurt to think about.

“So you decided relationships weren’t for you,” Wanda speaks up, her stare hard on your profile like she’s trying to figure you out. You think she reads you too well already, there can’t be anything you hide that she won’t find.

“If you can’t beat them, join them,” you say, trying to look unfazed by it all. It seems to work because the guys move on, Sam joking saying that was the reason you partnered with Wanda after you lost the chicken fight. Wanda, however, is still staring at you, trying to decipher your words. You try not to focus on that. The guys laugh when you say that technically you won because Wanda cheated using her powers.

“So it is cheating! If you say you won, that means Sam and I won, so Sam can try to be geeky and I can flirt with you and you have to tell us how Wanda’s mood changed so fast,” Pietro says matter-of-factly. Now this gets Wanda to quit staring at you. Instead she turns her head to Pietro to give him a glare when he mentions flirting with you. You don’t know too much about Wanda’s powers but you would not be surprised if one was killing someone with a look; Pietro would be pulverized from being on the receiving end of her glare and you from how attractive you found it. 

But now is not the time. As much as it hurts your ego that has now flown through the roof, you reach your foot over to loop your ankle around Wanda and say to Pietro, “Okay, then I didn’t win. It was a draw.” Wanda turns her attention back over to you when she feels your ankle against hers.

“Oh, come on! Just tell us how you did it,” Sam says. 

“Guess she just likes me more than you two,” you offer with a cheeky smile. You miss Wanda blushing when Sam says, “That’s for sure.” You didn’t even catch that because the smell of marshmallows roasting called you. You look over Sam’s shoulder and see Clint helping Cooper and Lila make a s’more. You notice Peter talking to Nat and Laura sitting around a small makeshift fire pit starting to poke marshmallows on the ends of some steel sticks Clint must have bought. “Um, what the hell, guys? Was no one going to call us for s’mores?” you yell more so towards your cousin. 

Everyone turns to look at you but your group who look over to see the reason you were yelling. Your cousin gives you a well-job-done look when Lila says, “Ooo, Y/N said a bad word.” As your group heads over to the rest, you give your cousin your don’t-worry-I’ll-fix-it look you’ve given her countless times and tell Lila, “Yes, I did but you can’t. Not until you’re ten.”

“Y/N!” Both Clint and Laura yell while Nat actually tries to fix it and says, “Y/N was just being funny. Don’t listen to her.”

“But you say Y/N is never funny,” Cooper chimes in. Everyone stifles a laugh when you scoff. “That’s because your Aunt Nat wouldn’t know a joke if it bit her in the ass,” you say the last part directly looking at her. You hear Clint say something like “not this again” while most are saying “oooh” including the kids but they say it to point out you said another bad word.

“I don’t know about that one. Why don’t you bite mine and I’ll tell you?” Nat comes back at you and so do the oohs from everyone and a bonus “burn” from Sam. You reply, “No, thank you. Wouldn’t want to accidentally bite into the stick stuck up there.”

“DAMN!” Sam says and before Nat could respond from what you’re sure would be what ends you tonight, your cousin cuts in. “Enough! I thought I would be raising 3 children. I didn’t sign up for 5. Lila, don’t listen to Y/N about the bad words and if she and Aunt Nat keep arguing,” your cousin threatens, “neither will be having s’mores.”

Both your and Nat’s eyes go wide at that. One thing you and she will never argue about is how s’mores are one of the greatest contributions the US has given the world in terms of culinary delicacies. 

“That got them quiet very fast. How good can s’mores be?” Pietro asks. You and Nat gasp so dramatically one would think Pietro insulted your mothers. “You’ve never had a s’more?” you ask both him and Wanda who shake their heads.

“Why was I never made aware of this?” Nat reprimands them as if it’s the twins’ fault they’ve never had s���mores. “Someone get these two a stick and some marshmallows ASAP,” Nat snaps, and you fetch four sticks and the bag of marshmallows, handing Nat, Pietro, and Wanda a stick each. 

“Prepare to have your mind blown,” you say dramatically. Wanda finds your passion for s’mores adorable. She gives you a smile in thanks when you stick two marshmallows at the end of her stick. Pietro is excited to try s’mores after you and Nat having raved about them; he can’t help but wiggle the stick back and forth while you are trying to put some marshmallows on it. You and Nat are helping the twins make their first s’mores when Wanda asks, “Why don’t Lila and Cooper call you Aunt Y/N?” 

“Because children recognize children,” Nat jests, but your cousin says her name as a warning anyway in case you two started up again. You call over Lila and Cooper for them to answer the question for you. Together they recite verbatim what you had told them to say when someone asked. “Aunt is for when you are old, boring, or married and Y/N is young, cool, and single.” You mouth along and give them a proud smile after.

