#like i mean i straight up tumbled outta bed

[analogboii]

atp axel from kingdom hearts owes me emotional compensation. i can't tell you how many times ive woken up from a dead sleep thinking the tattoo on my arm (his chakrams) was a big ass fuckin spider. heart attack every fucking time I swear

[burnedbyshoto]

go the distance

(will you) go the distance

— You’re perfectly content in life except for the fact that you are not dating Deku. When his best friend won’t help you out, you turn to the dark side to get what you want.

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pairing: pro hero!midoriya izuku x bad villain!reader

warnings: 18+, nsfw, smut, manga spoilers, pro hero!au, villain!reader, ofa usage for sex lol, size difference, manhandling, public sex, slight degradation and praise, deku eats his cum outta ya pussy, big dick deku, corruption but make it opposite, deku is a pervert change my mind

word count: 12,715

a/n: well, yall already knew I wanted to make this fic a reality, so here it is for bnharems villain collab!! check out all the already amazing stories if you haven’t already. thank you to kara, sky, and jo for reading this for me because lmao im ass rn. I’m gonna go to bed because I partied a bit too hard last night.

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your quirk: distortion – can make afflicted persons vision shift 6 cm to the left or right at the cost of having their own vision shift the same way

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“Breaking news: We have yet another report to add to the slew of attacks this month, this comes just days after we broadcasted rumors of a villain running rampant over the city. This spate of attacks has put the entire metropolitan area at a standstill, road closures, and damaged property making it difficult for commuters to get to work in the morning. 

“Road maintenance endeavors to do its best to keep the city running, but it seems futile when these attacks continue to increase. The entire city was brought to a standstill by the mysterious villain who has still not been named, but reports show they are nothing like we have ever experienced before. 

“Where are the heroes now? Who will save us from the terror overwhelming our city? 

“Every day the crime toll continues to rise and we have no one here to protect us. The Hero Public Safety Commission assured us earlier in the week that the crime rate would go down, that the top Heroes are out there protecting our city, but if so, where are they? Is it really safe to go out anymore, who can we trust? Would you put your life in the hands of a Hero today? When they have proved our streets are no longer safe. We still have no information on what is going on, or who is involved, but we must remain observant. We will continue to report the latest news as we receive it, but for now, we must implore you to heed the warnings of the city-wide curfew that is soon to be implemented. If anyone has any information on these occurrences in the city, please send them to us or contact the police, you can remain anonymous. The safety of our citizens is what is most important, stay vigilant and don’t go out unless it is absolutely necessary. One thing we know for sure: we can no longer rely on Heroes to protect us. The streets of our once-great city are no longer safe, we are no longer safe.”

The female reporter closes her eyes, despite still being on the air, her eyebrows furrowed as she exasperatedly sighs.

“Was that good enough, Mirage?”

You look at her with a pout, your eyes then clenching shut as your lips move with unsaid words as you motion for the cameras to stop rolling. You tilt your head right and left, muttering a bit.

“Did that seem better to you this time? I don’t know, I don’t think it was scary enough...”

You open your eyes to see the exasperated reporter looking at you as if she personally sought to end you right where you were sitting.

“You are the worst villain I’ve ever encountered,” she deadpans, and you laugh in agreement.

.

.

.

You weren’t really a villain.

If you must put a label on what you were, you would say that you were the best PR head any hero agency could ask for. You were, after all, the top student graduate from UA’s Business Course and had been ushered into a condensed agency the moment you were finished taking your graduation pictures. 

And well, if you are actually curious about the… villainy, you would like to uphold and continue to stress that you weren’t a villain! You were just a public nuisance – like those stupid YouTubers – with the ability to garner Pro Heroes’ attention! People had no reason to scoff at what you did on the daily.

You took both of these jobs very seriously!

It was like being straight out of a comic for you!

A simple – hopefully should the heroes you’re in charge of not be stupid – nine to five job by day, and a badass, crime-committing, sexy as shit villain by night! How could anyone ever hate you for your lifestyle! How could anyone ever hate you?!

But we are all noisy people, and everyone wondered just why you became a villain because you had a beautifully stable job with an impressive salary! Why would such an amazing woman such as yourself dabble in the evilness of humanity? 

Well, you did have an answer for the public.

“Why do you engage in evil, villainous schemes?” the reporter deadpans, absolutely and utterly not being paid enough to humor you in this forced interview.

The public loved drama, pizazz, a little showmanship even from what they deemed humanities worst! So, you told the world why you chose to be evil instead of good:

“Because I want to be!” you grin, flashing a pose as you make your away from the interviewer you had very much illegally forced to interview you. “And because a hero killed my cat!’

Of course, that was a lie! Why would you ever hand over the real reason as to why you decided to become a villain! You’d be laughed right out of Japan, possibly be murdered by a horde of fangirls!

For you see, there was one reason and one reason alone as to why you decided to take your place within the villainy hall of fame. Why you chose to do more in your day outside of your already demanding job.

And that one reason was: Pro Hero Deku, civilian name Midoriya Izuku.

Now, trying not to come off as some creepy, weirdo, stalker fangirl, you could fully admit that you were in love with the stupidly large hunk of a man that debuted as an official pro a year before you graduated from high school. 

You remember how the world was finally recovering from the year-long nightmare that had ensued. To be honest, you were stupidly surprised you had even managed to graduate, given that most of schooling had become somewhat of a joke.

FIVE YEARS AGO, MARCH, 2XXX:

It had been in the evening, the clear blue sky becoming ruby red and blood orange as you made your way out of campus. The air somehow smelled of sweet hay and gasoline, but you didn’t mind. There was hardly anyone out at this time, most students had made their way home already, and the only sounds were the moving cars of businessmen just trying to get back home.

There really wasn’t any reason to suspect anything to go wrong, this was a simple daily walk back home after school that wasn’t like any other. But then there had been a loud pop, an ever louder screech, and finally, you managed to whip your head in time to see a car tumbling through the air straight at you. 

There was hardly any time to think, even less to react, and the only thing you knew was that you were not going to survive.

You braced yourself, eyes clenching and body curling, your mind screaming because this was not going to be the way things ended. But before it could happen, before the car could come down upon you and squish you like a bug under a shoe, something picked you up and you were weightless.

Waiting for an impact that never came, the tears that were endlessly streaming down your face were suddenly stopped by rough, warm fingers smoothly wiping them away.

“Hey, it’s okay! You’re safe now!” a voice says softly to you, endearingly warm and comforting. “I’m here, don’t worry.”

“Am I… did I die?” you whisper, unsure if you even want the answer, your eyes remaining closed because you refused to open them up to some angel that could confirm your death. “God, what an embarrassing way to die!”

“Oh – um, no! You’re not dead! I promise!” the voice laughs brightly, just softly enough that you believe him and not be entirely horrified by the amused reaction. Your eyes crack open slowly, just barely peering back into the world, still half praying you weren’t dead. But all you saw was green. 

Green eyes, green hair, green clothes.

You blink, once, twice, realizing only then you were staring into the eyes of a boy about your age.

He had curly hair, freckles littering his face, and eyes that easily pierced through your very soul.

Without meaning to, your breath stopped, frozen in your lungs as you were captivated by a handsome man with a curving, beautiful smile. 

“See, I told you it was okay!” he teased you, head cocking to the side as he grinned largely.

The action itself seemed to strangle the strangest noise out of your mouth as you realized suddenly and immediately that your face was burning and all you could think was:

A cute hero rescued me, a cute hero rescued me, a cute hero rescued me, acuteherorescuedme!

“Sorry about that scare! I would’ve caught that car sooner, but I wasn’t paying attention to who was around!” the green boy apologized, bowing deeply in front of you in his apology. “There’s a commotion just up ahead, so I recommend you take the next road over.”

You nod numbly, unable to conjure even the slightest hint of your voice again as he stood up to his full length. He was average in height it seemed, taller than you, but still not towering. The hero looked behind his shoulder, those big green eyes focusing onto the distance, onto something you couldn’t even begin to imagine – or see, really. He blinked and turned back to you, smile gone but the gentle aura to him remained, but now his face, his mouth, was underlined with a sense of urgency and engagement to whatever sent a vehicle tumbling your way.

“Which train do you take home?” he asked, eyebrows relaxing from his stern position, as his smile picked up again. “I’ll take you closer to your station!”

“B train,” you manage to wheeze out – unable to be the reason why he was held up but also confused as to just what he could do to get you closer to the station that was at least a mile away from here.

“Perfect! I know where that is!” he laughs for just a moment, and before you could even ask if this was going to be some escorted thing – because you definitely did not need it – his arms were fastly secured around you, and suddenly you were weightless.

A cold wind rushed against your face, nipping at your nose, cheeks, and ears, sending your hair flying around – into your mouth! Oh, you were screaming! You were soaring through the skyline, being held by some hero you couldn’t name, and you were screeching at the top of your lungs.

Making the mistake of looking down, your arms were suddenly around his shoulders, your voice growing even sharper and louder as you squeezed against his body and refused to let go. His hands, despite the gloves, were warm on your back, and his soft chuckle warming you from nose to toes as he secured his grip on you.

“I got you,” he spoke, “I won’t let you go, I promise.”

Those words don’t exactly ease you, but there’s a comfort to the genuinity to his words. You nod nonetheless, your face buried deep into his neck. The cold wind continues to whip around you, the only thing sounding in your ears is the cruel whipping wind and quiet city below.

“I’m landing now,” he informed you, body shifting in the wind, and reflexively, you clung even tighter to him, expecting the similar stomach dropping motion of a roller coaster going straight down. “You’re – ack – c-choking me!”

The knowledge of that, hearing the strain and entirely unhidden sound of him choking against the current chokehold you had on him, you released him entirely with a shriek of your own. Was it a smart move? No, definitely not because you were how many hundreds – if not thousands – of feet in the air with a quirk that could not, and would not save you.

“It’s okay! I’m fine!” he quickly said, his arms shifting around your waist as you felt your body weight drop just the smallest bit. To which your focus landed to the concrete floor so far down, and you began screaming again. He panicked just a bit too. “Y-You’re okay too! We’re landing! We’re landing!”

Soon, but not soon enough, the concrete floor came underneath your feet, and you practically felt your knees buckle underneath you. The train station behind you was practically invisible, and you felt the floor come in contact with your knees, and you collapsed onto your hands and knees. You could feel the tears streaming down your face as you wheezed and panted, unable to move from your position. 

“Hey, look, we made it!” he laughed gently, probably being said in hopes that you would feel better. (It did make you feel slightly better, his laugh was light and pretty to listen to.) You could feel him approaching you, iron covered red shoes appearing before your vision. Looking up, you saw that the young hero was crouching, his face holding a wobbly smile that was earnest, worried, and full of unspoken hope. “I do need to get back, but before I do, are you good enough to be left alone?”

You blinked your soaked eyelashes at him, still largely unable to say anything at the cute hero in front of you who had a few scratches on his cheek, right below his freckles.

“Y-Yeah, um,” you say, your tongue cotten and lead in your dry mouth. “I-I’ll be fine, I think.”

The green eyed hero nods, offering you a hand and assisting you to your trembling legs, “That’s good to hear!” he chirped, his wobbly smile becoming a grand, bright grin. “You were really brave! I was impressed!”

Now, you were an idiot at times, but even you could spot a stupid lie. Still, hearing it said with such honesty, as if this hero who was no taller than five foot eight truly believed it, made something bubble in your chest, and soon you found yourself laughing.

“No need to lie to me, h-hero,” you manage to speak between stammering breaths, “thank you for saving me, though. I appreciate it.”

You grin crookedly at him, and to your utter delight, he reciprocates it.

“It’s the least I can do. I’d offer to take you home but… I’m not quite finished yet,” he says, and you can only nod, the conversation obviously reaching its last strides. You watch as he floats up, his eyes looking at you, but somehow focused how many miles away from where he had brought you from. “Stay safe?”

“I’ll try my best,” you agree to his question, hands clasping before your lap. “Finish the job quick, hero?”

He grins, “I’ll try my best.”

You feel a breathless sort of laugh escape you as you watch him beginning to shoot back up, but a sort of horror shoots through you as you rush forward, running right after him, hands cupping around your mouth as you scream:

“What’s your name?!”

The blur of green in the air freezes, and you stop running as you see green eyes and freckles focusing back onto you.

“Deku! My hero name is Deku!”

You stop at the curb of the street, eyes focused on the sky as the green eyed hero named Deku grins one last time before shooting off at a speed probably much faster than when he held onto you. The wind blows around you, and you can only feel the heat sitting on your cheeks and the way you’re smiling as you stare after his figure that's long, long gone.

“Deku...” you whisper to yourself, ignorant to the world of commuters beginning to appear at the station. “Thank you.”

And thus came the very apparent and obvious day in which you fell head over heels for Pro Hero Deku.

Now some people called you a stupid fangirl, obsessive stalker, and sometimes, yeah, you were obsessive and weird about your slight infatuation with a stranger. It was strange, you knew that! But you also knew that you had practically no chances of ever being able to woe the man behind the image of Deku because Midoriya Izuku practically existed as Deku 24/7.

After you graduated from high school, you were put into the same agency that was currently holding Deku. Without tooting your own rom-com obsessed horn too much, you fully expected to walk in and be handed Deku’s file as his PR manager and be able to thank him for not only saving you all that time ago, but also eventually sweep him off his feet. 

But your reputation preceded you well, probably too well, because the first day you entered the office and was handed your list of three clients to work with, neither one was for Deku. Being a PR manager for heroes was hard, a job that practically held no set hours because, unlike your typical celebrities, heroes had no type of privacy or protection. They were constantly under the spotlight, being viewed by adoring fans and scornful critics. Your job served as the first line of defense for heroes against the public, and there were some heroes that were quite hilariously easy to work for because they were genuinely good.

The older PR managers typically held the quieter, easy tempered, or less combat heavy heroes. These heroes typically never had a bad thing said about them, their job was a glorified PA job but even less because there was no expected demands from the heroes they had to take in. Unless, of course, a hero wanted to do some sort of public event they hadn’t considered. 

But there were the louder, quick to temper, or the heavy combat heroes that while made you an insane amount of money, also brought you a near 120 hour work week because there was so much to do, so much to consider, so much to keep your eyes on. There was the constant slander, the people who hated the louder, quick to temper heroes because they didn’t like their attitude, completely disregarding that they had been unsafe and a liability the entire time the hero was dealing with them. The talk shows that took months to convince to allow for an interview because they heard false rumors, and so you have to practically wrestle a boa constrictor to get a measly five minute interview done. And then the combat-heavy heroes… no one would ever shut up about building damages and how this hero broke his nose while he was stealing a store! 

Not to mention having to have every single piece of social media on your phone, set to notify you whenever your clients names were brought up so that you could look at it. You’ve seen more than enough lewd drawings of your clients to last you a lifetime, enough fanfiction, and fan edits that left you with blazing cheeks and the need to never look at your client ever again. But mostly you checked each and every update because you were their first and only line of legal defense on these sorts of things.

You’ve taken down leaked nudes, fake news, and qualmed rumors and speculations.

It was hard.

So when you were shown to your desk on your first day and three files were handed to you, you were shocked to see the hero names you would be working with.

Dynamight

Phantom Thief

Shouto

Somehow, without having yet to speak with a single one of your now current clients, you knew that you were going to have your work cut out for you.

“Good luck newbie!” the woman who gave you the initial tour chirped, clapping you on the back. “You got this!”

Good lord.

Without much to do other than reading through the three’s files, you realized that you already knew a bunch about two of three of your clients. DynaMight and Shouto were two heroes that you knew teamed up with and hung out with Deku a lot, both on-field and off-field if any of the out of costume pictures said anything. Because of their connection with Deku, you had at one point learned a bit about them.

You knew that Shouto was a crowd favorite. He was tall and sweet and a complete airhead at the best moments despite him being smart. Controversy still surrounded his character, despite all the good he did, because of the past history that was brought out about his father Endeavor and his brother Dabi. The country couldn’t figure out where they stood in terms of that reveal. Endeavor did a lot before the reveal, and continued to rise up to everything in his path despite the skeletons in his closet being thrown out for the world to see. They neither forgave him, nor hated him, they only watched and waited. Then Dabi, of course, was seen as a could-have-been version of Shouto, and many tried to ask if he was really a hero and not actually siding with the League. After all, why on Earth would he be defensive of his father too?

The public had an unmoving image of Shouto based on anything but who he was as an individual, and you decided immediately that it would be your job to fix that. He was also, after all, a dear friend of Deku, so you’d do anything.

Phantom Thief was your easiest of the three clients. A relatively well mannered man who was kind and a bit weird in a fun way. He had a great sense of self and was a reliable person on the field. He made a great hero, but you could see the way his spirit blazed with an unspoken rivalry between him and the other two of your clients. Well, it seemed like he was the best until his former self appointed rivals came into the picture, but that was hardly ever, and according to Shouto, he was way worse back in their first year. 

The greatest scandal he’s had so far in your three years of working at their agency was the one time he was lied to about a quirk and accidentally copied a woman's quirk that gave her the ability to change her cup size. Safe to say that Phantom Thief accidentally broke a few buttons on his shirt and was unable to stop civilians from snapping pictures. 

But of course, the one that had you practically crying yourself to sleep nightly for more than one reason was Dynamight.

You’d known about him the moment you looked up Deku on your phone.

They were practically a hero duo in everything but name. They were always seen doing the same things together, whether that be on patrol together or maybe getting dinner, most of their top recorded fights were done with each other by their sides. You had also learned that they were childhood friends, and you practically vibrated at the thought that even though Deku was not your client, the chances of meeting him were still astronomically high.

There was no way you wouldn’t not meet Deku!

But you were wrong, so very, very wrong.

Turns out the hero duo in everything but name meant that Dynamight refused to let Deku be anywhere near him in the agency – the very small amount of time they spent in here. The few times they were in the same room, Dynamight absolutely refused to be interrupted because that was their paperwork hour. You had only ever been blessed with seeing green curls turning the corner as Dynamight gripped your forearm, refusing to let you follow.

“Like hell I’ll let you distract the shitnerd,” he stated simply, his red eyes narrowed as he stared down his nose at you. You opened your mouth, ready to defend your not so innocent intentions. “I’m not stupid, so don’t pretend like you won’t try anything.”

Your jaw snapped shut.

Safe to say that you couldn’t do anything about Deku so long as Dynamight was around.

But Dynamight as a client was exhausting to put it kindly.

There were so many opinions and thoughts and issues and praises coming from everywhere. Hell, even the fucking Americans and westerners had caught wind of the Wonder Duo at one point and while you were well knowledgable on their opinions on Deku, the ones on Dynamight were the ones that you had to focus on now.

People still called him a villain, so many unhappy with the fact that he still screamed and cursed and threatened. There were many conspiracy theories that he was working with the long dead League of Villains. They turned their nose up at the fact that he was childhood friends with Deku, claiming that no way an asshole like him could have ever been friends with him. And of course the bullying revelation that had come out shortly after your debut. 

That had been a trip, one that had you even shocked as Dynamight approached the table in front of the media, his body calm and composed. You had watched as he simply said he owed nothing to the media, that he had already done all that he could to deserve his atonement and deserve Deku’s forgiveness. He had spoken clearly, concisely that it wasn’t any of their damn business as to what he did, and if he apologized to them, the unaffected, the ones that had nothing to do with his early years of bullying Deku, of his previous weakness and insecurity, it would be a waste of his breath. 

It isn’t to them he should ever be apologizing to anyways.

You had watched as he stood up, face calm, and hands shoved into his pockets as he stood and walked away despite the screaming reporters. You had wanted to stay longer, have your own hand in damage control, but a swoop of green came in and Deku was at the microphone eyebrows furrowed as he pointed a finger at them all and said that his past with Kacchan was between him and Kacchan only, and his decision to forgive Kacchan were his and only his.

You didn’t hear the rest, didn’t even get the option to hear the way the hero you loved defended the hero you worked for – his childhood friend.

No.

Dynamight had grabbed your elbow and dragged you out of the room with him, the metal doors clanging closed the moment fierce green eyes met yours.

You watched in the company car as Dynamight looked outside the window, one elbow on the doorframe holding his chin; his gaze focused sharply on nothing but the passing sidewalk. Had it not been for the way the hand on top of his lap trembled, you would have thought he was perfectly okay.

Neither one of you talked about that again.

But just because you didn’t talk about it again, didn’t mean the world was the same. People claimed he brainwashed Deku, others demanded that Deku beat the shit out of Dynamight. You knew that Dynamight would want nothing to do with this, but you would stay in the office (an almost useless, empty office as most PR managers did their business at home) for hours long after you were supposed to be gone, practically arguing with someone who only existed behind a screen and didn’t even care that much – but you couldn’t stop.

Seeing Dynamight’s shaking hand had really done a number on you.

“The hell are you still doing here, eyelashes,” Dynamite asked from the dark entrance of the floor. “Go home already, don’t waste your time.”

You had startled at the initial intrusion, but you immediately relaxed seeing the smudged paint around red eyes and blond hair. You barely kept your gaze on him before turning back to your computer and continuing your argument.

“I’m not wasting my time, I’m doing my job,” you remark, eyes squinting at your keyboard because your vision is definitely blurry. “I’ll be heading out soon anyways.”

“God you’re fucking annoying and stubborn!” Dynamight barked, the heel of his hand slamming into his forehead. “This is exactly why I won’t introduce you to the fucking nerd!” 

“What?!” you shriek, suddenly looking at your client as if he had personally attacked you – and in a way he did. “What do you mean you won’t introduce me to Deku because of that?! I’ve already met Red Riot, Chargebolt, Cellophane, and Pinky through you!”

“Yeah, because they’re not stubborn idiots too!” Dynamight accuses, jamming a gloved finger at you as he begins stomping your way. You startle, your chair shooting backward as the explosion hero makes his way towards you at alarming speed.

“What are you—?!” you shriek, hands flailing about as he grabs you by the collar of your distressed shirt.

Dynamight lifts you up to your feet as if you were a sack of flour and you grasp onto his forearm.

“I might tell you that you’re the most annoying and stubborn bitch in the world, but you’re not worse than fucking Deku,” Dynamight sneers, his red eyes narrowed and stern. “I’m not going to let you meet him until you learn how to give or you’ll hurt him, and I’m not going to be part of any reason as to why he gets hurt again.”

Your jaw dropped, clearly offended, but you closed it just as fast; the weight of his words made you a bit sad, even for just a bit.

“You’re kinda cute when you care for Deku, you sure I’m his biggest fan?” you tease, grinning at the hero to which he rolls his eyes.

“Shut the hell up and go home already; it’s annoying seeing you fight a losing battle that’s none of your damn business,” Dynamight simply said, putting you back onto your feet and blocking out your desk. 

“I’ll go home on the condition that for my birthday you at least consider introducing us!” you say, unwilling to move from your spot. “I’ve been working for you for three years! You’ve kept me away for three years!”

Dynamight’s stare didn’t even shift the slightest millimeter, his red eyes unamused as you groaned in grief and annoyance.

“I’m stubborn? Have you met yourself?!” you grumble snatching your jacket and purse from the hook on your cubicle and shoving them on. “My names God of Explosion Murder: Dynamight and I am Stubborn™ but will never admit it.”

You continued mocking your long time client and most definitely friend if you dared to say so, and dragged the heel of your foot all the way to the elevator to which you were joined by Dynamight. The trip down the elevator is silent, and you keep your gaze locked on the closed doors, unwilling to even look at the hero next to you.

Soon enough, the elevator reached the ground floor, and you got ready to walk out.

“I’ll consider it,” Dynamight said as the elevator doors opened. “Also, fucking stop calling me Dynamight, Bakugou’s fine.”

He walked off the elevator with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants.

“Thank you, Bakugou!” you shriek, your lungs failing you at the thought of finally being introduced to Deku! You hadn’t moved from your spot from the elevator, your chest hammering with the thought of getting to meet Deku.

“Don’t get your hopes up, you’re still irritatingly stubborn,” Bakugou merely calls over his shoulder before lifting his hand in a halfhearted wave before stepping out of the glass door.

That brought you back to reality just a bit and you scowled, knowing you would have to go beyond and above to prove that. 

But you see, there were many reasons to cry about having Bakugou as your client. Besides the stinkhole of his previous bullying, people just were not understanding his typically prickly exterior. You had to go head to head with reputation tarnished, had to slap fangirls away who demanded that Bakugou degrade them where they stood. It was hard to not be stubborn as not only his PR manager but his friend, and in less than a month, still plenty of time before your birthday, you had already grown irritated of the meeting-Deku-card he waved over your head.

“Mei, if I have to go any longer than this, I will die and hope I am reborn as Deku’s new guardian angel,” you pouted, chin pressed against a cold metal tabletop. Your hands being used as glove models for one of your best friends Hatsume Mei. “It’s first of all impossible getting anywhere near him with his guard dog Bakugou literally stopping me whenever I’m within a ten foot radius! And then I’m not even sure what will happen when we do meet again! Would I even be able to talk to him?!”

“Why wouldn’t you? You talk to all my babies with me! There’s practically nothing you can’t do,” Mei laughs, smacking you against your back before returning her intense gaze back to the gloves. “Deku’s uh… I actually can’t remember him but I’m sure he’s a great conversationalist! I think he helped me with the Sports Festival my first year.”

 “That was Iida,” you laugh, wiggling your fingers as Mei demanded. “You’re so bad with names and faces, I’m impressed you know mine.”

“You saved my baby, of course I remember you,” Mei turned her grin towards you, “but come on, why can’t you get with him besides this Bakugou guy?”

“Well, he’s just like Bakugou! He’s practically married to his job! Their schedules basically match together perfectly! There’s literally only three hours a day while they’re on the job that they’re not together! And that’s when they patrol their own parts of town because there’s hardly any activity they don’t need to be attached by the neck.” You explain and rant, your cheeks puffing as you stand up and allow Mei to run further tests on the glove. 

“Sounds like you gotta become a villain to woo this hero guy, huh,” Mei spoke, eyes focused on the glove as you pointed a finger at the far wall and watched as a beam exploded from the fingertip and pierced through the steel wall like butter. “Too bad you’re a goody two-shoes or else I could make you some serious villain gear and make you a fearsome villain to then prove that Hatusme Mei’s babies and creations are untouchable and the best in the world! Muah-ha-ha-ha!”

You know her words are more joking than serious, but that doesn’t stop your eyes from widening. Your body shifts over to where she was standing and you screech pointing at her and just narrowly missing setting off the laser again. 

“THAT'S IT!”

“What’s it?” she asked, completely confused.

“You have to make me a villain!” you exclaim, rushing over to Mei, who is eagerly waiting for her babies returnal especially since it ran perfectly. “You have to make me near-invisible gear that can keep me going toe to toe with Deku until I can seduce him!”

“You want to turn evil?” Mei questions, finger pressing quizzically to her chin. “That doesn’t seem right.”

