#just imagine how it's teeth are shaped - it had never seen a human up close before

[thestar-markedfool]

Thinking about forest entities. Lonely and smart creatures, tall as trees and with large lifespans… And this one desperately needs company. They live in harmony with other animals but it’s not enough for this entity. They need to socialize; they need a pair. Oh, but another one of their kind it’s not an option. They’re territorial beings, they hate each other. No, they need some other entity that doesn’t invade their space but can still hold a conversation, someone that can stay by their side.

So, they decide to acquire a human. They haven’t met one up close, but how hard can it be? They begin following around every single one that enters their forest; this causes a lot of panic between the townspeople. Is there a monster in the woods? The creature is usually good at camouflage and being unperceived, but their late curiosity has caused many people to become aware of their watchful presence, even if they can't directly see it. And the humans are freaking out.

It's not so bad, the blurry, totally-not-fake images of “the monster caught on camera” end up catching your attention, and there you are now. Wandering around the forest, trying to catch a glance of this creature.

The entity decides that this is a good one. They like you. It follows you around quietly, attentively, and slowly begin morphing their body in a way they think will captivate you. They forge a smiling mouth in their face, and the multiple limbs that branch out of their body grow hands like yours.

It is waiting, carefully now, for the right time to wrap its new arms around you and explore what else makes you tick. How can it become a human’s perfect mate.

Update: I'm writing it now.

[anglingforlevels]

An Owner's Dedication (Yandere Demon x Reader)

In which, you wonder why your demonic captor even took an interest in you to begin with.

CW: Yandere, monsterfuckery, human pet, pet/owner dynamic, not proofread, captivity, dead dove

Minors DNI

Amon took on many shapes and forms, each with their own quirks and anatomical impossibilities, each varying from terrifying to confusing to uncannily realistic to whatever he intended to masquerade as. But you could always tell it was Amon. Something distinctively him about the look, something always just a little bit off, enough so that you’d never mistake him for whatever he was parading as.

Presently, he had his legs folded beneath him as he donned the physicality of a horse with a face just a tad too long, and muscles a tad too sharp, to be any real horse, not that the unusual folding of his legs that bended all the wrong ways, would have you believe it was a real horse to begin with.

Why he changed forms at seemingly every glance, you weren’t sure of. But as alarming as the shifting creature before you was, it felt far more like a warning to see him remain consistent in his form. It meant either he had a guest whom he took on a shape for or he wanted to provide a bit of consistency for you, or put in other words, he’d be insufferably attentive for a while.

The worst of his forms were the ones he donned most frequently, or as you considered them, his default forms. Most of them were humanoid but left no doubt of his demonic nature, and the ones not humanoid were incomprehensible, with no end or beginning in sight. It was when he presented himself like this, that you could no longer let your imagination fly, to pretend he was something more palatable.

“You’ve been quiet as of late, my pet.” He spoke through a beak that should not know how to, his form now a strange owlish silhouette of goo. He seemed to, quite literally, change each time you blinked now, instead of the leisurely yet frequent changes of before, it meant he wasn’t yet fully invested in the conversation or his own questions but still wanted you to be on your toes, at least, you figured it was something like that. Not that you ever could let your guard down around him.

Pet. That was what you were. That was why you were sitting here with him now, struggling to uphold composure. Of course, you knew you should be happy with this role, or at least, have some form of gratitude for your situation. You had been by his side long enough to see what he did to the “toys” dragged along by visitors as gifts, what humans who seemed to draw much less endearment from him received of attention.

Compared to those humans, you really were lucky. The clawed fangs you had witnessed tear into jugulars and peek out through irises, would gently pat your head, the vicious tongue there had torn others very core to ribbons or sentenced people to their doom, would simply grow condescendingly sweet and coo at you.

You weren’t unlucky, at least not fatally so, you recognized that.

You lowered your eyes, your hands feeling clammy. You hadn’t responded yet and the air felt suffocating. You were ashamed of the notion of giving in to the sweet treatment of an adored pet, precisely because you had seen the fates of your fellow man, but what other options did you have, when a single look from him had you paralyzed in terror?

Even more, you feared being tossed aside, what of you then? Amon tapped a clawed finger against the marbled floor. From beneath your lashes, you could see he had taken on his most favored form, the vaguely humanoid void of claws, sharp teeth, feathers and burning flares. It seemed he would not be relenting on the question. You had been keeping quiet for too long, as was.

“Why,” you forced the words out, despite your throat feeling tight and closed-up, and your words were barely floating above a whisper. “Why me?”

“Why you?” Amon shifted, looming over you. You shrank into yourself, feeling so terribly small. It wasn’t just the towering size difference but the crushing presence that had you scurry to take up as little space as possible. A long, clawed finger with greying skin lifted your chin, “Why does a human take a dog or rabbit?”

You were now forced to stare into obelisk eyes that seemed surrounded by flickering flames. “Because they’re cute?” It almost felt like a trained response, having been subject to Amon’s comments about you for a while now. Amon released your chin with a satisfied hum but remained a looming figure above you, his shadow engulfing you completely.

“Right. And how endearing you are, my pet.” There’s a dismissive lilt to his tone, as if to say he’s still a little dissatisfied with you words. “And now, what would have such a darling pet distressed?”

Ah. Right. He never felt he owed you an explanation for your questions, not a real one with any depth, but you couldn’t get away with vague responses. His original question remained unanswered. That was how it always was. As far as Amon was concerned, he needed to know everything, but you only needed to know that you were an endearing, cute thing for him to pamper and burn away idle hours with.

But would you remain endearing to him? Would you one day annoy him, or would your cuteness evaporate as you aged? You struggled to imagine your aged figure, more wrinkles and loose skin than anything else, being afforded the same attention by someone who could discard and take as he pleased, especially when you couldn’t even comprehend his current attention.

“What if…” Your tone was careful as you asked, “One day, you don’t want me around? Like, when I start changing, humans aren’t as… long-lived. What would you do then?”

“Hm? If I tire of you, I’d toss you aside.” He said, matter-of-factly. “But meager concepts like age are nothing to me, such lowly things… For humans to concern themselves with it, you’d put us demons out of jobs, had there not been so many ways to cause misery.”

Amon, with a firm hand on your back, led you to sit on his lap. There was smoldering warmth and a feathery terseness whenever you moved around, prompting you to remain still in whatever position he arranged you in, so that the feathers would at least provide some level of softness.

“My attention is nothing as fickle as that.” Amon spoke again, you felt the rumble for each word he spoke. “Why, are human owners in the habit of taking on kittens only to abandon them as they grow weary and slow?”

No. Not anyone of worth, at least. Amon’s clawed hand came resting at your head, running across your head in a smooth motion. “It seems worthless troubles like these has kept you miserable, but my pet has no use for thoughts. Would it not be easier to simple stop thinking and enjoy my care?”

It would. Part of you, the tired and exhausted part, wanted to lean into his touch. It was better than the alternative, it felt easier. But it felt like the part of you that resisted would die alongside something important within you, should you do it.

“Why me?” You asked again. Because you were endearing to him? You didn’t understand why you were here. If Amon felt annoyed at the repeat question, he didn’t express it. His voice felt closer to you, as did his embrace that no longer felt loose but restrictive.

“Because I wanted you here.”

And, in the end, that was all the reason Amon would ever need. Amon never needed any justifications or excuses for his actions, he didn’t need to delude himself into believing you’d thrive or even accept it, in the end, it hardly mattered to him – he wanted you here, so here you were.

After all, a pet’s place is by their master.

[oh-holy-slut]

Bloodlust

Pairing: Damon Salvatore x fem!reader

Warnings: smut, explicit language, blood sharing, mentions of death, oral sex

Word Count: 2,6k

Summary: Stefan forced Damon to try his animal diet. Damon hated it, but didn't had a choice... until Reader makes a suggestion. Suddenly things get steamy.

Being with Damon was complicated. Him and Y/N have seen each other a lot in the past weeks. The two of them had a lot of fun; saw a lot of movies. Actually, Y/N was sure Damon secretly hated many of those. However, anytime Y/N suggested another dramatic, romantic cliché movie like "Last Song" - the vampire groaned, put his arm around her shoulder, let her head rest on his chest and endured every single second of the movie of her choice.

Damon even flirted and teased Y/N here and there, but didn't lead to anything more intimate so far.

Today was another of those days. Y/N stuck around at the Salvatore boarding house, brought a few of Damon's favorite groceries and a bunch of movies, of which she thought that they will suit his taste. Even if they were a little to bloody and brutal in her opinion.

"Pick one!", she demanded, holding all three Blu-ray sleeves in front of him. Damon just shrugged, not bothering to even look.

"Don't be a killjoy, Damon Salvatore!" Y/N sighed.

"Tell me what's wrong or pick a movie. You've got no choice. And besides that... Which number of drink is this?" Y/N frowned, pointing at the liquor in her friends hand. Damon usually consumed his beloved bourbon with pleasure.

But the man on the couch didn't seem pleasured at all. His facial features totally hardened and a look in his eyes like he was ready to rip someone's heart out.

You put the disc's back in your handbag, closing the zipper and put the bag on the floor.

"Fine. No movie night today. Who are we going to kill?"

A small smirk appeared on Damon's lips, finally looking towards Y/N.

"Stefan and his hero hair. He made me go vegetarian... well, for a vampire... and I can't get myself to eat one of those chipmunks, bunnies or bambis." He shook himself with disgust.

"And why did he count you in? You clearly aren't excited about the changing... So, why did you agree?"

"He said, he would kill me, which is kinda funny. But-" Damon made a wide gesture "he stole my daylight ring. And he wouldn't give it back until I stop feeding on innocent people - and kill them."

"So, you truly let your younger brother blackmail you like that?! Wow... I don't know how to feel about your dieting or your new path. Or whatever this is supposed to be."

"You don't like me killing people either", Damon maintained, while taking another sip of bourbon.

"Well, I don't", Y/N agreed, took a step forward, stole the glass from the vampires hand and put it on a small table nearby. "But I don't believe in forcing as a method to get people to change their minds. I believe that change for the better must be an intrinsic motivation," she added quickly, giving the vampire an innocent smile.

Damon's lineaments suddenly turned from annoyed to curious. "Any suggestions, little one?" The vampire raised an eyebrow and a little smirk showed up on his lips. On the one hand, Y/N blushed over the nickname, Damon called her.  On the other hand she felt skittish looking forward to making a deal with him. Not only a deal. It's far more than a simple agreement.

It's Y/N, actually giving Damon a part of her. The red elixir of life. She was about to give him total control of her body and she not even for a heartbeat doubt that Damon will use it against her.

"Actually... Yeah. There's something on my mind." Y/N said chewing on your lip. "I could open up a vein for you. I mean, you could feed on me. And since you have my permission, there's nothing for anybody to have objection about."

Damon frowned and gave her an incredulous look. "You would do that for me?" The vampire couldn't believe, he understood correctly. Why would Y/N want to get involved with him feeding on her? What's in it for her? Damon tried hard to connect the dots, but he wasn't able to. It all seemed to make no sense. Y/N wouldn't have an advantage of that. The vampire hesitated, pinning his dangerously blue eyes on the girl in front of him.

"Is it so suspicious of me, that I'm trying to help my closest friend?" It pierced Y/N's heart, realizing, Damon's trust in her was rather fragile. "Never mind", she waved the pain away and forced herself to keep her composure. "I only had a hasty idea; you really don't need to fee-"

Suddenly Damon appeared behind Y/N, using his vampirism. "Shhhh", he whispered softly. "I never said, that I don't want your blood. I'm thinking about if we are going to cross a line? Blood sharing can be very personal..."

"It can be? It is personal already. Believe it or not - I'm not gonna offer my veins to all the vampires of Mystic Falls." Y/N rolled her eyes, her arms folded on her chest to point out the indignation she felt right now.

"Kinda sensitive today, huh?" Damon gently stroke a strand of hair behind her ear, Y/N could hear this smug smirk through his words. It was a true 'Damon thing' to do. "I didn't mean it like that, princess." He sighed; unsure if he should agree or not. Damon didn't want to act selfish towards Y/N. He compelled a lot of girls for the purpose of drinking blood in the past. He literally used them as long as they weren't too annoying - and then he acted like they have never met. Damon Salvatore couldn't imagine this scenario with Y/N. They've been so close, the vampire couldn't stand loosing her. The offer was risky, but it also could bring each other even closer.

Damon tried hard to avoid any serious attraction between Y/N and him, afraid of messing up. Indeed, he found himself thinking, and even dreaming, about Y/N more than he wanted to admit. She was smart and had this special sense of humor, the vampire adored so much. She was the only one, who could make him feel good no matter what. Needless to say she had that glimmer in her eyes, when she did something she truly loved. In these moments she was even more pretty. Y/N was hard to resist.

And maybe now he could have her like nobody else. At least the vampire gave in. He wanted her blood. He wanted her.

Y/N flinched by the feeling of Damon brushing her neck with his lips.  "Oh, Damon", she gasped. "Bite me." Y/N almost begged for the vampire's teeth breaking through her skin. Damon loved the sound of her husky voice. In less than a heartbeat he turned into his vampire shape. "If you insist", he grinned devilishly, ready to place his teeth on to her skin.

Suddenly Y/N made a slight move forward with the intention to interrupt her friend. "Did you change your mind?" Damon was close to switching back to human, overwhelmed by a mix of emotions. Mostly a lack of understanding, but also a little of disappointment and even anger. Was Y/N playing games on him? While Damon Salvatore was sorting feelings, Y/N turned around, standing now in front of him.

She was so close, not even a piece of paper would fit between them.

Y/N slightly exhaled breath, her eyes darting between the vampires eyes and lips. It was the first time Y/N saw him like this. The icy blue of his eyes, she loved so much, has turned darker. Purple veins appeared under his eyes; Y/N couldn't help herself. Damon's appearance fully intoxicated every fibre of her being. Her fingertips found their way gently brushing over his dark purple veins. She felt heat and softness, while tracing one of them.  It took her a few seconds to get out of trance, realizing what she had done. "Sorry", she murmured with a voice barely audible. "Don't apologize, little one." Damon tilted his head, his lips curled up in a self-assured grin, exposing a perfectly white vampire fang. "I never saw you like this before, you loo-"

"... look like a monster?"

Y/N shook her head. It was nothing like that. Yes, he did look unfamiliar. And she should be scared under normal conditions. Instead, his look hit her in an unexpected way. He looked hotter as a vampire, if it was even possible. 

Y/N cleared her throat, looking up at Damon. "I feel... attracted to you."

"So nothing's changed", Damon teased, raising his eyebrows. The girl in front of him softly slapped him on his shoulder; which was only possible because the vampire permitted. "You are always so full of yourself." She smirked, feeling more confident being to something, they have had been so many times before. Granted, he was terrifying accurate, but she wouldn't serve her feelings on a silver platter.

"I'm still into it. You can bite me; feed on me. I only needed to see you before..." 

A shockwave of electricity flowed through her body the second Damon took her hand and pulled her close.

"I'll be careful", he promised, nuzzling his head into the nap of her neck. Damon once again placed his lips on her soft skin. 

Suddenly a harsh pain made Y/N feel like in a kind of haze. She flinched and let out a groan at the same time, unintentionally biting her lower lip. 

During Damon embedded his fang deeper and deeper, she started feeling dizzy. Her hands searched for the vampires upper body, finally wrapped around his neck. She needed him to lean on. A narrow trickle of blood flowed down her neck. Let Damon feed on her felt like flames licking up every fiber of her body. 

With every passing second Y/N could feel her control slip away. Her body was now firmly pressed against Damon's, like she would want to merge them into one.

Damon noticed her staggering, wrapped his arms around her waist, supporting her.

Bloodlust already messed up the vampires mind, so he continued feeding on Y/N.

A tempting moan escaped her lips, but she didn't care to cover up. Y/N's heart was racing, her eyes flattering. It was almost as if he was about to push her over the edge, but in a different way. "Mmm, this...this… feels soo weird... and so good...", she whispered under a shallow breath.

As soon as Damon heard her fading voice, he abruptly

quitted drinking from her.

"Fuck!" He rapidly laid her on his lap and checked Y/N's vital signs, to make sure she was okay. Instinctively he bit his wrist, pressed it against Y/N's mouth. He knew his blood would heal her, but it wasn't going fast enough. A few seconds passed through, to him they felt like centuries. Y/N finally blinked and Damon was relieved. He cupped her cheeks, his gaze never leaving hers. "I thought, I'd gone-" Damon cleaned his throat. "I'm so glad, you are doing well", he whispered, while trailing her lips with his fingertips. "So, fuckin' glad..." The vampire exhaled a deep breath. 

"It... You made me feel good. Strange, but good", Y/N appeased and flushed over the memory. "Maybe you got a little carried away, but I don't mind. I wouldn't trade the feeling for anything."

Y/N quickly interrupted herself, before she could reveal too much.

However, Damon used his vampire skills, noticing that Y/N was hiding something from him. "Isn't there anything else you want me to know?", Damon asked without taking his eyes off her. Y/N shifted and flushed even more. "It's unfair. You use your vampirism to get everything out of me."

"Well, if that were the case, I could easily compel you." Damon shrugged and found back to his smugly self. "Tell me, what you are hiding". He said in a seductive voice.

"I wanted to get lost in you."

Her confession sent shivers all over the vampires body. At first he could not decide, how to handle this. "Are you sure that's what you want? I could really hurt you..." Y/N hummed.

In the next split second, Damon pinned Y/N against a wall, smashing his lips on hers, kissing her with all the passion he had to give. The vampire devoured Y/N with a new kind of hunger. He didn't know he could crave someone so much.

"Fuck me, Damon..."

The vampire felt him getting hard, only by hearing those little three words out of her mouth.

"Say it louder. Tell me, what you want me to do."

Y/N pulled him closer, gently biting his earlobe.

"Fuck... me, Damon." It took her a second to focus and forming the words again. After she was near to climax earlier, it wasn't a long way getting to the edge once more. "Make me cum... You almost had me there..."

A deep moan got over the vampires lips, once he understood, what Y/N was trying to tell him.

With the next blink Y/N found herself in Damon's bedroom, lying on his bed.

From now on there weren't many words needed. Damon's hand's found their way under her shirt, cupping her breasts and make her moan over and over again.

He closely listened to the rhythm of her heart, making sure he would be able to delay her climax to the point he needed her to.

"Don't cum yet... I want to taste your little pussy first."

Y/N grabbed the vampires head, running her fingers through his dark hair - pushing him down, since she was unable to form a single word.

As Damon got down, he didn't take his eyes off Y/N.

He used a hand pushing up her skirt and lightly stroking over her panties with his fingertips.

"My girl is so wet", he praised in a low husky voice."-and I barely touched you."

His dirty words in combination with his touch lead to another moan, almost turned into a scream.

Damon pushed the fabric aside, leaving sloppy kisses on the inside of her thighs.

Y/N's eyes fluttered, when his soft lips reached her middle.

Damon's tongue licking around her entrance was driving her nuts.

"...so delicious..." were the only words she was able to catch up. Damon knew, he couldn't thrill her forever, so he got back to her. He spit on his palms, stroking his hand over his crotch. In under a second Y/N finally felt this releasing pressure of his cock. It was like a switch went off in her brain and she braced herself for the hard thrusts that would follow.

Damon dimmed the whining noises Y/N made with a passionate, hungry kiss.

He cheated with his vampirism to give it to her deeper and faster, knocking out all the air of her lungs while Y/N screamed out Damon's name. Her walls clenched around him and made him twitch. It was like her pussy massaged his dick the best way possible.

Every time he hit her harder and rougher he was making sure he hit her spot with every thrust.

Damon gathered speed one last time and pushed her over the edge until she was a moaning whimpering mess.

With her last contraction around his shaft, Damon was cumming inside her.

"You are so tight, little one", he whispered under his breath. "We should make arrangements more often."

Please like or/and reblog if you enjoyed reading or/and want me to write more stories about Damon.

Thanks guys ❤️

[chippedaxe]

𝔅𝔢𝔞𝔰𝔱 𝔗𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Title: 𝔅𝔢𝔞𝔰𝔱 𝔗𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤

Warning(s): NSFW (minors dni), coarse language, monster fucking, slight size kink, demons, virginity

Pronouns: they/them non specified genitalia .

Synopsis: characters from the dsmp are monster hybrids, this is how their s/o (the reader) reacts to them.

Note: There's not rlly a reason for why I wrote this. If you guys disagree with me on these then that's okay, I just thought of these on the top of my head and I agree that my ideas could be better. (The title could also be better lmao)

2nd note (edit): there’s sfw but nsfw is included, just steer away from the nsfw content whilst reading if you don’t want to read it <3

Word count: 1.1K

* added cut for less clutter

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

c!Dream

sfw

- He looks like a weird kind of blob to be honest but it's a bit cute

- He looks like he's covered in bits of slime or some weird type of green goo

- You like listening to his weird slime noises that he makes, it sounds like plops and its absolutely adorable.

- He talks normally like a human as well but you like his weird slime babbling better.

nsfw

- He feels so warm on your skin, the feeling he creates while he's inside of you (or you're inside him) is absolutely amazing and so euphoric.

- Everywhere gets dirty during sex, splatters of green goo or slime will be covering the walls and sheets.

- I feel like he would be touch starved from being a monster, not many people would go around him I assume. So he'd react kindly to your lewd touches and your praise~

c!Sapnap

sfw

- He's a type of blaze hybrid, he has sharp teeth and horns coming out from his forehead. He grumbles a lot and growls sometimes but you think its really cute (other people find it scary though)

- you could never find your baby scary <3 Ever since you guys met he was so kind to you, he'd keep you warm with his blaze rods and fire too ^^

- Such a sweetheart, you love to listen to the rumbling of his chest whenever you two lay together. He would probably be avoided during summer however since he'd just make the heat unbearable (you make it up to him at the end of summer)

nsfw

- Imagine him fucking you with those warm blaze rods of his (not my original idea, someone else had it but idk their @ )

- He's such a beast, there'd be claw marks on the walls and the mattress would almost always get destroyed from sex. Sapnap just can't help making a mess when you're making him feel so good..

- He'd like to nibble on you and leave deep bite marks while rutting into you, maybe even use his fire on you for some temperature play if you'd like something like that.

c!George

sfw

- I feel like he'd be a bit of a shapeshifter and his shape would shift depending on a dream he has/ had.

- You can recognize him even when he's in a new state due to his distinct personality and because of his shades that he carries on him.

- He's a naturally tired creature so he sleeps a lot, often inviting you to come and join him lovingly.

nsfw

- You'd always be intrigued with his new characters, eager to fuck each of his forms at least once. Your relationship together is very creative and curious, you guys will try anything and everything.

- Most sex together is sleepy sex, his hands will paw at you tiredly and you will have to put in most of the work.

- He can and will give you wet dreams by choice.

c!Eret

sfw

- He's a type of hybrid like medusa, his glasses are on at all times because if he takes them off then he'll turn you to stone.

- You have never seen her eyes before but that's alright, you still love them heaps.

- They will 100% kill anyone who gets to close to you with just a death stare, reassures you with lies that the person will be okay. They won't.

nsfw

- His scales feel rough against your skin, it makes the sex feel a whole lot different and exotic though so you really don't mind it.

- Her nails claw into you to keep you in place as she ruts into you with their hips, not wanting to let you go for at least another hour.

- Wraps their arms around you lovingly to keep you two close to each other, loves having you close to them while you perform such a beautiful act together.

c!Karl

sfw

- Have you seen his old skin?? I imagine something like that but in monster type form, I guess that he'd also be extremely rubbery and stretchy.

- He can stretch his arms around you to give you amazing hugs, finds it hard to unravel his arms from you though.

- I feel as if he wouldn't be able to speak coherent English and his words would be broken speech, if he doesn't try to speak English then he will just be making his own goofy noises.

nsfw

- Would be able to easily stretch if you were going to put something inside of him, I feel like he'd act so cute and lewd with his monster squeals too!!

- Fingering with him is fucking amazing, sex in general is amazing with him, he'd be able to stretch and basically shape himself into the perfect shape to be able to fuck your hole.

- He could easily tie you or himself up with his stretchy rubbery arms, makes your sex life a whole lot more exciting.

c!Punz

sfw

- I headcanon monster him as a human that was possessed by a demon and is now slowly turning into more of a demon.

- Tries to make deals with you for your soul but you reject him every time, surprised when he offers his love for free, you accept that graciously.

- Can reign hell fire and will if so pleases, definitely burns people who get to close to you or the people who hurt you in any.

nsfw

- He's a demon, he is naturally very tempting, so it doesn't take much for him to get you into his bed. "Come on baby, you can ride me and pull on my horns.." He's got you right where he wants you.

- He's naturally very warm from being a demon so you guys will often have very hot sweaty sex, resulting in you guys being gross and needing a wash afterwards.

- He would be eccentric if you were a virgin, he'd be like "awe, for me? You shouldn't have.." and then absolutely devour and rail the shit out of you to make a memorable experience.

[wri0thesley]

Could I get some Gojo face sitting please 👉🏻👈🏻🥺 Maybe with a chubby reader?

fool for love - gojo x reader (2.25k)

gojo asks you to try something, and you can never say no to him. 

(warnings: nsfw, afab reader, fem pronouns (pet names). explicitly chubby reader, mentions of worries about weight/body. cunnilingus/facesitting)

Sometimes you think it’s a good job that you and Satoru Gojo are a couple; you’re absolutely certain that nobody but you would put up with him. You’re totally convinced that you’re the only fool in the world who sees his arrogant smirk and the thrust of his chin and the cocky set of his shoulders, listens to him go on and on about himself and about his work and about his strength, and wants to kiss him instead of kill him.

You do kiss him, coincidentally. A lot. Partly because when he’s kissing you, he’s not running his mouth – partly because the taste of his lips on yours and the feel of his hands on your waist, pulling you in, is addictive. You can’t get enough of him – and luckily, it seems that he can’t get enough of you either.

So when Gojo had thrown out this suggestion, casually, as if he was asking you what you two were going to order for dinner that night (you’ve never seen Gojo make anything more complicated than a ramen cup), it had not taken you long to agree.

Faced with it, though – Gojo situated on the bed, arm stretched over his head, grin on his face – you begin to wonder if maybe it’s such a good idea.

“Don’t back out on me now,” he says, the cocky grin not leaving his face. “I’ve been dying to taste you for hours.”

You shift uncomfortably on the other side of the bed, suddenly horribly aware of the curves of your body. No matter how Gojo’s words send a thrill through you – you know from experience he’s good with his tongue – you can’t deny that you’re a little afraid.

It’s easy to forget the difference between the two of you when he’s got you pressed underneath him on the mattress, cock plunging in and out, mouth hungrily kissing every patch of skin he can get at. When Gojo looks at you with his hair falling in his face and his eyes like starlit galaxies, you feel beautiful – but you’re not sure if you’ll feel quite the same way straddling his face.

He sees the way you bite your lip, the anxiety beginning to show in your gaze – and Gojo softens. You see him like this rarely (he’s proud more than he’s caring), but he’s shown this side of him to you every so often, when something has made you draw in on yourself. One of his hands wraps around your bare shoulders, pulling you to face him.

