#in the past it was drilled into me that I'm Being Stupid And Ruining My Heart Bc I'm Stupid so i.

[arcadian-vampire]

Doctor appt today went okay! I shyly told him how my limbs keep turning red/purple and scaring me, so he took a look and he thinks I just have Reynaud's- nothing scary bad, thank goodness

[retroellie]

Polluted

Summary: After a long day of work, Spencer comes home and fucks his stresses away.

A/N: This was written in literally 45 minutes but I had this idea and I couldn't make it into a full fic, my mind could only think of the smut part lmao. Enjoy!!! :)

Warnings: NSFW, slapping, degradation, squirting, unprotected sex, mean!spencer

Word count: 1.9K

Prison changed Spencer Reid, plain and simple. This is not the man you came to love. He was cruel, possessive, completely and utterly damaged. You hoped that prison wouldn't taint Spencer too much, you hoped that he would continue to be sweet little Dr. Spencer Reid. But you knew what prison could do to a person, for you locked people up daily. You knew that the system would take Spencer's old soul and soft heart into its muddy hands, squeezing them until they became one. Although sometimes in the right lighting, in the right moment, you can see a hint of Spencer in his light brown eyes.

You can't say that you hated the change in Spencer, obviously there was much work to be done before Spencer could truly be himself again. However, you could live with this change. He was hungry, feeling as though your body was the only thing that could fill that hunger. It was extremely attractive to you, his sudden hunger for you. Spencer was always using you, using your body or your mouth or your hands... just you. There was always an excuse for him to be inside of you in his mind. A man thought of looking at you? He bent you over the kitchen table. You wore a shirt that showed a bit of your chest? He dragged you into the bathroom and forced you onto your knees. You smiled at him? He would shove his face between your thighs until you couldn't even see straight.

Even on the way back home after he had gotten out of prison, he bent you over the backseat on the side of the road and fucked you roughly. It felt like you were stepping on eggshells every time around him because you never know what can set him off... it was oddly scandalous, almost arousing as the thought of how he'd fuck you next was always on your mind. A big plus was that spencer dug himself into your brain, pulling out your deepest and darkest kinks, and using them to give you earth-shattering, mind-blowing, life-changing orgasms. Now you don't think you two could ever go back to just plain sex. He had ruined you, ruined your body so much that only the thought of being hurt could get you off now.

"Fucking bitch..." Spencer spat out, his hand spreading your legs further open as his cock drilled into your soaked cunt. "That bitch looked at me like I was fucking stupid..."

His words came out breathy and jagged as he fucked into you at an animalistic pace. Spencer came home today upset, his tie being ripped off and thrown down as soon as he got into the door. You knew something was up by this action, but also the look on his face. He seemed to have a frown sewn onto his face, something that he wore most days. You asked what was wrong but you were met with him ripping off your clothes, hinting that he didn't want to talk but to fuck his frustrations into you. Now here you were, panties ripped off, legs wide open, Spencer deep inside you with his hand placed on your neck.

You couldn't tell how many times you came just in this position alone, you couldn't keep count. His hand gripped your through, affecting the way your brain functioned. You felt with every thrust of Spencer's hips you would lose brain cells... creating the dumb cock whore that Spencer ached to achieve. Spencer's hand applied more pressure to your throat as he thought of what happened at work, how while section chief Erin Strauss critiqued his work, people were being murdered.

"As if my 187 IQ wasn't enough for her." He started, his hand on your thigh being slammed down past your face and into the wooden table he was drilling you into. " I mean, I've been at this place for over 10 years... I know what I'm fucking doing"

You came again, not able to keep yourself from unraveling now. His hand on your throat was constricting your moans, completely silencing them as the only thing that could come out of your mouth was soft gurgles. You loved this feeling, knowing that at any moment if you didn't like it you could alert Spencer and he'd stop immediately. I guess you could say that Spencer's care for you never disappeared after prison, he would go on to say that it strengthened his love for you. He had this picture of you that you had sent him in one of your many letters, he kept it with him everywhere he went for it was the only thing that kept him sane.

One time a fellow inmate saw it, snatched it from him, and digested every single inch of you. He went on to explain the disgusting things he would do to you if he got the chance, that is exactly why Spencer came home to fuck you nice and good every night. Because if he wasn't the one to do it, he knew that other people would take you for granted, they would spend only minutes with you... ignoring what you needed and taking what they wanted. You would feel incomplete, unsatisfied, and completely in denial that love existed. You would assume love was only made for books and movies, that no one could show you the love you deserved. This is the love you deserve. You deserve a love that could have you coming undone over and over again, a harsh and mean kind of love but that always ended with soft kisses and a nice hot bath. A love that was sour at first but ended sweet, making sure that the words "i love you" were carved onto your skin.

"You wouldn't do that would you?" He whispered into your ear, his grip on your throat as he waited for your response. " You don't think I'm stupid ...hmm?"

His cock was too deep inside you, it was deep enough to have you going cross-eyed and unable to speak. Your moans became audible now, no longer being stuck in your throat due to his pressure being released. His pace was still inhumanly fast, not stopping even for a second. The table had started to shit forward, being scrapped across the floor and probably worrying the downstairs neighbors. You were on the verge of cumming again, your mind not even able to comprehend his question until you felt a harsh sting on your cheek. Spencer had slapped you across the face, growing impatient while waiting for your answer.

"Answer me...." He hissed out, leaning down and taking his lips to yours. He bit down on your lip, creating a pain that shot through your body. "Or I'm going to make you cum over and over and over again until you can't think of anything else besides my cock deep inside your tight little pussy..."

You could taste blood now, your lip bleeding and seeping into your mouth. His words created this deep, rough knot in your stomach. It wasn't like the rest of the orgasms you had tonight, no it was more intense. It hurt, painful with every thrust of his cock. It created a deep pain and pleasure dynamic in your body but felt like something was trying to claw itself out of your body.

"Fuck..." You screamed out, grabbing onto him and digging your fingernails into his back. "No I wouldn't! Fuck... I wouldn't! I won't!"

You finally replied, hoping with those words he would deepen his thrust if that was even possible. Spencer just grinned down at you, placing his head in between your shoulder blade and your neck. He set soft kisses to the skin, his warm lips against your burning skin. Spencer was close, your words pushing him further to the edge. The feeling inside your stomach didn't stop or dull, it only got worse. You were screaming now, Spencer's hand lingering on your neck but sitting gently on your skin. Spencer picked up his speed, the table scraping against the floor even harder.

You couldn't handle it, everything around you becoming so far away yet being so close. The feeling got to a point of feeling terrifyingly painful but also so potent of pleasure and so bewitching that you didn't want it to end now. A couple more of Spencer's deep and harsh thrusts sent you over the edge, the painful knot in your stomach snapping and shooting liquid out of your body. It was the first time you had ever squirted, the feeling so glorious that you wished it would happen every time. Your vision went out, only seeing light and hearing Spencer's soft moans as he finished inside of you. The world felt like it ended, nothing to be seen or to be experienced... just emptiness but complete fullness all at the same time.

"Good girl..." You heard Spencer's words echo through your now-empty mind. You couldn't tell if your eyes were closed or not. "You did so good for me honey... I'm so proud of you."

Those single words were all you needed to hear as you floated back to earth and into your body, you blinked a couple times... forgetting where and who you were for a split second. You came back to see Spencer brushing your hair back from your sweaty face, his face inches from yours as his face filled with concern that maybe he had broken you finally.

"There she is..." He chuckled softly, kissing your lips softly. " There's my girl..."

You gave him a weak smile, raise your hand to rest on his cheek. You rubbed it softly, feeling the growing stubble on his face. He was just as sweaty as you, his body hot to the touch. You two probably looked insane, one of you barely able to walk looking beat the hell up and the other one scratched up and drenched with liquids. Spencer gently slid himself out of you, watching you wince softly as it felt like he was connected to you at this point.

"Sorry..." He whispered, taking your hand in his as he rubbed your thigh gently "I was too rough huh?"

Rough was not even close to what Spencer was. He was brutal, sadistic, barbaric but you couldn't deny that you would choose it over compassion any day. You began to think that maybe prison was the best thing that could've happened to Spencer Reid, not only was he a genius but he now had a powerful glow to him. Shy kisses and longing gazes were a thing of the past for you two, Spencer knew what he wanted and he was going to get it.

"You were just rough enough..." I chuckled, feeling nothing but content and at peace in this moment.

Spencer laughed with you, pecking your lips one last time before pulling away from you. He looked around, his eyes landing on the couch. He smiled, walking over and leaving you but only for a second. He came back with a blanket, wrapping it around you then picking you up bridal style. You thanked him silently because you knew there was no way you were getting off the table without some kind of help.

"To the bath you go..." He joked, holding you close to him as he walked you to your shared bathroom. 

You looked into his eyes and at the right lighting, the right moment, you looked into his light brown eyes... realizing that this is Spencer Reid. This is Spencer Reid damaged, polluted, and bruised... but it was still the man you fell in love with all those years ago.

[worksby-d]

Wrong Donut

Pairing: Andy Barber x pregnant!Reader

Summary: You can't get your favorite donut with your coffee, so Andy lets you cry to him about it over the phone 😖 (Idea from a lovely anon).

Warnings: None. Just soft and silly 🤭

Word count: ~800

∘◦❀◦∘

Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. 

You roll your eyes at yourself. Repeating the words in your head only makes it worse really. 

Pulling up to the drive thru window, you’re thankful you have your sunglasses on so the teenager working doesn’t have to see that he inadvertently ruined a pregnant woman's day by telling you that they’re out of your favorite donut.

The short drive back to work is spent blinking tears away so you can see. You think–hope–it does the trick to ward them off completely.

It feels like you’re in the clear until you sit down at your desk to drink your coffee and, reluctantly, the donut the guy recommended to you instead of your usual. You only said yes to it because any more words out of your mouth would have given away the sob you were holding back.

You break down when you open the paper bag and catch a glimpse of it. Not the same.

“Fuck,” you curse at yourself for being so upset, pushing the bag away. 

Wiping some tears off your cheeks with your sweater, you grab your phone and fast walk down the hall to a restroom so no one can see you. 

The only way you know how to cope lately is calling Andy and hoping he has time to let you vent. The poor guy. You suspect one of these days he’ll just stop taking your calls, but you hope it's not today. 

It takes a few deep breaths before you can get yourself to dial his number.

On his end, he sees his phone light up and he knows the drill since you're only voice calling and not video calling like you usually prefer with him. 

“Hi, honey,” he answers carefully, bracing himself. 

“Hi,” you answer back, ready to lose it again from just hearing his voice. 

He can hear the frown on your face. 

“What's wrong?” 

“I got the wrong donut,” you sniffle. 

That's a new one, he thinks to himself. “What?” 

“I went to get my coffee and donut, but I had to go during lunch because I was running late this morning,” you recount. Tears fill your eyes again. “But because it was later in the day and they were busy, they didn't have the donut I wanted. I had to get a different one. And it's just not... right.”

He tries his best not to laugh, he really does. 

“I'm sorry that happened.” You can hear the tinge of amusement in his voice, but he's also being genuine. “It’s just a donut though, baby…” 

“I know,” you sob – Loud enough for him to hold his phone away from his ear for a second. “I think that's why I'm crying. I know it's stupid.” 

He can't help but laugh now. “It's not stupid,” he assures. “You’re just emotional.” 

He just listens to the residual crying on your end until it sounds like you're ready to talk again. 

“Where are you, by the way?” 

“Hiding in the bathroom.” 

He smiles hearing you laugh a little. 

“Did you eat?” He asks. Stupid question. He bites his lip. “I know it wasn't the you-know-what that you wanted, but you have to eat.” 

You roll your eyes at the way he censors the word. 

“Not yet…” You sigh, fixing your smudged makeup while you finish talking to him. Or maybe not. “Will you stay on the phone with me? Distract me while I do?”

He can't say no to you. “Of course.” 

∘◦❀◦∘

When you get home from work a couple hours later, you’ve forgotten all about your mid-day crisis. It was just like all of the other minute things that have made you cry over the past couple weeks. 

You don’t question that you got home before Andy. Every evening is a little different depending on how busy each of you are. Besides, you probably did hold him up by crying to him during your lunch break anyway. So you just go ahead and get everything out that you need for dinner while you wait for him.

Hearing the door open, you call out to let him know you’re in the kitchen. 

“Hi,” you beam at him. 

He’s relieved to see you smiling as he crosses the room to give you a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. “Hey, sweetie.”

Your eyes become focused on a paper bag in his hand though, giving him a look when he sets it on the counter in front of you. 

“What’s that?” 

“For you,” he winks. 

You’re skeptical, grabbing the bag and opening it slowly. You let out a short laugh catching sight of the donut that you wanted so badly earlier. 

“My donut?” You pout, looking back at him. “You found one?”

“Oh God, don’t cry,” he chuckles seeing the look in your eyes and pulls you into his arms. “That was supposed to do the opposite.”

“I can’t help it,” you sniffle, closing your eyes and pressing your face into his neck to keep yourself from crying. “Thanks.”

“It was a fresh batch. I'll go back and buy them all for you...”

He says it like he's joking, but you don't think he is. That's exactly something he would do for you.

“No, it's okay,” you laugh, holding your arms around him tighter as if to keep him from doing so. “Don't want anyone else going through what I did.”

∘◦❀◦∘

Tag list: @patzammit @denisemarieangelina @thummbelina @pppsssyyyccchhhiiiccc @astheskycries @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @la-cey @turtoix @harrysthiccthighss @tvckerlance @rocketrhap3000 @mrspeacem1nusone @murdcox @geminievans1 @doozywoozy @americasass91 @dwights-new-plague @wwwmarissa92 @redhairedfeistynerd @whxre4cevans @aubreeskailynn @white-wolf1940 @melchills-j @xoxabs88xox @before-we-get-started @chrissquares @christowhore @ice-dtae @mariestark @justile @rogersbarber @dilfbarber @livstilinski @payperhearts @vintagestarlight @gitasor @chaeycunty @miss-ariella @bemysugarbean @t-stark35 @seitmai @reginaphalange2403 @raelorns21 @mrsgweasley @pandaxnienke @brandycranby

[whumpshaped]

sunshine for the bingo? :]

BINGO. also technically this is the second time but the first was so tiny it doesnt count. after this

masterlist bingo card

tw vampire whumper, vampire whumpee, accidental whump, burns, past trauma, lady whumper, flashbacks, conditioned whumpee, death talk and corpses

Helle knew they would have to let go of Beck and begin cleaning up at some point. The entire place was wrecked, and it hurt their heart to know they'd just managed to do a bit of tidying up a week or so prior. Wasted effort.

They glanced towards the bodies and the blood seeping into the carpet, and they just knew all of it was soaked, both the fabric and the wood below. Was it ruined now? Were they going to have to call someone to redo the entire floor? Surely not. Surely, it could be salvaged...

They groaned in frustration. Okay. They just had to start.

"Will you actually stay in my bedroom this time if I bring you back?" they asked gently, already scooping Beck up before he could've answered.

"I'm sorry for leaving," he muttered. "I got so... so worried."

