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windblooms · 4 years

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childe scenario – after the golden house

you, an ex-fatui executive, decide against your better judgment and tend to the wounds of the near-dead 11th harbinger following his duel at the golden house. spoilers for the 1.1 archon quest.

gender-neutral reader. enemies to lovers soft spot syndrome. sfw, but contains mentions of blood/injury. also childe briefly in foul legacy armor. canon-divergence. 2669 words (nice).

with the fatui’s nails so deep into the city, staying in liyue probably wasn’t your brightest idea in retrospect.

you blame your sentimentality of liyue on the exact same thing that caused you to leave the fatui in the first place: wanting to live without fear. while the fatui treated you well enough, as you were considerably efficient in your ranks, being part of a partially underground, partially illegal business wasn’t exactly the most liberating practice either. it didn’t take long for you to realize that, behind their scheming and pretenses of fair economics, the fatui would have their underlings wound so incredibly tight around their fingers that their violent tasks would rapidly become suffocating.

that is, once you were in the fatui, getting out would be akin to scaling qingyun peak with one arm tied behind your back.

the only reason you were able to? because you ran. you were desperate for a new life, sure, but also you weren’t below realizing when something was out of the question. it took a few months to shake them off your trail, having to move constantly between fontaine and mondstadt, but you finally settled in liyue.

it was a quiet, peaceful city. the governing body was fair enough with its jurisdictions, and after a year of hiding, you were able to enjoy the lantern rite festival without fear.

that is, until the northland bank sat its obnoxious ass down the street.

archons, really, once you found a place you thought was safe enough, you’d have to start moving again. initially, you reasoned that it had been over a year, and that the fatui surely wouldn’t go hunting for a runaway executive. hell, you weren’t even that high on the ladder. however, a few run-ins with scaramouche and pulcinella had left you paranoid enough that, if they spotted you, they would surely put an end to your traitorism.

honestly, you should’ve ratted them out to the knights of favonius while you were in mondstadt. make a quick bargain, have jean toss a few coins your way, and you would be set. it would’ve definitely been worth the trouble, now with the knowledge that the fatui were your neighbors.

now, there’s no time to dwell on what you could’ve done. it’s either run again, or hold your ground right under the fatui’s nose. you might, sort of, maybe, probably do not have the funds to move for the third time in a row, but maybe counting couldn’t hurt –

no, yeah, it hurts, you grimace as you slide the coin bag back in your bedside drawer. outside, it’s dark, and the sky seems a bit more disturbed than usual. it isn’t usually overcast in liyue, and the blue lightning does nothing to quell your unease. the streets are also empty, but lights illuminate each building.

from your window, a quick glance towards the northland bank reveals to you that it is uncharacteristically dark. no lanterns, no lights. you frown, troubled that the individuals you were so alert to monitoring, had a lifeless stronghold. not typical of them at all.

so, you decide while your long-time enemies are plotting (or whatever they’re doing that prompts them to close an entire bank for), now might be the best time to potentially make a run for it, light coin bag be damned.

hastily, you rid your apartment of personal belongings by unceremoniously shoving them into your bag. if it’s one thing you were grateful for in this world, it’s archon magic. you don’t fuss over the science behind it, but whatever made your bag feel like a bottomless pit was an actual life-saver. packing is extremely efficient with it, and in less than fifteen minutes, you’re ready to go.

all that’s left is to write a thank-you note to the liyuen couple who let you stay while their son was out exorcising. at the time, they assured you that you would be no trouble for you to take up a guest room, but nonetheless you tried to pay them with whatever you had left over after commissions.

you grab a writing utensil, still feeling a bit rude to leave on such short notice, and swear to yourself that you’ll visit in the future. for good measure (after sullenly looking into your coin bag), you leave an acceptable(-ish) amount of mora on your former bed.

all right. now, time to leave, with your foot out the door and wind scratching at your face, as if the odd overhead weather wasn’t already an omen.

you’re barely past liyue harbor, headed towards the luhua pools, when a comet shoots above you past mount tianheng. no, not a comet, you realize as it dips from the sky, headed for landfall around a kilometer away. a comet of water?

if a dead northland bank wasn’t the nail in the coffin, this surely is. you’ve been around enough in the fatui to know that whatever fell from the sky has to be the work of a vision user, or some more powerful being. turning towards where you estimate to be the crash site, you weigh your options. you’re already outside of the city, and the fatui are probably preoccupied. you can manage a detour for now and inspect the hydro-apparition. regardless, you deem that the farther away you are from the water you are, the safer you might be from what’s about to happen – you look back towards liyue harbor, and nearly shudder at the rising tide and choppy waves.

after about fifteen minutes of walking in the rain, you find yourself between the slope of the dunyu ruins and mount tianheng. it’s vacant, save for the weathered ruins, and a sizable crater meters wide. cautiously, you approach the edge, summoning your sword with one hand and conjuring your vision in the other. you’re not going to let curiosity kill the cat, especially not if this turns out to be a prank by the archons.

in the center of the mess is, well, another mess. you blink a few times, wary, as you discern that an individual lies in the rubble. they’re actually conscious, you soon find out, as they righten themselves from the fetal position into a kneel, supporting their body weight with their arms. their body is covered head-to-foot in dark, purple armor, and a red mask with a broken, center orb gleams faintly in the night.

it is only when you the individual looks up at you, straight at your head, do you realize that you should not be here this was a bad idea –

and then they collapse.

“shit,” you murmur to yourself, vision still pulsing in your palm, which has become increasingly sweaty. you step back from the edge as an orb of water surrounds the armored-being, encasing him like a cocoon, before dissipating to reveal a much more vulnerable, tired man underneath. his hair is matted to his face from the rain, yet a much smaller mask rests on his eyes; his clothes are somewhat torn (you suspect that whatever had happened, his armor absorbed most of the damage), and you can very faintly see his chest heave.

but, ah, speaking of his clothes,

they were the colors of the fatui.

“no, no, bad idea,” you tell yourself over and over again, sword put away yet vision still bouncing in your hands. you walk away from the crater briefly, before walking towards it again, peaking down to check on the fallen man, and then scamper back. the whole idea was to run away, not go straight to them, as if you had managed to doom yourself after all.

pacing back and forth, you contemplate for another minute. he’s clearly injured, with how he’s laying on the ground and not moving, so the nice, not-so-hardened part of you wants to help him. if he was a regular civilian, surely you’d already be down there and trying to take him back to liyue and patch him up, but he’s with the enemy. no way someone who can transform into armor is just an underling, so he’s probably someone exceptionally powerful –

“i see you,” a voice comes from the crater, and your vision nearly explodes in your hands from your nerves. summoning your sword quicker than you ever have in your life, you steel yourself towards the bottom of the crater.

except, he’s not holding a weapon to your face, or threatening to skewer you into a million pieces. except, he’s not scowling at you, or demanding you assist him at once before he blows something up.

instead, he’s on his knees. looking up at you with the desperation of a man completely robbed, crippled from something he can’t speak of yet wants to scream about. his eyes, now free from the mask, pierce into you with a vividness that could rival the richest hues of luhua, and archons damn it do you melt.

you melt, and realize you should run away. you melt, all while cursing yourself, that this man might not be so kind as to spare you in the future, when he’s back at his full health. you melt, thinking that, well, you haven’t seen him before, so maybe he doesn’t know who you are either. you melt, even as you extinguish your vision and put away your sword, and slide to the bottom of the crater to lug his limp body back to the top, to the shelter of the ruins, and rummage through your bag for medicine.

he hasn’t said anything for the past ten minutes, and you’re thankful that there’s finally someone from the fatui who can keep their mouth shut, even if this is half-beaten to death. “you’re not dying on me,” you insist, as if your words could will him back to full consciousness. “not when i’m risking my life for someone like you.”

as you work on bandaging his arm, out of the corner of your eye you swear you see his mouth twitch. is he trying to speak? no, you want some silence for a bit longer, but pause as you notice a gash on his torso.

“this is medically consensual, okay?” you wait two seconds to see if he objects, before unbuttoning the lower part of his coat and applying pressure on the wound. the blood has soaked through his clothes, and just as eagerly, seeps into the cloth you’re shoving against it. the man stirs as you continue to clean his wounds, and when his eyes open, you’re too preoccupied with your short supply of towels to notice.

when you’re aware of a gaze on you, however, you turn towards him with a hardened face. you already know what you’re going to say. even if he doesn’t know who you are, you’re going to make it clear that, for your own satisfaction, you won’t help him back to liyue and he’ll have to make the walk himself.

“you were out there,” you say simply, motioning towards the crater with a nod of your head. “i’ll patch you up, but you’ll have to get further help yourself.”

the man with eyes of the deep regards you, but you busy yourself by applying gauze. he’s propped up against a pillar, and you’re crouching at his side. when you’re about finished, only then do you meet his eyes.

he beats you to whatever you’re about to say. “i didn’t think,” he starts, and you’re already frowning, “that you’d come back.”

ah, referencing when you practically left him in the crater. his words are vague enough when he says that you ‘came back’ that you aren’t too tense, and you indulge him in a bit of silence before responding. “not like i’m used to rescuing people who fall from the sky.”

despite his injuries, the man manages a laugh. he seems almost flustered at your statement, although you can’t understand why. underneath his soaked bangs, his eyebrows rise, and he seems almost . . . nervous? you can’t possibly fathom as to why, but dismiss your curiosity. the more small talk he coerces you into, the longer you’ll spend with him.

you finish sealing the gauze, tossing the roll back into your bag before commanding it to disappear. blood has soaked into the ground at his sides, also you’re sure that it’ll was away with time. you’re about to stand up, satisfied with your good-samaritan duties for the day, when he stops you by locking his fingers around your wrist.

he’s in the middle of saying something, but you refuse to let him, drawing your sword and pointing it directly at his throat, his mouth agape as he releases his hold on you. you consider each other, and when you’re certain you have the upper hand, you draw your line.

you spit the words like venom. “do not touch me, fatui. i’ve done what i can for you, and you won’t be getting anything else from me.”

your blade doesn’t lower from his form, and as you stand above him, you regard his hands, as if he might summon his own weapons in an instant. if he’s smart (which you think he is yet simultaneously pray he isn’t), he’s probably plotting how to get out of your sword’s reach. you’re not going to let him, after you’ve been so self-sacrificing, putting your life on the line for someone affiliated with the organization that suffocated the life out of you.

a tilt of the head, yet silence from his mouth. he seems surprised that, while you allowed him to laugh mere moments earlier, you’re now pointing your weapon at him, although something in the ease of his facial features tells you that he’s not concerned in the slightest.

“i wanted to say thank you,” he breathes finally, and you look as if he’d just punched you in the gut. “being in your position probably isn’t easy, and i’m the last one you wanted to see, but you still . . . ”

fuck, no, not this. you don’t know if he’s a prophet, if he knows who you really are, or the ‘i’m on the run’ stamp on your forehead is that obvious, but you aren’t going to fall for the fatui’s words. your fists clench, and you once more prepare to denounce his organization,

and you’re disarmed in an instant, sword thrown to the side and fingers restricted by his larger grasp. archons, you couldn’t even see him move, what a deceptive bastard, feigning injury –

“stop,” he hushes, and despite your fury you register it as a plea, not a command. the man repeats himself, before continuing, “we won’t haunt you any more; i’ll make sure of it.”

five seconds, then ten. you had determined that his grip was too strong to break free of, and are left in no position to move unless he releases you. he holds your gaze without a hint of malice, even though you try your hardest to find any in his eyes.

when he does let go of you, fingers skimming past your flesh, you run faster than you ever have before.

you run, past the ruins, past the harbor, and until you can’t see liyue behind you any more. you run, unable to see a palace fall from the sky and crash into the ocean, and until you’re surrounded by mountains and there’s not a ginkgo tree in sight. you run, unsure if his words are true, but certain that he knows who you are.

you won’t trust him. as you lay on the ground, wheezing to catch the air that’s left your lungs, you once again swear to yourself that you can’t trust the words of the fatui.

as the northland bank lights ignite themselves in welcome of its master, childe presses a hand to his bandaged torso. a spark of your vision lingers between his fingers, and he observes it before it disappears.

he’s already hurt enough people. he heads to the second floor, and erases your name from the fatui files.

#genshin impact #childe x reader #tartaglia x reader #childe scenarios #childe headcanons #hurt comfort #angst #enemies to lovers #childe stans are feral #but im friends with so many of them :^)

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badgirlcovenrep · 3 years

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atlas

Alex Chen × Steph Gingrich fluffy comfort one-shot

(I was talking to a friend about the game and we were discussing how Alex is probably still carrying a lot of trauma. And even after everything that happened at the mines we still don't see her really grieve for the whole situation and herself. So- I had to write it, you know?)

Enjoy!

TW: mentions of suicide, death and mental health issues.

It's two months into their relationship now, and they are somewhere in a Californian town, living in a tiny apartment close to the beach. They play together in small venues and underground clubs. Alex bartends and Steph referees for DND campaigns at a nerd bar they found by chance on their first week there.

They're happy. As happy as Alex remembers being since she was- well, maybe nine.

Every day, it's a little like waking up into a dream. Living in an apartment with her first girlfriend, listening to music as they cooked dinner together. Getting to kiss her just because Alex felt like it. Because her heart went a little loopy inside her chest when she smiled. Because she knew Steph would hold on to her waist and make her feel like she was full of electricity.

The 'falling in love' business felt overrated before Steph.

But Being in the middle of it now, Alex doesn't think there's anything better.

Although a part of her still felt quite numb - she guesses it's not something that will go away that easily - and day by day, Alex felt a little bit more like she could breathe... like she was finally letting herself go, at least a little bit.

****

Now that she could comprehend and use her powers, it also seemed as if she'd started to become even more of a magnet for all sorts of emotion around her. And apparently Alex could do it in her sleep too.

The nightmares came in clusters most of the time, a badly cut-together mess of voices and feelings. The lady that lived under them, who lost her son when he was little. The couple from down the street, who were going through a hard time in their relationship. Even the little girl from upstairs, who had terrible night terrors of sharp-teethed monsters reaching from under her bed.

They all mixed inside her head until she woke up gasping for air and sizzling with emotion.

It was rare that she'd have a full dream, one that made sense and completed itself, but when she did they were always about Gabe. About sitting together at the rooftop of the Lantern and sharing a beer. Or climbing trees, like they used to do when they were little.

It was a relief from the usual doom.

And that dream was supposed to be nothing different. Or at least she thought it wasn't.

****

In it, they were at the ravine. A world of twinkling stars shining above their heads. The Colorado mountains all around them creating a landscape that was just as beautiful as it was bittersweet. Alex could see the log she'd crossed, still standing between her and the tiny outcrop of stone Ethan had been stranded on.

She hadn't dreamed of the ravine since leaving Haven Springs, but while she was there, Alex dreamt of it every night. She would see it when her eyes were closed. She could hear it, - the sirens, the terrible, deafening rumble of the ground splitting beneath them. The panic, pounding into her ears.

But this is different. Because when she looks around, Alex realizes she's standing over the elevated plateau, tied to the waist and leaning all her weight against a sturdy piece of rock.

Looking at her from below is Gabe. Lying on the cold ground. A cheesy smile spread across his face.

"Why are we switched?" Alex asks because that's all she can think of asking, as she stares at the rope that anchored her to the ground... to Gabe.

"Beats me. This is all your brain, not mine." He says, and Alex huffs in annoyance, "you know what's going to happen, but you keep coming here."

"I don't have a choice."