“Hey, doll,” he says, pressing his nose against yours affectionately. “What’s got you pouting, huh?”

“I . . .” You swallow. You feel so embarrassed admitting it! Gojo has never said anything about your body beyond how much he loves having your hips to hold onto, how he loves your thighs wrapped around his waist, how soft and warm you are tangled up beside him in bed – but your insecurities always seem to flash back up at the most inopportune of moments. “I’m just . . .” You blink, biting your lip. Your voice comes out in a soft breath. “I’m worried I’ll be too heavy.”

Gojo’s eyebrows draw in. You must have seen him without anything shading his eyes a hundred times now, when the two of you are in the bedroom, but you are still knocked back by just how pretty he is – the constellations in his irises, the fan of his white eyelashes against perfect skin. The expression makes his mouth jut out, so kissable that it takes your breath away.

“You’re not going to hurt me,” he says, as if the very idea is laughable. “I could lift you over my head right now--”

He reaches for you as if he’s going to do it, arms locking about your waist – the tension breaks as he effortlessly pulls you back, your body landing on top his. He doesn’t so much as let out a ‘whumph’ of air at the sensation of your body hitting his.

“I’m the strongest, remember?” There’s more than a note of swagger in his voice; he is so very proud of that accomplishment. You suppose he has every right to be.

“I guess,” you breathe, and he makes a soft harrumphing sound before his fingers twist into your hair, pulling you close to him to kiss you.

“You guess?” He sounds mock offended against your lips. “I guess that means I’ll have to show you exactly what I mean, huh?”

A nip at your lower lip; his hands roaming your bare back, stroking the curve of your ass and hips. Everywhere Gojo’s long fingers touch leaves a trail of fire behind, like he’s branding you with the pressure of his fingertips. You imagine them leaving glowing trails behind the colour of his eyes – but the coil of heat that they’re helping stoke, low in your belly, is more red than anything else.

“How’re you gonna do that?” You breathe against the softness of his mouth. He tastes like sugar; he always does. You can’t get enough of him, dizzy and breathless. You would gorge yourself on him if you could.

“Take a seat on your throne, princess,” he grins, letting his head hit the pillows hard. His pale hair spreads out all around him like a halo as he moves a hand from your hip to tap his mouth with his fingers. “And find out.”

You guess it would shut him up. Gojo’s mouth can’t keep moving if he’s got you occupying it. And you also can’t deny that the thought of it – riding his face – is more than half of the reason your inner thighs are slick with your arousal. Still . . . what if you really are too heavy for him?

Gojo murmurs your name softly – you meet his eyes again, and you see softness and tenderness reflected in them, despite the fact that his mouth is still shaped into a cocky smirk. You know if you say no, he probably won’t push you. But . . . you don’t want to say no. You push yourself up from his chest.

He’s still wearing his underwear, and you wonder if he can sense how damp you are where you briefly straddle him – because you can certainly feel how stiff he is, the outline of his cock pressing against silken boxer shorts (yeah, of course he’s a silk underwear kind of man – you’ve seen them countless times, but just how Gojo that particular detail of him is never fails to make you smile).

“Okay,” you breathe. “I hope you’re comfy.”

Gojo’s face splits into a grin as you move yourself, your knees suddenly either side of his face, his cheeks pressing against the softness of your thighs.

“Babe,” he starts to say, “I’m absolutely the com—mmppf--”

His gloating is cut off by you sitting on his face. The whisper of his breath across your heated folds as he’d spoken had been too tempting, your sex feeling like it was pulsing in time with your heartbeat – and so, you’d given in. Using your hands as leverage on the headboard of the bed, you’d sunk fully onto your knees and muffled Gojo’s words.

Oh, God.

Your mind blanks out at first, as Gojo’s tongue goes at you hungrily. For his first hungry licks at your core, he’s voracious – he seems to want to drink you up like fine wine. Gojo does not drink – you know this very well – but if he could get drunk on your slick, you think he’d already be unable to stand up. One of the hands on the headboard goes to tangle in the fluffy strands of his pale hair instead, and he looks up at you for a moment, pausing with the flat of his tongue pressed against the throbbing bud of your clit.

The sight of his eyes between your thighs almost pushes you over the edge there and then – looking down at him feels like tumbling down a rabbit hole, like you’ll never be able to pull yourself out of their lovely depths. He makes a soft noise against your folds that has you practically vibrating, your toes curling – and you realise it’s a question.

Maybe he’s asking you what’s wrong, maybe he’s asking you if you want to stop, but your mind is all hazy from the feeling of his mouth on you. So all you do is tug at his hair and gasp, your hips rolling forward against him to try and coax his tongue into flickering across your clit like you’re longing for it to do.

“Satoru,” you whimper, voice all thin and reedy like a prayer, and Gojo does not need any more encouragement than that to return to his work.

Gojo’s hands rest on your hips and even you feel small for a second, the length of his fingers and size of his palm almost overwhelming. There’s so much power in the way he holds you – so much strength behind the casual clench of his fingers into your plush. He keeps you anchored there as he uses the flat swathe of his tongue to lap at you all at once, briefly teasing your entrance before he twirls his tongue around your clit like someone licking whipped cream off of a fancy dessert--

He’s caught you watching him do exactly that out of the corner of your eye many times before, and grinned at you widely with a hungry murmur that he’ll devour you in exactly the same way if you want him too.

Does he not need to breathe?

You lose track of how long you’ve been sat on his face for. You can’t think of anything else with the warm, wet muscle of Gojo’s tongue teasing you. He thrusts it in and out of your entrance, making your entire body jerk and your walls try and cling to him, constrict around him. He flicks his tongue so fast over the bud of your clit that you can’t understand how he does it, it can’t be human to move that fast--

All through it, the tension tight in your stomach is getting hotter and tighter and needier, like a instrument's string being tuned to its breaking point.

You can barely breathe. There’s nothing but Gojo’s insistent lapping at your core, the thrust of his tongue in and out of your channel (has Gojo’s tongue always been so long? It feels just as good inside of you as his fingers always do, but different--). Your hips are rocking and grinding against his face against your will, your fingers twisting into his hair. You’ve lost your senses completely in the chase of your release, hovering tantalisingly close--

Gojo gives your clit one final, soft lap, the barest hint of his teeth against the hood and you burst into bloom for him like a flower. The string snaps and heat floods your body, Gojo’s name escaping you in a wail. Fireworks burst into being behind your eyelids.

Gojo’s tongue follows through, coaxing you through the soft, gentle aftershocks of your orgasm even as your thighs are trembling and your grip on the headboard is beginning to loosen. If it weren’t for his hands on your hips, you would probably fall forward and hit your head on the wall, passing out – but Gojo’s assessment of his strength wasn’t for naught, and your spent body is being pulled down so your heated cheeks are pressed against Gojo’s firm chest. You blink up at him in your exhausted, pleasure-drunk state--

The entire lower half of his mouth is dripping wet, glinting with your arousal and his own drool from how hungrily his tongue was going at you. But his eyes are as sharp as ever, drinking you in like you’re the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen – as if he can’t believe that you’d ever doubt yourself.

Nobody would believe you if you told them how Gojo gets, sometimes – if you told them about the smile-softened eyes and the softer words, the way he holds you like a precious treasure that might break at any moment. He leans down and strokes some hair from your eyes, almost lazy.

“I told you I was the strongest,” he says, and even though it’s a boast, his voice and manner is so soft that you barely register it. You’re smiling up at him like a fool. Maybe it’s foolish to love him as much as you do – but if it is, you don’t want to be clever. You don’t want to be anything but his, here, in his bed, sprawled out across him, lazy and sated.

You kiss the bit of his chest directly beneath your lips lazily, needing to express your affection for this arrogant, gorgeous, irrepressible (perfect) man.

He sighs at the contact, shifting – and you’re reminded of what’s currently lying beneath his own underwear, hot and needy and thick. It’s a testament to Gojo’s willpower he hasn’t mentioned it yet.

You smile at him. One more minute of relaxing on his chest – of having your hair played with, of getting to look at him . . . and then, you’ll see to that.

Gojo’s eyes are just as gorgeous when you’re knelt between his thighs as they are when he’s trapped between yours, after all.

[noellawrites]

Oh, Baby! - Yandere!Johnny Lawrence x reader

part 2 to this imagine, here is part 3

warning: mentions of rape/noncon, vomiting, birth of a child but not graphic

It had been eight months since you had found out you were pregnant, and Eagle Fang Karate was back in action with Johnny leading the team.

Ever since you had found out you were pregnant and Johnny made you quit your desk job, he kept you close during his practices. He didn’t trust you enough to leave you alone. Right now, you were sitting on a blanket behind Johnny in the park, leaning over a paper bag that sat between your legs.

You were over eight months pregnant and getting closer and closer to term. You got sicker and sicker every day, barely getting any sleep and crying at pretty much everything. You still resented Johnny for forcing you to keep the baby and basically kidnapping you.

As you wretched into the bag, crying and wiping your face with a tissue, the class stopped. Everyone looked at each other, then Johnny, with a worried expression.

“What’s the problem? Keep practicing your sweep kicks, you’ll need those for the tournament!” Johnny exclaimed.

“Uh, Sensei, it’s just that—“ Miguel began, lightly gesturing towards you.

“What’s the problem here?”

“We’re just worried about (y/n), that’s all. She’s really sick a-and pregnant and we don’t want t-to stress her out,” Miguel explained.

“(Y/n)’s fine, right (y/n)? (Y/n)?” Johnny said, turning around to face you with concerned eyes.

You looked up from the bag, shaking your head slowly. You both looked down at the same time: the blanket was wet. Your water had just broken.

You, Johnny and all six of his Eagle Fang students, including Miguel, ran to the parking lot and piled into Johnny’s 1993 Grand Caravan. Johnny drove with one hand and kept the other on your bump as you both breathed together as your contractions hit.

“Ahh, ouch, Johnny it hurts so bad,” you cried. Johnny gently rubbed your stomach in comfort.

“Does your water breaking mean you peed yourself?” Burt asks uncomfortably.

“No, it just means she’s going into labor. Ask your mom about it, I’m not explaining birthing to you,” Miguel groaned, shaking his head.

“I hate you Johnny, I hate you,” you yelled, a few of the students gasping. They had never seen you so angry.

“I never wanted this baby, I knew it was a bad idea! I’m never gonna forgive you,” you screamed, clenching your teeth in pain.

Some of the students in the backseat looked at each other with confused glances. All Johnny ever did was talk about you, praising you for how beautiful you looked carrying his baby and how great of a mother you’d be. You always seemed to like Johnny every time you came around Cobra Kai. The two of you used to be playful, but obviously something had changed. Your gentle and carefree demeanor from nine months ago had been long-gone for a while.

“We’re almost there, okay? Miguel, when we get to the emergency room, I’m going to bring (y/n) inside and you’re going to bring the keys and everyone else into the waiting room,” Johnny explained.

You started crying again; big, ugly sobs. You realized now that it was too late: there would soon be a real, living, breathing human that was the product of Johnny forcing himself on you. The baby you had carried for nine months would now be subjected to your unwillingness to parent and Johnny’s chronic neglect.

-

Johnny never left your side and after six hours in labor, you delivered John Axl Lawrence Junior. He chose the badass name, of course, since every time he asked you about a name you had said “I don’t even want this stupid baby anyways.”

For a moment, when Johnny was sitting on your hospital bed next to you and the nurse gave you your tiny baby boy after he had been cleaned up and swaddled, you actually felt a little happy.

“A little nose shaped just like his dad’s,” you laughed, looking up at Johnny. He was the happiest you’d ever seen him, and he was even crying a little bit. You’d never seen him cry before.

“This is everything I ever wanted. You are so incredible, (y/n). Thank you for giving me my son,” he grinned.

As you held little Johnny Junior and breastfed him, he wiggled his tiny fingers and opened his eyes. You were a mother. In the thirty minutes since you had given birth, your entire perspective had changed. Maybe you were excited to be a mother, and you were certain Johnny wouldn’t leave. He wanted this baby and proved to you that he would always be there.

-

Two weeks later, you and Johnny were on your way to Miyagi-Do to join forces with Eagle Fang to take down Kreese.

You were in the passenger seat as Johnny drove the Grand Caravan, and Miguel was in the backseat next to Johnny Junior in his backwards-facing carrier.

“I think Miyagi-Fang is a sick name. What do you think, Johnny Junior? He says he agrees, Sensei and (y/n).”

You both chuckle as you squeeze Johnny’s hand tighter. Everything changed after Johnny Junior was born, and you found that you enjoyed being a mom, at least so far.

Johnny was your savior: he woke up with Junior during the night when he needed a diaper change, he always knew when you needed a break, and he had cooled down on the alcohol consumption.

When you arrived at Miyagi-Do, Daniel, Sam and Amanda were standing there, excited to greet you and the new baby. You climbed out of the car and picked up Johnny Junior, and he was met with cooing from the LaRusso family.

You passed Johnny’s carrier to Miguel and allowed him to show Sam how to hold Junior. As you stood on the wooden deck watching them, Amanda passed you a glass.

“It’s a mimosa. We’ll both need one to get through this ‘fight for the soul of the valley’ training session,” she laughed.

You both turned your heads to the Karate Men as Daniel passed Johnny a gift bag.

“I know we sent you two a fruit basket in the hospital, but I just couldn’t resist getting something for your new mini-me,” Daniel laughed as Johnny reached into the bag.

You sat down on the wooden deck next to Samantha as she passed a surprisingly calm Johnny Junior back to you.

“He’s so adorable, Mrs. Lawrence. Congratulations,” she smiled.

“Oh, Johnny and I aren’t-“

“A LaRusso Auto onesie? You gotta be kidding me,” Johnny groaned.

“There’s more, just look,” Daniel gestured.

“Is this a tiny Gi?” Johnny questioned, laughing as everyone joined in.

“You have to start him young, Sensei!” Miguel laughed in agreement.

“The last one says Future All-Valley Champion with the fist logo. Just like his father,” Daniel nudged Johnny, and the two looked at each other and nodded with a mutual respect.

As you placed Junior back in his carrier, you realized how much had changed since Johnny had taken your future into his hands. And maybe he had been right. Maybe all you really needed was a gentle push in the right direction to find your perfect life: a loving husband, an adorable son and some amazing friends.

[seijorhi]

nostos.

well it’s not exactly monster fucking but um... here there be monsters.

Kuroo Tetsurou x female reader

TW implied non-con, nsfw-ish, blood, gore, minor character death, animal death, um somebody gets munched... 

Every good writer needs peace and quiet. Fresh air and a change of scenery.

You’re not running away, it’s more of a… tactical retreat. Two weeks disconnected from well meaning friends, pushy family members and your eternally irritating editor, with nothing but the beautiful, sprawling forests to keep you company.

The mountains are familiar, if isolating, you think, leaning against the porch railing with a warm mug in hand as the breeze picks up and the tall maple and birch trees rustle in response. The leaves are turning vibrant reds and gold with the falling temperatures and even in the eerie quiet of the cold morning, you can’t deny that it’s breathtaking. 

It reminds you of your childhood, the countless vacations you’d spent here with your family, always in autumn, always in time to watch the leaves change before the first snows of winter set in. Fond memories of running through the trees chasing after cute little bunnies, giggling even when you tripped up and scraped your knees. There was something mystical about the forest back then, something special. But it’s been years since you’ve been here last, and the first time you’ve ever come alone.

And yet it feels different somehow, colder despite the nostalgia. You’re no longer a child, looking at the world through innocent, wondrous eyes. The forest is just a forest. 

Of course, you weren’t an idiot; disappearing off the grid was one thing. Disappearing off the grid without anybody knowing where you were going was another entirely. They’d been surprisingly supportive of the plan – until you told them where it was you were planning on running off to.

‘Why go back to the mountain, honey?’ your mother had asked, her smile wavering and an odd tightness in her eyes. ‘Why not go to the coast instead? Or spend some time in the city?’

But this isn’t a fun little vacation. You don’t want to be distracted by beaches and crowds, you need space to finish your book and time to work through your mess of an emotional state without any interruptions. You want to be untraceable, at least for a week or two.

God knows the last thing you need right now is your ex tracking you down to try and apologise again.

Part of you had thought – somewhat naively, perhaps – that by coming back you’d spark… something. Your memories of the mountains are full of warmth and happiness, but as you stare out into the wilderness, all you feel is a cool chill that runs down your spine and the goosebumps that prickle at your skin. 

Setting your now empty mug down, you pull tighter at the thick knit cardigan draped over your shoulders. Enough reminiscing, your manuscript awaits.

—

The mountain’s too quiet. You don’t notice it so much during the day, the sound of music softly pouring from your laptop and the gentle clacking of keys as you type enough to distract you  from the eerie stillness outside the cabin. Even at night, you’re preoccupied with dinner, and then curled up on the couch with a warm throw rug watching reruns of your favourite shows on Netflix.

It’s only when you lie down, burrowed into the blankets to try and sleep that you notice just how silent the forest at your doorstep truly is. At first you think it’s simply being away from the hustle and bustle of home. There’s no cars driving past, or the sound of neighbours floating through your open windows, there’s not even the distant hooting of owls or dogs barking.

But it’s more than just quiet. There’s nothing. Even the trees seem to still once the sun falls beneath the horizon. And it shouldn't bother you, shouldn’t unsettle you, and yet…

The first few nights, you don’t sleep well. Tossing and turning in bed. When you do sleep, your dreams are plagued with unpleasant things. Not nightmares as such, but an uneasiness that bleeds into otherwise pleasant thoughts. On the fourth night you wake, gasping for air. Whatever dream you’d been in the grips of fades like smoke, and as you draw in another shuddering breath your throat itches and burns.

Water. You need water. 

You don’t switch on the lights as you fumble your way down to the kitchen, trying to preserve what little remnants of sleep are still in your system. Even with the moon almost full and the night sky clear, the canopy shrouds it. 

And it’s in that darkness, as your eyes flicker up from the faucet, that you see it for the first time.

A shape, huge and looming, silk shadow against black. 

For a moment, as your heart hammers against your ribs, a chill creeping down your spine, you don’t dare trust your eyes. Maybe you’re asleep still, dreaming, or your mind’s playing tricks on you, because there’s nothing that should be lurking in the woods outside of your window that size.

Two golden, cat-like eyes peer back at you.

They’re still there when you race to flick on the lights, unblinking, curious as you skitter backwards, hand over your racing heart.

You’re tired, emotionally drained and this–

This is nothing more than a figment of an overactive imagination, a child creating monsters from the shadows in their bedroom. Yet even as you run back to the safety of the bedroom, yank the curtains shut and huddle under the meagre warmth your blankets afford you, squeezing your eyes shut, you feel it out there still, watching.

And in the stillness of the mountains outside, you swear you hear footsteps.

—

You wake to fresh snow, too early in the year, even at these altitudes. It dusts the ground, covering the mossy paths in glittering white, clings to the branches of the trees – the red leaves looking like droplets of blood scattered across a grey sky. The snow will undoubtedly melt as the sun rises, turn to slush and mix with the dirt, but for now it’s a thing of beauty.

For a moment, you allow yourself to forget how tired you are, how unsettled, venturing out from the cabin with wide, excitable eyes. It never used to snow when you were here as a kid, and while you get the occasional snowfall back home, it’s nothing like–

You stop dead in your tracks. 

There’s two human footprints imprinted on the snow – only two – right outside your bedroom window, crisp and clean, as if they’d been left just moments before.

—

Your mother sounds worried when you call her. Of course, you don’t tell her about the lone footprints at your window, or the creepy pair of eyes you’d seen through the dark, you know how that sounds. You’re not crazy, and even if some part of you truly believed what you’d seen, your mom is the last person you’d admit it to.

Once upon a time, when you were little, she’d indulged in stories of fairies and spirits, but that was a long time ago. Now she turns up her nose and sneers at the myths and legends that your grandma still spouts, dismissing them with a scoff.

It’s not the kind of thing well-adjusted adults talk about in polite conversation.

She’s a good woman, but you can’t tell her this. 

And you’re not even sure you’re entirely sold on it either. The eyes could have been from a wild animal – big cats might be rare in Japan, but they do exist here. You were half asleep (half terrified) when you had seen them, you don’t want to make a fuss over nothing. The footprints are less easy to explain away. If there’d been tracks leading away, you could convince yourself that it was a lost hiker and nothing more.

But there weren’t any tracks leading away; just the two footprints. And what kind of hiker doesn’t wear shoes in weather like this? It’s possible that this is some kind of prank, a mean spirited trick designed to unsettle you – a job well done, by the way – but you can’t quite bring yourself to believe that either. 

In any case, you’re hardly going to admit over the phone that you’re freaking out over some footprints in the snow. God knows she’s already worried enough about your mental state, has been ever since the breakup, and you’re not going to give her any more ammunition. 

But perhaps there is something to that maternal instinct, because despite your best efforts to reassure her that you’re doing just fine, that your novel’s going great and you’re so glad you came out here, she still sounds entirely unconvinced.

“Honey, you know you can tell me if something’s wrong,” she tells you, her voice strangely hesitant. “You don’t sound yourself, are you sure everything’s okay?”

You don’t know why you called her at all. You always have been a shitty liar, and she’s always been able to see right through you. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Honestly the fresh air’s doing me good,” you tell her. “It’s weirdly quiet here though, I’m not used to it,” you laugh, and even to your ears it sounds hollow and fake.

There’s a heavy pause on the other end of the line, and if you close your eyes you can almost picture it, your mom leaning against the kitchen counter, teeth worrying into her bottom lip–

“I just don’t like you out there all by yourself.”

Relax, what’s the worst that could happen?

The words almost, almost slip out, an instinctive reaction to a mother’s well meaning but overbearing concern. But it feels like tempting fate, and whether or not you’re fully convinced that there is something strange happening, you’re not that bold. Instead you begin to tell her (again) that everything’s fine when she suddenly speaks again.

“Bad things happen in those mountains. Just… just promise me you’ll be safe.”

Abruptly, the line goes dead. 

Pulling the phone from your ear, you glance down at the illuminated screen, only to frown when you see the little ‘SOS Only’ flashing in the top corner. Huh, you’d had a few bars when you’d started the call, but… 

The weather’s gotta be messing with your signal. Stranger things have happened, right?

Shaking your head you resolve to give her a call tomorrow. And yet, even as you try to put her parting words from your mind and throw yourself back into your writing, you can’t help but feel that familiar sense of cloying unease seeping through your skin once more. 

What the hell had she meant, ‘bad things happen in those mountains’?

—

A good night’s sleep can do you wonders. 

Well, theoretically speaking. You can’t remember the last actual decent sleep you’d had, but regardless, the point stands. All you need is an uninterrupted eight or nine hours, and this… paranoia will go away. Things’ll be clearer in the morning, so long as you sleep.

The mantra doesn’t help you any, of course. 

You don’t need to peer through the window to feel those watchful eyes staring. And maybe it would be easier to ignore the prickling sensation at the nape of your neck if it weren’t for the noises.

Music isn’t loud enough to drown out the sound of the mournful wails, like a wounded animal crying out in pain. It’s incessant, inescapable, reverberating inside of your eardrums until it’s all you can focus on.

It’s instinctual, you think, the urge to creep from your bed and try to find the creature making that sound and help it. But even as your feet touch the cool floorboards, your gut clenches, hackles rising. Something deep inside of you warns you from leaving the safety of the cabin.

Whatever creature is making those noises, it’s not calling for help.

You don’t feel like you’ve slept at all, but you must have because at a certain point in the morning you blink your eyes awake, exhaustion clinging to you like a second skin.

And this time it’s not snow that greets you, but the mangled remains of a doe ripped apart on your porch. Deep, jagged gouge marks run along its flank, organs spilling from the cuts and there’s little left of its neck, the whole thing torn out with teeth. Yet for the gruesome injuries, the only blood you find is congealed, pooled beneath the poor creature.

Whatever happened to it, it didn’t happen here. The knowledge doesn’t soothe you like it should – the park ranger you spoke to on the phone mentioned that while it’s rare, sometimes bears venture a little too close to buildings, though he sounds doubtful even as he says it.

He sounds even less interested when you tell him this doesn’t look like a bear attack, but promises they’ll send someone down in the next few days to check everything out. In the meantime, he suggests, it’s best to stay indoors. 

Yeah, not gonna be an issue.

And so with no feasible way of moving it, you’re left with the butchered corpse of a doe just outside your front door. And the thing that bothers you isn’t so much the body, though you still can’t look at it without wanting to throw up, but the fact that it was just… left there.

Not eaten. No, aside from the missing throat, the deer’s all there. Ripped apart with its guts spilling out, but otherwise untouched. Growing up you had a cat, the sweetest little thing, but every once in a while she would get out of a night, find some poor little creature to torment and without fail, she’d bring it back home, leaving it half dead on the doorstep like a gift.

‘See what a good hunter I am?’ she seemed to say, smugly sauntering back inside. 

It wasn’t about food. It wasn’t hunger that drove her, but instinct. As you stare out the window at the doe, at the milky white emptiness of dead eyes, you wonder whether that’s the same here. There’s no tracks in the dirt, no blood smeared across the ground – it wasn’t dragged here. No animal could’ve done this. 

A gift? 

Or perhaps something less benevolent. A threat. You’ve crossed into territory you don’t belong and the deer, cruelly ripped apart and left to bleed out on your doorstep is a line in the sand.

Either way, as tears fill your eyes, a sob tugging free from your chest, you realise that it was a mistake to come here. You don’t know whether you trust your eyes and your ears anymore, but there is something deep inside of you that tolls like a warning bell and as much as you’d like to bury your head in the sand and pretend there’s nothing wrong here, you can’t.

Bad things happen in those mountains.

You need to leave.

The next ferry to the mainland doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning, but it’ll have to do. Once you stop shaking and calm down enough to carry a conversation, you call the local cab company to arrange a pick-up first thing.

You can survive one more night, you just need to throw yourself back into your writing… if you can only just ignore that sense of foreboding prickling at the back of your neck.

—

There’s a boy running through the trees, giggling as he glances back at you. His hand’s outstretched, wrapped ‘round yours tugging you along as he laughs at you to hurry up.

It’s late, the sun dipping below the horizon, but you don’t wanna go back just yet.

You’re having fun, playing in the forest. And the light is golden, filtering in through the pretty red leaves, your sides burn a little from all the chasing and laughter but it’s a good kind of ache. You don’t want today to end.

His name is Kohsuke, you remember, and he lives down in the village by the valley. He’s only one year older than you, and you’d follow him anywhere. 

You think you might be a little in love with him.

‘C’mon, hurry up! It’s only a little further!’ he calls, and you nod, scrambling over the fallen trunk of an oak tree. There’s old spirits who live in this forest, he’d told you, and today you’re finally gonna see one.

It’s dark now. Cold too. You’re tired and hungry and you kinda want to go home, but Kohsuke won’t let you. ‘Just a little longer! Don’t you wanna see them?’

You do. Of course you do. It’s just that you’re starting to get a funny feeling in your stomach… Can he hear the footsteps too? Is somebody following you?

