#my body also holds onto muscle tone very poorly

[pangur-and-grim]

this broken leg experience has made me realize how much muscle you need just to move around the house. I can walk without the cast now, but squatting to pick something up? kneeling and then rising? even standing for a long period in the kitchen takes a lot. and carrying things too, that’s something I couldn’t do while hopping about on crutches. every night I’ve been going to sleep with sore legs and arms just from performing my normal non-intensive household tasks.

[staripheral]

➺ 𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙏 1 & 2 𝙈𝙀𝙉 𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙄𝙍 𝙎/𝙊 𝘼𝙁𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝘼 𝙉𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙍𝙊𝙍

𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 : 𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝, 𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙘-𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧, 𝙝𝙮𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

★ JONATHAN J. would wake to the slightest of movements, the quietest of whimpers, and to the tiniest of tremors raking through your body as you were squeezed to his muscular side.  He was an extremely light sleeper, something he naturally acquired to remain vigilant (because a certain adopted son of the Joestar Family surely had it out for him).  Immediately, his eyes blinked open and he moved onto his side, cooing gently into your ear and rubbing slow circles with his calloused fingers on your hip.  While he had hoped to simply coax your dreams into something more delightful, you awoke with a loud gasp after a few moments of experiencing his earnest touch.  You hesitantly turned your head towards his large figure in bed and felt the tears trickle from the corners of your eyes; you could see the pain in Jonathan’s eyes as well as his own features contort to express his discomfort of seeing you in such an agonized state.

“My love, please… tell me what troubles you?” He pressed a tender kiss to the crown of your head and brought up his palm to feel the skin of your complexion, carefully brushing away the several tears you could not find within yourself to hold in.

“J-Jojo… Oh, Jonathan, it was horrible!  You-- You were murdered, and I was forced t-to watch the life drain from your eyes and--” Jonathan’s brows furrowed further, witnessing your pain: your damp cheeks, red eyes, and uneven breaths.  He pressed himself further towards your shaking body underneath the silky sheets, and removed his hand from the side of your face only to replace it behind your head and press your face into his bare chest.

“How I hate to see you so upset, my love… But, know this.  I will never leave your side, not even for an instant.  My soul is bound to yours as yours is to mine.  Never shall I part from you, in life or death, and I do not plan on leaving you alone in this lifetime, my love.  I am positive I am to remain by your side for the rest of eternity… and no man, woman, or enemy could ever remove my promise to you, ⌜f/n⌟.” His kind words only made your tears flow stronger, and he panicked for a moment, wondering if he had been out of place to say such things.  But, when he felt your wails begin to even out into soft, short breaths and your trembling vanished, leaving your body moving with every inhale and exhale, and eventually your tears came to a stop, he found he could relax at last seeing as you were not in torment any longer.  “Sleep well, my love.”

He pressed a kiss unto your lips and pulled away with your hand in his, holding both atop his broad chest.  Goodness, what he wouldn’t do to ease the pain of the one he loved most.

★ DIO B. had not been in your presence the moment you had been awoken from your night terror.  Your hands would not stop shaking as they gripped the sheets and pulled them off your damp body and you found that you barely had the strength to move your feet to plant themselves atop the soft rug by your bedside.  You stood up, having to bring a hand to the footboard to support yourself, and a hand to your mouth to stifle an oncoming sob.  There was only one person you trusted yourself with in this kind of state, but he was nowhere to be seen-- at least, not yet.

You wrapped your arms around your torso in an attempt to comfort yourself and your voice echoed through the Joestar Mansion, searching for your beloved.  Eventually, you heard his voice call out to you and you ran (or, at least walked as fast as you could) towards its source; the den area.

The door was cracked open just a sliver and you gazed inside, spotting Dio on the loveseat, reading a novel in the dead of night by himself.  You squeezed through the entrance and closed the door as delicately as you could.

“And what is it that would require my utmost attention in the midst of the night, my dear ⌜f/n⌟?” Dio questioned, not even looking up from the place he was in his book, although you could tell you had his ears open for you, as he had not turned another page in his book.

“...Dio.  It is nothing… I-I just wanted to keep you company.” You whispered, coming around the side of the loveseat and remaining at his side, giving him space to himself, but also being close enough that you were able to feel his warmth from afar as well.  You feared he would push you and your stupidity aside, calling you out for allowing yourself to be overcome by your fears.  Although he was soft for you, you knew he still had his own limits, which you deeply respected.

Dio looked over at you slyly, his usual smirk gone and his eyes narrowed in suspicion.  “After seeing you sound asleep in our chambers, I’m not quite so sure that you could have awoken just for a bit of attention, hm?  What dreams plague you this late?”

You sighed.  Nothing gets past his watchful, crimson eyes.  As you wiped the tears from your eyes, you began to recount the atrocious visions that haunted you; that of death, destruction, and deceit.  Dio nodded thoughtfully, having put down his book, but still staring into the flames of the pit before him.  You wrung your hands harshly, trying to quell your emotions as best you could.

He suddenly took your right hand in his and pulled you towards him so that your back lay against his chest and he picked his book up once again.  “Perhaps you would like to read this with me, to get your mind off of the foolish fantasies you dream of?  After all, how can anything harm you if you are here in my company.” He said, mocking you slightly.

If he were being honest with himself, Dio would admit that this situation made him uncomfortable, almost out of place.  But when he felt your head slightly nod against him, he found himself reading aloud, the only thing he could do (or at least knew what to do at that moment) to provide you comfort in that very moment.

As he read chapters upon chapters, with his deep, rich voice running dry, Dio felt your figure cease its subtle movements and slump into another deep slumber.  He carefully slid out from underneath you and kneeled beside the loveseat, tucking his toned arms underneath the back of your knees and the length of your shoulders and lifting your limp body into his arms, carrying you back to your chambers, where he intended to join and guard you from any more dreams that wished to terrorize your good-natured soul.  

“Don’t believe in such trivial fantasies, my dear.  I would never allow for us to part.  Even fate itself will not be enough to divide us.  Sleep well, dearest.”

★ JOSEPH J. was a very, very deep sleeper.  No man alive could devise a wake up call loud or obnoxious enough to make him arise from his sleep.  But… a woman such as yourself happened to find out what woke him up on the day that you experienced a terrifying dream.  You had tossed and turned, cried out and begged for help, yet no one had come to rescue your pitiful self.  You awoke with a start, your figure flying up from its position in bed.  Joseph’s heavy arm that had once lay across your waist had been tossed to the side, and his eyelids remained closed while his snores filled the quiet room.  You clutched your chest in an attempt to control your breathing, tears dripping down onto the covers of your bed as you tried to maintain composure.  You had to leave the bedroom, and fast, lest you feel even more suffocated than before.

The loss of your presence woke up the goofster.  There was no heat, no mass weighing down the bed in the space next to him; you were gone.  That was his motivation to open his eyes and look at the time by the clock beside him.  2:31 AM.  The horror.  

Joseph knew he would not be able to sleep without you by his side, so he begrudgingly sat up and exited the bedroom, rubbing his tired eyes and groaning at his sore muscles.  His bare feet padded against the floor, making a loud entrance into the kitchen, so loud that he had not even heard your quiet, muffled sobs as you sat on the floor, back pressed against the cabinets with your face buried in your hands.

His eyes softened.  He grew quiet.  He was never quiet.  You were scared to even look up at him.  Was he upset?  Was this another trick of your mind?  You were so lost, so confused, shaking so violently in your nightgown that you became so sure that this was real.  Your gaze finally moved upwards to look at Joseph, who had approached you with soft, saddened eyes as he kneeled before you.

“Jo,” --you hiccupped-- “Jo… I-I’m so sorry, did I wake you?” You attempted to wipe the tears away vigorously, poorly covering up your terrified state.  Joseph, the ever-observant man that he is, knew better than to fall for your words.  You were so scared.  He could practically feel the fear radiating from your body as his fingers extended to tuck a piece of your hair behind your ear and cup his palm against the side of your neck.  “Joseph?”  You asked timidly, as he remained silent and reached your hands out to touch his face.

However, you were the priority in Joseph’s mind, and in no way would he let you suffer as he often found himself after troublesome nights, especially when you were always there for him in his times of need. Instead, he moved his hands to grip your sides and smoothly lifted you to sit atop the countertop, leaving you squeaking in surprise.  This side of Joseph was so unfamiliar to you… yet you loved it all the same. 

His hands tenderly smoothed up and down your sides before engulfing you in an embrace.  He wordlessly connected his lips to your temple, holding them there for what seemed like forever until he finally felt the sobs rack your body, your pain being released into the air.  Joseph’s teeth clenched as you gripped his shirt in your dainty hands, cries filling his unusual silence as he let you rid yourself of the suffering you were experiencing.  He only moved to either smooth the back of your hair by running his fingers through it idly, or to press the lightest of kisses to your temple, so that you knew he was there, that he would not judge, and that he would always protect you from the bad, even from within, until you fell asleep, peacefully breathing against his shoulder with your arms wrapped around his neck.

Joseph was a chatty, intolerable brat at times… but he always, always wished to bring you the kind of serenity you’d introduced into his life.  And he realized that sometimes, just by being at your side he was able to help rid yourself of the demons that lived inside of you, as you had saved him from the demons that once lurked within him.

★ CAESAR Z. woke to your piercing shriek sounding out in the middle of the night.  He moaned something incoherently to his amore as his eyes desperately tried to open, only fully widening as he felt a petite hand shake against the bulk of his bicep.  “C-Caesar, please wake up!”

He sprung up into a seated position to look at you, his frazzled partner.  His head whipped back and forth for signs of any potential danger.  When he found nothing strange, his head turned back to you to figure out what was wrong.  Your lips wobbled, your eyes producing streams of endless tears, and your hand shook as you gripped his arm again.  “Y-You’re alive!?”

“Of course I am alive, tesora, what made you believe I wasn’t?” He questioned, gingerly taking your face in his hands, bringing his forehead to yours, and furrowing his eyebrows in curiosity.  “Did you have a night terror, ⌜f/n⌟?”

Your waterworks were the only response he required to answer that question.  As he wiped away your tears and nuzzled impossibly closer to you, your own hands clutched at his sides, as to ascertain for themselves whether he was reality or some sort of dream.

“Oh, tesora, please do not cry.  I promise you, I am real.  Do you feel my hands on your face?”  You nodded, the air around you feeling a lot thinner than it did before.  You began to wail in a panicked state.  “Shh… It is alright.  My lips, right here, “--he kissed your left eyelid--”and here,”--then pressed another to your right eyelid--”are real.”  His hands began to peel away from your cheeks before you desperately tried to grab at them.  He could tell you were so scared, so vulnerable and afraid of losing him, as he was of losing you.  “Amore-- I’m here.  You can touch me, I won’t disappear.  I will not vanish.  My place is here, loving you forever.  I am not dead, nor will I be anytime soon.  Oh, don’t cry… please breathe with me.”

His continued coos of affection, his whispered words of encouragement, and his gentle touches provided you comfort in due time.  His words were laced with a velvety, relaxing tone that surely would’ve put you to bed much sooner had you not been so frantic in your state of mind.

“I’m so sorry, Caesar… I’m so sorry for waking you up and bothering you with my mindless nonsense.” You spoke quietly, forehead still pressed to his as you laid down next to one another for the second time that night.  He shook his head immediately, his bangs tickling the skin of your forehead.

“Don’t ever apologize… You were scared, and not over something such as ‘mindless nonsense’.  I want you to reach out for me, to find solace in me, tesora.  I want to cure you of your fear.  I want to save you from your darkest thoughts.  You mustn’t be sorry, tesora, for everything that has happened does not bother me in the slightest…  I adore you, ⌜f/n⌟ .” He spoke calmly, slowly so that his words would lull you into sleep, hopefully this time blessed with happiness.

Caesar smiled as you snuggled in close and thanked him for everything.  He did not say anything in return and made sure you were comfortable before shutting his eyes once more.  ‘No,’ He thought to himself.  ‘Thank you, tesora, for giving me everything.’

𝙖/𝙣 : 𝘰𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘪 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘪 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.  𝘪'𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘮𝘦 :')) 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩!!  𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵!  𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 <3

[otherthingsinhead]

Time To Relax

Pairing: Maxwell Lord x fem!reader

Warnings: smut, language, oral (male receiving), verbal references to penetrative sex and oral (female receiving), office sex (boss/employee)   

Words: 1.4k

A/N: It is what it is. What could I say? I am a slut for Maxwell Lord.

Summary: Who would have thought this morning that laughter is not the only thing you are going to choke on in your boss’s office today.

“M—Mr. Lord?” 

You are hesitant to step into the office. It's oddly dark inside, the curtains are all closed, only a small desk lamp illuminates the room poorly, making the atmosphere feel more grim and heavy. 

Maxwell Lord is sitting on his sofa, hovering over a big pile of paper. His dark form is tense, almost motionless if you don’t count his lips, moving silently with whatever he is currently reading from the mess in front of him. 

“The conference room is ready,” you tell him, getting just as much attention as you did when you came in: zero. “Is there…,” you clear your throat and try again. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

“No—what?” Mr. Lord turns and his eyebrows shoot up in surprise as if he just notices you for the first time, then immediately, he goes back to his work. “No, thank you, I... I’m afraid you can’t.” 

He is probably right. The future of the Black Gold Cooperative depends on how much money gets invested into it and that depends on the success of this meeting itself which depends on… Mr. Lord alone. It's too much responsibility for only one man you think and feel a strong urge to stay and ease a little on that pressure. Nonetheless, you are useless and since your presence is no more required, you turn to leave. Just as you finally find the will to take the first step, you hear him growl. “Damn migrain!”

Encouraged by the sudden opportunity to stay, you close the door behind you and walk to the medicine cabinet to get some pills and a glass of water. Mr. Lord is now sitting leaned back on the sofa, one arm draped over his eyes, looking all hot and rugged. 

He is wearing a simple white shirt with a dark, silk tie. The top first button is undone and the tie is loosened around his neck. He is not particularly handsome—you have to admit—but there is something about him that ignites your body with an uncontrollable want and curiosity ever since the first day you met. He is charismatic, he is charming, he is popular yet, seemingly unaffected by any attention that is not focused on his career. 

You can’t tell what exactly awakened this mysterious and powerful attraction to him inside you, but it is there and it is real and it makes your imagination go wild. You often catch yourself fantasizing about him, what it would be like to bend over his office desk and let him rail you against it, or sit on his freshly shaven face and drown him in your pussy. 

“Mr. Lord, you should take a break from this mess sometimes,” you say, placing the water onto the table along with the pills and kneel to his feet to start picking up the crumpled papers that have been scattered all over the floor.

“I can’t. I have to—” His attention shifts the moment he opens his eyes. You are on all fours with your ass hiked up, crawling towards a piece of garbage under the small but very expensive coffee table. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Ouch, shit!” You jump and bump your head into the table top as you try to get yourself out from underneath it. “I’m sorry, I just tried to help,” you say, massaging your skull with a painful grimace on your face.

“By getting a headache to yourself too?”

Fuck.

It’s not even that funny.

You try not to give the impression of being a complete lunatic and stifle your bubbling laughter to a more suitable level. Which is hard because one, Mr. Lord has a more sarcastic sense of humor than you have thought and two, now he also has a barely visible but disturbingly cute smile on his lips. “I’ve told you, you can’t.” 

His tone is dismissive but his gaze is hot and persistent on you as he leans forward to pick up the pills and suddenly you feel your body stiffen and your heart quicken. He is close enough for you to catch a whiff of his cologne—a warm blend of earthy, fruity and spicy scents—and turn your insides to jelly. “You don’t…” you start, feeling a rush of courage at the casual but not too subtle gaze that lingers on the cleavage of your blouse. “You don’t even give me a chance.” 

It’s ridiculous how fucking turned on you are, sitting on your heels in between your boss’s legs, watching his throat work with the gulps as he takes the medicine. He seems unfazed by your words but it is possible that he just doesn’t know what kind of help you are offering. He runs a hand through his dyed hair and checks the time on his wrist watch. Shit, you have to make this clear.

Taking a deep breath you bite down on your lip and place your hands on his knees. You feel the muscles contract at your touch but he stays still, looking down at you with a thrilled but slightly confused expression on his face. 

“I can help you relax... if you let me,” you say, almost whispering, simultaneously sliding your hands further up his thighs when a sudden grip halts you. 

Okay this… this is embarrassing.

Your stomach drops and your body starts to tremble as you raise your gaze, terrified that somehow you misread the signs and crossed a line you shouldn’t have. But when your eyes lock with his, you don’t feel embarrassment. Instead, you feel powerful and in control so you decide to ignore the insecure grip around your wrists and move again to undone his pants. 

Mr. Lord feels the tension slip from his body and dissolve into a warm, tingling and exciting feeling in his spine. He knows this shouldn’t be happening. You shouldn’t be on your knees, in his office, with his cock in your hands but he likes the way his body reacts to your touch. 

His cock is gorgeous. It’s dark and heavy and hard and feels insanely good against your tongue. You barely taste the tip of it and your panties are already soaked with your own arousal. Your pussy throbs painfully with every groan he can’t hold back and you try your best not to seem too desperate as you keep stuffing him deeper and harder down your throat.

You wish it never ends. You swear you could suck his dick for hours, make him throb and moan for you like this but soon the conference room fills up with various businessmen, waiting for your boss to finish fucking your mouth. 

It doesn’t take long until he pulls away. 

“You—you’re going to make me come,” he warns you, his grip is gentle but firm on your jaw and you know how fucked up you must look with your lips glistening in saliva and eyes glazed with hunger but you don’t give a single fuck how whiney you sound when you beg for him to cum into your mouth. “Yes, please… Mr. Lord. I want that.” 

Like a small earthquake, his deep groan shudders through you and your mouth is full of his fat cock again. His big, sweaty hands pressing gently on the back of your head, urging you to suck him deeper as he pounds his cum down your throat. 

You lick him clean like a kitten then wipe your mouth, feeling satisfied but equally wanting more. Mr. Lord glances at his wrist watch again and tucks his softened cock back into his pants with a visible disappointment on his face. He is running out of time.

“It’s okay,” you reassure him and get on your feet to smooth your hair and adjust your skirt. “We have work to do.” 

“Right,” he says, still sounding out of breath and looking more flustered than you would have expected. 

He follows you to the door, reaches for the knob then pauses. “That was… you were very helpful,” he says, his smile is wide and genuine and sends a little flutter to your belly. 

You place your hand on top of his and give it a light squeeze before turning the knob with it. “It was my pleasure,” you blink up at him through your lashes and walk away with a wide grin on your face and a pleasant, pulsing ache that still thrums between your legs. 

All taglist: @maryan028 @pedrothirst​ @pascalisthepunkest @x-wingwarriorbbpoe8​

[harrysbbby]

Don’t Forget Where You Belong - JJ Maybank x Reader - Part Four

A/N: once again this is another longggg part! and I've only just finished ep 1 ahhh! So I think I might try to condense the storyline a little because otherwise I’ll never finish this series, and also focus more off Y/N and JJ. If you have any suggestions please let me know! Hope you all enjoy xx also let me know if you want to be tagged.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Somehow you ended up in the marsh despite it being closed and John B getting a very clear, direct warning about going into it again. He had tried to convince you all it was a bad idea after Sherriff Peterkin offered to help him, but JJ’s uppity “Kooks always win” speech somehow morphed into ‘steal scuba gear from the Cameron’s boat and dive down to the Grady-White wreck.

“This is empty,” you stated, looking across at the group, letting your arm holding the tank fall limp in defeat.

“You took empty tanks?” Kie asked John B accusingly, as he plopped down next to her.

“I-“ he started to defend himself but you cut him off looking at the last tank’s gauge,

“Okay, this one's a quarter full. It’s enough for one of us.”

“Love it when a plan comes together,” Pope said sarcastically. You shot him a look and he raised his hands in defence as you went back to inspecting the tank to make sure it was ready.

“Does anybody know how to dive?” Kie asked. You all remanded silent. She huffed, “Anybody?”

“It's kind of a Kook sport,” JJ retorted looking between you and Kie. She just shook her head and he turned to you. You stopped tinkering with the tanks when you noticed his prolonged stare.

“Don’t look at me, David hates the water,” you said, David being your unnecessarily rich stepdad who gave you by association Kook status.

“That’s ironic,” JJ said dryly.

“What isn’t about that man,” you said giving him a sly smile. He snorted as he laughed. The whole gang knew about your Pogue mothers rise to Kook-dom. She had married David, the rich, yet very poorly dressed boats salesman. Yes, the Figure Eight’s most successful marina salesman was afraid of water. Go figure, everything about him was a contradiction.

“I... read about it,” Pope sighed, getting the coversation back on track.

“Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die,” Kie said defensively.

“Have a bit of faith, Kie,” you joked. She just rolled her eyes at you as JJ piped up,

“Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?”

“That’s not how it works JJ,” you said rubbing a hand over your face in mild frustration, moving to stand next to him ad beside Pope’s seat.

“If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood,” Pope explained to him, looking to you for confirmation, to which you nodded, “and you get the bends.”

“The bends, like bend over…” JJ said bending himself over the steering bench, sticking his ass directly into you. You rolled your eyes as you giggle, leaning over to put a hand on his shoulder.

“The bends kill you,” you informed him, slapping his shoulder twice. Your body retreated, as he turned to look at you. He stood up straight and rolled his shoulders back.

“Right,” he said sheepishly, nodded as if he knew that. You laughed and you shoved him playfully.

“I can-- I can dive,” John B piped up.

“You can dive. I'm cool with that,” JJ agreed with no hesitiation.

“Since when can you dive?” Kie asked him.

“Since today, apparently,” you said looking at him conveying the seriousness of this all. If he did this wrong he could get himself killed. John B looked directly at you and nodded, understanding exactly what you were trying to get across to him.

“I'll do it. It's fine,” he affirmed, standing up to put the tank on his back.

“Let me do some calculations real quick,” Pope said. As he was trying to work out the amount of time John B had for the amount of air, you felt breath tickle the back of your ear.

“Do the bends really kill you?” JJ asked quietly. You let a breath of air puff out your nose as you turned to him.

“Yeah, JJ,” You said resting your arm on his bicep. You could feel his muscle flex under your touch. “It’s the term for decompression sickness.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, pulling an impressed face. He lazily rested his arm across your shoulders pulling you in closer, “Learn something new everyday.”

You rolled your eyes at him as you turned back to listen to Pope.

“Which means you need to make your safety stop at about... ten feet,” he said. You looked between Pope and John B. You knew John B was smart and intuitive but you didn’t trust him to actually stop at ten feet without prompting. You played with the hem of your singlet top as a idea popped into you head.

With one swift movement you shrugged JJ’s arm off your shoulder and removed your top over your head. You stepped onto the side of the boat and dove into the water

“Uh, what was that all about?” Pope asked unsure why you had jumped into the water so suddenly.

“I don’t know, but I liked it,” JJ said stunned. He was enchanted with every movement you ever made. The way you forcefully but at the same time with care moved his arm back to his side. The way your hair flowed in the air as you flicked it back after taking your shirt off. And they way you floated through the air as you gracefully dove into the water. “A lot.”

Kie watched JJ intetly. Watching how his eyes stayed trained on where you had last hit the water. And the way they lit up as you reemerged.

“I tied my T-shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down,” you explained as you climbed back into the boat, grabbing JJ’s had for assistance. “It's where you need to do your safety stop.”