“Exactly! Thank you, critters.” You give each a high five and they run back to their dad. Wanda looks impressed as do the rest. Nat, on the other hand, looks ready to argue again. “Excuse me, so which of the three am I, huh?”

“Well, you’re not married yet, so you take your pick between the other two choices.” Your eyes shimmer in merriment when she says nothing, opting to glare at you. Sam laughs and asks, “How long did it take them to remember that?”

“A whole summer two years ago. I told them I’d buy 4 pints of ice cream to whoever memorizes it first,” you explain. Everyone enjoys their s’mores, Pietro eating too many for his own good, as the sun disappears below the horizon. It’s not too long before Nat starts complaining about the bugs again. She’s cut off by her phone ringing. She stands off to the side to take the call. You joke around with Wanda saying it’s Bruce calling and you play out the conversation you think they’re having. Wanda laughs at your terrible attempt to mimic Nat and Bruce’s voices.

Nat comes back with news. “So, Rodgers can’t pick us up this weekend. He was called on a mission and had to take the jet, but Tony arranged for two agents named Bobby and Daisy to pick us up in 5 days.”

“You’re staying longer?” Lila asks and when Nat nods, she runs to hug Pietro cheering. You and Wanda look at each other after the news, both trying to see the other’s reaction. You give each other a shy smile. Wanda is happy to have more time with you. She was not ready to leave so soon not knowing when she would be able to see you next. You didn’t really know how you felt. You’re suddenly aware of your heart pounding aggressively against your chest. You were dreading your time with Wanda coming to a close but you were also somewhat prepared to hang on until the weekend without messing anything up. Hearing she’s staying for longer is a relief but you are not sure how long you can go without breaking and kissing her again, getting both your hopes up only for it to all come crashing down when she inevitably leaves. 

Nat interrupts your internal turmoil by ways of complaining again about the bugs. “Okay, this is not gonna happen. Clint, let me see your keys.” Clint tosses her his car keys. She pulls the house key from the key ring and tosses the car keys back to Clint. “Cool, see you all at the house tomorrow. Whoever wants to sleep on an actual bed and not in this AC-less mosquito infested site, you are welcome to tag along.”

Laura stands up way too quickly for someone who is pregnant and says she’s going with Nat. Lila tags along, apparently not wanting to sleep here without her mom. “What a baby,” you say shaking your head as you watch Nat’s car’s lights disappear. 

“Well at least now you’ll have more privacy in the tent,” Sam says, smirking at you and Wanda pointing out that you’ll be alone with Wanda in the tent, which you hadn’t put together until this moment. If your heart wasn’t beating like a drum before, it sure is trying to beat out of your chest now. You gulp at his insinuation. Maybe it isn’t too late to run after the car. 

“Ew, I don’t want to hear anything,” Pietro says, Sam and surprisingly Clint agreeing by nodding their heads. Wanda rolls her eyes at him and Peter on the hand is blushing, trying not to look at you or Wanda like he’s already seen something. You’re suddenly aware that all of them are heading to their tents. The fire had been put out and all the leftover food had been put away sometime while you were watching Nat’s group drive away. Pietro and Peter share one tent and Sam, Clint, and Cooper another. 

Wanda stands and looks down at you expectantly. You see she’s holding the lantern Lila always uses cause it’s in her favorite color of blue. “Do you plan to sleep outside?”

You roll your eyes and stand up to follow Wanda into your tent. There are three sleeping bags rolled out in front of you. “Guess we won’t be needing one of those,” Wanda comments behind you. The comment itself should make you nervous but what actually does it is the sound of her zipping the entrance closed. You gulp and can only let out a simple, “Mhm.”

If that alone had you acting this way, you didn’t want to find out what actually looking her way would do to you, so you quickly move, back hunching, to the back pack you brought. You kneel to comfortably search it. You gave her a better answer, clearing your throat. “Actually, Nat was right about the hard ground. You could use it as a double layer.”

“Or we could share it?” Wanda suggests. You stop digging in the bag as your breath catches. You reply, your voice an octave higher, “No, that-that’s okay.” You clear your throat when you notice your pitch and hope Wanda hadn’t. “I’m used to it, but I wouldn’t want to give you a bad impression of camping.” Wanda had. You are back to searching your bag for the sweats you had brought to sleep in.

Wanda notices you seem a little tense, having dug around that bag for awhile. She walks up to you and places a hand on your shoulder. Your body stiffens like a board under her hand. She has to ask, “Are you nervous?”