There’s a voice in your ear, a soft, silky purr that makes a shiver roll down your spine, but you can’t make sense of the words, they’re not in any language you understand. You don’t tell Kohsuke – he can’t hear it, otherwise he would have said something. You just clutch his hand tighter, skipping closer.

‘W-we should go back, Koh,’ you murmur, wincing when it comes out in a childish whine. ‘We’re gonna get in trouble.’

You aren’t supposed to stay out playing after dark, he knows it as well as you do. ‘You trust me, don’t you? Stop being such a chicken!’ he snickers as your cheeks heat.

The voice at your ear growls, low and threatening. You need to go back, now.

You blink, and the scene changes.

You’re curled up on the forest floor, hands covering your eyes. Somebody’s screaming – Kohsuke – crying out your name through ragged sobs, pleading–

There’s a crunch, a ripping sound, a wetness sprayed across your cheek. 

Kohsuke’s not screaming anymore.

Something warm and heavy touches your head, drags through the locks of your hair and you just huddle tighter, eyes squeezed shut, shaking like a leaf as more tears spill. You don’t wanna die here. 

The crunching sounds continue, and you keep your eyes tightly shut. It can’t hurt you if you don’t look. 

It can’t hurt you if you don’t look. 

It can’t hurt you if you don’t look. 

It can’t–

A loud knocking jerks you back to consciousness, your body jolting upright, almost swiping your laptop off the table as you try and gather your bearings. Right, you’d been working on your novel, sitting up at the kitchen table, you must have dozed off… A quick glance out the window tells you that you must have been out of it for a while – the late afternoon shadows are starting to creep in, the sky a golden orange. 

What the hell was that dream?!

“Hello? Uh, anybody home?” a masculine voice calls, another loud knock sounding. “We got a call about a wild animal attacking deer…”

Oh, you think, trying to shake yourself out of your stupor, the wildlife people, yeah. You feel a little nauseous, feverish and trembling, though maybe that’s just the result of your erratic heartbeat. 

Swallowing down the bile in your throat, you turn your attention to the door. Truly you hadn’t actually expected that they’d send anybody out to investigate, much less that they’d arrive before you left, but you can hardly turn him away now.

Especially not when there’s a freshly butchered deer corpse lying only a few feet away from your front door. Quickly, you run a hand over your hair, taking a moment to try and collect yourself before you answer.

It doesn’t work – there’s a knot in your throat and for every step you take towards the door it feels like your legs are gonna give out from under you. You move in a daze to unlock the door, only just remembering to school your features into an expression slightly less alarming as it swings open. 

A ranger, tall with a shock of black, messy hair that reminds you oddly of a rooster greets you with an easy grin. “Oh good, I was starting to think nobody was home. You the one that called?”

Distantly, you nod, fingers clutching at the edge of the doorframe. The ranger glances over at the remains of the deer, still lying in a pool of half dried blood, studying it for a moment, hazel eyes sweeping over the deep gashes in its side. You can’t bear to follow his gaze, you’re not sure you can look at that thing again without throwing up. 

He whistles lowly, shaking his head, “Well you don’t see that every day,” he laughs.

Your eyes snap to his, narrowing slightly. It’s not his fault, you know that, but you can’t help the flicker of irritation that sparks at the cavalier attitude. This is just his job, you get it, but you don’t exactly feel like laughing right now. 

“You still think a bear did this?” you retort, the words coming out a little sharper than intended. 

But the ranger takes it in stride, shrugging as his smirk widens. “A bear, huh?” Amusement glitters in his eyes, sharp and mocking. “Why don’t I come inside and you can tell me all about it?” he offers, stepping closer towards you. 

And there’s no reason for your heart to skitter, your blood running cold as he looms over you in the doorway, still wearing that stupid, irritating smirk. There’s no reason for your insides to clench either, or for the tiny, jerky step backwards you take, your body moving of its own accord.

The ranger pauses, head tilting to the side as he stares at you.

Really stares, like he’s waiting for something. And as discomfited as you are (and as much of an asshole as this guy is), a weary apology is halfway to your tongue when he shifts slightly, propping an arm up against the door – the last, dying rays of light catching his face. 

It’s just for a second.

A heartbeat.

But long enough for you to watch those hazel eyes shift to gold, pupils elongating into slits. 

You stumble backwards, breath coming in a short, ragged gasp as your eyes widen into saucers. “What are you?”

The ranger before you chuckles and you catch a glimpse of his teeth; pearly white and glinting, sharper than they had been only moments ago. “Why don’t you let me in and find out for yourself, kitten?”

You shake your head, retreating further into the cabin, heart pounding. 

“No? You don’t like this body, is that it?” he asks, a cruel edge to his smirk as he takes a half step backwards and slowly spreads his arms. “Something more familiar, then.”

And you don’t think there’s any room left in your heart for more fear, your stomach already twisting in sickening knots, but you blink and standing right there in front of you is Kohsuke.

It’s a punch in the guts, a knife slipped between your ribs, yanked ruthlessly through your still beating heart. He’s beaming up at you, those same adorable dimples, the same ridiculous bowl cut, bleeding youthful innocence. “How about now?” he asks, holding out his hand and wriggling his fingers like he expects you to take it. “You’ll let me inside now, right?”

A strangled noise escapes you as you fall to your knees. Tears fill your eyes, blurring your vision – you blink them away but more take their place. 

“You trust me, don’t you?” he asks, and you wail in response.

It’s too much. You shake your head, hugging yourself tightly, as if your arms are the only thing keeping you from falling apart entirely. 

He calls your name – not in Kohsuke’s childish lilt, but that deep, ancient purr that makes the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. “Let me in.”

“Go away,” you gasp through tears. “Please– please go away.”

The creature shifts again, the dark haired ranger back in Kohsuke’s place. He eyes you, those unnatural gold irises watching with utter enthralment as you sob pathetically on the floor, still pleading – though you know it’ll do you no good – for him to leave. 

“Last chance, kitten. Let me in, or I’ll make you come out.”

He – it – doesn’t sound nearly as put out by the prospect as it should be. 

And you don’t know why giving permission matters, all you know, all you care about, is that it’s keeping that thing at bay for now. It can’t come inside and so long as you don’t leave the safety of the cabin, it can’t hurt you. The words are nothing but an empty threat.

Right?

You shake your head, defiant even as your voice hitches and trembles, “No.”

“Stubborn little thing,” the creature croons, the smirk on its face widening until the visage no longer resembles anything human – mouth splitting its face in two, rows of long, sharp teeth revealed. “So be it.”

A low growl resonates in its chest, and you can only watch, petrified, as thin, vein-like black marks begin to appear over pale skin, growing thicker, cracking as shadow curls from underneath. The creature itself starts to grow too, limbs elongating as muscles ripple and swell, claws bursting forth in place of fingernails, shoulders broadening – until it’s towering over you, wreathed in thick shadow, grinning with that terrifying mouth. 

This is the thing you’d glimpsed that first night. A creature ripped from nightmares and primal fears, strong enough to tear you apart with a single hand. That’s what it’d done to Kohsuke, to the doe, what it’d do to you if you gave it half a chance.

“You wanna play, kitten?” it asks, head tilting to the side. 

Slowly, it backs away from the door, keeping its gaze fixed firmly on you. For a moment, you think that it’s going to disappear back into the forest, or plant itself by your window to watch for another night, waiting you out till dawn, but instead it stops by the old oak that overhangs the porch and stills entirely, simply… waiting.

“Let’s play.”

Abruptly, the oak beside it bursts into flames. It takes only a heartbeat for the entire thing to be engulfed, red and orange flames licking along the trunk, the gnarled, spindly branches, even the leaves are alight, burning away into ash and floating off in the breeze. The heat from one tree alone is searing, the crackle of burning wood and your own horrified, shuddering breath the only sounds in the night.

It snowed only a few nights before, but the fire spreads with unnatural ease, flames racing across the canopy, embers lighting up the undergrowth, and in the space of a few seconds there’s an inferno raging through the forest before you. And through the smoke and the red, burning haze, the creature watches, smirking.

The heat from the wildfire sears painfully at your skin, the air around you suddenly thick with smoke, stinging your eyes, choking your lungs, and yet you can’t seem to tear yourself away. It’s like a dream, a nightmare, some kind of… hellscape.

And for a moment you forget that there was a purpose to this, too lost staring in mute horror as the forest you’d played in as a child burns–

At least until a single leaf from the oak tree, edges curling as it’s consumed by flames, falls, carried by the breeze and lands on the wooden railing of the porch. With a soft whoosh, the old wooden beam catches fire, and with your chest heaving, panicked breaths falling from parted lips, you rise to your feet as flames spread, the fire eating everything in its path until the entire porch is alight, burning.

Run. 

You don’t know if the voice in your head is yours or not, you don’t have time to care. You scramble for the back door, throwing it open, and you run.

Run until your lungs burn, til’ your bare feet are scratched and bleeding, run, pushed forward by the sweltering heat at your back, the chilling crackle of laughter that follows. You run through tears, through pain and air so thick with smoke that it hurts to breathe.

And you know the creature’s giving chase, you know that you won’t – can’t – outrun it, nor the inferno that blazes around you. You know that it’s futile, that you’re probably running to your death, but that’s human, isn’t it?

To run when you’re scared?

The sky’s awash with a hazy red glow when it catches you, throwing you to the ground, and still you try to crawl. Desperate, choking on broken pleas and sobs, nails raking through the dirt as you try to pull yourself forward. 

And when your pants are ripped from your legs, a puff of warm air ghosting over the nape of your neck as you’re shoved back down, those long, black arms settling either side of you, caging you in – you know that you’ve lost.

“Mine,” the creature growls, and you barely have time to scream before its cock shoves into you with one brutal, merciless thrust. “Mine.”

[colorfulbard]

Hopelessly devoted

Summary: Things between you and Levi got weird ever since you saved him.

Pairing: Levi x Reader

Warnings: Fluff and some angst(?)