Once you were on your feet JJ hastily moved his hands away from you, quickly turning to John B.

“Uh, so...” he said awkwardly, refusing to look in your direction, “when you're down there, you look for the cargo hold. You stick this thing inside and twist and pull, okay?” he moved past you to explain to John B what to do. You heart dropped as you moved towards your bag to get your towel to dry off a bit. He could not have wanted to get away from you quicker, you thought.

“Stick in, twist, pull,” John B nodded.

“Keep an eye on this,” Pope said, pointing to the gauge on the tank, “You need to make sure you have enough air to decompress.”

“Okay, how much do I need?” he asked.

“Unclear.” Pope said, “Breathe as little as possible.”

“Zen. Think Zen, you know?” JJ said, imitating breathing through a mask.

“Yeah. Got it,” John B confirmed.

“You guys better get a move on!” You called to them from the other side of the boat where you sat drying your hair, “if we get caught in the marsh we’re screwed.”

“Copy that,” John B saluted at you. Kie stepped forward to stand infront of him. She leant forward and planted a kiss on his cheek (again). You raised your eyebrows at her actions and crossed your arms over your chest as you continued to watch them interact.

“Diver down?” he said to her.

“Diver down,” Kie replied. John B moved to the side of the boat before slipping into the water. They watched as John B submerged into the water, before she turned around to face you, your arms still crossed over your chest, a smug look on your face.

“What?” she asked accusingly. Taking a seat on the other end of the boat and mimicking your actions of crossing her arms over her chest.

JJ sat down beside you, a look of amusement on his face as he watched you two talk.

“You know what,” you said looking her straight in the eyes. She had kissed John B on the check, again! “You don’t wanna start something you can’t finish,” you warned her.

She went to retort but a siren interrupted interrupted.

“Shit,” Pope cursed as you all turned to see Shoupe and aother cop coming towards you in police boat.

“That’s the police,” JJ said, stress laced in his tone, “yep, that’s the police.”

“Thanks for the confirmation J.” you said sarcastically.

“Just act frickin' normal,” Kie said, adjusting her shoulders.

Shoupe’s boat arrived next to yours. JJ stood from next to you to tie their boat off onto yours. Shoupe climbed aboard after you very badly faked innocence about the marsh being closed. As he inspected the boat you could feel your heart race. It had been a few minutes now and you knew John B would start to be running out of air soon. JJ had resumed his sport next to you after tying of the boat. He sensed your stress, seeing your leg bob up and down nervously. He reached his hand across and rested it on your thigh. You looked to him and he offered you a small smile which you returned. You found comfort in his touch.

“Let us know if you see anything on your way out,” Shoupe said exiting the boat.

“Will do, sir,” you answered as JJ moved to untie their boat. You all waited until they were a far way away, before rushing to the side of the boat, looking over into the water. John B was nowhere to be seen.

“He's definitely out of air,” Pope said, not reassuringly. But as if on cue, John B’s head emerged from the water. He ripped off the mask and took a deep breath of air.

“There is he,” JJ stated elatedly.

“Thank God,” You chorused. The four of you laughed as you helped an out of breath John B back onto the boat.

“Did you find anything?” JJ asked him.

“Did I find anything?” John B echoed, smiling boyishly as he threw the duffle toward him.

“That’s my boy,” JJ congratulated.

“Are you okay?” You asked him.

“Yeah, but I ran out of air.”

“You scared the shit out of me,” Kie scolded.

“Yeah, the cops were up here, but, uh... took care of 'em,” Pope informed him. Something moving in the distance caught your eye. You brows furrowed as you strained your eyes to get a better look.

“Yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother,” Jj said to John B, pulling him to his feet and helping him get the tank off. Your eyes finally adjusted in the sun and you could see a white boat with two large men on it coming towards you.

“Hey, guys? Guys, bogey, two o'clock.”

“What?” JJ asked, as your four friends turned to see what you were looking at.

“Do you recognize that boat?” Pope asked.

“I’ve never seen it.” Kie said, “What are they doing here? The marsh is closed.”

“Let's not stick around and find out,” JJ said.

“Get the bowline,” John B instructed him. He instantly moved to grab it and start yanking in onto the boat.

“Should we wait on 'em?” Pope asked. Something about this felt fishy: it felt determined and calculated so you were glad when John B ordered,

“No, we're not.”

“Are you joking? JJ, hurry up,” Kie urged him to move faster as the boat approached and John B started the engine.

“Guys, don't wait for me,” JJ order, pulling on the rope as fas as he could. “Go.”

You moved to help JJ pull the rope up faster and John B started to turn the boat around.

“I don't like this,” you commented, wiping your wet hands on your legs as John B manoeuvred the boat.

“Maybe they're fishing,” Pope suggested but it reached deaf ears. That was not what they were here for.

“Let’s go,” Kie urged John B to go faster.

“I'm going. Act natural,” he said as he turned down one of the channels.

They’re following us,” Kie confirmed as the boat took the same path we did.

“This can’t be good.”

“Dude you gotta go faster,” JJ said putting a hand on your lower back to talk around you at John B.

“I’m going!” He strained, pushing the boat to maximum speed.

An ear-piercing shot rang through the air. You felt JJ grab the back of your neck ad pull you dow with him.

“Holy shit!” Kie screamed.

JJ kept his arm above your head as he used his other arm to tug at John B

“Get down,” He told him. John B lowerd slightly but had to keep his head up to navigate quickly though the terrain. You could feel your heart beating and your breath quicken.

Another shot rang out and JJ pushed you down further, practically laying on top of you, acting as a shield. Kie and Pope were crouched on the other side of the boat.

“We’re gonna die!” Pope yelled, covering his head.

A third shot narrowly missed John B as he swung around a corner. There had to be something to help, because you weren’t getting out of this alive otherwise. Your eyes searched the boat, desperately trying to find something to inspire a plan. Your eyes landed on a large piece of netting. Kie could see you looking at it and had the same idea.

“Shit! Pope, move!” she ordered as she stepped over his boady. You escaped from under JJ’s grasp as you reached for it with her. Another shot was fired.

“Y/N, get down!” you heard JJ’s deparate voice call for you, but you and Kie had already grabbed the netting and tugged it over John B and chucked it into the water. It landed on the surface and floated there for a few seconds until the two mans’ boat drove over it. Their engine spluttered as their boat came to a halt. Kie held out her fist for you and you laughed as you bumped it.

The rest of the group let out a few whoops as you retreated back to where JJ was still half laying on the ground. You slumped next to him and exhaled a deep breath. He stood you up and warpped his arms around your waist, lifting you into the air.

“Booyah,” he cheered as you giggled.

“That was insane!” Kie laughed as she caught her breath.

You eventually made it back to John B’s. All of you clamoured off the boat and onto the pontoon as he dropped the duffel bag from the Grady-White in front of you.

“What do you think it is?” Kie asked allowed as John B sifted through the bag.

“Gotta be money, right?” John B questioned.

“That or a couple of keys with street value to the low- to mid-mils!” JJ said excitedly. John B responded with a little ooooh!

“Can we please just open the bag?” Pope blurted out loudly. The four of you looked at him shocked.

“Wow Pope,” John B said, slowly moving back to ruffle through the bag.

“That was a rare outburst of emotion,” you stated to him. JJ snickered at your comment.

“You guys are literally killing me with anticipation.”

“Jeez,” JJ amused.

“We almost died over this,” Pope retorted as John B plucked a cannister from the bag. You looked at it quizzically as John B pried it open to reveal… a compass?

“Oh, wow. Yup,” Pope said sarcastically, “That's about right Good job, everybody. We found a compass,”

You kept your eyes trained on John B. He was staring at the compass intently. Like he knew something you all didn’t. The group had also noticed how long John B had been staring at it for.

“It’s not like it’s worth anything,” JJ said defeated, urging John B to put down the seemingly worthless find.

“JJ,” you said in a warning tone. You put your hand out to get him to stop. He immediately stopped joking as he read your serious expression. “What is it John B?”

“This was my father's,” he said, sadness and elation evident in his voice.

Tag list

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[iatethepomegranate]

We are not alone in the dark with our demons: Chapter 9

A fic in which Caleb buys a house with Rexxentrum with Beau and Yasha, becomes a professor, learns to be a person, and fights to protect others from what happened to him.

Content warnings: Caleb's backstory, implied abuse, medical trauma

Chapter summary: The morning comes, and there are two boys who need Caleb's help.

Chaper notes: My writing is slowing a bit, and work is starting to pick up. Updates will probably be slower from now on. Chapter title is from Woodwork by Sleeping At Last

****

Chapter 9: The world reappears and it breaks us new

The morning was slow. Essek read as Caleb lay in bed for a while, taking stock of the aches in his body and the cracks in his psyche. Caduceus had healed most of his injuries, leaving him mostly with minor aches and pains that were no different than he had experienced on the road. And the help from Caduceus and Essek last night had meant he had been able to sleep. Not as much as he needed, really, but enough that he wasn’t going to burst into tears if someone looked at him funny.

He was as okay as he was going to be. He soaked in the last few moments of warmth in bed, and Essek’s hand scratching his scalp like he would a cat, before heaving himself up and getting ready for the day ahead. This one would be difficult, too.

They ate breakfast together on the floor of Nico’s room, conversing quietly. Caduceus had served grilled tomatoes with poached eggs, toast and fried mushrooms in a generous sauce of butter, mixed herbs Caleb couldn’t place, and a ton of garlic. Food was more appealing this morning, and Caleb was famished. He also had a headache, probably from dehydration, so Caduceus had brought him a huge glass of water.

“Caddy, you could be a professional cook,” Beauregard said through a mouthful of food.

“Swallow your food before talking,” Caduceus said, ignoring her comment aside from a small smirk.

She swallowed. “Whatever, man.”

Essek was eating carefully, like he was afraid to spill anything on the floor. “Do we know when your old friends are arriving, Caleb?”

“They didn’t give us an exact time,” said Beauregard. “So who the fuck knows?”

“No later than eleven,” said Caleb. “Possibly by ten. They said they would be here in the morning.”

“I mean, 11:59 is still technically morning.”

“Not for Volstrucker.”

Caleb watched the others as their shoulders tightened, jaws clenched, eyes burned with fury at the implications they read in Caleb’s soft tone. Before they collectively breathed out and went back to eating. It was an odd mix of comfort and sadness to see how strongly they were affected by what he, and by extension the Volstrucker, had been through. He felt okay enough in this moment that it didn’t break him.

Essek laid a hand on his knee. Silent comfort. And he was okay enough that that didn’t break him, either. Even as tired as he was.

He helped Caduceus wash the dishes afterwards, needing to do something with his hands while they waited. As they stacked the dried dishes and put them away, Caduceus spoke for the first time since they had begun.

“You look better.” Caduceus kept his voice neutral, as if making a casual observation. Caleb was grateful for that.

“I feel better. Thank you for last night.”

“Oh, psh.”

That was the extent of their discussion on the matter. Wulf and Astrid arrived shortly thereafter, moving stiffly with poorly-concealed pain. Caleb met them at the door. Astrid headed straight upstairs with barely a word, but Wulf lingered in the centre of the living room.

He watched Astrid’s departure with a tense quirk to the corner of his mouth. “So, we all agree yesterday was fucked up, right?”

“I am the last person to disagree, Wulf.”

His eyes slid to Caleb’s; his face was stern as it often was, but there was pain in his eyes that he probably wasn’t displaying by choice. “You all right?”

“As all right as I can be, I suppose.” It was true now; it hadn’t been last night. “You?”

“Hm.” His mouth twitched. Looked away. “Not my favourite memory to revisit.”

In the moment, there had been no time for hesitation. Caleb had needed to give directions and get shit done. And he had known Wulf was the best option to handle Nico in whatever state they found him in.

“I’m sorry,” Caleb said. “You had the best chance with him.”

“I know.” Wulf exhaled through his nose, rubbing his wrists and hands as all of them often did to work out the kinks of repeated spellwork. The three of them used to do it for each other. Now Caleb and Essek sometimes did. He wondered if Wulf and Astrid still did it. “For better or worse, I have experience.” He swallowed. “There were no good options. Didn’t like to watch you run into a burning building, either, but…” He looked away.

Caleb wasn’t sure what to say. They were still awkward with each other. It wasn’t that long ago that Wulf had quite literally stabbed him. And now Wulf had just spoken more to Caleb than he had in a very long time. He was still rubbing his hands, looking everywhere but Caleb, and the whole thing was extremely uncomfortable.

Caleb had been uncomfortable a lot in social situations, especially in the last year. He could take it. And he could easily either wait Wulf out or bait him into speaking whatever else was on his mind.

“Wulf.” Caleb found the right tone, the one he had once used to break Wulf down when he was having a bad day and wasn’t talking about it.

Wulf closed his eyes, his grimace becoming an irritated half-smile. “What?”

Caleb waited. Wulf looked at him, annoyed. Caleb smiled at him. Wulf looked away, swearing under his breath.

“Wulf,” Caleb said slowly, “what’s the matter?”

He crossed his arms (great forearms as always), shoulders hunched a little. And when he spoke, it was almost too quiet for Caleb to hear. “Can I have a hug?”

“Ja, of course.” Caleb would be lying if he said he’d expected that, but he certainly wasn’t going to turn Wulf down. They were both going through a lot right now, and despite the light stabbing, Caleb did still care a great deal for him.

Wulf didn’t move. Caleb waited a moment longer, until it was clear Wulf was not going to initiate. So he stepped forward and put his hands on Wulf’s shoulders until he looked at him.

“All right,” Caleb said. “Come here.” He slid his arms around him, and Wulf stepped forward, tentatively holding onto his waist. Wulf relaxed into the hug, folding downwards until his forehead met Caleb’s shoulder.

He breathed, and shuddered a little. Caleb held him tighter, and could feel the barest tremors surging through Wulf’s body. His hands spasmed on Caleb’s back.

When they finally separated, Wulf cleared his throat, straightened his coat and said, “Not one word. To anyone.”

“Don’t worry,” Caleb said wryly, “your reputation is safe.”

Wulf raised his eyebrow; it was attractive. “Cute.”

“Some things haven’t changed.”

The moment was taut, like stretched twine. Wulf chuckled. “Some things have.”

“Oh?”

There was a soft laugh from the stairs; Astrid had evidently doubled back. “Careful, Wulf. His drow boyfriend is upstairs.”

The tension snapped; Wulf stepped back, the ghost of laughter still on his lips. “Yeah, I don’t know how you seduced the Shadowhand of all people, but you were always really fucking charismatic.”

Caleb looked towards the stairs, past Astrid. “It was more complicated than that, but… here we are.” They had wasted enough time. “Let’s do this.”

The others were already assembled in Nico’s room, Caduceus carefully portioning out the correct amount of diamond dust. Essek was posted up in the corner by the door, while Beau and Yasha filled the space closer to the bed. Caleb positioned himself on the other side of the door from Essek. Wulf moved in to fill a gap near Beauregard, and Astrid moved closer to Caduceus. Nico knew her best, as far as Caleb could tell. It was a good spot to be.

Caduceus looked to Caleb. “Anything we should be prepared for?”

“Hard to say,” Caleb replied, reluctantly digging into his fragmented memories of his time like this. “He will be disoriented. Likely afraid. Have we taken all his spell components?”

“Everything we could find,” Beauregard replied. He did not like the uncertainty in her tone.

“Those of us who can counterspell should prepare,” said Caleb. “Just in case. Muscle, be ready to grab him. He might not…” He sighed. “My situation was different. I knew where I was. I knew I was in danger. He may be more confused than I was.” Caleb had been confused and disoriented, but the fear of recognising that he was in a room at the sanatorium had overridden all of that. Adrenaline had pushed him towards survival. He had no idea how Nico would react. But in an unfamiliar place, with mostly unfamiliar people, realising the memories that drove him to murder his parents were false?

It was going to be ugly.

“One moment,” said Essek. He pulled out a pearl and pressed it to Caleb’s forehead, casting Fortune’s Favour. He did the same for everyone except Caduceus and himself. He could, in theory, have cast it using a higher level slot to catch more people at once and save his pearls, but it would come at the cost of losing more powerful spells he may need later. Caleb had a stash of pearls in his study, and was already plotting to make Essek accept them. Then Essek situated himself at the door once again.

“Do you have Counterspell?” Caleb asked him, having never seen Essek cast it.

“I picked it up recently.”

“Good.” Caleb took a deep breath. “Ready, Caduceus?”

“Ready.” Caduceus began to cast, reaching out to touch Nico’s forehead. He closed his eyes, brow furrowed, and Caleb was concerned what effect this may have on him. Then there was a bright light and the diamond dust vanished from his hand. Caduceus pulled back.

All eyes on Nico. The boy squeezed his eyes shut, groaning. Then he sat up, eyes darting around the room, pausing on Astrid for a second, and Wulf. And then a gasp. His hands were moving.

Caleb counterspelled. It didn’t take. He burned his mote. It didn’t take. There was a split second where his mind slowed time and he watched every other caster try to unravel Nico’s spell. And fail.

A huge roar. A burst of light and heat. Caleb’s head cracked against something solid and his vision went dark.

Then hands were on him, and he was awake. Caduceus pulled him to his feet, and rushed over to Essek, who was curled up in pain but conscious, casting Ray of Frost at flames licking the walls.

The others had already made it to their feet. Nico was nowhere to be found.

Astrid shook her head like a dog shaking off water. “We need to move.”

“We’ll stay here and handle the fire,” Caduceus said, helping Essek to his feet.

The rest of them were out the door in seconds, Beau and Yasha in the lead because they were fast as fuck. They spilled out into the street.

“Bren,” said Astrid, “thoughts?”

“Check all routes out of the city. I’ll message the Cobalt Soul. You message any Volstrucker who may help.”

“We’ll link up with the monks,” said Beauregard, grabbing Yasha’s hand and rushing south towards the Court of Colours.

Caleb had an idea. “Wulf, would you like to be a giant eagle?”

“Do it.”

Caleb grabbed his cocoon and cast. Wulf’s form shifted into a huge eagle, and he took to the air, almost buffeting Caleb off his feet.

Astrid tugged Caleb northward. “I suspect he knows the northern areas better.”

“Right.” Caleb pulled out his copper wire. “High Curator, Nicolaus has been restored, but he fled. Beauregard is on her way to ask your aid.”

“We will mobilise the monks. Thank you for the warning.”

Astrid had shot a quick message to one of the Volstrucker. Caleb spotted a Crownsguard on the nearest street corner.

“Excuse me!”

The guard took them in, taking special note of Astrid. “Uh, yes? How can I help?”

“Have you seen a young man with dark hair, no coat or shoes, come through this area?”

“I don’t believe so, no.”

“If you do,” said Astrid, “do not engage.”

“Is he a threat, Archmage?”

“He is a frightened young man,” said Caleb. “He is not a threat if he is not threatened.”

“Get the word out,” said Astrid. “If I hear he has been harmed, there will be consequences.”

Caleb pointed to the giant eagle overhead. “Oh, and he’s with us.”

Then Caleb and Astrid ran further north, towards the market. Caleb was already doubting himself; maybe looping in the Crownsguard had been a mistake. And Caleb had used his one concentration spell to turn Wulf into an eagle, so there was precious little he could do magically from here.

“Caleb,” came Essek’s voice. “Caduceus communed with his god. The boy has a spellcasting focus. He is moving north. That is all we know. Good luck.”

“Thank you. Stay safe.” Caleb looked to Astrid. “Nico has a spellcasting focus and is moving north.” He then passed the information to Beauregard with another Sending. And one to Wulf; he recalled somewhat understanding Common while in giant eagle form himself. Astrid Sent to her Volstrucker contact.

“The Volstrucker are mobilising to reach the gates,” she told him.

“What are Nico’s favourite spells?” Without his spellbook, the boy would be limited in his casting. “Aside from Fireball.”

“Mostly Evocation spells,” said Astrid. They were reaching a crowd at the market, which was going to be a problem. She grabbed Caleb’s hand, pulling him along, both their heads on a swivel. “He’s a firebug like you.”

“Any illusions we should worry about?”

“Disguise Self, most likely. I don’t know if he had it prepared.”

“I guess we will have to watch for body language as well.” This was a fucking mess. All this preparation, and they’d managed to lose the boy anyway. If he had managed to disguise himself, it would have been a simple task to move through the market unnoticed.

“Caduceus is attempting to scry,” said Essek. “I will update you.”

“Danke schön. We are in the market. Volstrucker are moving ahead. He may have disguised himself.”

The market was just walls of sound and people and distraction everywhere. If Nico were were, they weren’t going to find him. So they pushed ahead onto the other side, catching their breath.

“I’m starting to think this is a fool’s errand,” Astrid muttered, pressing a palm to her ribs.

“Are you hurt?”

“No more than you.”

There wasn’t time to argue the matter. “Do you have Invisibility prepared today? Or Fly? I have to keep Wulf in the air.”

“I have Trent’s boots today. I can turn you invisible, or help you Fly.”

“Flight may be best. We do not want to lose track of each other.”

Astrid cast the spell and activated her boots, sending them both into the air. They soared to the nearest rooftop and landed, watching the market with a better vantage point.

“We should move ahead,” said Caleb. “If he’s still here, we won’t see him in the market.” They flew further north, dimly aware that children were pointing at them. So much for keeping this quiet; Ludinus would no doubt hear about this. And be a pain in the ass.

They paused on another rooftop; the northeastern gates were visible from here. Caleb’s heart sank further with each passing second.

“The scry went through but he cannot see much. The boy is disguised; a half-elf girl with red hair and freckles. Dressed as a barmaid.” Essek cast the spell again. “Not much detail around him. There are stones, but also dirt. He’s running now.”

“He may be outside the city. Thank you.” Caleb pushed off the roof, trusting Astrid to follow. He Sent to Beauregard. “Caduceus scried. Nico’s disguised as a red-haired half-elf barmaid. I think he’s outside the city. He’s running.”

Beauregard’s response began with a drawn-grown. “Motherfucker. We’ll head out the southeast gate and curve north.”

Astrid had also Sent to her Volstrucker contact. They flew for as long as the spell lasted, touching down close to the city gates. The Righteous Brand soldiers guarding the gate watched them curiously as they ran past, but made no move to stop them. Astrid’s authority was saving them a lot of grief today.

They searched the road, the fields. But it became more and more evident that Nico had evaded them. Eadwulf touched down beside them as the spell ended and he was human again. Caleb leaned against a fencepost, willing himself not to crack.

“We should regroup,” said Astrid. “Your place, Bren?”

He nodded. Took a deep breath. Started walking. He Sent one last message to Beauregard. She and Yasha linked up with them near the gate. They walked back to the house together.

****

Caleb was used to feeling like a failure. But this one hurt more than most. The group sat in Beau and Yasha’s living room, drinking tea Caduceus had made.

“Caleb, you’ve got the most experience here,” said Beauregard. “What’s the kid thinking?”

The answer was simple. “Get out.”

“Where would you have gone?”

“The nearest woods,” said Caleb. “For me, that was the Pearlbow Wilderness. He may try to head there. Lots of cover, places to hide, few people.”

“I can scry on him again,” said Caduceus.

“Go ahead.”

Caduceus set his teacup aside and closed his eyes, concentrating. It would take a few minutes.

“I will have the Volstrucker search the area,” said Astrid. “If the scry works, we will have an easier time.”

“I’ll see if we can spare a few monks to back you up,” replied Beauregard.