"Yes, yes, because I am wholly incapable of defending myself. What would I do without the help of a runt?" They pushed the door open and carried him inside, then took a calming breath. "Never do it again, yes? I will not praise you for disobeying me, if that is what you were hoping for."

Beck looked up at them with teary eyes. "I don't– I don't want praise, I was just... I was hoping maybe you'd... you'd forgive me for it, if I ended up being useful..."

"I do forgive you. But I need you to promise you will never do such a thing again."

He slowly nodded, his expression full of guilt and the pain of rejection. He must've felt so heroic in that moment when the stake had hit him, knowing he'd likely saved their life, and now here they were, scolding him for it. But they didn't need to encourage something as stupid as heroism. Self-sacrifice. What good did that ever do? Beck was way too willing to get himself killed, and with his abilities, it'd become a reality sooner than later if they were to indulge him.

"I promise, Master. I'm sorry."

"Good." They walked over to their closet and picked out a shirt, then tore off a strip of fabric. Then another. Then one more. They didn't want to go and get the actual bandages until all the windows were covered up again, and they didn't want Beck completely soaking the bed until then either. This seemed like a reasonable compromise, and something that would hold him over until he healed. They had too many shirts anyway.

He looked more than grateful to be patched up by them, mumbling thank yous all the way through. "I can help with cleaning," he said eagerly. "Once– once it doesn't hurt as much–"

"I am counting on that. Your family made a mess of this place."

He winced. "I'm sorry. I'll... I'll come help as soon as I can, Master."

-

Annoying. So annoying. So many little glass shards to pick up. So many corpses to throw into a pile by the front door. So many layers of clothing to put on so they wouldn't get burned. They could've waited for nightfall, sure, but they didn't want to spend their night doing this.

Helle huffed as they tried to put another ripped off curtain rod back in place, securing it with regular nails and a hammer. They didn't own a fucking drill, they never thought they'd need it. And this was the easier part, too. Hanging up the curtains themselves was a major pain in the ass, and they were not looking forward to it.

They went window by window, holding at least three nails in their mouth at all times. They were so immersed in their work that they didn't even hear as the bedroom door opened and closed, nor the soft patter of feet drawing nearer and nearer.

"The bleeding stopped," Beck announced sheepishly, almost startling them enough to fall off the ladder; but instead they ended up letting go of the half-secured curtain to steady themself, letting in the last rays of the evening sun as it swung to the side.

Beck let out a bloodcurdling scream as the light hit his sensitive body, and Helle jumped off the ladder without thinking to pull him into the shadows. "What on earth is wrong with you?" they snapped, desperate to cover up their horror and nausea with righteous anger. "Your only job for the night was to stay away from goddamn trouble! Is that really so difficult?"

The poor thing was crying and whimpering from the pain, his hands, neck, and face burnt and twitchy. Helle was pretty sure he couldn't even see with his eyes having gotten such a direct hit — he was probably blind for the moment.

"I– I'm sorry– I'm sorry–"

"Oh, be quiet." They wanted to strangle him. They wanted to throw him against the wall and hear his ribs crack. They really wished their stupid, idiotic, overzealous, overexcited puppy of a vampire servant could've resisted the urge to throw himself in harm's way for just two seconds. "What did I tell you? What the hell did I tell you? I told you to stay in the goddamn bedroom."

Beck whined, so pitiful that Helle couldn't stand it. They shoved his burnt body further into the darker parts of the room, letting him stumble and fall when he failed to find a single thing to hold onto. Not that it would've helped, given how ruined his hands were. "I'm sorry," he repeated brokenly, staring at nothing with those stupid doe eyes of his. "I'm sorry, I'm s-sorry–"

"Quiet."

He flinched and curled in on himself, sobbing, making it impossible not to draw a comparison to when...

"I apologise!" they cried for the hundredth time, body covered in lashes and fresh burns. They couldn't stop trying every time the lady pulled them away from that terrifying, poisonous patch of sunshine in the hallway, whenever they got a moment of reprieve and they weren't just screaming incoherently. "Please, forgive me–"

She pushed them forward again, plunging most of their upper body into the light to sizzle and melt like wax.

Beck tried to weep as quietly as he could, afraid of being punished further than he'd already punished himself by accident. They shook their head a little, dispelling the memory.

"I shall draw you a cold bath after I have finished the work," they said coldly. "Do try to writhe as little as possible; burned skin cracks and tears quite easily."

~

@whumpprentice @starliight-whump

taglist: @whumpsday @the-scrapegoat @hidden-dreamland @dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night @delicateprincepaper @whumppmuhw @florissimps @nicolepascaline @oliversrarebooks @the-cyrulik @pirefyrelight @there-will-always-be-blood @pigeonwhumps @echo-goes-mmm @whumpycries @morning-star-whump @d-cs @watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees @tauntedoctopuses @blueyellow8green @typewrittenfangs @whumpsoda @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @auroragehenna @whumpedydump

[smartycvnt]

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Title: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back Pairing: Jill Valentine x Reader Prompt: 4. "We keep going because that's what we have to do." NR WC: 771

Jill was angry. She was angry with Chris for being such a liability in the field. She was angry with herself for letting Wesker capture her on the boat. She was angry with Wesker for the things that he had done to her and made her do. She was angry with Umbrella for ruining the things that her life could have been. She was angry with the BSAA for sending her to that rehabilitation center. She was angry at the center for drilling her recovery principles into her brain. And most importantly, she was angry with herself for not knowing how to outsmart the hand she had been dealt and not being better.

"Worthless piece of shit," Jill grumbled as she slammed the palm of her hand into the side of the coffee machine. Today was just coming out to be one of those days where everything got her. She dreaded seeing Y/n, who would immediately know that something was wrong with her. Y/n always knew, it was why Jill had been avoiding her for the past week or so. Once things had begun to go downhill, Jill decided that she didn't want Y/n to bear witness to any of her frustrations. That only seemed to make matters worse for Jill. \\"You tell that stupid thing," Y/n said lightheartedly as she stepped into the BSAA break room. She had been cooped up for the past couple days with Rebecca in the labs, and it was on the shorter woman's insistence that Y/n took a break and went to grab something to eat other than the protein bars they kept stashed in the lab office. "What is it doing this time?"

"Nothing, and that's the problem." Jill didn't mean to sound so harsh, but Y/n obviously wasn't taking it personally. Jill very rarely directed her anger at another person unless it was Chris, so Y/n took that tone with a grain of salt. "Why don't we just get a new one?"

"I don't know, but why don't you tell me what the real problem is while I fix the coffee machine?" Y/n offered. Jill grumbled as she crossed her arms and leaned back against the countertop. Y/n got started on the machine, but didn't let herself get too into it before Jill started talking again. Jill had a tendency to shut everything out as she shut herself off, and Y/n was struggling to break Jill of that habit without shelling out the money for a couples counselor. "Come on, I'm a great problem solver, and you, my fair lady, look like you've got a big problem."

"I'm the problem. One day it feels like I've made so much progress moving past what happened to me, and then all of the sudden, it's like I'm back at square one. I've done the rehab. I went to therapy. They signed my papers, I'm supposed to be all good again, but I'm not. I don't know what to do anything, I can't take another fucking day like this," Jill vented. She sounded like she was on the brink of tears, which completely broke Y/n's heart. "Was it this hard for you whenever you got back? What did you do?"

"You ask me that like we weren't both stuck doing the same thing, you just didn't have a choice. You don't want to go through the process that I did, not like I did at least, but I'll let you know what you learn in the end of it all. You learn that there's only one way to go if you don't want them to fucking win. People like us, we make sure that Umbrella regrets not burying bullets in our brains. We keep going because that's what we have to do," Y/n told her. Jill stood up a little straighter as she pushed off of the countertop. Y/n tapped the side of the coffee machine a couple of times before it sprang to life and started making what would turn out to be a disappointing pot of coffee. "Whatever bad you did for them, you've done at least twice as much good opposing them. Remember that."

"What would I do without you?" Jill asked as she draped her arms around the back of Y/n's neck. Y/n leaned in close, just enough so that their lips were millimeters away from brushing against each other's.

"Be stuck buying a Starbucks from down the street." Y/n closed the distance with a quick kiss, one that left Jill smiling as they broke it.

[ohwhataniight]

The Good that won't Come Out - a trans Sherlock fic - Part 2

This is the second part of my shamelessly self indulgent trans!lock fic.

Contains descriptions of transition, top surgery, coming out.

Click here for Part 1

for @gaylilsherlock and their trope suggestion "wound dressing"

I do this thing where I think I'm real sick

But I won't go to the doctor to find out about it'

Cause they make you stay real still in a real small space

As they chart up your insides and put them on display

They'd see all of it, all of me, all of it

All of the good that won't come out of meAnd all the stupid lies I hide behindIt's such a big mistakeLying here in your warm embrace

Oh, you're almost home

I've been waiting for you to come in

Dancing around in your old suits

Going crazy in your room again

I think I'll go out and embarrass myself

By getting drunk and falling down in the street

You say I choose sadness

That it never once has chosen me

Maybe you're right

The Good that Won't Come Out – Rilo Kiley

You need to come home at once. - SH

It is urgent. -SH

I require medical assistance. - SH

I curse lightly under my breath, throwing myself up from the couch in the middle of the movie. I was never a Star Wars fan but I agreed to this marathon for Vicky’s sake. We’re halfway through the first film and I’m already letting her down. Again. For Sherlock. Who has never in the past allowed me to take care of him when he needs a doctor. Now he's the one asking for me. This must be bad.

“Emergency at home. I’m sorry, I’ve gotta go, Sherlock needs me,” I tell her as she looks at me dumbfounded. I stumble down the stairs and hail a cab to 221B, my mind racing over the most horrible scenarios - strangulation, explosions, head trauma - hell, he might have given himself third degree burns from spaghetti water, for all I know. He does that thing where he tries to cook sometimes, and I’ve got to deal with the casualties.

I rush up the stairs with my heart catching on my throat and burst through the half-opened door, only to find him sitting on the couch cross-legged, his shoes off, no nightgown, with a gash on his white shirt that’s sticking with half-dried blood. I grab my medical kit from the coffee table by the door and stand before him, trying to catch my breath. My leg is burning, so are my lungs. “Up. Kitchen. You know the drill,” I eventually manage to command him, and he obliges, standing up and following me to the other room.

I turn on the light in the kitchen. I place my bag on the corner of the table, next to a china bowl full of human toes. A feeling very much like fury is also starting to burn in my chest. Of course he went along and got himself into trouble without him despite me very explicitly asking him not to do so. Of course he didn’t get his own ass to the ER and called me here, ruining yet another date. So selfish, that man and his blood.

He’s already unbuttoning his own shirt as I lay down the saline and the gauze before leaning over him to help him as he winces in pain when the bloodied fabric sticks to his skin. “You did it again, didn’t you?” I huff. “Putting yourself in danger right after I asked you to behave, for one night, just one night, Sherlock.” I help him remove his shirt and lean over him to closely inspect the wound. “May I ask what you were up to?”

“I was merely doing my duty as a law-abiding civilian, helping out a fellow human being whose future was about to be tainted by blackmail. You know I despise foul play,” he says, but there’s something missing - both his usual nonchalance and his alternative bouts of histrionics. He is dead serious, pensive, even. I feel him cold and rigid under my gloved hands, growing more distant by the minute. “Besides, it is but a scratch, as you can observe yourself.”

“Indeed, it is quite superficial,” I say as I quickly inspect the skin over his ribcage and assess the damage. He shudders under my fingers, short hair on his chest sticking out, skin pale with goosebumps. “You’re lucky. May I ask how you got it?”

“Climbing off of some railings,” he complies dutifully.

“You’ll need a tetanus shot. Christ, Sherlock,” I sigh, as I turn around to grab everything I need to disinfect the gash.

“Never call me a girl again, John.”

I look up at him in utter disbelief, wondering if I’ve misheard. His silver blue eyes pull me in like a vacuum under the transparent light of the kitchen. His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows. He looks disorganized, ruffled hair, shaking hands and all. He also looks... is that angry? - hesitant?

“Sorry, what now?” I momentarily stop the process of taking care of his wound to register what he is telling me.

“Earlier this evening, at Scotland Yard, you called Gale and myself girls during one of your frequent bouts of sarcasm. It's something that you've done again the past. I am asking that you never repeat that. It is imperative.”

“What... what is this about?” I ask, feeling a wave of defensiveness rush over me. “Were you offended?”

“Yes, I was.”

I’m staring at half-naked Sherlock Holmes with my mouth agape. “We are not in the Victorian era, Sherlock. People have long ago stopped considering the term “girls” as a derogatory one.”

“The implications of what you said were derogatory.”

“I... no. You know what? We’re not doing this. I have to dress your wound, and if one of us needs to work on his misogyny, that’s you, not me. I see how you talk to Donovan, you know. Impertinent.”

Now he looks positively pissed off. His eyes are sparkling dangerously, the muscles and tendons on his neck and shoulders have tightened, his hands are clenched into fists. Is he going to fight me? “I am not. A girl.”

“That’s fairly obvious, Sherlock. What I did is called a joke.”

“Never make that joke again.”

“O-okay. Now will you let me do the thing you called me here for or should I let you bleed out on the carpet?” That man is driving me insane. I should be the one who’s angry after tonight’s fiasco, and here I am, apologizing to one of the rudest, most offensive men I know for having pulled innocent fun at his masculinity a couple of times.

“I am not going to bleed out, John, and you know that better than I do. You agreed it’s just a scratch.” He winces as I return to him with the gauze, trying to clean the scratch that starts from his left side and reaches over the edge of his nipple as gently as I can.

“You’ve had much worse, it's true," I tell him, my previous annoyance returning in full force. “Can I ask what gave you the good sense to call me here for this... scratch, then?”

“I was worried about it,” he says, holding his breath as I open the hydrogen peroxide bottle. He hisses when I touch him again with the dreaded ointment. “I needed you to have a look at it”

I try to ignore the way the word needed finds me so helplessly receptive, how it immediately disarms me and calms me down. “I was on a date, Sherlock,” I say in a softened voice. “The ER at Bart’s is full of competent...”

“I don’t trust them with that.”

“What is that? Are you hurt anywhere else? What happened? Sherlock, talk to me.”

Sherlock grabs my wrist and pulls my hand that is holding some clean gauze away from him. “I am indeed planning to talk to you.”

“What are you doing - what do you mean, Sherlock?” I ask, feeling alarmed. His fingers remain tangled around my wrist, holding it up in the air and the dust that hovers between us. I wonder if he can feel the hammering of my pulse and I try to catch my breath. “I don’t understand what got you worried about this scratch. I’ll finish patching it up, give you a tetanus shot, and you’ll be right as rain.”

“I will be administering the injection myself, thank you very much.”

“What - no. What are you talking about? I don’t know what experiments you’ve made with needles in the past, and frankly I don’t need to know. I am a doctor...”

“And I am a chemist who has been giving himself injections on his own backside once a month for years.” He’s still holding my hand, and is not reaching out with his free hand and pulling my fingers open, placing the gauze back on the table.

“What are you talking about?”