Words: 4.6K

A/N: I got this idea from a tiktok a while ago, can’t remember the user. Yes, I know the title is very cliche, I thought it was cute.

~~~

The uncomfortable mix of sweat and blood was a common feeling most scouts got used to, but not you. To you, it was probably always going to feel bothersome like an itch you couldn't scratch. Not like anyone really blames you, even if the blood evaporated the feeling of it somehow always remained. With an annoyed groan, you grabbed the handkerchief from your pocket and attempted to wipe excess blood that remained along with sweet off your brow.

You sighed at the sight of your now dirty handkerchief and leaned back against the tree. It wasn't a good idea, but you decided to close your eyes even if just for a moment. Ever since the destruction of wall Maria, there had been no expeditions outside the actual walls. At the moment, all there was to do was figure out ways to plug up the holes and exterminate titans skulking around.

Those extermination missions have proven to be tiring considering the way almost felt yourself falling asleep. You shook off the sleep and opened your eyes to look down at the handkerchief again. There was quite a bit of blood on it now thanks to you. You stowed it away back into your pocket with a chuckle. He wasn't going to be too pleased to see the way you dirtied it.

"Y/N!"

You automatically stood at the sound of your name. Nearing your line of sight, you recognized someone from Levi's squad. You squinted to try and make out their appearance. Your eyes returned to their normal state when you recognized it to be Petra, making her way towards you at an alarming speed.

Your brows furrowed as she landed in front of you with a worried expression. "Is everything alright?" You asked, not giving her a chance to speak. It shouldn't be too much of a cause for concern considering Petra was always one to be a tad nervous, but something felt different this time.

After taking a quick once over of her, you noticed the edge of her cape was wrinkled. Most likely because she had been wringing it between her fingers. That was something you recognized to be one of her nervous habits. However, you'd never seen her do that during a mission. It was clear that whatever was happening was probably serious.

You placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting look as if to will her into talking. She seemed to appreciate it and took in a deep breath before speaking, "we got separated from the captain and can't find him anywhere," she said, choking up on her words.

You rose a brow at her. Levi was a smart man, he was most likely fine. Besides squads get separated on missions all the time, you were even separated from your own at the moment. Miche was usually never concerned when you did either way.

Petra should have enough faith in her captain to know that by now. "I don't understand..." You took a moment to think, "why is this a cause for concern?" You inquired.

"Before the expedition, we distracted him and I don't think he ever got the chance to do maintenance on his gear..." She trailed off as her words got caught in her throat. The edge of her cape was getting more wrinkled as the seconds passed.

"So, you think there's a chance it could've malfunctioned?" You asked. Your eyes couldn't help but widen in surprise. Even after being apart of the scouts for years, it seemed like there was a first for everything. Even if it had to do with someone as meticulous as Levi.

"I'm not sure," she responded, "I can't remember the last time he did maintenance on it." Her gaze shifted down to the ground as if to try and remember.

You nodded, "alright go inform the commander and Mike of the situation. I'll go and begin searching-" you grabbed your handgrip- "after that, join your squad and continue the search," you instructed.

Petra nodded, "we already sent Eld to inform the commander," she assured. She was about to pull her trigger until she turned back to you, "thank you, Y/N."

You gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her shoulder. "No problem and try not to worry," you said, "I'm sure he's fine, we just have to be quick." With that said, you pulled your trigger and jumped down once the anchor sunk itself into a tree.

Once your horse was in your sight, you reeled back your anchor and landed next to it. The landing wasn't your best, you stumbled a bit, but there wasn't time to think about that now. You quickly mounted your horse and kicked your feet back to coerce them into running.

It felt like you had stopped breathing the moment you were able to pull your thoughts together. In hopes of saving time, you hadn't even bothered to let yourself properly breathe. You'd have to thank Petra later for telling you, you knew she didn't have to, but it was still nice that she thought of you at that moment.

After taking a deep breath to expel the nerves slowly forming in your gut, you willed your horse to go faster. Clearly, the words you had said to Petra weren't currently working on you. It wasn't as if you had no faith in Levi. It was more so that you had no hope that fate would be kind to you at this moment.

Taking deep breaths wasn't helping all the intrusive thoughts coming up. You couldn't even blink properly without horrific images flashing behind your eyelids. You tried to shake them off and pushed forward. This was Levi you were thinking about, he had to be okay, right?

~

How troublesome could this expedition get? Not only did his gear malfunction, leading him to slam his body into a tree, but he also had a rough landing causing his leg to break. At least, he assumed it was broken, even if he could walk a little. Not that it mattered at the moment considering there was nothing around.

Even with all these odds stacked against him, Levi was never one to give up so easily. Which willed him into attempting to use his gear about five more times to no avail. He groaned under his breath in frustration, "damn it..." He grumbled.

As much he would like to put the blame on an inanimate object, there was no point. There was no one to blame, but himself. Levi had been apart of the scouts for so long, you'd think maintenance would be second nature to him. He should've been more attentive, even if his squad was hammering with dumb questions. So much for that being one of his more exceptional qualities.

Levi supposed he should count his blessings. So far, everything was quiet. That calming thought lasted for about five seconds before he heard a loud groan in the distance. His eyes widened to see a titan slowly making its way towards him. "Just my luck," he cursed at himself.

No point in sitting around like a wounded, helpless animal. Levi knew he still had a chance to survive, even if it was slim. He took his blades to prepare to hopefully kill it. The titan's eyes narrowed in on him at the sound of his blades being unsheathed.

"Shit, so much for thinking it was already looking at me." He knew it was a curse to think this, but could it get any worse?

As if the titan could comprehend what he was thinking, it began crawling towards him at an alarming speed. Levi grit his teeth as it grew closer and closer. "It just had to be abnormal, didn't it?" He asked himself.

Levi looked down at his legs and his posture slacked, no point in running. He wouldn't get very far and would have to deal with wondering when the ugly fucker would get it over with every second. That meant the only thing left to do was try and fight back. He gripped his blades and thoughts of why he was fighting came to mind.

The first thing was him being known as humanity's strongest, meaning he had a duty. No telling how everyone would react knowing their strongest soldier died. The next, everyone he had grown close to in the scouts. Just imagining their devasted faces brought a sour taste to his mouth. Lastly, you.

Levi was usually never one to get sentimental in moments like this, but he couldn't help it. If there was a chance these were his last moments, it'd be nice to be thinking of you. All of those private moments together just simply enjoying one another's presence. You truly were good to him, always assuring him that those moments were enough and that there was never a need for an actual date.

You knew how awkward he can be when it came to public displays of affection and never gave him shit for it. You truly were a blessing in his eyes. Too bad the last time he would ever see that blessing was in his memories.

Once the ugly thing came close enough, he reared his arm back to prepare to take out its eyes. However, it seemed like there was no point in even trying. The titan didn't even get a chance to come within six feet f him before it went limp.

"Levi!"

There it was, the familiar voice of his savior. You stood from your knelt position at the titan's neck with a wide smile at the sight of him. "You're okay!" You exclaimed in relief as you slid off the titan's body. Without even giving him a single second to process your being there, you wrapped your arms around him.

You sighed as you felt him squished against you. "I'm so glad," you whispered in his ear, "I thought I was going to be too late."

Levi brought his arms around you, not even fathoming how you were here. Call him a sap, but you almost looked like a guardian angel in his eyes when you peeked over that titan's head. His grip on you became tighter, happy to feel your familiar shape in his arms. He could gladly stay forever like this, had it not been for this fucked up leg. A groan came from him when he readjusted his footing.

You immediately pulled away at the sound and inspected him. "What happened?" You asked, worried.

He gestured to his leg which was limp. "Gear malfunctioned and I had a bad landing because of it," he explained, "but I'll be fine."

You furrowed your brows, something you always did when you thought he was lying about something. Levi poked a finger between your brows to fix them. "Don't look at me like that-" he began to unconsciously lean into you- "I'm fine. Just need to get back to headquarters."

You nodded and knelt down in front of him. The silence between you two was thick as he stared two holes into your back. "You're kidding, right?" He asked rhetorically. Even he had to admit to himself being carried on someone's back was slightly embarrassing, it made him feel like a toddler.

"It's either this or I can carry you in my arms like a blushing bride," you responded cheekily.

Levi swore he could feel you smirking even if he couldn't see your face. Nonetheless, he relented, it was better than dying at least. Getting comfortable on your back was easier said than done, his shitty leg definitely wasn't helping. Eventually, he got the hang of it and tapped your shoulder.

You gave a nod and stood up, albeit a little shaky, but you managed. Even after getting used to the weight of your own gear, pairing another along with Levi proved to be a challenge. You tried not to let it show, but a pained grunt managed to slip past your lips anyway.

Levi tensed on your back at the sound you made. "Alright let's try something else." He made an attempt to get off, but you tightened your grip.

"No way, I'm fine," you said, your voice rasping. You managed to grasp your handgrip and placed your finger on the trigger, "hold on, it's gonna be an unstable ride."

Levi relented at the sight of your determination and wrapped his arms around your neck. He braced himself as you immediately took off at the feeling of his arms. A few hiccups occurred during your flight, but you managed to land close to your horse without a permanent scratch.

You took a breather once Levi let himself off your back. You bent yourself back to get rid of the ache that was forming. Your little break didn't last long when you spotted Levi limping to your horse. You quickly grabbed an arm and put it over your shoulder to aid him.

"You know, I'm starting to think all that tea is giving you a little extra weight," you teased in an attempt to make light of the situation. You knew he had to be feeling useless at the moment. It always happened whenever he got hurt.

The only response you received was a pinch to your side causing you to squeak. "Ouch..." You whined while trying to soothe it by rubbing it.

"That's what you get for teasing your superior."

You gawked at him. "Wow, you're pulling out the superior card now?" You questioned, "Would you rather I tease you in other ways?" You wiggled your brows at him. He looked away from you and pinched you again.

"Shut up."

~

Things had been a little odd ever since that day and you were positive you were the only one who noticed. Levi was still out of commission, but that didn't stop him from fulfilling other duties. The only reason why it bothered you is that he was currently using crutches to move around. You were, however, put at ease when you were told his injury was only a hairline fracture.

All of that wasn't the biggest issue though. The issue at hand was Levi was practically hovering over you as if you were the one injured. He never made it obvious in fear of being called out by comrades. You, of course, didn't miss the way he followed you everywhere until he was called away to do something important.

His hovering only got worse whenever you were asked to assist in Hange's titan experiments. There was also the issue of him getting weird headaches at random times of the day. You usually caught him suffering from them when you returned from different errands. You tried asking what caused it, but not even Levi could figure it out.

After long deliberation, you decided it might be a good idea to get out for a little while. Some time away from everything scout related might be good for him. So, you dragged him along with you to Trost. Fortunately, it was one of your days off so there was no need to convince Erwin to give you one anyway.

Before Levi could bother resisting you had already forced him to mount your horse. You had to come up with a creative solution for his crutch considering it'd be uncomfortable for him to hold onto, plus you were going to make him hold your basket anyway. You managed to tie the crutch onto the saddle and sat behind him to hold onto him. You knew he wasn't entirely opposed to the idea considering he could've shoved you off him, even if he was injured. You smiled when he leaned back against you to relax if only for a moment.

The ride didn't take too long and you quickly dismounted your horse when you reached some stables. You hesitantly held out your arms to assist Levi but judging by the look on his face, he'd much rather fall. You held your arms up in mock surrender and let him dismount on his own, a little clumsily.

The marketplace was a little more crowded than normal. You glanced at Levi to see if he was okay, it seemed like he didn't mind. You linked your arm with his free one and smiled. It wasn't notable on his face, but you could tell by the way he gripped your arm that he was content.

Even if it was crowded, it was nice to see it more lively. After wall Maria was breached in Shinganshina, everyone in Trost had been put on edge. But now, everything seems to have returned to some form of normalcy. Not to mention, more people meant more merchants.

"Should we go see if we can find some new tea leaves?" You asked absentmindedly. Your eyes went from stall to stall, not even paying attention to where you were walking.

Levi hummed. "With all these merchants around there's a good chance we might find something new," he surmised, pulling you closer so you didn't bump into anyone.

You nodded, "well then, we better start looking."

There was so much to see you couldn't help yourself. You barely ever had a chance to walk through markets thanks to the survey corps. It was fun walking from stall to stall with Levi on your arm. It almost made you feel like an old married couple with no worries whatsoever. The thought brought a big smile to your lips.

You glanced at Levi who was busy observing various tea leaves. You knew your life with him wouldn't change with a ring on your finger, but you couldn't help thinking about what it would be like. You giggled as you thought being referred to as Mrs. Ackerman.

"Oi, what are you laughing at?"

You tensed, "uh, nothing important," you said in between nervous giggles.

He rose a brow at you but shrugged it off. Fortunately, his seriousness with tea leaves made him forget of your silliness. You knew he'd be here for a little while and proposed that you would go ahead while he took a moment here. He seemed hesitant at first but nodded nonetheless.

As you walked ahead, the stalls got more scarce. "Oh well," you mumbled to yourself. They were a lot more exciting near the front, which made sense. Too bad there wasn't anything more exciting or rare back here.

You took a final look around and decided to walk back to where Levi was. The sun was beginning to set, so it was best that you went back to headquarters now anyway. Before you could even take another step, something grabbed your basket and tugged you back.

You grunted and landed back against something hard. You glanced behind you and saw a man standing there, his hand grasping your basket. You rose a brow, "I'm sorry, did you need something?" You asked, slapping his hand away.

He yelped in response and frowned at you, "is that any way to treat a gentleman?" He asked.

"Well, when a so-called gentleman grabs a lady without her permission, yes," you responded, crossing your arms.

He chuckled at your words, "how cute-" he grabbed your wrist- "don't you know that ladies should use kinder words when addressing a man." You could feel his grip was tightening.

"I could've used cruder words than that, sir," you sneered, tugging your wrist free.

Your choice of words only did more damage and excited him. "Oh, how crude?" He asked while laying a hand at your waist, "wanna tell me?"

~

To Levi, it felt like no time had passed as he stood at the same stand looking over various teas. Looked like coming to Trost wasn't such a waste after all. He managed to find tea leaves he'd never tried and his favorite. Now all that was left to do was locate you and go home.

The longer he walked the more he began to wonder how far you could've gotten. He knew you had a tendency to wander, but he never thought you would've gotten this far. Levi practically made it to the end of the market when he overheard your voice.

"I'll tell you when titans fly!"

Levi blinked as he processed the words you spoke, that's definitely you. He rose a brow before he caught sight of you. You were currently fighting off a man who had a tight grip on you. He immediately frowned and got ready to toss his crutch into the man's direction. He stopped his actions when you kneed him in the crotch and elbowed his back when he knelt down from the pain.

You huffed and straightened your clothes. You continued to frown until you spotted Levi standing a couple of feet away. The frown melted away into a smile and you waved at him. "Levi, are you all done?" You asked, walking up to him and taking his arm again.

Levi couldn't help but blink at you again. You rose a brow at his silence, clearly wondering what was wrong. "You just kicked him in the balls without a second thought..." His words trailed off, unsure of what else to say.

You chuckled, your brow still raised. "Of course, what else was I supposed to do?" You asked rhetorically, "now, come on. Let's go home." Your grip on his arm became tighter as you began to walk.

Before Levi could even take a single step, he flinched and gripped his head. That same familiar ache came back and once again, he had no idea what the cause of it was. These headaches were becoming a nuisance and he didn't know how much more he could take.

He could feel you staring at him, even with his eyes shut tight. He just knew your brows were furrowed, concern shown on your features.

"Levi, are you alright?" You asked, laying a hand on his head.

All he could do was nod in response. The pain was still making his head feel like it was throbbing, but he didn't want to continue making you worried. So, he pretended everything was fine and peeled his eyes open. He noticed you let out a sigh of relief when he did.

Everything would be fine as soon the both of you returned to headquarters. Fortunately, everything felt like a quick blur while walking back towards the horse and riding back to headquarters.

The moment the horse stopped he didn't bother waiting for you to help him and jumped down on his own. Levi ignored the small twinge of pain he felt and walked to his room as if nothing happened. He hadn't even seen the concerned look on your face as he did.

Later on, at night, you thought you would be able to speak with him. As soon as you had gotten to your shared room earlier, he had holed himself up in the bedroom. You figured he wanted to be left alone for a little bit based on the headache he had earlier. But, now, you assumed he had enough time to himself and walked in with tea in hand. You thought you might get him to relax a bit with some.

"Levi?" You asked softly, shutting the door behind you. "Are you alright?"

The only response was a small grumble. You sighed and walked over to his side of the bed where he laid. You watched as he perked up a bit at the new smell, it was the new tea leaves he had bought. With a small smile, you placed the cup on the nightstand and sat next to him.

"Levi, talk to me." You placed a hand on his leg, "I'm worried. You've been in here since we got back in silence."

Speaking of, the silence was suffocating. He wasn't looking at you, you couldn't tell if he refused to or if the only way to soothe the headache was to cover his eyes. You sighed again and moved your hand from his leg to get up from the bed.

Before you could fully get up his hand caught yours, stopping your actions. You looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

"I'm sorry..." He sighed while squeezing your hand. You rose a brow at his apology and sat back down. You remained quiet and waited for him to explain.

Levi's grip on your hand tightened as you watched him grit his teeth. You knew he was trying to find the right words to say. You moved your hand around to rub your thumb over his knuckles to soothe him. He seemed to slowly relax with the motions as he stopped gritting his teeth and became less tense.

The silence continued dragging on, so you decided to give him a gentle nudge to persuade him into talking. "For?" You asked.

Levi took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was nervous about what he had to say and you had no idea why. His grip on your hand tightened again. "For not being able to protect you," he admitted, "I'm so useless like this." He gestured to his leg.

Your eyes widened at his words. It took a moment for you to get over the initial shock, but once you did you grabbed the arm that covered his eyes to move it away. You don't know if it was moonlight streaming in through the crack in the curtains or your eyes playing tricks on you, but it looked like there were tears in Levi's eyes.

You ignored it for now and placed your hands on his cheeks. You called his name forcing him to look into your eyes. "You're not useless, please don't say that-" you began stroking his cheek with your thumb- "you never say that to me when I get injured, so, don't say that about yourself."

You lowered your forehead to rest against his. "You don't have to worry about me, I can take care of myself," you whispered. "Don't you have faith that I'm strong enough to take care of myself?" You asked.

Levi let in a shark intake of breath as he heard your words. He began to sit up causing you to move away from him. "Of course I do," he replied, "I just... Can't help it." His voice was strained as if it was painful to even say.

"I want to protect you no matter what." He was staring down at his lap. "But when I can't-" he gestured to his injury- "it hurts..." He laid a hand on his forehead.

Your brows furrowed. He was being so cryptic, it was hard to tell what he meant. You couldn't help but ask, "what hurts? Why?" You laid a hand on his cheek to make him look into your eyes.

Levi didn't answer as he stared into your concerned eyes. Based on the inner turmoil you saw in his own eyes, it was safe to say that he couldn't even begin to explain the feeling. You shook your head as a way to tell him that he didn't have to explain. A shadow cast over his eyes when you did.

You let your hand fall to your side and dropped your gaze to your lap. You didn't want to leave him alone with his thoughts tonight, but you weren't sure of what to do next. Fortunately, an answer came unexpectedly.

Levi leaned forward and rested his head against your chest, his hands were on your waist. You welcomed the unexpected affection but froze for a brief moment. Most of the time, Levi was never one to initiate intimate moments like this, but it always made you happy when he did.

You brought a hand to the top of his head when he spoke.

"I'm just hopelessly devoted to you."

You said nothing and continued cradling him close to you with no intention of letting him go. There was no way of knowing if either of you would ever find out what was wrong, but you knew you would find out together.

[animereaderinsertwriter]

Cupbearer (Eren/Reader)

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV (in progress)

Warnings: MINORS DO NOT INTERACT (im watching you, if you see this, begone!), vampire!eren, hunter!reader, fem!reader, smut, some amount of predator/prey dynamics but only kinda?? there is also a significant age difference but only cos eren is immortal and all that jazz. we're all adults here. there will eventually be smut.... and do i really need to say that there's gonna be blood in a vampire fic?

Description: A story of falling in love in 4 parts.

Eren is a bad man (well, a bad Creature) who has done bad things. When he meets the great-great-great granddaughter of one of his former friends in his favorite blood bar, however, he thinks it might not matter so much what happened in the past, so long as he can make the future something worth living to see.

Ao3 link here

Part I

A lamb in a den of lions, he thought, watching the newcomer as she settled in, ordering whiskey neat. A fool, for sure.

A fool she may be, perhaps, but even fools could be dangerous. Eren had known that the young woman was a Hunter from the moment she entered the bar (everyone else had, too) but something told Eren that she was hardly cut from the same cloth as the average Bane of Creatures. There was something in her movements— a predatory grace in her stride, perhaps, or a stiff, straight posture, with muscles tensed and ready for action— that betrayed her power to him; but for all that, she really was lovely, and the image of a rabbit caught in a patch of bramble came to mind whenever he looked at her.

Sitting in a corner, drinking his B-neg, he watched the woman as she sipped her drink, checking over her shoulder now and then. She was wary— as anyone with good sense would be— but she didn't appear frightened, and Eren's curiosity was piqued. It wasn't every day that someone so bold happened across his path, and it became harder and harder for him to resist the urge to approach her.

Eventually, Eren gave in to his curiosity— he never had been very good at or even particularly fond of restraining himself— and when he came silently up behind her, the newcomer didn't even notice his presence until he murmured a greeting close to her ear.

"Hello, little love," he said, and she startled in her seat. "Are you lost?"

She turned around then, her eyes big and bright in the dim lighting of the bar, but by the time she managed to look at the spot where Eren would have been, he was already seated on the barstool beside her. Eventually, though, her eyes found his, and when their gazes met, Eren was amused to find no fear in her visage.

"Far from it," she told him, turning her body towards him. "I am precisely where I mean to be."

Eren blinked, nonplussed.

"Curious," he said, leaning forward so that she could see the sharpness of his teeth as he spoke. "Do you fancy yourself a wolf among sheep, little Hunter? Did you really not think we would know you for what you are the moment you crossed the threshold of this place?"

Any normal, human ear would have missed the way her heart leapt in her chest, but Eren missed nothing. The fear he had hoped to inspire in her was present after all, but her face never moved from its impenetrable mask— an affectation that was somehow both soft and steely at once.

"That's not what I'm here for," she told him, widening the distance between her knees as she readjusted on the stool. "I'm here to discover the truth."

The truth— what an odd notion!— and yet Eren sensed no lie in her.

"You're a strange one," he told her, but forced himself to relax his posture to appear lazy, almost drunk. "Most Hunters— even ones so pretty as yourself— shoot first and worry about the truth later. What's your name?"

Her nose crinkled. "It's polite to give your own first."

Sharp, he thought, watching her closely. Names have power.

"Eren Jaeger."

"Eren Jaeger," she echoed, then extended her hand. "My name is (Y/N)."

That name sounded familiar to Eren— and though most names did after living a few centuries, this one seemed to hit closer to home. He knew that name, and knew it well…

"What's your surname?"

(Y/N)'s eyes flashed with an emotion that Eren didn't catch.

"Kirschtein," she replied, averting her eyes. "I'm Jean Kirschtein's great-great-great granddaughter."

And damn if Eren didn't want to laugh. Perhaps his nosiness into the posterity of his old acquaintances really was as bad of an idea as Armin always seemed to imply.

"I see," he said, and he truly, truly did. "Then you know who I am— what I am— and what I've done."

More than that, if she truly did know who he was, it was unlikely that she had come without a specific purpose in mind.

(Y/N) nodded, confirming his suspicions. "I was digging around in my family history and— well— I read what my grandfather wrote, and I just— I wanted the truth."

So wide-eyed, so innocent— so alive. Eren could see now her resemblance to Jean; if they were not similar in looks, she had his sharpness, his humanness… and, as he always had Jean, Eren envied her for it.

"If that's the case, then I'm sure you know that you don't get something for nothing," he told her, sipping his drink just to watch the expression on her face as he let the warm blood slide down his throat. "And that dealings with me can be dangerous."

"Jean Kirschtein loved you, Eren Jaeger," she told him fiercely and with such conviction that Eren nearly choked on his drink. "To take such a tone with me, to threaten me, the last living remnant of him, is the most disrespectful thing I've ever heard."

Eren was about to say that he didn't owe her, Jean Kirschtein, or anyone else any sort of respect, but she plowed on, unwilling to let him say his piece.

"You broke his heart a million ways by doing what you did, but— but he was your friend through all of it, no matter what side each of you were on," (Y/N) continued, passion aflame in her eyes. "I can't even imagine what inspired such a love, such a loyalty from him that he would forgive you for the horrors you caused. That's what I'm here to find out— what you have that a man such as him would find you redeemable."

The reproof in her words stung, but Eren was too old to argue. She could never understand what it was like back then.

"I understand more than you think," she snapped, and Eren actually flinched. "I understand that you hurt the woman my grandfather loved immeasurably, and that he forgave you for that even though he never even particularly liked you. I understand that you were ready to sacrifice the world for that selfsame woman, for Jean, and for all the others. I understand that you're a monster who loved and was loved back, but I want to know why."

How? Eren thought, shaken.

How had she known his thoughts? It was as though she had seen straight through to his innermost being.

Without speaking, she answered his question. (Y/N) took a hand and rolled up her left sleeve, presenting to him a scarred marking in the shape of a pentagram.

"My grandfather didn't settle down with just anyone," she told him, holding his gaze. "I come from a line of powerful witches, all of whom possessed strong claircognizance. Paired with my nature as an empath, you can assume I know what you're going to say before you say it."

Eren hummed, trying to appear less perturbed than he was.

"And yet you hunt Creatures for a living; strange, since you're practically one of us yourself."

(Y/N) glowered. "I hunt monsters that prey on my people, not Creatures. No innocent has died by my hand."

The unlike you went unsaid, but that didn't mean that Eren didn't hear it anyway.

"Don't get high-and-mighty with me, girl," he told her roughly. "Knowing is one thing, but experiencing what we experienced is another."

"I'm not here to judge you," she replied. "I told you, I'm here for truth, nothing more."

"And I told you that the truth doesn't come for free," he told her darkly. "You must give me something in return."

(Y/N) set her jaw.

"What would you have of me?"

It was a mean, base request. Eren was wicked for even thinking it, and vile for wanting it— but looking at the great-to-however-many-degrees granddaughter of a good man that he had once known, seeing the vitality that brought a flush to her cheeks and thumping to her heart, he knew he couldn't pass up this golden opportunity.

It had been so long since he'd had a Companion.

"Become my cupbearer for six moons," he told her, crossing his arms. "Starting with tonight, the moon becomes new; let me drink from you until six of these have passed, and along the way, you will learn what you want to know."

(Y/N) eyed him warily.

"Can you assure my physical safety?"

Eren grunted, almost amused. It was a bit late to be worrying about that.

"I think you know that I can."

"And will you let me continue in my duties as a Hunter?" she asked, her eyes searching his own as if she would find the answer to her question there inside the same eyes he'd had since he was nineteen. "Completely uninhibited?"

"That depends. Will you kill Creatures in the discharge of your duties?"

(Y/N) made a face. Eren had forgotten how expressive mortals could be, but he found that being reminded was not altogether unpleasant.

"You know I will," she replied, "But you have my word that any killing won't be unprovoked."

Eren supposed it was as close to a compromise as he could expect.

"As you wish it, so shall it be."

He turned away, signaling to the bartender for another drink, but a lightning-fast hand shot out to grab his wrist.

"Swear it," she demanded. "I need us to be Bound by it."

The meanness in Eren finally won over. He reached forward, grabbing (Y/N) by the neck, and the silver rings on her fingers burned him as she pulled at his hand to try and restore her breath. Eyes from all around the room were on the two of them— had been, since the very beginning— but it was only once the Hunter before him began to look appropriately humbled that he withdrew.

"Do not touch me without my permission," he said, "And I will return the favor."

(Y/N) looked at him then, but there was still no fear in her eyes. Anger, yes, but no fear.

She must be mad, or foolish one, he thought, considering her for a moment. I always have been partial to mad fools in general, but…

Something about her seemed different, and Eren didn't know what to do other than accept what she had to offer. Heavens knew he was getting the better end of the deal anyway.

"Swear it," she repeated, this time more quietly. "Give your word, and I will be your cupbearer."

Eren brought his hand up and unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt. At his will, the nail tip of his forefinger sharpened, hardening into a point; he used it to draw an 'X' onto the skin just over where his heart rested inside his chest, cold and dead. Blood welled into the cut— precious little, compared to that of a human, but still enough to run down his chest in smudges— and it was by that blood that he swore. He spoke the terms of their agreement, then took the blood from his wound with the pad of his finger and marked the same spot over (Y/N)'s own heart.

"Satisfied?" he asked, their faces almost touching, and (Y/N) shivered.

"Yes."

Her warm, living breath fanned over his face with her reply, and Eren took the moment to close his eyes and appreciate the scent and sensation of it.

"You may think you're satisfied," he told her, pulling away, "But you don't know the meaning of the word."

She eyed him warily, but before she could speak, he added, "In six months' time, I'll ask you the same question, and it is then that you will truly know what it is to feel satisfied— satiated in every way."

"As you say."

It was a throwaway comment, nothing more than a dismissal, really; but Eren felt like it was the start of something truly remarkable.

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

potent but not real, m | kth

pairing(s): taehyung x reader