“I am definitely not villainous to pull that off, but like I pretend to be a villain so that he talks to me and we can like get to know each other!” you exclaim, you’re unable to keep from hopping up and down on your feet, your grin unfathomably bright. “It's practically a romcom in the making!”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Mei laughs, altering the band of fabric around your waist. “You do know heroes and villains hardly speak? It’s more like… ‘I’m more powerful,’ ‘No me!,’ ‘No, ME!’”

“Um, I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but whatever! I’ll figure out a way!” you continue on unaffected because this plan was genius! Especially if you had Mei in your corner?! Her recent development of not using such… steampunk designs made her creations elusive and dangerous to own. Hence why she was an extremely sought out manufacturer, by villains and heroes alike. “And if I can go toe to toe with Deku of all people, you’ll know that you and your babies are the undeniable best!”

“Hm, that is promising,” Mei agrees with a nod as she forces you around. “Is this Deku guy all that good?”

“He’s the one you made the iron soles for!” you chirp and watch as the recognition and challenge spark immediately in Mei’s yellow eyes.

“Oh,” Mei chuckles, turning away from you and looking at her pile of made babies. “This would be good.”

“So we have an agreement?” you grin excitedly. 

“Give me a month, and we’ll have your debut!”

Fuck Bakugou for thinking you weren’t good enough!

.

.

.

You hadn’t expected the initial phases of villainy to be quite as hard as it was, if you were being honest. The late nights at Mei’s personal lab made sure to keep your plans a solid secret, but you had to prepare for the wild range of what Deku’s quirk entailed.

There was smoke, something you were already used to working in because of Bakugou and his quirk. You’ve navigated quite a bit in his smog, and as long as you knew where you were, you would be fine. 

There was also that danger sense, which allowed him to know when things were coming – something that shouldn’t be too big an issue considering you weren’t actually attempting to extract danger onto him. 

Blackwhip was a big issue. How far or how much could you do if he even grabbed a hold of you. With sleuthing and the help of Mei having files on everyone's quirks, you were able to find information that blackwhip was a creation made of energy. Meaning that Mei was now making some type of destructing material to lessen the energy of the quirk, allowing for you to escape should he attempt to capture you this way.

Float was stopped by having most of your fights occur within a confined area, which was needed for you anyways! You didn’t need to be caught by anyone else but him! You didn’t actually need to land in jail – you would prefer to not be handled by anyone but Deku, actually.

Then of course the stupid superstrength and superspeed, both of which you knew you could handle with your quirk. You’ve been head to head with people with quirks similar to that before, and you knew your quirk was tricky enough that you’d manage to slip right past his fingers just fine. After all, you knew full and well that the Deku who took down S class villains was worlds quicker than F class villains – aka you.

You would be fine.

But today was day one, first of how many days it would take to get Pro Hero Deku, aka Midoriya Izuku to fall in love with you. 

You were dressed in a black and purple bodysuit that was definitely not inspired by Shego from Kim Possible’s costume. Your hair was dyed purple by a special spray Mei created that would be washed out by the end of the day, but wouldn’t ever give away that it was fake. You wore a mask over your eyes, and grinned seeing that you couldn’t see a fleck of color on your irises. 

Perfect.

And with far too much confidence, nauseating excitement, and unjustified attitude, you marched down towards your first spot, ready and adopting the identity of who you were about to become.

Mirage.

It was time to act. Deku and Dynamight were on different patrol routes right now, and you sent your threat, readying for the moment for the man in green to come in with the desire to stop you. With the very real threat of stealing every puppy within the tristate area being broadcasted within the area unless and hero bests you, you waited for your savior to come and stop you.

“I am here to stop your villainous acts, you villain!” a voice shattered the silence just as it shattered your heart. You looked over your shoulder to see some hero you couldn’t name standing at the other stairwell entrance with his fists clenched and ready to fight. 

You groaned, shoulders crumbling with your well hidden disappointment.

“I wasn’t looking for you!” you exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at the flabbergasted hero who was just trying to figure out what was happening. “Where’s Deku?!”

“He’s – he’s not here yet,” he stammers, eyes wide. “It’s not his day anymore to patrol this area?”

“Aw fuck!” you complain, pouting at the realization that you had messed up. “Okay, I’ll be back later, please don’t come back. Bye!”

With a small wave, you easily stepped through the door to the stairwell next to you and left, your threat empty and the hero victorious despite not actually stopping you. And unfortunately, although you had wished and prayed even, this was not the last time a screw up like this would happen.

At the threat of destroying all the cats in the area, you had another hero show up, not Deku, and you groaned and left before they could even finish their call of stopping you.

You then threatened to poison the watering system, to which you found out that Deku was held up at another major villain threat in a different city. You groaned and stomped off after that. 

Then there was the time you swore you would increase the overall temperature of the city per one degree celsius should your demands not be made. Shouto answered that one and you immediately walked away the moment you saw the familiar head of red and white coming your way.

Time and time again you kept being caught by heroes you could not care about, being confronted by no names and nobodies. It was tiring, and Mei was beginning to sigh just the smallest bit whenever you showed up to try yet again.

But you weren’t a quitter!

You would win!

This was your last attempt at getting Deku to notice you.

After threatening to wrap all the citizens in the area with a giant froot by the foot, you were almost sad to say that the heroes ignored your cry for chaos and no one had come to check on you.

You sat outside the building you used as your trap for Deku, pouting into a hot dog that the neighborhood's grandma gave you because you looked like you needed something to eat. It’s a good thing you weren’t actually a villain or else they’d be fucked, you bitterly thought as you took another bite of your food. 

It had been a month of empty, no Deku appearances, and you were going to bite the bullet and pretend to be not stubborn just so stupid Bakugou of all people could introduce you.

You kicked your feet as you sat on the staircase, humming as you watched the empty streets bend with the wind. It was quiet, beautiful, peaceful.

“YOU!” a voice shrieked to your left, and you watched a pudgy, red nosed man racing over towards you, a flash drive clenched in his hands. “TAKE THIS! RUN! DON’T LET THE HEROES TAKE IT!”

You gawked at him, feeling the small plastic device being shoved into your hands as the man collapsed at your feet. You squeaked when you heard a voice yelling stop and you bounced to your feet, turned into the building and raced in.

Your breathing was erratic, heart in your throat as you raced up the stairwell, unable to begin to imagine what the hell the information on the flash drive held. You were practically hyperventilating as you reached the floor you had come to know extremely well, and you stood near the window with shaky hands and legs.

What did you take?!

“I’m going to need that back, I’m afraid,” a low smooth voice said from behind you, and you froze immediately. Old anxiety overcome by a new anxiety, one that made your stomach flip and blood burn. 

Turning around, you felt awestruck to see the one man you’ve been waiting for… for fucking years now, really, to appear before you, finally be there. In the flesh, completely, entirely. Your jaw dropped, your gaze looking down from your clenched hand that held the USB to the way that Deku looked at you with warm eyes that were underlined with steel that made you want to drop to your knees, confess everything, and beg to be his. God, he was so fucking tall. He had only been about five foot eight the last time you had actually talked, and now he was at least a foot taller. His teenager haircut was long gone, now replaced with his curls trimmed at the nape of his neck before filling out on top – not quite an undercut. He had more freckles now, surely. His skin just a bit tanner, a scar trailing from his cheek to his jaw. You knew there were more scars, just as you knew that there were dimples when he smiled.

You wanted to have him between your legs while you begged for mercy, holy shit.

Tucking the USB into your pocket, you tilted your head as you will yourself to relax.

“I went through all the trouble of getting it... I think if I’m going to hand it over quickly, I deserve to know what’s on it, no?” you tease, your confidence coming out of nowhere while a smile spreads ever so largely over your features. Deku’s eyes widened just a bit, shock overcoming his green eyes.

“I’m sorry, but that’s confidential,” Deku stresses, taking a step forward toward you. You click your tongue, taking a step backward while grinning.

“I don’t think that’s what I asked for,” you giggle as you watch Deku’s face go through an array of emotions before settling onto one – curiosity.

“What do you want?” he asked, apparently entirely ready to discuss any and all terms and conditions with you.

“Honestly?” you reply, tapping a gloved finger to your chin as you ‘think.’ Deku, however, nods. His stance relaxing, becoming one of preparedness but not the takedown he had previously entered with.

“A date with you.”

You watch as Deku’s eyes slam wide open, his jaw dropping immediately and he stammered. Oh, how your heart soared and how you felt giddy and wonderful as he seemed to slip and slide on his own tongue!

“A-A date?!” he ends up almost shrieking, his head shaking left and right. “T-That’s a total lie! You can’t possibly – well, no! Please tell me the truth!”

But you were giddy, practically drunk off the fact that you were making the most powerful hero in the world blush like a little schoolboy. You suddenly were on the offensive, stepping towards your hero who was much larger than you with power and drive behind each step. And it must have been the way you stared him down, the way you walked towards him at blank range with such brimming confidence that Deku takes a step back. But it’s something that makes you want to laugh as the heel of his foot gets caught on a raised tile, and you watch the mountain of a man tumble to the floor.

You’re on top of him immediately, hands pressed to his shoulders, knee settling near his crotch with most of your weight so he got the idea to not do anything funny. The USB sits between your fingers, and you lean over his flushed face that looks up at you with wide eyes.

“Actually, I changed my mind, I know what I want,” you say instead, nose ghosting over his. “Everytime I decide to do something… naughty… I want you to be the hero on the case to stop me. You and just you.”

You lean in closer, so close that you could see the specks of gold in his green, green eyes.

Deku hasn’t spoken, and you’re pretty sure his chest isn’t moving as you press your breasts against his.

“Understood, De-ku?”

Your teeth tug at his bottom lip and let go as he nods.

“Good, good,” you grin, sitting up on his chest and taking the USB in your fingers and slipping it into his utility belt. “Take good care of that for me, I’ll see you next time, hero…”

You had only managed to flash a quick wave before disappearing through your usual door, hoping and praying to god that whatever the hell possessed you would continue until you reached Mei’s. It wouldn’t hit you until much, much later than you had stunned Pro Hero Deku speechless within the first meeting.

Hell, you thought giddily as you answered Bakugou’s call about how he probably just got into a bit of a messy situation, maybe you do have the potential to woo him like this. 

.

Thus truly began your descent as the villain Mirage.

.

It was quickly accepted and discovered that the moment you stepped into that costume and colored hair that you were the prey for Deku and Deku only. Most of your interactions with Deku occurred within buildings, and you used Mei’s gear to gain the final laugh each and every time to allow for you to escape. There were times, however, where you could be seen racing through the sky. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop as Deku followed after you, leaping, tumbling, and even catching you at times. 

You flirted with him heavily, allowing yourself to be caught so that you could bat your pretty lashes and press your chest against his. It didn’t matter how professional he was, how good at his job he was, Deku was a pervert – so obviously a pervert it made slipping away almost too easy.

But because you had the world-renowned, world known Pro Hero Deku as the only hero on your case, soon the small block who had to play victims to your horrendous crimes became only a small percentage of people who were watching your crimes. These near daily crimes (or inconveniences/botherings as the people on the internet say to defend you and your actions) are becoming both a worldwide sensation, and so, it took nothing for you to continue having Deku at your feet and the world chipped in. So you agreed to do interviews, forcing uneager reporters to do segments on you so that the hype behind you and Deku’s relationship grew.

You didn’t want him to leave you, not until you got what you wanted, and unless you were an idiot, you were nearly positive you were almost there.

Why would you say that?

Well, a few reasons.

The first came about a week after you had first met Deku again.

You had joyously gathered the means to create a machine to shave down an eighth of an inch of everyone's shoes in the entire country of Japan without their knowledge. You had ever so evilly explained that the point of this was to ensure that for a full day, everyone would feel off and unbalanced but would not know why.

You had said this, grinning widely as you turned around to see Deku standing there attempting to fight off a very amused smile. 

“I don’t think that would be all too evil, Mirage,” he called out to you, arms folding across his chest as he watched you set up the machine to do exactly what you said you would do.

“Mm, that’s what you say now, but just wait until you’re one of the losers stumbling around,” you say back, grinning as you turn around for just a second, wagging the knife at Deku from the distance. 

“Well, regardless, you know I can’t let you do that,” Deku laughs just slightly, and you grin, standing up.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yes, so I’m going to have to ask you to stop right there.”

You giggle.

“Make me.”

You’re not sure what happens, but there’s dodging and weaving, spinning and sliding. You’re practically wheezing from how hard you’re laughing as Deku can not manage to land a finger on you with the help of Mei’s items and your quirk. It all comes to an end when instead of dodging, you throw yourself right at him, and Deku has not anticipated that. 

His eyes are wide open and you fiercely grin as he falls back onto the floor, unbalanced and only slightly frantic. You have the knife pointed at his neck, the dull blade sitting gently on his skin.

“So, Deku,” you taunt teasingly, your teeth burying into your bottom lip for just a moment at the sight of the dark flash in his green, beautiful eyes. “Tell me one thing, or I’ll continue on with my vile plans.”

“O-Okay?”

“Are you single?”

The second attempt came a few many weeks later. 

You had gathered about 75 tons of glitter bombs and were in the current process of making them one. You had plans of setting it off over Tokyo so that for practically the rest of eternity, the entire city would have glitter everywhere. The only thing is that you did have to glue the glitter bombs together because, well, no one made super giant ones.

“This is so annoying, there’s glitter everywhere, and I’m only ten glitter bombs in!” you complain to the ‘empty’ room but knowing full and well that Deku had appeared through the broken window at least five minutes ago.

“If it’s annoying to you, then shouldn’t you stop?” Deku replied and you grinned. 

He really couldn’t stay quiet, huh?

“Well, if it’s annoying to me, then that means every one of my victims will also find it annoying. Win-win situation.” you say, turning around towards him and winking. Facing back towards the glitter bombs you scowl, “stupid fucking glue gets everywhere, too!”

“Regardless, you know I can’t let you do that,” Deku said as leveled as he could although you swore you heard a laugh in his voice.

“Just try and stop me,” you reply back stone cold.

You stand up and watch as Deku stands up from the windowsill and sighs just a bit too heavily.

“Guess I have to,” he says and shoots out before you’re well prepared.

Typically, and probably in any other situation, this would have been the end. Pro Hero Deku had come at you with the speed and power as he took out any other Class F criminals, but unfortunately for him, and definitely fortunately for you that glue was EVERYWHERE.

Deku’s hand was stuck onto your arm, and your chest was glued to his stomach, and you swear you never quite got the strawberry Deku references until right now.

The perverted hero burned scarlet, his face practically simmering with heat as your body became undeniably stuck to his. You had to fight off the vindictive smirk, the practically snarling grin as you could feel something hot and heavy twitch at your hip.

“Fuck,” Deku wheezed.

“Fuck, yeah,” you grinned.

.

.

“WHAT?!”

.

.

Deku could not look you in the eyes for about 10 more interactions following that, but you counted that as a win. But undoubtedly, your starred and favorite memory of it all was something that occurred just last week of the current present events.

You had stood on top of a building, threatening the entire government of stealing (i.e., cutting off) the aglet of their shoes and sweaters and then removing all the laces so that it would result in their wasted time and entire humiliation!

“I don’t think most people even know what aglets are, to be honest,” Deku said from behind you. You turned around to see that he was standing there with an unsuppressed grin. “It’s not a good enough threat.”

You go unfazed by his judgement, choosing to instead bat your eyelashes and push your hair behind your ear.

“Not a good enough threat, and yet, you’re still here?” you tease, enjoying the way pink flushes to his cheeks.

“Where else would I be?” he says, and you have to ignore the way your stomach fills with butterflies. 

“You’re not cute when you flirt back,” you deadpan, biting your tongue harshly when he says ‘hey!’ “Enough chit chat, let me kick your ass now and then do what I need to do.”

Unlike probably what is 95% of the time, you made the first move today. 

You were on the offensive, jabbing and weaving, sweeping and punching. Deku’s green eyes were nearly black as he watched you, analyzing and taking in your movements, countering them all without so much of an issue.

“I still don’t get your quirk,” Deku grunted as his hand swiped at the empty air. “Why won’t you tell me?”

“So then you can turn me in to the government who are still salty about their aglets? I don’t think so!” you say with a laugh, rolling out of the way as Deku lunges forward. “Try again, baby, I have full faith that you’ll get it.”

Deku puffed out a chuckle and lunged again, his huge gloved hand swiping at you, with nearly accuracy despite your quirk being on. But… he wasn’t exactly perfect.

RIIIIIIIIIP!

Cold air hit your breast and your jaw dropped as your very exposed breast appeared before you and Deku. Pro Hero Deku had torn the breast of your costume, the costume that you purposefully did not wear a bra for because you had wanted this exact scenario to play out.

“DEKU!” you screech, pretending to be modest and covering your tit as Deku finally yanked himself out of staring at your breast and whipped around. 

“Oh my god, I am so sorry! I didn’t think that was going to happen! I didn’t even mean to look at your boob! It just sort of all happened too fast and it was very shocking! N-Not that you have an ugly boob or anything because actually I think you have a very great boob! But oh my god, I need to shut up please ignore me!” Deku spoke so fast in a matter of five seconds, and you couldn’t even tell him to come back as he sprinted away.

His ears burned red and you swore even as he was gone, you could still see the red of his ears illuminating the sky.

You laugh.

“What a perv.”

And so, we are back to the beginning.

Back to how you forced a local news channel to read your demands so that you could hopefully take your final bow as Mirage forever.

With the threat of having a machine that would make dogs bark at a frequency for hours on end until humans eardrums broke then bleed. You made your way to your typical building and hummed as you waited. 

The world outside was the same as always.

There were a few people out, a few cars driving through the street, and a few birds chirping here and there.

It was peaceful.

“Don’t you think the new reporter thing was a bit dramatic?” Deku chuckled from behind you.

You were used to him approaching like that, used to him trying to portray being elusive and cool. In your opinion, it just made him dorky.

“No such thing as being dramatic when I’m trying to go head to head with the greatest hero ever,” you respond back effortlessly. You spin on your heel and look back at Deku, who is leaning against a doorframe that he most definitely is slouching on so that the top of his head doesn’t hit the frame. “Hi, Deku.”

“Hi, y/l/n,” he says with a soft smile, one that's slightly victorious, one that makes your stomach knot in a pleasant way.

“Ah, you discovered my secret identity,” you observe, grinning as you begin approaching Deku. “Should I be scared?”

“Probably not, I don’t think I could do anything to you,” Deku sighs, pushing off the door frame and walking towards you too. “You’re pretty amazing, y/l/n.”

“Let’s prove that then,” you grin while zipping forward.

As if the both of you knew that this was the end of the line, the final confrontation, the battle this time was different. It was showy, flirty, full of spins and side steps, playing a game of cat and mouse while dodging and weaving. You laughed as blackwhip dissolved around your costume, and you frowned as he began using more of his power to get from point A to point B much quicker.

You’re not quite sure how it happened, what exactly you did wrong, or maybe Deku just finally figured out the pattern you used for your quirk because suddenly you were being tackled from behind. You shrieked as the two of you went down, his body flushed on top of you, his chest pressing to your shoulders. 

The both of you were heaving, panting, completely out of breath from the five minutes you took playing around. He holds your wrists in one hand, pinned above your head, and the other one is on your waist. You were trapped beneath him, unable to move the absolute unit of a man above you, arms and hips weak to his weight. You shoved your hips up, attempting to shift some of his weight off you, but you froze as he choked on a breath by your ear.

Your ass was pressed against something hard, thick, and hot.

Oh.

Ohhh fuck.

It was happening.

Holy fucking shit.

Your breathing hitches as you thrusted your ass up again, confirming you were grinding on what was definitely Deku’s hardening cock. And once again, Deku makes the prettiest, most embarrassed gravelly grunt at the back of his throat and you feel like every strand of resistance and strength snaps.

The hand on your waist pulls you even closer against his crotch, and there's lips pressing against your neck, and you absolutely lose it. 

He kisses your neck sloppily, teeth nipping at your exposed flesh, and you grind against him, moaning and thrusting back as your body feels like it's on fire. He wanted you! He wanted you and your plan to woo him worked!

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” you keen breathlessly. “Wanted you so badly, Deku.”

“Fuck,” Deku curses, his hips thrusting back against your clothed ass with power you couldn’t fucking wait to feel. “I wanted you too. Wanted you so badly, but didn’t think – holy shit.”

His hand that pins your wrists lets go of you, and moves to grab your jaw. You nearly fucking melt as his full lips slam against yours, and you moan as his lips move against yours. There’s something indescribable about how he’s kissing you, the want, the need, the months of suppressed tension bursting through every move and curve of his mouth. It doesn’t matter to you that you’re pressed up against the concrete floor, you feel like you’ve been placed into another world, an area where you can never come back.

Your arm reaches behind you and buries into his soft curls, you tug at them as your ass circles against his thrusting hips. His tongue slips into your mouth, and you whine at the hot, wet muscle in your mouth, and it sends your head spinning. You can’t take it anymore, you need him, want him flushed against your front.

“Can I fuck you?” Deku asks swollen lips pulling away from yours, his mouth frantic and trailing kisses up your cheeks and down your jaw. “Please, I wanna fuck you so bad. Wanna fuck you on the floor and against the wall. Can I make you mine?”

You nod your head frantically, unable to come up with the words to say in order to tell him yes.  

Deku laughs breathlessly and flips you over so that it’s your back against the floor now. 

And just like you want him to, Deku comes down to reclaim your mouth. Hot, open mouthed kisses, teeth tugging at your lips and hands grabbing your waist. His hands are huge against you filling up the space between your hip and your waist without an issue. Your legs wrap around his waist, feeling entirely small underneath him, but entirely ready to be fucked by him.

His lips move expertly against yours, teeth nibbling at your lips, mouth then sucking on your tongue. You can’t keep the continuous moans from leaking out, can’t keep yourself from staying quiet as your eyes flutter open and see green eyes so dark they look black, staring down at you with the intensity of a predator. 

You were his prey, and you would present to him at the drop of a hat.

His body is hot, heat rolling off of his hero costume in waves, making you feel like you were near burning against him. And the heat between his thighs sits at the bottom of your ass, thrusting up and grinding against you so that you don’t forget even for a moment that you are making him this way. 

“I always knew you’d have such a pretty moan,” Deku mumbles as his fingers find the zipper to your costume and begin to tug it down. His lips trail down your neck, biting and nipping at the newly exposed flesh. “Knew you’d look so pretty under me, waiting to be fucked into submission.”

The words spark something within you, your eyes fluttering as your hips grind just a tad bit faster and you whine. 

“Aw, is that what you wanted this entire time, y/l/n?” Deku asks, his grin pressed against your collarbone. “Wanted to be stretched out and fucked until you can’t anymore?”

“I want it,” you gasp, your fingers burying deep into his curls. “I want you, I want it, I want your dick in me already!”

“Not into foreplay?” Deku chuckles just a bit, tongue then tracing up your neck. 

“Oh I am,” you snap, fingers finding the zipper of his own costume. “You can find out later how much I’m into it, but right now, I have been wanting you for years, and you will not make me wait any longer!”

Deku only nods frantically, and it's a mess of limbs, sloppy kisses, and clothes as the both of you strip to nothing. 

Deku’s in between your legs, one hand pressed to the back of your knee, the other gripping what you believe is his dick because it makes everything in the world freeze as you see it. It’s huge, so thick that his hand wraps around it in a nice grip, and it long, curling up to his abs, curved and veiny. 

“Holy shit,” you squeak, your cunt already clenching at the thought of taking that in. 

“Are you ready?” Deku asks, the hand on your leg moving away for a moment as he cards his fingers back through his hair. “I don’t have a condom, though.”

“That’s fine, I don't care,” you dismiss his words, eyes too focused on the flush cock in his hand. “I don’t think I’ll live after you kill me with that anyways.”

Deku laughs just a bit, his dimples flashing as he leans in and kisses you deeply. You tremble underneath him, feeling so small pressed up against him, and you mewl when you feel the head of his cock pressing between your folds.

“Put it in,” you gasp, leg lifting and wrapping around his waist, “put it in! I want you to fuck me until I can’t walk, do you understand?!”

Deku nods, and with a sense of frantic need, his hand guides his cock into you.

It feels like you’re splitting in half. The girth of his cock stretching your walls out to the max, and he’s only going in. You scream loudly, both in pain and pleasure because it hurts so good.

“Take it, baby, take me all in,” Deku pants, his hips pushing out small, tiny thrusts to ram his cock further and further into your twitching cunt. “That’s i-it, holy fuck, that’s it! You’re taking me all the way in. F-Fuck… you’re so amazing! So fucking perfect!”

Tears are pouring out of your eyes, and your nails are tearing into his back, you sob slightly overwhelmed with his cock and the absolute pleasure of finally getting what you want and it being so much better than you thought. Your cunt throbs almost violently as Deku’s cock finally hits your cervix and your eyes roll to the back of your head as he thrusts in further, lips attempting to claim yours. 

“Fuck me, Deku,” you beg, hips beginning to slam and fuck up onto his cock. “Please! I need you!”

“Such a desperate little villain though,” Deku sighs, teasingly, giving you one strong thrust for good measure. It goes a long way though, the power behind his thrust and thighs promising you a bruised ass, thighs, and cunt makes your mouth water for more. “I need you to promise to never do anything like that again and be a good little manager for Kacchan.”

“W-Wha–”

“Be good and stop being Mirage, or else you won’t be fucked.”

There was no hesitation.

“Okay.”

And just like that, Deku’s soft smile curves into a knowing, fierce smirk, and you can do nothing as his hands press to the back of your knees and he begins thrusting his hips into you. And it takes you completely out of control. 

It’s a messy, frantic dance, your body holding onto his, your lips pressing against his, desperate and needy for his, and he is basically trying to imprint his body onto yours, the concrete, and the walls. Your bodies are so foreign to each other, and yet, when he fucks into you just a bit hard, just a bit faster, you come undone, back arching and toes curling as you sob his name.

It’s overwhelming to know that he can read you this well and for you to have never fucked him before. It’s empowering to see that he likes every forced and involuntary squeeze and clench of your cunt. He loved when your nails dug into his skin, raking their existence against the plane of broad muscles and scars. 

Deku curses your name as you clench around him, his hands moving to your jaw so that he can lift your face to kiss him just so. He kisses you with a heated passion, a need that strips your entire being bare, and his hips slam so loudly against you, the slicked wetness is squelching and slapping with every grunt and moan.

In and out his cock goes, and you praise him and his cock.

You praise him for making you feel so good, for stretching out your pussy with that fat cock of his. You beg for more, and more, and more. You want every snap of his hips to send new colors to your vision, and every echoing squelch of your meeting, sloppy sexes only adds to the blabbering, unmanaged sentences from your lips. 

“Harder, faster, more!” you beg, practically wailing against his shoulders, needing him more and more. The concrete hurts against your back, but you don’t care. You don’t care if he breaks your back, it’s a fall you’ll take. “Don’t hold back! Don’t you dare hold back!”