"Hmmm..." Gabe hums, but there's some humor in his expression as he stares intently back at her, "and that's exactly why... I'm here because I should say goodbye."

A coldness spreads over Alex's limbs. Around her, the very fabric of the dream dims into darkness as a strong breeze blows past them. She suddenly feels like throwing up.

"What- what does that mean?" It's a stupid question. This is her dream. Alex knows what it means.

Deep down, she knew she'd been conjuring him up for her own sake. Trying to bring back any morsel of relief into the giant hole he'd left inside her heart. However, Alex also knew at some point he'd be gone- she just didn't expect-

"You don't need me anymore, Alex." He says. As if it's that simple. As if she'd ever-

"I'll always need you, Gabe. Of course I need you." The words stumble out of her mouth, and she can feel the hot, angry tears falling down her face.

It feels like a hot iron pressed to the very top of her chest.

Like lava, boiling up into her bloodstream until Alex wants to punch something. The steam that prickles from under her skin, fighting to break free.

Anger always comes first when people feel cornered. It's something she noticed a while back. Out of all the emotions Alex had dealt with the past few months, that, at least, hadn't changed.

"Shit, Gabe. When you died I needed you more than ever."

"But we can't fix that, can we?" He asks, and another wave of anger rips through her. She looks anywhere but him, because Alex feels that if she does, she'll tackle and kill him all over again. But when he says nothing and they're left in the same pocket of silence - the one right before the whole world collapsed - her eyes eventually fall back to her brother. Tied to her and laid on the ground beneath. Looking at her like just as much the goofy asshole she missed so much.

Anger always felt urgent and fast, like a flash going through her body and leaving everything inside it in disarray. It demanded to be completely felt, but only for the moment it took for Alex to decide it wasn't worth launching the nearest object at a window.

Or trying to kill her dead brother.

"You might have needed Gabe. But you don't need this Gabe anymore, Alex. You can do it on your own now."

The fear and sadness that came after? They were usually much, much worse.

"But this is the only Gabe I have."

Those emotions, when mixed, turned into a horrible harmony that paralyzed her lungs and darkened the sides of her vision. They felt just as urgent as anger, but complacent. A beast staring at her from the very bottom of a pit. Tied to her by the waist and trying to lure her down into the abyss.

And, for Alex, the abyss was as deep as a ventilation shaft for a Colorado mining site.

"No, it's not. You'll always have me, Alex. And you know that." Not in the way that matters. Alex wants to say, but it's so redundant. He's the ghost. He should already know that. "And you have Ryan now, and Eleanor, Riley, Charlotte, Ethan... Steph..." he gives her a cheesy smile in the last name, wiggling his eyebrows back at her teasingly.

"Oh, God, way to ruin the moment." Alex can't help but chuckle a little through her tears. Is she blushing? You can't blame her for blushing, right? God, she feels like Diane.

"Hey. Let me have it. One of my only regrets is that I never got to tease the hell out of Steph for dating my little sister... and for being whipped as hell."

"That would have been so funny."

"I knew she'd get along with you but I guess I didn't expect... that. Shame on me. Should've had more artistic vision."

Alex chuckles as more tears run down her face. It's so bittersweet it hurts from the very inside of herself.

"All jokes aside. I'm glad you have her, and that she has you. She's good. Just make sure you tell her I'll haunt her from the grave if her dumb ass breaks your heart, okay?" Alex nods, and her body starts shaking with strangled sobs. So much emotion she just can't let go of. Because if she does, Alex is afraid there'll be nothing left.

"Hey. Don't cry. You can do this, Alex. You know how to live life now."

"I don't want to lose you again, Gabe."

"You'll never lose me. You'll just have to look a little harder." He smiles up at her, pulling jokingly on the rope, "now play your part - or is it my part? You get it."

And then- too soon. (Same as it was that night.) The sirens blast through the mountains, and somewhere above them, a giant explosion blows her eardrums, and boulders the size of cars come tumbling down the mountain.

She barely has time to blink. Barely has time to breathe one last time. Seen as she's Gabe, when she looks up all she sees is the giant rock, flying towards her, hitting her across the torso so hard, before she knows, she's flying way above the ravine, and one last glimpse of the stars catches hold over the veil of her memory before everything turns black.

****

She wakes up in bed, desperately clawing at the top of her chest as she gasps for air. Her lungs feel like they're made of lead, and all around her, she can feel the weight of the rocks, the explosion, the debris, weighing down her body.

Alex pats across the mattress for Steph, who is not there. Another wave of panic washes over her. So strong her mouth turns dry and her head aches as she tries to breathe in, but her lungs can only handle tiny, torturous gasps of half-breath.

Alex dispels a world of curses towards herself inside. Willing her own body to just calm down. In the bathroom, she can hear Steph singing softly to herself- she must have come home late from the DND tournament. Alex told her she'd swing by, but she'd had a long shift and ended up just passing out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Alex hadn't had an incident like this in very long. She could control it now. Most times. It wasn't easy, with being on the road and constantly surrounded by people. Sometimes, she still got more than she could bargain. When she walked across a depressed person on the sidewalk, or heard one of their multiple neighbors yelling at each other through the walls, and suddenly she felt as if the world blended out of focus into a tsunami of feeling.

Feeling that wasn't hers but still felt so much like it was.

Steph helped whenever it happened. For a sarcastic punk rock mess, she was surprisingly stable and so very reassuring.

Just the fact that she can hear her voice. That Steph is there in the apartment with her, is enough to calm some of her nerves, and while Alex still can't keep herself from pulling in gasps of air as she tries to hold in any kind of oxygen, she at least has a plan.

Water. Water will make her feel better, right?

Almost as soon as the idea crosses her mind, Alex's half-delirious brain commands her to get up, but her body feels so very heavy. Like she's really been trampled over by a wave of giant boulders. And as soon as her feet touch the ground, her legs give up under the weight, and she falls onto the hard floor with a loud, heavy thud.

The girl's hands fly up to hold her weight against the bed, and thankfully that means she doesn't face plant the ground, but it sends her heart into a neck-breaking pace, and all air Alex'd been able to gather so far escapes her in a single huff until she's hyperventilating again, hot, angry tears running down her face.

You're so weak. You're such a fucking idiot. Of course, you had to go and lose Gabe twice, who the fuck would want to stay with such a mess-

"Alex, are you okay?" Steph's voice comes, as she opens the door to find her girlfriend sitting on the ground, looking like she might pass out from just trying to get her lungs to work, "Alex!"

In a second she's crossed their room and kneeled by her, both hands going up to her cheeks on instinct, smearing away her tears.

"Breathe with me, okay? We've done this before, you can do it." She always gets just a tiny bit of a scared aura around her when Alex gets like this, never for long enough that she can read it, but it's still there, the tiny flutter of fear, "come on, breathe."

Her eyes go up to find Steph's, her strong, glittering green gaze. Alex might be the one with superpowers, but it was Steph who could so easily reach in and soften her edges like it was nothing. It was Steph who could just lean in and hold Alex's hand against her chest, letting her feel the determined rise of her lungs. Strong. Stable. Even Alex couldn't possibly understand how she did that.

How she always made Alex's breathing slowly come to shaky, deep breaths, crawling painfully out of her dry throat, but still better than gasping like a fish. Inside her, Alex feels the furious hurricane of emotion, twisting itself into the bottom of her lungs, taking hold of every bit of her until she felt like she could throw up.

"Wait here, I'll get you water," Steph says, and Alex wants to complain, she doesn't want to be alone, even for a second.

But before she can, Steph has left their bedroom for the kitchen, and Alex feels as if she's stable enough to crawl into bed, so she does so at a glacial pace. She grabs Shu-Shu, holding her close to her chest as she sits and waits for Steph.

She eventually comes back in with a glass full and Alex gulps it down in silence, unsure if whatever dam of emotion that has taken place inside of her will break if she tries to speak. So she sets the glass back and lies her head down on the pillow, facing away from Steph and the rest of the room as she tries to reel herself back in.

She can hear Steph taking off her boots and climbing into bed, one arm winding around her waist as she pulls Alex in closer.

"Was it the lady from upstairs?" Steph asks, eventually, after they sit in a few long minutes of silence.

"No." She replies, and it comes out so strangled, so broken, a few more tears run down her face. Steph pulls her even closer, a tight, steady pressure.

"The couple again? I swear to God I'll call the police on that asshole this time."

"No." Alex says, and she detaches herself from Steph just enough so she can turn around and look at her, "I had a dream about Gabe." Simply saying his name makes her whole body shake. Steph is looking at her so intensely, Alex has to close her eyes, holding on to the fabric of her shirt with all she had not to explode in whatever terrifying, dizzying bomb of emotion she could feel brewing inside herself.

Alex felt so much from other people it overwhelmed her multiple times a day, and even then, it was nothing compared to this. Nothing compared to how much sheer strength it took from her not to let it blow.

It scared her. More than anything.

"He wanted to say goodbye." She says eventually, "it was- I don't know. This- I- this isn't coming from anyone- How do I get rid of it? It's like it's all inside of me and it's taking up so much space and I don't know how to fix it" The words come tumbling out before she can stop them, and she's rambling through tears.

Steph sighs. And Alex can feel the love and sadness mixed together, blowing from her in waves as she holds Alex's chin, bringing her up so they can look at each other.

"Baby..." there are tears in her eyes now, as she pulls her closer until their foreheads are touching, and they are so close Alex can smell her lemongrass shampoo, "This is all yours."

And such simple words shouldn't hit her this fucking hard.

But it all suddenly makes so much sense-

Alex was numb after her dad left. She felt nothing for months. It was one of the most terrifying feelings in the world, a deep and powerful depression that threatened to overtake her at any given point.

Like her whole body was nothing but dead weight and her brain was way too tired to even try and keep up.

Young as she was, Alex guesses she never realized the first time she felt anything at all after that was when she discovered her powers. The day a boy came to the orphanage and he was so angry it blew her across the hallway. Ever since then, everything around her was a cacophony of feeling. Coming from every direction. Every street corner, every store, every park.

Every moment of her life since she was eleven, Alex could only feel for others.

"I- I forgot." She realizes, half surprise and half so much sadness another sob breaks through her throat.

Now it made sense, the anger, the sadness, the fear, a hurricane of emotion so very powerful it made her ears ring.

"I'm scared." She admits. Because for someone who had been so focused on learning how to exist among other people's feelings, Alex had no clue how to handle herself, "what do I do with all of this? How do I fix it?"

"Alex. Look at me." Steph brings her face upwards until they are so close, Alex can see the speckles of blue in her eyes, "Gabe died just four months ago, and you were there to see everything- then you got shot and thrown down God knows how many stories into a dark abyss that you somehow walked out of, but not before also finding out about your dad's tragic death - and I haven't seen you cry, actually cry, for yourself, even once."

"I- I can't, it's too much. I don't know how, Steph." Alex had learned her lesson. She'd seen her life as it was and survived it. Deep down she knew it wasn't her responsibility anymore - that it never was her responsibility, to begin with - to hold herself together for others. She knows.

But old habits die hard, and Alex guesses it'll take a while before she starts feeling it too.

Because right now, it still felt like the world might collapse if she wasn't there to hold it together.

"Just- give it to me. Everything you have, I can carry it for you." Steph says, with such determination, Alex actually believes her, but she takes her eyes away, trying to avoid the bubbling of tears threatening to jump out through her throat "Let it go, please, Alex. I can't watch you carry it alone anymore."

At that moment, Alex glances at her again, and there's so much pain, so much love in her eyes, that inside Alex, the dam finally breaks and she's choking on sobs. Tears start running down her cheeks as Steph leans in and pulls her closer, one arm around her shoulder and one on her hip, squeezing tight in reassurance.

If she didn't know better, Alex would've guessed Steph was the one with the superpowers, with the way she coaxes wave after wave of emotion out of her with nothing but her steady presence and quick, light kisses she leaves on Alex's head and hair as she holds on to her shirt for dear life.

It overwhelmed her more than anything she'd experienced so far, and for what feels like hours, she just sobs as Steph holds her.

She cries for her mom. Dead before her time, trying to hold them together to the very end. She cries for her dad, dying a slow death deep underground, a picture of the two children he'd never see again dangling around his neck. She cries for Gabe, for the time they'd never have, for the time they did have.

Above all, for the first time, Alex cried for herself. For being the last out of all of them. For the little girl that had to love and lose every single one of them in succession.

And in the middle of all of it, like a speckle of golden light hidden under all the darkness, for the first time, she feels that it could all start to feel alright.

#send me chenrich prompts #i dare you #chenrich #chengrich #alex chen #steph gingrich #life is strange true colors #long post #chenrich fanfic #chenrich fic #alex chen × steph gingrich

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descendantofthesparrow · 3 years

Text

Huma x reader (mainly showing Harry x reader) - slowburn oneshot - brand new

wattpad version (smut included)

Ao3 version (smut included)

-This is a smut oneshot(edit; turned into a slow burn oneshot that goes into smut cuz I can edit2.0; this tumblr version doesn’t have smut in it, it is hinted at but otherwise its not written but I will link to the AO3 and Wattpad versions that will have the smut posted) because im trying to practice writing it and (y/n) is written with she/her pronouns and has female body parts because, again, im still practicing on smut and want to get used to writing my own…body type before I branch out to attempt to write any other type anyways LETS GET TO IT-

Your leg bounced as you stared at the wooden swing doors of Ursula's chip shop. Harry had left to do some errands two hours ago, and usually he got those particular errands, collecting payment for the protection of shops and territory, done within two hours.

But it had been a whole two hours, you glanced at the clock again, and two minutes. Something burned in your gut, telling you something was wrong. You wouldn’t dare voice your concern in front of the crew and the chip shop customers, you would be cackled at for even entertaining the idea of worrying about someone, even if it was Harry.

You and Harry weren't close, you were just a simple crew member on Uma’s crew, you had joined after their adventure to the isle of the doomed so you didn’t have the bond that the crew had after going through something life-threatening. You were pretty sure Harry didn’t even know your name!

But that never stopped the butterflies in your head and stomach when you heard him laugh, never stopped the heat creeping up your neck when he smirked, never stopped the fuzzy feeling in your head when his ever so bright ocean blue eyes lined with black liner scanned the crew, never once locking onto you but that didn’t stop your heart from beating faster than a hummingbirds wings…whatever hummingbirds were but Gil had rambled about them one day after he found a bird fact book and that particular fact stuck in your head.

Besides, Harry practically had every vk at his feet, hell you were pretty sure Uma liked him too, and he liked her, with how they looked at each other it was a wonder that the entire isle didn’t ‘gossip’ about them.

And you were nothing compared to Uma, who in all honesty, was fucking gorgeous, so you could never blame Harry if he chose her out of all his “suitors” because who were you compared to Uma? You were just the daughter of simple thieves who had unfortunately been sent to the isle.

You looked at the clock again and frowned, it had only been another two minutes but that didn’t stop the pit in your stomach from growing. If Harry wasn’t back by 8:30, which was a bit less than a half-hour from now, then you would go looking for him…well if Uma didn’t send anyone out to look for him first, but she trusted him so she might not send anyone out at all.

But like you, Uma nervously glanced at the doors and clock every few minutes, like you, she also felt something was wrong but had to keep her usual calm demeanor in front of the crew.

You made eye contact with her after looking away from the clock again, Uma raising her brow in curiosity as you felt your ears burn and you looked to the doors quickly.

You counted down the minutes to 8:30, your fingers tapping rapidly against your tray of food and the heel of your boot hitting the leg of your stool in time.