summary: You kill people. Kim Taehyung doesn’t. He assisted you with one particular kill and then he kissed you. And, like a needle of methadone, the two of you chase the high again and again, knowing there is no hope for you. But there is for him. All Taehyung has to do is to walk away from your eyes.

warnings: rated M (18+) for language, mentions of murder (non-graphic); sociopathic reader; unprotected sex (fem reader, sex in an office after hours, f-receiving oral, fucking against a desk, (symbolic) lipstick-covered motel sex, m-receiving oral, cowgirl); implied angst; non-idol!AU - office worker!Taehyung x assassin!reader (John Wick-esque)

Inspired by Methadone by Rise Against. The italicized bits are parts of the lyrics sprinkled throughout the story. If you like rock, check ‘em out!

--

The last time was a five-star hotel, but this time was a dingy motel, and you dressed appropriately. Thin-strapped flimsy black dress, kitschy animal print fur coat, strappy heels, and torn stockings, stumbling along the halls, ignored by others because you were mumbling under your breath, empty bottle in your hand, hair astray and makeup smeared.

No one wants a dirty-looking prostitute, and especially not a crazy one.

If anyone bothered to look at your face, they would have noticed how beautiful you were, caked under layers of makeup. They would have noticed that despite your erratic steps and nonsensical words, your eyes were shockingly clear, observing everything, hawk-like and hyper-focused. They would have seen that you took care not to move your left side too much, the thick fur hiding a barely-there lump.

You tipped into a door and tripped into the motel room.

The door instantly snapped closed behind your fallen body.

Locked.

love like a needle full of methadone

You rolled onto your back, looking up. Kim Taehyung stared down at you.

How did it come to this?

potent but not real, left you wanting more lipstick track-marks bleeding wet

It had only been a job, a woman this time. The higher-ups usually had you take the women. It was easy, but you needed an in, and Kim Taehyung had been that in. He was aware of what was happening and he was getting paid to keep his mouth shut. The first time you met him had been calm, neutral smiles as you greeted the tall, dark-haired man. You had worn appropriate office attire, slightly ill-fitted pants, starchy white dress shirt, big glasses, prim bun. Taehyung had greeted you at the door of the company he worked at. Your role was an outsourced advisor to help the company heads improve productivity and workflow. Taehyung led you around the floors, showing you various things, but none of it mattered. What mattered was the information Taehyung would provide you after hours. Names, schedules, addresses.

The woman had also worked at this company.

Had.

You did not ask for the reasoning. Embezzlement? Public shame? Had blackmail on someone? Had sex with the wrong rich man or woman? It didn’t matter. People die in senseless ways every day and one more meant nothing to you. That was your great skill, a skill unmatched by any other.

No remorse.

Perfect for the murder business.

And, like one truly born from the Eastern cultural mindset, instead of trying to get help or cure yourself of your apathy, you monetized your skill by becoming an assassin.

for us child, the stars refuse to shine why for us child, do the stars refuse to shine?

You followed the woman for weeks. The timing was important. Patience was key. Blending in, a different guise every week, a different method planned every day. The thing about killing for hire was that if you didn’t want to be caught, you couldn’t have a pattern. If you didn’t settle on a method, it couldn’t be connected back to you. That was the way you liked to do things.

The perfect weapon, a dangerous method.

The higher-ups were impatient, but you didn’t care. You knew what must be done and, when you’re the one doing the dirty work, you didn’t let them question you. If they wanted this to end a different way, they would have used a different assassin. But they chose you for a reason. You always had the cleanest kill, completely untraceable.

No one would ever know the Circle was involved.

It was a spotless erasure.

The reward was hefty, and, throughout the years, you earned far more than any human needed in their lifetime. Money was never your drive, but you took it all. You knew your own worth. Your work was too good to be underappreciated.

Taehyung was in on it. He knew it was going to happen. He gave you the name, the address, her usual timetable. He presented it all to you, without question, on a shadowy, starless night. You stared into his dark brown eyes, wondering why he could do such a thing. He held your gaze, dark hair pushed back, sculpted brows, serious expression. You wondered if he was broken like you, but that sort of thing was impossible.

There is no one as unhinged as you.

“Why are you this business?” he asked quietly in his deep, baritone voice.

It wasn’t accusing or beseeching. It was simply a question, no flaff attached to it.

“Because I’m well-suited for it.” You tapped the side of your head. Unsmiling. “Some screws fell loose when I was molded from the clay.”

Taehyung kept his gaze on you, blinking slowly. You expected him to recoil in disdain, be confused, or simply retreat from your unsmiling, vacant demeanor. Instead, he took a step closer.

“You shouldn’t need screws when molding from clay.”

One step closer, looking down, casting shadows all over his face.

“You only need screws when you’re making a machine.”

Taehyung leaned in and kissed you.

we wound up back here again

Fucking.

It was always a means to an end, something you did to fulfill that carnal need, a need that you did not understand very well, but it was there, and, like a starving beast, it demanded to be satisfied. Taehyung kissing you in a random office twelve stories up in a random skyscraper didn’t mean much.

But there was no consequence either.

You grabbed his head and crashed your lips to his again.

The risks were low. You knew everything about Kim Taehyung. The higher-ups of the Circle briefed you on him. You had his education history, knew every apartment he had lived in and every girlfriend he had ever dated. Had access to his credit card history, his medical records, everything.

He knew nothing about you.

Taehyung didn’t know you had no traceable past, didn’t know you had no home, didn’t know you belonged to the most powerful group of assassins the world has ever had the misfortune to create, didn’t know how many nights you spent in and out of consciousness, body traumatized and stitched back together, for you, a tool of the Circle, to be used once more.

This was your choice. Anyone could get out.

You just have to ask to die.

You sucked on his tongue and he groaned in your mouth, hands sliding between your arms to grasp your buttons and undo them one by one, thrusting his tongue in your mouth as he did so. Your breathing deepened, surrounding yourself with his warm herbal scent, fingers sinking into his cheeks, your shirt coming apart and his hands diving in, kneading your breasts with his strong hands.

Saying nothing.

There was nothing to say, because it was senseless, foolish, the worst idea imaginable. Yet, despite your demure and borderline unflattering appearance, Taehyung could see your hawk-like and hyper-focused gaze. You caught him watching you, not just your body, but your eyes, taking every opportunity to observe them. You could see his mind memorizing the shape, the iris color, the position of every lash.

Against your lips, he whispered, locking you with his stare.

“Your eyes are art to me.”

Taehyung knew. He must know that you were a highly trained assassin, which was only a pretty word for paid serial killer. It made you the lowest of the low, the worst kind of human being, the kind that does not deserve compliments or sweet nothings.

He pushed your head back and licked your neck, up your trachea, collarbone to chin, leaving a long, wet stripe of saliva.

The unnatural action made your shiver in his hands.

He kissed down, scooping your breasts out, nicking your skin with his teeth, not asking, but aware that you could break his neck at any second. The Circle could call you right now and tell you Kim Taehyung needed to die and you would kill him without hesitation or remorse.

His lips closed around your nipple and his dark eyes were on yours once more.

There were no stars tonight.

The world that you and Taehyung had created in this spare office was only lit from below by the unsuspecting city through the window.

He sucked hard. He used teeth. He licked and pulled and streams of saliva dripped down your chest, your body shuddering in his hands, hands falling back onto the desk and leaning back, Taehyung over you, your shirt falling down your upper arms, the euphoric rush almost unbearable, too much feeling for your empty heart.

No talking, no words, nothing but sound. Gasps, slurping, kissing down your stomach, skin being scraped with teeth and hands, Taehyung’s dark eyes on your face, always on your face, and you looked down at him, watching him undo your slacks, never losing control, not even as he pushed your panties down and snaked his tongue in between your folds. Your jaw clenched as his warmth invaded yours, your hand fitting on the back of his head, curling your fingers in his hair, a solid grip that could not be broken unless he finished his job. His tongue slid in and flicked your clit, stroking its ego, your hips grinding into his face, nearly suffocating him, but Taehyung said nothing, his stare never leaving, almost unnerving, but you didn’t care.

Slicker, stronger, rougher, his lips closing in, sucking and licking, teeth nicking your clit, his hands on your ass and nails digging in, pushing you to him and lengthening the stroke of your hips to his face, flooding his mouth with sweet honey and his ears with savage snarls, his eyebrow cocking, the only indication that he was asking for you to cum, fingers splayed over your ass cheeks.

You sucked in a breath and bucked into his face, hissing, clit almost painfully throbbing, and Taehyung finally shut his eyes, groaning as he drank it all like he was trapped in the desert and your leaking core was his oasis.

He didn’t bother murmuring your name.

It wasn’t your real name anyway.

like unstable chemicals combining only to explode

Assassins don’t need to procreate.

You were given options.

You chose complete removal.

Your uterus was probably in some biohazardous landfill, rotting away.

The only visible scar was mixed with the thousands all over your skin. It didn’t mean much to you.

Taehyung removed his face from between your legs, strings of your cum all over his chin. They snapped and hung downwards, so viscous that they just suspended there. He wiped it up his skin and licked it off, breathing hard.

Maybe that was all he wanted, but that was not all you wanted.

You yanked him up by his tie, nearly making him choke, and then his orgasm-stained breath was in your face. You pushed his face to the side, fitting your chin to his broad shoulder and inhaled that comforting herbal scent, the scent of Taehyung, and you unbuckled his pants, pushing them down, sliding your hand under the waistband of his underwear and pulling his already hard cock out. He gasped into your neck, grabbing your arm, but you growled, pumping his length roughly, making it swell to its full girth in your hand.

You knew how big he was. It was recorded in his medical record.

what would it take for you to notice

You pulled one of your legs out of your pants, fitted it around his waist, and shoved him inside you, grimacing, your ass against the desk. Taehyung pulled his head back, dark brown eyes wide, shocked that you took him so fast but, to you, pain was life, and this was nothing. In fact, it was welcome pain, being stretched out, sinking down on him, maintaining eye contact.

“What if–”

“It’s not possible for me to get pregnant anymore.”

He searched your eyes, looking for the lie. He mouthed the word, anymore, and there were questions, but you cared not for them, slapping your hips to his and he gasped, grabbing your leg and fucking you hard, right into the desk, sloppy, wet, but so much force, lifting you a little to sit you partially on the wood and then pound you harder, practically impaling you with his large cock. Even then, your back didn’t arch. Even then, your head didn’t tilt back. You were panting, primal noises at your throat, and his eyes were on yours, and then your moans and his moans matched, both of you committing arson, setting your worlds ablaze with lust, your nails scraping against the desk and his nails piercing your thigh, leaving bruises and marks.

Taehyung leaned in, a heavy sigh and wanton hiss, your hot breath mixing with his, loud slaps of skin on skin, his cock brutally slamming into you, your pussy tightening all around him. In an instant, one particularly jarring thrust and you felt the rush igniting all your nerves at once, a wordless gasp between your bodies as it all crashed down on him. He grunted, jaw set, closing one eye at the force of your orgasm milking his out, cramming your tightness full of his release, hot strings painting your insides, wasted in the name of senseless desire.

i am a heart on fire and all the world's a fuse so don't get close

And now, in this dingy motel, dressed like a cheap whore, you looked up at Kim Taehyung, clad in a plain green sweater vest and t-shirt, light wash jeans ripped up and showing off his muscular legs. He stood out more than you, his strong and handsome features far too difficult to disguise, but he was no one of note, a simple company man who would never be investigated for anything because he was insignificant on paper. There was nothing for Kim Taehyung to hide.

Nothing except his nights with you.

the trouble and the worth am i better off on my own?

You got off the floor and went to the bathroom to wipe off your face, frowning at the amount you had piled on to mask most of your features. Taehyung waited patiently, as he had all this time. He didn’t want to see you with all that on either. You washed your face and came out of the bathroom, shouldering out of your fur coat and draping it on a rickety chair, nearly collapsing it with the weight.

Revealing your gun holster.

It sat on your left side, within easy reach of your right hand. You had a limited number of bullets. You never wasted your shot. This wasn’t an action movie. You unclicked the buckle holding it against your body and set it on the table, the modern tool of murder looking ominously black against the cheap wood, machine-carved patterns trying to make it look fancy, but the poor staining gave away all the mechanical mistakes.

“Is that for me?”

You looked up to the deep voice.

Taehyung gazed back at you, expression unreadable, but clearly referring to the gun. His hair wasn’t styled, black-brown curls shading his forehead, parted in the middle. Hands in his pockets, ass against the end of the bed.

“No.”

A simple answer with no further explanation.

The Circle did not instruct you to kill Taehyung, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t at some point.

They were ruthless.

Taehyung was not looking at your skimpy clothes or your bare arms and legs. His eyes were on yours, as they always were, revealing his intent, hiding nothing. He had an intimidating stare and you had a pointed one, sharpened to drink in every observation until it was a part of your memory.

There was a bottle of red wine open on one of the nightstands, with one used wine glass.

Taehyung spread legs for you, as he did many times before.

You sometimes wondered why he continued with this. There was nothing he gained from it other than the actual sex itself. Did he feel sorry for you? Did he do it because fucking a murderer was an unattainable high in itself? Did he like you? Was he just killing time like how you killed other human beings? In some way you had contaminated him, and now Taehyung could not go back to his vaguely innocent life.

It didn’t matter what the reason was.

Better you not know.

He pulled one of his hands out of his pocket, opening an object with one hand. It was a black and gold tube of red lipstick. Shockingly red, far too expensive for someone like you, with those iconic overlapping C’s. He twisted it up. His other hand appeared and beckoned you to him.

You stepped up. Taehyung handed you the tube of lipstick, looking up at you, unsmiling but strangely satisfied. He produced a cheap pocket mirror from his other pocket. Held it in front of you.

You applied the red lipstick from the bullet, right onto your full lips.

Smooth, swift strokes.

Recapped the tube and handed it back to him.

Taehyung tossed it and the mirror onto the bed behind him and cupped your cheeks, kissing you right away.

damaged goods they soon forget in choking dust where we got left

Smearing the lipstick everywhere, red track-marks all over your neck and cheeks, lips and teeth working you. The satin finish was slippery, leaving streaks on his chin as well, heavy gasps of breath mixing between your bodies as you took his face in your hands, kissing him all over too, tangling your fingers in his hair and pulling it back, painting smears like bloodstains all over his golden tan skin, Taehyung moaning depravedly under you.

Your teeth scraped right against his Adam’s apple and his eyelids fluttered, quickly righting themselves to look at you through his long, dark lashes.

He reached back and felt around for the tube of lipstick, holding it out to you once more.

The mirror was face up on the bed, reflecting a small slice of this particular circle of hell you and Taehyung had created in this motel room.

You took the red lipstick.

for us all the stars refuse to shine

His vest and t-shirt disappeared, suddenly fading into the background, body pushed back onto the bed by your strong hands, toned chest exposed and you climbing over him, lips painted already, quite accurately despite the mess on your face already. The tube was once again recapped, rolling across the cheap duvet. The bedsprings shrieked, metal grating against metal, but that was a common sound in this sinful place, a place where all bad deeds come to be executed.

Adultery.

Drug use.

Death.

All of the above, sometimes.

You stared into those dark brown eyes and sculpted brows, beautiful lips parted and smeared with scarlet, all the way down to his collarbones and you leaned forward, kiss prints all over his pecs, Taehyung’s rumbling deep baritone above you, noises of pleasure and praise, nonverbal but just as communicative, breath hitching as you sucked on his skin, adding purple to the red. Your tongue flicked against his dark nipple, staining it with red lipstick, the floral taste in your mouth now, but it didn’t matter. The pleasure more important, lips closing around the hardened nub, flicking it with your tongue, your hand trailing down his chest.

Taehyung touched your hand and turned one of your nails inward.

Your fingers curled and you raked your nails down his torso.

He moaned above you, arching his back to receive more pain.

so tap the vein and light the match we burn like stars before the crash

Every time, it felt better, more intense, your nails and your lips on his hot skin, his sound above your head, the depth of his voice vibrating his chest cavity. Down, down, undoing his pants, yanking down his underwear, and soon they faded into the background too, his naked body before you, covered in slashes of red lipstick, gasping for breath, dark brown eyes on yours.

He didn’t say your name, because he still didn’t know it.

There was nothing to know.

You didn’t have a name.

The orphanage picked one for you all those years ago, but it was no longer a part of you, lost in a fire that tragically killed your paper trail, turning you into a meaningless existence, merely a cog in the Circle’s machine. Cared for and shrouded by the shadows, adding you to a part of their watch.

You were a very important cog, but a cog nonetheless.

“Taehyung.”

Those brown orbs widened, stained lips parting.

“Yeah?”

There was too much fondness in that low tone.

but for you there's still a chance, just let go

You just stared at him.

His breathing deepened, swallowing hard. His long fingers buried into the cheap bedding, his eyes darkening as his chin lowered, licking his lips slowly. He watched you from underneath his lashes, cocking an eyebrow.

“Do whatever,” he finally breathed. “I’ll take anything.”

Your gaze flickered down and he was already hard. Something about your eyes. You dropped down, tongue sliding out, wetly running over the thick length. Taehyung sucked a breath through his teeth, hand coming up to wipe his mouth and plant back down on the bed, staining the sheets with marks of your meeting.

You wrapped your lips around it and it pulsed in your mouth, getting bigger as you lowered your head, still looking at his face, watching him shiver and groan at your lipstick-covered lips enveloping his throbbing cock. You took it all, hitting the back of your throat, so fucking much that you could barely breathe, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the sheer ecstasy painted over Taehyung’s handsome features, turning into drawn-out gasps as you began to move, bobbing up and down, your hands on the bed, neck straining from being stuffed full of cock. You could smell him every time you reached the base, that warm herbal scent flooding your nose, his thick length twitching in your mouth, fighting the tightness of your throat. You hollowed out your cheeks, tongue rubbing against the bottom, and Taehyung’s pitch hiked, biting his lip, lashes fluttering, pants shallowing.

“Fuck, oh, fuck…”

He was already filling your mouth to the brim, swollen head punching the back of your throat, bruising it in all the right ways, your moans trapped in your chest as you sped up, sucking harder, your fingertips brushing against his skin and spreading the lipstick-laced saliva all over his balls, adding to the sensation, Taehyung crying out as he looked into your hyper-focused eyes, his own pupils blown so wide they seemed to overtake the iris, starless and consuming all the pleasure you gave him.

He clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth, suddenly gasping as he came, shooting into the roof of your mouth, the scorching heat splattering against your throat and pooling there, so much and so thick that for a second you stopped to roll your eyes back, drinking his strong taste, before shoving his cock into your mouth again, fucking his cum down your throat so your were forced to gulp it down, barely breathing, enjoying your self-produced lightheadedness and Taehyung’s wail of protest, too sensitive to take your sudden rough pace, hand clawing at the air.

You slowed, licking him all over, soft, so soft, so much saliva, his stiff cock still dribbling out his orgasm for you to lap up.

His eyes on you again.

but now there's nowhere to run and yeah, there's nowhere to hide

And now you were naked, covered in red lipstick and his bites, straddling his lower torso, Taehyung licking between your breasts as you slid your ass down onto his still wet length, painted in Chanel, saliva, and cum, reaching down to reposition him at your entrance, his eyes shimmering, hazing out, high on you. Reflecting your form poised over him, a shadow with no morality.

You sank down and he moaned, low and deep, large hands on your waist and thigh, leading you. The thin walls of the motel did nothing to hide the screaming, the crying, the bed squeaks all around you two, above and below, whispers of devious deeds being performed meters away, but none of these things mattered. Your arms circled his broad shoulders and, as always, you were face to face, hawk-like, hyper-focused, and he was in front of you, fucked-out as your ass smacked into his balls, taking all of him, stretched out to an almost painful point.

He still didn’t know your name, so instead of saying it, his hand lifted and touched your chin, bringing your face to him, a slow, messy, pining kiss, your hips rolling into his, his moans wandering into your lips, eyes half-open to watch yours, your body shuddering with need, imploring you to fuck harder, rougher, to chase your pleasure, to chase it without abandon. You shoved Taehyung down onto the bed and smacked your hips into his, hissing at the jarring sensation of your tight hole being violently expanded by his long, thick length, nails digging into his tan skin. Taehyung harmonized with your lewd moans, husky depth adding to your heavy pants, following your rhythm and bouncing his ass on the hard mattress, hitting your deeper and more forcefully.

His hand fitted over yours, locking his fingers in between your spread ones, clutching tight, louder, louder, metal bedsprings screaming, your pants shallowing, staring down at Taehyung’s face covered with scarlet lipstick smears and dark brown curls sticking to his forehead.

what would it take for you to notice that i am a hand grenade pin already pulled so don't let go 

You wiggled your hips, smacking his hardness against your walls and clenching down, ruining yourself, ruining him, feral cries and satisfied hisses mixing with Taehyung’s deep baritone, one of his hands interlocked around yours, time ticking down and ready to detonate, trapped in the murky expanse of Taehyung’s brown orbs, heartbeat roaring in your ears, so loud it felt like it was the only sound you could hear, everything fading out except Taehyung’s face and you bouncing onto his cock, nails digging into his pecs.

“Taehyung…”

Your voice, wretched.

Like a guitar string snapping suddenly while being played.

You threw your head back, overtaken by the explosive fire racing through your gasoline veins, ignited by your orgasm shattering through your core and firing upwards, pussy convulsing and clutching Taehyung’s cock mercilessly, making his eyes roll back and his head slam into the pillows, knuckles white as he gripped your hand tight, whining on the top of his lungs, the high shooting from you to him, cock jolting and spurting thick gushes of cum upwards, right into you.

A violent crescendo of illicit ecstasy.

Someone smashed something against the wall next door, most likely a lamp.

You slumped onto Taehyung’s chest, body trembling with shivers of pleasure. His torso rumbled, struggling for breath, releasing your hand and wrapping his arms around you. Nothing romantic about being covered in red lipstick, saliva, and cum dribbling out of your hole.

Taehyung shoved his chin into your hair and trapped you there for a long while.

as we chase the sun my shadow slows us down

You didn’t say anything as he cleaned you up and you cleaned him up, both sitting in the narrow, half-full, yellowed tub, far too close together, practically in each other’s lap, using bleached hotel towels to wipe off the lipstick and cum with lukewarm water.

You raised your head, hair stringy and clinging to your skin.

His dark hair was plastered to his natural glowing tan.

You leaned forward.

Taehyung waited.

You pressed your lips to his.

A touch.

you're better off and i know

You drew back.

Remembering your gun sitting on the table outside the bathroom.

Remembering the man that you had shot hours before, staging it like a suicide.

What did that man do? You didn’t ask, didn’t know. Didn’t want to know. An old man who maybe had grandkids, great-grandkids. Maybe he ruined the lives of his hired labor, staining them with sin. Maybe he was at the wrong time and wrong place. Maybe he was guiltier than you, taking victims and leaving them to suffer with traumatic memories that could ever be erased.

You stared into Taehyung’s eyes, feeling no remorse.

Taehyung took your hand.

Squeezed it tight, so tight his knuckles were white and it felt like your fingers were being crushed.

You let him hold it for ten seconds.

Then you reached over and peeled his fingers off, one by one.

Got out of the tub, picking up the towel from the ground. Drying off your body, not looking at him. Put your clothes back on, hair still wet and cold. Holster on, jacket over it. The second you opened the motel door, you were the drunken, unstable prostitute once again, mumbling under your breath, speaking to voices unknown, pointedly ignored and avoided by everyone around you, even as you stumbled through the city, wet hair swinging, the only reminder that Taehyung had been with you, dripping water onto the sidewalk.

You looked down at your hand.

The hand that could kill.

The hand Kim Taehyung squeezed and would squeeze again, barring you didn’t kill yourself by being in the murder business. When Taehyung finally got out of the bath, he would once again find the large wad of cash you had left.

Money was never the drive.

Kim Taehyung made anonymous donations to various charities in your stead, his accounting background knowing exactly how to fumble the numbers and names. He and you would never be suspected. He was a real human being, one who cared about those around him. He would know where to put the money, know how needed it most. You wouldn’t.

You didn’t know anything about compassion.

You didn’t know anything about kindness.

You didn’t know anything about love.

you're better off and i know and i know

--

masterpost

[dp-marvel94]

The First Night

Summary: For Phic Phight 2021, Prompt by @amabsis  A sixteen years old Danny Fenton helps his fourteen year old counterpart through his first night as a ghost.

Word Count: 7,795

Also on AO3 and fanfiction.net

Prompt: Season 3 Danny Phantom gets transported to the past and only Season 1 Danny Fenton can see him

“That’s not how it happened.” Danny frowned, looking through one of Clockwork’s time windows. 

The window showed the empty lab as a fourteen year old Danny stumbled out of the newly activated portal. The boy was hyperventilating, green eyes widening as he stared in horror at his glowing hands. In Clockwork’s lair, Danny shivered; he couldn’t hear the words but he could guess them. No. No. No. A sting of panicked denials from the boy in the scene. Of course, Danny could guess them; he’d been in the same position, felt the same fear. But….

“Where’s Sam and Tucker?” The sixteen year old quietly asked, his heart aching. He turned to look at the Ancient ghost who was floating beside him. “They’re supposed to be there.”

Clockwork frowned. “That isn’t your timeline.” He motioned towards the window, for Danny to continue watching.

Across the screen, the other Danny was stumbling across the lab before throwing the bathroom door open. He froze in front of the mirror, his green eyes wide with fear. He reached forward, seeming to verify he was in fact looking at a mirror. Then the boy recoiled. His chest heaved, eyes watering. 

“This is a timeline where you were alone during your accident.” His mentor explained.

In front of the pair, there was a flash of light. A ring of light formed around the other Danny’s waist, turning him human. He stumbled, gasping as he touched down. The boy stared at his now bare hands. Relief passed over his face for an instant...before his hand disappeared. The other Danny’s mouth opened in what was likely a scream.

Danny ripped his eyes away, unable to watch any longer as his own memories of his accident hit him. So very similar except...Sam and Tucker were beside him. The goth’s teary eyes as she realized he was a ghost. Their frantic questions and panicked footsteps as he rushed to the bathroom. Their shock and then relief when he turned human. Tucker’s hand on his wrist, checking his pulse. The technogeek’s surprised scream as Danny’s hand turned intangible and fell through his friend’s hand. Renewed panic. Sam’s comforting hands on his back. His friends helping him stumble up the stairs and to his bedroom.

In Clockwork’s lair, Danny shivered, feeling his eyes water. His mentor’s hundreds of clocks ticked around the pair, the Master of Times’ comforting arm around him.

Danny remained frozen like that for a while, the memories replaying. His accident had been terrifying and stressful, the source of many nightmares but….he’d had his friends with him. 

His heart clenched, looking up at the screen. The image showed his other self, huddled on his bed and crying. 

Danny hadn’t been alone but...the boy on the screen, his other self, had been. The sixteen year old frowned. He could hardly imagine that yet it had happened to another version of himself, was happening in front of him and….

“What will happen to him now?” The boy asked, his stomach flopping with worry.

Clockwork remained silent for a moment, his brow furrowed as if in thought. Then he turned red eyes onto Danny. “It is not a favorable timeline.” The old ghost mused sadly. “If things continue, he will never tell his friends. He will push them away and his family as well. It will be a sad, lonely existence. And likely a short one.”

Danny paled, eyes widening. That sounded horrible, painful. He could imagine it, feeling so isolated and afraid. He wouldn’t wish that on this worst enemy and….he shivered… while the circumstances were vastly different, something reminded him far too much of another alternative timeline he’d seen, one Clockwork had diverted him from.

The boy looked at the screen, frowning. “Can you do something, Clockwork?”

The older ghost looked down at him, frowning thoughtfully. He tapped his chin, humming. “I myself cannot...however….”

Danny perked up. “What is it?” Clockwork floated purposefully away, holding up a finger. “Clockwork?”

His mentor flew to a rack along the wall and grabbed a familiar looking device. The older ghost returned, depositing the gear shaped medallion in Danny’s hands.

The boy furrowed in brow in confusion before realization hit him. He looked up, frowning. “Me? What can I do?”

Clockwork motioned to the screen again. “You can ensure he doesn’t spend his first night as a ghost alone.”

Danny looked at the window, remembering. His first night after the accident...watching a movie with Sam and Tucker. Them comforting him while chills wracked his body, his limbs turning invisible and intangible against his will. On the bed, his younger counterpart was still crying.

In the lair, the boy steeled himself and put on the medallion. He turned to the Master of Time. “Alright. What do I need to do?”

Clockwork nodded, looking pleased. “Keep that on. It will prevent anyone other than your alternative self from seeing you. In the morning, I will summon a portal for you to return here.”

Danny tilted his head. “So….if I take this off….?”

His mentor raised a brow. “You will remain in place, though visible to everyone.”

The boy blinked. “That’s not how it worked last time.”

The Master of Time just gave him a mischievous look and motioned to the screen. “Go on. I trust you will not divulge too much of the future.”

Danny rolled his eyes, used to his mentor’s evasiness. But at the same time….his stomach flopped with nerves. Could he do this? Could he actually do this? He’d never been that good at comforting people but....the boy he was going to help wasn’t just anyone. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and floated through the window.

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

Danny blinked, blue light swirling around him. A moment later, he was floating in a dark bedroom. His eyes roved over the familiar surroundings: his NASA posters and rocket models, scattered books and clothes, half finished homework on the desk. And on the bed….the sound of crying hitched and the other Danny shivered.

Slowly, the boy sat up. His arms wrapped around himself, as if he was cold. And Danny knew, he likely was; his very presence always chilled the room when he was in ghost form, and it had just gotten more intense since his ice powers had activated. On the bed, his younger self’s eyes widened in fear, his mouth falling open.

Instantly, Danny was hit with a sense of dread. He helped his hands out in front of him. “Wait. Hold on. It’s-”

The younger Danny’s eyes flickered from the ghost to his door. “Ghost!” He screamed, chest heaving.

The older boy paled. “No. Stop. I’m-”

Heavy feet pounded down the hall and the bedroom door flung open, the light of the hallway spilling into the dark room. “Where’s the ghost?!” The large ghost hunter demanded, holding an ectogun.

Shakily, the younger Danny pointed across the room, directly at his older counterpart. His dad’s head turned, eyes narrowing. Then his brow furrowed in confusion. “Where is it?”

Danny flinched at being called an it, his heart pounding anxiously. Self consciously, he turned invisible.

His younger self’s eyes darted from his father to the spot the ghost had been occupying. “You didn’t...you didn’t see…?” His voice raised up in question and he rubbed his eyes.

Danny shifted nervously in the air. The man was still staring through him, unseeing. And his younger self was still gaping, his fear turning into confusion. 

“What is it, son?” Dad turned, looking at the younger boy in concern.

The younger Danny blinked rapidly in disbelief. “I guess….I was seeing things.” He frowned. “Must have been a nightmare.”

His dad lowered the gun. “Do you want to talk about it?”