“Fuck, you’re crazy,” Deku gasps, his sweaty brow burying into your cheek. “I won’t though, I won't. Be ready, I’m not sure if you can take it.”

Before you can snap back that you can in fact take it, Deku’s weight falls heavier onto you and the angle shifts just slightly, and your words are ripped right out of your throat for a pitched, window shattering screech. Deku fucks into you with a new power, some untapped strength as greenspark falls from his skin as he ruins you for anyone ever again.

Your voice begins to scream out, the feeling of his vicious, thick cock snapping into you, shoving your shoulders further and further into the concrete was sending your head spinning. Your body is convulsing as he fucks you with new vulgar need and strength. But before you could scream your praises, Deku’s fingers shove into your mouth, and his other hand wraps around your neck, silencing your words and noises as he fucks up into you again and again and again.

“So loud, angel,” Deku smirks, fingers stroking and pinching your tongue as saliva pours endlessly from your mouth. His voice isn’t strained however, doesn’t have any indication that he’s out of breath or ready to tap out and that nearly makes you go insane. “I can’t wait to see everything that makes you look like this… you’re so pretty when you’re getting fucked.”

Your head is spinning, the heated tightness in your core clenching and throbbing as his conquesting cock never once stops or lessens. It just grows and grows and grows. His cock twitches in you, and your eyes roll to the back of your head as he lets out a deep moan. 

“Such a good and wet cunt you are,” Deku gasps as you gag against his fingers that press roughly against the back of your tongue. Your vision feels hazy, but you feel like you’re on cloud nine as his hand on your throat opens and closes, demonstrating his power over you. “I’m so glad you went through all this hard work to get me to fuck you.”

You can’t speak, so you nod desperately, you were so happy you did this too. 

Your hips buck up into him with sheer stubborn drive to get him to toss his head back and moan, you wanted to see him unhinged too. Your eyelashes flutter, as his hands remove themselves from your face, and they move to your hips to help you out. But the building tightness and demanding need in your cunt was growing louder, hotter, completely undeniable. Your teeth sinking against his skin as you whimpered loudly, absolutely pathetically as you shifted faster, fucking against him harder.

“I-I’m so close,” you manage to moan out, and a sharp escape of air comes from his nose at that revelation.

Deku nods, his head moving so that his forehead rests against yours as he looks deep into your eyes. “I need you to look at the way your belly bulges while I fuck you before you cum, I want you to watch it bulge as you cum.”

You whimper, the strain in your neck almost insufferable as you peer down at your hastily exposed stomach, and you nearly faint at the pornographic, near-insane image of your stomach bulging with his hammering monster of a cock. And just like that, the tight heat in you snaps without a hitch, and you come tumbling down from the heights of your building orgasm. White heat and light spread through your body, your jaw slacking as you moan loudly, screaming his name as you convulse against him, body entirely limp. Deku, who was barely hanging by a strand, completely loses it when your core clenches like a vice against him. 

Hot, thick ropes of cum spurt from his cock, his heavy, shaking gasps the only thing you can hear as he fucks into you once, twice more for good measure he collapses onto his forearms above you. It’s hot, almost too hot as he lays on top of you, the sticky fluid of his cum radiating against your already blazing walls, and for a bit, there’s silence.

Deku is the first to move afterward, and you whine as he pulls his cock out of your sore, abused pussy. You make a noise of curiosity then fear as Deku spreads your legs even more open and moves so that his head is face to face with your cum filled pussy.

“What are you–?!” you screech as Deku takes a lick out of your dripping cunt.

“Fuck, this does taste good,” Deku smirks as he once again licks your overstimulated pussy and you sob. “Besides, who said we were done?”

.

.

.

.

.

bonus! 

“Everyone, this is my girlfriend y/l/n y/n!” Izuku happily introduced you to his group of friends.

“What the hell?!” Bakugou screamed, thrusting a finger at you and all you did was laugh.

So much for not being stubborn, huh.

[notanotherreidgirl]

idk if this is too intense for you, if it is feel free to ignore but i wanted to send in a request :)

Catching perv spence looking in elles bag somehow and then bringing elle in to punish him together and you make him wear the panties while degrading tf outta him and slapping his ass and pulling his hair and all that good stuff! if you want to add or take anything out that works too btw! have fun with this :)

Three's Company

Summary: Reader catches Spencer stealing a pair of Elle's panties

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Elle Greenaway x Reader

Warnings: sub!spence, perv!spence, threesome, spencer wearing panties and a skirt, oral sex (female receiving), degradation, spanking, hair pulling, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, face riding

Word Count: 1374

A/N: This is straight porn. I could not look my mother in the eye for hours after I wrote this. This is part 1 of the Mommy & Ma'am series.

Elle’s door opened silently and you smiled to yourself, excited to be surprising her for once. Neither of you was too keen on labels but at some point after a month of covert glances and late-night calls and hands not-so-innocently brushing against each other, Hotch had the good sense to make you share a room. That was three weeks ago. Three weeks of mind-blowing sex and maybe - just maybe - the beginning of something more.

So imagine your surprise when you found Spencer in her room instead. Shy, adorable Spencer who could barely look at you for 5 minutes without flushing a deep scarlet and stumbling all over his words. You often caught him blatantly staring at your chest and it would be a lie to say that he didn’t prompt you to introduce more low-cut blouses into your work attire. Just the other night Elle had teased you about him, saying that you should put him out of his misery before he had an aneurysm in the bullpen. He was crouched by the foot of her bed and you took a cautious step forward to see what he was looking at.

You sucked in a sharp breath. It was a pair of Elle’s panties, delicate black lace that fit her like a second skin. They were a gift and you couldn’t help the heat that pooled between your thighs when you recalled how Elle thanked you. Unfortunately, you had alerted Spencer to your presence and he whirled around in shock, still clutching the underwear in one hand. “Y/N, shit! I’m not - This isn’t what it looks like!”

“Oh really? Because it looks like you’re stealing Elle’s panties.” You tried to look mad but an amused smile pulled at the corner of your mouth. He scrambled to find an excuse, some explanation that would exonerate him but he came up empty. What could he say? Instead, he opted for a pleading look. Those puppy dog eyes nearly persuaded you to be merciful but Spencer always had the worst luck.

“Put them on.” Elle’s voice took both of you by surprise.

She kicked the door closed behind her and cocked her head to the side, a telltale sign of growing impatience. Spencer’s eyes widened and he looked between you and Elle in disbelief. He tried to seem reluctant but the truth was that he was incredibly turned on which was quickly revealed as he undressed. His hands trembled as he pulled the panties up, gasping slightly as the coarse material scraped over his leaking sex.

“You like playing dress-up, don’t you?” Elle crossed the room with three long strides. Spencer gave a weak nod but she didn’t bother to look, already rooting around in her bag and unearthing a little red skirt. “Put this on too. If you’re gonna act like a slut, you better look the part.”

He complied without hesitation, much too excited to be living out one of his biggest fantasies to be concerned with his ego. The air was knocked from your lungs when Spencer managed to squeeze the skirt up to his hips. He was so pretty, you had to sit down to stop yourself from pouncing on him.

Elle lifted the front of the skirt with a finger. “Look how cute his little cock is in my panties. I should make you wear them all the time.” But her mood darkened when she saw that they were already soaked with precum. “Y/N bought me these panties and now you’ve ruined them”

“No, please. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to” he looked at her with pure desperation but Elle was not known for her forgiveness. “Get on your knees”

He dropped so quickly it gave you whiplash and you hardly had time to process the fact that Elle was guiding him in front of your parted legs. “Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to Y/N”

He started to stammer out an apology but Elle shut him up by grabbing his chin harshly. “No. None of this ‘I’m sorry’ bullshit. Apologize properly”

He looked up at you frantically as you gathered your wits about you and quickly shimmied out of your underwear and sleep shorts, unwilling to incur Elle’s wrath. Spencer nearly fainted at the sight of your glistening core and he didn’t waste any time pushing himself up on his hands and knees to lap at your folds. He explored you fervently, barely pausing to breathe. Just as he began to relax, Elle bunched up the back of the skirt and brought a hand down hard. You felt him jump, moaning into your cunt as she laid three more blows in quick succession. He whimpered at the harsh sting and the vibrations sent a jolt of pleasure up your spine. “I’ll stop when you make her cum”

That was all the encouragement he needed, doubling his efforts. He flattened his tongue and licked a stripe up your folds before sucking your clit into his mouth. A strangled cry left your lips and you threw your head back, relishing in the sound of Elle ceaselessly slapping Spencer’s raw flesh. It was all too much and you were tumbling over the edge in no time, moaning out a string of obscenities as the force of your orgasm wracked through your body. As promised, Elle stopped but she immediately grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head back so he was looking up at you. “What do you think, Y/N? Does he deserve to cum? Was he as good as me?”

She smiled wickedly as she asked her last question, already anticipating your answer. “No one’s as good as you.”

Spencer was incredible. At one point, you were convinced he had transported you from this earthly realm to another of pure, unadulterated pleasure but Elle was on a whole other level. She could have you shaking in seconds, drawing out one climax after another until you couldn’t see straight, much less think.

“That’s just too bad” she shook her head in disapproval as she pulled him up by his hair. “No, no, please. I can do better. I swear. I’ll do anything you want”

“You’re so fucking pathetic, Dr. Reid. Begging for it like a whore” she pushed him onto the bed and gestured for you to straddle him. She pushed the panties to the side and drew her hand up his length. “Do you know how to use this?”

He nodded vigorously, desperate to please. “Prove it then.”

Elle’s free hand settled onto your lower back and you leaned into her touch as she guided you down his length. You let out a little gasp when you were fully seated, feeling impossibly full. Spencer wasn’t doing much better, head thrown back against the pillows and eyes screwed shut in an attempt to hold back his release. But Elle wasn’t done. She joined you on the bed, swinging a leg over Spencer’s face and bracing her hands on his chest so she could watch you ride him. “I don’t care how good it feels, you don’t come until we do”

Feeling bold, Spencer grabbed onto Elle’s thighs and brought her down closer with no regard for his respiratory needs. As far as he was concerned, if this was how he went he would die a happy man. He pulled out all the stops, circling her entrance with his tongue before delving inside and tipping his head forward so his chin brushed against her clit. All the while you were bouncing on his cock in search of your release, letting out soft moans each time he bottomed out. You were so close, needing just a little more to reach your climax. Elle was lost in the paradise that was Spencer’s tongue but she managed to make out your pleading look and brought a hand to your clit. “Come for me, darling.”

It was like you set off a chain reaction. Your release propelling Elle to come on Spencer’s face which was all the permission he needed to flood you with warmth. With uncoordinated movements, Elle reached forward to capture your lips in a sloppy kiss as the three of you were swept up in each other.

[shootingstarwritings]

FEStival Fiasco

Part 2

Part 1, Prologue

You’re Gonna Carry that Weight

Before the competition, the students were given time to research the cultures of the planet they would soon infiltrate. For Centaurus, what interested him the most was the cowboy. He had obsessively watched several spaghetti westerns and read many books detailing the rugged outlaws that prowled the western United States.

To Centaurus, the cowboy embodied freedom. He was a gallant legend that wandered the land, not caring about class or even order he dispensed justice wherever he went. He proudly carried himself with his smooth-talking ways and underhanded tricks that resonated so strongly with Centaurus. At least, that was the image that Centaurus had carved into his mind. I want to be like that. Not a worm, but a cowboy.

Now, staring a real-life cowboy at one of the food stalls in the early festival hours, he found himself unable to even utter a word.

“Uh, ya see somethin’ ya like?” The man said with a carefree grin. As soon as the cowboy spoke up, Centaurus jumped in his seat. He was still in Ken’s body, but the man’s memory and charisma completely failed. Even his own natural talent fizzled out.

“Um, yeah—no, wait, shit! Didn’t mean it like that,” said Centaurus, now pointedly looking away. He couldn't recall a time when he had gotten this flustered. What was happening to him? “Forget about it, all right?”

The stall owner arched an eyebrow at the two, but she didn’t say anything. She simply served their food with a polite nod.

Centaurus meant to walk away and crawl in a hole, but the cowboy stepped right in his way. Clad in a flannel shirt and a cowboy hat, he wore both his clothes and expression with unrivaled charisma. “Howdy,” he said, carefully enunciating the word.

“H-Hey...”

“C’mon! No need to be shy. Walk with me.” Seeing no reason to decline, Centaurus allowed himself to be guided around by this man straight out of his fantasies. “Name’s Austin,” he introduced himself. “Southern boy by birth and trade. You?”

“C-Cent,” was as far Centaurus said before clamming up again.

“Cent? Funny li’l name,” Austin said with a laugh. “Cute, tho. Like, rolls off the tongue real nice.” His tongue licked his lips just the slightest bit as he spoke. Centaurus nearly melted right then and there.

“So, what caught yer eye?” said Austin.

“Oh, uh, guess… how out there you are,” Centaurus said, mentally kicking himself as the conversation drew on. He had walked into this conversation flat-footed and tumbled in just about every exchange. His heart was racing, and his whole body burned with a desire he couldn't snuff out. “You’re eye-catching, is all I can say.”

Austin leaned in, grinning as he said, “Think I’m more than that to ya. Yer startin’ to pitch a tent, y’know,” with a wink. Centaurus grit his teeth, cursing under his breath as he looked down at himself. Austin continued, saying, “C’mon, let’s get ya somewhere more discreet ‘fore security kicks ya outta this place.”

Without waiting for a response, Austin took Centaurus’ hand and dragged him away from the festival. “Don’t worry, I ain’t roomin’ with any folks,” he said, head bopping back and forth as though he was humming a song to himself. “We’ll be private.”

“I-If you say so,” said Centaurus.

They arrived soon afterward. On occasion, Centaurus caught a few stares from the various guests that ate from the continental breakfast, but he didn’t worry about that. Now he was alone in the cowboy’s room. As he sat on the foot of the bed, he noticed that there was what he figured was the scent of the great southern frontier. Austin was here for merely a day, and already his scent had marked the room.

“It’s my candle,” said Austin, excitedly gesturing to a container with a candle decorated with a tiny, smiling cowboy inside. “Friend o’ mine gave it to me ‘fore I left. Said it’d keep the ranch in my heart,” he said. “Always a romantic, that girl, bless her heart. But still, always makes these sterile rooms feel a li’l bit more like home.” Home…

“How come you left?” said Centaurus.

“Yer a noisy one, ain’tcha?” Austin said, not dropping his smile. “Guess it felt like it was high time fer me to just...travel, y’know? Spent my whole life on the ranch. Felt like I had to break away ‘n’ find m’own path. Wanted to sorta find something. Myself, maybe. Headed to this town and chatted a friend up from my childhood. Planned on goin’ to the festival together, but he got hit hard with the flu. So I walked ‘round the place, lookin’ fer somethin’ to do.”

“And that’s when you picked me up?”

Austin chuckled. “Well, wouldn’t put it like that. ‘d rather call it sweepin’ ya off yer feet, my friend.”

“And you call your friend a romantic,” Centaurus said, tittering to himself. Uneasiness long forgotten, he continued to chat away and talk with Austin until the two of them fell back onto the bed together, slowly undressing. “I’ve never done this with a cowboy before, I gotta admit.”

“Well, I ain’t just a cowboy, Cent. I’m Austin.”

Yeah, Centaurus thought, you’re Austin. What lied before him was no longer a cowboy—a character he so fondly thought of. Instead, it was a man that found him, for whatever reason, charming. “Come here,” said Centaurus, lying down on top of Austin. He could hear his heart gently beating. You’re wonderful.

Centaurus, fully nude, spread his legs. Austin first started by teasing his hole with a finger, then his tongue. “Gonna do this right,” he said in-between his tongue teases. “I ain’t gonna hurt ya. Promise.” Centaurus just nodded, trembling with anticipation. His legs quivered with just the foreplay.

However, the teasing went on for far too long. His hole, initially tingling with pleasure, now felt played with and empty. “Oh, just fuck me already,” Centaurus moaned.

“Beg a li’l more,” Austin said.

“Please, Austin. Tear me in two already.”

“Nah, nah, that ain’t want I’m lookin’ fer.” Austin raised himself and lied on top of Centaurus’ chest with a smirk on his face. “Ask me for a lovin’. Something so sweet yer tight li’l ass will never forget.”

Swallowing, Centaurus said, “Make love to me, Austin. Make me forget about my fucking life,” and Austin complied.

Austin softly whispered, “Yer moans’re so hot,” and, “cry harder for me...” as he pounded Centaurus. “So cute, Cent,” he said before groaning in pleasure as well as he sped up.

Centaurus nearly fainted as he felt Austin fuck him. “Oh, fuck,” he groaned, biting down on his knuckles. As soon as Austin said his name, he shut his eyes and allowed himself to indulge in that fantasy. There was no Ken, no competition, nothing except himself and this man who didn’t feel like a stranger anymore.

“God, fuck, yer so damn tight, Cent!” Austin cried out as he drew back and slammed into Centaurus with wild abandon. “Moan more fer me, c’mon!” he said, pumping Centaurus’ dick as he fucked him.

"Fuck me, fuck me, fuck fuck fuck! Sh-Shit, I’m cumming…!”

Austin took that opportunity to lean in and hungrily kiss Centaurus, who reciprocated. He drank in as much of Austin’s heavy pants and scent as he could. After so many times of hearing another name with a partner, it was nice to feel as though he didn’t have to pretend. He lied bare to this man who miraculously knew so little about him, and it was so liberating.

Centaurus’ midsection tightened, and then he came sticky ropes onto Austin’s chest. The two groaned into each other’s mouths as they came together.

“Maybe it’s just the high I got, but… I love yer company, Cent.”

In-between pants, Centaurus said, “I feel the same way, Austin,” and desperately wished he meant every word. He knew this had nothing to do with the mission or his desire to finally build his career, but he still wished this would last forever.

“What’s the matter, Cent? Yer lookin’ a bit down.”

“Not sure. I… I seriously don’t know.”

“Well, dunno if this makes ya feel any better but, I thought yer pretty nice company if I do say so myself,” said Austin with a small, charming smile.

However, Centaurus still thought about her. Zathina’s bitter and hateful expression remained in the back of his mind. He could still feel her shoe nearly crushing his windpipe. “You’re wasting time,” he imagined her saying with that sneer of hers. Alongside her sickening voice was the word worm over and over again like it was branded directly into his brain. “Indulging in these nonsensical things,” the voice continued, “you’re pathetic. Looks like the winner is clear. I suppose you truly are a worm after all.”

“Kiss me,” said Centaurus.

“Hmm?” Austin hummed, surprised at his sudden interruption.

Not waiting for an answer, Centaurus wrapped an arm around Austin’s neck and pulled him in for a long, deep kiss. “Mmm, mmm!” Austin didn’t initially fight back until he felt something slipping in through his mouth.

Centaurus disconnected himself from Ken’s brain, leaving behind some toxic behind, and quickly slithered into Austin’s open, vulnerable mouth. Eventually, Austin pushed an unconscious Ken off, but it was already too late. The alien was already making its way through his mouth and into his brain. Austin tried to grab at the alien, but he failed to get a grasp. He fell back onto the bed and began to convulse as pleasure and fear overrode his entire body.

Switching host was always a dizzying experience for Centaurus. Not only because looking at his host body disoriented him with the raping changing of faces, but because there remained a little bit of himself in them.

“Wake up,” Centaurus commanded Ken. Wordlessly, Ken sat up in the bed. “Go home to your partner. Don’t even look at me.” Ken nodded and began to leave. “Put your clothes on first! Animal...”

For all members of his kind, the toxic vanishes from the host after about 20 minutes. Ken would be back to normal with little recollection of what he did. The experience that Ken went through would be forgotten. Same with Austin when Centaurus eventually left. Even if by some twist of fate they crossed paths again, Centaurus would be the only one left with that moment in his memories.

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and saw no trace of the man that he shared that tender moment with. No matter how much Centaurus tried to laugh, frown, or even cry, he could no longer see Austin anymore. All that the mirror reflected was a worm pretending to be a man. He was alone.

[aggressive-positivity-network]

How do you think the mercs would react to engineer getting really tired and doing something absolutely idiotic? Like Engie don't lick the soap it won't taste good sweetie (totally not inspired by the fact ive done this same thing while exhausted)

Also your hcs are great!! They all seem super thought out and they're a thrill to read! Your writing is... Ok no word seems sufficient to describe it! It just too good!

Askers like you make my day! Thank you so much! Sorry if this is a little short, but I’m still working on the relationship ones, which take forever to write.

Scout:

“Hey, uh, Engie...buddy...you good?”

“Listen, I’m the only merc around here that does stupid stuff like that...you’re one of the smart guys, remember?”

Pretends to yawn so that Engie will feel more tired and go to bed faster.

When that doesn’t work - Engie doesn’t pay much attention to his surroundings when he’s working - he asks Sniper for help.

Sniper:

“Aw, bloody ‘ell, ‘as he gone into one of his fits again?”

‘Fits’ meaning bouts of creative invention that can last anywhere from several hours to a couple weeks.

Sniper waves a hand in front of Engie’s face, but to no avail.

“Nah, mate, he’s outta this world. All off in his own universe. There’s nothin’ that can bring him out now.”

Suddenly Medic walks by, and the pair practically pull him in to help.

Medic:

“Hm...zhere’s only vun thing that can avaken zhis building beauty!”

Medic wraps his arms around Engineer’s neck. No response.

Head on the shoulder. Nothing.

Chin resting on top of head. Nope.

Tugging on his collar. Still nada.

Finally, Medic uses his secret weapon: the cheek peck.

Engie still doesn’t look up - in fact, Medic has to pull his arm away from almost putting his hand on a sparking wire, something that an alert Engie would never do.

“Ach! Engie! Dummkopf! Vhat are you doing?!”

Suddenly, Spy peeks his head in as he walks by, but Medic grabs him by the tie.

“I need zhis vorktable for my experiment, and ve have all tried our luck. Any bright ideas?”

Spy:

“Why must I always find myself in these situations? Surrounded by idiots, waiting for my assistance.”

A murmur of complaints all around, but no one contradicts him. They still need a pair of fresh eyes.

Spy snaps in front of Engie’s face.

“Laborer? Do you mind coming down to earth so the good doctor can commit his nightly atrocities?”

No answer. Not even a look.

Spy thumps Engineer’s hat several times. Then knocks. Then takes it off completely. Still no reaction.

Spy has been getting increasingly more frustrated, as he has been waiting to unwind all week, and this is keeping him from a glass of scotch and a good magazine.

“Did your Texan weed of a mother never teach you manners? Or did she not know any herself? She most likely had yet to learn her alphabet, much less any sort of etiquette.”

Scout cringed, Sniper pulled his hat over his eyes, and even Medic put a hand on his bonesaw. You never talked about Engineer’s mom. Scout almost got a wrench through his forehead when he walked into Engie’s workshop in the middle of a Yo Mama joke.

This happened to be an exception, because Engie still stared blankly at his project. This infuriated Spy, whose sharp tongue usually had a much bigger impact.

“LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU, YOU SLACKJAWED SCREW MONKEY!”

Spy gave Engie a stinging, backhanded slap.

Engie scarcely stumbled.

Spy roared in rage and walked out, using his cloaking device so he wouldn’t have to bear a walk of shame. He was also holding his raw hand, which was hurt from the slap.

Demo walked in right after, rubbing his eyes and looking really hung over.

Demo:

“Mmph...whasall this, then? Aye...onea those, eh?”

Demo, being the night owl that he is, had seen Engie in his zone before - in fact, he was usually the first to snap Engie out of it.

“Comere, I’ll show ya how it’s done.”

Demo took the empty beer bottle he was holding and cracked Engie over the head with it. It shattered on impact.

“Don’tcha worry, lads, that hard hat ‘a his is made for more than a strong drink.”

Demo laughed at his own joke, then slowly got serious as he realized Engie still wasn’t reacting.

“Lad? Are ya...did anybody check for a pulse?”

Medic walked over and put two fingers on his neck. After a few minutes, his eyes went wide.

“No bloody pulse?! How the hell-!”

Pyro suddenly walked in, holding a bag of gummy bears.

Pyro:

He mumbles excitedly, then goes over to Engie.

She takes a red gummy bear, which are Engineer’s favorite, and holds it out to him.

No response.

Pyro laughs good-naturedly, as if he was joking about how silly Engineer was being. He put the gummy bear in Engineer’s mouth.

It fell out, but Pyro giggled and put it back in again.

It tumbled out once more, and Pyro cocked their head.

This whole process went on a few more times before Pyro decided to tap Engie on the shoulder.

When that didn’t work, he walked over in front of the table to look at Engie’s face, and hopefully get his attention.

Pyro took one look, started, then backed away slowly. After they had gotten a good distance, he ran to Medic and hid behind him, starting to cry.

Sniper translated: “He doesn’t look good...he doesn’t look like Engie...he didn’t even look...did I do something wrong?”

There was a rattling from above, and Soldier popped his head out of the vent and looked around.

Soldier:

“Morning, maggots!”

“It’s ten o’clock, mate...”

“You shut your godamn mouth before I write you up for insubordination!”

Soldier leapt down, took one look at Engie, and grunted.

“Gone A.W.O.L, huh?”

Everyone nodded, albeit unsure.

“I’ll show you landlubbers what we did in the army...”

He very slowly crept up to Engineer, grinning. Everybody took a step back, just in case.

Finally, Soldier pounced, taking Engineer’s hat and replacing it with his own, whooping and laughing as he went back up the vent.

Everyone just stared at each other, and while they were all recovering, Heavy walked in, still in his nightgown.

Heavy:

“Team is all here...what is wrong?”

Everyone started talking at once, but Heavy just held up a hand.

“One at time. Doktor. What is wrong?”

“Engineer doesn’t have a pulse, he hasn’t reacted to stimuli, his facial expression doesn’t change...he is a dead man valking!”

Heavy just chuckled. “Engie just sleepy. Here. Heavy will take him to bed.”

Heavy picked Engineer up by the underarms, lifting him over his shoulder.

Before he knew it, Engineer was falling apart. Arms, legs, body. It all crumbled to the floor in a mix of wires and cogs.

Pure. Chaos.

Everyone was either screaming, crying, looking like they were about to vomit, or were trying to salvage the pieces.

Suddenly, they heard a yawn behind them.

“Well, howdy, y’all!”

Engineer:

After everyone had gotten over the shock and had made a huge hug pile, Engineer explained everything.

The Engie at the desk was a robot with a realistic skin suit on. In the dark and dusty workshop, no one had noticed the difference.

He was actually doing an experiment - something that resembled a “straight face” experiment they had done with children. He wanted to see how people reacted when there...wasn’t any reaction. His hypotheses were mostly correct - except for Soldier, put he was a random variable anyway.

Scout was mildly put off, Sniper and Medic came up with a logical solution, Spy was furious because of his job’s emphasis on reaction, Demo joked around until it wasn’t funny anymore and then just froze, Pyro was very upset, and Heavy tried to physically change the situation.

“It was all real interestin’...but it had to be a blind study. Sorry I had to worry y’all. It’ll never happen again.”