It had been two and a half hours after Harry left for his errands, and you had finally had enough, you made eye contact with Uma as you stood and she nodded, glancing towards the doors then the sword check then back at you.

You somehow understood each other and you nodded back, heading towards the doors quickly as you snatched your cutlass from the sword check and raced out the chip shop in search of Harry.

You hopped over a rusted metal fence and landed on your toes; your eyes wide with caution. you were now just along the lines of territory a rival gang that had been attempting to take Uma’s territory for the past couple months. After you had gone to all the areas that Harry was supposed to go for his collecting route, Dizzy, bless her little heart, had nervously told you about Dylan, Clayton’s son, and his gang had ambushed Harry just a bit after he had finished up at Dizzy’s and kidnapped him and stole all the money he had just collected.

So you went to go collect the pirate and the money they had stolen, they were probably going to keep him for ransom against Uma, but what ransom would they have if there was no pirate or money?

You may have been the daughter of two ‘simple’ thieves but….then again, they were simple on the isle, not in Auradon.

Your lip twitched as a bout of cruel laughter echoed out from the building, you sprinted forward silently as you noticed one of the gang members on lookout duty starting to come around the corner to your right. You took a leaping step, catching yourself on an open window ledge and pulling yourself up swiftly, jumping up the three feet gaps between the windows as the guard passed below you not even knowing you had been where he was walking just a moment ago.

You thanked whatever god was out there for your (dad/mom) teaching you how to free run when you were younger. You peeked into one of the dark floors of the building, pursing your lips a bit as you remembered that their gang site was in an abandoned parking lot. Not much room for error, or hiding places.

You hopped through the window and landed silently on your feet, stopping as another bout of laughter echoed below you.

They kept to the lower floors then, which was good to know, it also meant both an easier and harder escape once you had Harry. Easier because less distance between Harry and the exit, harder because less distance between the exit and the gang.

You ran over to the stairwell; glad you had decided to wear your shoes with no heel as it made running quietly much easier. You grinned as you stepped into the stairwell, no door. hopefully, the other floors didn’t have them either, or else if they squeaked both you and Harry would be in for some shit.

You glanced at the faded number on the wall.

The seventh floor, wow you had climbed quite a bit, hadn't you? You shook away the thought, swiftly yet carefully climbing down the stairs, scanning each floor as you arrived to check for the gang.

Finally, you arrived on the third floor, the only floor with any light coming from it. You moved to stand flush against the wall next to the doorway of the floor, peering in as best you could without anyone seeing you, glancing every now and then to the stairway for any other gang members.

You huffed quietly as Dylan pushed at Harry's limp head, cackling and muttering to himself as he circled Harry like a bloodthirsty shark. You grit your teeth as you got a good look at Harry in the dimly lit area he was in. he was tied to both a structural beam and a folding chair, blood dripped from the side of his head down to his jaw and off his chin, he was starting to bruise on his face, neck, and possibly his torso and wrists, but those weren’t visible at the moment so you settled for guessing his injuries.

His right ankle was also at a VERY worrying angle…you might have to take some drastic measures to get Harry out of this parking garage.

Dylan was muttering something about how Uma would bow to him when she found her ‘precious’ first mate all bloody and beaten, and how he would finally have command of the wharfs.

“not on my watch” you muttered, quickly coming up with a plan and digging into your thigh bag, pulling out a handful of mini smoke bombs that your (dad/mom) had made forever ago in case one of the three of you needed them. You took out your lighter and lit the fuses, chucking them into the room and smirking as they landed right beside the gang members, luck seemed to be on your side today.

“what the hell-HOLY-“ Dylan let out a high-pitched screech as smoke burst from the nozzle of the smoke bombs and quickly filled the room, for being the size of ping pong balls they sure packed a wallop of smoke.

Pulling up your bandana to prevent any smoke inhalation you dashed into the room, running towards Harry but was stopped as a foot came arching your way. You held up your arms in front of your face and blocked the kick, stepping back quickly as the gang member started swinging at you, grunting with effort as you dodged and misdirected his punches.

“WHO THE HELL IS THAT?!” Dylan yelled, you smirked under your bandana, you weren’t really a known member of Uma’s crew, liking to keep to the shadows and out of sight.

You took the moment of disorientation from Dylan’s yell that caused the gang member to slip up and ducked under his next swing, one arm grappling around his next ant clasping with your other hand, your right foot going behind his ankle and pulling him forward flipping him over and slamming him into the ground with a loud crack.

He was out for the count, now, you looked up and around you, through the smoke you could see maybe 9 members left, including Dylan. Should be easy enough, you glanced at Harry, frowning slightly as he started to cough, but you would have to work quickly so Harry didn’t get all the smoke in the garage in his lungs.

You threw yourself back as another lackey of Dylan’s threw a punch at you, you decided to make quick work of them and grabbed their wrist, pulling it up and back towards them, smirking at the sickening pop that sounded from their shoulder. They screamed and dropped to the ground in agony, yelping as you leaned back from a sweeping air kick and slammed your hands onto the floor, using the momentum and lifting your legs back with you.

Your foot slammed into the next lackey's chin and he fell back, his skull slamming against the floor with a crack. You rolled back into a summersault and stood on your feet, catching the leg that was aimed at your chest and pulling the lackey towards you, kicking them twice in the stomach then throwing them over your shoulder with a twist of your torso and a spin of your feet.

They crashed to the floor just next to Harry, who was just barely coming to consciousness and jumped at the loud noise. He squinted through the smoke and dimly lit area, eyes widening as he spotted the spray panted symbol of Uma’s crew plain on your jacket sleeve.

Dylan watched in shock as you easily took out his gang members, and when the final one fell, he could feel the smug grin you had when you turned to face him.

Dylan let out an intelligible yell and rushed at you, only for his world to go black as you stepped to the side, grabbed his arm, turned your back to his chest, and swung him over you using his momentum.

Dylan and his gang were out for the count. And with Dylan knocked out the smoke finally cleared and all that was left was the dimly lit floor, the unconscious bodies of the gang, and an injured Harry.

You let out a soft sigh and pushed down your bandana, walking towards Harry and flipping out your pocket knife, kneeling next to Harry and cutting the ropes around his wrists and legs, then the ones around his torso keeping him to the beam. “woah-“ you pressed your hands against Harry's chest gently as he tried to rush out of the chair. “-hold up, you’re really hurt” Harry looked down at you, and you winced as you saw his swelling eye and bleeding nose for the first time, his lip was busted too.

“who-“ Harry slurred, trying to ask for your name or your rank in the crew but was unable to get the words out still being very much out of it from being jumped and beaten.

“im (y/n), im a regular ol’ crew member, and I got worried about you and came looking, come on, there are still some members on guard duty and we need to skedaddle before they come up” Harry gave a slow nod and with your help got to his feet, letting out a yelp as he put too much pressure on his broken ankle.

“um, okay” you quickly thought up a plan and had Harry lean on you almost completely, cursing Dylan for making the main part of his hideout on the third floor, now you had to get Harry down three flights of stairs just to get him to the doors. You and Harry froze at the sound of heavy footsteps running up the stairs, you let go of Harry's hand and lowered him to the ground, quickly jumping into a fighting stance and glaring at the stairwell doorway.

You felt Harry's eyes on you as did so, but you did your best to ignore him and the butterflies that swarmed in your stomach. You slumped as Gil’s concerned face popped above the stairs, his eyes widening as he looked at Harry “holy heck, what happened?” Gil asked, walking over to Harry and checking him over.

“Dylan wanted him for ransom for the captain's territory, I took care of it” Gil gave you a look, you were never one to take initiative in the crew, well he didn’t either but you always stayed in the background, always seeming too scared to do anything about…well anything.

So for you to go out of your way to save Harry made Gil want to scratch his head. It clicked for him a moment later when he remembered how you always stared at Harry, with a look he could never put his finger on. Yes, Harry was the first mate and any of the crew members should put their life on the line to rescue him if needed but you didn’t do this as a crew member, you did this out of your personal feelings.

Gil, for once, didn’t think aloud, just hoisted Harry into his arms, ignoring Harry's protests and light smacks against his shoulder, and walked down the stairwell, you taking a moment to collect Harry hook that had been attached to one of the lackeys and running after them.

You stood awkwardly at the door frame of Harry's room as Gil set the injured pirate on his bed, you had never seen his room before, it was…a decent size, but you forced yourself not to memorize it for…reasons.

“I’ll tell Uma” you muttered aloud, walking away from Harry's room as you saw Gil nod, not seeing Harry strain his body in an attempt to keep his eyes on you.

When you arrived back at the chip shop and quietly informed Uma of the situation, she cursed and looked to the clock, she wasn’t off till midnight and it was only 9:15, she had another two hours and forty-five minutes before she was off and then she still had to clean!

“just-have Gil take care of him” she muttered back, pushing you back towards the chip shop doors “there's a medical kit in my quarters, under the board just left to the door, it'll jiggle when you step on it, give that to Gil and he’ll know what to do” you nodded and ran back to the ship, not wanting Harry to suffer for any longer than he was.

You went to Uma’s quarters, whistling a bit at the size of the room, and turned to the left, flipping up the loose board and taking out the large duffle bah with the red plus symbol on the side. “this has to be it” you muttered, standing and walking out of the room, closing the door behind you and making your way to Harry's room. you peeked into the room, frowning at the sight of Harry's very swollen turning very red and dark purple ankle. You knocked on the door frame and stepped into the room, handing the duffle bag to Gil.

The boys seemed to realize exactly where the bag was from and looked at you apprehensively, gosh sometimes you forgot how protective of Uma they were, even if it was a simple item. “she gave me permission to get that, I'll be out of your hair now” you spun on your heel and speed-walked out of the room, ignoring the butterflies in your gut as you felt Harry's eyes on you again.

It took Harry almost two months to heal from his injuries, his ankle still had ways to go so he was forced to be on the bench for crew activities and his usual errands until he could walk without his ankle being at a weird angle or him wincing in pain every time he took a step or shifted his ankle.

Gonzo and Bonnie took over his usual errands as Gil took over as temp-first mate until Harry was all healed up.

During those two months, you had noticed something….new.

Harry and Uma had taken to staring at you…a lot…like a lot a lot.

At first, you thought you were imagining things, the feeling of eyes constantly on you, then you thought that maybe some of Dylan's gang members had found out you were the one to sabotage his plan and were spying on you.

Those thoughts went out the window when one day you turned to look over your shoulder and saw Harry and Uma staring directly at you, Uma leaning on the long table on her elbows as Harry covered his mouth and some of his nose with his chin resting in his palm. You snapped your head back around and curled in on yourself, willing the heat growing up your neck to go away.

The next odd thing to happen was Uma beginning to actually…use you for crew things? Usually you just kinda…sat back and watched as everyone else did stuff, not of your own violation or laziness, it's just that Uma and Harry never seemed to…have anything to do for you?

But now it seemed like Uma was actually trying to include you in pirate activities, even once assigning you to her when the ship needed some maintenance on its ropes. She also started to either keep close to you as you trained in combat with the crew or sometimes even training you herself.

Which led to some…situations, you see, while you were pretty much an expert in hand to hand combat you fucking sucked with swords so once in a while you fumbled with your sword and…Uma while not being a PDA person, well unless it was Harry but even then, would walk toward you and correct your grip, stance, your free hand for balance, and even lead you in some sort of weird dance to help you learn your footwork.

It was like she was…sizing you up, if that was the best word, always keeping her eye on you, asking you random questions, making you help out in the chip shop, and just…having you be around her more than you used to.

Then there was Harry, after two months of just staring at you, he started talking to you, first “thanking” you for saving his ass from Dylan, aka he made you a bracelet and tossed it in front of you with a nod and a mutter of “thanks”. Gil had muttered next to you that Harry liked to make people stuff as a way to thank them, and held up his own bracelet that Harry made for him when they were younger “it's just one of the ways he shows appreciation!”

Then it moved to small conversations about random things, they weren’t long, just…small talk when you ended up in the same place as each other or when you were both on nightshift guard duty. The staring hadn't stopped, but you didn’t mind it as much as you used to, knowing it was Harry and Uma keeping their eyes on you, for whatever reason, but it made you feel….safe? you didn’t know the feeling that came with them watching you but you knew it wasn’t scared or threatened.

One day Harry asked you to practice some knots with him, setting up two crates and making you sit across from him. As you worked on learning how to make a round turn and two half-hitches knot, Harry stared at you, watching you ever so carefully, drifting his gaze from your concentrated face to your swift and calloused fingers as you successfully pulled the knot together, looking up at him with a shy grin, seeking his approval.

He smirked and nodded, patting your knee and beginning to instruct you on how to do other knots, in a softer voice than before. Next, is something that took you a pretty long time to notice but, they started to get physically closer to you when they could. Like when the crew crowded around the table for mealtime at the chip shop. In the beginning, you always sat at the farthest end of the table, always keeping to yourself and trying not to bother anybody.

But as time went on, you were slowly being pushed towards the middle of the table where Uma, Harry, and Gil always sat, or sometimes you would sit in your usual seat and Harry or Uma would be away from their seats and closer to you. You didn’t notice any of this until your shoulder was in line with Harry’s, his jacket brushing against your arms and legs knocking into yours.

They both seemed to also attempt to get you into conversations more, Uma’s hands ending up on your arms or shoulder when she talked to the crew if they weren’t on Harry's shoulder, Harry leaning in close to you when you had your little conversations, Uma staring intently as you trained with the crew.

Most of this you didn’t notice, being the oblivious and overthinker person you were, you brushed off the thought of a possible connection with the two and thought they were just doing what captain and first mate did, have a good relationship with a crew member was essential.

What you didn’t see was the crew smirking as Harry stared at you, snickering when Uma rested her hand on your shoulder, whispering to themselves as their eyes always flashed over to you when you walked through the doors, gossiping when Harry sneaked his own food onto your plate.

Even Gil, who was admittedly a bit airheaded, could see what was going through the minds of his two oldest friends. He just grinned and leaned back, knowing he had started it all when he had told Uma of his “theory” of you possibly having feelings for her first mate/kinda boyfriend.

She at first just wanted to size you up, to see if you were “worthy” of her best friend, she and Harry had an open relationship, if either of the others wanted to get with someone else as long as they talked it through and got consent it wasn’t a problem. Uma just wanted to see if you wouldn’t hurt Harry.

She didn’t expect to catch feelings for you. It was something that boiled beneath the surface of her skin as it developed, she didn’t even notice it happened. The feeling of sparks dancing across her fingertips when her hand touched yours when she fixed your grip on your sword, the burst of warmth beneath her skin when she locked eyes with you, the flutter in her gut when you laughed at one of Gil’s stupid jokes or Harry’s dumb stunts.

It was all the same feelings she got when she was around Harry, but it took only one moment for her to realize she had fallen for you. It was just supposed to be a regular Sunday on the isle, it was her day off so she decided to spend it with you meandering around the marketplace, not particularly looking for anything just browsing.

Their time at the market had been shortened by the arrival of Dylan, taunting Uma and getting in her face. “come on shrimpy!” he snickered, his gang behind him cackling loudly “too scared to go against me-GUk” Uma snapped her head around to look at Dylan as he suddenly gasped for breath and her eyes widened in shock. Dylan was on his back, holding his gut as you stood in front of Uma, tilting your head dangerously as the gang took a step back.

“not a good idea to disrespect the captain, Dylan” you growled, sending a shiver down Uma’s spine, you weren’t much a talker, and when you did it was soft, but now? There was a thick tension to your voice, almost reminiscent of Harry's low growly tone when he got angry.