The boy shook his head, frowning. “No. I…” He shivered and then looked at his hand, his eyes widening. “I’m...I’m fine.” He stuffed the appendage under his covers. “It’s fine. I just want to…” He faked a yawn. “Go back to sleep.” He blinked up at Dad, trying to look innocent.

The man furrowed his brow, looking unsure. “If you’re sure…”

The boy stretched, yawning exaggeratedly. “Yeah. It’s fine...I’m...just gonna..go back to sleep.” His gaze flickered from the door to where Danny was floating invisibly, before he gave Dad a sheepish smile.

Dad still looked uncertain but after a moment, he stepped back. “Alright. Sleep well, Danno.”

The boy nodded. “Night, Dad.”

The man closed the door, seemingly leaving his son alone. On the bed, Danny’s younger self put his head in his hands. “I’m losing it. First the stupid…” He shivered, again, hands disappearing. “Stupid body. Stupid portal.” He gritted his teeth. “Now I’m seeing things.”

Danny floated forward, his heart sinking. He needed to do something, to comfort his increasingly distressed younger counterpart. He stopped, hovering at the edge of the bed. With a thought, he returned to visibility. “You’re not seeing things.”

The younger Danny’s head whipped up, his eyes widening. He opened his mouth, likely to shout again.

His own eyes widening, the ghost boy reflexively covered the human’s mouth. “Please don’t scream.”

The other boy shook his head, his eyes pinching closed. He whimpered.

Danny’s lip trembled, sudden regret hitting him. “No. Don’t be scared. I’m here to help you.”

This younger self shook his head again. He was shaking, with fear and stress.

“Danny. Please. You’re safe.” The older boy begged.

His counterpart stiffened at his name, his eyes slowly peeking open and then widening in realization. His brow furrowed in confusion as he searched the other boy’s face.

Slowly, Danny removed his hand.

His younger self’s mouth opened and closed. Finally, he muttered. “Why do you look like me?”

Danny swallowed, preparing himself. “ ‘Cause I am you.” He said, as kindly as he could.

The other Danny blinked, frowning. “But….you’re a ghost?”

His older self looked down at his glowing hands. He raised a brow. “Yeah? So are you.”

The younger Danny tensed, his shoulders raising. “No. I’m not. I’m not a ghost. That’s ridiculous. I’m...I’m me. And you’re….” He pointed. “How do I know you’re not tricking me?”

Danny sighed, running fingers through his hair. “Alright….how about this?” He summoned the light of his transformation. A breath later and he was heavy and warm. 

His younger self’s head whipped back and he let out a squeak.

Danny gave him a disarming smile and held out a hand. “I have a heartbeat, see?”

Tentatively, the other boy reached forward. His brow furrowed in concentration. Then awed surprise covered his face. “I can feel it.”

“Yeah.” Danny smiled. “I’m alive, obviously. But I’m a ghost too. Just like you.”

“Okay.” His younger self took a breath. “Okay. But...how?”

“Well….the accident…” He started.

The other boy shook his head. “No. I…..” He bit his lip. “If you’re me then...then, tell me something only I would know.”

Danny sighed, eyeing a spot on the bed. “Can I sit here?” His counterpart rose a brow before shuffling over. His older self then huffed, flopping onto the bed. “So… I never told Sam and Tucker this but….really, I wanted to get the portal to work so Mom and Dad would be proud of me.” He looked down, rubbing his neck. “They were so upset that the portal didn’t start and….I hated seeing them like that. They’d been spending so much time working on it and...I thought if I got it to work they’d be so happy and they’d be proud of me...but...well…” He bit his lip. “You know what happened.”

There was silence for a while, only the sound of both boy’s breathing. Then the younger Danny finally spoke. “Okay. That’s….damn.... That’s heavy. That’s...that’s a lot. But…. I get it. I...I know I’d probably never tell someone else that but it’s true so….” He sighed. “I believe you.”

Danny nodded. “Good.” He rubbed the back of his neck, meeting his counterpart’s eyes. “It would have been super awkward if you didn’t believe me after that.”

The other boy shook his head, even half smiling. “Yeah. So...you’re me but” His eyes trailed his older self’s body again. “….from the future?”

“Yep. From about two years from now. I’m sixteen.”

The younger Danny nodded, biting his lip. “So...two years and I can still...uhh...because of the accident...I can still….”

“Turn into a ghost?” His older counterpart offered.

The boy flinched. “No. I’m not...whatever that was, I’m not a...a ghost.” Almost as if his core sensed his denial, another shiver wracked his body. He flickered intangible and started sinking through the bed with a distressed cry.

Danny reached forward, turning his own hand intangible to grab the younger boy’s wrist. With a combination of ghostly enhanced strength and transferred weightlessness, he pulled the other out of the bed. After a few seconds, his counterpart returned to solidity and Danny let go, allowing him to drop back down onto the mattress.

The younger Danny gritted his teeth, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Stupid...whatever this is!”

“They’re ghost powers, because you’re-” Danny started to explain.

His younger self glared. “Not a ghost. I’m just….sick..or something. The stupid portal-” He shivered again, this time light sparking around his waist.

The older boy frowned, knowing what it signified. At the same time, a memory hit him. Himself sitting on the bed in the dark, that same light trying to overtake him. Heart pounding with terrified, panicked fear. Sam and Tucker trying to calm him down.

“No. NO. What’s happening?!” The younger boy panted, fearfully. “No. Stop!” He pinched his eyes closed, as if trying to push the feeling away. The ring of light disappeared for a second before flaring again. Then he groaned and curled in on himself. “No. Stop! I don’t...I don’t want..” His brow furrowed as he forced the light away again but it just reappeared. “Not again! Please. Stop. I’m not… I’m not….” His breath heaved, tears starting to well in his eyes.

Danny’s core ached at the sight. “Danny…” He started, quietly saying his other self’s name.

The younger boy looked up, glaring. “Stop just staring! Help me.”

“I’m trying.” Danny muttered, feeling chastised. That earned him an annoyed growl, which he completely deserved. So he took a breath, steeling himself. He could do this. 

The boy put a hand on his younger counterpart’s arm. “Don’t fight it.”

“What?” His alternative self demanded.

“That light...your body’s trying to turn into your ghost form.” Danny explained.

“Ghost form?! But… I don’t wanna be a ghost!” There was another groan as the light flared again.

“I know.” The older half ghost squeezed, comfortingly. “I know. I know...I remember how scary this is. But...you’ll be okay, Danny. It’ll be okay. So don’t fight it. Let it happen.”

“But...I don’t...I don’t want this. Please! Make it stop! It hurts.”

“I know. I know.” Danny soothed. “But it’ll stop hurting if you stop fighting and change.”

“Please. Please don’t make me.” The younger boy begged, a tear falling from his eyes.

“Listen to me.” Danny insisted. “I promise, you’ll be okay. You’ll be able change back after. And your body needs this. It’s trying to get used to your new powers. But you’re safe. I’m right here. You can do this.”

Shakily, the younger Danny looked up, meeting his counterpart’s eyes. “You promise?”

Danny gave him a half smile. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’ve been through this already and I turned out okay. So will you.”

The other boy nodded, his brow unfurrowing slightly. He breathed out and the white light dancing over his skin coalesced into a ring. It spread, up towards his head and down towards his feet. Danny shivered as the light passed over the arm he was holding, the cold reaching out to touch his own core. The flash left him blinking spots out of his vision. Then he was staring at the familiar ghost boy, floating across from him.

The younger Danny frowned, staring down at his hands with a heart broken expression. “So...it’s...it’s true. I am a ghost.”

“Yes.” Danny said simply.

His counterpart wrinkled his nose, his fists balling. “So I’m some kind of...some kinda...undead freak.”

Danny pulled his hand away, the words painfully jabbing at his heart. “You’re not a freak. You’re just different now. And that’s okay.”

“No it’s not.” His alternative self snapped. “I’m freaking dead.”

“Well...that’s complicated but-” 

The younger Danny crossed his arms, cutting him off. “Well, excuse me. Apparently, I can turn back to normal so I’m not actually dead. Except I’m still a freaking ghost and..and…” His chest heaved. “Mom and Dad freaking hunt ghosts.” His eyes widened. “Ghosts are supposed to be monsters. Unfeeling violent monsters. I’m...I’m gonna…” He covered his mouth, horror struck. “Oh god. What if-”

“Danny.” The older Danny’s hands were on both of the younger’s shoulders. “Look at me.” With a thought, he summoned his own rings and transformed. “Actually look at me.” The younger boy’s mouth snapped shut as he did so. “I’ve been like this for two years. Two years. And I’m still me. I’m not some monster who hurts people for no reason. I still feel things. I still have all my memories. I’m still me.”

His counterpart frowned. “But...I saw….you’re….we’re….still alive too.”

Danny shook his head. “I’ve met other ghosts too. And...Mom and Dad are wrong. Ghosts are just like the living. Yeah, they’re different but….they’re still people too.”

The younger Danny bit his lip. “But..that’s...that could be a trick or….”

The older boy squeezed his shoulders. “Actually, it was a ghost who sent me here.” 

His counterpart frowned. “What? A ghost?”

Danny nodded. “He’s my mentor. He...he saved me. He saved everyone.” He looked down at the last part, his heart clenching at the memory. His hand stretched out, reaching towards his tied up friends and family. The roar of the explosion, the pressure wave throwing him back, the smoke. Then suddenly suspended in the air, Clockwork in front of him. The older ghost waving and his loved ones appearing, unconscious but alive and unharmed.

The boy shook his head, forcing the memory away. “He watches over the timelines so that explains how I’m here. And he couldn’t come here himself but…” He smiled at his younger self. “Neither of us wanted you to have to go through this alone.”

The other Danny starred, looking bewildered for a long moment. Then he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Wow...that’s a lot...”

“Yeah, it is.” Danny nodded, agreeing.

Across from him, the younger boy looked overwhelmed, like he was still unsure what to think of all this. His brow furrowed in thought as he picked at his glowing gloves. He then shivered as his hands turned invisible again. He sighed again. “I still hate this. I feel so weird.”

“I know but...you’ll get used to it soon, I promise.” Danny comforted.

His other self just huffed.

Danny bit his lip, stomach flopping. As he said, he did remember the feeling, how strange being in ghost form was at first. It was unnatural and stifling; the randomness of his powers scared him. And there was seemingly nothing to be done, only wait until he got used to his new normal. But right now, he only had one night with this version of himself and words would only do so much. 

The older boy glanced out the window, the stars twinkling through it. His brow furrowed. Maybe if he could show his younger self….. Danny floated up from his cross legged position.

The younger Danny looked up, questioningly. “What’re you doing?”

Danny offered his hand to pull the other boy up. “I want to show you something.”

His counterpart raised a brow but took the hand. Surprisingly smoothly, he floated to his feet. That is, until he noticed he was floating. He wobbled in the air, eyes widening. “Woah!”

Danny grabbed his other arm, steadying him. “There you go. You’ve got it.”

The younger boy stabilized, his gaze flickering from his feet and back to his other self’s face. “Alright. Okay. Maybe that wasn’t so bad.”

The older boy smiled. “Good.” He motioned toward the window. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” The younger Danny tilted his head.

Danny smiled wider. “We’re going flying.”

His counterpart’s eyes widened in surprise but he didn’t ask any questions, even as Danny pulled him towards the window. The older boy flickered intangible, the power passing over his companion as well and they both phased through the window. The younger gasped but still allowed himself to be pulled along as Danny started ascending. In ten seconds, he rose at least a hundred feet; all the while, the younger Danny watched him curiously.

Danny paused, looking out over the town. “Wow. Look at that view.” He smiled. Stretched out below him was Amity Park. His city. His home. He could see all of it. “There’s the park.” He pointed in front of him. “And Casper High.” He turned, pointing slightly to the left of the school. “The Nasty Burger. And-”

His younger self’s hand, which he was still holding, squeezed, the grip almost painful.

Danny looked down, suddenly worried. “What is it?”

“I don’t...I don’t like this.” His voice trembled. “We’re so...so high.”

“Oh..alright. Sorry…” The older boy frowned, concerned and slightly confused. He didn’t remember being this afraid of heights the first time he flew. But then again, this was a different timeline than his. But still….his ghostly tail flickered under him, nervously.

The younger half ghost’s eyes widened and he jerked away. “What the hell happened to your legs?” Danny glanced down at the same time his counterpart did. The younger stared at his own furiously twitching ghostly tail. “What the hell happened to my legs?” 

 Danny held out his hands. “Hey, it’s okay. That’s normal.”

“Normal!?” The other Danny shouted. “Nothing about this is normal!”

“I know but-” He was cut off by a scream.

Below him, the younger’s mouth fell open in horror as white light flashed around his waist. Before he could breath, the ring passed over him and he turned human. Gravity reengaged and he was falling.

The scene seemed to play out in front of Danny in slow motion. His younger self’s hand stretched out in front of him, eyes wide with terror. Danny reached and dove, his ghostly tail trailing behind him. His heart pounded as he strained, flying faster than gravity could pull him down.

Seconds that felt like minutes later, the older boy grabbed his counterpart. His arm reached around the boy’s chest from the back, looped under the other’s arm pits. Danny resisted against gravity and the pair jerked to a stop.

The younger Danny panted. He shook against the other’s chest until he found his voice. “What the hell?! Are you trying to kill me again?”

“I’m sorry!” Danny flinched. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t...I didn’t think this through.”

“Ya think!” The other yelled, angry struggling to cover his fear. “I’m scared of heights!”

The older Danny frowned. “No you’re not.” He’d never been afraid of heights.

“Well, maybe you’re not. But I’m not you!”

Danny’s brow furrowed at the words. He wanted to comment that that wasn’t exactly correct but…. That felt like the wrong thing to say. Instead, he sighed. “ Alright. How about...let’s just go home.”

The younger didn’t say anything as they slowly descended. The ops center grew closer and closer. Soon, the two were floating just inches above the metal surface. Danny let go of his counterpart and he landed on his feet on the roof.

The ghost remained floated, nervously rubbing his neck as his counterpart turned to face him. The younger frowned. He punched his older version in the arm, a little too hard to be playful. “No offense but that sucked.”

Danny bit his lip. “I am so sorry.” He looked down, cheeks coloring with shame. “I really screwed up. I’m so bad at this.”

The other crossed his arms. “Dude. You should at least know what not to do, based on what happened your first time.”

“My first?” Danny’s brow furrowed in question. Then a realization hit him. “This didn’t happen to me.” He motioned between himself and the younger halfa. “I’m from a different timeline. Dimension?” He shook his head. “Sam and Tucker were in that lab during my accident. And they stayed with me my first night as a half ghost.”

The younger Danny’s expression slowly softened. He uncrossed his arms. “Half ghost?”

“Yeah. That’s what we came up with for this.” He motioned to himself. “The other ghosts call me a halfa though.”

The younger nodded. “Alright. So you're still me. But from another timeline. And older.”

“That’s right.” Danny agreed. He shifted nervously in the air. “Like I said, I wasn’t alone tonight. And...I didn’t want you to be either. And I’m sorry I messed up. I really do want to help so….” He bit his lip. “Whatever you need. If you want to talk about stuff, or get some pointers on your powers, or a distraction? I’ll do whatever you want, okay?”

The other Danny studied him for a moment. “I think...I just want a distraction for now. Maybe we can talk later.”

Danny nodded, touching down on the roof. With a thought, he turned human. He looked up. “That stars are a good distraction... or something else?”

His counterpart smiled. “No. Star gazing’s good. I can always ramble about space.”

The two flopped down on the roof and the younger Danny did just that. He pointed out constellations, talked about far away stars and planets and blackholes. Danny listened. It was nice, being on the other side of this. So this is what he sounded like when he got starstruck. It was also wonderful to see his alternative self relax, to see the corner of his lips turn up into a smile. Then, for just a second, his freckles lit up green. 

The younger half ghost stopped in the middle of his sentence, brow furrowing. His eyes flared green and they widened. “Holy...what that…” He reached upward with one hand, as if he could touch the sky. “What  am I seeing?” He turned to look at his older version.

Danny furrowed his brow for a moment before realizing. He’d long grown used to it; his vision was enhanced at night in either form, even without his eyes glowing. But still... he smiled, turning his eyes back to the night sky, deeper and more vibrate than any human could see. “That’s what the night looks like to a ghost.”

“What?” The younger breathed.

“Ghosts can see better than humans in the dark. Like a hundred times better. So that’s what the sky looks like to you now.” 

“But...it’s…. It looks like...when we go to Aunt Alicia’s and...there’s just so many stars but...there’s more colors? And...it’s deeper?” He pointed. “And that’s the Milky Way!”

Danny chuckled. “Yeah.”

The younger boy sat up, looking down at him. “So...if my eyes are glowing…. ‘Cause apparently, that’s something they do now?....It always looks like this.”

The older nodded. “Actually, it always looks like that to me but….yeah.” Danny sighed, looking wistfully. “That’s my second favorite thing about being half ghost. The first is being able to fly.” He met his counterpart’s eyes. “The stars look even more incredible if you’re above the clouds.” He grinned, teeth gleaming. “But the best view is in space.”

His counterpart’s eyes widened. “Space!? You’ve been to…. You’ve been to space?!”

Danny nodded. “Yeah but...I shouldn’t spoil too much. Just be careful. Don’t try it until you know you’ve got a handle on transforming….actually not until after you met...uh...our mentor so he can bail you out if something happens.”

The younger tapped his chin. “This mysterious mentor again. You gonna tell me who he is?”

“Probably shouldn’t. He won’t be happy if I tell you too much about the future.”

The younger Danny hummed. Then he looked back at the sky. He pointed. “Look! A meteor!”

Danny traced the path with his eyes until it fizzled out. “Did you make a wish?” His counterpart nodded and the older raised a brow. “Are you gonna tell me?”

His alternative self turned. “Hey. You know it won’t come true if you tell someone else.”

“I’m not exactly someone else.”

“But you’re not, not someone else.” The younger chuckled. Then his brow furrowed. “So….you said in your timeline, Sam and Tucker were with you tonight?”

“Yeah. They...We were all really scared but...they helped me figure out what was happening.” He sighed. “I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.”

The younger turned back to look at the sky, frowning.

“What is it?” Danny asked.

“They’re gonna think I’m a freak.” His alternative self whispered. 

Danny frowned. “You don’t really think that.”

The younger raised a brow, as if to say seriously. Then he shivered as a hand turned intangible and sunk into the roof. He groaned. “Not again.” He pulled the limb out and frowned as his hand turned invisible again. “Really? This isn’t going to freak them out?”

The older sighed. “I mean honestly...it might, a little but...they’ll want to understand and help you.”

The other Danny just huffed as his arm reappeared.

“Haven’t they always been there for you?” Danny asked.

His counterpart’s expression softened. “Yeah, they have.”

“So trust them now. They’re your friends.” 

“But…” He worried his lip. “Oh god. How am I even supposed to have that conversation?”

Danny frowned, thinking. He didn’t know how to answer. He hadn’t had to tell them but…. “I guess just go for it. They’ll believe you. And remember they’ll always have your back.”

The other boy said nothing for a long while. Then he glared as his hand disappeared again. “How do I get this to stop?”

The older look at the outline of the invisible limb. “Well….your body’s still adjusting to your powers so it’s going to do that for a while-”

“Wow. That’s a big help.” The younger Danny interrupted.

Danny continued, with an eye roll. “But...for me, it got better after I started practicing my powers.”

The other’s eyes widened and he sat up. “You’re not serious.”

“I am. I had to learn how to turn invisible and intangible on purpose. It was like...my powers wanted to be used. They're a part of me. I couldn't just ignore them and hope they went away. I had to use them."

The younger shook his head. "That sounds wrong. I mean...these are ghost powers." He emphasized the word with worry and just a hint of disgust; the implication was clear.

Danny frowned but his voice was patient and kind. "Yeah, they are. But being a ghost doesn't make you bad, Danny. It's just...a different way of existing."

The fourteen year old studied him for a long moment. Finally, he said. "You really believe that."

The other boy nodded. "Yeah, I do." 

It had taken a while. Practicing his powers with his friends and seeing how comfortable and accepting they were of him. Meeting, talking to, and learning from other ghosts. It was hard to unlearn a lifetime of biases ingrained by his parents and he still felt uncertain at times but it was getting better. (He'd even made headway in changing his parent's beliefs about ghosts but that was another story.)

Across from him, the young Danny sighed. "Alright. That's...I don't know what to think of that but… I guess you can give me some pointers at least and...I'll think about what you said."

"Really?!" Danny's eyes lit up excitedly and he sat up.

The younger joined him in a sitting position. "Yeah." He sighed. "I guess this is the part where you show me the ropes."

"Okay." The older rubbed his hands together. "First… you're gonna need to change into your ghost form." 

His counterpart's eyes widened. "No. Nah uh. No way."

"Your powers are easier to use if you transform. Plus…" Danny raised a brow. "Do you want to randomly change into a ghost during dinner?"

The younger paled before conceding. "Alright. I'll do it. But…. How?"

The older boy hummed, considering. "Okay so…." He placed his hand on his chest. "You know that ball of cold right here?" 

His counterpart gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

Danny frowned, leaning forward. "In the center of your chest, a little to the right of your heart." He gently grabbed the other boy's hand and placed it on his own chest. "Can you feel it? It kinda hums like...well...it reminds me of the refrigerator…. 'Cause it buzzes, sounds kinda electrical, and it’s cold…."

The younger Danny's brow furrowed in thought. After a long moment, slight realization lit his eyes. "Yeah. Okay. I think I'm feeling...something."

Danny nodded. "That's my core. It's where my powers come from." At the other's understanding nod, he continued. "You have the same thing inside of you." 

His counterpart frowned, lowering his hand. “Of course I do.”

The older’s expression softened. “You don’t have to be afraid of this. Your core is a part of you. Just like your heart or your brain. It’s an organ that controls your powers; that’s all it is.”

Honestly, that was a simplification. Even with the very basic knowledge he’d learned at the Far Frozen, Danny knew his core did much more than regulate his powers. It helped him think and remember, to sense and respond to things around him. But right now, his other self just needed to know to not be afraid of a part of himself.

“If you say so.” The younger looked down. He moved his hand up to his own chest, brow furrowing.

Danny glanced at the other’s chest. “Now, can you feel it now?”

“Yeah.” The other Danny confirmed, still frowning. “So...how do I...uhh...transform?”

The older nodded. “Close your eyes.” The younger boy did so and Danny continued. “Really focus on that cold, that energy. Feel it swirling around in your chest. It’s pulsing and buzzing, deep inside you. Now…” The boy took a breath. “Reach out and touch that cold with your mind. Wrapped your hands around it and...pull. Pull it to the surface.”

His counterpart’s brow furrowed in concentration; clearly he was listening to the words and trying to put them into practice. His nose wrinkled, focus increasing. Then the younger Danny gasped. White light danced over his skin, forming a ring around his chest. Surprised, his eyes popped open and then widened as his gaze fell on the ring.

Danny smiled encouragingly. “That’s it. Now just let it pass over you.”

The younger nodded, taking a breath. The ring passed a few heartbeats later, leaving a ghost floating across from Danny.

“You did it.” The older congratulated.

The younger Danny looked down at his hands, flipping them over and examining the glow of his gloves. “I did….” His brow furrowed. “That actually wasn’t that bad.” He lowered his hands. “Still weird though.”

Danny chuckled. “You’ll get used to it.”

His counterpart didn’t reply to that, instead asking. “So what now?”

The older Danny transformed into his ghost form. “I guess, I’ll go over the basic powers and help you practice for a bit.”

The younger Danny nodded, relaxing his shoulders with forced confidence. “Let’s do this.”

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

The two spend the next hour practicing. Danny explained the three basic powers: invisibility, intangibility, and flight. He demonstrated each. Flickering invisible, phasing through the metal pillars on top of the ops center, flying circles above the roof.

“Now you try.” Danny encouraged after showing off each power.

His younger self did try, despite his anxiety. The displays of his powers were spotty. He flickered in and out of visibility like a dying light bulb. Random parts of his body turned intangible and he furrowed his power, concerting great effort to turn to his whole body intangible. But he was making progress. 

“There you go!” Danny cheered as his alternative self successfully phased through the satellite dish twice in a row. He grinned, offering the other boy a high five.

The younger Danny returned the gesture. “Yeah!”

The practice continued, the new halfa’s confidence growing. It made Danny happy to see his counterpart growing more comfortable, even if his control was still laughable. His body continued flickering invisible and intangible to the younger’s frustration. The older half ghost figured things would be like that for a while, as the younger’s body adjusted to his new core and powers. But the prospect of him spending less time confused and less time afraid of his powers was a bright one. And another bright prospect….

Danny glanced at the air just below his counterpart’s glowing boots. He smiled. “You’ve got a great handle on floating.”

The younger Danny looked down, browning furrowing. Then his eyes widened in realization. He wobbled in the air.

Danny reached out to steady him. “Hey, don’t think about it too hard. Just let your body do what it will. Flying’s natural to us ghosts.”

His counterpart frowned. Clearly, he didn’t like being called a ghost again but he didn’t comment. Instead, he straightened and focused on his older self’s face. “Alright. I’ll do that, just… let my body do it’s thing.”

“Good.” Danny patted him on the shoulder. He offered a half smile. “Let’s fly. I promise I won’t go too high this time.

The older half ghost did as he said, leading his younger self in a circle around the ops center while floating only about five feet above the roof. 

After a few circles, he let go, flying in front of the younger. Giving a mischievous grin, he glanced back over his shoulder. “Let’s go a little faster.”

The younger Danny raised a brow, a smile sneaking onto his face. He increased his speed, inching in front of the other boy. In return, Danny smiled and flew faster himself. He pulled forward, in front of the other boy. The younger’s slight smile grew and he darted forward, faster still.

Just like that, a race started. The two ghosts circled the roof, chasing each other. Slowly, smiles grew into laughter. Danny snickered, dodging around the satellite dish. Seconds later, his younger self phased through. The older flew higher, his legs morphing into a ghostly tail as he twisted back around to fly in the other direction. The other Danny let out a laugh, reaching for him but just missing. Danny dove down, phasing through the roof with his counterpart following seconds later. He passed by the fridge, before darting up through the roof again.

Danny flew about about five feet up and then froze as another shooting star careened across the sky. He marveled for just a second before a cold body slammed into him. The air weezed out of his lungs and he let out a cry as the pair tumbled, head over heels. 

With some effort, Danny slowed the tumble. He looked down, recognizing the arms were wrapped around his chest and the shaking body they were connected to. The older halfa ghost put hand on the younger’s back. “Hey. It’s okay.”

The other Danny looked up. He was laughing. “Oh man...this is ridiculous.” He let go, slowly backing up. “But I really needed that.”

Danny smiled. “No problem. I’m happy you’re having a good time.”

The younger raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Yeah well...thanks.” He glanced down, paling as he realized they were floating three stories above the street. Danny took his hand, leading him back to the roof.

“So do you want to practice some more or….” The older started once both had touched down on the roof. Then the younger yawned. The corner of Danny’s lip turned up. “I guess that answers my question.”

The other boy yawned, stretching. “Yeah. Let’s go to bed.” He glanced down. “Oh uh…. Should I turn back or….”

“We can just phase into your bedroom. That’s less noisy than climbing down the steps.”

“Yeah. Okay.” The younger Danny nodded in agreement. His older self phased through the roof and he followed.

Seconds later, the two halfas were floating inside of Danny Fenton’s bedroom. With a flash of light, the older turned human. 

The younger frowned. “How do I turn back?”

“Oh, right.” Danny bit his lip, considering. “So where your heart is...there should be this little warm spot. I kinda think of it as a candle flame. You want to coax that, make it bigger so you’re warm and heavy and-” He was cut off by a flash.

The younger Danny touched down. “That was a lot easier than the other way around.”

Danny shrugged. “Figures. You’re more used to being a human than a ghost.”

“Yeah.” The younger sat on the bed. “So I’m going to go to sleep then. What about you?” His lips turned down. “Are you leaving or…?”

Danny shook his head. “Not until the morning.” He walked over to the closet. “I’ll use your sleeping bag if you don’t mind.”

“Go for it.” The younger was already lying down. He watched sleepily as Danny retrieved the sleeping bag and settled on the floor. He yawned. “Good night.”

“Good night.” Danny hummed in return.

Soon, the younger Danny was snoring. The older laid still for a few minutes, mind going over all that had happened tonight. But his thought stilled, fatigue overtaking him as well. He sighed happily, falling asleep.

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

Danny drifted in sleep, his mind floating through dreams. Not nightmares for once but pleasant ones. Having a picnic with his friends and family. Making cookies with Clockwork. Flying through space. He floated up, out of the depths of sleep. Awareness of the waking world slowly enveloped him. Morning light on his face. Warm, thick fabric around him. The hardness of...the floor? His brow furrowed but he just buried his face in his pillow.

Then there was a thump behind him. Danny jerked, rolling over. He squinted, eyes falling on a figure less than two feet in front of him. He frowned. It was….himself?

“Ouch.” The boy groaned. “How the heck did I end up under the bed...” He trailed off, eyes falling on Danny. “Oh...it’s you. That...all that really happened.”

Danny’s mind finally caught up as he remembered. Last night. Clockwork sending him through the time window. Talking his younger self through his second transformation into a ghost. Trying to take him flying. Stargazing with him. Demonstrating his ghost powers and helping his young counterpart practice.

Danny hummed. “Yep. Really here.” The corner of his lip turned up. “And I guess you phased through the bed in your sleep.”

The younger grumbled. “I thought practicing was supposed to help.”

“It will...just not overnight. Like I said, your body’s still trying to adjust. It’ll take time so be patient.”

The other Danny groaned. “Great.”

“I know it sucks but you’ll get through it.” Danny promised.

His counterpart didn’t reply. Instead, he stood up and then laid back down on his bed. His eyes flickered to the window and the light streaming through it. He glanced down at his older self. “So...it’s morning.”

“Yeah. I don’t know when my portal will open but it should be soon.”

The younger Danny nodded soberly.  “And...I guess you can’t tell me much more about the future.”

“No. I can’t.” Danny said, feeling guilty.

If he could, there’s a lot he would say. About the ghosts he’d fight. About Vlad. About Valerie. About his parents. But Clockwork trusted him and….

“Okay.” The younger sighed. “But...I’ll be okay, right?”

Slowly, Danny sat up. He studied his younger self for a bit before smiling. “You’ll be okay.” His brow furrowed, considering. “Yeah, everything’s not always perfect…” He remembered his many ghost fights. Valerie’s grudge against him. His parent’s mistrust. All of the headaches Vlad had caused him. 

“But I’ve done and seen so many incredible things.” Saving the town. Meeting Clockwork, Frostbite, Dora, Pandora. Dating Valerie and his truces with the Red huntress. Slowly changing his parents’ opinions on ghosts. Meeting and saving Danielle. And all the while….“ And Sam and Tucker have been with me, the whole time. We’ve only gotten closer since my accident. We’re team Phantom and we’ve helped so many people and learned so much. Really just...it’s been incredible and…. I know it will be that same for you.” Danny finished with complete conviction.

His younger self considered his words for a long time before he raised a brow. “Team Phantom?”

Danny smirked. “That’s a spoiler.”

The other Danny huffed before his expression softened. “Alright that’s….” He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “All of this had been so unbelievable but...I still believe you.” He sighed. “And I’m going to tell Sam and Tucker about my accident.

Danny’s eyes widened, his lips turning up. “Really?”

“Yeah. You’ve convinced me. ‘Cause you were right last night. They have alway been there for me so...thanks for reminding me.”

The older boy smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Danny stayed like that for a moment, smiling and watching his younger self with satisfaction. Faintly, he felt the medallion around his neck hum. And he knew it was time. To his side, a blue portal sparked into existence.

The younger Danny’ eyes widened. “Is that it?”

Danny nodded and stood up. “Yep. That’s my way home.” He turned to the portal, preparing to step through. “I guess this is goodbye.”

The younger Danny also stood, frowning. “Am I gonna see you again?”

Danny shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not like this.”

The other boy nodded, seeing to understand what he meant. That conundrum. Two different yet so similar lives. The same person and yet not.

The younger Danny stepped forward. He wrapped his arms around his counterpart. “Thank you for making sure I wasn’t alone last night.”

Danny hugged him back. “I...I couldn’t see you in pain if I could do something about it.” He squeezed. “Take care of yourself, Danny.”

The younger also squeezed. “You too, Danny.”