“Nervous? Pft, why would I be nervous?” You finally find your damn sweats. “I’ve done this a million times.” You are quick to change the subject when the only clothes apart from Nat’s you find beside your sweats are some pyjama shorts and a tank top. “Is this all you brought to sleep in?”

“I didn’t think we were going to be camping when I packed,” Wanda replies to your inquiry but she still has questions of her own she’d like answered. For example, why are you so nervous and what did the kiss yesterday mean for you two. “Y/N, we need to talk.”

“Luckily, Nat left her stuff so you can wear her clothes. Here.” You hand Wanda Nat’s sleepwear. She can obviously tell you were avoiding the conversation. “You can change. I’ll face the other way.” You turn around and change into your sweats. You would have to leave your top on not having planned for it to have gotten wet. You try not to let the sound of Wanda’s quick intake of breath make you blush knowing you didn’t give her any warning. You try really hard not to guess what Wanda is doing based on the sounds you’re hearing when you think she begins changing but your mind tends to wander especially when it comes to the girl behind you. 

“I don’t see why you have to turn around. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of women undress.” The sound of clothes falling to the ground makes you gulp. You are never so nervous and it’s killing you. You try your hardest to find something funny to say but come up empty. Wanda is still waiting on a response, so you say facing a tent wall, “None of those women are you.”

Your words spark something in each of your heads- a decision. You decide to take a chance with Wanda because you do believe it in your heart. Wanda is not like any of the other women including Skye. Even though she has to leave in five days, you can make it work. Wanda, however, is reminded of how she isn’t like other women. She is reminded of what Nat had said before. She decides maybe Vision was right.

As much as you wish you could avoid a serious talk, you know you owe it to her. They do say the secret to a good relationship is open communication. The term relationship usually makes you want to run for the hills but when you think of it tied to Wanda, a flutter tickles your stomach. It’s a feeling you never thought you would welcome again and you have to suppress a smile.

“Okay, you can turn around now,” Wanda says. She notices you hiding a smile and she’s wondering what brought it on. Wanda watches you move Nat’s sleeping bag under the one meant for her and then settle into your own. Your kind consideration makes her smile weakly, thinking of all the things she’ll miss such as you opening doors for her or letting her have your blanket and remain sitting still for the sake of her comfort. You stare up at Wanda who you see is lost in thought but staring in your direction and finally manage to act like yourself. “I’m sure the view is nice from there, but I can assure you I look good from all angles,” you joke and pat her sleeping bag beside you. 

The sound of your hand patting her sleeping bag brings her out of her head and when she processes what you said, she rolls her eyes at you. She grabs the lantern, setting it a little aways from both of you once she gets into her sleeping bag. Both of you turn onto your sides placing your hands under your heads to face one another. You stare at each other for a while before a question pops up in your head. You ask, “What did Pietro mean by 3D printed?”

“Sorry?” Wanda looks confused so you clarify. “When you and your brother were arguing, he said your last relationship was 3D printed.” A light bulb goes off in her head, now knowing you were referring to Vision. “That was just Pietro being a jerk,” Wanda says and then she goes on to explain her relationship with this synthetic being to you. You try really hard not to let the fact that this ex-boyfriend of hers quite literally has a connection to her because how were you supposed to compare to that. 

You shake that off and scrape every corner of your mind for any trace of confidence and gather that to work up the nerve to say, “Off topic, or maybe on topic, but I feel like we need to talk about yesterday on the ferris wheel.”

Wanda sees you struggle trying to start a serious conversation. Trying not to have you freak out, as Natasha had implied would practically be impossible, Wanda meets you in the middle. She tries a bit of humor, something you are more comfortable with. “You mean our friendly date?” She adds in a chuckle so you would know she is kidding with you.

You smile, appreciating her trying to make it easier on you to talk to her. If she’s trying for you, you can try for her, you think. You sober up and a more serious expression falls upon your face. You want Wanda to know you mean everything you are about to say next. Wanda, however, misreads the intent behind your expression. What she sees is you finding the words to let her down slowly again. You had said relationships weren’t for you and talk of past flings proved that, so she took a page out of your book- if you can’t beat them, join them. She can play nonchalant too.

“Yeah, about that. I’m sorry I acted so weird after, like it didn’t happen. The truth is I tried to ignore it, but I can’t because it’s constantly replaying in my head. All I can think about is doing it again and I know I said we could only be friends, but-”

“You were right.” Wanda cuts you off early. “What?” you ask thoroughly confused. She continues, “When you said we should just be friends, you were right. It was silly of me to even suggest anything. I mean I’m leaving in five days, so what is the point right?” Wanda reasons with you and as you are about to rebut to say you can make it work, she continues, “I mean I’m probably not in the right headspace to start anything serious. Vision just broke up with me like a month ago.” 