Dylan slowly sat up and glared at you, eyes widening as he realized who you were “you’re-you’re the bitch that” he paled at the smirk on your face.

“that kicked your asses? All on her own? Yeah, I’m that bitch, now back the fuck up before I snap your teeth with my boot” Uma swallowed around the rising heat in her neck, rolling her shoulders to get rid of the uncomfortable tension that was growing inside her.

Dylan let out a snarl and snapped his fingers, three of his lackeys running towards you, all yelping as you took them down with ease. Uma smirked as the lackeys landed next to Dylan, who then stood quickly and bolted the other way.

Dylan stood and looked behind him, freezing as he noticed almost all his gang had abandoned him, the only one left was his right-hand man, who stared at you with wide fearful eyes. Dylan slowly turned as he heard you crack your knuckles and squeaked as you gave a sharp smirk “this is the part where you run away~” you giggled, holding in a loud laugh as Dylan and his last lackey turned and ran with their tails between their legs.

You rolled your shoulders with a sigh and turned back to Uma, feeling your cheeks burn as she stared at you with wide eyes “uh…captain?” Uma snapped out of her trance and smirked at you.

“and here I thought Harry lied to me about your fighting skills~” her smirk softened as you tugged at your shirt. “come on, let's finish up here”

It was only when you returned to the ship and Uma got a moment to herself, that she realized what those feelings were in the market, they were the same feelings she got when she looks at Harry.

She liked you…a lot. Uma let out a low groan and sunk into her chair in her quarters, now she had to deal with feelings for her chaotic dumbass first mate and the oblivious yet badass crew member.

She went from just checking you out to make sure you were good for Harry to now fucking liking you…what a trope huh?

Harry on the other hand, had realized his feelings from the start, they were very small to start with, he hadn't even known your name before the fateful day when you saved him from Dylan.

It felt like his heart was jumpstarted as he locked eyes with you as you flipped Dylan over your back, sparks running across his skin when you undid the ropes around his wrists.

First, he was impressed, you had gone out of your way to save him and then took down almost an entire gang, some of the members easily overtaking you in size and strength but you took them down as if they were nothing. Then you had been so protective of him as you tried to make your way out of the parking garage with him, even getting ready to fight Gil before you knew it was Gil.

As you walked out of Harry's room after giving Gil the medical pack, he had asked Gil what your position on the crew was. As Gil told him about you, he remembered when you told him your name and he quietly muttered it, smiling slightly as he decided it fit you perfectly

Then he was amused, you were much shyer than he thought you would be, you were always by yourself in a corner, keeping to yourself and never talking to anyone. As he moved closer to you during meal times, he enjoyed the little sarcastic comments you muttered to yourself as you listened to whatever the crew was talking about. He giggled to himself at the look on your face when he dropped the ‘thank you’ bracelet in front of you, mentally dancing in excitement when he saw you wearing it the next day and then never take it off, he didn’t know why he mentally danced in excitement but he brushed away the implications of it.

Then he and Uma started to attempt to get closer to you, well Uma was doing…her own thing while Harry was trying to get closer. First, he started with having you learn and help him tie the ropes around the ship, watching you as you at first fumbled with any type of rope he attempted teaching you, his heart fluttering when you finally got it and looked up at him for approval, a shy grin on your face.

He watched enraptured as you trained with Uma, chucking as he could imagine the steam coming off your face as Uma placed her hands on your hips and hands and corrected your stance. He cackled when you knocked Gil to the floor on a hand-to-hand combat training day, falling to his side as you leaned over Gil's dizzy self with your hands moving about unsure of what to do.

He watched you interacted during the quiet moments of the night when you would both be on night shift watching the ship, your shy nature seeming to melt away under the cloudy black sky as you rambled about whatever you were thinking about. He never really noticed himself leaning ever so close as you talked, only able to focus on you.

He noticed the crew teasing him and Uma pretty early on, though they were easily silenced when either him or Uma glared at the crew.

One day, he realized he was smitten with you. The crack of your voice when you got nervous, when you fidgeted with your rings, the smirk on your face when you flipped one of the crew members over your back, the laugh that spilled from your lips when you finally got the hang of using your sword, when you rubbed your thumb against your lips as you zoned out, it all made him feel warm inside, the same feelings he got around Uma.

He had to tell Uma about his feelings for you, they were in an open relationship but he wanted to make sure she was alright with you before he pursued anything with you.

One night after Uma finished up at the chip shop, she arrived to her quarters to see Harry sitting on her bed, playing with the curve of his hook as he waited for her. “Harry?” Uma groggily asked, she was exhausted but Harry never seeked her out after midnight, so something was up “what's going on, what do you need?” she closed the door to her room with her foot and slipped off her boots and hat, walking over to harry and flopping down on the bed next to him. “um-“ Harry stuttered, the red in his ears creeping down to his cheeks “yeh know (y/n)?” Uma perked up at that, pushing herself up with her hands and staring hard at Harry.

“yeah?” Uma’s heart sped up at the mention of the girl she had fallen for, god she hoped Harry wasn’t going to say he didn’t like her, and then Uma would feel like shit and she’d never be able to kiss the shit out of you till either of you couldn't see straight. “what about her?”

“I-um…I-…I like ‘er…like I like yeh” Harry’s face was almost crimson now, staring down at his lap as he played with the loose threads on his pants. “and-and I was wonderin’ if I-I could…um, invite ‘er into our relationship?” Harry's voice cracked at the end, oh so nervous and scared for what Uma was going to say.

“thank fuck I thought I was the only one” Harry snapped his head around to look at Uma, his mouth dropping open slightly “god fuck isn’t she so fucking pretty?!”

Harry let out a small sigh of relief and fully turned to look at Uma, sitting up on his knees “YES! Fuck she so pretty I just wanna smoother her in fucking i-gaaah ya know?!” he lifted his hands in front of his face and clenched them in an odd motion of frustration from (y/n)s prettiness. Uma laughed and nodded, grabbing onto Harry's hands and gripping them tightly.

“I do know, and I would be a hundred percent down for inviting her into our relationship, but!” Uma held up her hand as Harry gave her a wide grin, he deflated a bit and tilted his head “we need to make sure she's gonna be okay with this” Uma motioned between her and Harry “hell we don’t even know if she has feelings for us” Harry looked hurt at that, just wanting to drag you into bed with him and Uma already so he could smother you with cuddles and whatever couples did with their adorable significant others “I know, but we need to play this safe, I don’t want to scare her off”

Harry gave a slow nod, he wanted to do what he always did, rush into an idea with no real plan and just hope he didn’t die. But he would listen to Uma on this, she was a lot better with relationships then he was…well the logical part of them, he was better at feelings and physical stuff.

So the two talked into the night, deciding in the early morning that they would tell (y/n) about their decision on Sunday when Uma was off work.

Their talk happened on Wednesday, by Saturday afternoon Uma was off the isle, having dived through the barrier just before it closed and swimming to Auradon in search of revenge on Mal and to free the vks still on the isle.

It was only after she left that you realized you had fallen for Uma alongside Harry. The piercing feeling in your chest and gut every time you thought about your captain or even just being on the ship or chip shop slapped you in the face as you realized you fucking missed Uma, more than you should have.

You knew Harry missed Uma too, he had shut himself in his room soon after Uma disappeared at cotillion and refused to come out even when Gil asked. It wasn’t till his sister Harriet stormed onto the ship and dragged him out of his room that he seemed to be a little more like his usual self, he also started to hang around you more often and on the nights where you were on night guard duty he would join you, even when he didn’t have to anymore now that he was captain until Uma’s return.

Your mind was a maze, just trying to maneuver your feelings for both Uma and Harry, the feelings you had for Harry had multiplied for Uma, and now you couldn’t even think about either of them without heat rushing up your neck or butterflies rushing around your stomach.

Great, you had a crush/probably in love on the two people who were already “dating” each other, and both of them were so.damn.pretty. You groaned to yourself, covering your face and sinking to the ground in a crouch. Yeah, you had no fucking chance.

On the bright side, it did seem you were getting closer to Harry? So unrequited love aside at least you were getting a friendship out of it? The two of you started hanging out together more often than not, as you had mentioned before Harry joined you on night guard shifts, the two of you continued rope tying practice, started hand to hand combat training, he took Uma’s spot in teaching you how to use a sword, and sometimes the two of you would just…chill, hanging out in the bird’s nest drinking and eating whatever snack or food Harry had found, you leaning against his legs in the cramped space.

About five months after Uma had left the isle, the crew, aka Bonnie and Drey, decided to have a “bonding” night, forcing everyone into the chip shop after closing time, surrounded by rum and leftover food from the day to play truth or dare/seven minutes in heaven.

The rules were if you didn’t want to tell the truth or accept the dare, you had to spin the bottle and play seven minutes in heaven with whoever it landed on, and if you refused to play that, you'd have to take a shot of Desiree’s strongest liquor.

Bonnie, being the one who made the rules, went first, pointing to Gil and asking him truth or dare.

“Truth!” Gil chirped, already halfway through on his fries. Bonnie hummed for a moment and tapped her bottle of beer, trying to think of something good since Gil did tend to blurt out everything.

“who do you have a crush on?” Bonnie finally asked with a teasing smirk, laughing a bit as he pointed at Harry. “yeah, okay we knew that”

Harry blew a kiss towards Gil and Gil grinned and caught it, smacking it on his cheek and going back to his food as the crew burst into laughter. Gil tossed a fish stick into his mouth and looked around the group, pointing at Gonzo.

“truth or dare Gonzo” Gonzo let out a low hum and shrugged.

“dare” he muttered, thinking that Gil wouldn't be able to think of anything that bad. Oh, boy was he wrong.

Gil gave a nasty grin and stood, walking over to the kitchen and rummaging in the fridge for a few moments “oi what the hell are you doing?” Harry yelled, pouting as Gil didn’t answer.

Gil returned with something in his fist, his other hand keeping the unknown object hidden from sight. He stood in front of Gonzo and opened his hands, showing a snake egg. “eat up!”

“OH HELL NO” Gonzo yelped, smacking the egg out of Gil's hand, Drey and Jonas screeching as it smashed against the floor and black goo spread from the destroyed egg. Half the crew scrambled back from the egg, its rancid smell already beginning to spread around the chip shop

“ah Gonzo come on!” Emanuel complained, diving behind Gabe, the two pushing each other away and towards the egg in desperation to get away from it and doom the other to the smell.

You covered your mouth as you held in your laughter, falling to your side a bit and your head hitting Harry's shoulder as he cackled. “okay okay Gil, clean it up, Gonzo, either spin the bottle or drink” Gil begrudgingly cleaned up as Gonzo pouted at Harry.

Bonnie held up the empty rum bottle and wiggled her brows at Gonzo. He glared at her and snatched a shot glass from Desiree and took the shot, gaging a bit as it went down his throat “holy shit that’s strong” he shivered, the rest of the crew booing as he handed the shot glass back to Desiree.

Since Gonzo had forfeited the dare and seven minutes in heaven, Gil went again, this time picking Drey and the girl chose to do truth. “Ummm okay…uh, ever give a blowjob?” the crew whistled and hollered at the speedy turn towards the sexual end of questions and Drey snickered, shaking her head and holding up her hand to her mouth, only her pointer and middle finger around her lips as she winked and stuck her tongue through. “I’ll take that as a no” Gil laughed, taking a sip of his rum and leaning back on his elbows.

“your turn Drey” Bonnie called, stealing a crab cake from Zhao and laying halfway down on the floor, resting her chin in her palm. Drey tapped her chin, looking around the crew before her eyes landed on Yamato, who quickly leaned behind Gabe but was too late.

“Yamato, truth or dare” he kept behind Gabe for a moment longer before he sighed and leaned back to sit straight and looked at Drey in surrender.

“dare” he muttered, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and chin in his hands. Drey gave a wicked grin and looked around, trying to find something that would best work on Yamato.

“oh! I got it…lick Gabe's foot” the crew yelled out in disgust as Gabe laughed and pulled off his boot, shoving it towards the disgusted Yamato.

“NOPE gimme the bottle, GIMME THE BOTTLE ID RATHER MAKE OUT WITH ANYONE ELSE THAN LICK HIS FOOT GABE GET THAT AWAY FROM ME OR WE WILL THROW HANDS” Yamato shoved Gabe away from him, the cackling pirate falling on his back holding his chest.

Bonnie cackled and pushed the empty bottle of rum into the middle of the circle, Yamato sighed and leaned over to spin it, sitting cross-legged as everyone stared at the bottle in both excitement and anxiety.

Finally, the bottle slowed and landed on Zhao, the crew cheered and the two boys laughed, Zhao biting his bottom lip, squinting his eyes, and raising his brows.

“Alright come on Zhao les make out!” Bonnie stood and ran over to the closet that she had declared “heaven” the two boys joining hands and swinging them as they walked into the closet and Bonnie closed the door after them.

“have fun~ Gonzo set the timer!” Gonzo leaned over the took the timer/stop watch from where Bonnie was sitting and set it for seven minutes “im so glad that thing is basically soundproof I do not need to hear Yamato moaning” the crew snickered at that, Harry rolling his eyes and leaning towards you.

“five bucks Zhao gives Yamato a handy” you felt your cheeks burn at his low-toned voice and laughed a bit, nodding as he grinned at you.

“you’re on” you whispered, biting your lip as Harry patted your thigh and sat up straight again.

“who’s next?” Jonas asked, taking a swig of his rum and glancing about the room.

“I’ll just go again and when Yamato comes out hell go” Drey waved it off and looked around the room, pointing at Gabe “Gabe truth or dare!”

“Dare” Gabe snickered, falling off balance a bit as Drey pointed at Gil.

“sit in Gil's lap till someone picks you again” Gabe sighed and stood, plopping in Gil's lap and crossing his arms.

Gil didn’t seem to mind, reaching his arm over Gabe's waist to grab his food tray. “all right, Gonzo truth or dare!” Gonzo groaned, having only gone a couple of turns before but chose truth this time “have you ever given head before, doesn’t matter girl or boy just head” Gonzo tilted his head then nodded. the crew, minus you and Harry, wolf-whistled “yooo who!?” Gonzo grinned and shook his head.

“hey, I only had to answer if I have given it before not to who” Gabe pouted and leaned back into Gil.

“party pooper” Gonzo perked up and looked around the group, eyes landing on you, smirking as you shrunk into yourself in an attempt to make yourself invisible

“(y/n) truth or dare” you tugged at your shirt, trying to decide what to do, go with truth, and possibly reveal your crush on Harry and Uma? Be dared to do something embarrassing? Play spin the bottle? Or take a shot?

“um, truth” you squeaked out, Gonzo looking up at the ceiling as he tried to figure out what to ask you. Finally, he snapped his fingers as he looked back at you, having found the perfect question.

“Have you ever had sex? Or been with anyone for that matter?” you shook your head, you were a virgin through and through, you haven't even kissed anyone before. “huh, all right your turn”

You looked around the group, finally landing your eyes on Desiree who had been untouched the entire game “Desiree” she looked up at you, mid-sip on her rum “truth or dare?”

“Dare” she answered immediately, smirking as the crew ‘oooh’d at her. “gimme your best shot (nickname)”

“umm” you had never really…dared anyone to do anything before…this was gonna be tough. “lick the bottom of Bonnies boot” the crew stared at you for a moment as Desiree looked between you and Bonnie wide-eyed “what?”

“holy shit I thought you were gonna like, I don’t know, make me eat twenty crackers or something! But I’ll do it” the crew cheered and Gabe leaned over to give you a high five.