The pair stayed like that for a long moment before pulling away. With parting waves, Danny stepped through the portal.

[hpalways]

Yaksha’s Destiny || Xiao

DARKNESS was the biggest fear held by fellow Yakshas. This power bestowed upon you and many alike gave an opening to the pitting shadows that raged within your chambers. Some days, it wasn't as bad -- other days... it felt like you were getting ripped apart into shreds, taking in all your willpower to battle against it. It was tempting, to give in and call it quits. Life for a Yaksha wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. There were always too many demons and not enough heroes. Especially for a weaker one like you, anger and frustration would stem from these battles, only to eat at you later on. 

Today was one of those days. The sky was a stormy sea of clouds, with the Gods crying from the heaven above. Droplets prickled down your bare skin, cold to the touch. While in the mountainside, you had stumbled upon demonic energy, so there was no choice but to finish them off. 

Dodging the monster that lunged at you, you took out your polearm. The hydro vision on your hip gleamed brightly in the setting. Taking a turn, you could feel power surge to your arms. As you were about to jab your weapon into the demon's abdomen, they had ducked in time. Shit. You had underestimated this one.

Its body rammed into you, knocking you off your feet. Air left your system, causing you to groan in pain. Just as it was about to sink its teeth into your arm, you rolled over on one side and jumped back to your feet. Fingers clenching tightly around the metal stick, you pushed your hind legs and tried to stab at it another time. Your speed and reaction time was too slow. Too damn slow. Too damn weak. Gritting your teeth, you began to use up more of Yaksha's power, drinking the exhilarating taste of freedom. It was so addicting... often times, you'd wished it'd never stop. 

A burst of water shrouded from the weapon, circling the demon until it was surrounded. With one, clean fell swoop, you sliced the demon and the energy faded away. The deed was done. 

Falling to your knees, your entire body was shaking. Face contorted and in pain, nails dug into the earth to feel wet mud. Your body would not move -- it could not. Stilling there as if you had just been paralyzed, hungering thoughts plagued your mind... Thoughts you wished weren't yours. Letting out a disgusting whimper, similar to that of a wounded animal, you bit down on your lip, hard. Blood dribbled down your chin, painting the grass in crimson. Tugging at your mask, you stared at it for a moment. A sigh let out. 

That was a close one. Crashing to the ground, your chest heaved up and down in exhaustion. 

A figure suddenly entered your peripheral vision. Climbing up to the ridge of the mountain was Xiao, his dark teal locks blowing along with the harsh winds. Donned in his usual robes, he was as attractive as ever. The first time you stumbled upon him -- one of the famous five -- you nearly forgot to breathe. You had referred to him as Alatus then, starstrucked by such a powerful being. 

You would never not awed by him. The way he held himself would always come to remind you of the big gap in strength between the two of you. Maybe you did establish a relationship with this all-mighty Yaksha, but this inferiority complex was tugging your strings more than you'd like to admit. 

At the same time, he provided you the distraction needed. He kept you grounded, which prevented you from going mad. He was the only one who made you feel human, if that was even possible. 

Golden amber hues landed on you, withholding an unreadable expression. He walked up to your beaten up form and sat down, unbothered by the rain. Struggling to get yourself into a sitting position, you looked out at the view in front. 

"You used up too much of your power again," he murmured. 

"Do you think I don't know that? I had no choice," you sighed. 

His sharp eyes narrowed further. "You were being careless."

"It happened. There's nothing I can do to change it." His anger barely dwindled and the scowl only deepened. "Come on, Xiao. I don't want to talk about my mistakes when I'm with you. Busy as we are, I barely get to see you as of late. Can't we just enjoy our brief time together?"

That got him. His eyes softened at your words and he reluctantly nodded in agreement. Seizing the victory, you laid your head on his shoulder, feeling warmth even upon this cold weather. The rain was starting to let down too -- perhaps Xiao was the lucky charm.

"What have you been up to?" you inquired. 

"Demons. Monsters. The usual," he responded. His cheeks tinged with a soft pink all of a sudden. "I... I also got you something."

Your ears perked up at the sound of this. Lifting your head, you watched him in curiosity. He took something out from his robe pockets and slowly opened his palm. Laying there was a blue, glowing object. Shaped as a butterfly, it was gorgeous. You had never seen this kind of butterfly around these parts. He must have traveled far to have found it. 

"It's a crystalfly," he mumbled, averting his eyes in embarrassment. Your heart raced at his actions. He was too cute. Before meeting him, you could have never imagined the Vigilant Yaksha to possess such qualities. "I saw it and... thought it would look good in your hair."

"Oh, I love it. Thank you," you whispered breathlessly, touched beyond words. This was exactly what you meant with how Xiao could easily brush your problems away with a smile.

Before you could stop yourself, you leaned in and kissed his lips. They were soft as petal leaves. He returned the gesture immediately, arms wrapped around you in a warm embrace. Digging your fingers into his hair, you kissed with a ferocity that was never present in your fights. This was to release the pain you dealt with today. As long Xiao was here, you were going to be okay. As long as he was by your side, you were going to be okay. This era of demons and gods will end someday, leaving you a happy future with him. 

You tasted him. His lips. His mouth. His entire self. He tasted of mint. He tasted of life. He tasted of iron. The kind of metal tang found in blood. Sighs were exchanged upon each kiss, breathless but the two of you would not let the other go. Your lips trailed down to his jaw, peppering his baby-soft skin with a few nibbles here and there. He let out a gasp. 

Finally you pulled away, giggling at his flustered state for your bold moves. 

The end was nearing. He picked up the crystal fly and reached up to your [h/c] hair. While he gently pinned it down, you could only focus on his swollen lips. He was beautiful... and you loved him so. 

"[Y/N]," he said, interrupting the honey silence of the mountains. "If you are ever in trouble, just call my name and I will come to you. In any circumstance, avoid overusing your power."

This bliss that left you giddy disappeared as quick as it came. All that remained was the harsh, cruel reality. Brows knitted together in offense and you quickly shook your head. "Why would I do that? I'm a Yaksha. What kind of Yaksha seeks help from another? This wounds my pride, Xiao. Is your faith in my skill and strength that low?"

"No. That's not it," he argued, features twisted in desperation. "Why won't you let me protect you?"

"Unbelievable," you merely scoffed, staggering up to stand. "I have to go. I'm sure you do too."

Ignoring his blubbering protests, you jumped down upon ledges until you reached ground level safely. He didn't understand what you had to go through. He never had to face judgement from those who didn't believe in you. Strong enough to battle the demons both externally and internally, Xiao was different from you. But even so... even if his words meant that he only cared for you, it hurt like you had been just stabbed. 

You were willing to prove to him that you could stand on your own feet. He was going to eat his own words. So would the other Yakshas who looked down on you your entire life. If you trained hard enough, surely improvement could be gained. Right? It wasn't as if destiny could determine what you could accomplish already. 

Approaching the forest that was said to contain many strong demons and monsters, you surged ahead, with eyes filled of challenge. 

There, sitting in a nook was a cave, Sensing a suffocating presence, you knew you had hit a jackpot. Sneaking across the grassy lands, you stayed silent. The tall, towering trees were beginning to look a lot more ominous. Tiptoeing to the edge of the cave, you peered in to find the energy unbearably strong. One staggering breath later and you went forward. A roar let out, signaling that it knew of its intruder. Shoulders tensed up and sweat beaded your forehead, but you couldn't stop now. No matter what, you were going to go through with it. 

It was a beast. Fangs gleamed in the darkness, nearly the size of your weapon. Having woken from its slumber, its terrifying eyes landed on you. Claws swiped the air, which you barely avoided in time. Fear had seized you with a hand, choking you until you could barely move. This was a terrible, foolish move. There was no way you could beat such a demon. 

Calling in more power, it filled you up at the core. To waste no time, you delved right into battle, slashing at the monster. It had little to none effect on it. With a lazy swipe of its arm, it slammed you right into the cave's walls, causing you to spit out blood. Pushing yourself up, you tried again, putting in more power to your weapon. Adding hydro to the mix, the weapon hit its arms. It caused the monster to roar in pain, but that only made it more angry. Barreling straight to you, similar but much more frightening than the last demon, it pounced on you, pinning you down to the ground. 

Drool left its mouth, splattering all over on your face. Its claws dug into your side and you let out a piercing scream. You were so fucking sick of this shit. Why was it destined that you had to stay weak? It was so unfair you wished to cry your heart out. 

The last of the powers was used. Pushing the demon's hold on you, you stumbled up and felt thrill run through. It was delicious, but your mind was also beginning to grow hazy. "X-Xiao..." you uttered out. 

The Conqueror of Demons arrived as soon as you called, anxious to apologize for his insensitivity. What he didn't expect to see was a battlefield. A large and strong demon was torn apart to pieces, the iron smell of it so strong, it was gagworthy. Sitting on the pile of bones was you, dark, gruesome scratches decorating your arms and legs. A deep gash was bleeding from your torso and your [e/c] eyes were dimmed; at the same time, they held a crazed look in them. 

His face paled and his body grew cold at the sight. You did the thing he last wanted to happen. Already too far in and consumed by the darkness surrounding your whole life, you were looking at him not with love, but with bloodlust. "I'll kill you, Xiao!" you screamed at the top of your lungs. 

Climbing down, you tried to run to him. But your footsteps halted and you crashed to the ground. Spazzing out as if you had just been electrocuted by lightning, the Vigilant Yaksha slowly approached you, tears streaming down the side of his face. He kneeled down, cradling your head in his lap. "Don't leave me..." He hit the ground in fury. "Dammit! Why didn't you listen to me!?"

Consciousness returned but you were on the brink of death. The wound was deep, but so were the demons. It was raining again, so you forced a small smile out. "I'm weak. It's my fate," you whispered. "At least I won't have to suffer through this darkness any longer. It's over. I quit. You won, my demons. I am yours to keep."

"Shut your mouth," he snarled. The rain had turned into a storm, adding fury into the mix. "Please. You can make it through this. Don't leave me yet. It was going to get better. An era with no more demons to haunt us. You said so yourself." 

"That was just a stupid dream."

"Don't fucking say that," he growled, flinching as if he'd just been slapped. You were supposed to be the optimist here. It meant that this death was real... and that you would accept it with open arms. "It's going to happen. So hold on. Let me find someone to save you."

Your head shook and you winced. "We all learned this since young. We'll die if we let our power consume us. It's impossible and you know it."

"Stop," he choked out, lowering his head until his hair covered his broken expression. "Then don't talk. Save your breath."

You ignored his words. "Thank you... for the crystalfly. Does it look pretty on me?" you murmured.

He heaved out a sob and slowly nodded. "I've never seen anyone more beautiful."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"And I'm sorry."

"I am too."

"Protect... the people... like you always do, my sweet, Vigilant Yaksha." Your voice grew more raspy by the second, for the pain was getting unbearable. 

You fluttered your eyes shut and the pain faded. On the other hand, Xiao's pain grew, the scars and trauma there to haunt him, for a life and infinity.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “A Chance.”

A continuation on the Dr. Krill lecture series about humans.

The room was large and echoing, voices raised up towards the ceiling, and despite their being enough room to fit more than three classrooms of the original size, there still wasn’t enough room to fit everyone, with some students standing or sitting off to the side. Cameras had been brought in to observe the lecture, and were being mounted as they watched, so other students from other universities could Audit the lectures.

A group of four students, two Vrul and two Tesraki sat together on the far right of the lecture hall. They had been forced to pair together for another one of their class projects and just ended up naturally gravitating towards what was familiar, sitting next to each other as they waited for the lecture to begin.

“Did you guys finish the assignment?”

“I did.” Of course the two Vrul had, that was to be expected.

The Tesraki looked down at their papers, work halfway finished because they had a tough time from telling what was myth from what was fact.

“Humans, dn not, in fact, cannibalize their young.”

“Where the hell did you hear that.”

“I had an older classmate tell me once, and I saw it in another news article.”

There was muttering, “Even we knew that.”

The other vrul shuffled their papers studiously, “Humans do not have hypnotic gazes that can paralyze their prey.” “Really, I felt for sure that that one was going to be real.”

The Tesraki’s ears drooped, “Well apparently, human stomach acid IS powerful enough to eat through metal.”

There was silence.

“No really, that can’t be true.”

The Tesraki nodded, “It isn’t a myth.” He sighed in frustration, “Everything I looked up about humans was true. Human bones are stronger than steel, the human liver can regenerate,  humans can transplant organs from one human to another and it will work. Humans have a system of language that doesn't require the use of noise, it's called sign language by the way.” 

One of the Vrul vibrated their antenna, “I am sorry to hear your search did not go well, perhaps if you had read more disreputable news articles it would have been better. Some of the major newspapers have the ability to contact better sources, which means their articles are most likely to be right.”

“Did you know the human jaw is powerful enough to bite off their own fingers, but humans don’t do it because number one, that hurts a lot, and number two, their brain doesn’t allow them to even consider it.”

There was a silence.

“Is that a fact or a myth.”

The other Tesraki sighed, “that is a fact.”

Just then the lights overhead blinked once and then twice. The students turned to look down at the room where Dr. Krill was making his way across the floor. Making his way in that unnatural and predatory way he had. His body moved with a fluid grace in comparison to the normal jerky movements of his species. His legs rolled one after the other in a wheel that kept him moving forward, never breaking. The shoulders on his body swayed slightly back and forth lending the power of his arms into the movement of his legs. 

The way he moved his head around the room, seeming to focus on each one of them in turn rather than taking in the whole scene at once was…. Unnerving to say the least his helium sack sat mostly unused against his shoulders and upper back as he moved into the room. Not once since he had started here had anyone seen him use it. 

He said it was too slow and made keeping up with humans difficult unless you were being dragged behind them.

It was…. Strange to watch…. How he never seemed to stop moving. Even when he spoke his four hands and his head moved to emphasize his points. When speaking to students coming up to see him, his body shifted in reaction to their words. His hands wide, then closed then open again, up and then down. His chin rose and fell in greeting to people and students he knew and to those he didn’t know so well.

It was a fascinating scene to watch, and one they were not entirely sure if they liked.

Dr Krill made a strange noise deep inside his throat, that over the speakers had the entire class turning to look at him. It was a strange sort of barking cough mixed with a hum. THey couldn’t have known that krill was imitating  the way humans clear their throat when they want to speak.

“Students, I hope you all had a good week, and I hope you were all able to complete my first, and easiest assignment?”

There was a soft muttering around the room.

The doctor clapped both of his hands together, producing a sharp noise that brought attention back to himself, “Well, as I have said, today, as a special treat for staying….” He turned to look around the room before muttering, “And multiplying, apparently.” He frowned when none of the students seemed amused at his joke but continued, “I am going to be talking about the human fight flight or freeze response and the entire reaction of the sympathetic nervous system.”

Students withdrew their holopads to begin taking notes.

The cameras zoomed in on doctor Krill.

“We discussed last week how humans are technically considered predator animals, and they are as they eat and consume other animals daily. However, humans are not an apex predator as it isn’t often that they consume other predators. In fact, for the longest time humans were some of the weakest, and easiest to kill preditors for larger and more intimidating animals. In this way that lead to the development of the sympathetic nervous system.”

He turned around the room, and the two Vrul cringed back as his eyes seemed to fall on thim. His antenna were unusually still,

“The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems account for two sides of the same coin. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the workings of the body when the human is relaxed. It focuses primarily on digestion, relaxation slower breathing and even blood flow through the major organs including the eyes. It has other properties too of course, but when a human is relaxed their parasympathetic nervous system is the one generally in charge during those times.”

He turned to the projector, “Now assume you are an ancient human out on your natural habitat of the savanna -- without their adaptation the human’s natural habitat is warm and relatively dry with lots of open grassland and the occasional tree.” he flipped a picture on the projector and the class pulled back a bit in surprise at the picture that unfolded before them. It was a strange creature standing upright tall but remarkably hairy accept for on its face and hands, “This is a 3D rendered recreation of what early humans might have looked like based on skeletal remains found in their fossil record. The development of the human sympathetic nervous system likely started long before humans looked like this, but still the visual aid is one that I find compelling.” The class stared at the creatures thick face, heavy brow and sloping shoulders.

Humans today were much more graceful, though much less powerful than what this beast looked like. It was strange trying to determine which one was the superior. They supposed the current human, as its head size looked much bigger in comparison.

Krill pulled up a side by side comparison with his earlier diagram.

They recognized the modern human as he had been rendered in textbooks thousands of times since he had first been studied.

Very pale with his fine blond fur compared to the hulking shape next to him, with course brown fur that covered his entire body.

“Not the evolutionary changes that had to be made to get from this human.” He pointed at the hairy one, “To that one.” He motioned to the pale one, “The hips grew smaller, the spine took on a sharp S curve, the ratio of legs to arms changed dramatically, leaving the human with longer legs and comparatively short arms. The jaw and the face shortened, while the cranium expanded and hair receded across the body. The current human skeletal structure is finer and more delicate than its original counterpart, with a focus on precision in movement over power, which has become so important to their survival today.”

Dr Krill pointed to the picture of the old human, “This human tried its best to stay alive.” He pointed at the other human, “This human seems to be lacking in a lot of those same survival skills as he is constantly trying to get himself killed.” Krill sighed, “Modern humans are a little bit more complicated than their ancestors, but I digress.” Now imagine either on of these humans being faced with what might have been their natural predator on the savanna.

He flipped the image and the crowd gasped as a massive alien shape leaped up into a third projected spot. It was long and sinewy walking on four legs and a had a fur color like the tanned grassland. It’s eyes were face front, and on its massive paws there were huge hooked claws. Dr. Krill pressed a button to start the looping animation that allowed the creature to lope along with a sinuous grace that made the human lok clumsy and awkward in comparison, all three of the animations moving. 

The creature opened its mouth and the entire class pulled back as huge razor sharp teeth glinted in the light, as it yawned, shook its head, and then continued walking.

“This is an African Lion, a female of the species weighing in at only 280 lbs. Now while some humans can weigh that much, a human of comparable fitness like our modern human weigh in at around only 210 lbs as an adult male. Now this female lion has a higher muscle to body mass index than the human, can run faster, jump higher, and bite harder. She has long and protruding K-9 teeth and retractable claws. The human has no chance….. or …. Does he.”

The class shifted slightly in their seats  muttering 

Krill waited for a long drawn out moment before, “No, statistically he is going to get his face eaten off, however, he does still have a slight chance.”

“The human will see the predator, and immediately upon seeing the body is going to flood the system with a hormone called adrenaline. Adrenaline is a natural high for humans that can result in increased strength, speed, and heightened visual perception. The Parasympathetic system is switched off for the sympathetic nervous system. The heart begins to beat faster as blood is routed into all the major muscle groups, those being primarily the legs. All activity in the internal organs shuts down as that blood flow is routed outwards. Blood can even be funneled away from the brain, despite that seeming a bit counter productive, causing tunnel vision in the eyes. Despite this, the brain begins to work faster allowing the human to see at more frames per second which seems, to a human, to slow down time.”

He turned to look at them, “Now a human has three opinions in a dangerous situation like this, either fight, flight, or freeze. All of these responses would have been adaptive in an environment like this with fight being, hopefully, the last response. Many predator animals are geared for a chase, so freezing will give a human a better chance of survival because if they run they will most certainly be attacked. ON the other hand sometimes this will not work, and being able to run as fast as possible is their only option. Backed against a wall and unable to run fast enough, a human has to fight. Some humans do not react in this order.” 

He turned to look at the image, “The human body on adrenaline is capable of some wild and unbelievable things. The average human only uses around 40-60% of their body's natural strength. Systems in the brain will not allow more because if a human were able to use all the power of their body, they could rend muscle from bone. Well trained human athletes can use up to 70-90% of their natural strength, but during a time like this, the average human can be turned into a well trained athlete or more. In dire situations humans have been known to lift up to seven times their own body weight. During this time humans have been known to lift vehicles, wrestle wild animals, and throw large boulders. However, this does not come without a price, and the human will likely receive damage to their muscular structure.”

He turned to point at the pictures again.

“I heard a story about how a human choked to death a small mountain lion, and another man who fought off a shark. Humans are statistically unlikely to win a fight like this, but it isn’t impossible.”

He stalked around the room, “Humans do not just experience adrenaline when dealing with animals, but during accidents, public speaking events, and even in conflict with other humans. Expecting to be hurt, the human body has the ability to completely shut off its pain perception.”

There was a stunned silence all around him, and then an uproar.

Dr. krill seemed almost smug as he watched them react like that, and raised a hand for silence.

They quieted down, “Yes, you heard me, the human brain has the ability to completely ignore pain, until the danger is dealt with. The first surgery I ever did, on this human right here is a good demonstration…. If you do not want to see graphic images turn your head away now.”

Even if they had wanted too it was impossible to tear their eyes away as the image popped up on screen.

The class gasped.

There was a collective sound of disgust.

“That screwdriver had gone in through the front of his eye, broke through the back of the ocular socket and slid into one of the cortical folds of the brain. He WALKED into my surgery and conversed with me like a logical and reasoning person. He did not report any physical discomfort or pain, he did not scream or show any other signs of distress. His brain had completely shut off all response to the pain.”

He turned to walk around the circle.

“You see most of the time pain is a good thing, it allows you to know when something is wrong, but there are other times, dire situations like this where the ability to feel pain will only hinder the subject. If this human had been able to feel pain it is likely his thrashing and screaming would have caused more cortical damage than it already would have. I heard a story of a woman who fell off a cliff and broke both of her legs horribly, while she was still in pain, she managed to crawl her way off a mountain, and as soon as other humans found her she passed out as the pain got worse. Another human, who had been rock climbing, ended up with his arm trapped under a boulder and with no escape. He was there for days, but, in the end, he managed to cut off his own arm in order to escape.”

More horrified gasping from the crowd as they pulled away in shock and terror.

“These are just some of the most impressive stories. Not all humans will react like this. The vast majority of humans will freeze when they should fight, or run when they should freeze. Some will simply give up and curl into a ball, but there are other humans, like this, who under adrenaline can run like olympic sprinters, lift seven times their own size and fight better than the animals attacking them. The capabilities and the possibilities of a human under the influence of adrenaline are remarkable.”

His antenna vibrated just a little in amusement, “As you can imagine, humans do not experience this much these days, but psychological studies have reported that it is actually healthy for humans to experience the fight or flight response as it helps the brain retain that ability. For something to continue working you need to use it. Scientists say that exposing a human to a sympathetic response in a controlled environment is good for their mental health.” He sighed, “Of course this leads humans to watching horror themed movies, skydiving, and recreational fighting. Otherwise humans put themselves into controlled danger in order to feel what their ancestors felt a long time ago when they were being chased by large raging land predators, but when your species developed in an environment that hostile, it is to be expected.”

The group of four stared at krill, and by extension the animation of the real living human behind him. They tried to imagine the slim two legged figure winning a fight against the massive clawed beast, but were having trouble. Its teeth, which had once seemed so sharp, now were dull and almost useless. The nails on its hands, once considered claws were tiny, flimsy and pathetic, but….. It seemed strange, there was still something in the way it moved that suggested possibilities.

Humans were survivors where many other species were not.

Humans may not have had a very high chance.

But at least they had a chance. 

[brutal-nemesis]

E&T: Here We Go Again

Guess who’s back, baby!!!

←Previous - Masterlist - Next→

Ingredients: hella noncon touching (unsexy), dehumanization/objectification, “it” as a forced pronoun

I am a person. A human being. I have very normal arms and legs that are the same bronze color as the rest of me. My nails are all...nail colored. Clear? They’re not black. Because I’m a person. Erebus. I’m not...not a prince anymore, but I’m still me. Even if my eyes are white and my teeth are sharp and my tongue is black, I’m still a human inside. Not a monster.

Hesitantly, Erebus opened his eyes and looked down at his right arm. For the first time in over a month, it actually looked normal, and although something was still definitely off about it, he was more than happy with this for now. As long as he believed the person he was inside was still human, his arm wouldn’t look like it had been dipped in blood, which was something. When Neteri came in, he held it up excitedly.

“Neteri, look, I got it to change!”

She smiled broadly and clapped her hands together. “That’s wonderful, Erebus! Let me see.” She came over and gently took his arm, examining it all over, splaying out his fingers and looking at his nails, rubbing his skin, and rolling up his sleeve to expose the gnarled scar below his shoulder from the amputation. It was less jarring to look at now that his flesh wasn’t changing color around it. “Good, good,” she muttered to herself before looking back at him. “How did you do it?”

“I just, uh...thought about how...how I’m not a monster.”

Neteri smiled at him warmly. “That’s right, you’re not!” She petted the top of his head, and he resisted the urge to lean into it. “And the fact that you’re a person will be especially important for you to remember today.”

“Uh...why?”

Neteri nervously rubbed her hands together. “So...remember how I said I’d have to let Hjáll look at you again at some point in the future?”

“Is it some point in the future now?”

“Yeah. Like right now.” She pulled the leash out of her bag, and he leaned away from her. “Come on, Erebus. I’ll be right there with you the whole time, and I won’t let her do anything awful. It’ll just be...a lot of touching. But not everywhere. Just where I’ve done things to you. So you’ve already been touched there before, at least by me, though I guess-” 

“Shut up, Neteri, I’ll go.” He sighed in defeat and got up, letting her attach the infernal thing to his neck once again. 

Erebus tried as best he could to calm his nerves as they walked along. He wasn’t exactly excited about seeing Hjáll again, even though he knew it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as last time. He wouldn’t be alone with that woman since Neteri would be there to supervise, and he figured she wouldn’t let Hjáll hurt him, either. But he still really didn’t want her to touch him all over or talk about him like he was some sort of...beast, and that was going to happen no matter what. Hopefully...hopefully he wouldn’t be forced to wear that awful muzzle again, at the very least.

They arrived at a door, and once Neteri ushered him in, he froze at the sight of the room beyond. It was bare save for two posts with manacles dangling from them and a chain with a hook attached to it hanging from the ceiling. He’d figured he was going to be restrained for this, but he’d thought it would be a chair or the table or something where he’d be less...exposed. Still, he let Neteri lead him to stand between the posts, watching a moment as she swatted at the small hook hanging from the ceiling, still unable to reach it even on her tiptoes. Sighing, he reached up and grabbed it with ease. “What do you want with this?” She smiled and hesitantly held up the leash.

“Um, well, if you could just...attach this to that...no, not the end, do it so it’s, uh, tight-not too tight, I don’t want you to choke yourself, just so it’s hard for you to move...yeah. Wait, shoot.”

“What?”

“Could you, uh, take your shirt off?”

“Do I have t-”

“Yes.” Erebus sighed, reaching up to unhook the leash, but he stopped midway and just unclipped it from the front of his collar. After pulling his shirt off, he simply crossed his arms and looked down at Neteri, careful not to look at his chest. He was not putting the leash back on himself. She rolled her eyes and reattached it before gently taking his wrists and pulling them out to either side, chaining them to the pillars he was standing in between. He resisted the urge to squirm, clenching his fists as she secured his ankles as well. He felt so exposed like this, but he was completely helpless to cover any part of himself.

While waiting for Hjáll to show up, Neteri ducked under his arm and stood behind him, no doubt looking at his scarred back. Erebus shuddered as she traced a finger down his spine, but if she noticed his discomfort, she paid it no mind. He looked back at her as best he could with his collar and the chain attached to it in the way. “What...what are you doing?”

“Just...looking,” Neteri hummed, her fingers still tracing along lightly. “Your next procedure will be on your back.” He gulped, wondering if she was going to mess with his spine given how much attention she was paying it. 

“What are you going to-”

“It’s a secret.” 

“Of course it is,” he sighed, and Neteri laughed lightly in response. Her touch moved from his spine to the whip scars crisscrossing his back. He’d always tried not to dwell on them, and he’d honestly only really looked at them once, towards the beginning of his time here. There were a lot of things he wanted to forget about that day, and being whipped was one of them.

“I’m sorry I didn’t stop them sooner,” Neteri blurted. “Not that you should’ve been whipped at all, but the Emperor wanted you to be…” He felt her hand clench into a fist against his back. “To be honest, I mostly stopped them because...because I wanted you, and I didn’t want them to hurt you more than I could fix easily. Because they were damaging something that might be mine. But I shouldn't've-”

Neteri was cut off by the door opening and Hjáll walking in, who immediately regarded Erebus with suspicion. “I thought I told you to put a muzzle on it, Neteri.” Neteri, who had come back in front of Erebus, simply crossed her arms.

“And I told you that two of the procedures were inside of his mouth, so I don’t know how you’d be able to conduct a proper examination if you couldn’t see half of what I’ve done. Besides, he can’t bite you unless you put your hands near his mouth. Not that he’ll bite you at all,” she looked up at Erebus, eyes narrowed, “right, Erebus?”

He rolled his eyes, not that either of them could tell since he didn’t have pupils anymore. “Yeah, I won’t bite.” He honestly had been considering biting Hjáll if she put her hand in his mouth, but he’d play nice since Neteri asked and would therefore probably punish him if he disobeyed. She might also just laugh about it after, but he didn’t want to risk making his situation any worse.

“See? He’s a good boy. So, let’s get started.” Neteri pulled on her gloves. “I’m sure you’ve noticed his fangs by now.” She reached up into his mouth, her finger pressing against the back of one of them. “I went with relatively short ones so they wouldn’t affect his speech and salivation too greatly, but they’re still quite sharp.”

“They’re the pride component, are they not?” Hjáll asked as she tentatively reached her own gloved finger into his mouth. Erebus opened wider and looked firmly at the corner, already very much not enjoying this. And he was certain the objectification was only just beginning.