“He won’t go near Vergesson,” said Wulf.

“No,” Caleb agreed. The thought of the boy coming anywhere near that place made him physically ill. “He will lay low for a bit, and then probably go looking for a small town on the edge of civilization. Somewhere no one would expect to find a wizard. He has fire for warmth, evidently, but food and water will be an issue.”

“Think he could survive in the woods?” asked Beauregard.

“Probably.” Caleb had.

“We’ll find him,” Essek said quietly. He was not a man given to empty platitudes.

“I hope so.”

The energy in the room was almost depleted. The group sat there, deflated, while Caduceus worked through his ritual. At the point, by Caleb’s count, that the spell should have connected, Caduceus jolted and opened his eyes. He shook his head.

“He resisted. I can try again tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Caleb hadn’t meant to speak. It was… this hurt. A lot.

Caduceus scanned the group. “Who needs healing?”

Everyone, really. Astrid and Wulf grudgingly accepted the assistance, and were unable to hide how much they visibly relaxed in relief.

“Bren, meet me in my office,” said Astrid. “I will mobilise the Volstrucker in the meantime.”

“I’ll talk to the monks,” said Beauregard.

****

Caleb took a few minutes to himself before walking to the Academy. Just a moment to sit in his study, count and sort the various inkwells he now owned, and breathe. The others let him have that time.

Then, he headed out with a purpose. Astrid was already settled behind her desk when he arrived.

“The Volstrucker are organising for a search pattern,” she said, waving at him to sit at a seat in front of the desk. She had switched to Zemnian the instant they were alone. “It’s out of our hands at this point. We have another matter to discuss.”

“Felix.” Caleb sighed, and almost felt like was going to collapse the floor with the force of it. At least the chair caught him. “He needs to go home. And we need to tell him the whole story of what happened with Nico. I can teach him Sending. If Felix is up to it, a familiar voice might help.”

“I agree,” said Astrid. “We also have to explain the situation to Felix’s parents. That will be challenging.”

Caleb tried to imagine how his own parents would have reacted if they had learned their own son was ordered to kill them, and intended to do it. He was not strong enough to follow through on that thought experiment. Not today. Maybe not ever.

“We need to put him back in school when he’s ready,” Caleb said. “He will stew in this if we let him.”

“If you would like to convince his parents, be my guest.”

“That may be a conversation for another day. How much does Felix know about what happened with Nico?”

“That Nico followed through on the order, but we are taking care of him.”

“And now we have to tell him we fucked up. Again.”

Astrid laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them. “No. We prepared best we could. He was searched as much as your friends could without invading his privacy. We were ready with counterspells. But fear is a powerful motivator. You know that.”

Caleb had rolled out of bed and overpowered one of Ikithon’s guards. An important one, given he had an amulet. And, of course, Essek had once dragged him from under a tower with his bare hands. People could stretch themselves past their usual limits if under enough duress. Trent had operated under that philosophy.

“Bren,” Astrid said, quiet but firm. “I know this is a lot, but I need you to hold it together.”

Caleb breathed, and steadied himself. “I can do that.”

“I know.” She reclined in her seat, casting around her copper wire. “Felix, do you mind if Bren and I pay you a visit? We have news.” She listened. “All right. Let’s go.”

They walked the familiar path to the dormitories. Caleb had been so proud to walk these halls once. Maybe he could be again, but it would never be the same.

They found Felix in his temporary room, seated at a wooden desk with his spellbook, glaring at the pages. He tore his eyes away as they entered, slamming it shut.

“How’s Nico?”

Astrid looked at Caleb for three seconds. “Felix, do you remember what Trent told you about Bren?”

“He said a lot of things,” Felix said warily.

“Nicolaus and I had similar responses to following Trent’s orders,” said Caleb. “We took him to my house to keep him away from the Assembly and let him rest overnight. This morning, my friend Caduceus restored him.”

“He fled, despite our best efforts,” said Astrid. “We have people out searching for him.”

Felix still had his hand on his textbook, slowly sliding downward as his grip slackened. “I don’t understand. What happened?”

“When Nicolaus killed his parents, he had a… break.” Caleb was not good at explaining this. “He was awake, but unresponsive. Caduceus had a spell to pull him out of it, but coming back from that is disorienting. Despite the steps we took to prepare, he hit us with a fireball and escaped while we recovered.” Gods, Nico was probably injured, and without a healer.

Felix burst from seat. “And? Did you go after him?”

“Yes, of course,” said Astrid. “We searched from the ground and the air. And we have leads, and people are still following them. I have mobilised the Volstrucker and Bren’s expositor friend has mobilised the Cobalt Soul. We are not easy people to find when we do not want to be found, but we will keep searching. Bren had an idea, if you would like to help.”

Felix looked at her like she had slapped him. “Of course I want to help!”

Caleb paid his agitation no mind. “We floated the idea of teaching you the Sending spell yesterday. We did not have time then, but we have it now. Then, you can talk to him.”

“Okay. Teach me.”

“Here? Or would you rather we bring you home first?”

Felix laughed, and it was more unhinged than Caleb would have liked. “Yeah, okay, take me back to the people I almost fucking murdered.”

Astrid crossed her arms, gazing sternly up at him. “Felix.”

“It’s all right, Astrid,” said Caleb. “This will take a few hours. Let’s make use of those Academy resources, ja?” Most dormitory rooms had a supply of paper and ink, enough to transcribe a few spells at a time. He found a stash in the desk and sat on the floor, laying it all out in front of him. He beckoned to Felix. “Shall we?”

Felix scrubbed at his eyes and sat down with Caleb, slamming his spellbook onto the wooden boards. Astrid retreated, with some excuse about keeping an eye out for the Martinet, and a promise she would get the kitchen staff to send them a snack.

Caleb had lost a lot of his confidence around people a long time ago, but he knew pain when he saw it. He knew a little something about pain.

And a little something about hurt wizards looking desperately for a distraction by throwing themselves into study.

[drabblesofrapture]

Angel and Ghoul meet the King! (Superhero au)

Hey there kiddos, it’s your ol’ pal Dusty here again with a lil snippet I wrote for our superhero au. The young superheroes Angel (Johnathan) and Ghoul (Takeo) cross paths with one of Rapture’s most notorious supervillains: The King (Malcolm).

CW: some violence and broken bones

Another late night in Rapture. Most people had already gotten home from work, so the usual evening traffic had died down considerably. Still, car horns and the peeling of tires could be heard in the distance, typical for such a city. The lights in most of the small businesses and restaurants were starting to go out as the owners closed up for the night. Even the welcoming neon lights of Glen’s Diner went out. A few lonely souls wandered the streets, some taking refuge within Chugger’s Bar for a long night of drunken shenanigans. All things considered, it was a rather quiet night.

However, quiet or not, justice never takes a night off. Perched on the lonely rooftops were two of Rapture’s new young superheroes; the Dynamic Dude Duo themselves, Angel and Ghoul! Once again the pubescent patrollers were spending the night scouring the unforgiving streets of Rapture looking for crime to fight and people to help. They’ve found themselves in somewhat of a rut though, now entering their second week of seeing no action whatsoever. 

“Shit,” Ghoul breathed as he paced around the roof, his gloved hands furiously rubbing his bare arms. His entire torso was exposed to the elements, save for his waste which was protected by a purple sash wrapped around it . “It’s fuckin cold tonight.”

“You’re the one who thought fighting crime shirtless would be a good idea,” Angel pointed out, not prying his eyes away from the street below. He was crouched on the very edge of the roof, like any typical brooding superhero.

“Whatever man, I still look badass,” Ghoul scoffed in return, puffing his chest out only to shrink back in on himself as a shiver ran down his spine.

Under the mask, Angel rolled his eyes at his poorly prepared pal. He undid the clasp of his capelet and tossed the garment to Ghoul. “Here, take this.”

He caught the capelet and looked down at it for a moment before sheepishly draping it about his bare shoulders. It was a bit tight for his broad frame, but it would do. “Thanks..”

“Just bring a jacket next time.”

Pulling the capelet around himself, Ghoul walked over to Angel and sat down beside him. He let his legs idly dangle back and forth off the ledge of the building. “Think we’ll see anything tonight?”

“I hope not,” Angel said, raising a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn. “I should be working on that paper for english class; it’s due Tuesday and I haven’t even gotten a start on it yet.”

“Aw c’mon Johnny! Fighting crime is way more important than school!” Ghoul replied, his lips pulling back into a grin to reveal his pointed teeth.

“If heroism starts affecting my grades then my aunt is going to know something is up,” Angel pointed out. “She’s already becoming suspicious of how late I stay out most nights.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose lightly before easing his grip and allowing his hand to slide down the rest of his face. “I swear, between patrolling with you and all the things Evelyn is having me do, this heroism thing is starting to run me ragged.”

Ghoul just gave his friend a reassuring pat on the back. “Don’t worry bro, you ain’t doin’ it by yourself; I’m by your side ‘til the end!”

The way the eyes of Angel’s mask squinted slightly gave away the fact that he was smiling. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Ghoul smiled and patted Angel’s back once more. “Tell ya what, let’s just stay out for like ten more minutes, and if nothing happens we can go home.”

Not even five seconds after he said that, there came a crash from the alleyway behind the building the two heroes were stationed on. The boys rushed over to the other side of the roof, being careful not to make too much noise themselves. They peeked out over the edge of the roof to see two men in the alleyway, carrying duffle bags into the dry cleaner’s shop through the back door. One of them was holding the door open, and he gave a reproachful look to his counterpart behind him who had accidentally tripped over a metal trash can, tipping it over. After a whispered scolding, both of the men shuffled inside, closing the door quietly behind them.

“Didn’t know the dry cleaner was open this late,” Ghoul whispered.

Angel shook his head. “I don’t think they’re here to get their clothes dry cleaned.”

“Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s get down there and crack some skulls!”

“Takeo wait-” 

Too late. Ghoul had already jumped down into the alleway. They were two stories up, but with Ghoul’s powers it was nothing. Rolling as he landed, he quickly hopped to his feet and ran towards the door. Angel followed quickly behind him, bringing out his wings and using them to slow his fall. He dashed over to his comrade and pulled him away from the door as he began tugging on the handle.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Angel hissed. “We don’t even have a plan!”

“I have a plan!” Ghoul defended, throwing his hands up. “We go in there and beat the ever-loving shit of every bad guy in there!”

“That’s a terrible plan!” 

Ghoul was already trying to open the door. However, one tug on the handle gave away the fact that the door was locked. With a sigh, Angel lightly pushed his friend to the side and put his hand up against the keyhole of the door. A small black tendril snaked out of his hand and slotted itself into the hole, growing and contorting to fit the necessary space of the key. With a turn of his hand, the lock clicked and Angel gently opened the door. Ghoul was about to go right in, but Angel suddenly blocked his path.

“We’re only going in to observe, understood?” he said, holding a finger up in Ghoul’s face. “We don’t know how many more are in there, we don’t want to get in over our heads.”

“Dude c’mon, will be fiiiine,” Ghoul groaned as he pushed past him.

To their surprise, the place was completely dark and empty. The only thing there was the racks of clothes which looked so eerie in the dark. Upon further inspection, they noticed a light coming from behind the door to the basement. As they approached the door, they also began to hear faint voices coming from within. The boys looked at each other for a moment before softly pushing the door open.

They found themselves staring down a stairwell bathed in the yellow light of incandescent light bulbs. The noises from the basement became more clear as well; people talking, the shuffle of feet, and things being moved around. Angel was about to go down first, his leg extending out and slowly lowering down onto the first step. When he put his weight down into that leg, the step made a loud creak. They both froze. It felt like their hearts had stopped beating for a moment, and they both held their breath as they waited for the henchmen to take notice. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like any of them noticed as the noises downstairs continued. They let out a shared sigh of relief and stepped away from the stairwell.

“I’ll go down, you stay here,” Ghoul explained in a hushed tone.

He approached the stairwell himself and turned around so that his back was facing the stairs, leaning back, he reached his arms out towards the ceiling and stuck his hands to its surface. Once his hands were firmly stuck to the ceiling, he leapt up off the floor and brought his feet up to the ceiling as well, sticking them firmly in place. From there he slowly crawled along the sloped ceiling down the stairwell until he reached the bottom.

The two men from the alleyway were there, as well as a few other assorted henchmen and henchwomen. They were all quickly stuffing money from secret compartments in the wall into the duffle bags they were all carrying. One of the henchmen stood back from the others, frowning and tapping the barrel of his gun against his hip impatiently.

“Hurry it up you guys!” he barked. “The boss will be here any moment and he wants all this shit packed up and ready to go!”

One of the henchmen turned around with a confused look on his face. “By ‘boss’ do you mean the Boss or our boss?”

“Of course I mean our fucking boss! Jesus Christ Gary!”

“Don’t have to shout at me…” Gary murmured as he continued shoving money into his bag. The henchwoman beside him gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Angel watched his companion. The mask hid the concerned expression the boy had on underneath. His hands clutched at the door frame as if it was the only thing keeping him standing. Something was about to go wrong, he could feel it. He could literally feel it, it was one of his powers. A nagging ache at the back of his head. A cold sensation spreading down his back and causing the muscles in his shoulders to tighten. A pit in his stomach that opened wider with each breath. Something bad was about to happen. Something bad was coming.

No, not something bad, someone bad.

A hand suddenly clapped down hard on Angel’s shoulder, and he had to will himself not to let out a yelp. He spun around to face the stranger, and the eyes of his mask grew wide to match the horrified countenance underneath. This was no stranger, he knew who the tall man was from the very moment he laid eyes on the golden crown that sat atop his head. He knew that brilliant emerald green suit, he recognized that intricate masquerade mask and the dead eyes that lay behind it. He had seen it all countless times before on the news, the one thing he knew he would have to face someday when he first donned the title of a superhero. He was standing face to face with one of Rapture’s most powerful supervillains, the King.

The gloved hand on his shoulder quickly moved to his neck, strong fingers squeezing his throat and lifting him off of his feet. The King threw him down the stairwell. His body slammed right into Ghoul and both boys fell in a heap of tangled limbs at the bottom of the stairs. They wasted no time getting back on their feet, backing away from the stairs and into a wall of goons all with handguns trained on them. Both their bodies tensed, locked in fighting stances. The stairs creaked as King slowly made his way down them. 

There he stood, blocking the way to the stairs. His cold glare was locked onto the heroes. He took a step towards them, and then another. They couldn’t help but flinch when he approached. Two boys, kids really, facing off against what was basically to them a demigod. They’d seen the stories on the news, they knew the things he was capable of. What chance did they stand against someone of such great power?

“Leave.” His deep voice resonated throughout the room, sending chills even down the goons’ spines.

“Like Hell we will!” Ghoul growled, finally mustering up the confidence to speak. He took a step towards King, his teeth bared and his fists raised. “We came here to kick crime’s ass, and right now I’m looking at the King of Crime himself!”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” King clarified. His piercing green eyes scanned over his underlings standing behind the heroes. “All of you, leave. I will deal with the heroes myself.”

They all seemed more than eager to follow their bosses rules, all quickly shuffling up the stairs as soon as he finished speaking. The heroes made no attempt to stop them, both locking gazes with the supervillain before them. Once they heard the door upstairs shut, the fight was on.

Ghoul lunged forward with a mighty roar. He took a wild swing at the King who dodged effortlessly out of the way. He threw a jab straight for the villain’s chest, but King avoided it with a simple sidestep. A wild frenzy of punches ensued, all of which the King easily evaded. Ghoul threw a jab for his jaw but found his fist caught in the villain’s hand.

“Your form is sloppy,” King commented. His fingers tightened around Ghoul’s fist, causing him to wince. There was a loud snap and Ghoul howled in pain as the bones in his hand shattered. His face caught the back of King’s other hand and he went flying into the wall, knocked unconscious.

The King then made a lunge at Angel. He barely had enough time to throw up a wing to block a lethal punch for his head. Angel staggered as the fist made contact with his wing, nearly forcing him to his knees. The wing swung outwards to push the villain back. It succeeded, but King was immediately back on the offensive. Angel was stuck on the defensive, constantly blocking a flurry of punches with his wings. When the barrage let up, he opened his wings to let out his own barrage of black projectiles shooting out from their inky depths. King was faster though, dropping down and sweeping Angel’s legs. He was thrown off balance, and King moved at inhuman speed to get back up and slam Angel into the floor. 

“Pathetic,” King spat as he stared down at the defeated hero on the ground who only let out a strangled groan in response. “Killing you two wouldn’t even be worth my time.”

With that, he turned away and began walking to the stairs. Angel wanted to get back up and stop him, but he feared what would become of him if he did. Instead, he lay there in his own loss until King’s footsteps faded away and the door upstairs shut once more. Once he was sure that the villain was gone, he slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position. His entire body seemed to scream in protest as he did. Now that he was sitting, he then slowly got to his feet and staggered over to his unconscious friend. He scooped Ghoul up with his wings and carefully carried him up the stairs and out of the building.

The King and his goons were all gone by the time they got out. Angel couldn’t help but let out a disappointed sigh. The first action they see in weeks and it turns out to be the most major loss they’ve faced so far in their superhero careers. He gently set his friend down on the concrete before sitting down next to him. He let his face rest in his hands for a moment before letting out another loud sigh.

A groggy moan escaped Ghoul’s lips as he started coming to. An eye fluttered open, and he looked over at his sullen comrade. “Did we win?”

“No,” Angel said bluntly. “We got our asses kicked.”

“Ah fuck..” Ghoul breathed out. He reached out a hand and patted his friend’s knee. “Don’t worry man, we’ll get the fucker next time.”

Angel looked down at the battered Ghoul before staring off into space. “Yeah… next time…”

[liliesoftherain]

My Hero Academia Main 3 Boys x Reader

Ch. 5 The Fight of U.S.J Part 2

Ch.1 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4

Chapter 5! Thanks for the wait guy! I’ll be updating more often soon, especially after finals are over and I have the chance to relax.   TAG LIST: @rizamendoza808​ ! (:

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

You guys were running fast, trying to make it to the center of the training facility in good time. You were behind the boys, trying to keep up but their legs were so damn long.

"What's the matter short stuff, can't keep up?" Kirishima snickered at you, looking back to see your face flush in embarrassment.

"You're calling me nicknames now too Eijiro? What's it with you two."

"I am obviously better at it than Bokugou, I mean short stuff sounds way funnier than glitter bomb, makes more sense too."

"Look it's not my fault you guys have super long legs okay." You ignore his comment, going back to the previous topic.

"Why (y/n), have you been checking us out," Kirishima flexed, "I mean we are handsome and manly young men but that's a little perverted don't you think." You could hear the smug attitude in his voice, causing your face to go an even darker shade of red.

You then used your quirk for a second to help you push yourself into the lead, making sure to knock shoulders with him as you did so. You huffed, legs burning not just from the physical activities you've taken part of today, but also your quirk usage.

"Shut it! I'm not a p-pervert! Shouldn't you be focusing on the task at hand?"

"Both of you need to shut your traps and focus before I kick your asses." Bakugou quipped, rolling his eyes at the whole, in his opinion, disgusting scene. 

You all heard a loud crash coming towards the entrance and wondered what could be happening now.

"Have the pros arrived?" Kirishima asked, you squinted and saw more smoke circling around, and shouts of battle were heard. 

Another large collision happened towards where you were all running, causing the three of you to move even faster.

When finally approaching the smoked filled area, you saw AllMight holding onto, and being held by, a giant black bird-like mutant. Being tangled together by the warp-guy and his quirky body. A flash of green crossed your vision, rushing towards them both. 

You cursed under your breath, willing yourself to hurry up before it was too late. Izuku couldn't slow down and he was going to be absorbed by that stupid warping quirk!

Another blur whizzed by you, this time  it being Bakugou as he lunged forward, his palm emitting his explosions and aiming it right at the villain.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY DEKU!" You skid to a stop next to Eijiro as Bakugou took down the shadowy figure.

A chill made its way down your body, looking toward your right you saw Todoroki freezing the mutant. 

"One of your poorly trained thugs told me you think you can kill AllMight, and that's why you're here. " He said void of emotion.

His quick thinking allowed AllMight to remove himself from the mutants clutches. and spring away.

You and Kirishima needed no words, a strong look was all it took before you two charged at the man with the snow white hair. You didn't know his power, his part in this, but you just knew it was because of him this was happening.

You both jumped up and aimed, you were careful to avoid Kirishima while you sent a bolt of light at the man, hoping to keep some distance since you had no idea what his quirk was. He was able to dodge you both, but only barley and you almost managed to slice him with your heat, unfortunately only able to singe a strand of hair.

Backing off, you ignored Kirishima's grunt of frustration by wanting to be cool and landing a hit. You ended up in between Bakugou and Todoroki, barely registering Midoriya behind you while you kept your focus on the man in front of you. His battle outfit had you feeling uneasy, so many hands grabbing at him, it looked straight out of a horror film.

"Guess I found your body that time you smokey bastard." Bakugou sneered down at his prey, his stare daring him to move.

"The symbol of peace will not be defeated by delinquents like you." Todoroki stated, his tone definitely matching his quirk. 

Sniffling came from behind and you instantly knew who it was from

"Kaachan... everyone."

"Izuku wipe your eyes and stand tall, this isn't the time to be letting your guard down." You told him sternly.  You heard shuffling then a grunt, and assumed he had stopped. 

Right now wasn't the time to let emotions overtake you, these guys were better than the low levelers you fought previously. The villain you attacked had his face blocked by another one of those hands, but even without looking you could sense the frustration. He slowly raised his hand, and you raised your guard in return. However, he just touched the hair you burned and stood there. 

His hand tightened as he started to tug at it, and you all grew confused as he simultaneously yanked at his hair and ferociously scratched his neck. The scratching was making his skin blotch red, and you swore it was leaving thin lines of blood. He seemed to be breaking down till he suddenly stopped. 

"Kurogiri, how could you let these brats... how could you let one get the best of you? You're causing a lot of trouble here." He sneered. 

"You got careless you dumb villain," Bakugou smirked with pride, at being the 'brat' who took him down. "It wasn't hard to figure out why you wear armor on certain parts of your body. Back then you used the mist as a cover up, that's why we first missed." 

"No reason to wear armor if you don't have a body. Which means he's not immune to physical attacks if well aimed." You said to yourself, but it was still loud enough for everyone to hear you.

This Kurogiri moved, and in return Bakugou sent a hot explosion as a warning.

"Don't move, you try anything funny and I'll blow your ass up so bad that they'll be piecing you back together for weeks."

"Oh that doesn't sound very heroic haha.." Kirishima muttered nervously, you were thinking the same thing so you looked at the hot head on the ground and spoke teasingly.

"Geez what a guy, always has the right words to say. My hero. " His eyes stay firm on the villain on the ground but you saw a light flush cross his cheeks. You both must have really been pissing him off today.

"They escaped uninjured and captured my two strongest men. You kids these days... really are amazing. Making the League of Villains look like amateurs.. Nomu." The man spoke to the mutated bird. And like being commanded, the mutant moved. Even though he was trapped by Todoroki's ice, he was still moving.

You all gasped as he lifted himself out of the warp prison, letting his limbs break off as if no physical pain mattered while crouching down.

"How is that thing still moving?" The sound of Midoriya's voice said what was on everyone's mind, and you were sure your face matched Todoroki's. Full of disbelief. 