Bonnie lifted her boot into the air and cackled as Desiree just went for it, going sole to toe “AHHHH” Bonnie cackled, falling backward and holding her leg in the air. Desiree backed into her spot again and shook her head, hanging her tongue out of her mouth as she made gagging noises.

“tha’ wath stho groth” she gagged, grabbing a paper towel and scraping her tongue of the taste of Bonnie's boot. after a few moments of the crew laughing at her, along with the timer of Zhao and Yatamo’s seven minutes in heaven beeping, the two coming out of the closet with Messy hair, bruised lips and Zhao’s pants unbuttoned.

Harry pouted at you and took the five out of his wallet, placing it in your hand as you gave him a smug grin. “yeh won tha’ one lass” he laughed quietly, freezing as Desiree locked her eyes on him.

“Harry, truth or dare” Harry kept a staring contest with her, trying to predict what she was going to do.

Finally, he sighed “Dare” Desiree let out a cold cackle, Harry freezing again at it.

“let Gil give you a haircut” Harry immediately shook his head, Gil had cut his hair once before and he ended up with the worst patchy hair cut he had ever had, he only trusted two people with his hair, Uma, and Harriet. “alright then spin the bottle!” Harry sighed, he had a lot of work to do in the morning so drinking wasn’t the best idea so he took the bottle from Bonnie and spun it, mentally crossing his fingers that it would land on you.

You watched as the bottle spun around, pulling your knees to your chest and wrapping your arms around them. You did want the bottle to land on you but at the same time you hoped it wouldn’t land on anybody so you wouldn’t be going behind Uma’s back or so Harry wouldn’t be kissing someone other than you or Uma.

You felt the heat climb up your face as the tip of the bottle landed directly on you, the crew whistling and cheering as you buried your face in your knees. “wooooooo come on you two! Get to the closet.” Harry glanced at you and while he really wanted to go into the closet with you, he felt bad as you had completely turned into a ball of embarrassment.

“come on guys she obviously-OI” Gonzo and Jonas grabbed Harry's arms, carrying him to the closet and tossing him in, Drey and Desiree grabbing your hands and tugging you in after him.

They closed the door behind you, Bonnie going the extra mile and locking the door “Have fun~ seven minutes!” Bonnie’s muffled voice yelled through the door before it went silent.

You pressed yourself into the wall and sunk to the floor, holding your face in your hands and pulling your knees to your face. “(y/n)?” Harry quietly asked, kneeling in front of you and cupping your face with his hand, pushing your chin up to make you look at him “are yeh okay?”

“I-I just-“ you buried your face again, if you looked at him anymore you would throw your moral compass out the window and just kiss him silly.

“do yeh not like meh?” he asked, feeling a pit form in his chest at the thought of you not liking him in ‘that’ way, he blinked in surprise as you shook your head and looked back up at him.

“no-its, not that, it’s more…I like you…like a lot…more than I should, a lot” you whispered, biting your lip as Harry stared at you, not noticing him glancing at your lips “but you’re with Uma and I don’t want to ruin anything between the two of you even if it's just a dumb game and I don’t want to ruin our friendship with my dumb feelings even though I just blurted out every-“ you were stopped by a soft pair of plush lips, and in the dark of the closet you saw Harry very very close to your face, his eyes closed and hands gently cupping your jaw.

You decided to just let yourself enjoy the next seven minutes and closed your eyes, pressing back ever so gently back into Harry…your brain reminded you that Harry was your first kiss and you smiled, helluva first kiss if you did say so yourself.

Harry pulled back slowly and you fluttered open your eyes, biting your lip as Harry gave you a soft smile “yeh wouldn’t be ruining anything between Uma an’ I, we both like yeh and actually” Harry let out a nervous chuckle “we were goin’ ta ask yeh ta’ join our relationship a couple months ago but…Uma left before we could tell yeh…we were planning ta ask yeh the weekend that ended up filled with all the beasty boy stuff…” Harry hoped that you wouldn’t reject Uma, he loved both of you and he didn’t want to have to lose one to keep the other.

“I…Uma-“ you leaned forward, burying your face in Harry's shoulder “I like Uma too” you whispered into his shoulder, squeaking as Harry picked you up by your thighs and pushed you against the wall, his hips pressing into yours.

Harry smiled at you, pressing another kiss to your lips “good, we can have fun when she gets back okay?”

You whimpered into the kiss, nodding as he pulled back “okay” The two of you spent the next seven minutes exchanging kisses and feeling the room heat up as Harry continued to press his hips into yours.

You were soon interrupted by Bonnie yelling through the door “Times up you two!” Harry groaned and set you back on your feet, letting you hang on to him as you balanced on wobbly legs.

Harry knocked on the door, Bonnie quickly unlocked it at that and swung it open, giving the two of you a smug grin before her shoulders dropped

“oh come on it's like you didn’t do anything!” Harry rose his brow; he had bitten your neck and dry-humped you did it really seem like he did nothing? He turned to look at you, raising his brow as he realized you had quickly fixed yourself up and the only evidence to your heated time in the closet was your heated cheeks. “All right come on, Zhao’s on a dare right now and Gabe drank a shot”

You and Harry glanced at each other then back at the crew, walking out of the closet and taking your previous seats next to each other, Harry's arm now resting behind your back.

Things changed after that, the small conversations at night turned intimate, faces always close together and bodies touching, breath mingling, and Harry's lips pressing against your lips or neck every so often. Practicing knots went from sitting across from each other with Harry instructing you to you and Harry sitting so close your knees touched the inside of his thighs, his hands ever so gently guiding your fingers through the motions and his voice soft.

He started to pull you away at random moments to a hidden corner and curl himself around you, pressing his lips to yours with the others oblivious to your recent activities.

The two of you hadn't gotten to resume your session from the closet, leaving you frustrated and needy. You honestly just wanted Harry to ravish you until the sun came up.

What you didn’t know was that Harry was feeling the same way, frustration building in his body every time he looked at you, eyes burning into your lips and body, just wanting to drag you to his room and show you a whole new world. He thought of you every night, almost stomping to your room and taking you but holding himself back.

It was just getting too much for both of you, so one night, when Harry knew neither of you had anything to do the next day, snuck to your room and knocked gently on your door, not wanting any of the crew to hear knowing you wouldn’t want everyone to know your business.

“Harry?” you whispered, looking around the dark halls of the ship as Harry stared down at your lips, your body barely covered with only a loose shirt and some sweat pants “what's wrong? It's like, 2 am?” Harry leaned in and pressed his lips to yours passionately, curling his hands around your face and humming into it as you pressed back needingly.

He pulled back, just enough for your breath to mingle “darling” he purred, enjoying the way you squirmed at the tone of his voice “do yeh want to continue our little session from the closet?” he grinned as your eyes went wide and you nodded erratically. He pressed a quick kiss to your lips and grabbed your hand, pulling you out of your room and closing the door, the two of you sneaking back to his room.

That night was filled with heated kisses, whispered confessions, and bruised hips.

Everything changed again after that, the soft hidden kissed behind corners turned to heated make-outs, you still had soft kisses but more often than not it was passionate. You slept in Harry's room more often than not, not to have sex but simply because you liked being with him and him you. Your midnight talks being shoulder to shoulder turned to you being engulfed in Harry's arms and sitting between his legs as you talked about whatever you wanted. The practice tiring ropes became teasing, Harry sneaking kisses whenever he could

Harry went deeper into himself, and you learned almost everything from his favorite drink to his deepest fear, and he told you about Uma as well, letting you get to know her through another and you fell for both Uma and Harry more each day.

And you told him what you could, from your favorite color to your most embarrassing moment, it was…bliss, well as blissful a relationship could be on the isle.

About a year after the two of you got together, you watched as Harry and Gil dove through the barrier just as it was closing after the core four and Celia, messing with your bracelet nervously as you watched Gil and Harry fight with Carlos and Jay. Harry forced a blue gem out of Mal's hand and it soared over the water, Mal letting out a small scream before a turquoise tentacle reached up and caught it.

Your breath caught and you let a grin grow on your face “Uma” you whispered out, bouncing on your feet as Uma rose out the water, looking even more beautiful than the last time you saw her. Harry looked directly at you, the same feeling you had at seeing Uma swimming in his eyes.

Uma was back.

After Uma submerged into the water and sent a tunnel of water up and splashing the vks, she reappeared on the other side of the bridge, holding up the glowing gem Mal had been holding.

A few minutes of negotiating later, with Mal being stubborn as always, the vks were off to do whatever they were off to do, you didn’t know, the most you had heard was Mals muffled scream of ‘no’

Uma suddenly glanced back, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she looked at you. You gave her a grin and waved back, you guessed Harry had told her about the two of you and you hoped to hades that you would see them again and be able to kiss Uma finally.

Only a day later, in the early morning, Harry and Uma stepped into his room, Harry gesturing to his bed where you were sleeping curled up in one of his shirts and his blankets.

“aw,” Uma cooed, walking over to you and caressing your cheek, flinching back as your eyes snapped open and you sat up, a bright grin growing on your face as your vision refocused and you saw Uma.

“Uma~!” you squealed, launching yourself at her and tossing the two of you onto the ground, Uma chucking underneath you as her head was pinned to your shoulder. “you’re back!”

Harry smiled as you and Uma hugged on the floor “so Harry tells me you like both of us? And want to be with both of us?” Uma asked, sitting up with you in her lap.

Your face burned slightly but you nodded, smiling as Uma cupped your cheeks “good, but just so you know I will always choose sea ponies over both of you” you and Harry burst into laughter, a smile growing on Uma’s lips as she watched two of her three favorite people laugh.

“Harry already told me that part of the contract” you teased, leaning in and pecking Uma’s cheek, snickering as she froze and stared at you “what? I can’t kiss my girlfriend~?”

Harry chuckled and kneeled next to you and Uma, wrapping his arms around you and whispering in your ears “I think Uma’s bed is a bit better to fit all three of us eh?” you grinned, Uma’s face burning as she saw Harry wiggle his brows.

“I leave a virgin first mate and a shy oblivious crew member and come back to two horndogs…Christ remind me to never leave yall alone again”

“noted” you and Harry sang in unison, Uma laughing at it and shaking her head.

“Alright come on, let's go to my room.” you and Harry grinned, your arm going around Uma’s and grabbing onto her hand as Harry tossed his arm around her shoulder and the three of you walked into Uma’s room.

To which Uma was very VERY glad her room was soundproofed a long time ago.

-end-

side note with the smut, this was 50 pages and 15,676 words, without the smut its 32 pages and 9943 words which is still a lot but woza, like, 16 pages of the fic was dedicated to smut XD

permtaglist

@queer-cosette @sephiralorange (thank you for beta reading the smutty version don worry ill link the full version lol)

@lunanight2012 @daughter-of-the-stars11

@musicarose @rintheemolion

@jatp-rules-my-life @verboetoperee

@thecaptainsgingersnap @random-thoughts-003

@remembered-license @imtryingthisout

and because you asked me too since i used the crew names you created @askauradonprep

#Descendents #descendants #disney descendants #huma #huma x reader #smut implied #harry hook #harry hook descendants #harry hook x reader #harry hook imagine #uma descendants #lost revenge #lost revenge crew shinanigans

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hailbop1701 · 3 years

Text

ReaperXFem!Reader

Doom: To Hell And Back

Chapter 9: Siberia

Guys this is it! The final official chapter! The journey has been amazing so far and I am truly lucky to have all of you go through it with me! But we're not done yet! There is so much in store for John and Crow! Stay tuned! (As usual no beta)

-H❤🖖

The sound of distant gunfire pulled you from the dark, a fire burned at your back. A hiss of pain escaped your lips, “I hope I never have to do that again,” your voice came out raspy, your mouth dry as the desert above you. Making the necessary checks, nothing seemed too bad, well besides the giant burn on your back. Finding purchase you pushed yourself off of the ground, wincing at all the aches and pains. Climbing to your feet, you stumble into the corridor wall. The gunfire continued making you look for your weapon, groaning in frustration you saw it amongst the debris warped and battered.

You pulled your sidearm from its holster; using the wall as a crutch you made your way in the direction of the gunfire. The ARK chamber.

The trek took longer than it should have; panting you gripped the edge of the stone doorway that led into the ARK. “Hello, Crow,” a voice growled from behind you, a large hand landed on your shoulder and squeezed. Yelping in pain you were swiveled around so you were facing Sarge, his eyes seemed to glow unnaturally. He grinned like a predator, the grip on your shoulder getting tighter. “Murderous son of a-”

And before you knew what was happening you were flying through the air. You landed with a strangled cry, crashing into an abandoned security desk. Crumpling to the ground you gasped out, pain scorched through your body like a wildfire. Gingerly you lifted your arm to your chest, ‘broken’ you grumbled. Sarge was on you again, he reached down with a sadistic smile and wrapped a meaty hand around your throat. The air entering your body suddenly stopped as he lifted you off of the ground. Your heart pounded in your ears while your head throbbed and bled freely; shifting your eyes you saw them and worry coursed through you.

Sam and Duke skidded to a halt by the entrance, clawing at Sarge’s hand you kick your feet out bracing them against his chest trying desperately to get out of his grasp. It didn’t phase him in the slightest. Sam held Duke back from raising his gun, “You might hit (Y/N),” she said worriedly.

Sarge turned, your body struggling in grasp. “Duke, fall in! We got shit to do!” Sarge barked and Duke scowled stepping in front of Sam. “With all due respect Sarge but fuck you,” he hissed raising his gun. Sarge chuckled and held you up like a dying shield; Duke wavered uncertainly.

“Go!” you managed to gasp out pleadingly. “Da’mit Duke, go” you gurgled vision dimming at the lack of oxygen. Duke cursed and dragged Sam back out the ARK chamber door. Sarge chuckled darkly glancing at the quarantine timer, “I’ll find them soon,” he promised. You hissed, one of your hands falling limply to your side as your struggling stopped. Sarge set down his rather large gun, sniffing the air. He brought his empty hand to your hair and petted you softly.

“Well, that’s new,” he purred, sniffing again. His grip on your neck loosened slightly allowing a minuscule amount of air back into your lungs. ‘I’ll take whatever I can get,’ you thought numbly. Sarge lowered you to the floor but kept his hold on your throat,

“I just might keep you alive,” he purred stroking your cheek. Wrinkling your nose at the promises in his words you glare at him,

“Sorry, Sarge but I’m just not that into you,” you growled your hand brushing over the knife on your hip. Sarge just chuckled removing his hand from your throat so he could grip your chin, his hold caused your cheeks to puff into a pout.

“I would gladly take you here and now,” his chest rumbled in an animalistic growl. His words made a chill travel up and down your spine, “Here’s an idea, how about you go fuck yourself,” you snarled. Swiftly pulled the knife out of its sheath you drive it into the junction between Sarge’s shoulder and neck.

The man howled in pain instantly letting you go. Baring his teeth Sarge swung; you flew through the air into the security desk again officially shattering the glass and plastic. A newfound pain blossomed over your body, “I really have to learn not to agitate things that are infected with C24,” you cried letting your head drop with a dull thud. Your hands drifted to your stomach a large shard of glass was sticking out of your abdomen.