After they finished talking about his teeth, they moved to his tongue. Neteri gently pulled it out of his mouth, something that never failed to give him flashbacks to when she’d cut off his human one. She seemed to be able to tell, giving him a reassuring pat before beginning to speak. “This was the first procedure I did, and it’s the gluttony component.”

“Huh. The shape’s so different that I can really only tell that from the color. Oh, I suppose it has the ridges as well.”

“Yeah, I had to modify the shape a bit before putting it in. I wanted him to be able to speak without much issue.”

“I still don’t understand why you want it to talk.”

“Erebus is very helpful!” Neteri let go of his tongue, and he quickly pulled it back in and shut his mouth, deciding to just not get involved in this particular conversation. “He tells me a lot of things I wouldn’t have been able to pick up on through observation alone. Thanks to him, I have a really good understanding on how all the procedures have affected him and how the demon components operate. Besides,” she smiled up at him, “I like talkin’ to him.”

Hjáll raised an eyebrow. “I hope this...attachment to your subject isn’t interfering with your work, Neteri.”

“It isn’t! Everything has proceeded as planned so far, and you know I’m good at putting aside my personal feelings”

“Still...this is why I recommend you just break it. It will make this all that much easier for you. If you’d just put it in my care for a few weeks,” she grabbed Erebus’s chin, looking him right in the eye, “I’d shatter it into perfect, empty compliance. No personality left to get attached to.”

“If I wanted him broken and compliant I already would have done it,” Neteri said coldly as she swatted Hjáll’s hand away from Erebus. “And I have plans in place in case he gives me reason to change my mind.” Erebus shuddered at that, gripping the chains tightly in his fists. What...what would Neteri do to him if she wanted to...to break him? He’d seen that same look in her eyes when she’d threatened to vivisect him if he tried to run, so he could only imagine what other awful things like that she might do to him...it made him more determined than ever to just suck up what little pride he had left and behave.

They moved to his eyes next, both of them now touching his face far too much for his comfort. He resumed staring at the corner, trying very hard not to focus on how close Hjáll’s face was to his since she wasn’t that much shorter than him. 

“He’s immune to visually activated petrification now, and he can see pretty well in the dark and underwater, despite the modifications I made to adjust them for surface conditions. It’s likely he can’t see in the dark as well as he’d be able to if I hadn’t done that, but that’s not really a big deal. You can’t really tell where he’s looking, though, watch. Look at me, Erebus.” He did so, and she nodded. “If he did it, I can’t tell. Look at Hjáll now.” Begrudgingly, he complied. Her thin eyes were a piercing green, and he would’ve found them rather pretty if they belonged to anyone but her. She smiled.

“I can tell it’s looking at me from how red its face is getting. So shy,” she crooned, trailing a finger down his bare chest. The chains held him in place, rendering him powerless to swat her away or even step back, so he just glared at her, trying his best to hide his discomfort. She chuckled, her touch moving to his right arm. “I see progress has been made with this arm. It was still red last time I examined your subject.”

“Yes, that was actually a pretty recent breakthrough! We discovered it’s related to how he perceives himself, but we’ll need to work with it further to fully understand how it operates.” Hjáll narrowed her eyes as she examined his now human-looking arm.

“So you’re saying it perceives itself as human?”

Neteri’s gazes hardened. “Yes, Hjáll, Erebus is a human being. Unlike you, I don’t experiment with my subject’s souls.” She sighed. “Are you satisfied with your examination?”

“I suppose. I did enjoy the chance to get a good look at it without all the...problems it posed last time.” She leaned towards him, placing a hand on his chest again. “Though I must say, it’d be so much more fun to have your little monster all to myself.”

“Erebus is not a monster, and he is mine,” Neteri growled, worming her way between him and Hjáll. “He always will be.” He felt his stomach drop at that; Neteri’s extreme possessiveness of him was one thing he could never get used to.

“Maybe someday you’ll change your mind. Until next time, then.” Both of them visibly relaxed once she was gone. Neteri started freeing Erebus from the restraints, giving him a concerned look.

“You okay? You were kinda quiet.”

“I’m...I’m fine. I just...didn’t have anything I really wanted to say. Anything that wouldn’t have made her slap me again, anyway.” He rubbed his sore wrists as she crouched to free his ankles.

“Did she slap you the first time?”

“Yeah. For ‘talking back’.”

“Oh, sun forbid test subjects be people.” Erebus opened his mouth to object, but then closed it. He, Neteri, and Hjáll all had very different opinions on that statement, and all of them were set in their beliefs enough that there wasn’t much use arguing. It was sort of funny that he and Hjáll both disagreed with that particular sentence, but for wildly different reasons. And while they were still in the subject of her...

“Neteri...is there any, um...is there any way Hjáll could…could actually...get me?” She finished unchaining his ankles and stood, looking up at him as she slowly shook her head.

“I don’t think so. You’re legally my property, despite…” she ran her finger down the center of his brand. “I can’t think of why she’d have any claim to you. I suppose possession of you would revert to the state if something were to happen to me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’d become hers. But don’t worry,” she cupped his cheek in her hand, “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. And while I’m still here, I promise I’ll never hand you over to her. Unless you wanted me to for some bizarre reason.”

He shook his head. “I’d sooner ask for you to parade me around the streets of Nathar on the leash. But...thanks.” She nodded, and after he’d gotten his shirt back on, they returned to his cell.

“Now, I’ve got one more thing on the agenda for you today,” Neteri muttered as she dug around in her bag. Erebus watched her warily, hoping it wasn’t anything painful. “Are you going to sit still for this?” she asked as she pulled out a pair of shears. The same shears that she’d used to... Erebus flinched, his hands instinctively moving to cover his mouth.

“Um, you’re not-”

“No, no, not your tongue, silly. Your hair’s just gotten long.” Erebus lowered his arms, momentary panic starting to subside. His hair. Right. She had mentioned something about it the other day. He ran a hand through it.

“Oh. I mean, it really...hasn’t. Do I have to keep it short?” 

Neteri nodded. “Long hair gets in the way, especially with some of the stuff I have planned.”

“Stuff like what?”

“Stuff...involving the back of your neck. And the sides of your head.”

“The sides of my…” he clamped his hands on either side of his head, right above his ears. “Are you going to give me horns?!” Neteri smiled suspiciously and shrugged.

“Perhaps.” His hands twisted in his hair as a low whine emitted from his throat. “You’ll be fine, Erebus, I can get rid of them once the experiment is over. They won’t be that big. And you can grow your hair out again when this is over if you want to, I don’t really care. So come on, are you gonna let me cut it?”

He sighed. “Fine.” She had him sit in one of the chairs, and he clenched his fists in his lap as she threw a towel over his shoulders. At least he wasn’t tied up this time.

Neteri’s hand slid under his chin, gently tilting it up until he was staring straight ahead instead of at the floor. “Keep your chin up for me, okay?” She ran her hand through his hair, humming slightly. “Mmm, it’s always so silky.”

Erebus wished something as simple as having his hair cut didn’t bring him close to tears. But the last time this happened, the last time she did this to him...it had been one of the worst days of his life. And it was just another reminder that he wasn’t in control of his body at all. He bit his lip as he watched the little black clippings flutter to the ground, careful not to tilt his head. Actually...maybe this was for the best. Prince Erebus had been beautiful, with blue eyes and long hair and a smile that wouldn’t make people scream and run. But that wasn’t who he was anymore. The body he had now, the monster, had empty white eyes and horrific scars and fangs and eventually horns and that was him now, that was who he was, so maybe having short hair would help him remember that, to keep them separate.

“Okay, perfect.” Neteri ruffled his hair before coming around in front of him, tilting his chin to admire her work. “Yeah, you look super cute! Or cool or whatever you want to be. It suits you.” 

“Thanks,” Erebus muttered as he got up to go look for himself while Neteri cleaned up. She’d cut it short, shorter than she had the first time, especially in the sides and back, but he understood why. And he supposed it did look good, even if he didn’t look like his old self one bit, but, honestly...that was okay. It made it easier for him to believe that that was someone else, just a nameless monster staring back at him with those blank white eyes. Prin-no, he was never going to be that again, ever Erebus was just going away for a while, but he’d see his own face again someday. But for now, he’d inhabit the body of the monster.

And until he was actually himself again, until he looked as human as he was inside because he was human, he was, he was okay with keeping his hair short.

Next→

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[atlas-of-a-human-soul]

Draw your swords, pt. 8

Summary: Forced to face their feelings, neither the Darkling nor his wife dare to speak them out loud. Influenced by Genya’s words, Y/N starts to wonder about her husband’s past.

Warnings: angst, swearing, mentions of alcohol, sexual content

Part one // Part two // Part three // Part four // Part five // Part six // Part seven  

=================================

As a young girl, Y/N often daydreamed about her first time. She believed it would be with a kind man who’d move mountains to find her if she called his name. Reality was quite different – this man wasn’t kind, but he’d burn the world for her.

Whether he realized it, she saw through him easily. The Darkling is a symbol, the fear surrounding his name is all for show because he’s not evil. In fact, she’d go as far as say he’s redeemable. Anyone capable of love is capable of being saved and while she didn’t know what he needed saving from, her heart told her he’ll need her. And she knew he cared, she felt it in the way he held her in that tent, and again in the way he’d touch her when he had all the power just the night before.

Moving her head toward the other side of the bed, Y/N looked at her sleeping husband. His lashes are long, thick and dark, a beard that tickled her neck adorning his face. Asleep, his cheekbones were not as sharp, his face much more welcoming and relaxed. He didn’t seem as the formidable foe she imagined him to be.

Aleksander laid on his side, facing her. Pursing her lips, Y/N allowed her eyes to roam over him. His broad chest had a small area of dark, curling hair. His muscles are made large, shapely mounds. His arms are capped by a round, firm muscle. Biting her lower lip, her eyes continued down to his hard, flat stomach with faint lines forming separate areas of muscles, making her swallow thickly. It was only after a moment that her eyes went lower. What she saw did not seem so powerful as it felt the previous night, but as she watched, his manhood began to grow.

She gasped and her eyes flew back to his. He was awake, watching her intently with a smirk, his eyes growing darker by the moment. No longer was he the gentle man she had awakened to, but a man of passion, the general who showed her he was just as capable of leading a woman in the bed as he was of leading an army on the field.

Y/N tried to move away but Aleksander still held her trapped by her hair that strayed on his side, under his back. What was worse, she didn’t even want to fight him. Y/N recalled her plans for him clearly; but this was more than a plan she carelessly implemented. Everything was different now when she had the memory of his body and the pleasure he infused her with when he made love to her. Could that term even be applied to them, she wondered. Did he see it as making love or simply satisfying his needs?

“Stubborn wife,” he whispered and the tone of his voice made chills run along her arms. It’s more than the tone he used or the look of his dark eyes that had her insides turning, but the words he had spoken…it almost felt like a term of endearment coming from him.

Grimacing, she rolled her eyes at him, “Dreadful husband.”

Pursing his lips, he seemed amused rather than insulted.

She was right, their relationship has changed.

Irrevocably.

Last night she had thought she learned all there was to know about love between a man and a woman, but now she thought, perhaps she knew very, very little. There was much more to learn from this man and of this man and how to use that knowledge for her own gain, but right now? She just wanted to let herself go. She wanted to enjoy his company. For once, he was good-natured, playful even. She felt genuinely happy in their little bubble.

For a moment, Y/N wished to stay there. She wished he could always look at her as he is now.

She looked at him, his hair still a mess in the bright morning sunlight. She watched him intently, perplexed how he could look more handsome and more human than she’d ever seen him.

His eyes are nearly black as he pulls her to him again. He runs his tongue along her lips, touching the inner corners especially. She parted her teeth for him, desperate for a taste of him. He’s better than the richest honey; hot and cold, soft and firm. She explored his mouth as he had explored hers, no longer shy or reserved with him. How could she be when his fingers have delved lower, pushing inside her?

Gasping, she smiles against his lips. “Genya will be here soon”, she warns him.

"I don't fucking care", he insisted as he crashed into her, his arms wrapping around her like a cage she never wished to escape from. He brought his mouth on hers, inhaling her, "Do you even know what it feels like to be around you?! I can't", he paused as his arms drew away from her and she shuddered as he took the warmth they provided. With bruised lips, she watched as he ran his hand through what used to be perfectly tousled hair. Disheveled, he turns to her, "I can't breathe around you."

She chuckles at him, "Well, I am breathtakingly beautiful."

Rolling his eyes, the Darkling shakes his head, "Well, you're not unattractive. I'll concede on that."

She ran her hands over his back as he lowered his head to her neck, running his tongue along the pulsating beat of her carotid, the only friend he had in her – her pulse couldn’t hide how enamored or exhilarated he made her feel. Instinctively she leaned her head back, her breathing turning deeper, quicker.

When his lips and tongue touched her breasts, she nearly cried out. She thought perhaps she might die under such torture. Trying to pull his head back to her mouth failed as he gave a deep, guttural laugh that made her shiver, her insides turning with the sweet melody and her heart? Her heart felt warm, big and incredibly full.

Maybe he did own her.

A knock on the door had interrupted their bliss as Y/N stiffened, looking at the door in slight panic. If someone saw them right now, no one would doubt their marriage was a successful love match. They seemed happy, truly in love. That’s not how it was meant to be.

“Someone doesn’t value their life”, he grumbled under his breath. “GO AWAY!”

Clasping a hand over his mouth, she chuckled. “Who is it?!”

“General?” Ivan’s voice faded her smile instantly.

Even with Aleksander’s hands cupping her bottom, his body covering her and the door being shut, Y/N felt ashamed as if she was bare in front of the entire world.

“Unless the world is burning, leave me alone!” Pecking Y/N’s lips, he smirked, “I never get a peaceful morning anymore.”

Come to think of it, Y/N never found him in the bed when she woke up. This was the very first night they spent together and he stayed by her side. Considerate was never a word she’d use describing him before, but he is considerate, kind and incredibly cautious when it comes to her. It made her heart sink.

Hearing no word from Ivan, Aleksander’s hand moved. Caressing the inside of her thighs, he made her shake in desire. Holding her breath, she bit her lower lip. Still sore from the night before, she felt her stomach twist as he lined himself up with her entrance once more. Pushing himself inside, he captures her lips as she cries out. The pleasure is undeniable, but she couldn’t deny there was pain too. She clutched at him, her legs pressing around his waist as she rose to meet each thrust. Sweet torment he had inflicted felt as if it would split her in two - one Y/N to plot his demise and the other who’d never let him leave her bed.

Finally, when she was sure her heart would explode, she felt the pulsing throbs that released her and soon after, Y/N felt him speed up and his own release followed. Collapsing on top of her, Aleksander held her so close that she could hardly breathe. In that moment she didn’t really care if she ever did breathe again.

Aleksander didn’t move, still buried deep inside her as if she is his saving grace. It’s insane to think he could fuck her into submission and feelings. It was impossible to ignore the fact that she developed feelings for him, but that realization created doubts. Eventually, something will have to break – and the thought of hurting him suddenly felt too much to bear.

“Are you alright?” He moved her hair out of her face, remaining on top of her as if she’s a conquered territory he refused to leave.

Swallowing thickly, she nods. “Why aren’t you moving?”

Eyes widening, the Darkling felt heat rush to his face. He was trying to be sweet, to show her it was more than a quick fuck. It was indescribable for him – a dawn after a long night he’s lived in. No woman ever lessened the loneliness inside his heart and then she waltzed into his life. He couldn’t imagine living without her again. She was the northern star in his dark sky and he never wanted to leave.

“I should see Ivan about earlier”, he murmured, nearly wincing as he pulled out. She wrapped herself up in the sheets again, her eyes wide as she stared ahead, thinking about how badly she’s already failing her mission.

Frowning as she shifted, Y/N felt Aleksander’s semen leave her. She cleared her throat, her eyes watering. She felt disgusted with herself, like she needed her skin rubbed off with scalding hot water and peeled off if that didn’t work. She could feel him, smell him on every inch of her skin and the worst of it all? She loathed just how cold she felt when his arms weren’t wrapped around her. She absolutely detested how giddy her heart felt when she saw the shit-eating grin on his face as he brought her to climax.

“When will we visit the armies by the fold?” She asked, switching into the woman she is instead of the woman she’s molded into by his lips.

Impassive, he looked back at her as he worked on the buttons of his shirt. “Why? Don’t believe I’ve kept my word?”

It unnerved her just how cold his voice felt, how impersonal. Standing, she wrapped the nightgown around her body. Taking his kefta in her hands, she held it open for him to slip into.

His eyes flicker from the kefta to her, as if he’s confused as well. It felt odd not knowing their place now. Their previous dynamic was easy to settle into, bickering felt like second nature. Conversing without spewing venom brought unfamiliar discomfort mostly because they’d much rather return to the bed behind them. Leaving that room carried an unspoken possibility of their time together being nothing but a fluke – a onetime deal. The outside world carries responsibilities, the kind that places them on opposite sides of the war.

“Thank you”, he turns around, allowing her to help dress him. Wives do that, he realized. Loving wives help their husbands dress just as often as they help them undress. Husbands do the same for their wives – though he much preferred the undressing part.

He kissed her brow unexpectedly, eyes flickering to her trembling lips as they passed a surprised gasp. “I know you want to see the results on a field, but rest assured I’ve kept my word.” Licking his lips, he reached for a glass from behind her. Pouring himself a glass, he watched her gnaw on her lower lip. For once, the ice queen showed there are emotions inside her capable of more than just disdain.

Breaking out of her daze, she cleared her throat. “I prefer to have confirmation”, she remarked.

Snorting, he looks up in frustration. He wanted to grab her by the throat as he would with any other human who’d dare challenge him, question him. In his mind, he pinned her to the bed, his hands wrapped around her delicate little wrists. ‘Don’t play games with me’, he’d say, ‘Don’t ever think you’re capable of that.’ He wanted so badly to treat her the same, as an enemy, but she had done something to him. No matter how hard he wished he could fight it, something inside him came to life – his heart beats unburdened by the shadows, for her. It was always going to be her.

“I guess I’m asking you to trust me”, he looked at her with a softness he visibly struggled with. His hand griped the glass far too tightly for it to fool her. He was hurt by her insinuation and she didn’t know how to respond.

“Aleksander.” Calling him by his first name for the first time felt so natural, but terrifying as his eyes lit up when it crossed her lips.

He shuddered. “Say it again”, he commanded, his eyes darkened as he pressed his lips together.

The look on her face would surely haunt him for an eternity. She was shocked, maybe even frightened. She didn’t mean to call him by his name, she had made a mistake and he could read it on her face.

She spun, fleeing into the bathroom. She ran from him like he had come to steal her soul. He thought about chasing after her, but it would be futile. She would return on her own. She lost the game, she was his. He swallowed his whisky and smiled. Perhaps the way his heart fluttered at the sound of his true name passing her lips should have been a sign he lost the game too, but he didn’t give it a second thought.

She is his.

Once he left, she did exactly as she wished – she scrubbed herself clean of any remainders of him. He’ll walk around with her scent clinging to him, but she will not be branded his. Though her hips bear his markings, she felt satisfied they were easily covered with a kefta.

“You don’t have to say it”, Genya raised an eyebrow at the shadows of Kirigan’s fingertips across her friend’s hips.

“Say what?” Y/N narrowed her eyes, her heart picking up pace.

Smirking, Genya lowered her voice, “You enjoyed it, didn’t you?”

Rolling her eyes, Y/N, exhaled audibly through her nose. “It wasn’t terrible.”

“Ha!” Genya clapped her hands, “We are winning today!”

Raising her eyebrows, Y/N turned her undivided attention to an overly excited Genya. “Care to explain?”

“Well”, she shrugged innocently, “I may have found us a new ally.”

Stunned, Y/N sat on the edge of the bathtub. “Who?”

“David”, Genya exclaimed.

“Isn’t he Kirigan’s little…pet?”

Knitting her eyebrows, Genya huffed, “No! He’s a brilliant man and he believes in equality and a brighter future.”

“But can we trust him with the secret?”

Swallowing thickly, Genya paused. Inhaling deeply, she nods. “I’d vouch for him.”

“I need concrete proof”, Y/N sighs, “This isn’t going to end well for us if he decides to spill everything to Kirigan!”

Rubbing her temples, Y/N felt as if the pressure inside her head would cause her brain to burst. It’s pressing in, choking every good idea she’s ever had.

“What would happen if he did know?” Genya crouched before her. With her hands on Y/N’s knees, Genya sighed. “Maybe he’d be receptive too.”

Snorting, Y/N couldn’t believe how naïve Genya is. “No. He’d be too angry to see the big picture.”

It didn’t matter that he’s begun colonizing Y/N’s heart or that every inch of her skin craved the touch of his hand. It felt as if she were invincible when he stood beside her, as if he had made her fireproof. No scar hurt when he kissed her, no grief was too difficult to bear when he looked at her.

“Damn it”, Y/N covered her face, “I want to believe in him, I do.” She couldn’t help but wonder if her feelings are the aftermath of the night he saved her life or the night of ecstasy he had given her. Is it really genuine emotion or did her heart move to her vagina?

“So believe”, Genya encouraged. A sympathetic smile adorned her full lips, her eyes kinder than before.

“How can I ever trust him when he’s got a superiority complex regarding humans? He’s never going to willingly protect one!”

“He did with you”, Genya pressed her lips into a thin line. “You’re paranoid because you are afraid allowing yourself to see the good in him might actually make you love him.”

And she is. She’s afraid to love him or let him love her. What would be the point? In the end, they’re too different.

“Talk to David again”, Y/N stood, sniffling. “I’ll head to the library.”

Genya raised an eyebrow. “Library?”

The first casualty of war is innocence and Y/N had none left. She was once called ‘angel’ by her father, by her comrades in the army too. She was the epitome of a pure heart who would sacrifice itself for others. She didn’t feel like an angel anymore, but she will play the part. No one expects an angel to set the world on fire.

“Yeah”, Y/N breathes out. “I want to look for something.” Truth be told, she wanted to research Aleksander and his lineage.

If the dark heretic is from his bloodline, she needed to know everything about him, about the hearts of those he came from. If she’s ever going to consider her husband as an ally, she has to know him – all of him. If she asked, she worried he’d cover up the darkest parts of him. He’d deem her too human to understand, too fragile to know all the horrors that tie into who he’s become.

It was time to find out if she could trust Aleksander.

=============================

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Part 9

[mrstaeminlee]

Mission Complete Ch. 1

You had two goals in life. One: Complete your squad training without dying. Two: Fuck Levi Ackerman

Pairings: Levi/f!reader

Warnings: Swearing, eventual smut, lmk if I need to add anything~

You really had no idea what the fuck prompted you to join the military. Maybe it was to find some redeeming grace in the eyes of your dying mother, maybe it was because you wanted a life with as much stability as one could muster, maybe it was because you just fucking hated farming.

Whatever it was, you wished to any God that would listen that you would have buried it in the ground along with the countless friends and family members you had lost to the Titans.

The first week of the cadet corps was everything you knew you would hate and more. Between the foul smelling breath of the commandant threatening to make you puke up the bread you had managed to steal, to working your body to the point of sneaking away from one on one combat to puke behind the bushes, after seven days you had almost decided that maybe digging in the dirt for the rest of your miserable life wasn't so bad.

There was only one thing stopping you from making your own walk of shame to the wagon of regret.

Levi Ackerman.

AKA the man you fantasized about every night when you managed to find enough strength to finger yourself below the covers.

He was a couple of inches shorter, true, but you were willing to break your rule of not fucking anyone shorter than you for him.

You had only see him twice in your life by complete chance, the first had been when you happened to be by the gates in time to see the Scouts returning from what was undoubtably another failed mission, and you decided that what the hell, might as well have a look at Humanity's Strongest in the flesh. Granted, it hadn't been his best day; his green cloak was splattered with what could only have been the blood of his comrades as it didn't look as if he had a single scratch on him, but he looked like a god, albeit one that had just gotten his ass kicked out of heaven. His eyes seemed to be sunken in, and even from how far away you were you found yourself shivering from the intensity of his dead gaze. You weren't sure what possessed you to lift your hand as he eyes moved through the crowd, looking for whom, you didn't know, or what possessed him to raise those eyes to you, but you found yourself lost in haunted silver as you gave a soft wave. The way he seemed to look straight through you, not even seeing you even as you stared at each other, was enough to convince you that you needed to do whatever it took to see this man again.

You enlisted the start of the next week.

The second time was completely by chance.

Everyone was desperate for military recruits, and desperate times called for desperate calls to important people to make appearances in front of people that were well, not very important.

Erwin Smith, Dot Pixis, Nile Dawk, Levi Ackerman, Hange Zoe, Rico Brzenska, and even Darius Zackly graced the entrance ceremony of the new Cadets, and you thanked whatever bone in your body made you a teacher's pet because you had a front row seat to the man that had plagued your thoughts every single day in the past week. His appearance was brief and he didn't speak, just stared at the fresh faces, some cocky, some blank, but mostly terrified new recruits, and you could have sworn that you saw a tinge of sadness hidden in the silver, as if he could already foresee the deaths of everyone in front of him. He followed after Erwin immediately after the blond gave his speech about thanking you all for making the decision to serve humanity and you fought the urge to roll your eyes. 'I'm not doing this for humanity, I'm doing this for dick,' you thought as you signed your life away to this shit camp for the next two years.

How one man who was fucking shorter than you managed to convince you to trade the next 728 days, 14 hours, 37 minutes, and 15 seconds of your life for physical and emotional hell was beyond you, and yet here you were, standing proud and slightly hungover from the pre-graduation celebrating you did with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin the night before. They hadn't initially been your first choice in friends, but Armin was nice to you from the start and once you very quickly learned that flirting with Eren in front of Mikasa was not in your best interest, you had decided that they were alright; especially when Eren's Titan form had been revealed. If anyone was going to have to get close enough to keep an eye on Eren, it would be Captain Levi.

The very man you were thinking of walked on the stage along with Nile Dawk, Dot Pixis, and Erwin Smith as the three took turns giving their pitch. You hadn't made the top 10 but were happy for your friends that were, you were content with your place as 13th. In a class of over 500, you still considered it a win, and if your parents were still alive you knew they'd be proud. As the remaining members of the top 10 who had opted to join the elitest MP's went off to talk to Nile and the other scared fucks ran off to sign themselves to the Garrison regiment, you and around a hundred other members stayed where you were and you licked your lips, forcing your heart rate to calm itself. 'Calm down, you can't work your way up to fucking the strongest man in the world if you die of heart attack before-'

"Listen up you little shits."

Oh my God he was speaking you've never heard his voice before it's so fucking-

"Most of you are going to die. Are you prepared for that?"

Ah, so Humanity's Strongest was a sweet talker.

"Erwin is making me come up here and talk, so we're all going to pretend that I'm saying some meaningful bullshit. But here's the truth: If you aren't strong, you will die, and it will be painful. Imagine the thought of seeing your childhood friend's entrails being slurped up like spaghetti by a Titan, while the entire time he's conscious enough to reach his hand out for you, and you are able to do nothing for him because you spent exactly one second hesitating, or you were a moment too late to draw your blades, or react to the threat. If that scares you, then do us all a favor and put down that half assed salute and sell your soul to the Garrison where you'll spend your days fucking the best whores for a discount if you're in uniform and getting drunk on the clock."

After his touching speech you and your now dripping panties decided that you had indeed made the right decision in selling yourself to the Scouts.

One month later

It was moments like these, where you weren't quite trashed but definitely more than tipsy, that you had never been happier to be part of the survey corps. I mean, you were in peak physical shape (you still couldn't believe you had abs. Abs!), you were hot, you were fit, and you knew Sasha Braus, who had managed to steal a few bottles of top shelf liquor from the higher ups.

You were also horny as fuck. It had been over a year since you'd gotten laid, and you were using the dildo you'd bought on your first trip back into town as often as you brushed your teeth (twice a day, you didn't fuck with cavities). You briefly thought about enlisting the help of one of your current drinking buddies but after seeing your choices you decided to leave it to old faithful hidden in your pillowcase. There was Jean, who albeit was pretty hot even with the long face but was so in love with Mikasa it made you want to vomit. Marco, who you were almost one hundred percent sure was gay; Connie, who held the sexual appeal of a pile of horse shit, although he was super nice. Reiner almost looked promising but you knew underneath those stocky muscles was a shitload of emotional baggage you didn't want, and Bertholt was head over heels for Annie of all people. That left Armin and Eren. Eren you already knew was out, while your slut senses told you he'd be a great lay, you weren't quite ready for your life to end at the hands of Mikasa. That left Armin. You tilted your head, staring at him as you sipped on your god forsaken concoction and debated fucking him or not. He wasn't outright sexy, but he'd filled in well during the two years of training and you had seen glimpses of his surprisingly impressive muscles under his white shirt. He might actually do. He'd be shy as hell and you would have to lead everything, not to mention he'd probably cum in less than a minute, but it just might-

“Did you guys know that Captain Levi is a virgin?"

You spit the mix of vodka, rum, and whatever mixer Reiner had put in all over the face of the person you had just considered fucking.

"I'm sorry, what?" You turned your attention to Christa, apologetically handing Armin a napkin and patting his cheek.

Christa blushed at the attention and scooted closer to Ymir, who threw an arm around her shoulders and gave Reiner her customary 'If you even look at her weird, I will gut you' look. "W-Well, recently I started helping out in the infirmary because they've been short handed. You all know, it's that time of year where everyone has to get looked at and they give us that sheet of paper to fill out with all of our personal information to keep track of potential diseases. I was in charge of filing the paperwork the day they brought all of the officers in, and on the paper they ask you how many sexual partners you've had and Captain Levi wrote 0. But you guys, you have to promise not to tell anyone! This is private information, if it somehow gets out that I told you this I'll get into a lot of trouble!"

Ymir chuckled, placing a sloppy kiss at the top of the blonde's head. "Don't worry about a thing sweet cheeks, if any of these miscreants here says a word I'll kill them for ya. But we don't have to worry about that at all, now do we?" She glared at each person in the room, who all looked as if Christa were a ghost, and slowly shook their heads.

Your life was changed.

Captain Levi Ackerman.

The strongest man in the world.

Rumored former thug of the Underground.

The person responsible for killing as many Titans as a hundred soldiers.

The person whose squad every scout dreamed of being on, was a virgin.

You screeched out a laugh before you could help it, the alcohol doing nothing to try and make you quiet yourself as you fell onto your back laughing, cup long forgotten as it rolled across the floor. The person who initiated your drive to join the military in the first place, the person you literally dreamed of fucking, had never gotten his dick wet.

Clearly, you had your work cut out for you.

If you managed to live through the sight of Ymir reaching over to punch you in the face to shut you up.