"Stay back everybody!" AllMight's shout was drowned out as the ice on the mutants severed limbs busted off, creating a loud shattering noise. The muscles and tendons and everything else in between started to grow back, and looking at it made you want to gag. 

"What is this? You said his quirk was shock absorption!" AllMight yelled.

"I didn't say that was his only quirk, he also has super regeneration." The ring leader replied.

'What the hell?' You thought, 'Two quirks, that aren't related at all. What's going on?'

"Nomu is modified to take you on even at 100% of your power. He's basically a highly efficient punching bag, that'll hit back. But first," The villain continued, " we need to free our method of escape. Get him Nomu."

You looked at Bakugou eyes wide in fear and tried to grab him, but before you could even raise your hand you were thrown back by a large gust of wind. You collided with someone, feeling arms wrap around your waist as you landed on them. Then feeling another body topple onto you. 

The breath escaped your lungs but you didn't care about who you were being sandwiched by, the only thing on your mind was if Bakugou was okay. The smoke in the area cleared and you saw the Nomu guy crouching by his comrade, fist out like he had just swung.

"Bakugou!" You yelled, at the same time Izuku yelling out for him too. 

"That's my ear you're yelling in glitter bomb." You sucked in a breath as you finally saw it was indeed Bakugou who was on top of you. He rolled off landing on his butt in a seated position, you too rolled off of whoever you landed on.

"Sorry Todoroki." He said nothing but simply stood up and picked you up with him. You allowed him to help you stand, looking where Bakugou was still on the ground.

"Bakugou? What just happened?"

"Wow Kaachan you managed to dodge him!" 

"Shut up, no I didn't you damn nerd." His pupils dilated in shock as he looked where he once was.

"Then how did you get over here?" Kirishima questioned, and you all stared at the skid marks in the ground that lead your gazes to a hole in one of the concrete walls.

"Isn't it obvious." Todoroki cut in, and when the dust cleared from that area you saw it was AllMight who had rushed in and took the blow for Bakugou. 

He was breathing heavily, that punch seemed to take a lot out of him. You gulped as you thought about how it would've affected Bakugou if he was the one to get hit versus AllMight taking the damage.

"These are kids and you didn't hold back!?" AllMight was furious.

"I didn't have much of a choice, that boy was threatening my companion. Besides, these kids are no angels. The plain looking gone? He tried to kill me with a maxed out punch." Turning to stare at Izuku, he looked taken aback. 

"And the girl," He pointed to you, and now you were the one who felt taken aback, " that heat ray of hers would have seriously wounded me if I hadn't dodged. What kind of heroes do that. You think you can get away with being as violent as you want because you say it's for the sake of others. " His hands raised once again, trembling as he spoke.

"But you know what AllMight? That really pisses me off. Why do people get to decide that some violent acts are heroic while others are villainous. Who has the authority to pass judgment on whats good and what's evil. You're no symbol of peace, you're just another government toy they use to condone violence. Doesn't violence always breed more violence? It'll never end, and I'll make sure the world understands that when you're dead."

"You're nothing but a lunatic." AllMight countered, "Criminals like you always try to make your actions justified, but admit it, you're only doing this for your own selfish desires!"

"We've got them outnumbered." Todoroki's voice chimes in, breaking the silence between you students. 

"As long as we stay smart we may have the upper hand." You chewed your lip, feeling a bit tired from how many times you used your quirk today, but with the blood rushing in your ears and adrenaline pumping through your veins there was no way you'd throw in the towel now.

"Kaachan found the mist guys weakness, so there's one advantage right there."

"These dudes may act really tough, but we could take them down now with AllMight's help," Kirishima said, activating his quirk, "heh, let's do this."

"Don't attack!" AllMight yelled, walking straight at the villains. His back facing you five while he raised his hand in an attempt to block you. "Get out of here!"

"You would've been in trouble earlier if it weren't for me remember? You need our help."

Side-eyeing Todoroki, you thought he was being awfully cocky but you kept your mouth shut. Because while it was pretty rude, it was somewhat true. AllMight was in the Nomu mutants clutches before Todoroki had frozen his limbs and giving him time to make an escape.

"I thank you for your assistance, but this is different!" AllMight's hand formed a fist, glancing behind with a tight smile.

"Just sit back and watch a pro at work!"

"But you're too hurt, you're bleeding! You're almost out of tim-" Izuku cut himself short, looking at you and making eye contact as he put his hand against his mouth.

You raised a brow questioningly, but looked away. Now was not the time for distractions, however interesting they may be. A warmth filled your heart as you saw AllMight's signature thumbs up. You remember being little and loving to see him and his victories broadcasted. While your favorite pro had always been, and always would be, your father: you always had looked up to AllMight. 

"Nomu, Kurogiri, kill him. I'll deal with the pesky children. Let's clear this level and go home."

The leader of the group ran at you guys, and you put up your defenses ready to attack when you felt a gust of wind. You saw the leader fly back, catching himself so he didn't fall over, but now there was more space between you. 

Watching AllMight this close was pretty amazing, noticing his continuous punches were going so fast you could barely see them. The force was extreme, making you crouch low to keep from being blown away. You felt something hard from behind you and saw Eijiro harden his body to add more weight, and place himself behind you as a support. 

"He's going to fight that brain guy head on!?" Izuku yelled, clenching his teeth and shielding his eyes against the winds.

"Woah, they're so fast!" Eijior's voice was in your ear, and you couldn't help but shudder. While this wasn't the time to be flustered, it was hard not to be when he was breathing down your neck.

"Your quirk is shock absorption, not nullification, so there's only a limit on what you can take right!" AllMight concluded, his assault on the bird-brain never faltering.

Punch after punch it was showing that the Nomu was starting to slow down. Even though he was still going strong, compared to the beginning of the fight this was nothing. Well, to AllMight at least. No matter how confident you were, you knew you wouldn't be able to take it head on.

"You were made to fight me at 100% big guy? Well, lets see how you fare when I go beyond that and force you to surrender!"

Seeing the blood dripping down his forehead, his ripped clothing, and his non-smiling face made you want to cry. This was the symbol of peace, and he was giving it his all to make that statement true. To keep you all safe. 

His punches were calculated, it may have been hard for any other person to tell, but you and your friends could see it. Plus, every single one of those hits was more than.. 100% of his power. You could not believe it, that someone was strong enough to handle that much power of their quirk. 

Another large attacked sent the Nomu flying back, AllMight not wasting any time and jumping for him.

"A real hero will always find a way for justice to be served!"

The two clashed head on, the Nomu attacking relentlessly but AllMight still had the upper hand. The concrete ground beneath them was breaking into large chunks as they both dodged attacks, until finally the Nomu was caught by the arm, and was tossed to the ground after being spun around and then thrown over AllMight's shoulder.

Someone let out a strangled gasp next to you but you were unable to tell who did it, you were transfixed on the sight before you. The most intense battle you've ever seen was merely a few feet away, so close you felt the power off of every hit.

"Now for a lesson. You may have heard these words before, but I'll teach you their true meaning. "

His power only continued increasing, so much that it became a physical light you could see gathering in his palm. 

"GO BEYOND. PLUS ULTRA!" The force of AllMight's last punch sent the Nomu back way farther than any previous knockouts. He literally went straight through the glass dome ceiling, causing shards to fall haphazardly below and lights to explode. The entire place was shaking from his force, and you stared out at him until he disappeared from view.

"That was like the finishing move from a video game! He beat the shock abortion right out of him! I've never seen that type of brute strength." Kirishima's jaw dropped, eyes sparkling in wonder.

"That was amazing, I can't even see him anymore, just how powerful was that punch?!" Your jaw dropping as well, still trying to see if you could catch a glimpse of the mutant, but to no avail.

"Imagine having power like that," Bakugou gulped, "he must've been punching that monster so fast he had no time to regenerate." 

"I really have gotten weaker!" AllMight smiled, a fist raised in victory at you guys, "Back in my heyday, 5 hits would have been enough to knock that guy out. But today it took more than 300 mighty blows!"

You smiled at the large grin on his face, till you noticed his body was smoking. At first you tried to play it off as the dust clearing from around him, yet there was no mistake. You knew what it looked like because it happened to you.

When you overexert your quirk, your body begins to overheat due to the photons in your body replenishing itself, and from the constant use. So you smoked because it’s your body's way of sweating. You sweat to cool down, but your body needed more than that, so it literally steals and evaporates the water from inside your body to lower your body temperature. It sucks, so you have to pour water not only on yourself but chug a ton too to keep yourself from passing out. 

'Maybe it's a consequence of using too much power like me?' You thought, hoping he would be alright.

"You've been bested villains!" The smile never leaving his face, so he must've not been worried about his smoking body. You relaxed, knowing AllMight had full control over the situation.

The leader was shaking heavily, hands twitching and you saw the anger in his stance.

"Surrender, we all want to get this over with quickly!"

"He.. cheated.." He brought his hand back up to his neck, scratching even worse than earlier.

He was clawing at his neck and muttering to himself, it was hard to make out what he was hearing, but it was something about how he was lied to and AllMight is strong as he's always been. 

"What's wrong!" AllMight’s voice made their leader stop the scratching in favor of looking towards the hero.

"Not attacking me? Didn't you say you were going to clear this level earlier? Well come and get me. If you dare." The hardness in the hero's eyes made it hard to remember that this was the same person who had just smiled at you all not even a couple of seconds ago. The leader flinched back, raising arms as if trying to protect himself.

"Man, this is intense." Bakugou said, barely a whisper.

"As expected, there is no reason for us to fight now, he'll handle it." You all agreed with Todoroki, turning to walk away, but saw Izuku still hadn't budged.

"C'mon Izuku, let's regroup with everyone else. We don't want to get in his way."  You waited for him to budge but he didn't still staring straight at AllMight, although his back was facing you so you couldn't see his face.

"What are you scared?" You heard AllMight bellow, you furrowed your eyebrows at Izuku.

"Earth to Midoriya? Are you okay?" You walked closer, reaching out to put an arm on his shoulder. 

He didn't flinch when you did, but didn't make any move to acknowledge you either. The villain's nervous tick made you look again and this time it made your eyes open wide. He was slicing his neck with his own nails, blood running down to dip underneath his black shirt. The warp guy was trying to calm him down but he kept scratching and scratching, till he stopped due to Kurogiri's words of encouragement.

Around you all, you noticed many of the other lower level villains starting to stir, and you felt your stomach churn. Even though you knew AllMight was strong enough to take them all on, you still felt something was off deep in your gut. 

"I'm sure we still have a few minutes till their reinforcements arrive. If we work together, we have a chance to kill AllMight, Tomura Shigaraki!" Kurogiri laughed.

"Yeah.." The boss named Shigaraki let his hands fall, red blood tainting the tips of his fingers and still coming up in small clots.  "Yeah you're right, this is it. We have no choice. We have to do it now."

You heard more shuffling and villains starting to surround you all.

"I'm pretty sure he can handle those two, let's make sure these guys don't get in the way!" Kirishima let his quirk harden his hands, standing next to Bakugou. You made brief eye contact with Todoroki as he then looked at Midoriya. You too turned back to look, squeezing his shoulder.

"Will you fight with us Izuku?" You whispered, taking the question right out of Todoroki's mind.

He still gave no indication of hearing you, so you removed your hand and sighed. Next thing you knew he wasn't there, and a sound of surprise left your mouth as you saw he was heading straight for the three adults. 

"Woah what the hell Midoriya!" Kirishima shouted but it fell on deaf ears. 

Izuku's legs were dangling while he was midair, and you assumed he had broken them to go that fast. 

"Fucking hell Izuku." You gritted out and moved.

You saw he was aiming for the warp guy and your body acted without thinking. Feeling the familiar heat spread throughout your body and the bright glow that bounced off of you was all that it took before sprinting forward, getting to Izuku before he fell into the trap. Tossing him out of the way you were trying to move yourself but you were already too close. Plus, your body had to power down to grab Izuku, so now you were feeling the drawback of using your speed. Body overheating exponentially so you had no power or control to move out of the way quick enough. 

A hand popped out of the black mist and all you could do was brace yourself. You heard shouts of your name and noises all around. But they faded out, and all you managed to hear was the loud ringing of their leaders insane laugh. This was it, you didn't know what was going to happen. Even so, you felt no regrets, knowing you helped put a friend, someone in need, and that was all that mattered.

Blood splattered on your face as the hand was drawn away and you crashed to the ground. You quickly used whatever energy you had left and rolled out of the way, hearing the relief in AllMight's voice as he said two words.

"They're here!”

[weirdochick56]

I love you too, you big dork- Bucky Barnes One Shot

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: Explicit language. Fluff. A bit of angst.

Disclaimers: I don’t own any MCU characters/plots.

Word Count: 6, 034 words

Summary: Bucky and the Reader are best friends. Best friends who are in love with eachother, that is. When the Reader walks in on a conversation Bucky is having with Sam, Steve and Thor in which he says he doesn’t love her, she’s too heartbroken to face him. But maybe a little bit of distance is all it takes to make someone realize that they need someone more than they realize. 

A/N: Guys, I literally refuse to watch Endgame. I’m so scared someone I love (literally the entire cast) is gonna die so yeah. I’m good staying in my world where Infinity War and Endgame don’t exist. (I’m joking. I’m sure I’ll watch it eventually.)

*

You groan softly as another strand of hair gets caught in your lip gloss, and begin peeling it off your lip slowly. Your eyes darted everywhere, hand clutching your small purse so tight, your knuckles turned white. 

There were a lot of people here. Too many to count, actually, and you found yourself bumping into partying bodies every five minutes and having to stumble past in your tall heels after muttering a small ‘sorry’. It was a bit overwhelming. 

When Tony said he was going to be throwing a party to celebrate your latest win, you expected something of a more...intimate nature. Just the Avengers and a few close friends. Not such a huge party, with all the lights and bar filled with drinks and snacks.. and you certainly didn’t expect this many people to be invited. Most of which were celebrities and world-renowned corporate leaders, no less.

You weren’t afraid to admit that although being a superhero and working alongside the world’s mightiest heroes, you felt utterly inferior to all the beautiful models and actresses surrounding your every angle. I mean they were all so tall and slender and just...mesmerizing. And you were just, well, you. Good old’ Y/n. Ordinary and safe. Dull. Tedious. Boring.

You weren’t big on all the glitz and glamour and mystique that came with being an internationally-known hero. Your abilities had given you an advantage when it came to war tactics and fighting and being a wonderful warrior on the field- which granted, also gave you a great advantage work-wise, but other than that, there wasn’t much more to you. 

Most of your life had been miserable thanks to how ‘special’ your abilities made you and consequently, most of it was spent inside your own head rather than caring about your outer appearance and social habitats. It wasn't until you’d been recruited into SHIELD and later on the Avengers and found a purpose- that you started caring about the way you presented yourself to the rest of the world.

Even now, clad in a gorgeous black bodycon cocktail dress, soft curves all on display, and your hair pinned up into an elegant bun with only a few strands framing your delicately-painted face- you couldn’t help but feel utterly uncomfortable. Out of place in this glamorous party entirely.

Your gaze finally lands on a familiar face amidst the colorful party lights huge party crowd and you can't help but heave a relieved sigh.

“Tony!” You tap on his shoulder, having to practically yell over the music. Tony halts his conversation with the famous party guests. 

“...uh sorry, just hold on a sec.”  He smirks charmingly then he spins around to face you. “Ye-” he stops mid-sentence when his gaze lands on you, eyes widening like two saucers and jaw snapping open. “Holy shit,” he breathes, eyes wandering over your face and body a hundred miles per minute, his gaze unbelieving. 

“Damn, kiddo. I knew you were a stunner but damn.” His eyes are practically bulging from his head. 

You feel yourself blush aggressively, smiling in your usual shy manner to hide how much you didn’t believe what he was saying. “Thank you.”

“You look stunning, kiddo.” He smiles brightly, flashing you those pearly whites.

You roll your eyes at him, shaking off the compliment as smoothly as you can. “Thanks. Hey, have you seen Bucky?” You frown, looking around for your best friend. “I know he said he didn’t wanna mingle, but I thought he’d be chilling out in a secluded corner or something for sure. I mean, it’s what he usually does.”  

When you face him again, Tony is smiling down at you, all..knowing and self-important.

You instantly shrink away from his condescending silence, crossing your arms over your chest defensively. “What?”

He laughs smugly. “Nothing. I’m just wondering what exactly it will take for either of you to admit that you love eachother.” 

You’re taken aback by Tony’s words, freezing momentarily with shock. You can’t help it when your heart races at the idea of James Buchanan Barnes actually loving you back but quickly shake the notion off, not wanting to dwell on something that could never happen and as a consequence only hurt you. 

You push an innocent smile out onto your face, ignoring the extreme resistance from your facial muscles and how sick to your gut your next words make you feel. “Well, of course I love Bucky. He’s my best friend.” 

Your shrill tone causes you to mentally cringe as you leisurely swallow the bile creeping out your throat, physically forcing it back down your esophagus.

But Tony sees right through your poorly-executed act, sighing and shaking his head as if he knew. And he did know.

“We both know exactly what I mean kiddo. You can’t keep acting like you’re not completely head over heels for eachother forever.”

You suppress your fluttering heart as much as possible, opting to instead paint a measured smile that could fool the pants off anyone on your face. Choosing your words carefully, you are even more careful to speak them with a breezy kind of casualness to your tone. 

“Ugh. Me and Bucky? Pfft, that’s honestly gross. He’s like a brother. Can you imagine dating a brother?” You scrunch your nose up in disgust then force an amused chuckle as if the notion is absolutely ludicrous even though it’s literally been the only thing on your mind for the past year. “Nothing like that could ever happen between us.”

Every word that comes out of your mouth is a single stab to your chest, but you try to keep your voice leveled and light as a feather. You hadn’t expected it to be as painful to say out loud as it was, though, and despite your resolve to fool Iron Man, your voice wavers slightly. You cringe mentally when Tony raises a single, skeptical, dark brow. 

He knew. He always knew, dammit.  

“Whatever floats your boat kiddo. I guess.” He sighs. “I’m pretty sure I saw him hanging out with Thor, Steve, and Sam out on the balcony.”

You facepalm, eyes lighting. “Oh shit, yeah! How come I didn’t think of that!?” You smile brightly up at Tony, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, Tony. love ya’!”

You hurry off as fast as you can in heels (which is a surprising amount). You hear Tony laugh behind you, mumbling under his breath. 

“It’s only a matter of time, kiddo.” 

*

When you approach the balcony, you see all four men seated across from eachother, loud laughter erupting from their mouths and a bottle of some unknown substance settled in between them. 

Bucky sat with his back to you, and you lick your lips when you notice his long hair gelled back into a neat man-bun, your favorite hairstyle on him. His suit jacket was carelessly thrown over the couch he was sitting on and the sleeves of his dressing shirt were rolled up, exposing his veiny flesh arm and his menacing steel one. His back muscles flexed whenever he shifted positions and for a moment you genuinely questioned if James Buchanan Barnes could be considered a kink. 

Literally, anything and everything the man did was sexy. God, he made the most mundane things sexy. Like frowning, or making pancakes or laughing. You sigh, thinking about all the cute facial expressions that handsome face could twist and spread into. 

Interrupting your train of thoughts, you focus back on your friends. They seemed to be having a great time, and you were slightly jealous about not being invited to be a part of the mini-celebration. 

You raise a determined brow, ready to join the party when something abruptly stops you mid-step. It’s Bucky’s voice. It sounds...off.

It’s hushed and pissed-off, very unlike the demeanor the rest of the group gave off with their boisterous laughter and witty smirks. So unlike it, in fact, that it forces you to nestle behind the slightly cracked balcony door and eavesdrop on their conversation. 

Okay, yeah, not your proudest moment, but you were curious as to what the trio of friends could’ve possibly said to Bucky to get him so worked up. His teeth were gritted and his hands were clenched into fists as he leaned threateningly forward. 

“Would you stop fucking saying that? She’s a kid, for fuck’s sake! I could never feel something like that for her.” 

You frown. Who was he talking about? You? You decide not to jump to conclusions, secretly holding onto the hope that it wasn’t, because deep down you know if it was, your heart would be broken.

“...I could never feel something like that for her.” You shudder, waiting for someone else to speak with a racing heart.

Steve sighs. “Buck, man, I love you. You know you’re like a brother to me, but that’s exactly why I have to be completely honest with you.” He leans in, a sympathetic smile tugging at his lips as he pats Bucky’s shoulder comfortingly. “You’re in love with Y/n. There’s no way around it, man, I’m sorry. You’ll have to stop denying it to yourself eventually.”

You swallow a gasp, heart fluttering. Shit, they are talking about me, you cursed mentally, clutching your hands to your chest and pursing your lips tightly. 

The seconds seem to drag on into minutes and then into hours until finally, Bucky speaks up again, voice somewhat defeated. 

“She’s a kid and my best friend. I can’t have feelings for her,” he mumbles decisively and your chest clenches, eyes prickling with unshed tears.  

Sam clicks his tongue sympathetically. “That’s the irony of love, man. You don’t really get to choose who you feel it towards.” 

Thor frowns. “But...Y/n is extremely beautiful. An astonishing character, as well. And she is without engagement.” His frown deepens. “I’m failing to see exactly what the issue is?”

Bucky sighs defeatedly then he turns to the god with a small sad smile that makes your chest ache. It’s devoid of any and all hope which slowly begins to kill yours as well. 

“She is stunning, isn’t she?” His smile lightens up a bit, light grey eyes getting a far-off look. “I always thought she was a classic beauty. Like the ones you saw back in our time, Steve.” He looks at his best friend, who smiles and nods warmly in quiet response. “She’s so smart, too. Do you remember when she first arrived here? How she fixed that problem Tony had been struggling with in his lab for weeks in just a few minutes?” He pauses to laugh incredulously. “It was like-” he motions his head blowing up, making explosion sounds. 

You suppress a giddy giggle, pressing a hand to your mouth as you listen closely. 

“A-and she’s so fucking kind and giving. She never says no to doing you a favor. Ever, no matter what it is or how hard it may be. She’s always more worried about our comfort than her own. It’s so sweet.” He chuckles. “Most of the time I’m worried she’ll neglect herself if she’s hurt in our stead. Because that’s just the kind of person she is.” 

His expression grows serious but still soft and tender. “She wakes up earlier than all of us and goes to sleep later than all of us, working. She thinks no one knows or notices because she thinks no one cares enough to want to know or notice. But I do. I always do,” he mumbles softly, picking at his fingernails. 

A long silence stretches and your heart is beating so erratically in your chest, you’re sure it’s in the process of bursting from your ribcage.

Finally, Steve speaks. “See? You can lie to us all you want Bucky, but it’s yourself who you can’t run away from.”

Bucky blinks as if snapping out of a trance. He clenches his jaw tightly, plunging his fingers into his hair and rubbing hard, messing it up. “Fuck,” he growls, frustrated. 

“I don’t love her. I don’t.”

You take that as your cue to walk in, a disturbingly convincing smile plastered on your face. 

“You don’t love who, Buck?” You play it off smoothly, casually strutting into the balcony.

Sam’s, Steve’s and Thor’s eyes immediately snapped towards you. Bucky, took a few seconds to fully view you. 

He stiffens up at first, then slowly shifts to you, a small smile on his face. It freezes there, though, when his eyes land on you, all dolled up. 

It wasn’t like you at all to dress up. Most of the time, you opted to hide underneath big hoodies and baggy shirts and pants. You just didn’t feel comfortable giving anyone the power to be able to judge your appearance in any way, shape, or form. 