Sarge loomed over you looking mildly disappointed as if he accidentally broke his new toy. “Damn,” he grumbled before moving away to let you bleed out. What’s left of the adrenaline that had been pouring through you all night had finally drained away. Through the pain, you started to feel cold and numb, ‘that’s not good,’ you thought weakly. The sound of talking and shouting pulled you back from submerging into the dark, “She’s dead Reaper,”

A howl of rage echoed across the room and the sound of fighting. Flesh punching flesh and the boom of what had to be Sarge’s “BFG,”

“(Y/N), oh my God!” Sam flew to your side ducking low before falling to her knees beside you. Duke ran to your other side and rested a friendly hand on your forehead. You cried out when Sam gently pressed her hands around the glass, “It’s okay, you’ll be okay!” Sam sobbed.

She took away her hands and reached into her pocket fumbling with the tiny vial. “Sam,” Duke warned uneasily as he held one of your hands. Sam set the vial down so she could fumble through your pockets looking for a spare syringe. Finding one in your hip pouch, Sam snatched the vial up off the ground.

“Pull the glass out,” Sam whispered to Duke as she injected C24 into your neck. You whimpered when Duke carefully pulled the shard of glass from your abdomen, “You’ll be alright baby doll,” he murmured smoothing down your hair while placing his other hand over his sidearm. The fighting grew more intense making both Sam and Duke duck and bend over you like two concerned parents. You looked at them blearily a few tears escaping your eyes, your vision getting darker and darker by the second. “You’ll be okay,” Sam soothed placing her hand over Dukes, the sound of ARK activating in the background made them peer over the broken security desk. “(Y/N)!” John’s voice echoed through your head as you faded away.

Whispers and warmth greeted you when you swam back to the surface of consciousness again. For the millionth time that night. Everything ached like growing pains but you no longer felt intense pain. Opening your eyes took some effort but when you did you immediately regretted it, “Oh what the fuck,” you groaned scrunching up your nose in distaste. You snapped your eyes closed again hoping to keep the bright lights at bay.

The whispers turned into amused chuckles, “Welcome back to the land of the living,” Duke said somewhere to your left. “Why is it so damn bright?” you hissed turning your head away into a rough vest. That’s when you realized, arms held onto you, and the warmth that you were thoroughly enjoying belonged to someone. Someone who smelt rather nice, opening up your eyes again, you look up. John looked down at you with his dark hazel eyes,

“I’m still trying to get used to it,” he chuckled, he smiled down at you crookedly. You groaned a little, “Right, I’m superhuman now,”

Sam peered over at you with her own grin, “I’m just glad you’re not insane and trying to eat people,” she teased. You snort and gave her a thumbs-up, “I aim to please,”

John looked like he was struggling with something and kept sniffing the area near your hair. “Do I smell that bad?” you asked jokingly.

Duke snorted, “I think we all smell damn bad,” he grumbled sniffing his pits with a grimace. John’s quiet laughter shook you gently, “No you don’t smell bad,” he whispered to you. He looked away as the elevator became a little tense. Sam snickered, “So uh how did all this spider webbing get into your hair?” she asked picking a few more wisps from your head.

You shudder, “Spiders, never again. I officially have a phobia,” you muttered resting your head against John’s shoulder in defeat. The elevator slowed to a stop and dinged; the doors opened revealing a platoon’s worth of soldiers. They stood there, weapons aimed, red dot sites dancing over you and the others. Duke and Sam put up their hands as John led them onto the tarmac,

“Stand down!” a voice shouted and the red dots disappeared. A familiar man pushed through the crowd, “Crow!” he shouted jogging over to the elevator entrance. You gripped John’s vest and whipped your head around, “Hunter!” the relief in your voice was evident. You were so happy to see your commanding officer that you didn’t notice John stiffen. His arms tightened around you as Gunnery Sergeant Edward Cayden approached.

“Ed, Siberia,” you hissed making eye contact with him. Your CO stiffened upon hearing the code word; to everyone on your team it meant danger, get out now. His eyes went from concern to serious, nodding once Hunter led your small group to a waiting chopper. Everyone from RRTS unit 4 was there, they all looked relieved to see that you were alright. Big brothers and crazy uncles the lot of them. Hunter spoke lowly into the team’s comm, “Siberia,”

They all stiffened before they wrapped the survivors up in a protective bubble. “Icarus, Manny, why don’t you take over for our pilots,” Hunter suggested casually. Both men broke off from the group swiftly and opened the front cab of the helo, the pilots protested but did as they were told anyway. Hunter activated the main door and watched as everyone piled in; one of the boys offered to take you but John simply ignored him and stepped up into the transport with little difficulty.

“Leave them be Rust,” Hunter barked when the man began to protest. You gave your team a reassuring smile hoping to put everyone at ease. Sam took the seat next to when John set you down and buckled you in. She took your hand, eyes flitting from face to face, “It’s okay,” you whispered to her but made sure John and Duke heard you as well. A solid fifteen minutes after takeoff Hunter crouched in front of your lips pressed tightly together.

“What do you need kid?” he whispered, no one spoke as they watched you. Taking a deep breath you looked your friend dead in the eye, “To disappear,”

The men looked at each other and nodded, “I can’t ask any of you-” you hurried over your words but your unit already began making preparations. They stripped their comms and pulled apart their weapons. Rust moved over to a panel in the floor and yanked it up revealing a mass of wires and circuits, he fiddled for a moment before yanking out a few bits of tech. The mass of wires sparked for a moment and settled again.

“Tracker is offline, we’re ghosts for a little while,” he said and Hunter nodded once. “Icarus, we need to disappear,” he pounded on the cockpit door. A double-tap of understanding echoed back. He looked back at you and the shocked faces of your companions, “Time to become ghosts!” he cheered enthusiastically.

“Hunt-” you protested and the men started shouting at you to shut up; smirking you looked down at your feet. Hunter stopped in front of you while the tech of your ragtag team tossed the trackers out the partially opened door. “You’re family (Y/N) and if you of all people invoked Siberia then-” he looked around and the men began whooping in agreement, “Then something big went down and we need to get you out of the fire,”

“What happened sis?” the tech affectionately named I.T. asked. Everyone quieted down; you looked over at John biting your lip. He inclined his head a fraction in a silent ‘Do you trust them?’ looking at every member of your team you let your eyes flit back to him with and nodded. The silent conversation only lasted seconds but it spoke volumes. He reached down squeezing your hand, ‘I trust you,’

Taking a deep shuddering breath you turned your attention to your captive audience,

“It all started with a girl named Lucy…”

Tags:

@thottiewithashotgun

@lauraaan182

@writerdee1701

@dw-writes

@marvelouslytrekking

@stileslover13-blog

#doom 2005 #john grimm x reader #john grimm #reader insert #hailey the queen of typos #reaper x reader

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senotsuri · 3 years

Text

Way back when, I posted an image of an OC, who fairly recently got a full name (she only had a surname back then.) So, with Eliza’s name finally figured out, I realised I hadn’t actually given my overview of the game that spawned her; Champions of Vestroia.

Time to lose my mind, I guess.

Some fore-knowledge before we get into this.

I am, by all means, a legacy bakugan fan, not a reboot fan. I’ve only seen one double episode (the become-smaller-child episode, which was cute, and Outer Demons, which has a super good premise, but the execution is. something.) By all accounts, CoV is essentially my introduction to the world of the reboot, and I’ll come to this later.

I played both the first game (Bakugan Battle Brawlers, specifically the Wii edition), and the... third game (Defenders of the Core, shortened to DOTC, also for the Wii. The second game, for anyone curious, is Battle Trainer, a DS exclusive.) This will come up later, of course, but I want to point out these two as they’re basically my control group for the quality here (not for the battles though; different battle system and all.)

I am incredibly stay-at-home. A lot of people I know irl I don’t have contact with, and most of them don’t live in my city. This is only important when it comes to the protagonist and literally no one else in the game, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

So the game begins with the character creator. This is pretty standard stuff, honestly. My one issue with it is just-- this is probably my fashion sense speaking, but the fashion in the game is very... for lack of a better term, naff. There aren’t many options that look good, personally speaking. This is ignoring the issues where the protagonist loses their name, mid conversation, or is referred to as if I chose the male option instead of the female option. These issues are likely just oversights, by all accounts, but talk about jarring.

The first time you see your character is where 3. comes in. The protagonist, no matter what you chose (I have two save files, in case there was a difference. There isn’t), will always be a football/soccer player. Are you one of many, many people who isn’t sporty, who is trying to play as themselves? Sorry, your character is sporty, and you can’t do anything about it.

In the legacy games, this was never really a problem; your character was never seen doing anything other than brawling and interacting with other characters. Whether they played sports, or stayed indoors and wrote fanfic, the game let you decide on that for your character, by not having them do either of those things: your character only battled, or snuck around in DOTC’s case.

Once you stop playing football, you get to run to your best friends, and I guarantee you, you won’t immediately guess who they are unless you somehow already knew.

I mentioned BBB and DOTC being my control group on quality. Bringing the character creator back into this, the NPCs are laughable in quality. Any character who has the same model as you (older child. There are only two other model types: adult, and younger child) will look like a remixed version of your character. Had it not been for some characters having special eye shapes, you could practically cosplay any character in the game, because they were made the same way you made your character.

This includes your two best friends.

You could easily make the same character (minus clothes) as one of your best friend characters, without knowing it until you saw them.

While, yes, BBB and DOTC had the characters from the legacy anime in them, the fact that your best friends are nigh indistinguishable from any other character in the area, because you could easily make any of them in the character creator, isn’t... great.

Speaking of that. Characterisation is questionable, to say the least. Whatever bakugan you have in your first slot will answer to you the same as any other bakugan you have in your first slot. If you started off with Howlkor in the front of your party, and you replaced him with, say, Barbetra, Barbetra will act the exact same as Howlkor did, and it’s really something.

There’s only (?) Armoured Alliance bakugan in the game, other than Dragonoid, Pegatrix, Trox, Hydorous, Nillious, and the afforementioned Howlkor. That’s a small roster, by all accounts, so having varied dialogue depending on the bakugan would make sense.

The characterisation of the other characters is also a little funky in places. Your best friends don’t brawl, and I honestly forgot about them for a portion of the game. The tournament brawlers are practically as faceless as the villain minions, and the villains- oh the villains...

Preston. I don’t like Preston, at all. He’s a villain from the moment you see him, and the whole “try to find Preston” section in Helena Heights makes me want to punch someone. When you fight him in the Parasol HQ, his dad being the CEO, it’s fairly clear that Preston is little more than a tool for him. Sometime later, you fight Preston again, this time as the final tournament’s final battle, and he’s laughably weak compared to the other challengers. Remember, this kid fights you with Leonidas.

You’d think Leo would be good, but I’ll get into the butchering that happened to my death dragon later.

Anyhow, he fights you, assuming his dad will enjoy him defeating you. With the power of you’re the player character, you beat him, he hands all of his bakugan to you, and gives up on brawling for good. Kinda.

The next time you see him... hoo boy. In Old Town, on the way to defeat dear detestable dad, you come across Preston. He offers you help, and when player character is understandably suspicious, Preston complains that... one of his toys was taken away because you beat him, and now he wants Revenge On Dad.

I wish I was joking. His revenge, by helping you defeat his dad, isn’t because he’s obviously neglected by his dad (company taking priority over him, the CEO’s son), and then is used as a minion to try and get rid of you. It’s not out of bitter feelings because his dad doesn’t care about him, no, it’s because his dad took his ball away.

What’s worse is how player character reacts: “Oh! :) You’ve learned that bakugan aren’t just tools! :) Yes you can help me, despite the fact that you learning this sounds less than genuine and definitely not last minute! :)”

This is a level of stupidity I’ve only seen in DOTC Mira when Spectra tricks her into giving him Drago. He’s literally sulking and moping about over his ball, and then he sees the player character, immediately being manipulative so that player character can take down his dad for him.

Leonidas also forgives him, and has the same reaction as the player character.

Speaking of Leonidas! I think everyone’s been excited for Leonidas in general - we all love a shark headed death dragon, and we wanted one in the reboot for ages.

I refuse to call reboot Leonidas Leonidas. This is like the Shun Kazami debacle, but one I’m substantially more angry about.

Leonidas, in BBB, was untrusting of everything, wanted to throw down with everything in sight, had no fear of anything because “I don’t fear weak [humans]”, and literally came from hell. He eventually grew to trust you and others, to calm down and enjoy himself at his own pace, and was willing to have help from others, showing anyone around him that his origins aren’t the be all and end all about him.

Leonidas, in CoV, is immediately trusting of the first human who showed a hint of kindness, has a weakness to all attacks in the game, comes from Vestroia (not the Doom Dimension), and forgives the human who threw him away when he didn’t win the battle against you for him.

Ignoring the fact that Leonidas just doesn’t look good in CoV, I’d say he got bastardised. That’s not Leonidas, it’s just a dragon with the same name.

The main villain is the CEO of Parasol, an energy company that, assumedly, used to use solar power. Upon finding out that bakugan battles give off incredible levels of power, they turned to using bakugan, forced to battle, to generate power. These guys literally dug into someone’s house to try and get Leonidas. They’re evil.

On the topic of the battling for power generation; this has a decay effect on Vestroia, as it happens, as battling energy would usually go back into Vestroia, which would be recycled and reused.

The CEO doesn’t bend the knee to you until you break him, which is undoubtedly nice for a villain; I was honestly expecting him to give up, but he doesn’t. You beat him into a corner.

But as my introduction to the world of BP, through CoV, is lackluster at best. Obviously the game is meant for those who have seen the reboot, and don’t mind being completely disconnected from the story, because CoV is self contained, and Dan only shows up to be the tutorial giver (as a jpg, no less).

From what the game tells me about the setting; bakugan are often exploited by adults, bakugan do not like adults because of this, but can’t tell when a human child is manipulating them, unless another child removes them from that situation (the lack of agency here is somehow worse than in the legacy series, who knew).

Despite bakugan being around for 18 years in the setting, no one seems to be aware that they’re living beings, other than the main charcter, as if BP humans are equivalent to Legacy’s Vestals. I was already aware of Vestroia and Earth sharing a location in space, but the fact that drilling deep enough causes bakugan to appear on Earth seems... really weird? Schrödinger’s Bakugan Summoning Pit, but they exist on every digging site possible. Bonus points to all bakugan being able to speak, and they do speak a lot, but only to the player and whoever is around the player in a cutscene.

I’m missing a lot of things, such as battle items being the worst sometimes, I’m aware, but at this point I’m tired of rambling, so let me end off in a comparison.

CoV has, in my opinion, the same replayability levels as Pokemon Shield; I couldn’t replay either game to the end, and I wouldn’t recommend either to anyone unless they were desperate for a new game to play, and had nothing else to chose.

#Bakugan #CoV #Bakugan Champions of vestroia #I had Feelings today #I give CoV a 4/10. personally #I think me being a legacy fan doesn't help it. but I don't think any of those biases actually held the game back?#Shoutout to the one kid in Oldtown who says something about the state of the economy. and makes the player character enter a mild panic #the kid is like. 6. the player character is maybe twice their age #The kid says it with a smug face too I wish I was making this up #I think his name is Rusty? I could be wrong #Bonus: I don't think Player Character has a house #There isn't a single house you can enter. not even one labelled as yours. all you have is your hideout. which has a clothes rack??#I'm almost convinced that's exactly where they live and that's it #Extra bonus to the ventus centipod you find when picking a flower. a flower that gets a guy to quit his job on the spot without a care.#sir. sir where is your sense of responsibility. sir--#Also it's like. half one in the morning--

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snarkymonkeyprime · 3 years

Text

I just realized I should post it separate:

writing-prompt-s

You managed to retrieve a cursed treasure from a tomb. Instead of spending your newfound wealth, you donate all of it to charity. The spirit that was going to ruin your life now has no idea what to do.

kiriei

@snarkymonkeyprime A DISTRACTION

snarkymonkeyprime

You slag. <3 Sung in the tune of destiel, I’ve decided. demon!dean and scholar!castiel, anyone?