He looked down at his broken robot.

“Especially not with my Engiebot in pieces.”

Engineer told everybody goodnight, apologized one more time, said he’d make it up to them, and then went to his room.

Needless to say, everyone followed Engie to bed that night.

And he had a certain Frenchman to apologize to over a cold-shouldered breakfast.

***************

I’m a writer...can’t you tell? No, but seriously, by the time I realized it was spinning out of control, I had written too much to delete. I know it wasn’t exactly a normal response, but I just couldn’t resist! I just felt a really good story in this one!

Anyway, I’m sorry this took so long! I have an ask blog and a lot of requests coming my way, so I may be a little slower on the upkeep. But a lot of the requests are pretty short, so I should be able to knock them out.

@catbunblue302

[cantsaythetword]

Giggles

~A/N  - Alrighty my friends we got another fic here! It be a prequel of Don’t Stop Believing which I wrote a little while ago!

Basically just Steve and Bucky pre-serum but Steve tells Bucky he likes the twordy boyos and they have the fun times with that.  

I’mfeelingLeecanyoutellimfeelingLeeimfeelingrealLeepleasehelpmyLeeassohmygodijustwantthetwordspleasesendhelp

- Enoy! ~

Tag List: @mysterious-marvel

* Masterpost Link *

“Why do you always do that?” Bucky asked, removing his hands from a giggly, red-faced Steve. 

“Do whahahat?” Steve responded after a few moments of catching his breath.

“Try to annoy me even though you know exactly what’s coming?” 

Steve’s heart jumped in his throat. The last thing he wanted was for Bucky to find out his little secret. He would never hear the end of it, and Bucky may not ever tickle him again. 

He shrugged it off with a laugh and a small shake of his head.

“Come on, talk to me.” Bucky sat upright, crossing his legs and looking eagerly at Steve.

“And what if I don’t?” Steve gave a cheeky grin, preparing himself for another thorough wrecking. If there was one thing Bucky was good at, it was torturing his best friend.

“See, that’s what I mean.” Bucky tilted his head to one side. “You act like a little shit,”

Steve gave him a lopsided bright smile.

“I tickle the crap outta you, you eventually beg me to stop-”

“I do not beg.” Steve’s face reddened, a stubborn pout spreading across his lips.

Bucky gave a chuckle before continuing, “fine. You ask me to stop-”

“Yeah cause it sucks!” 

“But then you do it all over again!”

“Cause it’s fun messing with you.” Steve laughed, giving Bucky a playful shove. “But then you do and do... that... And it’s cruel!”

Bucky chuckled softly. “Alright, alright. From this moment forward, I promise not to ti-”

Steve had zoned out at this point. This was the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen. Some of his favourite memories with Bucky involved... the things... And he didn’t want to give it up now! But he couldn’t tell Bucky that he actually... liked them. Could he?

“Like you could keep your hands off me.” Steve smirked with a wink, trying to play it cool.

“I reckon I could.” Bucky smirked back, simply remaining still until Steve’s smirk faded. 

The two sat in silence for a while, Steve tossing and turning in his mind whether or not to come clean to his best friend, or live out a tickle-less existence for the rest of his days. 

“Uh...” Steve’s face blushed suddenly, and he ducked his chin down out of Bucky’s view. 

“What?” Bucky chuckled, tilting his head forwards in encouragement.

“Um...” Steve stuttered. “Uh... hah...”

Bucky laughed. “Come on man, just say it.”

Steve paused a moment. 

“You can do it...”

Bucky’s face gave Steve a puzzled look. 

“Do what?”

A half-scoff, half-nervous-laugh spilt out of Steve’s mouth. “Do the... the things...”

“What things?”

Steve gave an exasperated sigh. “The... the things you do when I’m a little shit.”

“Nope, not getting it.” Bucky grinned, slowly shifting his position closer to Steve.

The poor blond continued, stuttering out an answer which never mentioned the word ‘tickle’.

At this point, Bucky knew exactly what Steve was talking about. But he was having way too much fun with his friend, so there was no way he was going to let Steve know until he just straight up said it.

Or until Bucky got close enough to pounce.

“When you poke me and stuff...” Steve gave a soft laugh, embarrassed out of his mind.

Way too embarrassed to see Bucky’s nimble fingers inching ever closer to his sides.

“When I poke you? What sort of poking?” Bucky continued, the smirk ever growing in his voice.

“The ti-AH!” Steve squealed, tumbling backwards onto the bed the pair were sitting on. Bucky clambered on top of the man, pinning him down with ease.

“The what?” Bucky asked innocently, gently pushing Steve’s t-shirt up to reveal the squirming tummy beneath him. 

“Thehehehe-” Steve giggled in anticipation. “Thehehe tihihingly thihihings.”

“Tingly? I don’t quite know what you mean...” Bucky sighed disappointedly, beginning to gently trail his fingers over Steve’s (non-existent) abs. 

“Lihihike thahahat.” Steve squeaked as Bucky reached a particularly ticklish spot. 

“Like this?” The man teased, spidering his way over ribs and flesh alike. “Is this what you wanted this whole time?”

“Kiihihinda.” The now bright red man twisted his head to the side, avoiding eye contact at all costs. 

Bucky smirked down at his friend. Oh how fun it was to reduce him to a giggly blushy mess at his fingertips. He had to admit, the power was going to his head slightly, but it was hilarious teasing Steve like this. 

“What do you mean kinda?” Bucky asked, settling his fingertips down at Steve’s hips. “What else can I do ya for?”

The almost prickly sensation from Bucky’s motionless, threatening fingertips was enough to send Steve into a giggle fit. The teasing definitely wasn’t helping either. 

“Come on Stevie! You gotta tell me. What else do you want?” 

It took him a hot minute, and many many giggles, but eventually he gave an answer. A single worded answer. 

“... more...” 

Bucky’s eyes widened, a grin spread across his face. “More?” 

Steve’s eyes scrunched shut and he laughed in embarrassment. “Yes more!” 

“Alright!” Bucky smiled widely. “You ready?” 

At the sight of Bucky’s wriggling fingers looming threateningly above him, Steve burst into nervous giggling.

“Nononono wahahait!” He squealed, squirming in Bucky’s grasp. 

“Wait?” Bucky asked in mock-disappointment, fingers still wriggling menacingly. 

“Nononono.” Steve giggled. “Juhuhust dohohon’t!”

“Don’t what?” 

“Cuhuhut it ohohohout!”

“Cut what out?” Bucky said innocently, hands still raised and ready to strike. 

“Juhuhust dohohoho it!” Steve laughed, eyes scrunched shut preparing himself for the onslaught. 

But nothing came. 

He opened his eyes just a crack, before slamming them closed again and erupting into nervous giggles once more. 

“Buhuhuhucky!” He moaned in frustration, the annoyance in his voice overshadowed by the high pitched laughter threatening to spill out of his mouth. 

“Wha~at?” Bucky mocked in a sing-song tone. 

“Juhuhust go already!”

“Fine.” Bucky smirked to himself. 

“Ten. Nine. Eigh-”

“NOHOHO BUHUHUCK!” Steve burst into laughter. “THAHAHAT MAHAKES IT WOHOHORSE!”

“Seven. Six.”

“NOHOHO WAHAHAIT WAITWAITWAIT!”

“Five. Four.”

Bucky’s fingers began to slowly descend towards the giggling man’s body, and his laughter only increased in volume and desperation. 

“Threeeeee...”

“BUHUCK!”

“Twoooooo...”

Steve was about to complain in panic one final time before-

“ONE ZERO!”

Bucky’s fingers dug into Steve’s tummy, sending the man into hysterics. The anticipation of both the countdown and wriggling fingers  had only heightened his ticklish reactions, making things both 10 times worse and 10 times better for the poor ticklish soul. 

“BUHUHUHUCK!” Steve screamed, thrashing under the man’s grip.

“Ste-he-he-ve!” Bucky mocked, clawing into his best friend’s ribs and spidering across his chest. “What’s wrong?”

“IHIHIT’S SOHOHO BAHAHAD!” 

“What’s bad?” Bucky stopped, pretending to be hurt by his friend’s words. “I’m bad?”

“Nonononohoho.” Steve laughed from the ghostly tickles still ricocheting across his skin. “I juhust meant ihiht... ihit...”

“It what?” Bucky tried to hide a grin.

“It feels... a lot.” Steve blushed a crimson red. 

“It feels a lot?” Bucky laughed. “You’ve always had such a way with words.”

“Yohohou know what I mehehean!” Steve turned his head to the side to hide his red cheeks. 

“Ah ah ah don’t go hiding that smile of yours!” Bucky forced his head back to face him. “And no I don’t know what you mean?” 

“It feheheels weheheird...” Steve mumbled.

“Weird? In what way.”

“Jehesus Buck I cahahan’t.” Steve shook his head giggling.

“Can’t what?” Bucky smirked, knowing exactly what it was Steve couldn’t do, or rather, what Steve couldn’t say.

“I can’t sahahay that word.”

“What word?” Bucky asked, brandishing his fingers like weapons of mass destruction (and let’s face it, to Steve that’s exactly what they are).

“The... The t word...” Steve whispered, mouth breaking out into a smile. 

“The t-” Bucky grinned. “Oh, tickle?”

Steve broke into giggles, eyes screwed shut and shaking his head as if to rid it of the sound of that word. 

“You can’t say tickle, Steve?”

“Shuhut it Buhuhuck.”

“Why can’t you say tickle? It’s easy.” Bucky’s grin only grew wider, and his sing-song voice returned. “Tickle Tickle Tickle Ti-”

“BUHUHUHUCKY!” Steve shrieked. “Dohohon’t”

“What? It’s just a word Steve!”

“You knohow it’s nohohot.”

“Now you try! Tickle Tic-.”

“BUHUHUCK!” 

“You gotta say it Steve!” Bucky teased, wriggling his fingers again. “Or no more tickly tickly tickles!”

“I cahahan’t!” 

“Come onnnn!”

“I Cahahan’t!!”

Bucky sighed. “Alright then...” He promptly released Steve’s arms and started to get off him, when-

“FINE!”

Bucky turned with an absolute shit-eating look on his face. 

“Fine?” He smirked. “Fine what?”

Steve took a deep breath. 

“Tic-” Steve attempted before bursting into giggles. 

“That was half...” Bucky grinned. “Try again. T i c k l e.”

“Ti- BUHUHUCK!” 

“How about we leave saying the word to me, hmm?” Bucky asked, before pouncing back onto Steve and digging his fingers into the blond’s armpits.

Steve shrieked before descending into manic laughter... again. 

“Tickle tickle Stevie!” Bucky laughed, wriggling his nails into the gaps in the ticklish man’s ribs. “Actually, while we’re here, let’s see just how many ribs you’ve got.”

“NO NO NO WAIT BUHUHUCK!” 

“Ooonnnnnne!” Bucky counted, torturously jabbing his pointer finger against Steve’s lowest left rib. 

“NYEHEHE BUHUHUCKY!” 

“Twooooooo...” Bucky’s finger moved up a rib.

“BUHUHUCK NAHAHAHA!”

“Threeeeeee...” He continued the climb.

“Foouuuuur!”

“BUHUHUHUCK!” Steve thrashed to the left, apparently that was a particularly sensitive spot. 

“Oh damnit Steve...” Bucky tutted. “You’ve made me lose count. I guess we’ll have to start again-”

“FOUR! YOU WERE ON FOHOHOUR!” Steve groan-giggled as Bucky began the agonising ascent for the second time. 

Steve remained as still as humanly possible this time to allow Bucky to climb his ribs more and more. This became increasingly harder as he got closer and closer to his armpits. Thankfully Bucky was almost finished the second side when he hit a particularly ticklish zone just under his armpit. Steve was able to stop himself from flipping halfway across the room, but he burst out with enthusiastic and eardrum-bursting laughter.

“Oh Stevie...” Bucky stopped abruptly. 

“No. No Buhuck!”

“You laughed so loud I forgot where I was!”

“NOHOHOHO!”

And Steve was subjected to Bucky’s horrific rib counting for the third time that day. 

Finally, after a lot of bottled up laughter and self-restricted movement, Steve managed to survive his ordeal. The poor man was gasping for air, but smiling all the while. 

“Nicely done.” Bucky complimented his half-exhausted friend. “Now let’s check they’re all in the right place!”

“NONONONO!” Steve begged before squealing as Bucky scribbled his fingertips all over his ribs at an almost inhuman pace. Each and every inch of Steve’s ticklish chest was skittered and spidered over to ensure Bucky got to hear as much of Steve’s laughter as possible. 

Finally the brunet had mercy on the poor man’s body (and lungs), and retracted his hands to give Steve a breather. 

“You want to stop now bud?” Bucky chuckled, ruffling Steve’s hair. 

A blush rose to the ticklish man’s face and he tilted his head down to break eye contact with Bucky. 

That didn’t mean he couldn’t hear him though.

Bucky let out a bark of laughter. “Oh hoh! Don’t want it to stop huh? Does Steve love the tickly tickles too much?”

“Shuhuhut up Buhuhucky!” Steve groaned, pulling against Bucky’s hands to try and hide his ever-growing blush, but to no avail. 

“Awwwww Stevie loves the tickly tickly tickles!”

“Buhuhuhuck!” Steve giggled, hiding half his face under his arm. 

“Well let’s get back to it then!” Bucky laughed, grabbing onto Steve’s hips and squeezing rapidly.

“NAAhahaha bUHUHUhuhuckYHYHY!” Steve let out a bark of laughter with every squeeze, hips bucking off the bed every time. 

“What, has someone got ticklish hips? Hmm?” Bucky chuckled. “Has Steve got ticklish hips?”

“SHUHUHUT IHIHIT!” The teasing from his best friend was making it so much worse, and Steve’s lungs were beginning to fail. 

When the manic laughing became desperate wheezing, Bucky turned his squeezes to gentle spiders on the hipbones themselves. 

“You need a break pal?” Bucky grinned at the gasping man, who promptly nodded. 

Bucky got off his friend’s thighs, sitting down next to his feet and facing the still giggly blond. 

“You’re an ahahahass.” Steve smiled, shuffling his body upwards slightly and rubbing his face to get rid of the grin permanently plastered on his cheeks.  

“Oh you love it.” Bucky chuckled, giving Steve a gentle pat on his legs. 

The two sat for a while as Steve caught his breath. Bucky smiling at Steve, and Steve avoiding Bucky’s eyeline at all costs. 

Eventually, Steve’s lungs were functioning again. And you know what that means.

“I hahahate you.” Steve burst into giggles, thinking about what he had just endured and giving Bucky a playful kick. “You’re a jerk.”

Bucky, obviously ‘picking up what Steve was putting down’ (if you know what i mean ;D), gave him a threatening smirk.

“Oh you want to go again huh?”

Steve simply blushed, sliding down on the bed. 

“Damn you really do like this huh.” Bucky laughed, clambering onto Steve’s thighs, but this time facing his feet rather than his tummy. 

“No no no Buhuhucky dohohon’t!” Steve began giggling, grabbing Bucky into a backwards hug to ‘stop him’ from tickling his feet.

“Aw Steve! I didn’t realise how cuddly you got when I tickle you!” Bucky winked, before squeezing just above the man’s knees. 

“NOHOHOHO BUHUHUCK!” Steve screeched, thumping against his friend’s back.

“You could fight back if you wanted to you know...” Bucky teased. “Oh wait, I forgot. You don’t want to do you.”

“SHUHUHUT UHUHUP!” Steve laughed, collapsing back onto the bed in defeat.

Speaking of de-feat, Bucky decided it was time to move to one of Steve’s worst (or Best) spots.  

All it took was a few fingers sliding down Steve’s soles to make him burst into high pitched, barking laughter. Bucky’s fingernails were just sharp enough to get that perfect pressure which sent tickly shocks down Steve’s legs, and shit really hit the fan when Bucky gently scratched just under Steve’s toes. 

“NAHAHAHA BUHUHUCK!” Steve squealed, thrashing around on the mattress, toes curling and uncurling uncontrollably. 

“Oh, Steve likes Toe Time, huh?” Bucky chuckled at the teasy name he had come up with, and with Steve’s ‘NOHOHO’ of laughter, he could tell he agreed. 

After a thorough wrecking of Steve’s feet, Bucky decided to focus his efforts on that little kill spot under Steve’s toes.

And kill it did.

“OKOKOK BUHUHUHUCK!” Steve begged. “STAHAHAHAP!” 

With that one word, Bucky immediately released Steve from his tickly clutches. 

“Damn.” Bucky laughed. “I really got ya, huh.” 

Steve, completely out of breath, simply nodded. That bright smile still exploding over his face. 

“What, are you broken now?” He continued, smirking at the poor kid. 

Again, all Steve could do was nod. 

With a gentle sigh, Bucky crawled up next to his best friend and wrapped an arm around him affectionately. 

Steve, completely tuckered (or should I say, tickled) out, snuggled into his friend’s chest. A smile on his cheeks and giggles still peppering his breathing. 

Still feeling in a playful mood, Bucky began gently trailing his fingers over Steve’s sides and arms. And based on the growth in Steve’s smile, he didn’t seem to mind.

The two lay there for a few minutes, simply enjoying each others company (and the relaxing, gentle tickles Bucky was giving Steve). The cool air and warm blankets gave them the perfect atmosphere to just get comfy and maybe even have a quick sleep.

But someone had other plans.

“Hey Bucky...?” Steve mumbled, a giggly grin spreading across his face.

Steve didn’t have to ask twice, and his laughter echoed throughout the house once more. 

[jj-bxby]

Where Do We Go? |Chapter One| JJ Maybank x Reader

Summary - Y/N is a Mainlander who has just moved to The Cut. When she meets her new neighbor, she just may have found the family she’s been searching for, and more.

gif credit @toesure

Warnings - None

Word count - 1.8k

A/N - This is the first fanfic I’ve written in about 3 years, so I genuinely hope you all like it! Gimme all of the three C’s: comments, concerns... cuestions. This is only the first part of the series, so if you would like to be tagged, just ask!

It’s never easy to start something over, especially when that ‘something’ happens to be your entire life. 

If given the option, you would have left your home a long time ago, but there's only so much that a 17-year-old can do on her own. You smile drunkenly as you feel the summer sun shining on your skin, wind whipping your hair around your face wildly. The scent of the briny sea lingering in your nostrils as you pull into the road leading to your new home. 

Outer Banks is supposed to be Paradise On Earth, and you can see why. After only being here for a few hours, you have already decided that you wouldn't really mind if you never leave this island again. A life on your own is what you’d always dreamed of, and you’re still a little dazed at the fact that it's finally your reality. After all of the sleepless nights consisting of fights, double shifts at the hotel near your house, and what seemed like an entirety of planning, you can finally go off on your own adventure.

You pull your car into the drive of the new home. Your new home. Cutting the ignition, you hop out of the beat-up Jeep and begin unloading your suitcases to bring inside. Off in the distance, you spot a group of kids that seemed to be around your age, all dancing to a beat blaring from one of their speakers. Beer cans were seized in each of their hands, and a joint was fixed between the lips of one boy. They all were giggling and chanting as a brunette boy tried to chug his drink, the booze dribbling out of the sides of his mouth and onto the grass. The happy sight made you let out a breath you didn’t know you had been holding. You were such a straight-edge compared to these teenagers, never having had more than a sip of your mother’s wine while she wasn’t looking. Seeing them all with broad smiles plastered on their faces made you anxious, but yet something within you yearned to join them. To spin and howl and beam with all of them until the day turned into night, and the night turned into dawn. Maybe you would be able to fit in here after all, even if it takes some smoothing of your rough edges.

The group all looked in your direction after the dark-haired girl pointed you out, all of them pausing their twirling and jumping to acknowledge the new girl. They all give you a look of friendliness once your eyes meet, but the blonde with the joint flashed you a big smile and waved his entire arm at you, clearly wanting to be the center of attention. You felt your cheeks turn a shade crimson when you realized they were looking at you, but you give them a grin as you wave back before returning to pull all of your bags up to the front porch. You turned back to get one last look at the teenagers before you had to set foot in your house. The set seemed to have realized that the new neighbor may not want to hear their noisiness, as they had pulled their speaker and cooler a little ways away to the dock near a house, which you assumed had to belong to at least one of them. 

Turning back to face your new front door, you took a deep breath to still your mind. This is it, this is your new beginning. 

•

Okay, so unpacking is pretty damn boring as it turns out. And honestly, with weather this nice, how can I be expected to stay focused on a task that’s just so dull? I, at least, got my bags inside and some clothes placed in drawers, but it didn’t take long before my mind wandered and I step out into the backyard. This house may have seen some better days, but the view is to die for. Living life on a lake may not be ideal for everyone, but it is for me. Fishing, hammocks, and laying on a boat on a sunny day are all I could ever ask for. Even though I may not have a boat yet, I do have a hammock, and I’ll be damned if those aren’t good for some afternoon and I-have-a-lot-of-shit-to-do naps! I spot a couple of trees a few yards away from my new home to set up my new napping spot. After I finish tying off the support ropes into sturdy(ish) knots, I crawl into the netted bed, only needing steadying myself by flinging my arms around once (which, might I add, is quite good by my standards). Finally being able to rest my body after all of the moving and anxiety of the day feels so lovely. With the glow of the soft evening sun warming my skin in small beams through the tree leaves, I hardly notice how heavy my eyelids become, and definitely don’t mind when I drift off into sleep. 

My dream is filled with the small party of teens from earlier today, but this time I’ve joined them. Now, I’m jumping and cackling with all of them while sneakily stealing the snapback off of one of the boy’s heads. I’m giggling as I toss my arm around the dark-haired girl and blonde boy, turning to give him a cheeky smile as he looks to me. Suddenly, his face is all I see. 

“Hi… Uh, hey? You awake?”

I rush to stand up and immediately regret it. As I try to get up, I end up flailing like a fish and tumbling out of the hammock, falling onto my back and groaning. I look up to see where the voice came from, and find blue eyes piercing into my own.

“Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to spook you like that. Here, can I help you up?” The boy asks, extending his hand to me. I gladly accept the help and get to my feet. I see that it’s now dark out and the stars are lighting up the night sky. “Again, I’m really sorry I scared you. But maybe be more careful next time getting outta that hammock, yeah? You kinda looked like a fish flopping out of water,” the boy chuckled, running his hand through his hair. Is it me being tired or… is he being extremely cute? 

I gave him a little smile as my cheeks flush with color. ���It’s alright, I’m not broken or anything. But, I do think that the least you can do for so rudely interrupting my nap is telling me your name.”

“Oh right,” the blonde chuckles, ”I’m JJ. My friends and I are actually throwing a kegger tonight at the boneyard, and I was trying to be neighborly and invite you. You know, make friends and all? You seem about our age, sixteen or seventeen, right? Life here is much easier with friends, you know. Oh!” JJ exclaims, “Do you know where the boneyard is?” He questions. When I shake my head at him, he grins at me mischievously. “Shame. Guess I’ll have to drag you there so you can join in. But first, I’ve gotta get your name.” 

“Y/N,” I respond while smoothing down my hair and picking a few pieces of dirt from it. “But ‘The Boneyard’ sounds pretty ominous, what kinda place are you taking me to? And I don’t even know you or your friends, really. So how do I know you’re not just kidnapping me?”

JJ reaches over and pulls a small twig out of my hair. “Well, Y/N, I don’t know you. How do I know you aren’t some kind of axe murderer? Besides, do I look like I need to kidnap a girl just to get her attention?” JJ asks me with a smug look on his face.

“Touché, JJ. I guess I can come to this ‘boneyard’ with you.” JJ holds his hand out to me for a high-five, grinning wildly. I roll my eyes and slap his hand weakly.

“Wow, I literally just felt myself become depressed from that high-five.”

I give him a little shove on the shoulder and start to walk ahead of him. “So, ya gonna take me to this “Boneyard,” or what?”

“Yes, however, you are going the exact wrong way.”

“Oh.”

“C’mon, doll.” JJ takes my small hand into his and starts off towards the Boneyard. From being a few steps behind him, I can just make out the outlines of JJ’s shoulder blades peeking through the sides of his cut-off tee. The heat rose to my cheeks, realizing that this incredibly attractive boy is now taking me to meet his – likely – equally attractive friends, and he’s a major flirt. How in the hell am I going to keep up with this man? Figuratively and literally, his legs are way longer than mine, and I’m practically stumbling over my own two feet just trying to keep the same pace as him.

“So, Y/N, you’re from the mainland, yeah?” The boy questioned, looking over his shoulder to check on me as I nodded to him. “What in the hell made you move to The Cut?”

“Um, well, that’s a bit of a long story as to why I moved. But, what’s The Cut? Is that what you call it here?”

“Well, The Cut is the south side of the island, its where all of us who’re in the working class live, The Pogues, if you will. Figure Eight is where all of the Kooks come from. Y’know, the ones who sit around and play with Daddy’s Money all goddamned day,” JJ spat out the last part. “I’m just wondering why you would choose to move to our side, especially when you had a choice in the matter. I grew up in The Cut — All of the pogues did. Why not go full Kook?”

“Well, back on the mainland I was from a working-class family. I dunno, I wouldn’t have fit in with all of the mansions, and country clubs, and board shorts, I don’t think.” I shrugged my shoulders at him, “I wasn’t made for that kind of life.”

JJ nodded understandingly before beaming at me, “Well, I think you’re going to fit in quite well here, Y/N.” The boy stopped walking and I came to stand at his side, our shoulders brushing against each other. “Welcome to the Boneyard, babe.”

It truly was a sight to see. Teens were sat on fallen driftwood, all huddled around different bonfires, red solo cups in hands. Odd mixes of sunburned kids, girls dressed in oversized tees and jean shorts, preppy-clothed boys all mingled together, seeming to put aside any inequalities just for the night. People drifted from group to group, some gathered at the keg, and some simply standing and chatting as they drank. I grinned at the view ahead, knowing this was only the first of many parties to attend. I look to my side to see JJ’s blue eyes focused on me, and I tried to swallow down the fluttering feeling in my chest.

“Let’s go warm up, yeah?”

•

@midnightmagicmusings

[is0gild]

Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Chapter 25

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 5,952

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Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

Feet? Pacing a hole in the floor.

Teeth? Chewing my thumbnail to the bloody nub.

Hair? Down and in open rebellion, unwilling to be braided even if its very life depended on it.

Door? Rapping with a soft knock from the other side.

Probably should go answer it.

Crossing my bedroom, I threw it open to find Lea standing there. I frowned up at him and said in complete and totally one hundred percent seriousness, "Let's run away together, right here, right now."

"Guh…" he blinked down at me, eyes wide, face seemingly still a bit red from all that sun he'd gotten out on the yacht earlier today. "...uh-huh, yeah, okay."

"Good!" I spun around and walked away, leaving the door open behind me for him to come in. Wringing my hands together and eyes darting about wildly, I went on, "We're going to need snickerdoodles. Lots of them."