You are starting to feel like you were gathering up courage for no reason, Wanda not letting you speak and stepping on every butterfly that had flapped its wings in your stomach with every word she says. “I came here to take my mind off of it and like magic, you appeared at the door- the perfect distraction.”

That is the blow to the gut you thought you could forget. You thought Clint was the one with perfect aim but Wanda impresses you with her accuracy, choosing the exact word that kills the last bit of hope left in you. On her side of things, Wanda thinks she is doing the right thing even though it kills her to push aside her feelings. Wanda thinks she is sparing you from having to turn her down again and sparing her feelings from having to hear you reject her once more. 

“So don’t worry about the fair. I can definitely say I was not thinking about Vision on the ferris wheel. You are most welcome to do it again anytime.” Wanda forces out a laugh. You didn’t think the sound that would always make you smile would ever make you want to cry. No, you were not going to cry about a girl, especially in front of said girl no less. 

You are angry with yourself. Angry for being so silly as to think this wouldn’t happen. You really played yourself here believing she would be nothing like Skye. It’s not Wanda’s fault. You know this. Still, you can’t help but place some blame on her, her and her stunning smile and her witty remarks and her gorgeous hair and her soft hands that would hold yours or playfully punch you when you joke around. You are angry and upset, and there are normal ways to deal with those emotions. You could yell, you could cry, you could mope and eat all the ice cream you wish, you could even, god forbid, go for a run, but all of those options are too rational for someone with impulsive tendencies. 

Instead, you blink away the tears that were forming, from anger or sadness you don’t know, and move exceptionally closer to Wanda reaching out to run your fingers through her hair. Her breath catches as she watches your eyes take in every inch of her face with a look she can’t quite place. Her heartbeat paces quickly when she catches your eyes glancing down to her lips and then coming back up to peer into her eyes.

“Friends kiss friends all the time, right?”

You hardly give Wanda any time to nod before you crash your lips onto hers. This time you give her time to respond and the second you feel her kissing you back, you push her to lie on her back. 

If a distraction is what she wants, you’ll show her just how distracting you can be.

______________________________________________________________________

One eternity later... je suis retournée! Thank you kind person who asked about me. I’ve been busy with school stuff but I’m done and graduating in two days so I finally have time to get back to this. So next update will probably be Sunday or Monday. Two more chapters left. 

Next chapter: ;) (aka writer struggles to describe things having no experience of doing such things)

Taglist: @madamevirgo @marvels-writings @gayarchnemissis @myperfectlovepoem @purplemeetsblue @magicallymaximoff @b0mbdotc0m @helloalycia @ironscarletwidowsoilder @cantcontroltheirfear @trikruismybitch @your-my-mission @imagine-reblog @fayhar @idek-5 @causeitswhatjesuswouldfreakingdo @bemyvitamin

[chefdoeuvre]

Aftermath

Jay Halstead

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Sister!Reader

Description: People always tend to forget about the aftermath.

Words: 2,122

Requested: yes by anonymous; second, if it's ok i wanted to request a part two to the imagine? i was wondering if you could just explore the aftermath of her assault, as she continues to heal and accept what's happened to her. by this i mean experiencing ptsd and having nightmares, flashbacks and dealing with certain triggers. also, maybe she could still sometimes turn to substances as many survivors do, and just break down sometimes. obviously since it's a halstead sister fic and i love the support system in the last story, i'd love to see jay helping her through everything and being super protective + some scenes with the rest of intelligence? but it's obviously up to you. thank you so much <3

Warnings: mention of drinking, sexual assault, drugs, language, PTSD, Jay Halstead and all of Intelligence being the best.

A/N: This is the long awaited part two to Infliction, and by long-awaited I mean like a month later. I tried to make the end light hearted because it seemed like a good way to go. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors.

—

It had been a few weeks since the party and things were beginning to look up. You and Brayden started hanging out more and it was safe to say the two of you were on your way to becoming best friends. The group of guys had all been arrested and sent far away from you. You, Jay, and Will have been having more frequent family movie nights instead of them heading out to Molly's every free night they got. Intelligence had basically adopted you as one of their own and even went out of their way to hang out with you. Kim and Hailey had girls nights away from the ever-annoying guys they work with. Adam and Kevin practically chauffeured you to hangouts with Brayden and took you out to your favorite diner on the weekends. Even Hank had called you once in a while as a check-in and to keep you informed about your case. Overall things seemed to be getting better for you.