Castiel brushed more dirt away, eyes wide with delight. “My god,” he breathed. “This . . . this -”

“Is rubbish,” Balthazar interrupted. He crouched over Castiel, peering at the object. “It’s yet another vase from yet another doomed kingdom. My word, the way you react you’d think the bloody thing was the grail.”

Castiel glared up at his partner. “And you have no sense of adventure.” He turned back to the find. Balthazar wasn’t wrong, though. It wasn’t anything different from what they’d found over the last month. Beautifully inlaid though.

Rich, shimmering black opal that had managed to survive centuries buried in muddy earth in Scotland. Pricks of scintillating red stone - likely agate - formed an image of a winged creature. Angel?

He tugged on the item and it came free quickly, mud and dirt falling off in clumps.

“It’s . . . stunning,” he sighed, happily. It would be an excellent addition to museum’s collection. He’d been working steadily with the Scottish government to unearth national treasures for the sake of history. Like Balthazar intuited, it was likely nothing more than a bauble. Still, it too would join the other odds and ends currently in storage.

So beautiful, though. He was amazed at how well-preserved it was. It would look perfectly at home in his own office even. It was his imagination that the red stone shimmered like fire and that the opal grew warm under his fingers.

Balthazar rose and stretched, wincing as his back cracked. “Shall we call it? Return tomorrow?”

Castiel glanced around, surprised at the lowered sun. “Oh. Yes, certainly.” He scrambled from his dig site, clutching the new vase. “I’ll hand this off to Gabriel.” He looked around the site, wondering what else they might find. So far, the majority had been old, pitted weapons, coins, and the occasional pottery shard. This was the first whole item they’d found. It would be a stunning centerpiece for the museum.

He carried it with reverence to Gabriel’s tent, handing it off. For a split second, he considered stashing it in his personal bag but the idea soured in his stomach. No, something this beautiful needed to be shared, not hoarded.

Gabriel, for his part, whistled. “Yowza, one piece? Nice work, Cassie.”

He beamed. “It’s a find for sure. I can’t remember the last time I’ve found unbroken pottery.”

The other man nodded, frowning lightly. “Neither have I. Certainly doesn’t look Scottish.” He tilted the vessel. “Greek maybe?” He made a noise. “Almost Roman looking; tile-work is a bit odd though.”

“Certainly possible.” Castiel yawned. “I’ll have to examine it further but it’s likely not originally from this island.” He grabbed his bag and jacket and waved to the two men. “In any event, I’ll be off to my hotel. See you both in the morning.”

He broke away from Balthazar and Gabriel, heading to his rental car and then his hotel. It had been a long - and clearly fruitful - day. All he wanted now was a hot shower and equally hot dinner.

He slid into his car and twisted the key, screaming when a deep voice grumbled, “The hell, man?”

He twisted in his seat, wide-eyed. A man sat in the back of his car. A man wearing jeans and a leather jacket. A very good-looking man who seemed very upset with Castiel.

“Wh-who are you?” He patted himself for his wallet. “I . . . I don’t have much,” he protested.

The man’s green eyes widened and then narrowed. “You gave it away.”

“What?”

Clearly annoyed, the man folded his arms and sat back with a snort. “Unbelievable. What am I supposed to do with that?” He ran a hand through his short brown hair, eyes shifting from green to red to black and then back again. “Freely given breaks the contract; who freakin’ knew?”

“Freely . . . what?” Castiel’s natural curiosity overcame his fright and confusion. “Who are you?” he asked again. He never noticed the man sitting in his car when he’d arrived at the car park. Or had he been ducked down, out of sight? He frowned. Not likely, the car was insanely small and the man was . . . not.

A flash and the man was now in the passenger seat, still scowling. Castiel yelped and pressed against the door though the stranger remained staring resolutely out the window, jaw clenched.

“Unbelievable,” he repeated.

“Um, can I . . . help you?” Castiel prodded, completely lost.

Green eyes shifted to him. “No, because you fucked me over.”

“Eh?”

The man scowled at Castiel again. “You managed to break the goddamn contract. You aren’t supposed to give the damn thing away.”

What in the hell was he talking about? Completely confused, Castiel reached out and poked the man in the cheek. “Oh, you are real,” he murmured.

Green eyes fluttered. “Duh, idiot.” Again that odd red-black flash. “Do you have any idea what you did?”

“No?” Castiel looked around but no one had returned to the carpark. He supposed he could bolt from the car back to Balthazar and Gabriel but frankly, he was too intrigued and confused to move. “You seem to have me at a disadvantage,” he murmured.

“Look. There was one thing you were supposed to do. Keep the vessel and then I got your soul.” He snorted, leaning back with his arms crossed. “This has never happened,” he muttered. “I can’t even . . .” he scratched his head. “I can’t even feel the damn thing now.”

“Do . . . are you talking about the vase?”

The man nodded. “The second you touched it, you woke me. But then you gave it up and now -” he threw up his hands. Then his eyes widened. “Oh shit; I think I’m stuck here.” He patted his chest and legs. “Fuck, am I mortal?”

Castiel squinted and tilted his head. “Are you well? Do you need medication?”

The man looked at him. “What?” He grinned suddenly, eyes crinkling and lips quirking. A very good look for him. “Oh, shit; you don’t have a clue what I am, do you?”

“I think you are an ill man who is confused,” Castiel remarked. He patted his shoulder. “There’s an A&E on the way to my hotel; I can drop you off.”

“No, no; you don’t get it.” The man grabbed Castiel’s jacket collar and pulled him close. “You let me out,” he purred. “You get to deal with me.”

“Let you out of what?” Castiel yelped.

“You let me out of the vase the moment your want manifested. But instead of keeping it, you gave it away and severed my connection to it.” The man’s eyes went dark. His humor suddenly faded. “You . . . you released me.”

“You said that,” Castiel murmured, cautious about distracting the man.

“No,” he breathed. “I mean, you . . . you freed me.” He focused on Castiel then and yanked him forward, kissing him hard.

Castiel’s eyes were painfully wide but the kiss was . . . oh. He had just managed to marshal enough braincells to return the embrace when he was shoved back again and released.

The man grinned, this time in absolute warm relief. “You freed me. I’m not . . . I can’t be commanded anymore.”

“You’re . . . welcome?” Castiel hedged. He touched his lips, the skin still tingling.

He blinked at the hand in his face. He took it gingerly, shaking it once, more out of habit than understanding.

“Call me Dean,” the man purred. He gestured toward the dig site with a jerk of his head. “You’ll find that thing ain’t remotely ancient. I found it at a flea market like an hour ago.”

“What?!”

Dean grinned again. “Look. Demons entrap, right? People dig all over Scotland for old shit so how hard is it to find something that looks old and bury it about a foot deep?” He leaned in and whispered loudly, “Not very.”

Rather than be startled by anything else Dean had said, Castiel groaned. “It’s a fake?”

Dean blinked and then laughed. “That sank in?”

He scowled and then reddened. “Excuse me for having a stake in this.” he blanched when the rest of the conversation caught up. “D-demon?”

Dean winked. “In the flesh.”

Castiel pointed toward the dig site. “You . . . possessed that?” He could remember the pristine look of it. The way it warmed in his hands. He focused on Dean then. “Let me get this straight: you possessed the vase and waited for someone to . . . abscond with it so that you could do the same with their soul?”

“Yup.”

“But then I, gave it up thus . . . severing your connection with the vessel.”

“Uh huh.”

“But - if I believed that - couldn’t you just possess another vase?”

Dean shook his head. “You touched my vessel and connected yourself to me in that instant. When you did possess it, you did the same to me. You gave up the vase and gave me up at the same time. You broke my contract. You severed my servitude to Hell.”

Castiel tilted his head again, noting that Dean’s eyes softened at the action. “No one ever did that? Before today, I mean?”

“Most people aren’t very altruistic.” He poked Castiel in the forehead. “Give people the hint they have a fragment of wealth that can be theirs and theirs alone? Even the pope would turn into a miser.”

“Huh.” Castiel blinked rapidly. So. If Dean was telling the truth, he was a demon who’d intended to devour Castiel’s soul but instead was left drifting in reality. “Huh,” he repeated, sitting back and staring out the window.

“You’re taking this pretty damn well, all things considered.”

Castiel glanced at him. He looked human. Dressed in modern clothing with brown hair and beautiful green eyes. It was the eyes that most captured Castiel. They were wide and deep. Honest. He believed every word Dean was telling him, odd as it all was.

“You’re a demon,” he stated, for clarity.

A grin toyed at Dean’s mouth but he only nodded.

“If you did have a connection to Hell, won’t they be mad?”

Dean shrugged. “Probably? Crowley, the one who’d locked me in, he’ll probably throw up a fuss for a little bit but then again, he always said I was more annoying than helpful.” He grinned. “I wasn’t all that productive on the soul collection department if you get my meaning.”

Castiel raised an eyebrow. “Not hard to believe,” he murmured, absently.

“Hey!”

He took a deep breath. “Where will you go?”

That startled the demon. He blinked and then looked out the window. “Uh, dunno,” he admitted. He looked at his hands. “Thing is, never thought I’d get free. So . . . got no backup plan,” he admitted.

Castiel mulled it over. He never did like the idea of abandoning someone in need. Even if said someone was truly a demon. He held out his hand toward Dean. “Dean. I am Castiel Novak, archeologist. I have need immediate for an . . . assistant. If you’d care to oblige?”

Dean glanced at the outstretched hand and then back to Castiel. That same, warm honest grin from before. He shook and then leaned back in his seat. “You sure about this, professor?”

Not in the slightest, he admitted. But he’d seen truth in Dean’s warm eyes. And if what had happened was reality, it was his duty to help Dean. He’d found the vase after all. Abandoning Dean after that would make him no better than the damned souls he’d collected over the years.

“Right now, all I’m sure of is that I need dinner.” He smiled at Dean. “Care to join me?”

A grin that quickly shifted into something far hotter. “You bet. By the way, think maybe that assistant gig comes with perks?”

“Such as?�� Castiel asked as he pulled out of the lot, glancing once at Dean.

“Oh, like,” he leaned in, nipping Castiel’s earlobe, “more of that kiss?” He slid a hand around Castiel’s thigh. “I’m pretty good at more than that,” he purred.

Castiel shivered and swallowed. “M-maybe,” he rasped. He reached up and planted his hand on Dean’s face, pushing him back. “For now, don’t distract me; I hate driving in Scotland.”

He yelped suddenly when he found himself in the passenger seat, Dean now behind the wheel. He glared. “Don’t do that!”

Dean winked. “Seems I still have a few tricks, professor. Just think how useful I’ll be for you now.”

Castiel’s face went hot. “Maybe I should go get the vase back,” he muttered as Dean jolted the car into traffic.

“Too late!”

Castiel frowned at Dean but hid a smile all the same. Perhaps it was too late for some things. And perfect timing for others.

#demon!dean #scholar!castiel #destiel #spnfic #deancas

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whatscallion · 6 years

Text

nightmare.

/ /- hello! been a bit since i've put up writing. so, here we are with a little romanogers living hell. it's great. originally a collab with @captain-festeve.

There are days where I find myself lost in thoughts, and those are the most dangerous days for me to endure. I'm distracted, and I miss details. It's always in the details that truths are hidden, creeping between lines and smoldering in the background. These days where my thoughts consume me, I know better than to engage in anything remotely social, be it through my Big Brother employer or those I considered friends. People pry. People take advantage of my lack of attention. This was something I learned early on, having inadvertently allowed a greenhorn to get me in an arm bar during a spar session.

I should just go home. I'm no use here today in this shell of an organization. I'd be more detrimental than anything, and the importance of knowing when one is compromised is a sublime skill.

Thank god these days are few and far between.

The door to the apartment in Manhattan swung open without sound, leaving Natalia greeted with the stale familiarity of a life without much luxury. It forced her to feel a sense of homesickness for Brooklyn despite it not being too far away. The notion of yearning for a place that belonged in the past forced sadness to blend with anger, setting her jaw tight as the door slammed, waking the only other inhabitant of her dwelling. Liho, in nonchalant arrogance, perked up at company from its perch on the window sill. A small squeak came from her only trustworthy companion, but the Soviet ignored the call for attention. A heavy mood was settling over her thoughts, plucking at precious pieces of energy. It left her with just enough to fall haphazardly onto her disheveled bed.

Natalia should've known with how quickly everything black that this was so far out of the ordinary. Further into a void she fell, her back breaking through a barrier to allow a frigid cold to overtake her, as if a frozen lake had swallowed her whole. Through thick darkness, she waded without panic or reason. There was simply a void to supply absolute nothing. Calmness and peace held her tightly without weight. It was bliss transcending that of any cumulatively consecutive nights of slumber.

The abyss shattered as lightning struck, stars burning too brightly as pain screamed forth to make itself pertinently known. Weightlessness transpired into a sluggish lead weight filling muscle and sinew without mercy. The coldness was no longer comforting, but cumbersome in its own unique way. Copper blossomed on her tastebuds as discomfort rolled in like rapids in a river. Movements ceased in their freedom and gravity held her in an iron grip. The stark contrast between then and now snapped forward, forcing her eyes open once more.

This was not her home in Manhattan. It wasn't even Steve's old apartment in Brooklyn. Concrete from floor to ceiling radiated damp coldness, the lone lightbulb above sending ominous shadows to cascade about the room. There was no room for slack, giving Natalia little respite from the discomfort coursing through her in that moment. Parts of her were hurting, but she was restrained completely. Nothing budged. There had been times in which there was enough room in restraints that she could slip her hand through with minimal damage to herself, but not now.

Dull emeralds were slow to sharpen, focusing on the details she could soak up from the room. How did she even get here? Origins were hazy as she attempted to recollect, but there was no doubt that this was real. Where was here, exactly? Despite the knowledge already gained, Natalia struggled once more against her restraints, only to find nothing was giving still. For now, she was at the mercy of whoever came through the heavy metal door before her.

Minutes blended into hours before movement filtered through beyond the barrier, attention coming forward full fledged. Shadows moved just beneath the door, and for an instant, the redhead braced herself against who she speculated to be just on the other side of that doorway. Chaos? Recluse? Any of the countless enemies she'd made throughout her illustrious career? No amount of reaffirming her callous nature could prepare her for the person when they finally made themselves known.

Eyes once swimming with the purest ocean depths were now carved from the most unforgiving ice, darkened with malcontent and twisted virtues. A jawline she long ago memorized was now set tight as a warped grin beset lips that once tasted of honey. Steve Rogers, a man who had the world's faith placed upon his shoulders, was now clad in the enemy colors and standing right before the former spy. The Axis painted him coal and blood, and Natalia felt herself try to grow indifferent, but she knew just how opposite that was.

The sound of heavy boots carried him forward as Natalia settled a glare on the Hydra emblem on his chest - the same chest she had jokingly spoken of landing a plane on. Such candid thoughts threatened to worm their way into the folds of her mind, but she had to push them back, Now was not the time. That chapter was closed. He is not who he used to be.

"The red really does suit you," he murmured in amusement, a hand coming out to touch upon the tacky substance coating the side of her face. Natalia instinctively flinched from his touch, but the fury in her glare grew palpable as she drew her gaze to meet his own twisted one. "My ballerina."