"Snickerdoodles. Sure," he said slowly as I heard the door click shut. "Quick question: Why?"

My dress swished about my knees as my pacing resumed and my trembling fingers went back to my hair, once more trying to braid it. "They're Kai's favorite. Obviously."

"Oh obviously," he nodded, standing off to one side, hands on his hips as his eyes followed me, back and forth, back and forth. "Remind me again, Kai is…?"

"The butler. Keep up." My braid snagged. It was all wrong. I furiously tugged my hair free and started over again. "He'll be the first to come looking for us, so we need to take him out."

Lea pursed his lips to one side, eyes squinting. "...with snickerdoodles. A butler's one weakness. Like a moth to the flame, powerless to resist."

I stopped in my tracks, narrowing my eyes up at him. "...are you making fun of me?"

"Who, me? No, I would never!"

Holding him with my scowl for a second more, I at last relented with a nod and a huff before going back to patrolling the length of the rug. "Good. This is very, very serious business and is not to be taken lightly."

"Absolutely, the most serious," he agreed in earnest. "So the snickerdoodles…?"

"Will be used to leave a trail like breadcrumbs to lure Kai into my wardrobe where we'll then knock him unconscious, tie him up and lock him inside, giving us a good head start before anyone else realizes we're gone."

He was rubbing a curled finger over his lips, doing his damnedest to keep a straight face. "Right, sure, sure. It's so clear now, I dunno why I didn't think of it myself. I mean, c'mon, it's the only sane thing to do."

"Exactly!" No, no, that braid wouldn't do at all, it was a crooked mess! Growling, I yanked it out and started over yet again. "Then we can escape out my window. There's no trellis or anything to climb, but the drop's not far. Only thirty, maybe forty feet."

"Psh," his hand batted the air, "that all? No sweat."

"Then we can just hop in your car and- gah!" Seriously, what was wrong with my hair?! Why wouldn't it braid?! Was it broken?! I snarled, raking my clawed fingers through it over and over again, threatening to rip every last damn strand from the very roots and-

"Woah there, easy now," Lea said calmly, catching my hands in his and forcing them to be still. His firm grip was warm and soothing. "Why don't we just take a breather for a sec, huh?"

Glaring down at my feet, I just answered with a noncommittal shrug. Good enough for him, it seemed, for he was now guiding me over to my bed where he took a seat on the edge, drawing me down to sit beside him. Still holding my hands and tracing light circles along their backs with his thumbs, he tucked one leg up beneath him so he could turn to better face me.

"Now before ya rip yourself bald, why don'tcha just leave your hair to me while you tell me all about whatever it is that has you ready to book it for the hills?" Setting my hands down in my lap, he started to bring his up but they faltered midway towards my face, fingers curling slightly. "...may I?" he asked quietly.

I hesitated for a heartbeat before giving a single nod and turning away from him, sweeping my pale platinum locks back over my shoulder. There was a brief pause before I felt it. His long fingers stroking my hair, slow and gentle as they combed through it, carefully smoothing out whatever tangles I'd worked it into in my anxiety and frustration. It made my scalp tingle pleasantly and my eyes fluttered half closed.

"So talk to me. What's up?" I heard him ask.

His breathing, low and soft behind me, had a comforting rhythm to it and I swear I could feel a faint warmth radiating from his nearness. It settled my nerves somewhat as the nice little tugs and shifts to my hair continued. Tucking in my lower lip, I muttered, "I don't think I can do this anymore."

"Do what?" he pressed gently.

"Any of it!" I blurted out with a grimace. "My parents. The talk with them. This… this unbearable wait for the talk with them. My grandfather. The silent, angry death rays he keeps shooting out his eyes at me." The words were tumbling out of me faster and faster. "Anna. The way she won't talk to me. Why won't she talk to me?! What could possibly be wrong? What could I have possibly done? And then- and then there's the party! It's going to be a nightmare! A disaster, a-"

"Shh, it'll be okay." His voice was tender. Just hearing it loosened the knots in my stomach somewhat and eased my shallow breathing. His hands continued to thread my hair and I felt the bend of his finger brush against the base of my neck, causing a weird feeling to creep up my spine and making me shiver. His hands stilled momentarily, but then they set about their task once more, his tone even softer now, "Just… one lil party. Nothing to worry about. No big deal."

I puffed out a shaky breath, "But it is a big deal! Because it'll be a big party! Huge! Ginormous! So many people are going to be there, and I don't do people. I don't, I just… I can't! And these aren't just any people. Oh no, these are my relatives. Relatives who were at my wedding. You know, the one that didn't happen because I snuck out a window? They're all going to be staring at me and… and talking- no, whispering about me and treating me like some sort of, I don't know… freakshow. And just… what does one even wear when they're the friggin' social pariah of the soirée? What do they do with their hair? Their stupid, stupid hair that won't even-"

"Breathe," Lea told me.

A command, but a gentle one at that.

I scrunched up my face, but inhaled deeply and held it for a few seconds, closing my eyes and instead focusing on the sensation of his hands in my hair. Why was I even letting him do this? I hadn't even questioned it. But... it really was quite… pleasing, I'll give it that. I couldn't remember the last time I'd let someone touch it like this. Surely, not since I was a child. Surely, it'd been nice then too, but not quite like this. Not in the same way. This… I couldn't quite put a name to this… to the small tickle of a feeling blossoming inside my chest…

Sensing I had relaxed somewhat, he spoke again, "First of all, your hair's not stupid. In fact, pretty sure it has a PHD and graduated valedictorian. And I already told ya I got you covered in the hair department, so just put that outta your head, 'kay? Don't even think about it. Second of all, you'll wear whatever the hell you want to this dumb party and look like the goddamn belle of the ball and if anyone tries to talk shit, I'll knock their teeth out, got it?"

That earned him a tiny snerk from me.

"We don't even have to stay long," he said as his delightful ministrations to my hair continued. "We'll drop in, make an appearance, give gramps his birthday spankings or whatever, then ditch the place. Third of all, your sister will talk to you when she's ready. All you can do is let her know you're there for her. Fourth of all, your gramps and those lil death glares of his? Can go fuck themselves. Fifth of all-"

"How many more of these 'of alls' do you have?" I felt one corner of my mouth quirk.

"Shush, I'm on a roll here. Now where was I...? Ah! Fifth of all, this talk with your folks? That's all it is: a talk. Just words. They have no power over you, not anymore. And I'll be there to back you up the whole time. Anna too, I'm sure. No matter what's going on with her, she knows you need her. And if you don't like what your folks have to say and if they won't listen to you, then that's it. We can just leave. End of story."

I rolled my eyes with a flat, "Simple as that, huh?"

"Simple as that," he murmured, sounding a little distracted by his task. "Sixth of all… hm… never mind, there is no sixth of all. Covered everything with the first five. Any questions?"

My nose crinkled as I bit back a grin. "...would you really knock one of my relative's teeth out?"

"In a heartbeat. Send those pearly whites flying so high n' fast, they'd be like shooting stars across a night sky."

I pressed my folded fingers to my lips, muffling a little laugh. "Well, I suppose brutally assaulting other guests is certainly one excuse for ducking out of the party early."

"Good point," I could hear the smirk in his voice. "I'll keep that in my back pocket in case of emergency."

Just then, another knock came at my door. Gosh, I certainly was popular lately. I don't think I'd ever had so many visitors to my bedroom as I'd had over the past two days. I stood up to go answer it, hearing what suspiciously sounded like a small, almost inaudible sigh from Lea as my hair slipped free of his grasp.

Pulling the door open, I smiled when I saw who it was. "Mattias. It's been too long."

The man was tall and had friendly brown eyes lined with faint crows feet. His hair was short, frizzy and black that was just starting to show the first signs of greying, with a matching goatee to frame his grin. Bending at the waist into a tiny half bow, he greeted, "Little Miss Elsa. My, how you've grown."

Smile widening, I turned to find Lea had joined me at my side. "Lea, this is Mattias. He works for my grandfather." I actually had no idea what Mattias's exact job title was. Was he Grandfather's personal assistant? His bodyguard? His driver? His privately owned assassin? Okay, I was just joking about the last one… I think. Maybe he was all of the above. Or maybe none and he was actually something even more secretive and mysterious. All I knew was that Mattias had been under Grandfather's employ since I was very little and whatever it was he did or didn't do, he'd always treated me with nothing but kindness.

"Ah," Mattias breathed as his gaze shifted to Lea, eyes crinkling as he offered his hand, "and you must be the new paramour I've been hearing so much about."

Lea shook it, one side of his mouth twitching up. "All good things, I'm sure."

"All… verbose and fervent things said with great gusto," he tactfully replied.

"They usually are when it's me those things are about," Lea snorted.

Tipping my head to one side as I regarded Mattias, I asked, "Was there something you needed of me?"

His hands clasped behind his back. "I was actually looking to borrow your young gentleman here with regards to tonight's festivities."

"Oof, sorry man, I'm flattered, but already got a date for the evening," Lea said as he slid an arm around my shoulders.

"He's funny," Mattias declared brightly. "No wonder your grandfather is so… opinionated about him. But no, I meant I'm here to take you out in preparation for the ball."

Lea cocked an eyebrow. "...oh! You mean 'take out' as in get me snazzy new duds so I can get all dolled up for this lil shindig?"

Mattias's face fell suddenly stoic as an eerie calm came over him, "Or 'take out' as in make you disappear, never to be seen or heard from again." His hushed words were punctuated with a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence where I began to wonder if I actually hadn't been too far off with my assassin guess. But then he abruptly burst out into booming laughter, making both Lea and me jump. "I'm just kidding! My wife Halima says I need to lighten up and joke around more." Now he seemed to become a bit bashful as he asked hopefully, "How am I doing?"

I exchanged a brief glance with Lea, who then gave a weak chuckle. "Great! You'll have 'em all rolling on the floor during amateur hour at the comedy club." Reaching for the doorknob, he slowly started pushing it shut between Mattias and us as he called out a chipper, "Now, I'm just gonna close this for a real quick sec here, be right back!" As soon as it clicked shut, Lea gripped my arm as he hissed, "Do not under any circumstance leave me alone with that guy!"

Scoffing, I crossed my arms, "You're being silly, he's a very sweet man."

"Oh yeah, seems real nice for a psychopathic killer who could probably murder me seven different ways with a Tootsie Roll."

"He said he was kidding."

"Precisely what someone trynta off me would say," he muttered, glowering at my door.

My eyelids drooped, "Also precisely what someone who wasn't trying to off you would say. Besides, it's a good thing Grandfather sent him to assist you with this. I was so busy stressing out about myself, I completely forgot you probably had nothing to wear for tonight. What would you have even done, just shown up in jeans and a t-shirt?" I shook my head in amusement.

To that he just looked down, scratching a spot behind his ear with a soft, "Heh."

I stared blankly at him. "Oh my god, that's exactly what you were going to do."

"In my defense, it was gonna be one classy t-shirt."

"...the kind with a cartoon tux printed on the front?"

He grinned big, "Yeah! How'd you know?"

My finger pinched the bridge of my nose as I released a grumbling sigh. "Just go with Mattias so you can get fitted for a nice suit. Please."

"What about you?" he reached over, lightly rubbing my arm. "You all good now?"

"I'm… better now," I hugged myself with a small nod. "...you always seem to know just what to say to help calm me down. Thank you." I turned away, heading towards my vanity, "And thanks for-" I stopped as I looked in the mirror, my hand going to my blonde strands. My reflection frowned back at me. "Wait… you didn't even do anything with my hair." I narrowed my eyes on him, "Were you just playing with it this whole time?"

"Er…" he grinned innocently, rubbing at the nape of his neck and averting his gaze. "...no?" I fixed him with a dull look. "Seriously! I braided it!" One of my eyebrows arched. "Then I… unbraided it. But only to try a few other things with it, honest! Purely for research purposes! And it all led me to one conclusion. The results are in and it's unanimous: you should wear your hair," he rapped his fingers along the edge of my vanity in a drumroll, "down!"

I tilted my head slightly to the left. "...down?"

"Mm-hm! It's simple! It's bold! It's-"

Once again, a knock sounded at my door. "You two do remember I'm still waiting out here... right?" came Mattias's muffled voice from the other side.

With a tiny huff in my throat, I started pushing Lea back towards the door. "Will you just go with him already? He won't kill you, I promise."

"Fine, but if ya haven't heard from me in an hour, you come and rescue my sorry ass, got it? Oh, and El?" he dug in his heels, stopping us both as he brought his hands up to squeeze my shoulders with a smile. "About tonight, just… you do you. Whatever makes ya comfortable. Forget about what anyone else might say or think, 'kay?"

I stared back at him, searching his eyes for a second before looking away as I bit down into my bottom lip. "...I'll try."

Seemingly satisfied with that, Lea reached out to twist the doorknob and pull, greeting Mattias with, "Alright, cowboy, let's get this over with." Trailing his fingers down my arms to my hands, he took them both in his and raised them to press a kiss to each one, murmuring, "Until this evening, min kjæreste."

...I really shouldn't be surprised at this point that he had yet to run out of pet names.

I'd have to ask him what that one meant later.

Which, you know, was a totally crucial and vital piece of info to have before adding it to the ever growing mountainous stack of vetoes.

With that, he stepped out into the hallway where Mattias grinned and gave him a hearty slap on the back, forcing a grunt out of Lea as he closed the door behind him. I snorted quietly before moving back over to my vanity mirror, absently running my fingers through my hair as I stared at my reflection once more.

...down, huh?

...I think I could make that work.

"Well, well… don't you look a vision?"

"Thank you, Mattias," I smiled softly, resisting the urge to self-consciously hide behind my bedroom door. "You're looking rather dashing yourself."

He stood a little straighter, his hand smoothing the crisp lapel of his suit. "I do what I can. And I got your young man looking quite dapper as well, if I do say so myself."

"Speaking of, where is Lea?" I looked about the corridor, but it only further confirmed that Mattias had come to greet me at my door alone.

"I left him to await you in the foyer." He offered me his arm, "Shall I escort you, my dear?"

Taking a quick glance back into my room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, I then nodded and closed the door behind me as I stepped out into the hallway, tucking my hand into his elbow. "Please. Lead the way." As we began to walk, I told him, "Thank you, by the way. For getting Lea ready and presentable for the evening."

"Was only doing as your grandfather asked of me," he brushed off. "I suspect he doesn't want him drawing anymore undue attention to himself than absolutely necessary."

I hummed a small laugh at that, "I think that may be a lost cause there."

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, grin widening. "...that boy of yours really won't stand a chance, you know. He'll be a goner the second he lays eyes on you."

"Stop, you're embarrassing me," I ducked my head to hide the faint blush creeping into my face as my fingers idly twisted at my diamond fringe earrings. Wearing them may have been a bad idea in retrospect as they were too tempting to fidget with in moments of anxiety. They dangled all the way down to my shoulders, which were bare in my floor length, high neck halter dress that was backless and a shade of midnight blue with subtle shimmers in the bodice - another garment that, like my beachwear, had just been left behind to gather dust in my wardrobe here long ago. My hair was sideswept, cascading down in loose curls in front of my right shoulder.

"If memory serves," Mattias was saying conversationally, "I don't believe you ever went to such lengths to look even half so stunning for your last suitor."

My face grew hotter as I muttered, "You must be mistaken."

Why would I put any more effort into my appearance for tonight than I had any other previous outings that had been with my ex? I had no reason to. Not for Lea. Not for the guy who was only a friend and merely just pretend dating me as a favor to help me out of a tight spot. Of course, Mattias wasn't privy to that last bit.

"Perhaps," he said lightly, falling silent for a few steps. Then, "Or perhaps it is just another small piece to the big mystery surrounding why he is your suitor no more."

The corners of my lips turned down. "...he and I weren't right, Mattias. This life, this world," I gestured to the expensive dress I was wearing, to the mansion walls around us, "...none of it was right. Not for me, anyway. I tried to pretend it was, tried to play the part for years. But I couldn't, not anymore. That's why I had to leave." I hesitated, eyes downcast. "I… don't really know what is right for me. I'm still trying to work that part out… but I feel like I'm much closer to figuring it out now than I ever was before when I was only living to please my parents."

He didn't respond right away, seeming to ponder my words for a moment. At last, he glanced over at me with a warm smile. "My father used to have a saying: Just when you think you found your way, life will throw you on a new path. Don't give up, take it one step at a time and just do the next right thing." Mattias pat my fingers curled around his arm, "It may take a while, but I know you'll sort it all out. You're now on the path you were meant to be on. In time, I'm sure your family will understand that as well."

I returned his smile with a tiny one of my own. "I hope so… thank you, Mattias."

"Of course, my dear." We at last came to a halt at the top of the stairs. "Now I leave you in the care of your gentleman caller who should be just at the foot of the-" he faltered mid-sentence as he looked down into the foyer, eyes growing round. Then he heaved a sigh, dragging a hand down his face as he grumbled, "...I swear he wasn't like this when I left a moment ago."

I followed his gaze to spot Lea on the bottom step. He was leaning with one elbow propped against the banister, eyes lowered as he inspected his (still pristine) black nail polish, so he hadn't noticed us yet. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he was wearing what looked to be a very nice black tux, so he should have made quite the debonair picture. Key word: should. However, his tie was undone and draped loose around his neck, his suit jacket was off and slung over his shoulder by his free hand, and the sleeves of his white button-up were rolled up to his elbows.

The cherry on top? Brace yourself, because there were actually two. The first was there was a small white stick poking out of the corner of his mouth as he sucked on something. Was that a lollipop? Pretty sure it was a lollipop. A friggin' lollipop. Why? Just… why? As for the second, I'll give you a few hints: they were pink, made of cheap plastic, perched on the bridge of one's nose, and utterly ridiculous. That's right: the heart sunglasses were back, making their encore performance on Lea's face.

Somehow, I got the feeling Grandfather would not be amused.

Just a hunch.

"Good luck with that," Mattias told me under his breath with a low snort as he walked off, presumably to go on ahead to the party.

My eyes fell on Lea once more, my fingers coming up to brush along my grin before I started to descend the stairs. "No," was all I said, though a laugh bubbled out of me before I could stop it.

He glanced up at the sound of my voice, eyebrows bouncing as he smirked around the lollipop, surely with some cocky wisecrack just at the tip of his tongue. Instead however his gaze met mine and he froze, his eyes widening as all that came out was a, "Nnn…?"

I think he might have been trying to echo my 'no' there. But apparently a two-letter word was one more letter than he could currently handle.

I reached him, stopping on the step just above the one on which he stood. Fighting my grin now, I lifted my hands to remove the heart-shades and folded them shut. Then I held them up before his nose as I reiterated a firm but gentle, "No."

Lea just continued to stare at me, lollipop dangling from his slack-jawed gape and this close to falling out. "Nnn…"

My, how articulate he was this evening.

With a small huff through my nose, I set the glasses aside on the banister. Then I reached to take hold of the ends of his tie, flipping them up in front of his face with another, "No." With that, I set to work tying it for him. To be blunt, I actually kind of hated that I knew how to do this. It was just such an archaic and outdated practice, the woman fixing the tie for the man. But someone had to do it and part of me suspected Lea wouldn't even have the first clue how.

I could sense his eyes on me as I folded and looped the strip of fabric. I did my best to ignore it along with the heat I could feel creeping up the back of my neck now. What didn't help was when his hand slowly drifted up to start toying with the curled tips of my hair. Hitching my chin and stubbornly avoiding his gaze as I put all my focus into the tie, I murmured, "You know, you can quit it with the goofy lovestruck act. Mattias is gone, there's no one here to see it."

Coiling a pale tendril around his finger, he didn't speak right away and for a second I wondered if he had even heard me. Then came a hushed, "...you're beautiful..."

My heart jolted and my grip faltered, fumbling the tie and screwing it up. My eyes darted up to meet his, which were soft but also mixed with… something that was too intense and I quickly looked away again. With a little scowl, I started over with his tie, muttering, "Fine then, keep it up. See if I care." Hastily finishing the bowtie in silence, I hazarded a second, more cautious glance back up at him, frowning now. "...wow, you really fried out there on the yacht today, didn't you? Ever hear of sunscreen?" I asked, reaching a hand up for one of his super red cheeks.

He snatched it just as my fingertips had barely brushed along his skin. Then he blinked, finally knocking it off with the dazed routine as he released my hand so he could instead rub at the nape of his neck with a small chuckle. "Nah, I… I'm fine. I think it's just something funny with the, uh… the lighting in here, making me look burned when I'm really not. Yeah, that must be it!"

I gave him a dubious squint before looking down at my palm. Odd… I looked just as pale as ever under this light. Shrugging it off, I then stretched a hand out once more, this time to pluck the lollipop from his lips, accompanying it with yet another, "No." I caught a whiff of a very familiar scent and both eyebrows shot up my forehead as I looked at the candy. Then I held it up to him, "Is this why you smell like cinnamon all the time?"

His head rocked back slightly, one corner of his lips slowly turning up. "And how, pray tell, are you so intimately aware of what I smell like?"

My shoulders stiffened as just about every last bit of blood I had in me rushed straight up to my face. "I… well, I wouldn't say I'm intimately- I mean, that is... well, you're always hugging me and just, you know… i-it's kind of hard not to- It's not like I'm trying to- Not on purpose anyway, it just sort of… I just…"

The wicked curve to his lips widened further. "Yes? Do go on."

I narrowed my eyes on him. "Nevermind. Where did this thing even come from?" I asked, scrunching my nose up at the lollipop before looking for somewhere to get rid of it. I settled on tossing it into one of the two large urns decorating either side of the base of the staircase. Shh, no one would ever have to know.

He shrugged, still not wiping that stupid grin off his face. "We stopped at a place on the way to the tux fitting."

"And Mattias let you? He should've known better," I sighed, now tugging one of his sleeves down to his wrist with a tad more force than necessary and buttoning it.

"What can I say? I can be very persuasive."

I just gave a noncommittal "hm" as I straightened and fastened the other sleeve as well. Then I snagged his folded jacket from where he held it slung over his shoulder, lifting it with one more lightly chiding, "No." I began helping him shrug back into it.

A little tsk escaped him. "You're certainly a fan of that word right now."

Concentrating on getting his left arm into the other sleeve, I deadpanned, "And you're certainly a fan of finding every way imaginable to make me say it."

He snerked at that. Then, "Huh. Guess there's a first time for everything. Usually the ladies are trynta take the clothes off me, not the other way around."

My gaze snapped up to meet his with every intention of giving him the full blast of my withering stare. Instead I froze, expression blank at the sight that greeted me.

That of a lollipop stick once more jutting out the side of his tiny smirk.

I blinked. Then looked to the urn. Then back at him. My eyelids drooped. "Just how many of those do you have?"

His smile stretched from ear to ear. "Picked me up a whole pack! Gotta feed the addiction!"

I sighed, shaking my head before eyeing him up and down with a frown. "...where are you even hiding them all?"

Lea bent forward, the tip of his nose brushing against mine as his eyes hooded and he whispered, "Care to search me and find out?"

An icy grin pulled at my lips and I told him, "No." There's that word again. Confiscating this lollipop as well, I struck it up in front of his face and continued on in a deadly sweet tone, "If I catch you with another one of these tonight, I'll make you choke on it."

"You promise?" he waggled his eyebrows at me.

I scoffed, flinging the candy into the other urn. There. Now my parents had a matching set. My attention returned to Lea as I tipped my head to one side, giving him a final glance over now that I had him all put back together. "...you actually clean up rather handsomely. You know, when you're not being a total clown."

"Hadta do it," he puffed up his chest and tweaked his bowtie. "If you had been struck by the full might of my studliness in a tux right from the get go, you would've straight up swooned and come toppling down the stairs. Hadta ease ya into it for your own safety. You're welcome."

"How thoughtful," I rolled my eyes with a soft snort. Then I retrieved the heart-glasses from the banister once more, slipping them into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. "Now I'm giving these back to you since I know they're your new favorite toy and I'm trusting you not to put them back on at the party, okay?"

"Scout's honor," he chirped, holding up three fingers pressed together.

"Good," I smiled, straightening his lapels and smoothing my hand over his button-up to clear any creases. "Your shenanigans the other night in front of my parents and grandfather were one thing, but this party is something else entirely. You can't just-"

"El," he interrupted me, bringing his hand up. I almost thought it was going for my cheek, but it seemed to hesitate and shift over at the last second, giving my shoulder a squeeze instead. "I'll be on my best behavior. Count on it."

I nodded. "...thank you." I realized my hands were still smoothing, even though any wrinkles there may have been in his shirt were long gone.

Jesus criminy, Elsa, stop pawing at the man's chest already!

Quickly retracting my hands, I cleared my throat as my smile turned a touch awkward. "Right. So then… to the party?"

"Absolutely," he grinned, taking my hand and tucking it into the crook of his arm. He then led me down the last couple of steps and over to a corridor off on the left, striding with confidence.

I followed him wordlessly for a few steps. Then, "Do you have any idea where you're going?"

"Not a damn clue!" he said brightly.

With a tiny laugh, I informed him, "It's back the other way."

"Going the other way!" he announced, flipping us into a u-turn and marching off in the opposite direction.

Once we were on the right course, it wasn't hard for Lea to figure out where the ballroom was. He just had to follow the sound of the classic string music and murmur of voices drifting from the party. It wasn't long before we were approaching a massive set of double doors beyond which all the merrymaking could be spotted in glimpses.

That's when I started to hear it. The blood rushing in my ears. Every step closer to that entrance made my insides shrivel tighter and tighter, my breathing more rapid and shallow. Just outside the threshold, my feet stopped moving altogether.

Lea halted beside me, looking over at me in concern. He brought up his other hand to cover my own that was clutching at his arm, not saying anything. I didn't need him to. I just needed a minute to steel myself. Closing my eyes, I forced air into my lungs in one long, slow inhale through my nose. Then I released it just as gradually, feeling my nerves settle somewhat.

Was I ready for this?

No. Not even close.

But this was about as ready as I was ever going to get.

I looked up at him with a small nod. With that, we made our way inside.

Author's Note: I was originally going to put this build-up to the party AND the party itself all in the same chapter, but it just got TOO long for a single chapter - and that's coming from ME of all people, so that's saying something! So hope ya'll don't mind this slightly shorter update chocked full of fluff xP Anyhoo, Mattias made his cameo this chapter, yay! He was one of my faves from F2, such a sweetheart with his own moments of awkwardness :3 Minor fun fact: I had just finished playing TWEWY for the first time before I started writing this chapter and had been introduced to Koki - a character in that game that's basically an Axel-clone, at least in the sense that he's a redheaded kinda-sorta villain that's bursting at the seams with snark… guess which TWEWY character turned out to be fave xD Anyway, Koki is never seen without a lollipop the whole time, so the stupid thing with the lollipop this chapter got its inspiration from that xP Other minor fun fact: Elsa's dress is very, VERY loosely based on her dress from the Olaf's Frozen Adventure short - just get rid of the fur, sleeves, and back and turn it into a halter top and presto! Beautiful xD Also, her hairstyle is based off of some early Elsa concept art by Brittney Lee for the first Frozen movie (I’ll reblog it here some point soon!) and I just think the art is gorgeous and I had to use the hairstyle cuz oof… Ice Queen is pretty, yo!