As a superhero, you usually hid behind a large cloak, shielding a bit of your face and body effectively from the public. You’d decided you’d try something out of your comfort zone today. 

So the shock factor was already there, but watching Bucky’s face morph from a very forced relaxed smile to completely gobsmacked expression, lips parted, pupils dilated, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed thickly was absolutely worthy of a picture. 

Sam interrupts your little moment, wolf-whistling.

“Well shit, Y/n. I had no idea you all of that underneath...” he laughs lightly, gesturing towards you lightly. 

Steve elbows him sharply as you raise a brow at Sam. 

“Really Sam?”

He shrugs, rubbing the sore spot on his ribs. “What? It’s true.” 

Steve sighs, rolling his eyes at his best friend before turning to you with his usual chivalrous, soft smile. “You look gorgeous, kid.”

Thor’s smile is brighter than the sun as he takes you in shamelessly. “You are quite the sight, Y/n. Such beauty has never been heard of or seen in all the nine worlds!”

Fighting off a raging blush, you snorted in a very unladylike manner. “C’ mon guys. Stop trying to make me feel good about myself. We all know I’m not that much to look at.”

They all immediately shut your statement down. “Y/n, babe, have you seen yourself already? You’re gorgeous,” Sam huffs, rolling his eyes. 

You try to protest, but Thor quickly cuts you off, a wolfish grin spread on his handsome face. “Y/n, you underestimate your beauty. It shines brighter than many of the stars in this galaxy, I’ll tell you that much.”

You bite the inside of your cheek, trying really hard not to cry with adoration. You didn’t need their approval to feel good about yourself, but it sure was nice to have the accolades of a demi-god.  

“Y/n,” Steve pulls your attention back to him, a comforting smile pulled over his lips. “You’re a beautiful woman.”

With their earnest faces and watchful eyes, you give in to the urge and hide your boiling hot face in your hands, groaning. “You guys! I’m gonna cry.” 

They quiet down and you slowly pull your hands from your face. You’re met with Bucky’s soft gaze, pure, earnest admiration lining every part of his gorgeous face, making his eyes shimmer with a certain honest beauty you’d never seen on him. 

Your breath hitches at the beauty of the way he looked at you. The softness, the sincerity. The support.

You pause, looking at him and for a moment forgetting other people were in the same room as you. right now, only he and you existed. 

You waited with a caught breath for him to say something. His eyes watered, you bite back a gasp at how raw emotion lining his eyes and expression to the brim was.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispers quietly. “Absolutely beautiful.” 

Your heart races and a soft smile tugs at your lips. “Thank you, Buck.” 

He stares at you for a minute longer before swallowing sharply and looking back at his others friends, almost like he just realized they were there. 

You notice the trio looking at him with ‘told you so’ expressions, smug smirks curling their lips. Sam snickers. 

You have hope for a split second. Hope that he’ll turn back around and declare that he’s been in love with you too, that he wants you just as much as you do him. And your heart inflates with happiness and love and you hold onto that emotion for safekeeping. 

And then it’s broken when Bucky shakes his head firmly ‘no’. 

The guys’ faces fall. They know what that means. They don’t know that you also know what that means, but it doesn’t matter because somehow Bucky has once again managed to fix and break your heart in the matter of a few seconds. 

He turns back around to face you and you notice that although he still has that tenderness to him, that softness you saw a few minutes ago, it now looks tortured in his gaze. Repressed.  

He smirks playfully as if to cover it up, but it looks forced. 

“Maybe we could wingman eachother. I’ll get you some hot Hollywood actor only if you promise to get me a Victoria’s Secret model.” He chuckles and winks at you. 

You suppress the fresh wave of tears threatening to spill over and force a small smile. 

“I think I’m good, thanks. I’ll uh-” you push past the huge lump in your throat. “I’ll see you guys later.” You spin on your heels headed for the door.

With one last glance over your shoulder, you catch Steve’s eye. He smiles sympathetically. And mouths a small ‘sorry.’

Before you fully make it outside, you catch a small bit of their upcoming conversation. 

“Really dude!? Friend zoning her? Why can’t you just admit you’re absolutely gaga about her?!”

Bucky groans under his breath, exasperated. “Have you thought maybe it’s cause I’m not?”

You walk away faster, unable to hear more of the conversation. Too painful.

*

The next morning, you walk into the kitchen and find Bucky sitting on a stool, sipping on a cup of coffee. 

You barely spare him a glance, headed straight for the fridge. Normally, you’d be chatting him up, hanging onto his every word and watching with ever-growing excitement and intent as he told you about whatever new adventure he’d been on to conquer the still-unknown 21st century. But not today.

“Oh, mornin’ doll,” he chirps happily, excited to see you. 

You merely smile politely, closing the fridge door behind you softly. “Morning James.” 

And then you simply walk out, water bottle in hand. 

Bucky freezes, raising a brow. 

“James?” he mumbles under his breath. 

*

That afternoon, Bucky is lounging on the living room couch, watching one of your favorite movies of all time, Scream.

When he sees you, he instantly perks up, excited at the prospect of watching a movie with you. “Hey doll, look I’ve got-” 

You cut him off sheepishly. “Sorry Buck, I can’t speak right now, I’m a bit busy.”

He visibly deflates with disappointment but smiles understandingly nonetheless. “Oh..okay.” 

 And with that, he sees you leave in a hurry, suspicion nudging him in the back of his mind. 

He gets worried. Were you...were you mad? But why? What did he do?...

*

The next time Bucky sees you, it’s been a few days since he’s talked to you. You were always rushing off somewhere, suddenly entirely busy. He was getting suspicious...and hurt. You never seemed to have time to be more than just polite to him. 

The other Avengers, on the other hand, got more than just a few minutes of your time.

He was convinced he’d done something to anger you. He just didn’t know what and it was driving him nuts to try and figure it out. 

He’d asked Steve and Sam for help earlier that week but all they’d done is make him feel worse about the whole thing. 

“I just don’t know what I’ve done,” Bucky growls, frustrated. 

Sam and Steve look at eachother, snickering. 

“What?” Bucky frowns. 

Sam sighs. “I think we’ve called you out on your bullshit enough times, Buck. You’re a grown-ass man. Figure it out.”

So he decided to ask the only other person who could tell him what was wrong with you; you. 

And so Bucky waited, hiding out in your room until you come back in.

You sigh as you step into your room, kicking your shoes off and curling your fingers around the ends of your crop top and tugging upwards, intending fully to take it off. 

 “Oh my God, doll, stop!” Bucky’s gruff yell startles you so much, you accidentally send a vase hurtling towards his head.

 He shrieks, ducking down just in time to dodge it. It crashes on the wall behind him, breaking into a milling tiny pieces.

Holding a hand to your rapidly-beating heart, your huff. “Jesus fucking- Bucky! You scared the living heck out of me, you dickhead!” 

He smiles sheepishly. “Sorry, doll.” 

“What are you even doing here?” you breathe, brows furrowing in confusion.

He suddenly grows stern, posture straightening out and eyes leveling with yours, arms crossed over his broad, muscular chest. “Can I know why the hell you have you been avoiding me?” 

You’re taken aback by his bluntness, but manage to mask your shock fairly well with fake innocence, pretending to be busy taking your socks off.

“Avoiding you?” You snort. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I haven’t been avoiding you.” 

He chuckles humorlessly, voice gruff with simmering anger. “Oh, don’t lie to me, doll. We both know I’m able to see through your bullshit easily.” 

Something about how sure he sounded in the last statement hit a nerve within you. Your blood boils. How can someone so oblivious to how you felt about them be so sure that they know you so well?

“Stop, Bucky. Okay? I haven’t been avoiding you, so just...leave me alone,” you heave a tired sigh. 

“No.” His response is so quick, so resolute, it nearly gives you whiplash.

You laugh incredulously, raising a brow at him. “No?”

“No.” 

His response is easy. Almost too easy. 

You scoff. “Why?”

He snorts, looking at you like you’d grown two heads. “Because you’re angry with me and I have no idea why, doll.”

“No, I’m not,” you mumble quietly.

“Yes, you are.” 

“Okay. How do you know that for sure?” You challenge. 

The corner of his mouth curls arrogantly. “Your fists are clenched and you’re biting the inside of your cheek.”

He was right. Ugh, of course, he was. You slowly release your clenched fists and relax your tense jaw, sucking on your teeth and avoiding his smug gaze. Your blood boils, even more, swarming your head with angry thoughts. 

“Stop acting like you know me,” you suddenly snap, eyes watering. 

Gosh, why did he know you so well? Why did he have to make not loving him so hard? Why did he have to know small cute details like that? And why did he have to be so- perfect and beautiful?

“But...I do know you,” he states like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Like there was no other answer but that one.

You wanted him to stop having the upper hand here. But who were you kidding? He always would. Because you were in love with him and he wasn’t in love with you. 

“No, you don’t,” you hiss, hands slowly clenching into fists again, trying to contain your ever-growing anger.

“Yes, I do,” he insists again, so sure of himself. 

“No, you don’t,” you growl. 

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you-”

“Why are we even arguing about this!?” He snaps aggressively before his tone softens. “C’mon doll, we sound like children.” He sighs, licking his lips and runs his fingers through his hair. “l- look, the point is, you’re pissed at me. I just need to what the hell it is I did to deserve it, is all, alright?” 

You bite your lip. “Listen, James just leave me alone please I’m-”

“No, see!? Since when do you call me James? Honestly, Y/n! What the hell have I done to you to deserve you treating me like this?”  His voice cracks as he steps closer to you, hands reaching out to touch you. “Why are you pushing me away?” He whispers softly, hurt.  

That’s it. You can’t hold back all the overwhelming emotions bubbling within you for the past few years anymore. All the hurt and anger of years upon years of loving a man who could never love you back like you did him, come bubbling to the surface. You break like a festering sore after it’s been holding back all it had inside for far too long.

“You made me fall in love with you!” Your scream is powerful, deafening. 

Bucky’s eyes widen, mouth snapping shut, body freezing. If it weren’t for the situation, you would’ve laughed at him. he looked like a deer caught in headlights. 

But you can’t stop now that you’ve started. Unable to avoid vomiting your confession onto him, you continue, fingers gripping your hair.

“Y-you‘re just- there,” you breathe, licking your lips to moisten up your dry mouth. “In me, all the time. Every fucking second of every-fucking-day and I just-“ you lick your lips then chuckle humorlessly. “I’ve tried so fucking hard to fight it off when I realized what was happening. So, so hard. But that only made it worse and before I knew it, BAM!” You clap your hands together. “There you were Bucky Barnes. Everywhere within me.”

Bucky breathes in a sharp breath. “Doll I-“

“And it just drives me absolutely insane. Like- why couldn’t you just stay my best friend? Why couldn’t you just make me want you as a friend? W-why did you have to go ahead and be all sweet and kind and gorgeous and perfect and just-God. You give me butterflies.” You open your eyes as wide as they’ll go. “Did you know that? Butterflies Bucky, I mean...who the fuck gets butterflies?”

“Doll.”

“And I’m just so...” you laugh humorlessly, searching for the correct words to describe what you felt towards this man. This man who- despite everything- you couldn’t help but love.

“Doll.”

“...pissed at you. Because you can’t fucking love me back. Yeah, that’s why I’m pissed! Because here I am, young n’ foolish Y/n; entirely, completely, undoubtedly, fully, stupidly, ludicrously in love with you, James Buchanan Barnes. And there you are, treating me like a kid you can never love back. as anything other than your little sister. So ther-!”

It happens in just a few seconds and you don’t feel it until it’s happening, but Bucky strides up to you in just a few steps, gripping your jaw in his big warm hands before tipping your head back gently. 

Your eyes meet and you swear your limbs are live wires, full with charged electricity every time you look into his beautiful stormy irises. There is so much tender care in them. So much pain and hope and beauty all swirling and creating such a divine turmoil that the breath gets knocked straight out of your lungs, almost like you’ve been punched in the gut or something. 

“Buck?”

Then he crashes his lips against yours and it’s...not everything you dreamed of. No, because what you dreamed of could never compare to what Bucky’s lips on yours felt in real life.

Soft unlike anything you could’ve ever imagined, but firm and anchoring all at once, you can’t help it when you suck in a sharp breath through your nose. Kissing him was like feeding your greatest craving and sedating your every heartache momentarily. Kissing him was like having someone charge you with electricity, your fingertips tingled and your cheeks heated up and you’d never felt more alive. 

It takes a moment for your brain to somewhat process what was happening right now. Bucky kissed you. He was kissing you right now. And it’s only when you begin to comprehend what’s happening, that you respond to the kiss, hands gripping his neck and fingers tangling in his soft strands of hair as you kissed back with all the passion and hurt and anger and love you felt towards him. 

He pushes back, deepening the kiss. Everything about it was demanding and soft and somehow you couldn’t help but think that it fits you and him too well. Like it was how it was always meant to happen. In a heat-of-the-moment kind of way that also said so much more than words ever could. But also soft and kind of inconvenient. Unexpected and all-consuming. You and Bucky. 

The kiss is gone almost as soon as it started and before you know it, Bucky pulls back. You’re both panting softly, and you can feel his warm breath caressing your nose and nothing has ever felt so incredible. 

You’re still unable to fully process what had just happened, your heart is still beating erratically in your chest and your lips are tingly with all sorts of emotions you can’t fully make out right now. 

His hands, all warm and rough and big, are still cupping your jaw, as he tenderly traces a finger over your cheekbone and he’s gazing into your eyes, searching. Searching for an answer. 

“Say something, doll. Please,” he begs quietly.

You blink several times before responding in a passing breath. “Why?” 

He sighs, slumping slightly against you. “Because I love you. As more than just a friend.”

And there it was. All you’d ever wanted to hear the past few years. What haunted your sleep, the very heaviness in your heart that only grew with each passing day. And there it was, staring you right in the eyes. 

You instantly push away from him, tears blurring your vision. “Don’t lie to me like that,” you rasp, voice broken with overwhelming emotions. 

Bucky sputters, panic rising in his stormy grey eyes. “Oh my God doll, no! That’s not it at all, I would never-” 

“I heard you the other night. At the party,” you sob, aggressively wiping at your tears as they rolled down your cheeks. “You told Sam, Steve, and Thor that you could never feel something like that for me. And you meant it.” 

He shakes his head, face twisted into a regretful frown. He says nothing.

Your anger and immense hurt at his silence rise within you in uncontrollable waves of emotion. Your lips quiver in preparation for another wrecked sob to escape your lips.

“I understand,” you rasp. “Can you just-“ you sigh, turning away from him to hide the tears the rolled down your cheeks insistingly. “Leave please?”

“No.”

You wipe a fresh set of tears rolling down your face before spinning around to face him, indignantly livid. “You-!”

“I love you.” His eyes are a stormy grey that leaves you breathless and for the second time, you catch wind of that same raw feeling in his eyes as when he’d seen you all dressed up in that balcony. Vulnerable, raw, carnal.

“I’ll repeat that in case you couldn’t hear it. I. Love. You.”

Your breath catches at his words as he leisurely steps closer to you in short, cautious steps. His eyes never leave yours, their intensity blazing through your very being, alighting your nerves and making your heart pound erratically. You’re frozen in place at the certainty with which he says his words. Astounded.

“I am in love with you,” he gulps, his voice breaking with emotion. “So entirely, completely, undoubtedly, fully, stupidly, ludicrously in love with you, Y/f/n Y/l/n,” he laughs a little as he uses your own words against you.

A joy so unlike anything you’ve ever felt blossoms in your chest and you swallow the growing lump in your throat. “A-are you...serious?”

You don’t know if you’ve mumbled anything coherent, seeing as your heart is thumping so erratically in your ears you can’t hear anything else.

He’s close enough to kiss now, his breath warm and inviting as they softly caress your cheeks. He gently grips your hands in his and leans his face closer to yours.

His nose is brushing against yours, his eyelashes flutter and tickle your own eyelids and your breath gets lodged in your throat, lips parted as they anxiously await his own. They never come though, and just when you think he’ll kiss you again, his lips switch directions and press against your cheek instead, kissing away a tear with a touch so tender and caring, you shiver.

You swallow hard, voice raspy and breathless. “Really?”

His metal hand is cool against your flushed skin as he pulls back to look into your eyes again, earnest and kind.

“Doll I am so confused and unsure about so many things.” He chuckles softly, then turns serious. “But you are not one of those things. Never have been, never will be.”

The vigor in his honesty is striking.

He looks you in the eye. “The only reason I force myself to wake up every damn morning is because I know I’ll be able to see your face. It’s because no matter how dark it gets in here,” he points to his head, then grips your hand and slowly brings it to his chest so it rests over his fast-beating heart. “Or here, I know I’ll always get to see your beautiful smile the very next day. The only light at the end of the tunnel. I just- sometimes my head gets so dark and my heart just breaks over and over again without repair and I think I’ll never get out but-”

“Buck,” you whimper in interruption, too pained at the rawness of his hurt and suffering. 

“No, let me finish, please.” His voice cracks but he still smiling at you with such overpouring joy, you don’t know if he’s sad or happy or both.

 “But then I remember I have you. Even if it’s just as a friend. And that was completely fine by me, doll. Because I got to know you. And I mean really know you, I got to see all your sides. The dedicated, hard-working, focused one. The funny, sarcastic, goofy one. The passionate, fiery one. God, you have no idea how much I love it when your eyes light up when you’re pissed or fired up or when you laugh.” His smile widens. “I also got to see the honest, kind, loving caring side of you. You were always there when I fell apart and you were the only thing that got me through it. All of it. You’re loyal and sweet and selfless and I didn’t care that I wouldn’t get to hold you in my arms or kiss you or call you mine if it meant that I wouldn’t have you anymore.” His eyes water and he grips your fingers tighter as if holding you back from running away. 

“I’ve never met a more beautiful human being in my life. You’re the opposite of me. You’re light and hope and kindness and love and I just- I didn’t want to ruin that. You. Us.”

He laughs incredulously. “But I love you. I love you. God, I’ll never get tired of saying that. It feels so good,” he breathes out to himself giddily. 

It takes a while for him to notice that you haven’t said anything in the span of the past few minutes, but when he’s snapped out of his own ecstasy,  he turns to look at you, the smile falling off his face. 

You’re frozen in your spot, tears freely rolling down your cheeks. 

Bucky groans. “Oh God. I’ve completely messed this up, haven’t I.” He begins freaking out. “I-I’m s-so sorry doll. I didn’t mean to scare you into anything. We can just stay friends just please don’t avoid me again. I promise I won’t-”

“Bucky,” you finally speak up, stopping him with a stoic and expressionless face.

He gulps loudly, “yeah?”

A sweet, tearful smile breaks out on your face.  “I love you too, you big dork.” 

He laughs, relieved. 

You smirk. “Kiss me. Now.”

 He quirks a brow but returns your smirk. “Gladly.”

Then you both lean in and just when your lips are about to meet again, a voice comes booming from the intercom in your room. Or well, many of them. 

“FINALLY.”

 ***

Honestly, IDK. I need some fluffy romance in my life so here it is. 

A Special thanks to:

@wildefire - my Marvel tag (thank you!)

And of course my incredible forevers!

@jessikared97

@lilypalmer1987

@ladyofletters67

@meowsekai

[mooleche]

A Story of Ink and Venom - Chap. 5

A/N - Someone wicked this way comes! Some new revelations revealed and Nina is tasked with an important request after some distressing news! There are some french translations in here that I’m not quite sure how to post on here so if you’re curious to know what they say I can make a separate post to explain what they translate to! As always I hope you enjoy and if you’d like to be tossed onto the notifications list lemme know! 

Tagged - @leo-writer @master-sass-blast

Chapter 5: Preparation

I dreamt of blood.

Of tendons snapping and muscle being torn in two.

Heard the inescapable screams of terror in a void of nightmares that had me tossing and turning all night.

Then I saw them again. Those milky white eyes that narrowed as they set their sights on me, soon replaced by a gaping maw full of jagged teeth that were ready to tear into my skin like it was paper.

Then I woke with a small, terrified gasp. 

It was just a nightmare. This is what I had to tell myself as I stared at the ceiling and tried to calm my racing thoughts. My heart continued to pound and my clothes were damp with sweat from my troubled sleep. But the longer I laid there the more aware I became of my surroundings. A soft melody weaved in and out of my hearing and the hues of blue and pink of our hanging lights danced in my blurred vision. It was noticing this that I was finally able to release a sigh of relief as I was able to remind myself of two important things:

I was home. And I was safe. 

Beside me, the bed creaked and I turned my head to find Ava sitting cross-legged by my curtained window, hand over her mouth in serious concentration as she stared at her laptop screen. I made the effort to sit up and felt my entire body seize up with pain.

“Ah, she awakens,” her husky morning voice announced beside me as a groan of pain escaped me. I struggled to make the minimal effort to turn to her, only to be met with her hand that held my glasses and a bottle that she rattled at me.

“Drink up, Princesa. You’re gonna need these for the day ahead,”

“You’re a lifesaver,” I murmured as I accepted and downed them graciously. They could have been horse tranquilizers and I wouldn’t have cared, the pain that my body felt as I sat up had me almost wishing I was still facing those nightmares. Just the brief thought of reliving them made my stomach churn though, and I quickly tried to ignore it and press through the pain instead. 

I slumped over on Ava’s shoulder and sighed, a small chuckle escaping her as she carefully moved a piece of hair away from my face.

“Surprised you’re even awake right now, you outdrank all of us,” she teased as I held my head, now fully feeling the effects of my terribly thought out decisions last night. That was right, we had drunk last night to calm our nerves. Despite being desperate to escape the conversation we spent almost all night talking about it. Ava and Benni assured me the news hadn’t caught wind of my participation that they were aware of, only that there had been no bodies at the scene. 

That alone left me both relieved and terrified for Spiderman and whatever remains were of Deadpool.

If there were any at all.

I shook my head sluggishly to rid myself of the thought before looking to Bambi and Benni who were haphazardly sprawled along Bam’s bed, still very much unconscious.

“Why are you awake?” I asked Ava groggily, taking every motion delicately as the room continued to spin. 

She raised a brow at me and smirked.

“You think a little booze is going to cause me to break schedule? Pfft, I’m Latina, bebita. But also,” she added, pointing to the floor and frowning, “You really need to answer that thing. It’s been going off since 7.”

I went to ask her what she meant but then I heard it. The low rumble of my phone vibrating against the carpet. At that moment my hangover was completely disregarded and pain tossed aside as I slid to the ground and fished for it desperately. Ava watched me, perched from above, curiosity now wrinkling her brows as I found the source to the buzzing and curled into a ball to suppress the pain. 

All I could muster was a soft ‘oh no’ when I saw what was on the lock screen. 

Ava inched closer to me to try and sneak a peek as I continued to stare, not daring to unlock it to see what fresh hell was waiting for me inside. "What's going on?"

A soft 'oh' left her lips as I showed her. A handful of messages and mixed calls littered the screen, the fear you only felt when you missed 10 calls from your mother when you were a teen hitting my core as I swiped it open.

Only this fear was brought by missing the calls of my mother, father, AND Renato.