Except for one little detail. Your PTSD was hitting you like a truck. Of course, the only person who even remotely knew what was happening was Brayden because he was the one person you spent most of your time with. Thankfully he was there to help ground you and calm you down when it all became too much for you. This wasn't sudden, it's been building up since it happened and clearly you needed to work on accepting it rather than shoving it all down. That's one thing you and Jay had in common, the two of you always had trouble addressing your problems no matter how big they became.

Currently, you were laying in bed and staring up at your ceiling that Jay had covered in stars for you. If there was one thing about you is that you still are a child at heart. You had been shocked awake by your recurring nightmare. It always followed the same premise of the night of the party but every night there were either different people, points of view, or different actions you took that still led you to the same outcome. There were dried tears staining your cheeks that you hadn't bothered to wipe away and every few moments there would be a soft sniffle to break the eerie silence.

Having enough of staring up at your ceiling you let out a low huff and pushed yourself up to a sitting position. You turned to the side and looked at the clock resting on your nightstand. The clock read 4:19 AM which was clearly too early for you to be up but too late for you to try and go back to sleep before Jay's rustling while getting ready would wake you up. Reaching over to open the drawer in your nightstand you checked the small bottle hidden under the glasses case that held your blue light ones. It was three-quarters full of vodka you had inconspicuously stolen from Jay's cabinet. You kept promising yourself that you wouldn't drink anymore, but clearly, that wasn't really panning out in your favor. Sure you would have a swig or two before braving yourself and heading off to school but it was to take the edge off, not to get drunk.

If Jay were to check through your drawer he'd probably think otherwise. You had stopped with the pills since he had found you, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him so you continued to drink. Obviously, it wasn't a lot and definitely not enough to get you drunk off your ass. You just wanted to be buzzed enough to have the courage to walk into your dreaded school every morning and deal with the numerous triggers you kept on discovering.

Eventually, it was time for you actually start getting ready for school. Jay had already left for work a while ago, leaving a kiss on your head before stepping out the door. You pulled on a random outfit that was comfortable and your usual pair of shoes before throwing your backpack over your shoulder and walked downstairs. Deciding against your worst judgment you made the choice to brave the day without the buzz of alcohol. Waiting at the front entrance of your building was Brayden. Like every morning the two of you would walk to school together if Jay had to go into the district early. If Jay only had paperwork that day he would drive the two of you to school instead, but that didn't happen very often.

The two of you walked to school silently, only exchanging a few words of greeting. Once you had made it to the large building you both had to split up for your classes. The day went on like usual, boring teachers droning on about upcoming assignments and tests. Lunch had arrived after what seemed like forever and you sat at an empty table practically half asleep. You held your head in your hand as you kept your eyes from slipping shut at the exhaustion.

"You not feeling too hot there?" One of your classmates from English asked as he passed by.

You froze at the familiar words before shaking yourself out of the memory.

"Fine, just tired." You brushed off their comment as he nodded with an understanding smile before continuing to his table.

Moments later the door opened and you picked your head up reluctantly. It was a few guys on the football team.

"You not feeling too hot there?" One of the seniors asked you.

You simply shook your head which only worsened the pain in it. The boys walked a few steps closer before placing their hands on your shoulders. They shoved you back onto the bed and immediately your body began to react.

You kicked and punched aimlessly to get them off of you but your movements were uncoordinated and your mind was foggy. There were too many of them and they began to overpower you, their hands wandering to unwanted places.

“Y/N?” Brayden’s voice pulled you out of the flashback.

“Huh?” Your teary eyes darted around his face before focusing on his concerned expression.

“Let’s head to the library, all right?” Brayden suggested already standing up from his seat across from you.

You nodded silently before hiking your bag over your shoulder and walked to the library beside him. Luckily at your school, they were lenient enough to let you head to the library during lunch. Usually, the kids didn’t take advantage of it but it was an unspoken spot of peace for you and Brayden.

The two of you sat at a table near the back and Brayden pulled a chair up beside you.

“Want to talk about what happened back at lunch?” Brayden asked softly.

You bit your lip in contemplation. This had been happening for weeks and every time you’d shake your head and change the subject. But the fact was it wasn’t getting better and you just needed to tell somebody that you weren’t okay. A few tears slipped out of your eyes which led to quiet sobs escaping from your lips. Brayden offered you a hug with outstretched arms, making sure to check if you were okay with it. You leaned forward into his embrace and squeezed his waist tightly. He held you there while rubbing soothing circles on your back until your cries stopped. You lifted your head off his chest and wiped away the remained tears on your cheeks before speaking up.