Next chapter, Gramps' B-day Bonanza is officially in full swing! What new lil misadventures might the night bring? Who else might make an appearance? Will everything go smoothly or will there be trouble brewing at the ball? And just where IS Lea really hiding all those damn lil lollipops? Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to those of you who’ve liked, reblogged, and followed so far, seeing those lil notifications always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

[shealynn88]

Happy Saturday! Here, have a two-parter ~ Your DB Secret Scribe

~Blood Riptide~

(Part 1)

“Sonuvabitch! Benny’s gone way too far this time!”

Dean, his asshole neighbor, and their petty games had escalated into the realm of the extreme.

“What now?” Sam whined, rubbing his face exhaustedly while poring over study guides.

“I’ve got ‘Just Divorced’ along with 'Single and Ready to Mingle’ on Baby’s trunk in fucking house paint!”

Sam stared at him blankly. “And?”

“And he taped rainbow dick shaped balloons by the rear license plate so I wouldn’t notice when getting in.”

While laughing, Sam pointed out, “Well, you buried the wash table in his backyard with four truck beds of smoked hickory chunks last week.”

“Chips. They’re called wood chips. And it was the only way to neutralize that reeking Striped Bog Bass he dragged up from his skiff. Besides..fish go with chips anyways. Did him a favor,” he shrugged, pointedly dismissing his wrong doing.

“You don’t mess with someone’s livelihood Dean!” Sam tried explaining.

“And ya don’t mess with a man’s wheels! I told him that after he clipped your fucking Mopar abomination in the driveway almost a year ago. How many times have I said to pull farther in and not leave your ass end out, huh? Dean scolded.

"My Charger’s not an abomination! He had a legitimate excuse. Besides, he told me right away and paid for the repairs.”

“Excuse my ass. Who blames vehicular carnage on an iron deficiency?! Huh?”

“If anemia gets bad enough…”

“Don’t gimme that crap. Walgreens carries supplements. Planned on football this weekend, but now I gotta work on Baby, Hope I can fix her without removing any original coating!” Dean stomped off to the garage ready to explode.

Sam just shook his head and called Bones for a treat.

The following night Dean made another Home Depot run after spending all day on Baby. She still wasn’t finished, and damn if it didn’t boil his blood. When pulling in the driveway, a distressing scene greeted him. Sam had been on an evening run and was in tears, covered in blood, hunched over bones. Benny too, was on his knees examining the dog.

Dean pushed his infernal ire aside for his brother and Bones. “What happened? Is he okay?”

Benny continued assessing while Sam explained, “We were running in Royer Park when a gator grabbed him. I ran him back here as fast as I could but Dean, he’s not gonna make it.”

“If I could save him, but it’d mean he’d be..different, would you let me?”

“Different, how?” Sam asked in emotional anguish.

Benny appeared to dither over sharing something heavy.

“What do you mean different?”

The guy reluctantly answered. “At night he’ll be with me.”

Sam was still confused, and Dean’s anger was beginning to simmer. “Drop the cryptic bullshit and answer the damn question.”

He watched Benny sigh, but was so done with theatrics. Bones took one deep breath and then a stilted one after.

“Time’s wasting, Sam, yes or no?” Benny quickly offered, as if KNOWING the beloved mastiff was on the brink of death.

“Yes,” came Sam’s confident decision.

Dean next watched something impossible. Fangs protruded from Benny’s mouth, and he sank his teeth into the dog’s carotid artery.

“Dude, what the f-”

Dean’s words fell silent on his lips when realizing Benny’s large hand was holding him back. The guy turned to him with blood dripping from his lips. In his other hand, he held a blade and sliced his palm. Then, working with inhuman speed, he opened Bones’ chest and reached inside. Dean watched in nauseous horror as Benny squeezed his heart, mimicking a dog’s healthy sinus rhythm.

After a few minutes of stunned silence, Bones’ eyes grew wide with shock and Benny immediately pulled his hand from his chest, fisted more blood from his palm, and closed the gaping wound. He massaged the large area, and Dean saw the hole healing. Benny stood, wiping his hand on the pea coat he wore when fishing.

“He’s coming around. Tonight and tomorrow, he’ll stay with you. At sundown, he’ll spend his nights with me,” Benny placed his clean hand on Sam’s shoulder and calmly explained, “You’ll see, surely not much at all will change.”

He folded the knife back into his pocket and without another word, went back inside his house.

Bones perked his head up and stared in the direction of Benny’s house. He stood as if nothing had ever happened, and licked Sam’s hand. Neither found the words to speak on what had occurred, but after both Bones and the driveway were rinsed, they went inside and robotically prepared for bed.

The next morning Bones woke them up for breakfast as usual. Dean and Sam still couldn’t bring themselves to talk about it. They went about their day silently thankful Bones was right as rain. By sunset, Dean had almost convinced himself the whole fucked up incident had been a dream.

When the fireflies emerged for their nightly glowball dance, Bones perked up, raising from his spot on the family room floor. Dean and Sam were shootin’ the shit about the Cowboys dream duo Prescott and Elliott on the patio overlooking the canal behind their property line, when Bones eerily walked past them as if summoned by an unnatural force.

Dean noticed how fast the sun, which normally perched on the horizon like some needy, eye catching supermodel desperate for validation, yeeted outta Dodge. Padding onto the soft grass, Bones shifted in an odd manner for a dog of his breed. His movements were too swift, smooth, and straight. Facing Benny’s house, he let loose a chilling howl that if Dean had to describe, sounded more like a demonic harmonica than a canine growl.

Sam looked at Dean with terror, as if he too had been hoping the previous night’s disaster was a figment of food he’d eaten too close to bedtime. They saw Benny mosey onto his patio, patting his side for Bones to approach. When generously petting him, the moon cast its beams like a strange baptism upon the dog’s coat. Dean then saw the dog change.

His fur coat was no longer black, it wasn’t fur at all, but tendrils of fine burgundy osseous tissue. Bones heard Sam gasp, and turned to peer back at them. In his eyes were burning coals of hell fire, and the lovable head tilt he’d gifted Sam in life, rotated too far. His fangs were too long, and the width of his mandible spread in an impossibly wide grin, demonstrated in the most terrifying way that Bones had truly become a servant of darkness. And yet, he bounded back to Sam in a playfully sinister way, nuzzling against his hand.

Dean sat in silent horror as Benny went down to his boat, then headed for his garage to retrieve something of import. In a lightning fast decision, he tore down the modest hill to the twenty eight foot Lafitte skiff, with Sam whisper-shouting to get the hell back on the patio. No dice, Sammy. He simply HAD to find out what this guy was up to, but realized he had no weapon aside from a fileting knife he’d swiped from a shelf on the skiff.

Concealing himself under a tarp, he heard Benny boarding along with Bones and kept as quiet as he could, even maintaining impossible control of his respirations. Ten minutes south of Benny’s house, common sense kicked in that his rash decision was taking him out into some desolate backwoods bayou territory and if Benny or Bones felt like a human snack, they could easily feast and foist his drained carcass over the edge, never to be found.

When the skiff finally slowed, he heard the high pitched squeak of the captain’s chair rotating.

“Speak your mind, Dean.”

Busted.

Throwing off the useless tarp, Dean wobbled as he stood beside the stern’s edge, then fell back on his ass in embarrassment and stayed put.

“Fine,” he sniffed. Benny wanted a piece? He was gonna get it. But when it came to forming coherent word strings all that tumbled out was, “What the ever lovin’ fuck?”

“Are you referring to last night’s..enlightening fuck? Or all the ones going back to when I stopped talkin’ to ya?”

Dean shrugged. “Sure. Yeah…But first, I wanna know why.”

A look of surprise galloped across Benny’s face, now a more deathly pale in moonlight. “Vampire, appreciate you askin’. It’s also the reason why.”

“So this happened after you moved in next door?”

Benny looked down, with a curious look loaded with shame. “Before. You didn’t do anything wrong, Dean. Surely you wonder, but..it’s on me.”

Despite his genuinely gracious decline,

Benny seemed to have greatly appreciated Dean and Sam’s welcoming hospitality when they’d showed up on his doorstep, offering burgers and brew. He’d claimed a wide range of severe food allergies, but still broke the proverbial bread with them, sipping on some medicinal protein shake. It made perfect sense to Dean now, when looking back.

“Seemed to have a lot in common with me and Sam. The couple of times you took me fishing..I kinda thought…” he let his thoughts trail off.

“You weren’t wrong. It wasn’t y-”

“Oh here we go..wasn’t you, it was me, right?”

“Because I’m the one who messed up!”

“How? We never argued, you never said or did anything! One day, you just stopped talking to us!” Me, Benny. It hurt that you stopped talking to me. “That was an asshole move and you know it!”

The seconds ticked by. Benny’s fists were tightly balled, indicating his struggle with something. His eyes were ablaze in turmoil.

“Go fuck yourself.”

The guy had no idea how difficult it was for Dean to open up, to ask why he’d been rejected. And it made Dean So. Damn. Angry. Monster, demon, vampire, friggin’ vampirate, he no longer cared which monster he pissed off. He shoved Benny into the portside wall of his skiff.

“Fuck me yourself, you coward,” Dean growled in his face..and then kissed him, like a challenge.

He didn’t know why he did it. Well, lack of impulse control. Obviously. But when Benny, who could rip him in half faster than the Juggernaut tearing Deadpool’s upper body from his lower, kissed him back, it caught him off guard. Benny’s strong hands gripped his ass, pulling Dean flush with his solid form.

This vampire was the riptide in Dean’s otherwise normal, predictable life. The hurricane that’d taken his feelings by storm. His power was raw and all encompassing, Dean could no more tear himself from it than the moon could break the eternal gravitation towards its orbit around Earth.

Benny’s lips left bruises on his skin, trailing down his neck accompanied by his hot, heaving breath. Suddenly he tensed, let go of Dean, and stood frozen against the wall. When Dean saw the excruciating pain on his face he braced for an incoming predator from any direction, because what could possibly set a vampire back on their heels so badly?

Then it clicked. Benny. Vampire. Struggling over a mess up. The threat was a nearby predator. The threat was Benny himself.

To be continued….

OOOHHHH, this is so fantastic and INTRIGUING!  I love Bones becoming a Hellhound, that is AWESOME.  I love me some hellish pups!  I can’t wait to see where it goes!!!!  Thank you so much, what a gift you’ve been this week.  :D  There’s so much here I love - Sam and Dean living together in their loving, grumpy way, Sam being the voice of reason, the prank war (!!!), and Bones.  Bones is absolutely my favorite.  And Dean.  What a lovable dumbass.  lol.  I look so forward to part II!

[suitofvibraniumarmor]

The American Initiative

Part Six

Summary: Grace Cleveland and Eleanor Baker both thought their lives were over, until they became part of something much bigger – the Avengers. Pairing(s): Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC Word Count: 1429 Blanket Warnings: Death, mentioned a couple of different ways, but not detailed; canon divergence; more based on Marvel movies. In the infamous word of Steve Rogers, “Language.”

Masterlist Wanna be tagged?

Even with the team gone for a few days, Ellie and Grace didn’t stop their training. They worked out a routine between the two of them, training both together and separately, so that when the team returned, they wouldn’t be behind.

Ellie did a lot of reading, and a lot of writing. She thought about the things she wanted in life, about her likes and dislikes – she even considered reading the folder that Director Fury had given her, but quickly shoved it aside. She thought about Steve, too, about how she really felt about him. In the end, that was a thought she shoved aside as well.

Grace spent a lot of her free time on the archery range, hoping to impress Clint when he returned and cursing those stupid suction cup arrows every time she missed the target. She reminded herself that she needed to focus for her accuracy enhancement to be, well, accurate. The memory of Clint so close to her, his hand on her waist – it was a serious distraction.

“You’re thinking about him again,” Ellie sighed over dinner one night. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to listen, but your thoughts are kind of … loud.”

“I’m sorry,” Grace groaned. “I just – the dance at Tony’s party, and what happened on the archery range – this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You weren’t supposed to fall for him?” Ellie asked, innocently enough.

Grace picked up her plate, scraped the picked-at contents into the trash, and dropped her plate into the sink. She leaned against the counter, trying to calm her breathing.

“I just thought that when I – once I was enhanced, especially with all the logic and intellect, that feelings would go away.”

Her voice was weak with the threat of tears; Ellie could sense her friend’s frustrations and hurt, but she had no idea what to say. Before the blonde woman could come up with something, Tony Stark came into the kitchen.

“You’re back,” Grace said, forcing a smile as she turned around, back against the counter now. “How was it? What did we miss?”

“A lot, actually,” Tony said, nodding to Ellie. “Gracie, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Ellie took her plate with her and left the room. “I’ll get out of your way.”

Tony gave her a grateful smile. “You and Ellie seem to have gotten along okay with us gone.”

Grace crossed her arms over her chest and approached him. “You’re stalling, Stark.”

“So I am,” Tony said, clearing his throat. “This mission – we fight a lot of bad people, all the time. Even with all of our abilities, sometimes, they get the jump on us. Barton was hurt.”

Her arms dropped to her sides. “How badly?”

“Natasha and I evac’d him back here. Steve and Bruce stayed behind to finish the mission. Natasha and I will be joining them again shortly to wrap things up. Fury – he wasn’t sure how you’d react, so he wanted me here to tell you.”

“He was evac’d – so it’s bad?”

Tony cleared his throat. “It’s not good.”

Grace rushed past him, out of the kitchen, and straight for the medical ward of the facility.

After Natasha filled Ellie in on the news about Clint so that she could be there for her friend, as Tony and Natasha weren’t staying behind, Ellie took some deep breaths. She didn’t want to ask the question that was in her head, but it came tumbling off her tongue before she could stop it.

“Is Steve – Captain Rogers – is he okay?”

Natasha tilted her head. “He’s a little worse for the wear, same as the rest of us. He’ll recuperate. We all will.”

Ellie nodded, relief flooding her expression. “Thank you, Agent Romanoff.”

“You know, you could call me Natasha. We could be friends. Doesn’t have to just be the agent thing.”

“Natasha. Thank you.”

“Something else going on, Ella? The reason why you’re so worried over Captain Rogers?”

“I don’t know,” Ellie whispered. “Honestly, there’s been – since the first time I worked with him, I get these flutters in my stomach whenever he’s around. My feelings seem to have grown, but everything is still so new. Grace said that the feeling would either go away, or it would grow. I don’t know what it means, since it seems to be growing.”

Natasha nodded. “I know what it’s like, to be unsure. To feel like you don’t even belong in your own head. Steve gets that, too. He’s a good man to discuss your frustrations with. As for the ‘feelings’ … you’re right. Everything is new to you. I won’t lie and tell you there hasn’t been talk between the team of what may be transpiring between you and Grace and your trainers, but maybe that’s just the way these things happen. People get close, there’s an attraction …”

She shrugged, and Ellie frowned. “So you’re saying I only feel this way because we’ve been training so closely the last few weeks?”

“That could be it,” Natasha said, “or the feelings could be real. It’s a tough decision to make, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If not, you have Grace to talk to about it – and you have me.”

She smiled at Ellie before venturing off to find Tony, ready to board the quinjet once more and help Steve and Bruce finish the job – after all, it seemed better that Steve returned to the facility sooner rather than later.

Grace stopped running when she reached the entrance to the medical ward, pausing for a moment to wonder what in the world she was doing, rushing down here like this. She realized she had probably negated everything she had told Tony the night of the party by running out of the kitchen the way she did, but she would find a way to explain it away later. Right now, all Grace wanted to do was see Clint and know that he was going to be okay.

She entered the code for the door to slide open, and stepped carefully inside. The doctor and his nurse and assistants weren’t rushing around the way she had expected, so she took that as a good sign.

“May I help you, Agent?” a nurse asked Grace.

She realized she probably looked a little lost. “Um, yes, Agent Barton – may I see him?”

The nurse nodded and motioned for Grace to follow her. They went down a hallway and entered the third room on the left.

“Agent Romanoff let us know that he was coming, and thanks to the technology on the quinjet, we were able to begin monitoring him before he even arrived.” She opened the door. “Has anyone given you the details?”

Grace took in the sight of Clint lying on the bed, hooked up to wires. She swallowed hard and shook her head.

“It was a gunshot – sniper. Fortunately, Agent Barton was able to dodge it, somewhat, and it missed any vital organs.”

Grace nodded and thanked the other woman before approaching Clint’s bedside. Until the moment that Tony had told her Clint had to be evacuated from the mission, she hadn’t realized just how in deep she was. She could try to fight it, she supposed, but something told her that wasn’t going to be easy to do.

“Hey,” Clint said, his voice hoarse. “How long you been here, staring at me like some creep?”

Grace couldn’t help but chuckle. “A minute or so. Tony and Nat brought you back, but they’re going to help Steve and Bruce finish the mission. I, uh, was worried, I guess.”

“I’m gonna be all right, Grace. Gimme a few days, I’ll be back up and at ‘em, and we’ll get back to your archery lessons.”

“With real arrows?” she asked, half-teasing, half-hopeful.

Clint chuckled, wincing at the pain it caused. “We’ll see how you’re doing with the kiddie arrows, first.”

“Agent Cleveland, the doctor needs to see him now.”

Grace turned to the door and nodded at the nurse. “Okay, just one more minute?”

The nurse smiled. “Of course.”

Grace thanked her and turned back to Clint. “Glad you’re gonna be okay, Agent. Can’t have anything happening to you – you know, not until I’m ready to replace you that is.”

“Shut up,” Clint said, allowing himself another short laugh. “Get outta here.”

Grace gave him a little wave before she turned to go, letting out a deep breath. Yes, getting past these feelings was going to be difficult, but maybe it was time to request training with someone other than Clint Barton.

[splendidlyimperfect]

When Gray’s girlfriend dumps him right before Christmas, he’s stuck with a non-refundable, three-week holiday to Paris. Without another choice, he agrees to go with a stranger - a man who is remarkably charismatic, and a lot cuter than Gray is willing to admit. It’s supposed to be platonic (Gray’s straight, right?), but Paris isn’t called the City of Love for nothing.

Chapter Summary:   Christmas Eve is full of surprises.

Chapters (5/6): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Gray Fullbuster Characters: Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Cana Alberona Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Holidays, Vacation, Christmas, Paris (City), Romantic Fluff, Mutual Pining, Holding Hands, First Kiss, Trans Character, Falling In Love, Strangers to Lovers, Romance, Gray thinks he’s straight but he’s not, Natsu falls in love hard, Gray speaks French because reasons, Tumblr: FTLGBTales

-----

By the time dinner is over and they’re sitting with a pile of empty plates between them, Natsu’s made up his mind.

He’s going to kiss Gray tonight.

“That was... interesting,” Gray says, setting his napkin on the table and downing the last of his wine. Natsu’s foot finds the back of Gray’s leg under the table and Natsu’s stomach leaps when he hears the hitch in Gray’s breath.

“Did you like it?” Natsu asks, and Gray stares at him. “The food,” Natsu clarifies, dragging the toe of his boot along the back of Gray’s calf.

“Oh,” Gray says. “It, um…” Natsu can’t look away from the curve of Gray’s throat as he swallows. “Yeah.” Gray looks away from Natsu at the stack of plates. “I’ve never, uh... had caviar before.” Natsu makes a face and Gray laughs. “Yeah, it was kinda gross,” he admits.

“Glad you don’t think I’m completely uncivilized,” Natsu says, grinning and nudging Gray’s foot under the table. “This—” He gestures around them at the lights and crystal cups and people in suits “—isn’t exactly the kind of place that I ever expected to end up. I don’t even own a tie.”

“You don’t need a tie,” Gray says. “You look…” He trails off and Natsu quickly looks away, heat creeping into his cheeks. “Amazing,” Gray says eventually. He fiddles with his napkin, keeping his eyes on the table.

Continue reading on AO3

“Oh,” Natsu says. He looks down at his hands, at the tattoos across his knuckles and the frayed edges of his sleeves, and the dark polish on his fingernails. The sensation of inadequacy that’s been tingling under his skin all night dissolves slowly as Gray’s words hang in the air between them. “Thanks.”

Gray glances up at Natsu, giving him a shy smile, and Natsu bumps his shin again before standing up. “Let’s get outta here,” he says, nodding toward the door.

It’s just the two of them in the elevator, and as it starts to descend, Natsu feels Gray tense. The walls aren’t glass like the restaurant, but they are fifty-six floors above the ground. Natsu steps closer and rests his hand lightly in the small of Gray’s back.

“You okay?” he asks, stomach jumping when Gray leans back into the touch.

“Yeah,” Gray says, tipping his head to look at Natsu and give him the same shy smile as earlier. Heat flushes to Natsu’s cheeks, and he’s ready to push Gray up against the wall and kiss them until they’re both dizzy when the elevator dings and the door slides open.

“C’mon,” Gray says as he steps out into the lobby. When he turns back to Natsu, the lights outside make a soft halo around his hair, and Natsu’s sure Gray can hear his heart pounding as he stares.

Later, he thinks as he pushes the door open and they both step out into the cold. I’ll kiss him later, but it’s going to be tonight.

~

The warmth of Natsu’s hand on Gray’s back doesn’t fade when they leave the elevator and separate to walk down the street. Despite the late hour, it’s still busy, and the lights of the city are bright around them as they make their way through the crowd. It’s colder than it was on the way to the restaurant, and Gray shivers.

“You should have brought your mittens,” Natsu says when Gray blows on his hands to warm them. Gray nods, hunching his shoulders against the wind.  

“I forgot them at the hotel,” he says, trying to pull the sleeves of his jacket down over his fingers. “Didn’t expect it to be this cold.”

“It is December,” Natsu teases. “Here.” He tugs off one of his gloves and holds it out for Gray.

“Are you—”

“Yes,” Natsu says, reaching out and grabbing Gray’s wrist. Gray’s heart stutters at the contact, and when Natsu pulls him closer and starts to slide his glove onto Gray’s hand, Gray prays that Natsu can’t feel his pulse slamming under his fingertips.

“Thanks,” Gray manages. Then he looks at his other bare hand and frowns. Natsu gives him a grin, then takes Gray’s hand, tucking them both into his pocket.

“Better?” he asks. Gray swallows and he stares at Natsu’s pocket for a second before nodding. “Good.” Natsu squeezes his hand gently, then tugs on his arm and heads off down the street.

It’s crowded, and Natsu keeps Gray close to him, using his gentle grip on Gray’s hand to guide him around lampposts and between couples laughing under the Christmas lights. The wine bubbling in Gray’s head makes him warm and comfortable, and it feels natural to slip his fingers between Natsu’s, savoring the soft hitch in Natsu’s breath when Gray runs a thumb over his knuckles.

As they step off the path and down toward the river, Natsu’s eyes widen and his expression slips into that same look of wonder that he’d had at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Gray can’t look away from it.

“This is amazing,” Natsu breathes, tugging Gray down to the barrier that separates them from the river. It’s snowing lightly, tiny white flakes drifting through the streetlights and dusting across the water. Christmas lights hang from the awning above them, pale and bright against the dark of the sky.  

“Thank you,” Natsu says softly. Gray shifts closer to him, pressing against his shoulder. He’s comfortably warm, now – a combination of the champagne and the heat that Natsu radiates.

“For what?” he asks.

“This,” Natsu replies, tipping his head back and looking up at the sky. The moon is blunt, cutting through the sky and falling in thin, silver ribbons across the water. It brightens Natsu’s face when he turns to Gray and grins. “Guess what?” he asks.

“What?”

“’s Christmas.”

Gray squints at the clock across the river. Natsu’s right – it's 12:02 a.m.

“I guess it is,” he says softly. Natsu’s smiling at him, hair sticking out from under his toque, cheeks flushed pink from the cold. Gray’s stomach flips, just like it did when he peeked over the edge of the Eiffel Tower. He can’t tell if it’s because Natsu’s just as pretty as the view of Paris, or because Gray’s just as terrified of heights as he is of what he’s about to do.

Probably a bit of both.

“Merry Christmas,” he says softly, then leans in and kisses Natsu.

Natsu immediately kisses back like he’s been waiting for Gray to do this since they met. Maybe he has. Either way, he’s soft and warm, and he quickly takes charge, pushing Gray gently back against the railing as he tips his head and runs his tongue over Gray’s bottom lip.

Gray’s skin sparks under Natsu’s fingertips, cheeks flushing hot as Natsu’s hands slide up his arms. They’re both moving, surging against each other as tiny white flakes melt on their cheeks.

Gray slips his hands under Natsu’s jacket, touching the small of Natsu’s back and pulling him closer, shivering when Natsu’s tongue slides tentatively against his, like a question.

Yes, Gray thinks, always yes. He feels light and a bit unreal, like he can’t quite get enough air, but he really doesn’t care because he’s finally kissing Natsu, and it’s exactly as good as he’d imagined.

Eventually they break apart and Natsu presses his forehead to Gray’s, breathing shakily. “Hey,” he says softly, rubbing their noses together.

“Hey,” Gray says, exhaling as he wraps both arms around Natsu’s waist and holds him tight.

They’re quiet for a minute. The only sound is the soft flow of the river behind them, and footsteps on the bridge. Everything else is muffled and calm under the snow and the dark winter sky.

“So,” Natsu says eventually. He pulls back and looks at Gray with wide, dark eyes. “That, uh—”

“I really like you,” Gray interrupts. His cheeks are burning, and it’s not just from the rush of kissing Natsu. “I’m happy you’re here. I mean, here in Paris and also just… with me.” The words tumble out of him in a rush and he feels Natsu’s fingers tighten on his forearms as he keeps going. “I didn’t think—I mean, I’d hoped, but I didn’t want to, y’know, assume, and I’m… really bad at this. Talking, I mean, and the—”

“Gray.” Natsu touches his chin, tips his head up until they’re looking at each other. “I really like you, too.”

Gray can’t stop the smile that creeps across his face as Natsu leans in and kisses him again. Then the wind picks up and Gray shivers, pulling Natsu closer.

“Wanna go warm up?” Natsu asks, pressing another kiss to Gray’s cheek. “I think there’s a Métro station near here.”

“Yeah,” Gray says, stomach leaping with excitement and anticipation. Natsu leans back and takes Gray’s hand again, squeezing gently and then nodding back toward the street.

“C’mon,” he says, eyes bright in the moonlight. “Let’s go home.”

~

They’re barely back in the room before Natsu’s hands are on Gray’s arms and they’re kissing again. Gray stumbles back against the bed, pushing himself up on one elbow as Natsu separates from him for just a second to throw his jacket on the floor.

“Off,” Natsu says, tugging at the laces of Gray’s boots and eventually tossing them aside. Gray shifts back onto the bed and Natsu follows, straddling Gray’s thighs leaning over him, hands on either side of his head.