“John, as always you look but do not observe.” And with that, he guides my hand back on his chest, guides my fingers to trace over his left nipple where I can see the pink, inflamed skin around the scratch that fades out just there. My fingertips lie brush over his areola, and I feel the ever so faint, hair-thin oread of scar tissue. I lean closer and his warm breathes on the nape of my neck makes me shudder. I suddenly realize I am inspecting the delicate craftsmanship of an incision. An identical one one his other nipple.

"What are these, Sherlock?"

I feel him inhale under my fingers. His gaze avoids mine. "My battle scars," he breathes out eventually, the hint of a smile appearing on his otherwise troubled face.

His battle scars.

“The keyhole technique, then,” I murmur, raising my eyes to quiz his for an explanation. “You're lucky, this is superficial and has not affected the incision but we'll have to keep an eye on it. Exquisitely performed, your surgeon must have been a true artist. Gynecomastia?” But then, had he not said something about injecting his backside once a month? “Oh.” Oh.

“Yes, oh.” He’s staring back at me with his expression now that of pure terror laced with anticipation. The brief smile has disappeared from his face and he looks as breathless as I am. “Took you long enough, John.”

To be continued

[spoiledleaff]

ashton. leafy. leafthaniel. love.

i have been… some would say haunted, some would say blessed, by visions of subby puppy rain

hmm i wonder whose fault that is uwu <3

and i was hoping that maybe you could make something happen involving that? i’m craving some needy puppy rain being put in their place by swiss and mountain…. if that tickles your taint fancy at all, haha !! :3

💙💍.

ahhh, thank you so much for indulging me with this, felix! :'D i'm just sorry it's taken me so long to muster up these spoons! but also thank you very much for letting me talk your ear off about my switch rain thoughts >:D

alrighty! everyone knows the drill by now, haha! but, regardless, it gets filthy below the cut! >:Dc

(cw for mentions of piss kink and breeding! )

"Please-" Rain whimpers, dropping their head against Mountain's outer thigh as they begin to loose themselves in how the empty boot between their thighs creates such glorious friction against the dampness of their pussy.

The two beasts before them were kind enough to rip every article of clothing from their unworthy body, even being so kind as to throw one of their discarded boots at Rain's bobbing cock. They think it was Swiss; the memory of sharp and dangerous teeth suddenly being brought to the forefront of Rain's melting brain. He barely missed the raw ache of their erection, but made no effort to apologize for nearly smacking Rain's erection back into their vessel with their own goddamn boot.

(But since when did a deity apologize to an ant?)

Rain whimpers again, their hips stuttering over the slick, shiny surface of their own ruined boot. Their arms are tied tight behind their back, and the ring of their embarrassing little dog tag keeps echoing in their sensitive ears.

(It's custom engraved. Mist had it practically tailored for them. The engraving reads 'DUMB MUTT'.)

"Shut up." Mountain rumbles, the sheer bass of his voice causing shivers to rupture over Rain's naked spine. "This is what you get for being such an insufferable little bitch."

Rain's eyes flicker up to take in the sight of Mountain: still fully dressed expect for his pants unlaced and open, his cock barely leaking any precum as Mountain lazily strokes his impressive shaft. It's mortifying almost. The fact that here Rain is, naked and exposed and rutting their own pussy against the toe of their own boot while their cock stood flush against their stomach.

And Mountain isn't even fully hard-

"For real," Swiss chimes in, his fingers tangled in Rain's tousled locks of hair, pulling tight. "Who the fuck tries to make Dewdrop play his guitar while fucking that cunt six ways to fuckin' Sunday, huh? Fucking foozler you are. Breeding that sweet little flame, and expecting him to still be able to think? Awfully rude'a you, doll."

Rain tries to say something around the massive dick shoved deep in their throat, but they don't know if they're either too overwhelmed or too fucking stupid to word anything.

"You always think you're such hot shit." Mountain chimes in with a growl, reaching over and lacing his own calloused fingers in the strands of tangled hair that Swiss hasn't already snatched.

They exchange grips, and Mountain yanks Rain's head off of Swiss' cock before dragging the little water slut towards Mountain's burgeoning erection. The force of Mountain and Swiss' exchange causes Rain's hips to buck harshly against the boot below them, their hard cock rubbing over the laces of their boot. Rain's mouth falls open in a cry, and Mountain uses the opportunity to shove his cock past Rain's docile fangs.

"You just need someone to put you in your pathetic fucking place, huh?" Mountain huffs with a dangerous smirk, his claws digging hard into Rain's skull. He pulls his cock out of Rain's mouth, slapping them with the ruddy head before quickly shoving himself back inside.

Rain cries out in surprise at the rough treatment, though they can't stop the way their cock is leaking, or the way their pussy's fucking gushing, or even the way their hips are still fucking humping over their own goddamn boot.

"Dumb fuckin' dog." Swiss laughs, and Rain can see the way his thumb swipes over the head of his cock, smearing the precum accumulating at the slit.

"Our stupid little knot slut." Mountain agrees with a roll of his hips. Rain exaggerates a wet gagging noise for their pleasure, though the gills lining their vessel ensures they can still breathe.

"Gonna keep that hot little pussy stretched tight over our knots, yeah?"

"Attach a leash, maybe. Pass it between the two of us and choke you on your own submission."

"Breed you like the little bitch you are."

(Mountain practically shoves Rain off of his dick, and Swiss is quick to yank Rain's head back towards his own bobbing erection, shoving his full length down Rain's open throat.)

"Choke you on our cocks until you learn your place is on your knees in front of us."

"Mark you up like the hellbeasts the Clergy expects us to be, yeah, doll?"

"Bite you all over until you bleed like a gutted dog."

"Ohoho, sweet little dirty boy," Swiss moans, dropping his grip on Rain's tangled locks in favor of using their horns as leverage, forcibly dragging Rain's mouth up and down the full length of his shaft, "why stop at just our teeth? We'll drain our little puppy slut of almost all his blood, leave them so lightheaded they won't know what's being fucked into them."

Mountain groans as his fist visibly tightens around his own cock.

"Could be cum," Swiss grins, feral and bright despite the low lighting of the room, "could be piss."

"You'd never be left empty, water lily, that's for fucking sure." Mountain agrees, and Rain can vaguely hear the rapid slapping of the earth ghoul's tail against the legs of the chair he's lounging in.

"Breed you with every fucking fluid we could possibly stuff into your stupid little puppy holes."

Rain gasps, shudders as their hips speed up over the toe of their boot, purposefully angling themselves forward to drag their sensitive cock over the lacings. The boot beneath them is fucking ruined-

And Swiss knows.

"You really are just a fucking mutt, lookit the mess you're making, dollface." Swiss yanks Rain's head off his cock once more, forcing Rain to look down at the poor boot sandwiched painfully between their thighs. "Might make you clean that boot off with that filthy fucking tongue of yours. It'd be bad manners to give it back to our lovely Siblings stained with your worthless cum, yeah?"

Mountain snorts, though it almost sounds like a guttural moan with the way he's still furiously jerking his cock.

"Clean every fucking inch of your boot from our cum and piss. Make you lap it up like it's doggy chow-" Swiss leans his head back and laughs loudly, like he just told the funniest fucking joke of the century.

"Suck on the laces like it's Mommy's nipple," Mountain gasps, and Rain thinks he might be getting close, "lick the tongue with yours."

"On second thought," Swiss pauses, shaking Rain's head with the grip he has on their horns for no fucking reason, "maybe we'll just make you clean everything up with your head, mutt. Wouldn't want you to make everything dirtier with that filthy fucking tongue."

Rain sobs as Swiss hands their head over to Mountain, and, this time, he shoves the full weight of that massive fucking dick down Rain's speared open throat.

"There's a good puppy."

[the-terminal-show]

literally have not had anything but nightmares since last year xcept that funny geriatric mario kart sitcom & the one where i cage matched two semi-formless figures 2 death. BUT LAST NIGHT...YEEAHHHH BABY we're back..ohh s3x1 mirror mirror tornado dreams i missed u. It's Symbolismé

I was in a large group of people inside a partly huge cavern / auditorium, but the roof was prob 150ft high, and it was dark, seemingly stretched on forever to the back wall. Everything a bit tinted rusty, mahogany, or burgundy. Despite there being no actual light source the room had a soft dingy glow like dusk, just enough to see everyone. The floor was flat slate marble, there was just a single 3ft step and all of us were on the lower floor except the lead.

Everyone was auditioning for something, standing in a forward facing drill line, and we were all brainstorming their roles and costumes. I kept getting in arguments with whoever was trying to be the director. The camera was free floating when not from my perspective, it panned down the line of just a bunch of randos, paused on some guy in a tennis uniform before continuing to the end of the line. The lead decided the guy at the end should swap and have to wear the uniform, but I said that was a stupid idea and suggested "rebirth inside a volcano", "like a god". I was getting talked over by the lead until the guy was very enthusiastic about it and said he liked and much preferred that.

I just kinda laughed at the lead & they seemed visibly irritated, but conceded finally after a stare down. They said condensingly by time we finished suckin each other the wardrobe could be ready and told us to fuck off. My brain is like, well Ok don't mind If I Do. (pretty sure i was almost lucid at least 3 times but couldn't get there lmao)

So the whole scene shifts, we're supposed to be finding a room, but we're suddenly in some random country. The interior looks like an old library mixed with a 50s country diner and a convenience store counter. Metal edged tables, formica and hard ass wooden seats.

I'm wandering through a tight corridor of books with a nonsensical layout, to reach the front desk. I finally wander out, there are plenty of windows, and terrible white/blueish troffer lights with the glass blown out over a table in the back.

On my way there I run into this dream npc I've seen before in past dreams, whenever I almost cut or change my hair in the dream but we never complete the session. I'm briefly transported to the sickly pepto pink mall salon zone with velvet seats and rusted faux gold accents. Everyone there just has a tiny stand, each set up like a miniature skyscraper, haphazardly stacked with sheets, bottles and towels.

I don't even sit down this time, everything kinda whirrs by me, but she directs me back to the building host of the previous zone. It's an old lady with short curly white hair, round wrinkled face and she barely speaks. She tells us to come sit at the back table through the swing doors, by the windows and under the awful troffer lights.

We're given a large thin white book that's bound with black plastic ringlets like a menu. All the text is printed thick and glossy, but it's all in either greek, italian, or romanian. I'm distressed searching for a language I can read in the glossary but she says that's all there is, with a heavy accent. I'm like well shit, It's Over, Day Ruined, although I'm sure I was supposed to become lucid reading that menu, being that it was super crisp.

Time shifts again and I'm sitting at a musty wooden picnic table in the middle of a pasture. The sun is just barely slipped past the horizon, still making extremely deep overcast storm clouds have that ominous glow. The guy from the auditorium is sat across from me to the right.

There's a random person eating in front of me from a plastic tray, and a slightly overweight man in a tight tractor supply co. shirt dancing in place all alone against a single dilapidated wooden fence by the trash bin (which is an oil drum fitted with a trash sack and rubber band) to the left. I kinda laugh and ask him what he's doing, he just scoffs, makes an unintelligible sound & keeps feelin the groove by himself.

After that I'm too overstimulated by the storm clouds and the electricity in the air, that faint wind that feels like the end & the beginning magnified Cause Dream, it's picking up. Lightning starts rippling through the sky in long branches, my vision is blacking out & i'm doing that full body asmr thing i do where i giggle like i'm overdosing on an oxygen tank and about to pass out.

After a moment I'm trying to get the auditorium guy to notice, hey i'm just like you, hey TURN AROUND AND LOOK AT THIS SHIT??! Then there's a tornado to our right out in the field. It's black and smokey, a classic Oz type with an elongating roping tail. I'm mesmerized again, the sky is nearly a bloody mahogany behind the twister, black cloud shelfing. I'm briefly on the ground on my back looking at it upside down. I roll and blink then I'm back at the table.

Eventually the sun is gone but the lightning remains, then I catch two distant ball lightnings, they're zigzagging up into the sky erratically. I'm freaking out and going nnnooo wayyyyyy, but right when everyone turns to look the ball explodes right under the moon into a glittery firework. Everyone thinks I was so excited about a stupid firework and no one listens to me explain so i give up.

I woke up for a short moment cause my YT rain video cut off, then i continued the dream via meditation cause i was so mad i got ripped out of it. So we moved to a pallet in the grass, eventually my medi partner was there too, he made himself look exactly like auditorium guy, and i said, "isn't this all you've ever wanted a chance to do?" i was determined to show the thrill of the storm and lightning and well, the rest is 4 me and not for anyone else. Good Bye 👊

[idiacide]

Just imagine female reader being a simp for corpse husbands voice, so (seperately) Idia,Vil, Malleus,Rook and Crewel try to make their voices deeper. By making a potion but the potion backfires And their voices end up being really high for the rest of the week.

Fluff plz

So I got about. 3k words into this before I realized you said separately. And now I'm too attached to the unified concept. Still fluffy as shit though, so..hope this suffices @ravenina14

Without further ado

Choke Me Like You Hate Me-...No Like You Hate Me Wait Fuck You Actually Hate Me Don't You-

feat. Divus Crewel, Idia Shroud, Vil Schoenheit, Malleus Draconia, and Rook Hunt

A/N Reader is not a student, but a 19-20 year old teaching aide.

Word count: 4.1k words

“So,” Crowley said, as soon as he could breathe again. “Explain to me what happened?”

“ᵐʸ ᵗᵉᵃᶜʰᶦⁿᵍ ᵃˢˢᶦˢᵗᵃⁿᵗ-”

“BWAHAHAHAHAHA-”

The blaringly loud laugh punching out of his throat made the mask on the Headmage’s face tremble, the long beak vibrating with the unholy sound echoing out of his nostrils. Some survival instinct urged you to take advantage of the distraction. Just as you started to creep towards the office door, though, Crewel’s hand shot out to grab your collar and drag you back in, ice slate eyes drilling you. “Stay.”

Somehow it was only slightly less commanding when he sounded like a deflating balloon.

Crowley managed to get a better handle on his laughter and Divus was seemingly unwilling to give him another chance to start the whole routine over again. “I was giving an exam prep course for the third years on voice changing potions. At the end of the demonstration, I and all of the students attendant were to drink and demonstrate the efficacy of the potion we had brewed together. It would seem that my teaching assistant-”

“Ruined everything!” Vil’s already slightly shrill voice was made worse by the effects. Pomefiore’s typically unruffled housewarden was now looking distinctly ruffled, try as Rook had for the past fifteen minutes to keep him from exploding. He was red faced and furious, hands clenched into tight fists as he glared daggers at your head.

“It's over” Idia’s already quiet voice was only distinguishable as a series of squeaks from within the hoodie drawn tight around his face, making the fabric smoke slightly with the touch of his hair. “I’m ruined. This is the end. I’m never leaving my room again-”

“Seems to have swapped a crucial ingredient.” Divus finished. His grip pinched your arm and you buried your face in your hands, wondering if maybe you could just sink into the floor and have this be done with.

It had been so stupid. The voice changing potion was technically tricky but nothing terribly master level. The dosage that Crewel had had the students mixing was meant to drop their voice about half an octave. You’d just thought maybe...you could help it along a little.