“Uh, flashbacks. I’ve been getting them for a while. I thought they’d go away, but they haven’t.” You explained with a sigh, avoiding his gaze and instead taking interest in your hands.

“Okay first, if they happen again tell me, or pull on my sleeve and I’ll get you somewhere quiet. Got it?” Brayden bent his head to try and get into your eye line.

You nodded your head with a hum before he spoke up again, “since they haven’t gone away maybe you should talk to someone. Preferably a professional, but if you’re only comfortable telling me then I’m all ears. Although, I’m not sure that I can cure you with magic, wish I could though.” Brayden tried to lighten the mood with his magic comment.

“Thanks, Brayden. Jay actually has been bugging me about seeing a therapist. Said it helped him with his PTSD, I think I might take him up on it.” You looked up at the boy with pursed lips.

“That’s good. Just know we’re not trying to force you into anything, we just want you to feel better however long that may take.” Brayden gave you a soft smile.

“You are wise beyond your years, you know that?” You smiled back with a small laugh.

“I try, I try.” Brayden shrugged nonchalantly.

“Can you come with me to the district after school?” You asked cautiously.

“Of course, not like I’d rather do my homework.” Brayden laughed.

“And there’s the Brayden I know.” You smiled widely.

Soon enough you and Brayden had been making your way to the twenty-first district to talk with Jay and probably the rest of Intelligence. The air was lighter between the two of you once you had finally started to open up. Of course, you hadn’t spilled everything but the little you had told him made the weight on your shoulders lessen slightly.

“Ah, baby Halstead and company, what brings you here?” Trudy greeted from the front desk with a tight-lipped smile. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she had a soft spot for you.

“Can you ring us upstairs? I need to talk with Jay.” You asked.

“You’re lucky they haven’t caught a case today.” Trudy walked out from behind her desk and led you and Brayden upstairs.

“Thank you, Trudy.” You smiled and followed the woman.

“I have a special delivery for Detective Chuckles.” Trudy spoke up once the three of you reached the top of the steps.

Jay’s head snapped up from his desk with a look of confusion when his eyes landed on you. He quickly stood up and scanned you over for anything.

“What happened, are you all right?” Jay cupped your cheek in concern before sparing a glance at Brayden for any sign of something bad.

“I’m okay, I just needed to talk to you.” You reassured him.

“All right. You wanna head into the kitchen?” Jay asked.

“No, we could talk at your desk. They’re all gonna find out anyway.” You gestured to the rest of the unit who was watching the two of you intently.

Jay nodded his head and led you to his desk. You reached out and held onto Brayden’s arm as you pulled him along to take a seat and sit beside you. Of course, at this, the entire unit had gathered around with concerned faces once you started to explain to them. Jay’s expression was held with soft eyes as he listened to you agree with wanting to try therapy and asking for help.

Once you were done Jay stood up and placed a kiss on the top of your head before whispering into your hair, “I’m proud of you.” Jay pulled away to give you a warm smile.

“All right come here you little muffin.” Kim held out her arms with a smile.

You stepped forward into her embrace as she squeezed you tightly, she rocked the two of you from side to side eliciting a small giggle out of you. Hailey joined the hug with a laugh once Kim pulled her by the arm.

Antonio placed a hand on your shoulder once you, Hailey, and Kim pulled away, “I’m proud of you, kiddo.” He offered you a kind nod.

“So proud.” Kevin gave you one of his signature bear hugs.

“Okay, it’s my turn.” Adam squeezed his way to stand in front of you. Which caused everyone to laugh at his eagerness.

“I could never forget about you, Ruz.” You wrapped your arms around his shoulders as he lifted your toes off the ground.

“Are we done yet? You guys are treating my sister like an attraction.” Jay sassed.

“You’re just mad that you only got to kiss me on the head and not a hug.” You retorted from leaning back into Brayden with a smirk.

“No, not true.” Jay shook his head with furrowed brows.

“Yup, totally jealous.” You nodded convinced.

“How did we go from a serious topic to Halstead and mini Halstead having a sarcasm battle?” Adam questioned with a confused expression.

“I learned to stop questioning it.” Brayden shrugged from behind you.

“It’s how we cope. Halstead thing, I guess.” You said with raised brows.

“Fair enough.” Jay sighed.

[erimeows]

yoo I was wondering if I could request something with tfa optimus having a crush on a reader who’s like,, a bot higher up in command if that makes sense? maybe they’re an accomplished warrior/well known commander or something? I don’t have a preference for hcs/scenarios or w/e so it’s completely your choice!