“What?” Gray asks as Natsu’s eyes search his face. Natsu laughs, shaking his head and leaning down to kiss Gray again.

“Nothin’,” he says between presses of their lips. “Just wanted to do this since I saw you at the—mmn—the airport.”

A thrill runs through Gray, sparking in his stomach and travelling down his arms until every touch feels electric. Natsu’s mouth is hot and so’s his skin, and Gray can’t choose where to touch so he settles for everywhere.

“Gray,” Natsu whispers against his lips, moving one of his hands up so he can cup Gray’s cheek. Gray can’t quite breathe, and not sure he minds. He traces a path up Natsu’s spine and across his shoulder blades until he can slip his fingers into Natsu’s hair. “Gray,” Natsu says again, and Gray breathes him in, tugging gently at his hair until his neck is exposed and Gray can move his kisses there.

“I wanna…” He exhales, pushing himself up on one elbow and kissing just under Natsu’s ear. Natsu makes a soft, pleading sound and tips his head to the side, leaving Gray with a view of dark brown skin and the bright ink that colors it.

This time, instead of fingertips, Gray traces the curve of Natsu’s tattoo with his lips and tongue, pressing kisses to each flower petal and scraping his teeth along the delicate leaves. He can feel the sounds Natsu’s making, taste the shapes his name makes in the vibrations under his lips.

There are so many things Gray wants to tell Natsu – you’re gorgeous, I love your smile, you’ve made my life brighter, I’ve never felt this way with anyone before and I never want to stop. But the words are stuck behind the frantic pounding of his heart so instead he keeps kissing and touching and pulling Natsu closer.

“C’mere,” he murmurs against Natsu’s skin, grabbing his hips and shifting until Natsu’s lying on his back and Gray’s settled between his legs, fingers resting on the hem of Natsu’s shirt. “Can I…”

Natsu sits up just far enough to tug off his shirt, tossing it to the side and humming contentedly when Gray pushes him gently back onto the bed.

Gray stares down at Natsu. He’s gorgeous – hair bright against the dark sheets, lip caught between his teeth, eyes wide and wanting. He’s wearing a binder again so Gray runs his hands across Natsu’s ribs instead, tracing each tattoo until he’s touching the ones on Natsu’s hips that he’s wanted to kiss all week.

“Can I?” he asks, brushing his thumb over the bright ink. When Natsu nods, Gray slowly leans down and presses a kiss to Natsu’s hip. He hears Natsu’s sharp intake of breath, feels it beneath his lips as he kisses across the tattoo. When Natsu reaches down and touches the back of his hand, Gray slides their fingers together and presses them against Natsu’s other hip, squeezing gently as he keeps kissing.

“Gray,” Natsu whispers again, and Gray thinks he could listen to Natsu say his name forever.

Gray kisses Natsu for a long, long time. He traces the outline of both tattoos across Natsu’s hips; kisses the soft curve of his stomach and the hollow of Natsu’s throat where he can feel Natsu’s frantic heartbeat beneath his lips. Eventually Natsu takes over, tugging Gray’s shirt off so they’re touching in as many places as possible and he can draw soft patterns across Gray’s shoulder blades with his fingertips.

When they finally come up for air, panting and trembling, it feels like it’s been hours. Natsu’s smile is wide, and he’s backlit by the stars and the bright lights of the Eiffel Tower that shine through the window.  

“Gimme a sec,” he says, kissing Gray’s nose before sliding over to the edge of the bed. He turns away from Gray, tugging the binder over his head and pulling his t-shirt on instead. Then he rolls back over to Gray and pulls him close.

Exhaustion suddenly takes over Gray’s body and a yawn catches him by surprise. Natsu laughs, tucking his knee between Gray’s legs and wrapping an arm around Gray’s waist. “We should probably sleep.”

“Mm.” Gray rubs his face, then brings his hand up to run his fingers through Natsu’s hair. He presses his forehead to Natsu’s, kissing his cheek as he shifts as close as possible.

“You’re...” Gray trails off, because while there are a hundred words he could use to describe Natsu, he can’t think of any while Natsu is this close to him. “I really...”

“I know,” Natsu says, tucking his head under Gray’s chin and sighing happily. “Me too.”

~

When Gray wakes up the next morning, Natsu is still curled up against him, gentle fingers tracing patterns on Gray’s bare stomach.

“Hey, you,” Natsu says as Gray yawns and rubs his face. “Sleep okay?”

“Mm.” Gray stretches, pressing himself back into the pillows and then looking up at Natsu. His hair is sticking up in every direction, and there’s a crease on his cheek from the sheets. “Your hair is ridiculous,” Gray says, reaching up and running his fingers through it.

“You like it,” Natsu teases, tipping his head to the side and kissing Gray’s wrist.

“I do,” Gray says, and Natsu’s grin turns into a soft, fond smile. It makes Gray’s chest fill with tiny bubbles. “I like you, too.”

Natsu runs his thumb across Gray’s cheek, then curls his fingers around the back of Gray’s neck and leans in to kiss him. It’s soft, almost tentative compared to the night before, but Gray can still feel the weight of it. Natsu’s touch is sweet and purposeful, and it feels like a new beginning. A promise.

One that Gray intends to keep.

When he pulls back, the morning sun spills through the window, highlighting the freckles across Natsu’s cheeks and the bright green of his eyes. “Merry Christmas,” Gray says softly, brushing a few wayward strands of hair out of Natsu’s face. “What do you wanna do today?”

Natsu grins, flopping back against the pillows next to Gray. “We’ve done enough sightseeing this week,” he says, pulling Gray close and kissing him again. “I think we should spend today in bed.”

[xuxibelle]

Rush

Pairing: Harrison Osterfield x Reader

Word count: 2,772

Warnings: Swearing, angst

Summary: What happens when Y/N’s best friend tells her that he’s in love with her? (Seems over done, I know, but this one doesn’t turn out like you might think)

You and Harrison had been friends since you were very young. Your family had moved in beside his just before you turned 4, from then on you were thick as thieves. You loved having him as your best friend. He truly understood the type of person you were. He was always there for you just as you were for him, and somehow he could always make you smile when you were sad which said a lot about him because no one else could do that. It never occurred to you that there could be feelings other than friendship until one day when you were in your early 20’s, Harrison asked you to go to the park that day. You spent the day walking around seeing the sights, going in a few shops nearby, and then having lunch on a blanket in the grass. You were both lying there in the sun, eyes closed, just relaxing until he spoke. He reached over and took your hand in his.

“I’m gonna miss days like this,” Harrison sighed as he turned his head to look at you. You raised your hand to shield your eyes from the sun before you looked at him.

“What do you mean?” you ask.

“When I have to start travelling, you know, like for when I have to work, for acting,” he tells you.

“Don’t go getting all famous and forget me now,” you tease him with a smile. Harrison turns on his side and leans up on his elbow to lean over you. Reaching up with his other hand, he brushes a strand of hair away from your forehead and behind your ear.

“How could I forget someone as beautiful as you, Y/N?” he almost whispers. You scoff at him and push his hand away as you laugh.

“Shut up,” you tell him as you turn your head away. “I was joking. You couldn’t forget me, I’d harass you too much.”

“This is true,” he laughs, “But I’m being serious.” He puts a finger under your chin and turns your head back to look in your eyes. “What if I told you I’ve been in love with you since we were kids?” Suddenly you couldn’t breathe. Your best friend of 18 years is sitting here telling you he’s been in love with you for forever and you don’t know what to say. “Please say something,” he begs you after awhile of silence. You take a breath before you speak.

“Please don’t do this,” you nearly whisper as you push him back and sit up, turning away.

“Y/N?” he calls. You shake your head and sniffle. “Look at me… please,” he pleads with you. Slowly you turn back to him and eventually raise your eyes to meet his. You’re shocked when you see nothing but love in the crystal blue eyes you’ve known over the years. How had you not seen it before? Was he that good at hiding it? He raises a hand to wipe the tears that had fallen from your eyes. “I don’t mean to upset you. I just thought it was best to finally tell you,” he explains.

“Why…? If you’ve loved me that long… why wait this long to tell me? Why not sooner?” you ask.

“I… I’m not sure how to answer that,” he shrugs his shoulder. “Part of it was because I was scared and another part was because I didn’t want to lose you as my friend.” You nod your head when he’s finished. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry I waited so long,” he tells you quietly. You both sit in the silence for a couple minutes before he speaks again. “Are you okay?”

“Honesty… I don’t know,” you say quietly. “I just… need some... space.” You hated saying the last word to him, it was Harrison, you’ve never needed space or time away from him, but this was throwing you fo a loop. You couldn’t think straight at the moment and you needed to be alone to make your head stop spinning. You felt your heart clench when you saw his face fall at your words. “I’m sorry, Haz. I’m not trying to hurt you. This is just a lot for me and I can’t get my head clear and I kind of feel dizzy and I need everything to stop,” you explain.

“No, I understand, Y/N/N, I do, really,” he tells you as he stands up and holds his hands out for you to take. “Come on. I’ll help you up and then I can take you home so you can rest, yea?” You felt terrible for making him feel bad but you didn’t know what to say. You weren’t sure of your feelings because your head wouldn’t stop spinning. Once he got you home, he made sure you got to your door alright before he left you. You unlocked the door and opened it before he spoke again. “Alright, just wanted to make sure you got inside okay before I left. I’ll talk to you later, yea,” he smiled at you before he turned to walk away.

“Haz?” you called before he got far. He turned around to look at you.

“Yea?” he asked. You held out your arms asking him for a hug. You weren’t sure if this would be the last one you’d get or if you’d still be able to be around him so you wanted to make sure you at least got one more. He walked back over to you and wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you to him. You wrapped your arms around his neck as you felt your eyes fill with tears again.

“I’m sorry I… I’m sorry I said I need space. I just can’t think with my head all spinny,” you whisper. He squeezes you a little tighter before pulling back.

“It’s alright,” he says with a small smile. “You take care of you and take all the time you need. I’m just a call away,” he tells you before he kisses your forehead and walks down the hallway to the elevator. Once he turns the corner you walk inside your apartment and lock the door. You make a bee line for your bedroom and change into your favorite comfy clothes before climbing into your bed and curling up in your blankets. Over the next few days you would go about your normal daily routine aside from texting or calling Harrison. You were still trying to work that out in your head. After a week, you decided the best way to deal with it was to get drunk, so you called some of your girlfriends and told them to meet you at the club tonight. You get dolled up and get to the club close to 8:30 and see your friends in line. You wave them over to you and they join you.

“You don’t have to wait in line,” you laugh.

“Of course we do. Everyone does,” Sarah said.

“No,” you shake your head. “They know me here.” You walk up to the bouncer near the rope at the front of the line with a smile. “Hey Dean. Been awhile. How’s Jenn and the new baby?” you ask as he smiles at you.

“Oh they’re great! He’s finally sleeping through the night! I’ll send you some pictures later, you guys can go on in,” the bouncer tells you with a smile. Your friends just stare at you wide eyed as they walk past him and into the club.

“Told you,” you smiled at them. They just shook their heads and followed you inside. The club was packed and in full swing tonight. You spotted your favorite booth open near the back and motioned for the girls to follow you. You made your way across the dance floor and claimed the booth before anyone else could. Placing drink orders was easy since there was a kiosk on you table that let you send in for what you wanted. You weren’t ready to dance yet so you let the other three girls go while you sat at the booth. After your third drink, you were feeling pretty good. Your mind was at ease and you were ready to go dance… until you saw him walk in the club. You whipped your head around to your friends. “Which one of you was it?” you asked a little upset. Sarah and Jade held their hands up, but Tori bit her lip. “Ugh, really?” you groan at her.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “He said he missed talking to you and he sounded sad and I just felt bad,” she whined.

“I could murder you right now,” you tell her. “Don’t follow me, any of you,” you say before you walk away and head to the bar on the opposite side of the club he was on. You asked your friend behind the bar for 3 of the strongest shots he could think of. He turns around and hands you three black colored shots. “What is… nevermind. I don’t even care,” you laugh. You take one and down it, expecting it to taste horrible but you were pleasantly surprised when it actually tasted like candy. “You’re dangerous, Derek,” you laugh at him, “but thank you.” He gives you a smile and a wink before he walks off to take care of some other customers. You wait a few minutes before you down the second one. You feel like maybe the room is starting to spin. You know it’s the alcohol, but this is what you were aiming for. You don’t realize that you’re starting to lean backwards until you feel a hand on your back pushing you forwards. You expect to see Harrison beside you when you turn, but you don’t, you see a stranger. “Thanks,” you say with a small smile before you look out over the crowd. You see your friends are sitting at the booth now and you can see Tom with them, but no Harrison. Great, that means he’s probably looking for you.

“No problem,” the stranger says to you. “You here alone?”

“No, my friends are just over there. I came up to get Derek to make me a special drink,” you tell him. He nods his head. You feel his hand on your back again and you turn to look at him.

“You wanna dance?” he asks you. You shake your head.

“No,” you say plainly.

“Oh… then you wanna get outta here… I can dig that. Let’s go,” he says as he reaches for your hand. You jerk it away before he grabs it.

“Excuse me?” you ask in shock. “What makes you think I want that?”

“You’re drunk in a club… isn’t that usually what drunk girls want?” he says with a roll of his eyes as he grabs your wrist and tugs you towards him and off the stool causing you to tumble forward into someone else’s chest.

“I’m so sorry. This guy is being a jerk and made me fall into you,” you say before you straighten up and realize who you fell into. “Haz…”

“Y/N, you ok?” he asks you as he looks between you and the guy still holding your wrist.

“Come on, let’s go sweetheart,” he says as he tugs on your arm. Harrison grabs the guy’s hand and pries it off your arm before he shoves it back at the guy.

“She’s not yours,” Harrison tells him with a glare as you just stare up at him.

“That’s not what she was saying two minutes ago,” the guy says as he smiles at you and you feel your stomach turn.

“Look buddy, you might want to leave before I break your face,” you hear Harrison growl at the guy. You step in between them with your back pressed to Harrison’s front.

“Leave, now…” you tell the creep. He finally gives up and walks off with a scowl on his face. You feel Harrison’s hands come up to your shoulders before they gently turn you around. “Despite what you think, I am completely capable of taking care of myself,” you tell him before you take your seat back on the barstool and down your last shot, which was probably a mistake. You felt him walk up behind you. Placing a hand on either side of you on the bar, he leaned down where you could hear him over the music.

“Y/N…” He said softly, “Stop pretending you’re okay, cause I know you’re not. I’ve talked to Tori.”

“Yea, I know,” you snap. “I’ve heard.”

“Hey! Don’t you dare get mad at her. She’s worried about you,” he tells you. You feel your eyes well up with tears. “She’s scared you’re gonna do something bad but she doesn’t know what and she didn’t know who else to talk to. She told me you’ve been drinking… a lot.” You sigh before you turn around to face him with tears in your eyes.

“Yea… I have. So what. Alcohol’s the only constant in my life,” you tell him. He glares at you as he processes your words.

“How can you say that?” he asks you. You let the tears fall and when you did, they didn’t stop. “Why are you crying…? Just talk to me…” You shake your head before you speak.

“I can’t… not yet… and if you can’t let me deal with this in my way,” you say before you take a deep breath and continue, “then maybe you shouldn’t come back…” You stand up as you feel more tears spill from your eyes and rush to the front door of the club and out on the sidewalk, the night air hitting your face as you rush past the people still waiting in line.

“Y/N, you okay?” you hear the bouncer call after you.

“I’m fine,” you call back and wave your hand in the air as you continue to run and you turned to cross the street away from the club.

“Sam! Go find Haz! Now!” You barely heard the bouncer yelling as he ran over to you. “Y/N, can you hear me?” You groaned a little as you tried to open your eyes. “Stay with me, Y/N, open your eyes. Help is coming,” you hear him tell you. “Don’t move,” he tells you as you try to sit up, “Stay where you are.”

“Y/N!” you faintly hear Harrison calling your name as he rushes over. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, man, she just ran out of the club and tried to cross the road,” the bouncer told him. You feel your heart start to beat faster and it scares you, making tears fall from your eyes again.

“Haz,” you whisper, barely able to even get that out. He takes your hand in his as he leans down to hear you.

“I’m here, Y/N,” he tells you.

“It hurts,” you cry.

“I know, love. I’m so sorry… They’re coming, okay? Help is coming,” he says softly as he brushes his hand over your hair.

“I’m sorry…” you start to tell him.

“No, no… Sssshhhh,” he tells you. “Save your energy, love. Just stay with me, though, okay?” You nod your head as you meet his eyes. After what felt like hours to you but was probably less than two minutes, the ambulance arrived and had you up on the bed quick.

“Are you family? Are you coming with her?” the EMT asked Harrison as they loaded you into the ambulance.

“I-I’m…” he started.

“Quick, we have to go,” they told him.

“I’m her boyfriend,” he told them.

“If you’re going, let’s go,” they said as they climbed inside. Harrison sat on the side and watched them as they tried to treat you.

“This doesn’t look good,” he heard one of them say.

“We need to get her to the OR fast,” the other one told the driver before he picked up the radio and called the hospital to let them know to have it prepped.

“I-is she… gonna be okay?” he asked.

“We’re gonna do the best we can,” they tell him. “She needs an operating room. From what we can see here, she’s bleeding internally and we can’t fix that here, too many risks. If we can get her to the hospital fast enough, she should be able to pull through,” one of them explains. Harrison reaches over and takes your hand in his, leaning over where you can hear him. He’s not sure if you’re still conscious, but he doesn’t want to lose you.

“Y/N/N… don’t die on me… please,” you hear him softly say as he squeezes your hand.

@nerdraging4point0  @sleepwalkingdragon @summernykole @sunshine112

[haphazardlyparked]

towers

regret everything part seventeen (part sixteen)

“Why is that every time I see you, Isokai,” Kalna drawls from behind him, “you’re eyeing up my state.”

Iska straightens and nods at him in greeting. “It is an enviable city, Lord Kan,” he says.

Kalna laughs. Iska has grown so used to the sound—a real laugh, the surprised or delighted kind—he’s starting to remember it better.

“I seem to recall you climbing a tower like this, once,” Iska explains, before Kalna voices the question. He wouldn’t have said anything if he wasn’t wondering.

Kalna pushes in close to lean against the window sill and peer down the side of the tower, towards the ground far, far below. Iska resists the urge to grip the back of his jacket and haul him away—he thinks he remembers Kalna jumping from a window like this one, too.

“Hm,” Kalna muses. “I’ve climbed a lot of towers. But I do remember you throwing me out of the first one.”

Iska frowns. He knows what it feels like to have the cold wind rushing past his ears, biting through skin to cut straight to the bone, and wondering when it’s going to end, wondering if he should twist and look down. Knowing there were no wishes left he could make—“Wasn’t it you that pushed me?”

“Maybe I did,” Kalna admits, with an uncomfortable grin. Iska sees his shoulders twitch with an aborted shrug. “I was speaking metaphorically however. You were afraid your father would catch us. Remember?”

—niskaya sees the mess of curls first, poking over the window’s ledge; then akalnai’s head, and then the rest of his body as he pulls himself into niskaya’s room. he lands poorly, tumbling to the floor and knocking his head against the wood, but his face is alight with a pleased smile, green eyes crinkled, when he gets up.  

“surprise,” akalnai says smugly. “i told you not to challenge me.”

he begins looking around niskaya’s room with keen interest, from the modest bed to the desk beside the door to niskaya’s workshop, to his large wardrobe and the even larger bookshelf not far from it. akalnai’s eyes linger on bottom ledge of the bookshelf, stuffed full of niskaya’s leather-bound journals. niskaya almost regrets tell him about those.

“when did i challenge you?” niskaya asks.

“don’t frown at me like that, prince,” says akalnai.

niskaya didn’t realize he was frowning. he schools his expression into something more neutral, then ruins it with a sigh. “must you always call me that?”

“what should i call you instead, prince?”

“you could call me by my name,” niskaya suggests. 

that makes akalnai snort. “niskaya?” he scoffs. “lordly sun-lord isn’t much better.”

niskaya knows when he’s lost an argument. “when did i challenge you?” he asks again, changing the subject.

akalnai answers promptly this time. “three nights ago.” 

niskaya doesn’t remember the conversation. it had been his name-day celebration, and he doesn’t even know if akalnai was there. “what did i say?” he prompts.

akalnai waves his hand dismissively. “i don’t remember, exactly, but afterwards i knew i was going to have to climb up here and see your lair for myself.”

closing his eyes, niskaya takes a deep, calming breath to flush away the rising irritation he feels. “how can you not remember what made you scale your way up the second tallest tower in the entire palace?”

“it might not have been a challenge directed at me,” akalnai proposes archly. “you might’ve been talking to reniak at the time, after he boorishly invited himself up.” grinning, akalnai sits himself down on the bench at the foot of niskaya’s bed without asking. crooking a finger in a beckoning gesture, he drags niskaya’s chair from the desk with his magic until it’s behind niskaya, bumping gently against the backs of his legs. niskaya sits, but not without shooting akalnai a disapproving look. 

he remembers that conversation. that had been a private conversation, and when he thinks of how akalnai could have possibly overheard, he comes up with nothing. 

still smiling broadly, akalnai leans his back against the bed’s footboard. “are you annoyed, iska? i feel like you should be impressed with me instead. it’s much more fun that way.”

“iska?” niskaya repeats.

“it’s not prince, and it’s not niskaya either.”

“alright then—kalna.”

“kalna,” akalnai says, trying out the familiar-name. “from son of magpies to just a crow. i like it.”

“fair is fair,” niskaya says, and smiles.

akalnai—kalna—laughs. “what is that, iska?”

niskaya stops smiling, and he goes still with embarrassment. “i—“

“i’m joking,” akalnai interrupts, before niskaya can say anything. niskaya isn’t sure he dares to move just yet, or even breathe, despite the way akalnai’s smile gentles around the edges. “it’s a beautiful smile,” he says. “it’s just so rare—like those flowers your father swears exists but nobody’s ever seen. it’s perfect.”

niskaya doesn’t smile again, but lets out his breath and feels himself relax. “people do not usually joke with me,” he admits. he’s not sure he believes akalnai either—akalnai has a million smiles, from dazzling to derisive. they contain a world of meaning, and hint at things iska didn’t even know existed. akalnai is the one with beautiful smiles. “i am not sure i enjoy them.”

“wow,” akalnai, except he says it in a distinctly unimpressed deadpan. “let me guess. you don’t like surprises, either.”

shrugging, niskaya leans against the back of his chair, attempting a slouch like akalnai’s. “people do not usually surprise me, either.”  

“how do you live?” akalnai demands immediately. “how have you reached sixteen without dying of boredom?”

before niskaya can reply, he hears the heavy door at the base of his tower’s stairs slam open, and feels the familiar brush of his father’s magic, a heavy, powerful aura that precedes him up the stairs.

“it’s—you can’t be here, a—kalna. my father is coming up.” straightening immediately, niskaya gets to his feet and carries the chair quickly back to his desk.

akalnai saunters towards the window. climbing into it, he perches on the sill, his back to the open sky. “now that i know the trick,” he assures niskaya, “it’ll be much easier to come back.”

“please don’t,” niskaya says dryly, but he doesn’t mean it.

winking at him, akalnai throws himself recklessly backwards, out the window—“akalnai!” niskaya gasps, lurching forward towards the sill, a wish in his mind’s eye—

but akalnai isn’t falling, of course—he’s soaring, arms spread so that the fabric of the strange garment niskaya hadn’t even noticed catches the wind. the echo of his joyful whoop carries up to the window. 

niskaya wishes sturdiness and reliability onto akalnai’s garment, and then goes to open the door to his father.—

“You threw yourself out,” Iska says firmly, blinking away the rush of memory--but he doesn’t push it away. He wants to keep this one, to hide it from the endless march of time that always seems to take so much from him. “If you had waited a moment longer, I might have offered you a place to hide.”

“Where, in your wardrobe? Under your bed?” Kalna’s smile is challenging, implying his doubt. 

Iska knows that smile. He knows what it looks like when it’s sharper, too—threatening, with an unpredictable edge. Those memories never fade as easily. He looks away from Kalna, turning his gaze back to the window.

“Perhaps,” Iska says, and then changes the subject. “Aren’t these windows a hazard?”

“Please, Ambassador, we do so hate it when you insult us like this,” Kalna says, humor still in his voice. “All of our tall buildings’ openings are layered with protective nets. If anyone falls, they’ll be caught.”

“I am glad to hear it.”

“I’m so happy you approve, Ambassador.”

“—Lord Kan!”  

Noki’s call carries down the long galley. Kalna’s face lights up at sound of his name—that bright, pleased look, eyes crinkling at the corner, and Iska wonders where it’s been all these cycles. They turn from the window.

“Noki!” Kalna calls back. “My joyful moon, around whom I orbi—“

“—Kan, please,” Noki says impatiently, close enough now to speak at a normal voice. Close enough now that Iska and Kalna both can see how tense he is. “I’m here with bad news.”

“It always is,” Kalna mutters. “Let’s go to my small study.”

“The ambassador should come too,” Noki adds quickly, though he seems surprised—and not wholly pleased—that Iska is even there. “It concerns him. We’ve been trying to call you, Isokai.”

Kalna glances sidelong at Iska, all that light gone again, replaced by the weight of his responsibilities. “Fine. Come along, Ambassador,” he says, and sets off down the hall in long strides.

(next - part eighteen)

so i woke up this morning with a half-dream and some leftover feelings of noki’s perspective, but then i went through a whole day and somehow i found notes where i had written scenes with iska and kalna (and then forgotten about and re-wrote differently, booo), and then iska’s perspective came outta nowhere.

have some ancient memories and a CLiFFHANgeR 

@gingerly-writing @severe-fangirl-syndrome @rrrawrf-writes

[whiskeyxcola]

The American Initiative

Part Six

Summary: Grace Cleveland and Eleanor Baker both thought their lives were over, until they became part of something much bigger – the Avengers. Pairing(s): Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC Word Count: 1429 Blanket Warnings: Death, mentioned a couple of different ways, but not detailed; canon divergence; more based on Marvel movies. In the infamous word of Steve Rogers, “Language.”

Masterlist

A/N: This was the first Marvel fic I ever started, and I’m super excited to share it with you all! Thanks to @captain-s-rogers​​ for your help, approval, and encouragement on this one!

Tags: @captain-s-rogers @the-murder-strut @delicatecapnerd @life-of-a-nerd

Wanna Be Tagged?

Even with the team gone for a few days, Ellie and Grace didn’t stop their training. They worked out a routine between the two of them, training both together and separately, so that when the team returned, they wouldn’t be behind.

Ellie did a lot of reading, and a lot of writing. She thought about the things she wanted in life, about her likes and dislikes -- she even considered reading the folder that Director Fury had given her, but quickly shoved it aside. She thought about Steve, too, about how she really felt about him. In the end, that was a thought she shoved aside as well.