I swallowed hard and scanned the messages. All worried, all sent at various times during the night and this morning:

‘Honey, we just saw the news. Are you alright?’ ‘You’re not picking up. Did something happen?’ ‘We’re very worried. Pls respond!’ - Mom

*‘Mon chéri? Nous sommes inquiets pour vous’ ‘Appelez s'il vous plaît’ - Dad

‘Are you home? -R’ ‘Nina? -R’  ‘Look. I know you’re still recovering from last night but something has happened. Come to the lab ASAP. -R’ ‘Again, it’s URGENT. -R’ ‘Also, call your parents. -R’ - Renato

My gut twisted further with guilt as I read various texts from them all, but the last few from Renato worried me the most. It was sent almost half an hour ago and my imagination was going in every direction it could with what could have happened.

He rarely sent texts out to people, even when it was an emergency. What if something happened to him? What if that thing came back for it’s missing piece? What if it pulled an Alien and created a Chest Burster inside of him?? 

I had to go and see what was going on. 

I uncurled myself from my position before releasing a groan of discomfort, moving from one awkward position to another as I attempted to summon the strength to get up. It didn't work. Lying half off the bed beside me Bambi began to stir.

“Nina? What’s going on?” she yawned, rubbing her eyes as she unshifted from her own awkward position to sit up and watch my staggered efforts. Benni gave a soft snore next to her but remained still. I was fully convinced that we could have dropped a bomb on the city and she’d have stayed asleep during it.

“I have to go to the Professor’s office. Something's wrong,” I winced, finally finding my footing and attempting to poorly stretch to try and subdue the pain. While it didn't do much to help with it, it did help me understand where the source was. I tenderly touched my side only to recoil back as the shock of pain it sent. It was almost exactly where I had landed after the creature had flung me, bringing a series of uncomfortable pictures to my head before I could shake them away.

“What?!” Both Ava and Bambi asked in unison at my announcement, watching me shuffle awkwardly to my wardrobe that had seen better days. Bambi was now wide awake at this point and stood to meet me, a heavy frown set on her once pouty lips.

“Please tell me you’re not going, especially after last night-”

“Last night is just as much my issue as it is Renato’s, Bam. Who knows, maybe he just found out something interesting about that gunk,” I tried to reassure both her and myself as I began to rummage through my clothes. We were assigned two wardrobe closets to a dorm at the beginning of the year and expected to fit all of our belongings inside. While Bambi had somehow made hers always look presentable. Mine was everything but, and I now struggled as I attempted to rip a cute yellow hoodie with ‘Good Vibes’ written in a cute font across the front out of its clutches for the day ahead.

I succeeded, only to fall back and have a mess of clothes topple onto me in the aftermath. Both Ava and Bambi shared a look of worry before Bambi knelt down to help me.

“I just...think it’s kind of bullshit he’s calling you in after everything. Especially with that,” she added as she pointed to my midriff, shirt now raised some to reveal a nasty looking bruise that had formed overnight. Underneath lurked a nastier looking scar from past events that I quickly hid and looked away, suddenly very aware of my flaws.

“Bambi, *déjalo!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s fine,” I managed quickly, not wanting to mention it any more than it already had been. Like a monkey's paw suddenly sensing my wish to change the subject we all turned to my phone that had begun to vibrate again. Ava, the closest to it, studied the notification before her hazel eyes grew wide. “What is it?” I asked hesitantly as she stood and quickly closed the distance between us, holding my phone at arm's length like it was a bomb.

When I saw who was calling it might as well have been.

It was my father.

“Oh no, no. Can't you just like...I don’t know, tell him I’m sleeping??” I asked desperately, a snort erupting from her as she held it closer, holding me captive against the wall now.

“You really think I’m gonna pull off lying to your dad? Get real,” she hissed back while swiping over the green telephone emote to accept the call. I pursed my lips angrily in response, knowing she had me at a stalemate before I accepted the phone in defeat.  "Ante up, bebita, you're on." she mouthed quietly as she and Bambi stood nearby quietly to listen. Even Benni's once peaceful snores were gone from the room as I prepared to completely BS my way through this conversation.

“Bonjour Papa!” I chimed into the receiver, knowing full well the I had just stepped into the lion’s den and had to be very careful about what was said. My father was as smart as he was strong, and the man had won a plethora of heavyweight titles before he retired. I had to be smart about where the conversation would go.

“Nina,” he started, dad tone already in full swing behind his heavy french accent. “We’ve been trying to get ahold of you all morning, *est-ce que tu vas bien? We saw the news and-”

“Oh right, the news.” I interrupted, clicking my tongue with thought as Bambi and Ava watched with wide eyes. I ignored them as I continued to search for the rest of my outfit in the mess I had created. “Wild stuff, right?”

“You didn’t get involved, did you?” he asked point-blank, my insides squirming as I pretended to scoff at his words.

“Me? Get involved? C’mon dad, *Avoir une certaine foi!” I grunted while struggling into a pair of leggings. He grunted back in response.

“I just worry, mon petite. Because reports say that a small mystery hero came in at the last second,”

“You don’t say,” I asked softly, hoodie stopped half over my body at these words. I wanted to curse. Sure, the news hadn't been able to record anything of my failed attempt at heroism, but I hadn't even thought about bystanders that might have seen.

“Oui, and she seemed to be wielding a hammer. A big black hammer that fell apart right after using it,” he pressed, my nerves getting the best of me as I scrambled to find proper words to say. “You sure you weren’t there?”

“Of course not." I started, tugging at my hair nervously as I began to feel myself ramble. "I-I was studying with the girls during the lock-in! Do you know how many superheroes are in New York? In Brooklynn for that matter? Do you really think I’d be dumb enough to take on that thing? Hah! Hah! You’re so funny, papa. Oh? What’s that? My phone is dying and I need to leave? What a very strange coincidence!” I laughed a little too loud into the phone, walking nervous circles in the room as Ava and Bambi watched with embarrassed stares.

“Nina-”

“I really gotta go, I did nothing wrong, ever!” I answered hastily before hanging up, pulling my hood over my face to hide from the heavy looks the girls were giving me. “Please, no commentary.”

“Smooth,” Ava whispered dryly as I shrugged and tossed my hands up in the air, immediately racked with another bout of pain. I struggled to shrug it off, instead focusing my attention on gathering my belongings to leave for the day. As I went to grab my bag I stopped, sheets of my old weapon schematics poking through that brought me back to the day before. I shook my head of the invasive thoughts wanting to pry through and removed them, knowing I had no business trying to use any of them anymore.

Behind me, Bambi took a seat on my bed and tugged at her sleeves nervously.

“You’re really not going to tell them?” she asked softly. The question made me stop abruptly and turn to her, disbelief in my eyes. 

“Do you want to explain to them how they almost lost their only child while she was out playing hero?” I shot back quickly. I knew she meant well, and I knew that this would most likely end up biting me in the ass at a later time. But I also had to keep this a secret from them until it was all figured out, there'd be no point otherwise.

Especially if it meant putting them in danger.

“That’s...fair,” she agreed quietly after a moment of silence, Ava joining her side on my bed as they watched me scramble to shove my clothes back in my wardrobe. “Do...you want some company with Renato?” she offered, but I could see the fear in her eyes of having to face that moment again. Of having to go back to the labs and seeing what could possibly be another nightmare waiting. She had suffered just as much as I did and I didn't want to force her through it again if she wasn't ready.

Instead, I shook my head and feigned a smile.

“It’s fine, I’m going to Renato’s and then straight to Drawing 2 after. I’ll pick up your SD card for you while I’m there though, yeah?”

She looked relieved at this and nodded. “You’re a lifesaver, Neeners.”

“I know it,” I teased before grabbing my helmet and sauntering out of the door. Before I could leave fully my phone went off. Inside a simple text from Benni read ‘Be careful!’, but when I looked to the bed she was still as motionless as ever and dead to the world.

How did she do that?

“Aye, keep us posted!” Ava shouted through the door as I left, a soft sigh of relief escaping my lips as I headed outside. Truth be told it was a bit of a relief to be away from them. All the worried looks, the fear we had all felt hanging like a miasma in the room. I needed to get away from it all, to escape briefly so I could think.

Outside storm clouds loomed above, threatening to release hell down on the city at any moment. I hurried to Queen and took off before I was the unlucky duckling to have to experience it and, to my surprise, the street that had once looked like a warzone the night before was now pristine. Even the dark stain I had been haunted by on the way home was nothing more than normal black asphalt now. As much as people complained about where our tax dollars were going I had to give it to the city restoration committee for always being on point. They made it look like nothing had ever happened and, for a brief moment, I believed that.

Before I could enjoy the momentary peace of mind I was given I was already at work. My hands gripped my key card tight as I hurried to the door, trying to brace myself for whatever might be waiting for me inside. Instead, the door opened as I went to swipe and Barry stared at me, eyes wide with surprise as he saw my face.

“Miss Knight? What in the world are you doing here?” 

“I wish I knew. The professor called me in,” I explained shortly before scooting past him to sail down the stairs. I stopped abruptly at the last step, hearing the harsh tone of Renato’s ring through the air. I had never heard him so angry, not even when I once accidentally almost broke Levi's aquarium by playing with one of my ink balls in the lab.

Another voice, a strangely familiar voice this time, now spoke in a deep yet desperate tone.

“Darwin please, we may have had our differences before but this...this could very well save lives!”

“I’m not going to tell you again. This is a dangerous subject and it has no place in the medical field. Leave the premises or I will be calling the police. And don’t you ever, ever use that name again.” he growled. My surprise and curiosity were through the roof at this point. Who could strike so much anger in such a simple man that would lead him to talk like this?

I had to know.

“Knock, knock.” I chimed softly through the sliding doors, as if I hadn't just been eavesdropping just moments earlier. My eyes immediately fell on the stranger causing the ruckus and I couldn’t help but manage a small gasp at who I saw. It was the janitor from last night, the man that had sent chills down my spine with just a simple question. “A-am I interrupting something?” I stammered, trying to keep my composure as his gaunt appearance glared at me before looking back to Renato.

“I was just leaving. I hope you sleep well at night knowing you work for a monster,”

“Well, I’m in college, so your first mistake was thinking I sleep at all,” I responded a little too sarcastically, a small grim chuckle leaving the man’s throat as he knocked shoulders with me on his way out. His demeanor had changed completely from the man I had seen just moments ago, once slumped shoulders now broad, all frailty from him diminished as he turned to face Renato once more with a dark stare.

“It was nice seeing you again after all these years, Professor. Remember, I did try to play nice,” he called before exiting the lab, leaving a heavy silence in his wake. I blinked in surprise, unsure if I had just been tricked into seeing two different people or if that man was just that good at changing his personality. 

I turned to Renato who's brows were furrowed and was staring angrily at nothing in particular before I attempted to break the ice.

“So, who’s your friend?” I asked carefully, watching his eyes flicker up to me and narrow at the assumption.

“Never friends. We were hardly even colleagues,” he muttered as he began pacing, running his hands through his once neatly ponytailed dreads. They now fell over his face and shoulders as he stood hunched over his desk, fuming. “I knew something was off about that man, why didn’t I see it sooner?” he whispered to himself, fully immersed in the conversation in his head.

“Uh, what?”

“How could I have so foolish? Of course, I was being watched...how could I have known he would go to this level though? Stupid..."

"Renato?"

"If he gets his hands on this...dammit!” he hissed before slamming his fist on the desk angrily. I flinched at the action before snapping my fingers at him.

“Hey! Earth to Renato, bring it back down to Earth!” I called, watching him snap from whatever stupor he had previously been in. Looking up close at him now he looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept at all. Under his lab coat, I saw now that he was wearing the same clothes he had worn when I left last night and it finally clicked. “Did you stay here all night?”

“I...well, yes,” he admitted sheepishly before he took to rubbing his chin, looking at nothing in particular like he was deep in thought. We stood in silence for a few moments before I touched his shoulder, confusion rapidly growing in my head that I was desperate to get explained.

“Hey, are you going to explain what’s going on or…?”

He seemed to slip back into the moment and sighed, pulling off his glasses to clean them anxiously. “Right. Sorry. I was hoping to give you a day to rest but...something happened.”

“So you said in the text. What is it?” I asked suspiciously, fear creeping into my voice before I could stop it. He took a large sigh before pressing his palms together and directing them at me with somber eyes.

“You have to promise that you’ll let me explain before you get upset,” he started, looking down at me with a gaze that turned serious within a few seconds. My stomach gave a quick twist of fear at this. It was suddenly very apparent that whatever that substance he had was no longer within sight, which made my thoughts run wild with worry.

“What did you do, Renato?” I asked gravely, watching him hesitate before starting towards the fish tank. My gaze hardened as I noticed it was now covered with a dark sheet, a sheet that he now removed to reveal a lazily wandering Leviathan in the water. I released a sigh of relief, a piece of me fearing the worst for the little crustacean. 

That was before it turned its sights on me at least.

It was like I had been tossed into a sci-fi horror flick. Its skin went from its usual beautiful maroon to a horrific pitch black, it’s size growing into something grotesque before he began to slam against the glass. Renato steadied the tank before tossing the sheet over it once more and it's furious attempts to leave grew silent. I stood in terrified silence trying to process what I just saw, hands quivering at my sides as Renato turned back to me and managed a weak unsure shrug.

“What, pray tell, the everloving fuck was that?” I finally managed to whisper as he started back towards me, hands shoved deep in his lab pockets as he seemed to ponder what to say to me. I took a step back from him, my gut suddenly unsure of how I felt about being around him. His gaze looked hurt at this but he kept his distance as if nervous I would run if he got too close.

“I suppose I deserve that…” he whispered before I scoffed, tossing my arms up in the air with a sarcastic laugh.

“You suppose? That guy was right, you're a damn monster!"

“Nina please, your language-”

“Do not start with me over that,” I snapped, folding my arms, ready to hear what excuse he had ready for what I had just seen. "Explain. What the fuck happened when I left?”

He sighed and nodded softly, giving up on arguing.

“Right. So, you left, and I had been engrossed in researching this creature. It’s quite a find, Nina, it’s DNA is incredible. So incredible in fact that I found it had regenerating cells and I…” he trailed, taking his glasses to fiddle with them as he spoke. “I saw a window for experimentation and I took it.”

“On Levi? But why? You know what that thing can do!” I protested, his features dark with thought.

“I know, trust me, I know. I thought...maybe a smaller dose wouldn’t have the effects of its original host, that maybe it could reverse his health,” he admitted, a look of weariness taking over him. “It did do that but it also turned him into what you just witnessed.”

“And how does your friend tie into this?” I asked grimly, nodding towards the door. He scowled at my use of friend but sighed wearily.

“As I said, he’s an old colleague...from a different time. Back...when I worked for the government,” he explained quietly. 

I blinked in shock. 

“You did what for the who now?”

“I was a scientist for a special research program briefly after college with the close colleague of mine I've mentioned, along with the man you saw earlier. He went by Oliver Phobus, though I’m not sure if he still goes by that name…” he trailed as if thinking hard into the past.

I couldn't believe he wasn't sharing this information with me. I could barely get him to reveal what his favorite juice was on store runs half the time much less a look into his past like this. I decided to press my luck and prod further.

"Why is that?"

“Oliver was, well, is a desperate man. His forte used to be finding cures to uncommon diseases, often taking devious measures to get to his answers if it meant a breakthrough.”

“Such as?” I pressed, curiosity growing by the second. He pursed his lips before continuing, a look of discomfort falling over him as if not wanting to answer.

“He did many experiments on...people...terrible things,” he whispered, my mouth growing dry at his words. His eyes grew dark at the mention of it, like he was reliving the experience as he spoke. “As soon as we found out we made sure he was removed from the program, but soon after he and his family left without a trace on where to find him. And then today…” he sighed, fist resting on his chin as he recounted what happened. “Today I was trying to take a sample from Levi and he came in and saw. He saw what Leviathan had become and I know he’s going to come back for him.”

“You think he’s going to come back? You told him you were going to call the cops!” I reasoned, a grim chuckle erupting from him as he stood once more and started organizing things from his desk. 

“You underestimate the level of desperation he’s at,” he answered shortly before hunching over his laptop, body stiff as he began to clack away at the keyboard. I shifted nervously, still trying to process all the new information given to me. Renato called him a desperate man but didn’t he just commit his own messed up experiment in the name of science? But also to hear he experimented on people, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. That strange smile he presented to me the night before now seemed all the more devious and caused a shiver to run down my spine at the thought of it. Renato at least seemed ashamed of what he did.

Phobus just seemed like a mad man on a mission.

“So...what will you do now?” I asked softly, my gaze traveling back to the tank that stood silent now despite the uproar that had just happened. Just remembering the glimpse of black tendrils slithering out and the sheer anger it seemed to have when it saw me...it made me not even want to be in the room.

Renato sighed as he turned back to me and folded his arms.

“This is where it gets tricky,” he began, frown settled deeply on his lips at what he was about to say. “My work, Levi specifically, can’t stay here any longer. I’ll be alerting the proper authorities of what’s transpired but I need to get him somewhere safe before I do so. Can't exactly have them seeing what he's become without it turning into a worse situation than it already is,"

“Fair enough,”

“What I need from you is just to stay here and keep guard while I travel home to get the proper equipment to take him to my colleague's residency. There we can do some proper testing, maybe see if we can reverse this-”

“You want me to do what?” I asked incredulously. Above us, a warning of thunder rolled past, a feeling of unease taking hold of my gut at his request. Here he was, dropping a complete bombshell on me and expected me to just roll with it like it was no big deal? I shook my head and held my hands up in disagreement. “Professor…”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t desperate, Nina. You're one of the only people I trust with this,” he admitted, placing a hand on my shoulder with a look of sheer exhaustion. “I know you’re unhappy with me right now. I know I made a bad decision, but I can’t let him have this. He’s a dangerous man and I don’t know what he’ll do with the information or what could happen if-,”

“If he gets ahold of this, right,” I sighed, not wanting him to finish the terrifying thought that Levi could very well transform into some terrible if given the chance. Or even something worse happening if someone was able to manipulate that DNA. Inside every fiber of my being protested this request, but deep down I also knew all too well that sometimes you had to make the hard decisions that you really didn’t want to. I just wished it wasn’t me in this scenario, especially after the first time had already gone so wrong.

Renato was desperate by his standards though, and he had stuck his neck out for me so many times in the past year that I lost count. It was only fair I repay him for it.  

I just hoped it wouldn't bite me in the ass later.

“Alright, I will watch Levi until you can make it back. I have a class soon but I can skip if you need me to-”

“Not necessary. I’m already in enough hot water, I don’t need your parents blaming me for you missing class,” he joked softly before his demeanor changed. “You did talk to them last night, didn't you?”

“Define talk and last night,” I smiled sheepishly before laughing nervously at his sour appearance. “Relax, we spoke briefly this morning. They know nothing so I’d like to keep it that way,” I admitted before glancing at the clock and frowning. “Shoot. I’ve gotta head out but I’ll be back at around 6, is that too late?”

“6 is perfect. I’ll have everything ready for when you return so we can make this quick,” he added before pausing and looking at me with a soft frown. “Are you sure you’re up for this? You can say no, especially after everything that’s happened last night.”

“I’ve already made my decision, haven’t I? What’s the worst that can happen anyway? It’s just some science nerd that probably won’t even show up tonight, right?” I joked, trying to hide my own fear by making light of the situation. Renato gave me a weary smile before heading to his desk to get to work, brows creased with uncertainty at my words.

“I suppose you’re right, I'm probably just being careful about this. Just...be ready, we’ll discuss more when you return,” he concluded, setting us on our separate ways until the big night ahead.

Despite him trying to be reassuring about it a part of me knew that it wasn't going to be that easy.

Things were never that easy.

[blackberry-bloody]

Can I request Pippin and shock collar for BTHB?

I’m sorry this took so long. I had a lot of stuff going on. But I hope you like it! (I also hope you see it. this is like the fifth time I’m trying to post this...) This takes place just after Pippin is caught by Missy.________________________________________________________________Pippin woke up hazy. His entire body felt heavy as he slowly crawled back to consciousness. He didn't want to… He wanted to turn over and drift off to sleep. He wasn't ready to face whatever situation he had gotten himself into this time. He didn't really remember what had happened… But he knew something was wrong. That much he did know. He gave a frustrated groan and sat up, reaching a hand up to hold his hand. He begrudgingly opened his eyes and looked around.

The first thing he noticed was that he was in a small cement room that was very reminiscent of an old bunker. It wasn't very welcoming, and it was dimly lit. The door was on the far wall and it looked metal and heavy. The second thing he noticed was a woman standing across the room from him. Pippin nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw her. Thanks to the minimal lighting, she was hard to spot. However it perfectly lit up her face and her disturbingly smug grin.

"Ah, good. You're awake." The woman spoke, pushing herself of the wall. Her tone was odd. She sounded like she was excited, while still seeming completely emotionless. She started to stalk towards him. Pippin, having enough sense to know that this was not an ideal situation, quickly stood up and backed up. He readied himself to make a break for the door. And if that didn't work… Than to fight. The woman's grin seemed to widen, if that was even possible. And Pippin saw danger screaming from her eyes. He looked her over, taking in what she looked like as she came into the light. She was a demon, like him. But judging by the length of her horns, she was a powerful one. Respected… Not someone to be messed with. She was dressed nicely too. A long, but tight red dress. In another situation, he'd probably find her quite attractive. But judging by the way she was looking at him… Like he was prey. It threw those thoughts right out the window. Each time she took a step forward, he took one back, trying to keep distance between her and him. He didn't know what she wanted but it certainly wasn't good. She seemed to sense his unease and chuckled a bit before speaking again. "Come now, this is your new home. Don't be afraid. There'll be plenty of time for that later." She suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Pippin's chin while pinning him against the wall. Pippin only managed a yelp of surprise as he looked at her. He decided that he would not  stand for this. He narrowed his eyes and reached up and grabbed her wrist and painfully twisted it away from him. This time, the woman yelped in pain and took a step back. Pippin used the opportunity to make a mad dash for the door. But he only got a few feet before he heard a snap. And then suddenly, he was frozen. He tried to force his muscles to function… To move… But it was as if they just wouldn't listen. He heard the woman tsking behind him and footsteps approaching. She walked in front of him, knowing he couldn't turn his head to look at her. Her wide smile had been replaced by a disappointed frown. "Now I thought you were going to behave. You seemed smart when I looked into you. Pity… I guess I'll just have to train you like I did with the angel." Pippin felt dread pooling in his stomach. He had been caught by another demon. Which in his world meant one thing… She owned him now. A muffled noise of worry, not unlike a whimper made itself known in his throat. The woman's expression changed to one of feigned concern. "Aww, scared are we? Well I guess you are pretty smart." She looked him over, a frown back on her face. She sighed softly, "Still, it would be best to take precautions. I can't have you actually hurting me, now can I? Hm?" She chuckled and walked behind him again. Pippin felt panic grow as the seconds ticked by. She wasn't doing anything… Why isn't she- A sound halfway between a yelp and a gasp left him. He still couldn't move his closed mouth to open it, so the sound died in his throat. He felt her grab onto his wings and stretch them. As though he was a doll for her to pose. She hummed softly, creepily, as she gently pet one of them. And laughed as he made another whimpering noise. Oh how desperately he wanted to move… To pull away. And it only got worse as he felt fingers card through his hair and tilt his head back. He glanced down at his neck, thankful that he could still at least move his eyes, and immediately felt even more vulnerable. His throat was entirely to exposed… She reached around and dragged one of her clawed nails across his neck and revelled in the shudder it earned. She ever so gently kissed the top of his head. "You're exceptionally handsome Pippin. Perhaps after you're trained I'll let you live with me. Be my little pet. Wouldn't that be lovely?" She chuckled yet again. "I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to teach you a lesson for hurting me before." She looked into his increasingly scared eyes with mock pity and poorly concealed glee. She held up her hand so that he could see it, and snapped her fingers. Suddenly in her hand there was now a black collar. Pippin let out a muffled sound of protest, but it only succeeded in making the woman smirk. She lifted his head again and fastened the collar around his neck. She walked around him and held a small black remote in his face. He didn't have to guess what it was for… He watched as her smile grew malicious. Her fangs clearly visible. And he watched helplessly as she pressed one of the buttons. At first it was a startling sharp jolt against his neck. But as she held down the button, it became more and more painful. And he couldn't move to express how much pain he was in… His muscles couldn't even tense. So he stuck to uncontrollably letting out muffled sobbing and his eyes tearing up as he closed his eyes. He didn't even really register feeling something wrap around each of his wrists. When, just as quickly as the shock had started, it stopped. He opened his eyes and saw that the woman had released the button. And he saw her snap his fingers once again. He suddenly crumpled, his muscles having now turned to jelly, but he could move again. He gulped down breath after breath, trying to accommodate for his racing heartbeat. He weakly lifted his head to look up at her. He started to bring his hand up to touch the collar, when he was met with the sound of metal. He looked back down at his hands and saw that each was shackled the ground. He testily tugged against the chains and was met with another sharp jolt of electricity against his neck. He yelped in pain. He tried again to lift his hand towards the collar, instinctively going to claw it off, but it was over quickly, and the woman had knelt down and grabbed his chin, making him look up at her. She still wore a devilish smirk that made him try to pull away, but she just dug her nails into him a takes. "Now, I have to go, but I'll be back soon. I promise. And when I do, you better still be wearing my gift for you. Otherwise I'll have to punish you again. And neither of us want that do we?" Pippin weakly shook his head and she released his chin in favor of patting his head. "Good boy, you're learning already. Now Missy will be back soon. So be good." She stood up and he watched her walk out the door and heard the thudding of locks being locked. "Missy… So that's her name…" Pippin muttered to himself before passing out into unconsciousness again.