Ok so maybe a few too many hours on CorpseHusband’s youtube page over the weekend had done some things to your sanity. You honestly hadn’t meant any harm. It's not like any of them would get docked for the potion being slightly more effective than anticipated. Maybe the idea of being surrounded by cute boys (not to mention your sinfully attractive mentor) speaking with voices that could make the floor shake was appealing, sue you for wanting to have a little fun. Not like these kinds of devious antics were unheard of around here, it was NRC for god’s sake.

The plan had been so simple. Mugwort was the agent that activated the deepening part of the potion, so you’d just add a higher dosage than technically necessary to the tray of prepared demonstration ingredients. Just like you’d hoped, Crewel didn’t check the weight before dumping it in.

Was it your fault dried mugwort and powdered salamander intestine looked so similar? If anything he was on the hook here for not having clearer labels on his shit. Somehow you sort of doubted you’d get sympathy points for that though.

“It was an accident!” You said, lying through your teeth and managing to squirm your arm loose of his grip.

“Accident or no...it is un peu inconvenient, no?” Rook said tentatively, hand still braced on Vil’s shoulder. You weren’t sure whether to comfort him or keep him from lunging at you. Hunt had been more patient about things from the beginning, considering his reedy voice had now become almost unlistenable. “Our dear housewarden-”

“Has an interview this week!!!” Vil shrieked, murderous intent in his eyes. “How am I supposed to go before them sounding like this!”

“I assume- snrk- I-I assume that Professor....hehe...Professor Crewel will be able to whip up an antidote?” Crowley gripped the side of his chair, like he was trying desperately to keep upright.

Crewel pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes tight. “There is no antidote. The voice changing potion is at once too simple and too innocuous to have any kind of cure on record. The effects do wear off-” “When.” Vil’s said with all the intensity of a very angry chipmunk.

“In two weeks, Mr. Schoenheit, if you’d let me finish.”

The silence that settled over the room felt like a physical block of ice dropped on your head.

“Two-” “-WEEKS-!!!”

The room erupted in cacophonous chirping and squeaking. Crowley lost his grip again and fell into his chair, bellowing with laughter. You’d almost want to giggle yourself if you weren’t so busy contemplating throwing yourself out the window. Divus cut the chatter by smacking the end of his riding crop on the desk with a CRACK that made you all jump. Crowley, startled out of his giggling fit, whimpered something about the varnish that you all ignored.

“As I was saying.” His hand came down on your shoulder and he swiveled you to face the crowd. “As my assistant is the one who made this shocking error, they will be the one working day and night to help me create an antidote. Day. And. Night.”

“I...but I-” You turned to face him only to find yourself cowed by the ice in his gaze. (And a little turned on? Maybe? Unpacking that later.)

“They will also be available to do whatever you may require in order to work through this time. With our efforts combined, we should be able to come up with a solution before the two week expiration.”

A nervous cackle slipped out of Idia’s hoodie and he loosened the drawstrings a bit to let you all see the incredulous, wild look on his face. “Expiration...what a fitting word, professor....”

“This is absolutely unacceptable.” Vil said, perfect jaw working overtime as he ground his teeth together. “They can’t exactly sit my interview for me!”

“I’m sure we’ll come up with something, mon ami.” Rook said soothingly, steering him back a little more. “Though I do have some business in the forest which might prove a touch inconvenient.”

“I can do it.” You said quickly, just desperate for this nightmare to be over. “Whatever it takes, I’ll...I’ll do whatever you need if it’ll let me make up for my mistake. I swear.”

No one looked particularly convinced (or mollified, to your dismay), but your salvation arrived in the form of a shoulder that nudges through the small cluster of boys.

Malleus. The horned housewarden of Diasomnia had been quiet since the initial commotion. Unlike the others, he looked neither particularly angry or particularly mortified, just his usual blank expression as he watched the antics around him. The calm was almost soothing after the past half hour of hell. His hand rested on the top of your head and you feel heat creeping up your neck towards the tips of your ears as your gaze tracked up towards his wrist. Still, at least Malleus can be trusted to be the cool head in the room-

“ᶜʰᶦˡᵈ ᵒᶠ ᵐᵃⁿ, ᵈᵒ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᵇᵉˢᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵇʳᶦⁿᵍ ᵃⁿ ᵉⁿᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵗʰᶦˢ ᵗʳᵒᵘᵇˡᵉ”

Crowley shrieked. Vil stormed out of the room. Idia’s hoodie zipped closed again. And you resolve to block Corpse’s channel the second you’re reunited with your laptop.

Assuming you live that long.

---

As it turns out, when Crewel said morning and night, he meant morning and night. The professor had you in his office practically every spare moment, and the novelty of seeing him in half open button up buckling down to business was pretty much immediately drowned out with your exhaustion.

Divus was one of the best there was at what he did, but even he seemed stumped by your current predicament. For such a straightforward potion the cure was proving exceptionally elusive. The constant titters from his students during class was doing nothing for his temper either. Some truly deranged part of you nearly provoked you into daring him to just take the frustration out with the crop. But even you weren’t that far gone (yet).

The only time you were allowed breaks from the fumes and haze of the alchemy classroom was for a few hours of shuteye...or to help clean up the wreckage of your mistakes. You were coming back from one such trek, picking sticks and leaves from your hair, when you bumped head first into Ortho.

“Oh!” Ortho said, chirping in pleasant surprise as he hefted the crate in his hands. “Perfect timing, I was just-.....you’re filthy.”

“Rook.” You said by way of explanation, scrubbing sleep from your eyes. “Had me out doing animal calls since early this morning since apparently the pitch of his voice doesn’t let him do them with his usual perfection.” Not that he’d been particularly pleased with your efforts, he must’ve made you practice them 50 times each.

“That sounds rough.” Ortho said, sympathy only slightly dimmed by the tinny quality of his speakers.

You shook your head. “I shouldn’t complain, he’s been one of the nicer ones about all of this.” Even brought you a few pick me ups when you thought you were about to drop from exhaustion. Anything to aid our dear aide on the path to redemption. “Uh...what’s in the box.”

“Delivery from Idia.” He offered it out to you, carefully balancing it until he was sure you had it. “Something to help Vil today with the, ah....little problem.”

“Right, the interview.” You cringed at the memory, adjusting your grip. It was heavier than it looked. “How’s he doing, by the way? He hasn’t called for me at all.”

“Truth be told, part of me wonders if he isn’t secretly relieved by this.” Ortho sighed, looking dismayed about his shut-in brother’s latest antics. “The Headmage wrote them a pass so they could avoid classes for this week and it's basically been an all purpose excuse for him to avoid speaking to anyone but me.”

“As long as one of us is enjoying this.” You muttered, shaking your head to clear the last of the leaves. “I should get this to Pomefiore, thanks Ortho.”

“Anytime. Good luck, and let me know if I can help at all!”

---

Vil, for his part, wasn’t exactly extending you the same sympathy. He blamed you for every single part of this and was communicating it through the extremely subtle art of adding a small mountain of tasks onto your ever growing pile. He kept you throughout the interview like a trained pet to do tricks.

“While my voice has unfortunately been damaged by recent overexertion..” He typed onto the machine, which created a near perfect replica of his usual voice out of the speakers propped in your laps. “I would never dream of denying my fans of hearing from me, and so my assistant here will be utilizing this technology to supplement.”

You were there for hours, adjusting speakers and spellchecking his work before i’ts allowed to leave as a sound. All the while sitting straight as an arrow, not daring to slouch to avoid the look he’ll give you.

The interview finally ended, and still you didn’t dare move. Not until he settled back on his throne with a sigh, turning to glance at you and beckoning with a single finger. He avoided speaking unless at all necessary. Your thighs groaned in relief as you finally rose from your stool, carefully placing the equipment back in the crate before walking towards him.

“The cure.” He said by way of inquiry. You knew better than to crack a smile at the contrast between the severe look on his face and the chipmunk squeal of his voice.

“We’re closing in.” You said quickly. Not exactly a lie, though you had a vested interest in making things sound as rosy as possible right now. “Professor thinks a day or two more.”

“Good.” Before you can blink his hand had shot up to cup your chin, tilting your head from side to side. You barely had time to be embarrassed. “You look like death.”

“Well....lack of sleep, and all.”

Vil rolled his eyes and pinched your chin between his thumb and his index before releasing you. “Guest room. Next to my chambers. Go sleep.”

“...what?” You resisted the urge to try to clear out your ears. Wasn’t easy.

“You can’t exactly perform up to the right standard if you’re about to drop.” His voice clipped out fast and he looked slightly irritated at having to explain himself. “Sleep, regenerate, and I’ll tell him I had you running errands.”

“...who are you and what have you done with Vil-”

“Do it before I change my mind, Potato.”

----

In all that time, Malleus only called on you once, and you swear it’s only because the groupchat you set up for this seemed to have reminded him that was a possibility. When you get there, wrestling past the death stares of Silver and Sebek, you find he has nothing for you to do.

“A task?” His finger drummed on his chin. “Well...I suppose some companionship wouldn’t be the worst thing, while I work on my history of magic homework.”

Of all of them, Malleus was the hardest to take seriously post-change, most especially because he barely seems to notice how he sounds. You were almost certain if it weren’t for Lilia’s intervention that he would’ve tried to attend classes the same as always.

“It been boring?” You said, sinking into the chair. Far be it from you to pass up the opportunity to get off your feet. “Being stuck in your room all day?”

“My retainers allow me to leave, so long as I promise not to speak anyone.” He opened the textbook, flipping through pages idly. “Not that they could stop me if I desired to speak to someone. Still, out of respect for the wishes of the group that we not be discovered, I will not.”

You snorted, pulling your legs up onto the chair. “I guess it’s not particularly unusual for you to keep to yourself, is it?”

The ghost of a smile drifted over his face as his reptilian eyes flickered towards you. “No, it is not. And the gargoyles do not mind the quiet.”

“Small benefits, at least...” Your head sank down into your arms, eyes already heavy with sleep. You blinked hard to prevent surrender. “I really am sorry about all of this. Even though it doesn’t seem to have hit you as hard as the other.”

“They’ll move past this, just as I have.” He said. Not a reassurance, just a statement of fact. “Truly, none of us can stay mad at you forever. Not effectively, at least.”

“What’s that...supposed to....” It’s a losing battle, your head foggy with the free moment you’ve finally been granted. “Mean...”

The last thing you heard before you slipped under is a chuckle, no less mysterious for as squeaky as it was.

“I think you know, child of man...”

----

“You’re sure?” Crewel said, flicking his wrist as he rolled down his sleeve. You’ll miss his forearms, you think wildly, you were just getting used to them.

“Only one way to know for sure.” You said, voice rough from the earliness of the hour. Your hand dipped into the cauldron, carefully scooping up a portion of the violet contents still bubbling in the depths. With your other hand, you uncorked a bottle of the voice changing potion you’d kept on hand for tests. Normally you used some of the mice, but if you really wanted to show the strength of your convictions...you swallowed the voice changing potion. Crewel watched you expectantly.

“Testing....testing....ᵗᵉˢᵗᶦⁿᵍ...” You grimaced as your voice quivers into the higher register. Clearing your throat, you then turn your attention to the fresh brew in your other hand.

The taste was like coaldust and batteries, but it went down easily enough. For a second you closed your eyes, muttering a quick prayer to whoever was out there as you waited for it to course through your system.

“Well?” Crewel said impatiently.

“....Testing.”

Your voice. In its normal register. For a moment the two of you stared at each other in disbelief.

Quick as lightning Crewel snatched the bottle from your hand and downed the rest of its contents. He cleared his throat once, twice...

“Well. Less smooth than I would have enjoyed.” After over a week of Chipmunk Crewel his regular tone was almost startling. His stern expression wavers, and you think he might be sick until you realized you were actually witnessing hints of a smile.

“Then...I can call the others?” You said, failing to wrestle the hope out of your voice. “We’re done.”

“We’re done.” He corked the bottle, placing it back on the shelf. “This little mishap can now be simply an embarrassing memory.”

You failed to suppress a gleeful giggle as you whip out your phone to text the others, barely caring about the disdainful look he shot you. Who cares, after a week you’re going to sleep again, in a real bed, and no more errand running or forest walks or-

“For as inconvenient as this has all been...” Crewel’s voice startled you out of your daydream. The alchemy professor pulled the heavy fur coat back onto his shoulders, straightening the lapels and brushing the dust from them. “It has been an admirable demonstration of your abilities. Acting under pressure and in severe conditions, you managed to craft a solution which stumped even an expert such as myself. As much as I cannot approve the fact that an assistant of mine got us into such a mess...well done.”

“....Professor, is that...” You blinked owlishly, unsure how to receive this praise, or if this even counted as praise.

He gathered the last of his things, patting your head with a half smirk as he brushed past you. “They’ll be coming by to pick their cures soon. As much as you’re likely ready to dive into bed, until the full wreckage of your error is dealt with, you’ll stay.”

----

Malleus arrived first, which surprised you until you saw his loyal henchmen standing just behind him. Chances were pretty good they were more eager to get out of this situation than you were. After nodding his acknowledgement to you, he uncorked the bottle and drained it all in one swallow. A few seconds to let it digest, and he opened his mouth.

“I believe it’s worked.”

It had. Sebek looked about ready to cry with relief and Lilia merely tittered. Malleus handed you the bottle, that faint smile returning as his hand brushed yours in the tradeoff.

“I suppose this means you won’t be accompanying me during my studies.”

“I still can. If you ask.” You set the bottle aside, giving a shy smile of your own. “Not tonight, though, tonight is about collapsing headfirst into a pillow.”

“I believe I’ll manage one night on my own.” He sighed softly, brushing some hair back. “Still, this chapter is closed.”

You weren’t sure what to say to that, but he didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he turned to usher his flock of crows out the door. Before exiting, his head darted back to glance at you, with what you swear was the faintest glint.

“Perhaps a valuable lesson was learned....or not.”

---

Vil and Rook arrived together, Vil’s stride all purpose and Rook’s gait as light and bouncy as ever. While Vil drained the contents of his dose, Rook swept his hat from his head, bending at the waist to kiss your hand before receiving the bottle.

“Our savior.” He said, all chivalry. You snickered a little despite yourself and pass him the bottle.

“Something like that.”

“Let’s not forget quite so quickly that its their fault we were in this situation to begin with.” Vil said, once he was certain of his voice again.

“Roi du Poison, a ruler who underrates the hard work of his followers won’t rule for very long at all.” With that lightly ominous statement, he flicked the top of the bottle and drank it straight down.

Vil rolled his eyes, glancing you up and down. “I suppose success suits you better than moping. I also suppose that I’ve lost a personal assistant.”

“Yup.” You nodded emphatically. “Never again.”

“Pity. Despite the circumstances...I’ve had worse help.” If that weren’t enough, his smile knocked the wind right out of you. Bastard. “I’d be interested to see what you’re capable of with less hanging over your head...though without the motive I suppose I might be disappointed.” Before you could retort he spun on his heel and strode out of the room.

Can’t even let you have the last word. Prick. Handsome prick.

Rook tapped his chest lightly, humming a full bar before he looked at you with a serene grin. “I’ve also lost my hunting partner, tragédie des tragédies. You were so close to perfecting your birdcalls too.”