Grace spent a lot of her free time on the archery range, hoping to impress Clint when he returned and cursing those stupid suction cup arrows every time she missed the target. She reminded herself that she needed to focus for her accuracy enhancement to be, well, accurate. The memory of Clint so close to her, his hand on her waist -- it was a serious distraction.

“You’re thinking about him again,” Ellie sighed over dinner one night. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to listen, but your thoughts are kind of … loud.”

“I’m sorry,” Grace groaned. “I just -- the dance at Tony’s party, and what happened on the archery range -- this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You weren’t supposed to fall for him?” Ellie asked, innocently enough.

Grace picked up her plate, scraped the picked-at contents into the trash, and dropped her plate into the sink. She leaned against the counter, trying to calm her breathing.

“I just thought that when I -- once I was enhanced, especially with all the logic and intellect, that feelings would go away.”

Her voice was weak with the threat of tears; Ellie could sense her friend’s frustrations and hurt, but she had no idea what to say. Before the blonde woman could come up with something, Tony Stark came into the kitchen.

“You’re back,” Grace said, forcing a smile as she turned around, back against the counter now. “How was it? What did we miss?”

“A lot, actually,” Tony said, nodding to Ellie. “Gracie, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Ellie took her plate with her and left the room. “I’ll get out of your way.”

Tony gave her a grateful smile. “You and Ellie seem to have gotten along okay with us gone.”

Grace crossed her arms over her chest and approached him. “You’re stalling, Stark.”

“So I am,” Tony said, clearing his throat. “This mission -- we fight a lot of bad people, all the time. Even with all of our abilities, sometimes, they get the jump on us. Barton was hurt.”

Her arms dropped to her sides. “How badly?”

“Natasha and I evac’d him back here. Steve and Bruce stayed behind to finish the mission. Natasha and I will be joining them again shortly to wrap things up. Fury -- he wasn’t sure how you’d react, so he wanted me here to tell you.”

“He was evac’d -- so it’s bad?”

Tony cleared his throat. “It’s not good.”

Grace rushed past him, out of the kitchen, and straight for the medical ward of the facility.

After Natasha filled Ellie in on the news about Clint so that she could be there for her friend, as Tony and Natasha weren’t staying behind, Ellie took some deep breaths. She didn’t want to ask the question that was in her head, but it came tumbling off her tongue before she could stop it.

“Is Steve -- Captain Rogers -- is he okay?”

Natasha tilted her head. “He’s a little worse for the wear, same as the rest of us. He’ll recuperate. We all will.”

Ellie nodded, relief flooding her expression. “Thank you, Agent Romanoff.”

“You know, you could call me Natasha. We could be friends. Doesn’t have to just be the agent thing.”

“Natasha. Thank you.”

“Something else going on, Ella? The reason why you’re so worried over Captain Rogers?”

“I don’t know,” Ellie whispered. “Honestly, there’s been -- since the first time I worked with him, I get these flutters in my stomach whenever he’s around. My feelings seem to have grown, but everything is still so new. Grace said that the feeling would either go away, or it would grow. I don’t know what it means, since it seems to be growing.”

Natasha nodded. “I know what it’s like, to be unsure. To feel like you don’t even belong in your own head. Steve gets that, too. He’s a good man to discuss your frustrations with. As for the ‘feelings’ … you’re right. Everything is new to you. I won’t lie and tell you there hasn’t been talk between the team of what may be transpiring between you and Grace and your trainers, but maybe that’s just the way these things happen. People get close, there’s an attraction …”

She shrugged, and Ellie frowned. “So you’re saying I only feel this way because we’ve been training so closely the last few weeks?”

“That could be it,” Natasha said, “or the feelings could be real. It’s a tough decision to make, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If not, you have Grace to talk to about it -- and you have me.”

She smiled at Ellie before venturing off to find Tony, ready to board the quinjet once more and help Steve and Bruce finish the job -- after all, it seemed better that Steve returned to the facility sooner rather than later.

Grace stopped running when she reached the entrance to the medical ward, pausing for a moment to wonder what in the world she was doing, rushing down here like this. She realized she had probably negated everything she had told Tony the night of the party by running out of the kitchen the way she did, but she would find a way to explain it away later. Right now, all Grace wanted to do was see Clint and know that he was going to be okay.

She entered the code for the door to slide open, and stepped carefully inside. The doctor and his nurse and assistants weren’t rushing around the way she had expected, so she took that as a good sign.

“May I help you, Agent?” a nurse asked Grace.

She realized she probably looked a little lost. “Um, yes, Agent Barton -- may I see him?”

The nurse nodded and motioned for Grace to follow her. They went down a hallway and entered the third room on the left.

“Agent Romanoff let us know that he was coming, and thanks to the technology on the quinjet, we were able to begin monitoring him before he even arrived.” She opened the door. “Has anyone given you the details?”

Grace took in the sight of Clint lying on the bed, hooked up to wires. She swallowed hard and shook her head.

“It was a gunshot -- sniper. Fortunately, Agent Barton was able to dodge it, somewhat, and it missed any vital organs.”

Grace nodded and thanked the other woman before approaching Clint’s bedside. Until the moment that Tony had told her Clint had to be evacuated from the mission, she hadn’t realized just how in deep she was. She could try to fight it, she supposed, but something told her that wasn’t going to be easy to do.

“Hey,” Clint said, his voice hoarse. “How long you been here, staring at me like some creep?”

Grace couldn’t help but chuckle. “A minute or so. Tony and Nat brought you back, but they’re going to help Steve and Bruce finish the mission. I, uh, was worried, I guess.”

“I’m gonna be all right, Grace. Gimme a few days, I’ll be back up and at ‘em, and we’ll get back to your archery lessons.”

“With real arrows?” she asked, half-teasing, half-hopeful.

Clint chuckled, wincing at the pain it caused. “We’ll see how you’re doing with the kiddie arrows, first.”

“Agent Cleveland, the doctor needs to see him now.”

Grace turned to the door and nodded at the nurse. “Okay, just one more minute?”

The nurse smiled. “Of course.”

Grace thanked her and turned back to Clint. “Glad you’re gonna be okay, Agent. Can’t have anything happening to you -- you know, not until I’m ready to replace you that is.”

“Shut up,” Clint said, allowing himself another short laugh. “Get outta here.”

Grace gave him a little wave before she turned to go, letting out a deep breath. Yes, getting past these feelings was going to be difficult, but maybe it was time to request training with someone other than Clint Barton.

[hysterialevi]

Legend pt. 1

Author’s note: WELL, it’s been quite some time since I last wrote about Cobblebats (or a sane Bruce), but we’re finally back and I’m super excited to get started. Thank you so much for the support you gave me during Lotus; I really appreciate you guys staying around for all these stories, and I hope you’ll enjoy this one as much. Stay awesome.

From Oswald’s POV

21 YEARS AGO

COBBLEPOT PARK

The tall boy threw his fist across my face, landing a heavy blow on the bone as pain throbbed throughout my entire cheek. Regardless of how hard I tried to defend myself, or how hard I fought back, my opponent always seemed to be two steps ahead of me...and it was humiliating.

I instantly tumbled to the soaked ground due to the impact, causing the other kids around us to laugh as he taunted me with a sneer.

“What’s the matter, Cobblepot?” Joseph asked. “Can’t go crying to your mom now that she’s in Arkham? I’m not surprised, to be honest. Everyone knows your family’s full of fuckin’ lunatics,” he threw another punch at me, grinning deviously. “Looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

I would’ve been lying if I said Joseph didn’t just strike a nerve, but I knew that was his intention. I knew that was what he wanted.

Joseph was always targeting me -- whether it was at school, at the park, or even on my own goddamned doorstep -- and he used me as a way to make himself feel better. It was straight up torture to put up with him.

But no matter what, I had to remember what Bruce told me. I couldn’t let it get to me. I couldn’t allow him to keep hurting me. I had to stand up to him.

Spitting blood onto the mud below, I slowly pushed myself up, my limbs quivering with strain as I tried to rise to my feet.

“Oh no, no...” Joseph said in a condescending manner. “I don’t think so.”

With a simple, strong kick, he aggressively jabbed the tip of his shoe into my stomach and sent me staggering into the dirt once again as I coughed heavily, struggling to catch my breath.

“Well, go on, then,” he teased as he watched me roll around. “Get up, Oz. If you’re so damn tough.”

Another kick. To ensure I’d stay down. I felt like I was going to be sick now. 

“Look at you!” The bully jeered obnoxiously. “You’re so weak it’s embarrassing. Nothing but a little bitch with a boozed-up dad. Isn’t that right, Oz?” 

He crouched down to my level and leaned in, smirking arrogantly as he gripped the back of my collar.

“You’re a bitch,” he growled. “You hear that? My bitch. And if you ever try to forget it, I’ll come back and remind you. Maybe I’ll bring some friends along, too. Depends on how you behave. So stay in your place, and be a good boy. All right?”

I glared at the bully, staring him straight in the eye with a glower as I wiped the blood from my mouth.

“...Fuck you, Joseph.”

He chuckled, clearly annoyed by my response. “Oh, yeah?”

Joseph flipped me over and took a handful of my shirt, pinning me down as he slammed his fist directly into my nose with a sickening crack.

I let out an agonized shout and fell limp on the ground, completely drained of all energy as hot blood streamed down my face.

“How’s that?” He goaded. “Teach you to be a smartass.”

Turning to his friends, Joseph gestured them to leave and began to saunter away from the scene, glancing back at me with a snicker.

“C’mon,” he beckoned. “Let’s get outta here. I think this shithead’s learned his lesson for now. But we’ll be back.”

Leaving me alone in the ruffled, flattened grass, Joseph casually strolled off as if nothing happened while I clutched my wounded nose, writhing in the mud out of discomfort.

Why was it always me? I thought to myself. Why couldn’t I just be left alone?

My entire family was falling apart as if we had suddenly been forgotten, and these days, the name “Cobblepot” was nothing but a joke in Gotham. No one took our family as seriously as they used to, and even less wanted to be associated with us. Instead, everyone in my school just acted like my we didn’t even exist anymore. 

Everyone...except for Bruce. He was the only one I could count on.

Bruce would protect me from Joseph and any other bullies, keep me company when my parents were absent, and stay in touch even though the rest of the school ridiculed me. He didn’t care what other people thought about our friendship, or about the rumors circling around. 

We had a close bond between us, and that was all that mattered to him. Bruce refused to let my dad’s reputation alone destroy everything we had.

...And that was why I loved him.

Maybe not in the same way most people used that word, but there was definitely a deeper connection holding us together than just a mere “friendship.”

We were family. And I hoped we would stay that way forever.

Interrupting my thoughts, a boy suddenly called out to me from a distance -- as if on queue -- and made me forget all my troubles for a moment as I turned to see who it was.

“...Oz?” He asked. “Is that you?”

Not too far away from my location, I saw none other than Bruce himself entering the park as he greeted me from the other side of the gate, softly tapping his umbrella on the metal to get my attention.

“Bruce!” I exclaimed out of relief, my voice slightly trembling. “There you are. I...I’m glad you’re here.”

My friend took a closer look at me, clearly shocked by the fresh wounds on my face.

“Jesus -- what on Earth happened to you, Oz?” He leaned in, taking on a more serious tone. “...Did Joseph come after you again?”

I nodded silently, trying to pretend as if it didn’t bother me that much.

Bruce let out a sympathetic sigh, lightly gripping onto one of the gate’s bars.

“I’m sorry, Oz. I wish I could’ve gotten here sooner. You don’t deserve to be treated this way, and I don’t know what else I can do to help. There’s only so much that’ll keep Joseph away.”

“It’s all right...” I reassured quietly, “the fact that you’re here is enough. And besides, this is my fight to finish. Not yours. I swear, Bruce, I’m gonna smash Joseph’s damn face in someday. And then he’ll regret everything he’s done to me.”

Bruce seemed slightly alarmed by that. 

“The worst thing you can do is become him, Oz,” he reminded. “Joseph goes around and preys on anyone who’s smaller than him. He drags them down to his level. You’re better than that. Never forget it...okay?” 

“...Okay, okay.” I reluctantly agreed, waving a dismissive hand. “You’re right.”

“’Course I am,” Bruce joked, changing the subject. “Anyway, you need to get up now.”

I quirked a brow. “What d’you mean?”

He tapped his umbrella on the gate again.

“You need to get up.” He said a second time, without explanation.

BLACKGATE PRISON

MODERN DAY, NIGHTTIME

“...Get up, Cobblepot!”

A loud, metallic cling echoed throughout the cell, causing me to jolt awake. I lay still for a moment, confused at what was going on.

“C’mon, prisoner!” The guard repeated, his voice growing increasingly agitated as he banged his baton against the bars. “I won’t say it again.”

I sluggishly rose from the bed and stretched my arms, rubbing my eyes as a fatigued yawn escaped me. 

I glared at the guard with a squinted gaze, blinded by their flashlight. 

“Fuck’s sake...” I mumbled out, “...what is it? The sun ain’t even up yet. ...Or were you just gettin’ lonely?”

The guard scoffed at that and roughly slid the door open, beckoning me. 

“And the other guards said you were charming.”

Tearing myself away from the comfort of the bed, I sauntered over to him with a loose posture as I gave him a lazy frown.

“I’m much more of a gentleman when it’s not four in the morning. What's goin’ on?”

Shoving me forward, the guard began to explain things along the way as other prisoners eyeballed us from their own cells, curious about what we were doing. Despite it being the middle of the night, not many of the inmates actually appeared to be asleep.

“You’ve got a visitor.” He said plainly.

“A visitor?” I questioned, surprised by the answer. “At this time? What do they want?”

The guard pushed me around a corner.

“You can ask them yourself when we get there. Now be quiet.”

“All right, all right...” I chuckled. “I’m just curious, is all. Not really many folks in Gotham who’d like to pay me a visit.”

The guard’s brow furrowed. “I’m starting to see why.”

“Cranky, aren’t we?” I remarked. “You sure another guard didn’t lose their baton up your arse?”

“I mean it, prisoner,” he warned. “Be quiet.”

I sighed out of annoyance. “Fine...have it your way. Just tryin’ to make conversation.”

The guard led me down a spiral staircase, taking me to the first floor as we headed for the visiting room.

“Oh, trust me,” he replied, “there’ll be plenty of time for that later.”

VISITING ROOM

Wandering into the empty space, the guard stayed behind as I approached my guest who was sitting alone at one of the tables with nothing but a pair of files in front of them. They looked like a relatively young man -- probably around the same age as me -- and wore a neat suit along with a device in their ear. 

I didn’t recognize his face, and I certainly hadn’t been expecting anyone, but clearly, this man wasn’t just some random nobody. The prison guards would’ve never let him in during this hour, otherwise. So who was he?

As curious as I was to see what this stranger wanted however, the secrecy of this arrangement also had me on high-alert. I had to be careful.

“Erm...” I cleared my throat, “...hello?”

The man turned to look at me. “Ah, there you are,” he casually gestured at the chair across from him. “Please, have a seat. There’s much we need to discuss.”

Despite my hesitance, I complied nonetheless and decided to play along with the man for now, admittedly hooked with interest.

“Mind tellin’ me your name, first?” I asked. 

The man refused. 

“Who I am is of no importance. All you need to know...is who I represent.”

“And that would be...?”

He rested his elbows on the table, looking me straight in the eye. “The Agency. Or, more specifically, the director of the Agency. Amanda Waller.”

I furrowed my brows. “The Agency? What do they want with me?”

The man slid one of the files in my direction, urging me to open it.

“A profile of Bruce Wayne,” he explained as I flipped through it. “I understand you know him well.”

“...Yeah,” I confirmed in a somewhat regretful tone. “We was close as kids. Inseparable. Thought we’d stay that way, too.”

“And now?”

I shut the file closed, not wanting to look at Bruce anymore. He and I already had enough bad memories together. I didn’t need to think about them any further.

“Now...” I continued, “we’re like strangers. Everything I thought I knew about Wayne turned out to be a lie. In the end, he was just as bad as his father.”

The man seemed unconvinced. “Oh, I’m sure you know him better than you think.”

Switching out the files, he gestured for me to read through the second one as  he observed my every move, obviously scheming something that he had yet to expose.

“It’s Batman.” I said, scanning over the first page.

“You’re familiar with him, too, aren’t you?”

I laughed at the understatement. “Familiar? I almost killed the bastard. Almost. Other than that, there ain’t much to say about the vigilante. He’s not exactly an open book. ...Why? What does Waller want with these people?”

Retrieving the file, the agent stacked them together in a neat pile and put them aside for the moment, getting right to the point. There was a certain look in his eyes that unsettled me. A look that said he knew something I didn’t. Half of me wanted to hear what it was, but the other half dreaded the forbidden information. After all, there was a reason people had secrets.

“Tonight,” he began, “I’ve presented you with the profiles of two very prominent citizens in Gotham. However...we have only discussed one person.”

I sat there in silence, trying to process what the agent just told me. 

“...Wait, what are you...” 

He appeared amused by my shock. 

“I understand it’s hard to comprehend. It wasn’t too long ago that I was in the same position as you.”

I combed a hand through my hair and shook my head, still in disbelief.

“No, no, no. That can’t be right. They’re nothing alike! Bruce Wayne is just some playboy billionaire who got rich off his father’s crimes, and Batman is...well, Batman. He fights criminals, fights for ‘justice.’ Something Wayne knows nothing about. And you’re tellin’ me...they’re the same person?”

He nodded firmly. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

I let out an overwhelmed sigh, suddenly feeling the need to go back to sleep.

“...And why tell me all this? Why give me this kind of info? This isn’t something you’d just reveal to anyone -- if what you’re sayin’ is true.”

The agent pushed the files towards me. “Because Director Waller has a job for you. See, the Agency has been watching your moves for quite some time now, Oswald. We know about everything you’ve done -- from your blackmailing Hamilton Hill...to the disfiguring of Harvey Dent. There’s not a thing on your record we aren’t aware of. Though, Waller believes we can add to that list.”

I decided to hear him out. “Oh yeah? How so?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard of John Doe by now. Or ‘the Joker,’ if you prefer. He’s proven to be a menace these past few weeks, and the Agency is doing everything they can to detain him. Unfortunately, there’s just one problem.”

“Let me guess,” I said sarcastically, “it's Wayne?”

“Yes,” the agent replied, “but not in the way you’re thinking. Wayne is protecting John Doe. Hiding him. For whatever reason, he absolutely refuses to hand the man over to us...and you know how hard Batman fights. He’s caused more than a handful of troubles for Waller. Not to mention Gotham.”

“And how do I fit in all this?”

The man lowered his voice slightly, giving me an emotionless expression.

“You...are going to kill Bruce Wayne.”

I blinked a few times, bewildered by the response.

“...I’m sorry, you want me to assassinate Batman?”

The agent chuckled. “Don’t sound so modest. Waller thinks you’re capable, and she’s not easily impressed. Besides, you said it yourself. You almost killed him once before. Our organization sees you as our last chance of getting Batman out of the way, and locking John Doe up for good. We need your help.”

I rubbed my chin out of thought. “I see. And what if I say no?”

He persisted. “You don’t have a choice.”

I shrugged. “Pfft, guess I should’ve seen that coming. ...All right. I’ll do it. Ain’t like I’ve got other things to fill up my schedule. Very well. Where d’you want me to start?”

“Try distracting Batman,” he recommended. “If you can get his attention away from Doe for long enough, it’ll give us a window to act. But you have to be discreet. Understand? We don’t want Batman to know we’ve sent an assassin after him just yet.”

I nodded. “Leave it to me.”

The agent rose from his chair and straightened his suit, preparing to leave as dawn crept over the horizon.

“Very good,” he said, sounding pleased for the first time. “The Agency looks forward to working with you, Oswald. Don’t disappoint us...but I’m sure a man of your talents doesn’t need to worry about that. I’ll see you again soon.”

Just before he left, the agent looked back at me to say one last thing.

“Oh, and I’d pack your things if I were you. This is the final night you’ll be spending in Blackgate, after all. So, savor the moment. While you still can.”

I laughed. “On the contrary, I’ve been wanting to leave ever since the day I arrived. The Agency can’t get me out of here fast enough.”

The man smiled subtly, disappearing into the night’s darkness as he waved a short goodbye.

“We already have.”

[imagine-loki]

Runaways

TITLE: Runaways CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 11 AUTHOR: SassyShoulderAngel319 ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine around the turn of the twentieth century, Loki gets sick of being a Prince of Asgard for a while and runs away to New York City, where he falls in with a ragtag group of newsies, including you… RATING: PG/K+ NOTES/WARNINGS: No warnings, I don’t think, except their nickname name-calling and some minor threats that are mostly in jest. PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: P, Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10

^^^^^

Loki stared at the bunk over his head. The moonlight that managed to pierce the curtains faintly illuminated the woodgrains of the bed above him. His feet were throbbing and his eyes were burning, making it hard for him to sleep.

Not to mention Tony was snoring loudly on the bunk next to and above him.

He sat up and used a tiny bit of magic light to draw another picture of No-No in his sketchbook, trying to capture her smile from memory.

It was rough but looked good.

He tore it out of his sketchbook when he finished more than an hour later and snuck upstairs. The girls’ room door was, as usual, cracked open just enough to let in some air. Loki peeked in to see Tasha’s curly red hair splayed out over her pillow in a fiery mess. No-No was just a lump of blanket with long dark hair covering almost the entire pillowcase. Her cap was hanging off one of the supporting pillars of the bunkbed closest to her head.

Carefully, Loki opened the door just wide enough to slip in and tiptoed to the head of the bed. Making as little noise as possible despite the crinkling of the paper, he tucked the drawing into the cap and edged back out, closing the door almost completely—leaving a few finger-widths of space still open.

Thoroughly exhausted, he slipped downstairs and climbed back under his covers.

His eyelids slammed closed and he was out.

His dream was unpleasant.

Loki was sitting in an office—an extravagant one by human standards. Across from him was a man with dark eyes that were sharp as knives and greying dark hair. He had a shrewd expression and a fancy suit on. “You’re quite the cunning businessman, Mister…?”

“Odinson. Loki Odinson,” Loki replied with a sly grin. “I’m pretty good at understanding the mind.”

“Sir!” a voice exclaimed from behind. Loki and the man both stood up, Loki turning around to see a guard hauling in a small person by the arm. “Caught this newsie snooping around the building, Mr. Kingston, sir.”

Whoever the newsie was, their head was down so the cap’s brim was covering their face.

But Loki knew the blue button-up collared shirt, black vest, khaki trousers, braces—suspenders—and leather boots anywhere. Not to mention the lump on the back of the cap and the figure.

“Well who is he?” Mr. Kingston asked the guard.

“Not a he, sir, a she,” the guard corrected, grabbing the brim of the cap and yanking it off.

Over two feet of dark, greasy brown hair tumbled out of the cap, no longer bound by twine, to the girl’s waist. It fell over her face. Would have covered it too had she not finally looked up and shook it out of her way. Her dark eyes met Mr. Kingston’s with more frigid coldness than any warm brown eyes had the right to have. It gave Loki a chill just seeing her glare.

“You…!” Mr. Kingston breathed.

“Me,” No-No retorted casually.

Loki woke up with a jerk as a bell rung over the city. There were moans and groans of complaint that it was time to start another day.

He stared blankly for several moments off into space, trying to remember every detail of his dream. What was he doing in Herbert Kingston’s office? Why would Nora be snooping around The Daily King’s building?

Dreams never made sense, but that was just odd.

“Hope everybody’s awake down there!” No-No shouted from upstairs.

More groans as boys got off their bunks and stumbled around getting ready.

No-No came down, fully clothed with hair combed out, looking like she’d had the most refreshing sleep of her life. Her cap was nowhere to be seen.

Loki went over to her. “Hey, have you ever actually met Mr. Kingston? The guy whose daughter is missing?” he asked.

“Can’t say I have. Why? Have you?” she countered.

“Don’t be silly. I just got here. No, I had a dream last night that I was in his office and a guard hauled you in because you were snooping around the building,” he explained. No-No looked amused. She folded her arms over her ribs.

“Well, unless you’s in the business o’ predictin’ the future, I’d say that’s is just a dream,” she remarked. Turning away, she went back to bossing everyone around to get ready for the day.

“Hey, No-No?” Tony piped up as he pulled a shirt on over his undershirt.

“What?” she snapped, sounding irritated.

“Your hat,” Tony reminded her carefully.

Fitz and Bruce giggled behind their hands as No-No put her hands on her head.

She swore under her breath—being sure to be very quiet so no one would hear her even though Loki did—and took off upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.

Smirking, Loki went into the washroom and joined the older boys in shaving.

By the time he went back into the main room, No-No had come back down with her hat on and her hair tied back with twine—this time just a ponytail hanging down her back. For a moment Loki wondered if she’d even seen his drawing—until she met his eyes and jerked her head over to the window, indicating they should talk there. He crossed the room and leaned against the wall. One of her hands was in the pocket of her trousers, the other was behind her back.

“I’m guessing you’re responsible for this,” she commented, bringing a sheet of paper around from behind her back to reveal the drawing.

“What makes you think that?” Loki retorted smoothly.

“Just on account-a no one here can draw for beans,” she said casually. “An’ I seen all of ‘em try. So it was either you, the newbie, or Stevie Rogers out in Brooklyn who somehow managed to slip a drawing of my own face into my own hat while I was wearing it the entire time. ‘E’s the only other newsie I knows that can draw.”

Loki shrugged. “Guess you’ll never know,” he said.

No-No’s nostrils flared and she sucked in a deep breath. In his periphery he saw her hand clench into a fist in her pocket. “S’pose not,” she agreed tightly, through a clenched jaw, before going back upstairs. She trudged back down seconds after, the sheet of paper with her penciled face on it nowhere to be seen.

“Hey No-No!” Fitz called, grabbing her attention while Loki stared at her from near the window. The little kid whispered something to her. She grinned and nodded.

“Sounds good, kid,” she replied. Fitz skipped off as she straightened up. “A’right boys and Tasha! Time to line up!”

Loki snapped her spare hat onto his head and fell into line with everyone else.

Instead of an individual inspection, she glanced everyone over, deemed them worthy to be seen by the public, and excused everyone. Loki trailed around the back of the line as younger kids pushed past him to go out the door until he was walking next to No-No. “When are you going to tell them about your meeting with Rogers and Barnes?” he asked.

She shot him a glare—because of his constant questions—but sighed. “Tonight after dinner. Once all the kids get back,” she answered. Her hand grabbed his sleeve. “And if you tell them beforehand, I’ll soak you so good you’ll have a shiner for three months.”

“Okay, one: I don’t know what a shiner is. And two: I don’t know what soak means in your context—but I’m guessing it doesn’t mean dump a bucket of water over my head,” Loki said. “And three, I’m not going to tell them beforehand. You’re the one in charge here.”

“Dang straight I am,” she growled. “An’ just so’s you know, soak means beat the ever-loving daylight outta you. And shiner is a black eye. I assume you know what that means.”

“Yeah I do.”

“Good.” She lengthened and quickened her stride, outpacing Loki.