[brightsun-and-darkmidnight]

Heartbeat: A Fragile Reminder

TITLE: Heartbeat: A Fragile Reminder

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 28 / ?

AUTHOR: brightsun-and-dark midnight

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki falling in love with a Midgardian and his words to Thor about Jane during Dark World coming back to haunt him. “It would be a heartbeat. You would never be ready.”

RATING:  M for Mature

NOTES/WARNINGS: ~▪︎~FOR THE WHOLE STORY~▪︎~

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Check Masterlist. It's going to be a long read. I try to keep each chapter around 3,000 words.

My Ao3: brightsun_and_darkmidnight

!-!TRIGGER WARNING(S)!-!

So many triggers, read ALL of them!

Swearing. Angst. Death. Depression. Violence. Self-harm. Regret. Carelessness for safety. Doubts. Torture. NSFW. Smut. Fluff. And Of Course- Mischief.

Summary: Alicia's Birthday

~ ~ ENJOY ~ ~

As the night unfolded to the the time for relaxation, it seemed as if he could not keep his eyes from Alicia.

Loki did stay in the bedroom with a book and made her relax in the bath with an Asgardian "bath bomb." When she was done she used the door shared with her walk in closet. She put on light blue lingerie with a white silk robe loosely tied. The bright light from her vanity helped her with the skin care routine. She let her hair loose from a hair clip making the dramatic waves cascade down wonderfully. 

"A little makeup to even the skin tone would be nice…" Alicia played with her hair as she brushed it. She scoffed as she looked at herself, "of course... I didn't look this good when I left the tower… thanks to Emma I was presentable." She huffed as she opened the door to the bedroom.

Alicia's eyes adjusted poorly to the dim lights of candles around the room. She had to blink a few times because the drastic change in lighting was unexpected. She was able to identify the flickering candles easily then the illuminated pale skin of Loki.

Loki was laid out on the bed. The sheets covered his waist down but Alicia could see his muscles, dark hair, his eyes that seemed to darken at the sight of her. Loki's bright teeth made the warmth in her belly grow. Loki beckoned her to approach and she obeyed.

Alicia laughed as she shuffled her feet, "Loki.. I can't see."

Loki's voice was amused and teasing, "I made sure the floor was cleared."

"How romantic to protect my toes." Alicia rolled her eyes and with his poorly hidden smile she knew he had a plan.

"You seem stressed."

Alicia huffed, "nooo. With my toes in the safety of the God of Mischief I have nothing to worry about." Alicia stopped at the bedside and glanced at the end table. There was sex lube but what got Alicia really excited was the massage oils and lotion.

Loki's deep voice seemed excited, "Let me relax you."

Alicia moved onto the bed as she parted her robe and let it fall. "Does this relaxation include a massage?" 

Loki gestured to the nightstand with lubrications. "As you can see this is going to be a very thorough massage… of every muscle."

She giggled as Loki eased her under him, "so… some of it is going to be your favorite game after all."

"Your muscles are going to need massaged after I am done with you." 

With a low growl, Loki caught her lips and then when she needed air he nipped down her neck. His rough grabs were hesitant but Alicia urged him for more between gasps for air. He bit her but never broke skin like the first time he lost control. Alicia was not upset when her clothes disappeared in a shimmer. He did not savor his time with foreplay as usual, but entered her quickly. She gasped but immediately fell into pleasure from his rough thrusts, bites, and pinches. Her own hands clawed his back and fingers gripped muscles or tangled in his hair to pull him closer. She sucked on his skin with the occasional bite through loud pleased sounds. She tried desperately to keep her mind functioning enough to kiss him. Loki devoured her mouth and overpowered her tongue, even nipping it with a rumble in his chest.

Alicia orgasmed with a loud sound but Loki kept ravishing her.

She scrambled her mind back but Loki kept up his rough pace. She felt wonderful, she already ached and knew bruises adorned her. No one has ever made her feel this way so fast but Loki was a God. He could easily break her but his exercise of control is what she loved the most, this is the reason she trusted him.

Loki stopped momentarily to turn her onto her stomach. Alicia gasped as her hips were pulled back and he resumed roughly fucking her. She was jelly at this point and could do nothing but moan, scream his name, and cry out in pleasure. Her hands fisted the pillow as she reached completion too many times to process. She was too sensitive right now. Her inside ached and her clit was swollen it felt like it was throbbing.

She tiredly moaned his name with a murmur of, "yellow."

Loki removed his hands from her to rest on the sides of her body as he pressed his chest to her backside. He went into a completely different pace and Alicia groaned into the pillow at the relaxing sensation and the change of treatment. Alicia's hands relaxed for a moment as they welcomed his hands. She sighed his name as her muscles began to tighten again. He kissed her shoulder with hot puffs of air dancing on her skin. She was exhausted and her mind was lost as relief washed over her body again.

Loki's hand tightly held hers and she felt him explode inside with his release. He moaned with heavy breaths and she felt him lay beside her. She glanced at him as she tried to roll over but he put his hand firmly on her lower back.

"I am not done with you yet." Loki wet his lips and his hand searched for a bottle on the end table. He grabbed one and glanced at it before tossing it off the bed. "I assume you are done with sex?"

Alicia hummed as she held the pillow to her body and got comfortable to ease some aches. Her eyes closed in happiness as she felt Loki's hands were on her back and massaged the already loose muscles but the aches from the previous methods felt heavenly. Loki's seder from his hands roamed over her body easily with the help of the lotion.

Alicia's voice was too relaxed, "That have Asgardian... whatever in it?"

Loki's voice was a nice sound, relaxing and comforting. "You seem used to the Asgardian healing now."

"Yeah… Emma heals me all the time... It's like your seder is sticking to me where the lotion is."

"It is."

Alicia pleasurably sighed as his fingers worked at her ankles then heels. She did not dare comment on her feet being massaged by a prince. His deft fingers worked amazing on sore muscles of her feet. 

Loki continued massaging her entire body until his touches became almost nonexistent. His finger ran along her side that sent relaxing sensations through her. Alicia was loose and boneless, she was sprawled out on the bed and was on the brink of sleep. Loki pulled her to his chest as he laid.

"I am glad I used regular lotion. Actual massaging oils and we would have needed to clean everything."

Alicia's voice was slurred and low, "I cant believe a princess-prince massaged my feet."

Loki grumbled, "Yeah..Let's not talk about that." His fingers danced over the spot he just pinched because or her recurring joke.

Alicia snorted. "I can make that deal. I'll just shove my feet in your face instead of asking nicely."

Alicia heard him mumble, "they better be freshly cleaned." Loki's head rested on hers, "you have an eventful day tomorrow too. Go to sleep, Love."

Alicia hummed as she nestled into him more, "You planned more?"

Loki chuckled into her hair, "not exactly. Do not fret until tomorrow. "

Loki had breakfast ordered first thing so they could wake up, get ready for their eventful day, and share a breakfast. Loki also ordered a small lunch for the plane ride to the tower. Alicia teased him without pause about the fact he could have ordered food on the way to their house yesterday, that he did not have to flaunt her engagement ring.

Loki did not put up any argument other than, "you are mine."

She gave him a smile and teasing tone, "you are mine."

Once they were close Loki blindfolded Alicia and ordered her to be quiet. She giggled as she tried to figure out where she was but Loki kept her disoriented by spinning her occasionally. Loki pulled her to their floor in the tower; walked her around, twirled her and spun with her until they were in the kitchen.

Loki glanced at the group waiting and calmly announced, "We are here."

"Okay… where is here?"

The silent room bubbled with excitement, especially the children. Loki seen Kevin going to speak but Susan knew what was going to happen and covered his mouth, there was still a muffled protest. The room remained silent otherwise with a few stifles of laughter and the biggest smile from Alicia. However, when he took the blindfold off there was a chorus of, "surprise! Happy birthday!"

Alicia thanked them all, then her head went to the quick approaching children. She knelt down as Justin and Emily explained they all planned it. Alicia hugged the children then Susan and a few others, laughing about the little slip up with Kevin.

The children had coloring books, plain paper as well as the utensils needed. They made sure to get Alicia a set of colored utensils and a simple collection of drawing pencils as a gift. She thanked them with even more hugs and rushed them to a table to draw.

Emily spoke up, "Mommy told us you like to draw things."

Alicia paused for a moment to smile, "That is true."

Justin glanced at Alicia's drawing of a park with many people and typical animals seen in the nearby park. "How long have you been drawing?"

Alicia stopped to look at the children with a thoughtful expression, "probably since I could hold things. It has always been a favorite thing to do." Alicia smiled at Kevin scribbling odd things on paper. 

Emily put effort into drawing a cat, her tongue sticking out before she stated, "I want to be a good drawer too."

Alicia kept drawing, "Practice and practice. I would draw everyday until my hand hurt, just so my pictures could tell stories."

Justin questioned, "What is your favorite thing to draw?"

Alicia's lips pulled into a smile… "currently young children and babies."

Justin put his elbows on the table, "So like….. are you ever going to give me a cousin?"

Susan was discussing the tower with Tony but jumped head first into the conversation, "yeah! I want a niece, or nephew -I don't care! I just want one." Alicia and Susan held a bond between them that stems from deeper roots than most blood.

Loki could not take his eyes off of Alicia she was his shining guide through his life…

Loki felt his smile return when Alicia gave him a look, a smile pulling her lips as well. Just thinking about her carrying his child gave him a sense of pride in his chest. Loki's eyes went to Susan who clapped loudly with a serious look.

Loki offered his input, "I think there might be one in the future." 

"How do you know this? Did she do the thing?????"

Alicia put her hand up with a wave to stop, the children did not know of her visions and no one else needed to know. Susan calmed down a bit but the smile was not contained, with the clasp of hands and a quick tap of feet... Loki knew Susan was thrilled about the child. 

Alicia shrugged before speaking, "Yeah the thing kinda happened… Gosh I looked worse than you did after Justin." Alicia grinned at Susan with a little pat on her arm.

Susan nudged into Alicia's hand, "ya know it gets easier with the more you have."

Alicia tilted her head towards Loki, "Don't. Please don't encourage him."

Michael, Susan's husband, spoke up with a sense of dread, "does he have Susan's interest as well?"

Alicia spoke dryly, "Thoroughly."

Loki chuckled with a shrug, making Susan boast in laughter.

Michael excitedly spoke up with a gesture, "You can have plenty of practice caring for children with these ones."

Alicia grinned, "Yes. Loki needs to know what he is wishing upon himself."

Loki was called by Thor to talk with the others and left Alicia and her family for a little. Their laughter could be heard wherever he went in the room, but then it was silent for a while. Loki glanced at the drawing table where Jane was drawing with them, seeming to be teaching the kids something as they listened and watched Jane's hand move quickly. 

Thor watched with interest as well, insisting Jane was a good teacher and he was excited to watch her teach their own child. Tony made it a contest of how his own child was going to be the smartest next generation hero. Pepper wasted no time with stating if her child became a hero, ALL of the current Avengers would be ended by Pepper's doing.

Tony gave the woman a long face, "Come on Pep, who is going to teach her?"

Pepper sternly replied, "No."

Thor clapped Loki's shoulder, "it is up to us then."

Loki smiled widely, "I count on having many children."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Yes, because we need more Gods fighting each other."

Loki felt a little hand pulling at his pants prompting him to turn slowly. Emily was there with a big smile as she gave him a paper with a drawing on it. Loki's heart enlarged as he told the young child how much he loved it. Loki was not sure exactly what kind of animal it was but the drawing was adorable in an odd way. Tony questioned where his own was and Emily rolled her eyes, told him to wait and she would do something.

Tony stared at the girl as she ran to the table stating she definitely got her mother's and Alicia's personality. Eventually the others in the room received drawings as well but Emily did them quickly and thus the results were not up to Loki's gift.

The family members were given menus to pick food from for their dinner. The children could not contain how cool it was to have options for food instead of the horrible cooking of their parents. Thus, making everyone laugh and enticed teasing between everyone of who's cooking was the worst.

Alicia went to Loki with a smile as she genuinely asked about the picture. Loki told her he loved it and he rarely received pictures like Emily's. Alicia laughed and stated there were plenty more on the way and she was right. Loki had a pile of images before the family left and everyone had to get ready for the party Tony planned.

During the party, Alicia was wished a happy birthday by many but she kept Loki by her side and she showed him off as the best gift as a "wonderful fiance." Loki smiled proudly when people started talking about how happy both of them looked. 

During a little time to themselves among the outskirts of the room Loki listened to Alicia tell him he was the best for him. That everyone was just going to have to be left with fantasies of him. She winked and told him that the "Dark Prince" chats are very interesting.

Loki nearly drowned himself with his beverage as he began to laugh immediately at her sudden sinful thoughts. He coughed a few times, "you still look at those?"

Alicia shrugged, "when I am bored."

Loki rolled his eyes, "you say I am ridiculous."

Alicia grinned, "did I ever say I was not?"

Loki smiled, "I think there was that one time."

Alicia cupped his face, "I love to see this smile. And I hope I never forget…"

Loki held her hands, "You talk as if you are going to lose your sight."

"If I need to stay in them for a long time… I will. Without Emma to help I would be doomed."

Loki saw her look at him and focusing hard then her eyes wander off and she squinted and blinked. "You… how do you see now?"

Alicia met his eyes then nervously smiled, "everything is...fuzzy." She looked towards the window, led him outside and leaned on the railing. With her head tilted high she did not smile, there was no emotion. Then her lips turned down and she looked at Loki as she grabbed his hand. "There are more important things to remember… Besides, it's just far off things I can't see."

Knowing she valued the color variations throughout the day Loki gestured to the sky, "Can you see anything up there?"

Her eyes searched the night sky and then she looked directly at the full moon, "yes.. The big things."

Loki held her close, arm around her shoulder and hand cradled her head, "I'm sorry."

"There is nothing to worry about. In my visions I remember and I see so perfectly but...I'm ahead of everyone. I can only slow down till about 10 seconds before everyone. I want to experience things together more than keep my eyesight." Alicia sighed and retreated from the embrace, "put on your best smile, and let's go celebrate… I want to show off my fiance and see everyone's faces."

Loki smiled and gently pushed hair back to expose an earring. She was his but today he could be hers. They were each other's to have so long as the future would allow. They had a wonderful future… a child. Maybe more? Loki smiled into the kiss. They said those 3 words at the same time.

"I love you."

[shibuemiyuu]

Desires - Hakuoki Fanfiction - Chapter 15

Here’s another update. 

All the editing credits goes to @impracticaldemon and @nalufever :)

Hope you enjoy :D

Chapters of the Story:

Prequel - Prologue - I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII - VIII - IX - X - XI - XII - XIII - Omake - XIV

Miyuu

@hijichiweek @kirakirachiizuru

-XV-

Pant. Pant. Pant. Pant.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Do you want to take a rest?"

"No, it's okay Inoue-san. I'll be alright. Besides, we can't afford to stop."

Inoue looked at Chizuru with creased brows. They had been running for the past hour so they could be at Yodo Castle as soon as possible. When Hijikata gave his permission for Chizuru to go to the Yodo Castle to ask for reinforcements, Inoue and Chizuru didn't waste any time and soon they departed the Fushimi magistrate's office. The Shinsengumi was doing poorly and they really needed help.

Suddenly Inoue stopped and turned to Chizuru, "Yukimura-kun, I think we need to slow down."

"What?" asked Chizuru, confused with the abrupt stop.

Inoue didn't give any explanation to Chizuru. Instead he walked to one of the large rocks and sat on top of it. Chizuru wiped the sweat from her brows and took a deep breath.

"Please sit here," Inoue patted the space on his right side for Chizuru to sit. The woman forced her throbbing feet to move, slowly walked to the large rock and sat beside Inoue. Chizuru then realized how tired and weak she felt. She had been tending to the wounded soldiers of the Shinsengumi before she heard Hijikata's words about asking for reinforcements from Yodo Castle. Her little energy had been depleting fast from all the hard work she had done. She took another deep breath to calm her raging heartbeat from all the running.

Chizuru glanced at the older man next to her and gave a sheepish smile, "Thank you Inoue-san."

"Now I know why Toshi-san didn't give his permission for you to go alone. When you are set on doing something, you really don't give any thought to your surroundings; much less yourself, Yukimura-kun. Since I became a captain in the Shinsengumi, I have seen a such behaviour amongst the young recruits. And it has been my responsibility and job to look after my subordinates so they won't get reckless." Inoue gave a tender and fatherly smile to Chizuru, "And looks like you are no exception."

"Sumimasen," said Chizuru, feeling embarrassed. A red colour burst on Chizuru's cheeks.

"It's okay. Even Toshi-san and the other captains also have their own moments of being reckless. And some of them are still doing it now."

"I know." They shared a tiny smile while they remembered one of the captains (Nagakura) 'antics' of being reckless. And then, they let out a laugh remembering the glare that Hijikata gave to the brawny captain which made him let out a bucket of cold sweat because of what he had done.

"We are in the middle of a war, Shinpachi. So, please refrain from acting stupid with your-so-called bravado and not beating our other members with sparring. Or, should I also become your sparring partner?" That had happened on the first day, when the Shinsengumi arrived at the Fushimi magistrate's office. Long story short: Hijikata found Nagakura and all the second members division stretching their muscles by sparring with one another. In the end, they were the ones sent for guard duty; some of the members faces were black and blue courtesy of their sparring session.

Chizuru had regained control of her breath. Looking at Yodo Castle, her face turned solemn, "Inoue-san?"

"What is it, Yukimura-kun?"

"Do you think the people from Yodo Castle will help us?" Chizuru asked wearily, glancing at Inoue.

"They have to. We need the help." Inoue answered her, but Chizuru heard the uncertainty laced in Inoue's tone. His face also gave away the anxiousness that he felt with their situation. "Honestly, I don't want to see Toshi-san's face like the one he showed before we left." Inoue paused before he continued, "I've been with him for a long time. I know how hard it was for the man to admit we had to retreat... One loss is enough," Inoue said mournfully while he was looking at the sky.

Chizuru agreed with Inoue inwardly. She gave a small nod at Inoue's last sentence. Back then, when Sen-hime and Kimigiku visited her and asked her once again to come and join them, she had warned the young woman of this condition. "This is a war Chizuru-chan. And looking at the situation, I can say that this one isn't in your favor. The Shogunate era will come to an end. Everyone who has been backing the Shinsengumi till now will no longer be able to give their support. Either you are going to swim or sink; disband the force or be killed in the process." Sen gave a wistful smile to Chizuru, "I hope that the captains in the Shinsengumi won't be their stubborn selves and will consider the rational option rather than following what their gut told them." Chizuru didn't know what to say. She realized what Sen had told her was an indisputable fact; of the Shinsengumi's situation and of the way the Shinsengumi members would react. An unknown fear slowly crept into Chizuru's heart.

"Chizuru-chan?"

Chizuru shifted her focus back to Sen.

"Are you alright?"

"Osen-chan… Is it wrong for me to hope that they will be back safely and none of them injured? When I think that one of the members of the Shinsengumi could be wounded and for them to risk their life… It really scares me."

Sen grabbed Chizuru's hands and she squeezed the latter's hands to comfort her.

"They are my friends, my comrades, my family. I really don't want them to come to any harm. But… this war is not only a war to defend the Shogunate. Their pride…. Their belief…. The things that they have fought for from the start, their foundation… That is what this war means to them. I can't simply tell them not to be reckless. Because I know that they will not just submit their fate to the new era and not fight with all they have for their belief. If they lose this battle… I can't imagine what face the Shinsengumi will show, of losing all the things that they have fought for till now. The captains… Hijikata-san won't let their belief to end just because of the name of a new era."

Chizuru didn't want to acknowledge the fear that she had felt since first hearing about their situation. While she went and stayed in the Fushimi magistrate's office, she still hoped that the war wouldn't escalate to the worst and somehow, the Shinsengumi would win the upcoming war. But when Sen told her directly about their condition and situation, she knew then that she had to confront her fear before it consumed her fully. Not that she wanted to face it, more like she didn't have any other choice.

Sen, Chizuru and Kimigiku were standing in front of the Fushimi magistrate's office gate. The Oni princess looked at the man that stood not far from where they were; sending his sharp and cold stare straight to them. The oni-fukuchou had stated that their visit was not welcome, especially when he knew that Sen and Kimigiku's intentions were to ask Chizuru again to come and join them. The gestures of his body language; his arms folding in front of his chest, not to mention the way he stared was clear enough for Sen to get the message. To go away and never come back.

'I'll never imagine the intensity of the bond will escalate this far. Back then, even though he had showed us that he didn't like our presence, he never blatantly expressed his hostility like the way he shows us now. Something must have happened between him and Chizuru.' Sen thought, looked back to her friend. 'The fear that Chizuru-chan feels, it must be the effect of the bond.'

Sen gave Chizuru a slightly sad smile. "Chizuru-chan," Sen began softly, "The fear that you feel right now is not completely because of what will happen to the Shinsengumi. Of course, you will worry for their wellbeing and hope for their safety. I have seen firsthand how strong your bond is with the Shinsengumi after all." Sen referred to how the captains reacted when she came previously to take Chizuru away. "And surely the situation will make you feel distressed and anxious. But… this fear, this unknown fear that has crept to your heart and nearly suffocated you, it's because of what happened between you and him. And sadly, I can't tell you what you can do to lessen it.