Hey! Sounds like a great request, here’s some headcanons my friend:

As soon as I read this, I was like oh my God, Ultra Magnus’s kid. Imagine he had y/n with whoever you want, not really concerned with that, but yeah.

You’re the same age as Optimus, but you were always very sheltered due to Ultra Magnus wanting to keep you protected from his enemies, so you received private training to join the Elite Guatd and were very well guarded from the public until then after Ultra Magnus’s carrier died in battle.

Optimus never gets the chance to interact with you much, but he’s seen you a lot considering that Ultra Magnus actually trusts you. You’re a beautiful, strong-looking femme with bright optics and a (f/c) and white paint-job. Usually, you’re with Ultra Magnus or with Sentinel Prime and his squad, but something he notices about you is that you’re very... Kind and casual.

He figures it’s something about having been raised by someone so formal and stiff that you’ve developed such an easygoing personality, but you do get rather serious when it’s appropriate. You’re intelligent, an amazing strategist, and brilliant in combat- he can’t help but admire you when he sees you around Ultra Magnus during his academy training.

What starts as interest and admiration turns into adoration and respect when Elita-One has her accident. You object in court when Sentinel pins the blame on him, and though Ultra Magnus quickly tells you to stand down, he appreciates the gesture.

There had always been a tension between the two of you that he couldn’t explain, his feelings aside. Any time he went to stare at you, you were already looking at him, your gaze intense. Any time he would walk by you, you seem to touch him somehow- a servo on his shoulder, digits brushing past his back, shoulder bumping into his- something. He isn’t sure if it’s accidental or not.

You don’t really see each other after that court hearing though- you join the Elite Guard and become a Prime alongside Sentinel, whose guts you hate, and he becomes a space bridge technician. His interest fades for a bit once he crashes on earth and starts his battle against the Decepticons there with his team, but he can’t help thinking of you every once in a while and blushing whenever one of the other bots mentions your name in passing. He finds himself missing having you around sometimes, even if you didn’t get to interact much. 

Even when Sentinel and the Elite Guard show up on earth, you don’t come with them, occupied with business matters back on Cybertron. 

After the attack on Ultra Magnus, as pissed off as Sentinel Prime is about it and as much as Sentinel Prime tries to appeal the decision in court, you’re appointed the new Magnus. The final battle with the Decepticons happens, and Optimus- for the first time in a long time- returns to Cybertron to give you back your father’s hammer, which Sentinel had tried to take from you behind your back, only for Ratchet to go to Cybertron, take it, and bring it back to him.

He enters your quarters and finds you working on preparations for Ultra Magnus’s and Prowl’s funerals, as Ultra Magnus’s injuries were too great for him to survive and Prowl had sacrificed himself in the final battle. Optimus was just grateful that you were making sure both were given a proper service even though you had so many other things to be juggling as the new Magnus.

It was late, so you were alone working since you didn’t like having guards around you, and he had come by himself.

He apologizes for having kept the hammer for so long and offers it back, only for you to tell him that it’s better suited to him anyways- you wouldn’t use it, it brings back too many memories of your father who you’re still grieving and you have your own weapons that you’re already accustomed to. After that, he finds himself watching you work, utterly captivated by how much you’ve matured in what felt like such a short amount of time. 

He’s unsure of what to do and doesn’t want to overstay his welcome, so he turns to leave, only for you to tell him to sit down at your work table- you say you have some high quality oil you’ve been dying to share with somebot, and Sentinel just doesn’t make the cut, Jazz is still on earth, etc.

Optimus agrees and sits down across from you, both of you with your own container of oil. The two of you are restrained and handle your drinks well, so neither of you overdo it, and all the oil does is relax the mood. After a few moments of silence, you finally come out with it.

“I think you’ve done well despite everything you’ve been through. How would you feel about becoming the commander of the Elite Guard?”

He’s baffled, obviously. How was he to go from being shunned for Elita’s accident to commander of the Elite Guard? How would Cybertron react? “What about Sentinel?”

“My father always had a soft spot for him, so I won’t kick him to the streets, but I don’t want him having such a huge responsibility. I’m thinking about giving him a position as my guard.”

You’d never liked having guards around, but it was a fair idea. Ultra Magnus would’ve preferred you had one, and the one time he was unguarded, Shockwave took advantage. 

“Do you think I’m ready for such a huge responsibility more than Sentinel Prime?”

“I consider us equals,” You admit. Optimus is taken aback by it, but finds himself reflecting; maybe he’s a bit too relaxed from all the drinks, but maybe he’s also become more aware of just how short life is and how much more honest he needs to be with himself and others due to the recent events. 