“If you say so.” You take the bottle back from him, returning the warm smile. “Thank you for being cool about this...and not letting Vil kill me.”

“Anything for you, little Trickster. And speaking of, I must be off.” A last bow, and a swirl of his jacket...and he’s gone.

-----

Idia was the last, almost an hour later. You had your phone in hand, texting Ortho to see if you should even bother waiting when he shuffled in, hood high over his head. Appearance wise, he looked almost as bad as you, dark circles gouged under his eyes and white pallor over his already pale face that made him look more like a corpse than ever. You straightened, plucking the last bottle from the counter and holding it out to him.

“Finally, let’s put this whole fiasco behind us-”

Idia tore the bottle out of your hand and shoved it deep in his hoodie pockets, eyes darting around the room. He ran up to the window, running his hands over and under the sill before pulling the blinds down with a crash and scurrying back to close the door.

“....Idia what the hell-”

“I need to say this quick before Ortho figures out he should be watching me take this.” He said, voice raspy in a way that makes the squeaking worse. The hood fell from his face as he turned to face you, revealing flames that were sparking and popping with apparent agitation. “If anyone asks, as far as you know, I took this and it didn’t work, ok?”

“Wh-”

“Listen!” He stepped closer than you ever expected Idia to get to another human, hands coming down in a vice like grip on your shoulders as he pulled your face closer to him. “You watched me take it. It didn’t work. Get it?!”

“But why-”

“This last week has been the best one of my life. No one coming to drag me out of my room, no classes, no interference. It’s paradise, like I finally hit the game over screen on all the worst parts of existing. Even the Headmage leaves me alone since I can’t go to school in this state..” His nails dug into your back a little. “So I’m not drinking this, alright? And you can keep your mouth shut. Or else I tell everyone that the screw-up was on purpose.”

You felt all the blood drain out of your body and into your face. “How did you-?!”

He snickered, a wide, nearly manic grin splitting his face. “You really need to delete your Youtube history if you’re gonna pull stunts that obvious.”

“........I saw you take it. It didn’t work.” You said slowly.

He studied your face, seemingly for any signs of dishonestly. For a split second, it seemed like he noticed how close the two of you were, the roots of his hair flushing a little pink as he let you go. Idia shoves his hands deep in his pockets, nodding solemnly. “Keep my secret, I’ll keep yours. Maybe a few other favors, depending on how long I can pull this off.”

“And how long is that?”

“If I’m lucky? A few extra weeks.” He grinned again, patting his pocket as he backed out of the room. “I should go before Ortho checks in. Enjoy your rest, and thanks again for the time. My gacha pulls thank you.”

“Glad I could be of service, I guess.”

A notification dings on your phone. New video from CorpseHusband, “Choking My Friends”, the title proclaimed.

Well. At least you knew what you were doing whenever you woke up.

[milich96]

(WIP) Had this dialogue idea in mind all day so enjoy

"Cute little thing, isn't she?"

"Mmm?"

"The shih-tzu"

"Ah Isabelle, yes yes. She's always smiling and she's been of great help these past few years-"

"Are you two fucking?"

"... what?"

"It's a simple yes or no question, Nookie. Are you two fucking? You wouldn't be the first boss to be caught with the secretary under the desk and she seems eager to please so-"

BOOM

Tom's punch had been so strong, the whole boat seemed to be shaking.

"Don't… don't you FUCKING dare insinuate such things"

"It's a legit question, no reason to get angry… at least if you ain't hiding anything"

"Me and Isabelle are just working partners."

"So were we-"

"WITH YOU IT WAS DIFFERENT!"

"Tsk" - Redd went back to adjust the statue's cover.

"I know that it may seems incredible, but not everyone want to stick their dick in everybody they know"

"First of all, I am a bottom and I think you know it well; second of all, I am not the crazy horn dog you marked me down as."

"Sure, it's not like I don't have memories of when we were young"

"You said it: "we were young". Like, 30 years ago. Plus, I haven't been with anyone since you"

"... come again" - a look of disbelief washed over Tom's face.

"I said I haven't been with anyone since you. Do I have to book you a hearing test?"

"Wait wait it doesn't make sense: you told me you and Lyle were intimate the other day"

"Oh please, I was clearly being sarcastic. I don't fuck my colleagues: mixing work and sentiments only leads to trouble, wouldn't you agree, Nookie 💖"

".. well if it's of interest, I haven't been with anyone since you too"

"Mmmm hard finding an ass as good as mine?"

"That too" 

"Can I suck you off?"

"Aaaand you ruined the moment, like always"

"Ehi, my ex admitted he hasn't had any tail since he was with me! How do you think that makes me feel?"

"Sad? Pitiful?"

"Horny, you stupid tanuki"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear it. Also, no, I don't want a blowjob: I want you away from my island" 

"I'll leave tomorrow. Now I'm too tired to start this baby up"

"Too tired for that, but you offered sex.."

"It's not work if you enjoy it 💖"

"... if I come back tomorrow morning and you're still here-"

"-you'll throw me to the sharks and destroy my boat yadda yadda I know the drill Tom. Have a great walk back home. Say hi to the kids from me"

"AND IF YOU CHANGE IDEA, MY HEAD GAME IS STILL GREAT!"

[chaoticgeminate]

Familiar Unknowns

Part 8 to the Epiphany Series, which is coming along quite well, and I'm really excited about this one. Finally a little bit more romance between Marcus and Eleanora, little bit of action, and a lot of supportive Moreno.

Rating: T (Langauge, kissing)

Word Count: 3,736

Series Masterlist | Masterlist

Part Seven | Part Nine

Eleanora had taken the day off, something about Kelsey needing her, and Marcus had to shake the nerves about not seeing her today. Aside from stolen kisses they hadn’t been able to find the time to have a proper date, not with the sudden influx of former employees trying to fight their termination or the team demanding his time for new teamwork drills, and he’d planned to be in the office all day today so he could finally try to arrange something for the two of them. He didn’t expect his phone to chime at ten in the morning with a text from her though.

[EC: How bad would an assault charge look on my record?]

His chest seized with immediate worry.

[MM: ????? Can I call you?]

Thankfully she put the call through before he could wonder what trouble was happening and he heard the sound of Kelsey crying in the background, his worry spiked for an entirely different reason but Eleanora started talking before he could start asking questions.

“Kelsey’s ex, Devon, ended things at like quarter past three this morning when she got in from work. She’s been taking massive overtime because she planned to propose, so instead of asking her why she’s been at work so much he decided breaking up was the next logical step and then had the balls to say she wasn’t wife material when she fessed up to her plans. They’ve been dating for four fucking years and living together for two and he has the audacity to say she isn’t wife material?”

Even though he only had met Kelsey once Marcus couldn’t begin to imagine being with someone that long and not thinking about marriage, especially since he knew from the group of five that Kelsey was among the hardest workers and most organized out of the friend group, and his heart sank at the reminder of how much pain she had to be going through. “I regret to say an assault charge would definitely undo all our hard work keeping you safe, however that doesn’t mean I’m forbidding you from ruining him on social media.” He paused when he heard the low grunt of effort on the other line and James’ little groan of frustration.

“Already planning on it, but good to know I have the Moreno seal of approval. Sorry for the noise, we’re moving her out of this place into James’ for now since he has a two room place and the second one is open.”

“Make your super-powered almost boyfriend come help, Nori!”

Beth’s little demand didn’t escape his notice and Marcus bit his cheek to stop from laughing as Eleanora sputtered in an adorable way in his ear. “Do you want me to come over and help, pícara?” It wouldn’t be any problem to take the mid-afternoon to helping them and just doing some of his reporting at home, he’d gotten used to the routine of catching up during Missy’s homework time.

“Only if you want to and you won’t be behind in work.”

“Text me the address.”

He was already moving when it came in and after a brief conversation with the secretary he shared with Eleanora he was in the elevator rolling up his sleeves, Rachel truly was a blessing with how well she handled both of their schedules and task management, and Marcus wondered if this Devon guy was stupid enough to hang around throughout the move-out process.

Watching Devon’s face lose all of its color when Marcus showed up had been wonderful, she’d snagged a picture of the dumbstruck expression for good measure, but Eleanora couldn’t begin thanking the man for how he’d jumped right in to help with the heaviest and hardest to maneuver furniture and gotten it loaded into the U-Haul like it was nothing. Anything Kelsey had bought was being moved, all of James’ old furniture was going to be given away to make room, and in the span of three hours you would have thought James and Kelsey had been living together for years.

Marcus had followed Eleanora back to her apartment once everything was settled, Kelsey had requested some time alone for a nap so she’d agreed to wait until she got a call to visit, and now he was sitting on her couch with a glass of water and no real need to be anywhere since Leanne and Stephen had agreed that Missy could stay over theirs for a sleep over with Genevieve. It had been nice to see that Missy was getting along much better with the other hero kids, finding an almost sisterly bond with Guppy, so a sleepover had been long due.

“Thank you, Marcus, for coming to our rescue.” He looked comfortable on her couch at least, his water cup on the coffee table while the TV was currently on the Spotify App to just play soft music in the room, and Eleanora stretched her arms over her head after finishing the order for their late lunch before walking over and running one of her hands through his hair as she went to sit down beside him. His arms reached up and made her sit on his lap sideways, the soft smile on his face had a lingering heat under it, but instead of a kiss he simply pressed his forehead to hers and rubbed his nose gently to her own.

It was sweet and intimate and made her toes curl in her slippers, just how gentle he was with her, and Eleanora felt the sting of tears gather in her eyes at the sudden sense of home she felt coursing through her veins. “I will always be there if you need me pícara.” His voice was soft and rasped and he reached up to wipe the happy tears that soaked her lashes before angling his mouth just so, the kiss was tender and warm and held so much promise in it.

Eleanora smiled into his lips and his own smile grew in response, not pushing or rushing into anything else as they just took the time to be together. “Just like I’ll always be there if you need me no matter how much you complain.” He laughed at her reply and his breath ticked her face before he reached back to undo the high-ponytail she’d been sporting, a reminder to her that earlier she’d been complaining about it, but having his hands card through her hair felt nice and she practically melted against his shoulder as he let her lean her shoulder into his chest and press her forehead to his temple.

They stayed like that until her buzzer sounded, the take-out order from her favorite ramen place in the city proving to be a good choice since Marcus was new to the dish, and Marcus didn’t seem to mind as she pulled him back to her couch so she could lay her head in his lap once they’d finished eating. Instead he began playing with the ends of her hair and Eleanora held his free hand in hers while lightly massaging the appendage and his wrist as she basked in feeling so cherished.

“Is there anything I need to be mindful of doing, Eleanora?” His question prompted her to look up at his expression, open and cautious, but for the life of her she couldn’t quite figure out what he meant. He must have noticed the confusion on her face because he did offer further elaboration. “I mean, uh, you know I did read through some of your journal and I know things weren’t great with Addison.” Maybe it was the fact that he was here with her, or maybe it was just a sign that the sessions with Doctor Delacroix had been helping but Eleanora’s chest didn’t seize up with panic hearing the name of her ex, and she dropped her gaze to his hand as she pressed her thumb into the tendon of his wrist gently.

Marcus’ consideration of others was what she considered one of his greatest qualities, he was mindful of the way he acted and spoke with anyone on a good day but with the people he cared for? It was no secret just how much he adored and respected them, even from Missy Eleanora heard how cautious the hero was with her during times where there were minor disagreements to be had. “I’m not sure yet, I mean the issues with Addison and I didn’t start up until two years into our relationship and she’d only just learned that I had any sort of powers. But it was more that she became manipulative and I guess I didn’t notice it until I’d already let her hold on me get to a toxic point.” Eleanora had never been hit by anyone she’d been with before, or really threatened directly, so Addison’s brand of manipulative control hadn’t even seemed remotely dangerous until she began speaking with others openly about it.

His eyes stayed on her and she could feel the weight of them, letting him slide his hand from her hair to tip her chin back a little so she looked up at him in return. “If I ever say, or do, anything that makes you uncomfortable can you promise me that you’ll tell me right away?” His sincerity brought tears back to her eyes as she nodded, managing to whisper ‘I promise’ before abandoning his hand to sit up and wrap herself into his arms and hide her face in the skin of his neck.

“I’m not going to judge you for crying, Eleanora, let me support you.”

His whispered request was overwhelming and the swell of her emotions crested into sobs that were muffled by his shirt and his skin, she had never felt safer or more loved than in this moment and it was wonderful and scary all at the same time.

Marcus’ mouth went dry as he stood in the doorway to Eleanora’s apartment, her eyes were bright as she smiled at him and his heartbeat kicked up as she accepted the bouquet of lilies he’d brought with the softest smile on her face. “You remembered my favorite flower?” The remark had been made in passing but he couldn’t have forgotten it if he tried. “Let me put these in water, come in.” Marcus nodded and watched as she carefully prepared the bouquet; her vase looked like it had been repaired using kintsugi techniques since some of the pieces were too jagged and strange shaped to have been designed that way. Streaks of bright gold shining through the soft pink and orange gradient of pastels, it reminded him of her and Marcus wondered if she’d ever see herself this way. A thing that might have once been broken but put back together with love, care, and a gentle hand.

“Still not saying where we’re going?”

“Nope.”

“Is that because you just don’t have a game plan, Moreno? Making up things as you go?”

He exhaled as he moved to stand behind her, arms on the counter top on either side of her to cage her against the dark marble print surface, and he could feel the heat of her as he dipped his head to rest his chin on her shoulder while she worked on trimming the stems. “I’ve got a lot of plans, pícara, but they aren’t what I’d normally do for a first date.” He could feel the shiver as his breath tickled the skin of her ear, caught the slight tremor in her hands before she was setting the blooms into their new home, and he was honestly glad that he wasn’t the only one stumbling over this new thing between them.

Part of him cursed the chill in the air because Eleanora paired her burgundy dress with opaque black leggings; the dress itself was form fitting and extremely short with a slit on the left side and the scoop cut of the bodice was cleverly sewn into the short sleeves of the dress in a way that showed the open panel of her collar area but the two portions at the top met in a buckled collar. Completing the edgy look were her black ankle boots, leather with pink camellia blossoms embroidered up the sides, and all in all Marcus found himself invested in that exposed section of skin.

The vase was filled and he stepped away as she placed it on the long cube sectioned shelf below her television, the cube boxes she’d chosen were all different geometric patterns in warm shades of pale pink and soft yellows and oranges. The fact that someone as strong, determined, and independent as her being drawn to softer pastels and pinks told him that she wasn’t afraid to enjoy things seen as stereotypically ‘feminine’ and Marcus found himself smiling as she moved by him to grab the cropped leather biker jacket from her coat hook before he came over to help her slide it on. “Such a gentleman.” But he could see the color rising on her cheeks and knew that she liked it. “We aren’t going to get jumped by paparazzi, are we?” A fair question but he shook his head with a smile, watching her shoulders relax a little.