The use of her pet name tore adrenaline through her, masking heartbreak as she struggled fruitlessly against the restraints. This was not Steve. This was not the one she had fallen for. This was not the one who had betrayed her. Emotions were breaking free of their usual restraints, the belief that love was for children thrashed at the site of love lost. This was her nightmare, and it was smiling pleasantly down at her, confident that she wouldn't be able to escape her confinement.

"You're so beautiful, even when you're angry," he spoke in a quiet sigh, a calloused hand coming up once more to brush back strands of crimson. The flinch wasn't there anymore, death conveyed in verdant depths as gazes met. Some small sliver of her wanted to see a semblance of the man she once more, some sort of guilt or regret of even love, but nothing remained. All of it washed away beneath the haze of deceit. Words tempted to bubble forth, filled with scorn and anger, but she had to think straight. This was not the first time she'd been crossed by someone so close. This was merely the most surprising of them. Natalia had to keep her cool, keep from letting him creep beneath her skin and keep herself alive.

"There's no coming back from this, Steve." It wasn't a plea or a bargain. This was her warning to him, that no matter what actions played out against her or the world, there would be someone there to stop him in his tracks. Natasha could only hope to be alive to see it. "You died the second your turned your back on the world and your team."

"You won't live long enough to tell anyone about this, my ballerina." Natalia couldn't help but feel fire surge through her at the reiteration of her pet name. It was obvious he saw it, the quirk of his lips lifting further in warped nature. He was reaching for something on his belt, but the dread settling in the pit of her stomach told her she already knew what it was. "I've been doing this since I was a child. Loyalty to something greater, something you wouldn't understand."

Cold steel pressed just beneath her jaw, prompting her chin to tilt up against sharp pressure. The knife in his grip had been what she spied upon when he came in. In that moment, Natalia felt more mortal than any other point in her life. Mortal, doomed, and heartbroken. But she couldn't let him see. The Soviet couldn't let Steve see just how much he had won already. Defiance, though feigned, was thick in her glare.

"The Red Room was a great asset," he noted. Immediately, Natalia's thoughts were working against his words. No, no, no. "A shame their best couldn't live up to their expectations."

Time had to be bought. If her fate was sealed, she could prolong it enough to at least do some damage to the belly of the beast. Speaking meant added pressure to the knife's tip, but she couldn't even bring coherent words forth that weren't coated in venom. Every inch of her being wanted to rip him apart with her teeth, hope having died with the warmth she held for him. A moment passed, and that slap-worthy confidence drew him down to press his lips against her own in sheer audacity.

There was no possible way in which this stemmed from what they shared before, forcing Natalia to react appropriately. Teeth bit hard into his lower lip, enough to break skin and renew that taste of stock copper on her tongue. In a split second, the tip of the knife pierced through her own skin, though only enough to force compliance in getting his lip out from between the Widow's jaws. Steve withdrew, smiling with crimson coating his teeth.

"So full of fire. Reminds me of our trip to Macau." His tongue darted out over his lip, doing little against the trickling crimson. Even using the back of his hand to wipe at the mess did so little to help.

"Let's hope you have the same stamina you showed me during those long and hot nights."

#romanogers #stevenat #black widow #captain america #captain hydra #mine #drabble

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astrologista · 7 years

Text

Proper Caution (wip)

Universe : DCAU

Characters : Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen, Roy Harper, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake (the teamup that never was)

[I wanted to try to write a JLU episode that I felt was “missing” and would have been a great team-up opportunity. So because of that, this fic should be thought of as being set in the JLU animated verse. Basically, this whole fic is an excuse to have that teamup happen. This is meant to be a big multi-chapter thing that I’m not used to writing. I might post it up on AO3 if I ever finish it. Also this fic inspires me. A lot.]

Plot: Superman is off-world. Batman and Green Arrow (along with their ex- and current sidekicks) team up in Metropolis to take down R'as al Ghul in his attempt to regain a Lazarus Pit lost to him many years ago that is positioned underneath Metropolis, since some of his other sites have been compromised. R'as and Talia will show up to take back what's theirs. But, the Team will have to work together to stop their plot. Dick and Roy have to deal with Tim tagging along and Bruce and Ollie have to accept the fact that they're getting older, both themselves and their boys.

PROLOGUE On an uncharted island of West Polynesia...

Amid the acrid scent of incense mixed with the fragrance of juniper flowers, Talia al Ghul carefully supervised the excavation of a lost artifact - a Lazarus Pit, lost to her father about 360 years prior, to natives who claimed its powers were not meant for the use of man, or woman for that matter.

"Carefully. Clear a space for the drill."

Her command fell on most obedient ears. Expensive equipment had been procured, only the best for such a procedure, and brought a mile and a half beneath the island to this dark crypt lost to time.

Talia watched with a scrutinizing gaze as her orders were carried out to the letter by her father's retainers. They knew to be careful, at the cost of their lives.

R'as himself was becoming slightly more haggard by the day. Rejuvenation was available at the few Pits he still controlled, but R'as was convinced that the power of said Pits continued to wane with the passing years, making them less and less potent with their effects becoming less and less noticeable. A Pit that had had centuries to fester and bubble, he reasoned, would certainly be more potent - that, and he was never a man to lose something that rightfully belonged to his legacy and longevity.

Now R'as approached the worksite where his minions worked mechanically, without rest, to uncover the Pit.

"Progress, my daughter."

Talia dutifully answered. "Father, we are about to penetrate into the chamber of the Pit. "

R'as smiled thinly. "Then let us step back and witness this moment of glory."

The massive drill roared to life, sending a group of bats far above to squeaking and fluttering in protest. R'as watched with a marked intensity.

For several minutes, the diamond-tipped, ludicrously expensive instrument bored away at layers of rock and rubble. As the wall gave way, however, everyone present became aware of something else happening.

Great cracks appeared in the wall, spreading like a spiderweb of destruction, and soon a rumbling could be heard from above.

"Farran, cease this! Stop the drill!" R'as voice was like a sharp knife through the din. But it had to be said, else Farran would not stop the drill, even if the crypt came down on his head right then, unless he was told so by his master.

Luckily, he had heard this command, immediately shutting off the massive drill. Quickly, Ubu manuevered to his Master's side to ensure his safety, whether he wished to stay or depart.

Obviously, the sane choice was to leave. R'as wasn't known for being a sane man, but he was adept at survival.

"Father, we must go! This crypt is doomed!" Talia called, her voice of a controlled type of fear that comes with long life.

With a last look at the now unearthed Pit, R'as saw that its contents had dried up or been funneled away long ago. There was nothing of use here.

Another loss.

Though the crypt collapsed about him, pieces of stone ceiling falling from high above, bats screeching, floor shaking, R'as found himself stopping simply to know the feeling of this loss.

The same feeling that pervaded his senses whenever Batman intervened in his carefully-formed plans.

Always rage.

"Father! We must go!" Snapped back to the task at hand - survival - by his daughter, R'as swept away accompanied by Ubu to the secret elevator of the crypt. It would hold only R'as, Ubu, and Talia - no others were worthy.

Those minions would be taking the stairs. For a mile and a half.

Now on the surface, R'as watched as the crypt itself collapsed into the chamber of the Lazarus Pit. His Lazarus Pit. It left a cloud of dust like a smoke signal.

Rage.

Talia observed, "After the volcanic eruptions on this island 100 years ago, the underlying ground became unstable. Drilling into the inaccessible chamber resulted in failure."

Farran, who had been operating the drill, immediately fell to his knees in front of his master, begging for forgiveness. He was dragged away by two other ninja - his fate would be decided.

Talia continued to muse, "Father, you said there was another Pit that had been lost to you."

R'as' face twisted strangely. "Yes, daughter. We shall depart for it with all haste."

Retrieving a communicator from his cape, R'as spoke to his pilot, who had been hovering above the island. "Sarangul. Prepare for departure immediately. Our mission was a failure, but our next one will not be."

Talia knew that look on her Father's face. The one he used as he charged into battle, assured of victory. Eyes like fire, the fire of a Demon, the fires of Hell and the Demon's Head.

"Bring us to the United States. I have business in the city of Metropolis."

---

Ch.1.

---

"You've gotta be kidding."

Roy Harper must have read the mission briefing ten times. No. Twenty.

Going to Metropolis? That was cool. Cool city. No arguments there. Meet some chicks, see some flicks, the whole deal. The League would put him up in a sweet hotel, with a fridge full of free soda, and everything for the duration of the mission. Absolutely a sweet deal for being a reserve Leaguer.

And working with Nightwing? Awesome. Great guy, could fight with the best and was one of the few leaguers around Roy's age, so it was easy to find stuff to talk about in terms of pop culture, video games, martial arts, whatever. Just an all-around great guy, easy to get along with, easy to talk to, amazing. Nothing would be cooler than just hanging out with the 'Wing in a sweet hotel in a sweet city, if Roy had anything to say about it.

But just like anything in this job, there had to be problems. Three of them, to be exact.

The other members on the brief - well, one of them wasn't even a member, to be technical. Robin. Roy couldn't help but think it was a pretty weird choice. He was okay with the little munchkin tagging along, had met him a few times. Roy couldn't think of much to say about him other than that he was tiny and also a pain in the ass at times, basically the definition of a little kid brother. Anyway, it would seriously cut in to bro time if Nightwing had to babysit.

But apparently, that wouldn't be a problem. Batman was apparently on their team as well. Batman. The Batman. It made sense when Roy considered that they were going to be running surveillance on gang activity in Metropolis while Superman punched space robots out in the cosmos. But Batman hanging out in their hotel suite was awkward enough, without...

Oliver. Wasn't that just the cherry on top of the awkward sundae. The Martian man must really be out of line still with Earth culture if he thought this was a decent teamup to put together. But no problem, really.

Just two young guys trying to prove their independence as ex-sidekicks, accompanied basically by their father figures and one seriously annoying brat who was way too smart for his own good. And who was also currently a sidekick.

The weekend was gonna be interesting, to say the least.

Roy wasn't really worried, but as a pre-emptive strike he thought it was only fair to meet with Dick and get some kind of alliance going, seeing as they were in essentially the same boat.

Metropolis' Hightower Cafe had free Wifi, anyway. He could easily stream vids and that was a pretty good deal. It meant he could watch the livestream of his college's graduation ceremony.

He'd graduated some months before, in December. It meant he didn't get to walk for graduation, but the ability to sweep out early and continue with more... pressing work was just too attractive to pass up.

Speaking of attractive... Shannon Haight was taking her diploma now. They'd dated for three months. She was a control freak, but God if he didn't miss the smile he was seeing now from his Ipad.

It was nice to be normal for once. Just hanging out with a cute chick, no commitments. Carefree.

The League was basically the opposite of that. But it drew him in anyway, because if he became a member it'd be much easier to get away from the stigma of the sidekick role. He could be recognized as his own hero. To his dismay, he'd only been offered a reserve position. The League's equivalent of a college's waitlist. Basically, the bench. They'd only call him in if they absolutely needed him, and it was only very rarely that they had any particular need for a non-meta. At least if you were a reserve meta, you had a chance of getting called in, say if they needed a bunch of firepower or water power and you had the goods.

But he remained only a last resort.

Nightwing was an amazing fighter. That was why they offered him full-time membership. He'd passed the tests with flying colors, apparently. But he only accepted a reserve position. After all, he had an entire, very corrupt city to fight for in Bludhaven.

Right now, the man himself was strolling into the Hightower, three minutes early.

Grayson grinned with the convivial knowledge of an inside joke as he sat down across from Roy. "Don't you think this is gonna be a fun weekend? I think this is gonna be a fun weekend." Roy sighed like a man carrying a ton of bricks on his back. "Man, can you believe? Free hotel suite WITH chaperones. And a little kid."

Dick shrugged with a what-are-you-gonna-do affect. "I'm sure they won't set bedtime too early." Then he got a bit serious. Dick was good at that, going from jocular to a bit serious.

"Look, we're independent agents now. Not their little helpers. They're pretty smart guys, I'm sure they'll treat us like the mature adults we are. They're not our bosses, anyway - they have no power over us, Roy. We can stay out 'til the sun comes up and they can't say boo."

Roy didn't look exactly convinced. "We're probably not gonna get any good action, you know. They're gonna end up taking it over, I'm sure. And we'll be stuck with the kid, probably shaking down schoolyard bullies and shoplifters."

Dick held up a finger. "Now don't go underestimating Tim. He's stronger than he looks."

"I'm sure he is, dude."

A little silence never hurt, in Roy's experience anyhow.

Dick was good at changing the subject. "How's college?"

"Eh. Finished a few months ago."

"That's cool, you get your degree?"

"Yeah."

"Dude, that's great!"

"Hey, thanks. Busted my balls getting this one philosophy class finished up. Pain in the ass."

"That sounds rough."

"Yeah, it was. Got it done though."

"Awesome."

"Yeah."

A comfortable silence extended itself. Roy knew they were... acquaintances, to say the least, but not necessarily friends to the point where they could maintain a comfortable silence for longer than a few minutes without it becoming uncomfortable quite quickly.

Roy's phone buzzed just then, which was kind of a relief.

"It's... Oliver. We were supposed to be at the room for meet and greet shit at 2:30."

"Time's it?" "2:31. Classic Ollie."

"We should probably head over there."

"I guess we should."

---

[Insert looots scenes here of Bruce and Oliver being awkward dads.]

---

[Pretty much a lot of the scenes are like this... Bruce basically forgetting that Dick and Roy are older than Tim lol. Also something happens at dinner in which Tim is a little shit and apparently Roy is his mortal enemy now. We shall call this the “dinner incident”. Also, there’s a running joke where Ollie is constantly calling Roy “Speedy” and not “Red Arrow”.]

[In this scene, I guess I was thinking that both Dick, Roy and Tim are temporarily banned from hero business for whatever reason by their guardians. Essentially they’re grounded.]

"So what are we watching?" Dick inquired.

"Oh, nothing much. Rented the Saw trilogy." Roy grinned.

"Pretty good. Wanna play a game?"

"Funny. Yeah, actually I do. Some COD?"

"Sounds good."

It was just their luck that Tim should walk in a few minutes later when they had gotten into playing.

Roy sneered, not having gotten over the Dinner Incident yet. "What'cha want, twerp? You want us to switch to Mario Kart so you can play?"

"Um, I've played Call of Duty before. Dick, can I have a controller?"

The kid was decent at playing. Bruce was right - he did have a tactical mind. He tired quickly, though.

Dick noticed. "Tim, go to bed. It's a big day tomorrow, right?"

Tim decided not to suppress his yawn now that his tiredness was obvious. "'Kay. Night, Dick. Night, Speedy."

"Sleep tight, kiddo." Dick had that stupid sappy big brother smile on his face again.

The kid left, presumably for bed, and they got in about ten more minutes of play before Bruce's voice rumbled quite close which made Roy flinch a bit because he didn't hear him come in.

"Are you going to be watching these?"

Bruce was holding the Saw DVDs.

Dick answered. As always. "Yup, we're gonna have a movie night while you guys go out. Have fun. Don't worry about us."

Bruce was looking straight at Roy as he spoke. "These look too intense..."

Dick cringed imperceptibly.

"...for Tim."

What a save. Dick spoke up, "Let me redefine 'we'. 'We' refers to Roy and I, actually. Tim's going to sleep, okay? Nothing to worry about."

Bruce didn't look happy about it, but he put the DVDs down, muttered "I hope not" and stalked away, leaving them be.

Roy felt himself breathe again.

---

[Insert more scenes]

#dcau #specs fic #this i wrote long ago #i forgot exactly where i was going with it

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