So, he decides to tell you the truth. “If you consider us equals, then... I’d like to tell you something important. Honestly.”

“Go on.”

“You’ve always been above me, so I haven’t felt it appropriate- even now, it feels questionable, but I feel like you need to know, and life is so short... I’ve always been fond of you, (y/n).”

“I’m fond of you, too, Optimus.”

“No, I mean... I’ve developed feelings for you, over the stellar cycles. Ever since we were in training.”

You don’t even hesitate, LMAO. You just lean across the table and push everything to the side so you can grab him by his shoulders and slam his lips against yours. 

Apparently, he wasn’t imagining the tension after all-

[cyborg-franky]

Hello there. I saw your asks are open and the prompt "I'll feel much better if you let me walk you home" jumped out at me. I love your writing so I thought I'd submit an ask for this with a female reader and either Law or Zoro (with the guy offering the walking home)? I used to be team Zoro all the way until you matched me with Law and... now I'm conflicted. I love them both so I'll leave it up to you. Thank you for considering and I hope you are well.

Haha join the Law side of the force. I'll share so it's cool. I picked Law because I have done a butt load for mosshead in the last two days. I am doing well thanks <3 hope you are also ok my dear! and enjoy!

Law x Female reader TW: Some alcohol AU: Modern au - mature students SFW Word Count: 692 House parties weren’t really Law’s thing, but med school had been grated on him and the chance to avoid the books and work load for a weekend was actually rather welcome. He sat on the sofa watching everyone sit around in a hectic circle. He’d drank half a bottle of beer, swirling the liquid around half heartedly as he observed the rest of the group.

Nami was trying to stop Luffy from eating all the pizza before anyone else had a chance to take a piece. Zoro and Sanji were aggressively debating something, he didn’t pay attention, there was too much flexing of egos for him. Usopp was telling everyone a story, arms flapping around as he left no detail out.

He turned to his side, you’d been sat next to him, chuckling at the vibrant atmosphere as you gently sipped the bright cocktail in your hand, something Sanji had made for all the woman, always spoiling his female friends.

Cute he thought watching you brush back loose hair, laughing louder when Usopp and Luffy started to regale the group with another half-baked prank they’d tried to pull. The night went on, he’d finished his one beer, the empty bottle still in his inked hand, he couldn’t help glance at you every now and then, more reserved than the rest of his friends.

You had introduced yourself, spoken a little about yourself. “So, what do you do Law?” You asked shifting a little closer to the tall silent man, not wanting to yell across the din of the room. “I’m a med student, couldn’t you tell from the dark circles?” He smirked when his comment caused you to giggle softly.

“Yeah, I should have guessed.” You gave him a warm smile and it felt nice to have your attention.

“Are you getting a cab?” Nami asked you as she started to put the empty bottles in the trash, everything starting to wind down for the night. You shook your head “Nah, I’m only a fifteen-minute walk” You assured the pretty red head.

"I'll feel much better if you let me walk you home” You and Nami both stared at Law, Nami quirked an eyebrow at the man’s uncharacteristic politeness. “Yeah, he’s a good guy, he’s creepier then anything out there so you’ll be safe” Nami winked at you playfully poking her tongue out at Law.

Who did not seem impressed with the back handed compliment but shrugged his shoulders “If your sure… I’d like that”

--

The night was chilly, colder than you expected and you regretted your choice not to bring anything to cover your bare arms. “You alright?” The first words he’d said since you started off from your friend’s house. “Oh yeah”

“Tsk you’re a bad liar, here” You watched him pull off the ghastly bright yellow sweatshirt with the smiley pattern and shoved it into your hands. “Are you sure?” You stared at it, feeling his body warmth still radiating off of it.

“What sort of Doctor would I be if I let someone get a cold? It’s fine. Just give it back next time you see me” Law dug his hands into his jean pockets, a way of making sure you couldn’t hand it back to him. “Ah thanks” you slipped it on, it was long on your arms, he was a tall string bean of a man you supposed. It felt nice on you, his cologne was pleasant. “And when will that be?” You pushed.

“Hm? Well, I was going to get coffee tomorrow before I start work on a paper, your welcome to join me there” It wasn’t a question, just an open-ended offer which you smiled at nodding your head.

You soon reached your door and he waited until you’d found your keys and let yourself in, you waved your hand at him, and he nodded, giving you a half-hearted wave. Once in your house you looked at your phone, it lit up from a message, you unlocked it and saw the notification ‘Dr Traffy’ Goodnight, see you tomorrow.

You couldn’t help beaming brightly, you were looking forward getting to know your new friend…