Thankfully the press hadn’t been all over her after she’d been named publicly as the Director of HQ, then again with her powers many outlets were afraid she would wreck their systems from within, but as a precaution he’d picked something a little more casual where she wouldn’t get a second glance. Marcus knew he hit the nail on the head when they pulled up to the fall farmer’s market, the faire did have a Ferris wheel and carousel along with some smaller kiddie coasters but the real draw was the handcrafted decorations and the fresh food stalls everywhere. Spiced apple cider, mulled wine, rich hot chocolate, and even honey mead kept warm filled the air with a sweet and alluring smell but there were roasting meats and toasted marshmallow scents from the large bonfire too.

“Oh, look at that pumpkin! It’s massive.” He grinned as she tugged gently on his hand to lead him to the prize winning pumpkin of the season, the massive gourd looked ridiculously comical and they joined many others in getting pictures with it. Eleanora met his gaze with another soft smile and slipped up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek for one photo, the cold completely unable to touch him, and after retrieving the old-school polaroid that Eleanora had brought they tucked the developed photo away into her little album book she had slipped into her canvas bag. “This was such a lovely idea, Marcus.” He led her around for the rest of the night to see things like prize winning animals, play the few games that were set up and learning that Eleanora was a crane machine Queen (without her powers to boot), and as the sky darkened they went to get themselves something to eat.

Hot drinks, fresh food and sweets, and toasting marshmallows for s’mores led to sticky kisses exchanged beside the massive bonfire until the stars became visible and they sat together on the edge of his open trunk with one final hot drink for the night before the drive home. He had bought some winter decorations for the house that he knew Missy would like, not at all surprised when Eleanora had gotten a few of the wood carved animals for her mantle back at her apartment, and she tucked closer to his side as the breeze kicked up. “This was a fun first date, I know we have the drive home still but I love how peaceful this is. The stars are so much clearer out here too.” He moved his arm around her back to hold her closer and smiled when she leaned into his body.

“I’m glad you liked this, I figured something away from the buzz of the city would be nice.”

“It is, honestly, everything is just quiet for once.”

“Then we’ll have to do things like this more often.”

Eleanora’s head tipped up a little and she smiled at him, eyes half-open as she nodded, and Marcus shifted to cup her face and steal one more kiss before the drive. “Should we get moving? You have an early morning patrol.” The question was whispered against his lips and Marcus wanted to say no, he wanted to be greedy and tell Curt to handle it for him instead, but he had more than enough time now to explore the growing relationship. He could be patient and responsible, he would be patient and responsible, there was a lot of healing to be done for Eleanora and himself still.

He brushed his nose to hers gently. “We should, I’ll take these to the trash.” He claimed the empty cups and smiled as Eleanora hopped down to close his trunk, he tossed the cups and hurried back to find she’d pilfered his keys and started the car already with the heat on, but he only leaned over the center console and kissed her cheek for her thoughtfulness and eased them out of the parking lot to head back.

At her door he shifted on his feet and watched her open up her apartment, house keys hung up on her key hook, and Marcus watched her pull off the leather coat before she turned back to him. “I’ll see you at work on Monday, Marcus.” His throat felt tight as he nodded and Eleanora leaned up to give him the sweetest apple cider kiss, tongue darting out to lick at the lingering hot chocolate taste on his mouth, and his lips parted for her as he angled his head just a little bit and let her take the reins on the kiss.

He was spurred on by the inhale against his lips, tongue sliding to meet hers, and Marcus heard the soft sigh in the space between their mouths before she was pressing her lips harder to his and gripping his biceps to be closer to him as she bloomed into the kiss for him. The tentative touches and chaste affection replaced with a searing desire for more that left him dizzy and it wasn’t until he had her pressed into her door frame and the hallway lights were flickering that Marcus found the strength to draw himself back from her.

A storm had formed in her eyes and he wanted to stay to ride it out but Marcus knew better. “I’ll see you at work, Eleanora.” It was hard to drag himself away, to allow her to close the door, but he did and as he went back down the stairwell to leave Marcus’ heart was racing with a warmth of hope and joy all at once.

“I’m sorry to be such a downer-“

“You’re not at all, babes, just going through a tough time.”

Kelsey flashed a look of exasperated gratitude at Beth before accepting the hot chocolate, everyone gathered at James’ apartment for a Sunday afternoon get together, and Eleanora smiled as she nudged Lucas’ shoulder so he’d scoot over more on the love seat. “Really, Kel, we would rather help you work through this. Like all of you did when I ended things with Addison after y’all gave me the reality bitch slap.” James help his mug up like a toast and Eleanora earned a nod from her friend, that had been years ago but now she was getting therapy along with the love and care from her friends.

Eleanora was about to grab her sandwich when the loud alarm from her work phone sounded through the room, she snatched the device off the table to answer the call and smiled as Lucas turned on the news almost instantaneously. “Caballero.” What she wasn’t ready to see was Miracle Guy on screen fighting Rockslide with Lava Girl acting as his backup while Blinding Fast hurried to evacuate the area of civilians.

“Boss, we got two teams on the field, Rockslide and Manic Panic got out of Monkshood. Tech wants to have us begin analyzing security footage for Monkshood but the Warden is giving us a hard time-“

“I don’t care if he’s giving you a hard time, do it and I’ll deal with the consequences later, we need to figure out how they did since Lepido got out too.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’ll head to the office now.”

“Stay safe, ma’am.”

“Yep.”

As she ended the call Eleanora looked at her friends, their eyes filled with concern and pride, and James helped her slide into her coat as Lucas tossed over her shoes. “I’ll figure this out; next week is not getting crashed.” They laughed lightly but nodded and Eleanora hurried down to her car, using the work phone signal that tracked the locations of each team to avoid the dangerous route to the HQ parking, and by the time she made it into her office the analysts were scouring over the relinquished footage.

But she wasn’t stupid enough to think the warden wouldn’t have edited it to hide his people messing up and Eleanora slid into her seat before static crawled along her skin and her mind jumped out into the network. Monkshood security was tight but she now had the necessary clearance code to access it, discreetly slipping into the system and finding the security server, and as she accessed the footage she could tell there’d been areas clipped. But the data wasn’t gone completely, not yet, and Eleanora sent it along to the analysts after finding the lingering files in queue with the deletion sub process.

Slipping through the camera system now, not liking that the warden was trying to hide things, the woman began monitoring the various cameras and hallways. Lepido was still in his cell, the binders seemed like they were working this time along with the specially crafted inhibitor clothing, and Addison was curled up in her own cell beside Icy Wind’s unit. But the sight of a guard walking the hall toward the cell drew her focus, the face familiar, and Eleanora slammed the emergency lockdown on in the prison while sending an alert directly to the warden and the other guards.

Somehow Jackson had infiltrated Monkshood, after disappearing off the grid for years, and she wasn’t letting him get away now.

Translations [From Google Translate, if they're wrong let me know!]

Pícara - Sassy girl

Part Nine

[luca-moreno]

Look. Marie is probably gonna have my balls for this but listen. I'm going to say the thing everyone else is thinking but doesn't have the guts to say. Think of it as 'tough love' if that helps at all. Okay. Here we go.

Kiss him. Or shut the fuck up.

-sincerely the Berlin collective

(helpimsosorry) (thisisahotmess) (justlikeLuca) (alsolong) (sorry) -- Thurman and Braun eye Luca, currently wrapped up like a burrito on the floor of the observation lounge. Thurman nudges him gently with his boot. “You alright in there, Moreno?”

“Lemme alone,” comes the muffled response. “I’m dying.”

They look over at Harris and Davis, perched together on the couch while the stars swirl outside. They wear matching raised eyebrows but it’s Braun that asks in a lowered tone, “What’s wrong with him?”

Harris doesn’t bother to look up from the datapad she holds in her hand or the obnoxiously loud Blasto game she’s playing. Davis leans over her shoulder, offering advice that Harris steadfastly ignores. 

“He’s freaking out about the thing again,” she shrugs.

“The thing?”

“The thing.” 

“Oh.” Braun nods sagely then exchanges a confused glance with Thurman.

“What’s the thing?”

Harris pauses the game to look up and Davis snatches the pad out of her hands. “Wait. So you guys haven’t heard?”

“Heard what? The commander’s had us running drills for the past twelve hours. Where the fuck were you two on it, by the way?” 

“Oh my god,” Davis grabs Harris’s arm then cackles before returning to the game. “They don’t know.”

“Nope.”

Thurman rubs the back of his neck and squints, suddenly uneasy. “Not the…”

“No! Not the… other thing. This is the phoenix thing.”

“Oh.” Thurman walks away, immediately bored. 

Braun, however, leans his big frame closer. Blue eyes sparkle curiously. “What phoenix thing?”

The Blasto game starts up again and Harris snarls in exasperation, then half clambers over Davis to reach it. “Will you shut that thing off?”

“I’m dying,” comes another muffled moan from the floor that everyone ignores. “In case anyone cares.”

Braun reaches down to pluck the datapad from between the two squabbling girls and lifts it out of their reach. Harris snarls. “Hey!”

“Braun, give it back!”

“Someone tell me what’s going on. Why does Luca think he’s dying?”

“Hurricane planted one on him then ghosted,” Davis informs him helpfully. “He’s been lying on the floor crying about it for two days.”

“Boo fucking hoo,” Harris bitches, crossing her arms tight across her chest and pouts dramatically. “’A phoenix kissed me.’ We should all be so lucky.”

“Or not,” Thurman mutters from the doorway. 

Braun slowly lowers his arm, but Harris isn’t satisfied with that and half climbs up him to reach the datapad he’s holding hostage instead. “Ah. That thing.”

“Yeah. That thing.”

There’s another moan from the floor.

-- 

Isaac knows it’s going to be bad when Davis shows up on the doorstep to his quarters and deposits Luca into his care with an eye roll and not a single word.

He leads Luca, burrito blanket and all, towards the couch.

“Luca,” Eva sits up quickly, tucking her book away. “Are you sick?”

“I’m dying,” Luca mumbles as Isaac plants a hand on one shoulder and guides him down onto the couch. He tries to catch Eva’s eye as Luca flops face first down onto the cushions.

“Do I need to call Dr Lyons?” he asks carefully.

Luca’s is reply is muffled and pathetic. “No.” A pause, then. “Two doors.”

Eva’s lips twitch as Isaac visibly relaxes and he sighs inwardly, thinking of the quiet evening he was hoping to have and the shower still calling his name after a long, dragging shift in the CIC. But he’ll always make time for Luca.

“Do you want to talk about it, son?”

There’s another heavy sigh from the blanket. “No.”

Isaac waits a beat for Luca to say more but when it’s clear he’s not going to, he clears his throat lightly. He’d put credits down that this has something to do with Phoenix Roosevelt and Luca’s very obvious, and possibly unrequited crush. Where did this fall in the handbook? He wonders briefly to himself if he’s not above getting Miller to handle it. 

And he would, if it wasn’t Luca.

Eva touches his hand and motions her head towards the shower. I’ve got this, she mouths. He doesn’t take his eyes off her.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it, Luc?” he tries one more time. 

A pathetic moan is the only response he gets and Eva hides her silent laugh behind her hand. “Go,” she says softly. “I’ll talk to him.”

Isaac glances between the prone shape beside her and his private, glorious bathroom and decides since there’s no immediate danger, he’s within his rights to take Eva up on her offer.  

Plus, Eva will get more out of him anyway.

“Alright,” he nods gratefully then offers Luca a conciliatory pat on the shoulder as he slips away.

--

Eva brushes a hand over Luca’s curls and mentally counts to ten, except that she only gets to three before Luca is rolling over and suddenly pulling himself upright. 

The blanket pools around him and his hair sticks up in wild disarray around his face. 

“Okay. I lied. I’m not dying and I do want to talk about it.”

Eva nods. “Alright.” ”Uh. So you know that thing… that I told you about… that happened?”

“The thing?”

“Yes,” Luca half glares at her, wondering if she’s teasing him. She is, just a little, but only because Luca’s angst over a simple meeting of mouths was a delightful distraction from her own worries. ”The thing.”

“Ah,” Eva says knowingly, her lips twitching. “The thing being the kiss. With a capital K… With Ben.” 

Luca’s mouth works silently for a moment before he groans and slumps backwards. 

“The Kiss. Yes. Well, I mean… I think it was a kiss. There was a definite-“ Luca closes his eyes and puckers his lips dramatically before moving on, “-but I don’t know. I mean… We were working out, he was trying to teach me stuff but then we fell and I thought... well, maybe I was dreaming, like maybe I had slapped myself with the staff and I didn’t realise it? Or maybe I hit him too hard and I rattled his brain and he didn’t really know what he was doing... Or, maybe it was just an accident-“ 

“You think he might have accidently kissed you?”

“Why not? It happens!” He eyes her shrewdly then. “Right?” 

“I wouldn’t know,” she says carefully and Luca pauses to snort ungracefully before continuing. 

“The point is,” he goes on, getting really warmed up now. “It must have been bad, right? The kiss? I mean, he charged away. Like… an actual charge, Eva. Biotics and all, he was that keen to get away from me. Just. Poof. Gone. I’m surprised my eyebrows didn’t get singed-“ 

Eva laughs. “You know it doesn’t work like that, Luca.” 

“Shh, not important,” he waves that pesky fact away dismissively but then he falters and gives her a mock growl. “– and stop. I’m trying to have a moment here, and you’re ruining my dramatical meltdown.”

That causes her to muffle her laughter into a cushion she’s forced to snatch up from the couch. One of the pretty sparkly ones she had eyed off on Asteria and Isaac had bought behind her back to surprise her.

“I’m sorry,” she says formally as she schools her face into something suitably serious and lowers the cushion to her lap. “– please, Luca. Continue.”

He huffs. “Well. No. Now I’ve lost my place. Thanks a lot, I was really working up to something there.”

“The kiss?” she prompts, trying not to laugh again.

“OH SWEET KHALAHIRA, THE KISS.” 

He spins, then flops dramatically down beside her. “Eva,” he whines her name like a toddler begging for a treat. It’s enough to make her sigh. “What do I do?”

“Maybe you could... Hmm. I don't know... No. It’s too crazy. You wouldn’t want to know about it.”

“What? What is it? Is it another one of your funky breathing techniques? Some asari thing? Can it read minds?!”

“Well, it’s very complicated. But it just might help you.”

“What?! Tell me. Eva!”

“.... you could try talking to him.”

Luca is aghast and horrified all at once. “NO?? Why would I do that?”

“It has to be better than…” she waves a hand and eyes him critically. “Whatever this is.”

“A crisis, Eva. This is a crisis. Of epic proportions. On a scale of one to reapers this is.. I dunno, what's worse than reapers trying to wipe out the entirety of galactic civilization?” 

Eva doesn't want to think about that last part. “Well, I think it’s sort of sweet if you ask me," she says instead. "Ben’s nice. He’s not at all what I expected. And he obviously cares about you. Why else would he be trying to hit you with a stick to make you better in combat?”

Luca makes a strangled sound halfway between a snort and a cackle. “He just doesn’t want to have to carry me back to the LZ over his shoulder when a dragoon gets me. I bet he could too.”

Eva has to bite the inside of her cheek not to laugh at Luca’s dreamy expression. “I’m sure he wouldn’t even break a sweat.”

Luca seems tremendously interested in that mental image for a few seconds before he falls back into his funk. He tucks himself in against her and she can sense he’s working up to something entirely new. 

“What did you do?” he asks after a minute, quiet and subdued. “You know, with the captain?” 

Eva smiles at the memory in spite of herself. “Well, hmm. For starters… I guess I kissed him back.”

Luca scrambles up and gathers up a cushion to hug it to himself as he slides her a sideways glance. 

“Yeah? And did you teleport out of the room immediately afterwards?”

Eva can’t help it, she dissolves into giggles and Luca whacks her gently with the pillow.

“No…”

“SEE!” 

He picks up his faithful blanket and hauls it over his head until the only thing that she can see is his curls. 

“This is so stupid. I’m so stupid. I’m just gonna pretend it never happened.”

“Luca. I’m sure it’s fine. It’s just a kiss. It’s a good thing. I don’t understand. I thought this was what you wanted?”

His head peaks up, eyes dark pools over the blanket’s trim. “I don’t know. I mean… yes? But also… no? Yes. Um. Definitely yes? No… Oh, no.”

“Now you’re confusing me. What is it that you actually want, Luc?”

He grows very quiet for a moment and Eva allows him to sit with his thoughts. He was getting better with his focus. The meditations he’s been doing with her in the quiet off hours are definitely helping.. at least she hopes.

“It is… I think. I just… I don’t want to mess it up, Eva,” he says, his voice small. “I really like him. He’s my friend, so it’s not just… well, you know-“

He does something with his eyebrows that has her wanting to laugh again, but she stifles that urge in case he whacks her with the cushion again, “-but he’s just… He makes me feel… I don’t know. Like I’m capable of important things even though I’m not special like him... or you…”

“Because you are, Luc. Don’t sell yourself short.” 

“I know that and I’m not. I mean. Not really. I’m just… How can you want something so badly but be so scared to reach for it? It doesn’t make sense... but then what if you do… and then everything gets all messed up and then you don’t even have a friend anymore and things get all weird and awkward and plus I know he's still missing them and I can’t-“ 

Eva feels the ache inside her as she reaches for him and tugs him into a hug, effectively cutting him off before he spirals once again. He leans into her miserably, his soft hair tickling the side of her jaw. 

“Luca,” she says it on a sigh, because this… this hits too close to home and how can she encourage him to give himself over to something that might be so beautiful… but has the potential to hurt so much too?

He snuffles lightly into her chest. “I need someone to send me a sign,” he mutters. “Something from the universe to tell me what to do.”

He’s barely finished saying the words when his omnitool beeps with an incoming message. He pulls away to read it and she lets him go. 

“Huh? What the… Why is Ajax mess- ohfuck-“ 

“Well,” Eva laughs at his horrified expression as she reads the scrolling text over his shoulder. “I guess that’s your sign, Luc.”

--

Ben opens the door to his quarters and the first thing Luca does is grab his shirt and pull him close. Except, that’s not actually what happens because Ben is more solid than he looks and Luca ends up losing his balance and falling into his chest with a small grunt instead.

Ben catches him with a confused look. “Luca?”

“Um. Look,” Luca starts, hands still tangled in Ben’s shirt, close enough to breathe him in and see the way the vanguard’s eyes glow in the low light of the hallway. “So... there’s a million things I want to say and all of them are probably stupid, but… you kissed me and I don’t know what that means and I can only hope it means what I want it to mean, but if it doesn’t mean what I want it to mean then that’s okay too and I hope this doesn’t change anything because I really like being your friend but just once, just once, I want... to.. do.. this...” Luca traps Ben’s face gently between his palms... and kisses him. 

[whump-town]

ajadhkhdh that's okay! The gist of my ask was: what do you think abt Derek and Aaron's (platonic) relationship? I really think it's the most underrated friendship within the core 7. (Then again, I'm generally biased towards the two of them) so I was wondering if you had any headcanons/fic ideas for them specifically? Like after the events of Restoration, or after Hotch reveals thst Emily is not dead, that sort of thing.

I do have an ask for Restoration Hotch and Morgan so I’m going to go ahead and include what I wrote for that plus what I thought of when you asked this^^:

They’re a match made in Adrenaline Crash Hell.

Problems with authority?

Issues trusting men?

Trouble magnets?

It unnerves Haley every time she kisses her husband goodbye knowing she’s sending him out there with his equally as injury-prone partner. She loves Derek Morgan. He’s a doll and she invites him over for dinner all the time (also to occasionally get him to help Aaron do handy-man stuff around the house because she loves her husband but the man doesn’t understand woodwork at all).

They’re an unstoppable pair. 

Hotch is a fantastic sharp-shooter and he makes quick work of tongue-tying any cops that get into their way. Not to mention his legal knowledge gets them one foot in the door and guaranteed loopholes in problems that other pairs can’t solve.

Morgan is a charmer and paired with his good looks, he gains the trust of victims with ease. Not to mention, he’s fast on his feet and a close reader which means he won’t miss a single piece of evidence in a file. He excels in defusing explosives and that’s what sets them apart. 

It’s why Morgan gets sent back to Quantico with fragments of a bomb to put back together when Hotch gets sent to the hospital. 

Morgan stands in the bullpen, numb as he watches over and over as the news plays that scene on repeat. Just as it ends, they play that little clip-- the men wearing FBI kevlar and cops infiltrating the building. The radio static and Gideon’s voice giving the okay to move in. Morgan wonders when he’s going to get the call-- when Gideon’s voice is going to come through his phone and tell him he has to call Haley.

To tell her Hotch is dead…

and Jason Gideon killed him.

He manages to forgive Gideon for making him feel that hopeless. What he can’t forgive is what Gideon does to Hotch.

“The Black Queen--” Hotch informs him, one hand firmly planted on the wall ahead of him and the other tightly gripping a sleek black cane. He’s breathless and struggling to work through the pain that feels like it’s in every nerve of his body. But he’s refused Morgan’s help three times and he won’t cave on that now. 

With a sigh, he forces his body upright. His leg gives and Morgan grabs his shoulders. “Alright, man,” Morgan grunts and he forces Hotch back into the wheelchair the nurse had given them just in case. Good thing too. He lets out a breath of his own, feeling extremely better now that he won’t have to watch Hotch force his body to move in ways that it clearly does not want to.

Morgan pats Hotch’s shoulder, “what were you saying about this Black Queen chick?”

Despite just being taken off of bed rest and only being okayed for short walks this week, Hotch has already hired two new members of the team. Of their team, because as far they know, Jason Gideon will not be returning and Hotch is acting Unit Cheif until they can find somebody better-- which they know is a ploy because no one else can do the job.

Which makes the two of them the only members of the team. 

Living, that is.

Hotch chews on the end of his nails as he informs Morgan about the hacker recently caught in the FBI’s web. It makes him smile, Morgan can appreciate Hotch’s creativity in this new team. He’s good at this.

JJ had been the first person Hotch hired. She’d joined their little force last week as a media liaison and Morgan liked her right off the bat. She’d come to the hospital and Morgan had watched in shock but extreme amusement as she took right to arguing with Hotch. Not in a bad way but more of a “No, sir, you won’t be getting any paperwork until your doctor signs off on it. As that is the requirement you have to meet under federal guidelines and… because I said so.”

Needless to say, they love her. Not many people have the balls to tell Hotch no. It makes her perfect for the job.

She makes their jobs easier and she fully understands that while Hotch and Morgan are not currently physically capable of the job, it is in no way waiting for them to be ready.

There’s a slightly maddened look in Hotch’s eyes as he leans forward and tells Morgan about how much a genius this woman, the Black Queen, is. Then again, the poor man has had nothing to do for weeks and he’s taken this small task and really ran with it. It definitely doesn’t help that he’s desperate need of a hair cut and in pajamas. 

Going to interview Penelope Garcia is the first time Hotch leaves the hospital in months.

He’s promptly taken right back but he’s smiling the whole way.

Their team of four has weekly meetings in the hospital. 

Then Hotch hires Reid.

It’s strange at first but one night, as Morgan’s falling asleep it suddenly occurs to him-- That son of a bitch. Hotch and Morgan both struggle to trust men which has had a lot to do with Hotch’s hires being all women. Then Hotch does hire another “man” and it’s some scrappy-ass runt of a genius-- so, of course, Morgan hadn’t even flinched. He hadn’t even thought twice before taking the kid under his arm.

Of course, Hotch has Reid spending all his time with Gideon but he’s still a part of the team. 

But Hotch heals and returns to active duty. Gideon stays on campus. 

And then it all comes crashing in once again.

Morgan is the one to advocate for Elle. He doesn’t say a word to Hotch-- he doesn’t know why. He just goes straight up to Gideon and tells the man that they can’t pass up on a spunky woman like Elle Greenaway. 

He gets the impression Hotch doesn’t completely support this idea-- not Greenaway, just not the idea that Morgan went to Gideon instead of him.

Their friendship... struggles as Hotch takes on the full responsibilities of Unit Cheif. He’s not as fun and Morgan would prefer hanging out with the kid and Elle, so he does. 

Tobias Hankle forces them to confront that ruined friendship the moment Derek Morgan utters those simple words: “you’re a drill sergeant”.

But they remain one in the same.

“I have and always will entrust you with my life. Can you do the same for me?”

“I love my job, man.” “You love him more.”

“I don’t want you going to see Burford.”

The stand-off between the federal agents standing in the middle of the police station is clear. A battle that goes past wills and the inhibitions of troubled youths. The kind of trouble that runs deeper than still water. Trauma that grown men can’t shake. That these grown men haven’t shaken.

“Hotch, I can do this.”

Maybe, Hotch considers. Maybe Derek can to a certain degree. The way that Hotch handles it after case. The way they all handle it. “Fine,” he relents. He can’t burn the bridge between the two of them over something as stupid as egos and abusers. Not when their pasts intertwine the way they do. Braided. “Fine but I’m coming with you.”

Because if they’re going to do this, they’re going to do it together.

More or less.

There’s no denying how weak his own knees feel as Hotch watches Morgan take Buford’s hand. So, when Morgan looks him dead in the eyes and lies-- and deceives him with the excuse that he’s going to “use the head before we leave” Hotch lets him. It’s the same small infraction he’d need Morgan to allow him. The same infraction Morgan has allowed him.

“Derek? You did a great thing out there.”

The jet has been silent, for the most part. It’s only the right amount of small talk, mangled by Dave’s encouraging words. Mangled by the call.

Hotch recognizes the tone, the far off look in Derek’s eyes as he pulls his phone away from his ear. “What happened?” he can hardly push the question past his lips. Because he already knows the swell of tangled emotions. The way that anger melts into fear and doubt. The way relief wraps its cold fingers around your sternum and burns with the passion of loss. 

Because deep, deep down… Hotch still loved his father. 

“Carl Buford is dead.” 

Bile stings the back of Hotch’s throat but he remains silent and still when Morgan stands. He assumes the other man is feeling the same burning disgust. Anger with himself for being upset. Anger with Buford for making him love him in some twisted way. 

And Morgan can’t find the means to understand it. Hotch loved his abuser because he was his father. Carl was… Carl was nothing and everything and Morgan crawled his way from the muddied pits of hell without Carl and yet--

“Breathe--” he can’t even make it to the bathroom before he sinks to his knees. “It’s alright.” It’s taken Morgan years to get to a place where the presence of another man, hell an older man, doesn’t startle him. Still, sometimes someone steps too close and he flinches or gets frustrated and he can’t even explain why. 

But Hotch surrounds him. He uses his body to block the other’s from Morgan’s direct line of sight and all Morgan knows is the painful throb in his chest and the reassuring hand placed on his back. Morgan finds comfort in that hand. In Hotch who he knows without a shred of doubt not only understands but shares a fraction of his pain. 

“Just breathe, Derek.” 

Hotch looks up, his knees aching from squatting. “Blake, can you grab a water bottle? JJ, can you get me a rag?” He stays right here beside his old friend. So much as changed from those beginning years as two young and dumb agents. 

But they’re still the same broken men. 

“Hotch?”

Hotch shakes his head, “I’m right here, Derek. Always.”

[the-firebird69]

So Mac has a huge revenge playing against us and part of it is he drags him out here twice to this building that's one just like this and it is also stuff a trial courthouse and it's also the stock exchange that's where they run things out of and he said it's nothing personal and I got all this stuff running against you and it's really meant for your father he said well it is taken personally and you are going to die and there's nothing you can do about it and started whimpering should I don't want to die for my plan I said your plan is to give you a life and what you're doing is so childish and asinine and in people's faces that actually kill people all the time I'm surprised you made it this far that's an asinine thing to say to someone as in you're walking down the road and you say something asinine to a real big guy is a gorgeous wife so he knocks your head off your body because you're being asinine granted corky helped you do it and all the s*** was kind of secret and repressed and covered but he really just turned it up and opened it up and told people I mean a little worse because this code is so cheesy and cheap and idiotic it expose yours what am I supposed to say every day of my life and I'm 53 or whatever it's a huge pain in the ass because of you and your idiots run around me like freaking Goldilocks for their panties on fire

Then my son our son said all that and then Mac Daddy slowly turns around and says to him you be quiet now said no it's your jackass you ruined your sister's life my grandma and they're ruining mind and you're messing up yours you have any concept of what you're doing it stops talking serious off into the distance and says I knew you would not understand. That's great then you know that I'm going to just kill you and yours that you're in America you stepped your feet here maybe not right now and this is how we handle things get my gun I got to get that idiot off my property it's extremely simple and you figured it out. He gets really mad and says I knew you wouldn't understand means that you're this obstinate American guy who won't understand. Right I understand it I comprehend it you're coming from living for thousands of years of the ruler from enforcing all sorts of rules and stuff and sucking off for everybody doing what you like I understand that you're preconditioned and you think that I'm going to do what you say cuz you think you're preconditionally in my life and I'm going to do what you want secretly or not I'm telling you is you know that I wouldn't take it the way you want it because I've been trying to be an American it sucks it sucks to you cuz that's what it is you're the one who did it and you knew I wouldn't take it she won put me on trial and also the b******* so your rain goes off that way that your body is right there. starting to get something your people didn't put up with it and you're the ones who started it we are the ones who started it and we're going to finish it and you're going to be all washed up because father was doing it and he had already started the war but my people did not want to tolerate you

Your group grew up here and we're used to living free and heavy airgas wasn't trained and training of military techniques maneuvers thinking all sorts of things that are very high level was afforded to us how could you expect us to just lay down and die for lumps of s*** like yourself you eat each other you're never friends with anyone you don't love anyone there's no real trust at all and it can't be gained you can't have a good day if someone paid you what's the point if you knew that I'm going to be in onstinate guy and you might get fragged you just keep doing it.

Turns around again this is shut up cuz I have absolutely no reason to I have what it takes and I have the backings and I don't have to he's not being all that stuff you tell me how to get rid of people like you all I want is an answer you know that I was going to kick your ass no you said that I would not understand it I'm saying English I understand it do you know that I understand your perspective.

He gets really mad and says no you don't you don't understand how I rule

Yes I do understand how you rule you will like a despot who's undercover and in the shadows he calls all sorts of crazy stuff that happened and you go around and you take the cup having people look at other things other than what they're supposed to and by having them hurt each other and hurt each other yourself and make it look like other people it's wicked complicated but I figured it out and have people are smarter than anything any curls anybody that was worth anything with demarison sucked ass and have all mine intact because my plan but you haven't figured out even though I stuffed it so far up your ass anyone would figure it out I'm telling you you're right I'm American I don't understand why you won't shut up and leave me alone I understand your perspective in your plan and why you're like you are you're preconditioned it's a week until I was big enough okay

Turns around looks you right in the eye and says I have the transcript already so I don't have the conversations in town and I say you're not right there either because the conversation can change and the final transcript probably something that you should have thought about before it looks as what are you talking about I said you think I won't understand what you're doing and I tell you that I do and I explain what you're doing and why and of course that wouldn't matter it has to do with ability to halt stop change the course of history etc with Force deadly lethal abundant absolute undeniable Force that's what I was talking to you you keep pestering me until I absolutely it's not enough publicly in front of the entire Earth shoved all of you in Germany into an oven and you would not stop harassing my people there on me

Turns around again says how dare you show me this you like a b**** you need to be b**** slapped every few seconds and you think you're going to win you look like a stupid animal because everyone's saying stop shut up stop what you're doing you're here in this planet you have no idea what the status is up there you're falling apart you're willing to drive right into a wall I'm saying is why I'm just slow down and get off me look at this a****** corky and he's a huge failure and he's why now I don't need to understand your whole plan but I do I don't need to understand you when I do and I understand him he doesn't want to die he has to fight he's still alive so he's going to do what he can it's haphazard it's half past it's lame but that's what he's doing but when you sit there and harass me I'm going to take huge bites on you because I grew up American So when you say it don't understand I say you're right I don't have an understanding with you I understand what you're doing and why I understand why you do it I understand what you're a relationship was like and all that other crap but you're never going to get me to have an understanding when you're overtly telling me to kick your f****** ass overly. So he says why don't you kill me and I said I understand the math. It's not that great anymore bud but holy s*** where you want me to get rid of you I don't do it properly and put a new brain in it just make it look the same stuff like they're not prepared to do that cuz I don't want to cram memories I'm trying to harm my people into you and that's what I'd be forced to do.

Turns around one more time and says shut up and say okay talk to you later bud

This is leaving he's saying all this swear is an EP test tells us to tell you and he's saying what is he talks as well it's over you don't understand the thing you say he doesn't save either it's just sitting there the same it's the same donkey donkey. You know so I understand what you're saying he knows what I'm doing I understand the plan no sign of counter it he believes his power and all sorts of things yeah he doesn't understand me when I say I've had enough.

Hahaha you've had enough I'm stuck home with you hahaha stupid phone you've had enough I've had enough years ago I'm 53 or whatever you can't put this kind of bird on me I'm full of power piss and vinegar you're never going to make it more you're going to stick your face and everybody's business and they're going to blow it off your clones are going to take over your job. I've had enough of your s*** it's making me cry in the years I said you're grinding the gears right away I haven't taught by psyops my people I've been tired but Olympus I know how to f*** you up I know how to mess up your mind and your brain and your time.

So he turns around he said I told you to shut up so don't worry we have a handle on it you f****** dick

He goes inside tries it feels tries again fails I said you don't think I understand that I'm pulling the trigger of yours too dear truly you we started doing a long time ago to diffuse you deep are you Mr dick foreigners do it too your woman do it your kids do it practically everybody does it have you figured that out I understand you see there's an understanding you try the trigger we disable it are you ever going to figure it out bja made you a nudist colony we can see all of you he keeps talking all the time he can't stop us he can't grab us he's counting on him being poor and not being poor when my poor people are surely not stupid like he is we're not going to run into a hole to see what's down in we're not going to look into the barrel of a gun like his f***** do when I can be suicidal instantly like his f***** do now you have an understanding of what's going on but you will never understand me apparently even though he helped train me

Turns around says it's had enough okay we'll drain you more I do know the drill. Turns around says he's just had enough and he's going home for the night I said God she'll golly I feel like I'm in first grade again and the teachers telling me how to do things and I already know cuz I was a lot smarter than her then and I'm a lot smarter than you now and you talk and talk but really you don't use the vocabulary correctly and you do not express yourself clearly and you do not rule over your realm anymore and you really didn't rule that much either you are some sort of obstinate angry pig you know what I'm saying do you understand

He turns around and says I'll get you this time as you can't get me I'm not physically here and I'm attacking you wherever you're trying to attack me in mind because that's how I depowered you is using your fresh mouth because Mr BobbIlyy over there Brian was having me do it.

And I keep telling you this stupid son of a b**** of yours is a great fulcrum

Turns around says it's time you're tired of it I'm making money I'm taking stuff I need stuff my plan is to drain you dry just like you did my personal life because you're a stupid son of a b**** you're a f****** moron just like Mike bronder if that's who you are you like this kid who's trying to tell me all the stuff I'm saying Mike but it's like 8:00 we're supposed to go to this thing and we don't have that and yes you're so absent-minded and self-absorbed that you don't really do anything anymore you know you like Gerald Ford in office the sit there staring at the wall you like that guy at Essex with the stamp Perry should I get you Stampy to stamp it

And by the way PJ is probably staring out the window having to be this complete prick who has to take it up the ass over and over because he says he's taking the stuff and he's taking some stuff but he's stupid can't go in a Greyhound bus and figure out that my scale is off he can't and he's in it all the time so he turns around and he says I still had enough but I can't figure out how you know it's extremely easy you weren't ever the stupid you are never able to do dumb things like this whole time and I see him influencing people to do it all the time and himself because he is a complete train wreck the woman think that they're wearing you down and they don't have any information about us I don't know why there's a hole that's like what 300 miles wide it's killing everybody they can't figure it's not normal so he goes like this you got to stop now I said no I don't you're annoying the s*** out of me it's b**** s*** Brian himself is a b**** and all of his idiot race it's like cover for them to try and waste you away and you think you've done it a few times and your women are dumber than a freaking s*** holy crap they're dumb people they go around throwing sugar down the throats his going wow and Brian no Ryan's dumber than anyone he's dumber than the chip a real chimp is smarter than him

I don't care if you've had enough you're sitting here with this place you want to bother me with and torture me with and I'm just simply telling you I understand that that's fine I have a normal human reaction that George Sr would have I just start killing your people and you so you can say what you want you little b**** but you can't tell me what to do anymore cuz you're freeing me do you understand that loser what I can do to you is I can take your life but I don't have to do it myself that's where slobs like you now your action Jackson running around Vegas when it's steaming with your idiot brother's blood I mean how much do you have to have rubbed into your face for you just to shut up and leave me alone for a day

I thought he turned around said you're going to have to give it all to me why don't you be more precise with your verbiage or you actually Dempsey trying to act like Brian

Toys r Us says I told you to shut up I don't care you can drop and drop a nuke on yourself where you are right now I don't have to say anything then I don't want to and I'm going to say what I want cuz you're making me a rate on purpose I utilize it against you puss wad.

Who the hell in your position wouldn't know you should know it's just a simple push you push me that's a great I have a few minutes it's not midnight yet I'm going to push you off the ledge a whole bunch you're going to come climbing right back up you're going to call all these people are going to slaughter in a different time having fun losing your army call me lose more of it it's coming up soon it's not too far ahead they say they're slaughtering you brian is having his jollies and the foreigners wanted to happen. There's a green light so he turns around says I told you to shut up I said stop calling me and harassing me and telling me to shut up like a little baby what you should do is stop calling and harassing if you want me to shut up instead might be a little watching your mouth watching your hands watching your signals and your code and your computer b******* and other things and they're intercepting at all and annihilating you because of you shut up shut up what's the matter with you you addicted you don't have any secret weaponry you got your a****** idiot s*** head there pushing you you won't do anything about it you think it's good for you just like I think it's good for me I'm not using theory and conjecture but f*** I don't know just send you what we're destroying no not really I mean every happens every day every day you turn around and salt and f*** around with me and I get rid of you everyday you turn around and tell me this and that when you want me to get mad and I destroy you but you're winning you're a loser there's no other explanation weirdo I mean young kid been putting up with you my whole life I'm destroying you I got a living on board with a plan that's working to eradicate your entire kind and you just want to turn around and make it happen it's more annoying than what you doing to people and what you did to the planet it's it's repulsive you're so f****** dumb it looks funny.

Turns around and says this I'm going to hand it to you you figured it out you want us to finish you off cuz that's what we do for a living here in egotarian land is what we are we grew up killing shitloads of you ourselves with a small Force because you're so f****** dumb and annoying now you want to make sure it happens that's how you do and you know what I take advantage of it I was trying to what were you trying to do take a s*** down your sister's throat every time something came up they have her hang the phone up a million times when you keep picking it up cuz you're some sort of f****** lunatic animal in a in a zoo that's what they do cuz they're bored scrawny s***

So he turns around he says now I'm pissed off I said that's fine now I'm going to run a bombing pattern on your idiots that we know where they are cuz he kept calling them moron I'm going to wipe them out I'm going to hit you stupid mother f*****

We started a massive bombing campaign and blasters and everything else we got huge amounts of rebel ships in certain wasting and toasting every single one of them capturing them all around him instead of saying I probably shouldn't push it I said I thought I told you to shut up so it's not saying this this is the wrong guy to push I said I told you to shut up and you won't shut up it's like you're this Dempsey guy with this retard big mouth what do I have to do cut your tongue out so he starts it again since I'm turning around and I'm saying this okay we're going to we're going to shoot you in the chest every time you turn around and say this I'm going to shoot Brian up there in the head they'll just keep coming it turns around says I can't help what I'm doing can you instead of course I can I have control over myself most of the time we'll see you surrounding me with millions of your idiots for insisting I get rid of them and you and they're called retarded people so getting rid of them now here but it takes time and you're not really putting a solid effort in they took over DC and have a massive attitude and it's not my problem that I can knock out the bigger threat first it really isn't it's yours take it or leave it pal stop having me say it every f****** day such a retard that your people don't care about retards cuz I said every day because this retard thinks he's going to win with those stupid s*** he's doing so many times around says you're exactly right yeah

So now Bombing corky cuz I'm mad at him.

It's not why I feel as soon it's because you two c********** the biggest assholes on the planet you'll leave people alone they can toast you we have to show you so we're going to show you we're going to kill everyone around you say that we can kill you hang them just to get you pissed off is what the doors do it because it's almost your time to leave and go on the pyramid suck your dick forever there's no dick at all even separated from your body now you're going to go up to Titan people think you did on purpose and you're going to kill all of your race and kind because you get captured in a pyramid and went up there and I want you to know what's going to happen to you because I know you can't do anything against the Predators alone and you keep calling on me to make more monsters

Turns around and says this I've had enough I don't care you won't back off me how am I supposed to stop and back off you if you don't back off me back your dumb f***** off me back yourself off me back your f****** retard kid off me or you get it up the ass with a farrier how explicit is it I can't tell you it or I may not now you went around in westborough like a million times that's perfect cuz Corky's going to repeat it forever I can't tell you that or I may not what I know is I can tell you that but you say is you may not

So he goes inside and starts calling again and still going to wipe these people out here and we're going to wipe those people out here like s*** out of her ass and we're going to flush and a wipe out a whole bunch of them that you're not mentioning and I'm going to wipe out the ones that you're thinking in your mind and having us tell like an idiot would anyone else you want us to get rid of I'm going to feel this town up with your dead f****** s*** heads I'm going to hang them from every single thing that we can hang him from so tomorrow you can get up and barf and all this other stuff you do when I make you sick and it's nothing I need you to back off me I'm not worried about waiting to fight

Turns around says I told you to shut up I said boy that's it I'm flying off the handle what can I take from you to shut your face should I have someone bite your face off that was certainly stop you from talking wouldn't it turns around says seriously I told you to shut up seriously I'm not your f****** laptop you don't hold me prisoner without you dying s*** for brains

By the way I'm going to put you in prison I'm going to use your body up and nail it heal it nail it heal it and I'll put you in prison over and over and over you can tell me to shut up when you're down to your last penny and at that point I'll be quiet cuz I can have you cut in half on a death star

No no it's your retards plan look how stupid you made me you make one move to the left and flinch and you double over and pain your kidneys are going to burst you're trying to faint to the left and your liver starts to harden like a rock it's all very easy for me to do but I can't do it without permission from Olympus so I have to trash your entire Army and you're the one that using your mouth to make sure it happens regardless of your idiot robots s*** which turns to crap and beats you up in front of everyone what I'm saying is your retard is doing it now saying he's your woman and s*** and your women know about it why don't you get off my case and stop having me kill you in your retard and fight your retard feels like this this is what I'm saying you told me to shut up are you a retard now Austin feels like this you want me to beat her and corky and say that I believe you're corky I already am feeding on corky turns around says it one more time I said well you know you can say stuff but you're going to waste all your energy and you're going to have to like pig out are you going to have to like spend tons of money on nothing just bothering me I don't care where you are I think is it too always set them up dingleberry you taught me that no you shut up you can't house me without losing your realm I think that's funny let me tell you something child molester you're a child molester let me tell you something else murderer those people are innocent and even useful and weren't harming you You're a murderer you're not worth anything let me tell you something else thief you started life out as a lousy thief because he didn't want to work for a living and let me tell you something else loser you're not a military person and you don't have the skills required to do your job as a leader because you're allows and a thief and a low life and something else cannibal you can't have any friends or people that depend on because nobody can trust you cuz you might eat them to be them is that ridiculous their bodies all they got they don't care about killing you I don't care about killing you either piece of s*** you're nobody that's what I'm thinking so I understand you you're coming from this rule the world by pushing people around causing death hurting people and that's what I've been doing to your race whenever you guys get up and eat I put you down you don't know anything about me practically we're there all those wars was super human strength and cages robots that were castles you start your s*** shut up shut up shut up then come over there and step on the whole village cuz it's just you idiots trying to take stuff from the next village do you understand the words coming out of my mouth leave me alone it's almost midnight it's time for me to go to sleep but you'd rather have me wake up and kill off like 700 million nonillion of your jackass specialists I wanted to do that. And balance out corky and frightens you come out of the Midwest just frying didn't even make it they're all gone just something you like about losing all this stuff cuz I'm just going to take all the funds you get.

You took away my family and I don't have any friends you know it's kind of like an act but you want me to sit here and s*** down your throat and stick Dynamite up your ass and that's what I'm doing I don't understand it you sound dumb this is what it says on your requisition come over here kick my ass into the dirt shove yourself there's no reason for me to shut up I'm going to f*** your cops up f****

Sister saying this this is all mumbo jumbo it turns around and he says it's all mumbo jumbo I said thank God you're stupid but we'll test and see if you're right looks up at me and says your voice is thoroughly trained she's worth nothing so thank God you believe that we have to get rid of you now where is all the other countries think that you're this a****** inciting me like you are now and take a nice deep look what happens and why it happens I'm trying to figure out why you're doing it I have a grasp of the solar system wicked cool really intense the gravity of Jupiter is so great and even your guys in suits can't take it for more than an hour so you have to use robots because your mouth moving right now they're understanding why Mr fagging