"But I will tell you one thing." Sen narrowed her line of vision to the Shinsengumi fukuchou. Their eyes met briefly before she looked back to Chizuru. "Do you know that my ancestor eloped with a human?"

"Eh?" Surprised, Chizuru blinked with the information.

"Her name is Suzuka Gozen. She fell in love with a human by the name of Sakanoue Tamuramaro and followed him to the capital. And I, in fact, am their granddaughter," Sen said with a smiling face. "Back then the scandal was really a big one, not to mention the chaos my ancestor had caused when she eloped with a human. She was an Oni, a princess in her clan, but she chose a human to be her partner. Two different creatures, an Oni and a human, to be together was a thing that was uncommon and could be thought as forbidden to be happened. The human and the Oni were not supposed to be together, less to have a romantic relationship. And her status also was not helping. Even though at last they could be together and the fact that I am here is an irrefutable proof of their love, the things that they had to go through, the trial of their love was very hard.

"What I want to tell you is, your condition and my ancestor's condition are the same. The two of them were also in your condition when they went through all their trials." Sen referred to Hijikata and Chizuru's bond. "But, instead of letting worry and fear consumed them, they chose to let one feeling to overcome all the anxiousness and it was what allowed them to endure the trial till the end."

Sen gave Chizuru a knowing smile and gave another gentle squeeze. "You told me that you love him. Hold onto that feeling and let it lead you to support the Shinsengumi and to support him. Your love is not doomed to failure. I just hope that you will tell him about the situation that happened between you and him, Chizuru-chan." The princess spoke to her friend with a solemn and serious tone, "I have told you that this is a life and death situation. If somehow, he dies in the upcoming war, and leaves you behind…." Sen shook her head. "You know what I mean."

Chizuru nodded and gave her friend a promise that she would try to find a right time to tell Hijikata about their bond in the near time…. Hopefully.She hugged Sen and sent her friend and her bodyguard away after that.

Thanks to Sen's words, the fear that she felt at first subsided. Not entirely, but at least it wouldn't haunt her and she could give her full support throughout the war. She poured out her love into the support which she gave to her friends and family…for the man who she loved dearly with all her heart.

But even then, her love was not enough to support the Shinsengumi winning the war. The look on Hijikata's face when he had to give the order to retreat had made her heart clench in pain. It was like she could feel the pain that Hijikata felt at that moment; which was true because of their bond, but she didn't know about this information and would learn about this in the future.

"If only Isami-san is here, instead of me…. Yodo Castle will surely lend us their reinforcement if Isami-san is the one to ask, as the Chief of the Shinsengumi. "

Chizuru turned to Inoue and the man offered her a kind yet strained smile.

"Inoue-san, you shouldn't talk like that!" Chizuru admonished the older captain. "You are one of the captains of the Shinsengumi. Hijikata-san wouldn't send you if he didn't have confidence that you will succeed with this mission."

"... You are right. If there are still ways for me to be useful to the Shinsengumi, I will do it without a second thought. Toshi-san would never send me away if he didn't have trust in me." Inoue offered another kind smile but it wasn't strained anymore. "Rather than to also look after you I guess."

"Inoue-san…" Chizuru blushed with embarrassment. Inoue chuckled when he saw Chizuru's red cheeks.

"Thank you, Yukimura-kun."

"You're welcome, Inoue-san."

"Then, let's keep our hopes up, shall we?"

"Hai."

They got up and resumed their walk to Yodo Castle without any delay after that.

---

At last Inoue and Chizuru reached Yodo Castle. The thing was, Yodo Castle no longer supported the Shogunate. They had changed their allegiance to the Imperial forces. What awaited them was a fortress, full of enemy soldiers.

Inoue had felt strange the moment they arrived and didn't see any soldiers guarding the front gate. His instinct told him to be on guard and when one of the soldiers aimed a gun from the castle's window at them, he grabbed Chizuru's wrist and dove, avoiding the bullet. They ran to the nearby forest and hid behind the trees.

Chizuru was shocked by the shot, but the older captain assessed their situation calmly. "Either they've already been overrun by the rebels, or they don't want to ally the side they think is going to lose. We need to get back and report this to the others and Toshi-san. It's clear now that they're no longer our allies. As grievous as this information is, they need to know." Inoue grimaced with his words. "It's also dangerous to stay here. The longer we stay here, the more danger I'll put you in."

"But…" The shock from the shot had made Chizuru slow on processing Inoue's words. When she fully grasped the situation, she felt dread and anxiousness come on full force. "But if we leave, then what's going to happen to Hijikata-san? What's going to happen to the Shinsengumi?!" She panicked and the look from Hijikata's face, the bitter and agony she had seen, flashed in her mind. "L-let's just try and talk to them! If we explain what's going on, I'm sure they'll understand and will help us!"

And for the first time since Chizuru joined the Shinsengumi, Inoue's kind eyes glared at her.

"That's enough!" Inoue said sternly, "I also want to go back to Toshi-san and the other with the reinforcements as much as you do! But please also understand that my job here is not only to ask for help, I also have to make sure that you are safe and protected. If something happens to you now, then I won't have a will to face Toshi-san. And that will have made me fail him twice, not being able to bring reinforcements from Yodo Castle and not protecting you."

Chizuru felt herself wilt under Inoue's angry words and glare. She realized she hindered Inoue's performance of his job. But before she could wallow in self-pity and blame herself, the older captain continued speaking, but this time the anger had subsided and had been replaced with concern.

"And it's not because of you. Even if I go by myself, I would return immediately and tell the others of this news so we can think of another plan to aid the Shinsengumi."

Chizuru could feel tears pricking her eyes. Inoue was not angry with her. His tone was not an angry one, more like a reprimand one would give a child over a mistake that the child had made.

"I understand," Chizuru bowed her head and covered her teary eyes.

"Now, let's go then."

Chizuru followed Inoue and they left Yodo Castle. They were silent on their journey back to the Shinsengumi. Chizuru didn't dare open her mouth, afraid that all that she could utter were endless apologies. Her mind had acknowledged Inoue's words, she just had to make her heart and feelings also see the logic and not feel useless or a failure-

"Don't worry about it."

Chizuru's mind snapped from her thoughts, and when she looked at Inoue, the older man was walking to where she stood. He looked at her with the same kind gaze he always had. Her feet had stopped in the middle of the road apparently. The captain had to walk a couple of steps from his previous position to reach the distraught woman.

"Inoue-san…" The tears that were welling up in Chizuru's eyes threatened to fall. She brushed them away roughly before Inoue stood at arm's length in front of her.

"This is Toshi-san that we are talking about. I'm sure he'll come up with an amazing plan and surely he will turn this whole thing around." Inoue laid his hand on Chizuru's shoulder and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "Please calm yourself. If you show up and the others look at how distraught you are, it will only dampen their spirits more and that is not a good thing to happen during a time like this. Also, I think Toshi-san won't be happy to see this state of yours."

Chizuru focused on the warmth of Inoue's hand on her shoulder and the words from the older captain. 'I have to be strong! There's no time to be weak. I have to support them… to support Hijikata-san with all my strength!'

And Chizuru began to calm down and regained her composure.

"...Thank you, Inoue-san. And sorry that I can't offer any help for this situation."

"Like I said before. Don't worry about it. Who knows? Maybe Toshi-san already predicted this kind of situation and made a backup plan." Inoue reassured Chizuru again. His kind smile was still plastered on his face.

'Inoue-san's smile and hand are very comforting. Like what my father used to give me ….'

"Your smile and hand are so warm, Inoue-san. It gives me comfort and I feel like right now my father is the one that is comforting me." Chizuru felt wistful and nostalgic for her own father, Yukimura Kodou. Whatever her father had done and whoever he was, she still thought of Kodou as her father. "I recall when I was a child, my father used to stroke my head with his hand, especially when I was sad."

Inoue blinked, and his hand dropped to his side from Chizuru's shoulder. He observed Chizuru from head to toe, as if he had just seen the woman for the first time.

"A daughter, huh? ...Well, I guess it wouldn't be strange a man of my age to have a daughter of your age, Yukimura-kun."

"S-Sorry! Did I perhaps say something rude?!" Chizuru panicked and fumbled her words when she realized that she might have offended Inoue.

"No, no! Certainly not." Inoue shook his head. "It's the opposite, actually. I would be honoured and very glad to have a cute daughter who is also selfless like you." 'The father' gave his 'daughter' his fatherly smile. Chizuru felt her cheeks blush at Inoue's words.

"I-I am n-not like what you have described me as, Inoue-san…. You have made me blush too many times today." Chizuru stuttered, fighting the embarrassed feeling of being described as cute.

"I'm just stating a fact though." Again, Inoue put his hand on Chizuru's shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "Let's go then. The others are waiting for us and will get worried if we aren't back soon."

"Hai."

Chizuru and Inoue resumed their way back to the rest of the Shinsengumi; their bodies engulfed with a warm feeling for different reasons (amusement for Inoue and embarrassment for Chizuru). They hadn't walked too far when they saw some soldiers standing several feet away from them.

"Someone's over there," Chizuru muttered.

It had taken several hours for Inoue and Chizuru to arrive at Yodo Castle. By the time they left Yodo Castle, the sky was already beginning to turn red and the sun had begun to set. The soldiers they met were standing with their backs to the setting sun. They narrowed their eyes a bit because they were blinded by the light of the sun. By the time the two could adjust their vision, they saw one of the soldiers was raising his hand and a gun was aimed at them. A shot was heard.

"Watch out!" Inoue pushed Chizuru to the side and a loud groan escaped his mouth a moment later. His shoulder had been hit by the shot. He fell to the ground, clutching his wounded shoulder.

"Urgh!"

"Inoue-san!" Chizuru shouted. She tried to get near the injured captain, kneeling beside him to look at the wound.

The soldiers -turned rebels- sneered at the two from where they stood.

"Light blue robes? They are the Shinsengumi, huh?"

"We should take their heads, then later we can get nice rewards."

"That's a good idea."

There were three rebels standing before them. The three wore the same manic and mocking grins plastered to their faces. Two of them were approaching Inoue and Chizuru while their hands were drawing the katanas on their waists from their scabbards.

"You are rebels!" Chizuru said angrily, her eyes glaring at the attackers.

"So what if we are," one of the rebels answered, with a mocking tone.

"Y-Yukimura-kun…" Inoue grabbed Chizuru arms and tried to lift his body. "Don't provoke them more than necessary. Stay back." Inoue spoke with difficulty. The shot didn't hit a vital organ, but blood was flowing from the wound and the older man already felt light-headed from its loss. He realized that he couldn't fool himself; his life was nearing its end. 'At least I have to protect Yukimura-kun!'

"Inoue-san…" The older captain stood in front of Chizuru. He drew his katana and aimed the tip at the rebels.

"You have to go back," said Inoue. Each breath that he took was painful, and his body was staggering. "And please tell something to Toshi-san for me." He tightened his grip on his katana hilt and focused his eyes on the enemy in front of him. "Please tell him that I apologize for my weakness… And that I hope that he'll forgive me for not staying with him to the end."

Chizuru held back a sob that was threatening to leave her mouth. 'No… Don't say that.'

"I don't have the words to thank him enough for giving a man like me the chance to be a part of something." Inoue turned his head a bit to Chizuru and gave her one last kind smile. "Leave this to me."

After that, Inoue charged the rebels with a fierce outcry. "HAAAAA!"

"INOUE-SAN!"

Inoue attacked one of the rebels with all his might. His katana met the enemy weapon with a clang and for a second he managed to make the enemy take a step backward. But the other rebel stabbed Inoue from behind and the body of the Captain of the 6th division of the Shinsengumi went limp and then fell to the ground.

Inoue's half lidded eyes stared at the ashen Chizuru from where he lay, while he offered a last prayer that the woman would run and be safe before a last blow ended the life of the older captain.

Chizuru's body froze. Her face paled from the whole scene that unfolded in front of her. She bit her lower lip till she drew blood, but she didn't feel the pain from the cut. 'Why…Why…?'

The rebels were slowly approaching her again.

"Another one and after that we'll get a big reward for killing the enemy of the Emperor!" Manic laughter followed, after the rebels said what was in their minds.

Tears were flowing from Chizuru's eyes. Tears of anger. She gritted her teeth hard and slowly got up from her kneeling position. She drew her kodachi and pointed the tip at the rebels.

"You abandoned your comrades when you saw that they were going to lose the war. And you dare to call yourselves warriors. Samurai. None of you deserve to be called samurai!" Chizuru's eyes turned gold and her hair turned white. The rebels' eyes widened a bit.

"W-What's this?!" yelled one of the rebels in fright. "What kind of creature are you?!"

"Tch! A Shinsengumi is still a Shinsengumi. Just kill it and we'll still get the reward!" shouted the other rebels.

"HAAAAAA!"

Chizuru braced herself and prepared to defend herself with the blade in her hand. But a figure dashed from her behind and slew all the rebels in one swing.

"AAARRGGHHH!"

The rebels fell to the ground, blood flowing from their mouths and pouring from their wounds. The figure that had slashed them with his katana swung his blade once more to get rid of the rebels' blood and sheathed his blade in its scabbard. He turned, and a pair of golden eyes met another pair of the same color.

Chizuru eyes widened at the person, the Oni in front of her. "...Kazama-san…" She reverted to her human appearance. Her hands dropped to her sides, still gripping her kodachi.

"I told you before that Oni and human can't coexist. You've seen for yourself how that ridiculous fantasy of yours has brought you to this unfortunate event. Where is that human, the Shinsengumi captain who dared enough to say to me that he would protect you, huh?" The mockery in Kazama's tone was something that Chizuru expected. But it surprised her that Kazama was the one who had helped defend her from the rebels. It never occurred to her that the one to save her would be him.

"Ariga-"

"Surely, you have changed your mind about staying with this shameless and useless creature, haven't you?" Kazama cut Chizuru off when she wanted to thank him. He approached Chizuru confidently. In a quick motion, he was beside her already and his face was just an inch from hers. Chizuru gulped and took a step backward. "The humans are failing. I know you are a smart woman. It's time to leave them and join me, to be my bride." Kazama's face was getting nearer Chizuru's.

"L-Living with the Shinsengumi is not ridiculous," stuttered Chizuru. She tried to sound brave and convincing. "They have been protecting me, and even though this event is an unfortunate one, I won't leave and will stay with them always." Chizuru stared straight into Kazama's golden eyes. Determination reflected in her eyes. "I won't join you or anyone else."

'Certainly not to become your bride. Never.'

Kazama straightened his body and stared back at Chizuru, his face void of emotion after another rejection.

"I see that you still care for these human… for these insects."

"Wha-"

"And looks like my thought of you being a smart woman is mistaken. Only a foolish woman would reject my kind offering as many times as you have." Kazama added in haughty tone, "Or have you been poisoned while living with these insects?"

"Shut up!" Chizuru could no longer listen Kazama's insults about the Shinsengumi.

"What? Why are you so angry?" One of Kazama's eyebrows lifted. "Don't tell me that you are this upset just because of this insignificant man?"

"Shut up!" Chizuru took several steps back, distancing herself from the male Oni. She raised her hands and pointed her kodachi at Kazama. "I considered them as my family. You have no right to be bad-mouthing my family!"

"Family? You really have weird taste to have ever considered these insects to be at the same level as the oni," scoffed Kazama. "Really, I'm disappointed."

"Kazama-san, I'm grateful that you saved me from those rebels. Can you please leave now? You don't have any more business here after all."

"Who said that I don't have any more business here? My business is not finished yet." In the blink of an eye, Kazama had narrowed the distance between them, and next thing Chizuru knew, her hand had been struck, making her drop the kodachi. Kazama grabbed her wrist and held it in tight grip. "You are my business."

"Let me go!" Chizuru tried to pull her wrist from the Oni's grip but her strength was no match for Kazama's.

"I'm only interested in taking you with me. Your value as a pureblood oni woman is very high. It was never my intention to kill those rebels. I could care less which side they took and what their role was. For me, humans are all the same. They were just getting in my way and killing them is a bonus for me." Kazama pulled Chizuru toward him and their faces were nearer than before. "I thought that with all the things that happened around the humans, you would realize that it's no use to be around them again. And I can easily convince you to come with me."

"Whatever happened around the humans, around the Shinsengumi, will not make me leave them ever! Nor will I come and join you! Please let me go!" Chizuru spoke vehemently. She wriggled her wrist to loosen Kazama's tight grip. Suddenly, Kazama released his grip and made Chizuru fall hard.

"I really hate when someone tries to go against me. And you, that's exactly what you always do." Kazama was annoyed. "Or should I educate you to never again go against my words?"

A shiver ran through Chizuru's body. The oni in front of her had showed her nothing except that he was arrogant and selfish. She didn't want to imagine what he would do to educate her. With how pushy and perceptive Kazama was, she was afraid that the oni would know about her situation with Hijikata; about their bond. Even though Sen had told her that no one would ever know about the bond except the two persons who had made it, her gut was telling her that Kazama would somehow figure it out on his own. Making Kazama angry was not a thing that she wanted to do.

"I'd rather die than let you do whatever you want to do to me!" stated Chizuru fiercely.

"Would you?"

"Don't test me!" Chizuru brought her kodachi, which she dropped before, and positioned the blade in front of her neck. Slowly she got up from the ground, her eyes didn't leave Kazama's hard stare.

Kazama narrowed his eyes, his expression unreadable.

"Why are you so adamant about rejecting to be with me? Is it so abhorrent for you to be with me?" Chizuru almost blinked, didn't believe on what she just heard.

"What are you talking about?" asked Chizuru, confused with the unlike-Kazama words.

"Something must have happened between you and the humans. Something that makes you so adamant about not leaving them. Something crucial that involves a life and death situation." Kazama spoke his thoughts out loud.

"Kazama-san, what are y-"

"Did you bond with one of them?"

Chizuru's eyes widened. Her hands dropped to her side. Cold sweat dripped from her body. She wanted to say something to refute Kazama's accusation, but her words were caught in her throat.

'How… how could he come to that conclusion?!'

Chizuru's reaction was enough for an answer.

"Who?" Kazama said the one word in a dangerous tone.

"..."

"WHO?!"

Kazama launched himself at Chizuru and grabbed the woman's upper arms, his nails digging into Chizuru's flesh. "Tell me who he is or I swear I will kill all the humans that you have interacted with."

Chizuru was contemplating how she should reply to Kazama's inquiry. But before she could think any further, a blade flew by her side, aimed at Kazama's shoulder. Kazama dodged the blade and released Chizuru from his grip.

"Release her." A commanding voice came from the figure that walked toward them. A voice that Chizuru had wished and longed to hear since the rebels attacked her and Inoue. It's was so ironic that the owner of the voice came at the time when he shouldn't have come.

Chizuru turned her head to look at her behind. Her heart was beating furiously inside her ribcage. She was very afraid of the upcoming confrontation: of what Kazama would do; of what would happen to him. One name escaped her trembling lips.

"Hijikata-san…"

To be continued

Note: And now... Kazama knew about the bond. What will happen next? Hijikata and Kazama fight on the next chapter won't be as simple as Kazama mocked the Shinsengumi and he got angry because Hijikata grazed his cheek. It will be more complex, I can assure you that :)

See u on the next chapter ~~

[andaleduardo]

Rooftop N.8

Ao3   N.7   N.9

Friday 21.05.1993

Unlike the few other parties that Eddie attended, this one was already being different without having started. Usually, he’d be in the company of six, or five if one of them was the host. This time, however, he was able to sit in the back of Bill’s parents’ car without having to squeeze himself between shoulders. There was even an empty seat.

An empty seat.

That’s a big deal for them. As he shut the door on his side of the car along with the other boys, his usual internal pep talk came into play, which happens every time Eddie is forced to attend a social event.

It’s just a party. Everyone goes to parties.

Then he freaks out because everyone is a lot for him.

Still, you’re supposed to have fun.

Despite the short time it takes to get to the barn, the quietness inside the vehicle is enough to break the built-up courage. Eddie busies his hands scuffing the end of the navy pants he reluctantly put on earlier, one ankle balanced on top of his knee. Some minutes ago, as he hopped down the stairs and announced that he was leaving, Eddie felt confident. His mom couldn’t have done much after their fight, they barely interacted, and Eddie had to show her that he was independent enough and responsible by himself. He kind of doubted that, now.

Here, inside this car, he feels unprotected by simply knowing that there’s no one worrying about him at home. Ridiculous way of feeling. So, when Bill parks the car among many others on the street where the Hanlon’s residence is located, Eddie puffs air in his chest and grips the door handle, ready to have a good time.

Or so he hopes.

The four of them approach the dirt trail that guides them towards the reddish barn, although it looks greyish in the night sky only illuminated by the dim lights pouring out of the open gate. Music was already playing as they go inside. He scanned the place only to realise how many people already crowded it. Bad idea.

As per usual, Ben and Eddie stay together, Stan hovers closely, and since Bill doesn’t want to go around alone just yet, the four of them stick together while trying to find their remaining members.

That’s when, while on his toes to see over the heads, Eddie sees the made-up stage. He was awestruck at first, couldn’t look away, but examining it for longer made him notice that it was not that impressive. Sure, it had some height, maybe like two steps higher, and he could see it was made from reclaimed wood from the farm. The setup looked cheap, no surprise there. He could see a full drum set, although the various components had different colours, which was a give-away that it was put together by older parts, and there was also what looked like a keyboard, plus some extra keys that didn’t belong on a piano, set upon a stand so that whoever played would be able to be standing up. In the middle stood two guitar stands, one held an electric, all wood and heavy looking, and the other had an acoustic, which looked incredibly like the one that usually stands on a corner of Richie’s bedroom.

And well, that only meant one unfortunate thing.

“This can’t be happening.” Stan’s words were a little bit muffled by the general noise. Eddie shot him a knowing look, both were desperately hoping it was some kind of joke or coincidence.

“That’s…” Eddie gulped and pointed back to the stage, specifically to the guitar both of them had seen many times before. When Stan nodded and draped a hand over his face, Eddie needed a miracle of some sort. Unaware of their discovery, Bill dragged Ben over to one of the tables filled with food and various coloured drinks, separating the group in half.

“They can’t be that dumb. Tell me they’re not that dumb, Eddie.” Oh, how similar both of them are. Only that Eddie can’t really find words to voice his concern right now. His mouth hung open, ready to answer that yes, they are that dumb, but Mike walked up behind Stan with a nervous grin at that exact moment, shutting Eddie up immediately.

“That’s not the support we were hoping to get.” Mike shot him a wink while Stan turned around in a startled jolt. Eddie didn’t have it in him to be playful back.

“It’s a prank, right?” Stan asked with big eyes. Eddie could see that Mike was taken by surprise, his eyebrows furrowing and the smile faltering. Being mean was a gift to Stan’s existence. “Mike, everyone here isn’t like us, they’re mean.”

Mike shook his head and laughed poorly. “You’re the one being mean. They’re just teenagers, students-”

Stan’s throat did a funny noise. “My point exactly. They’ll make fun of you!” Deciding that this was going too far, Eddie elbowed his ribs, which successfully toned him down. With a long exhale, Stan rubbed his eyelids. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to be the target of mockery.”

There was a hurt frown on Mike’s face. “We’re just having fun here, friends having a good time.” His eyes met Eddie’s, probably expecting backup. He had yet to say something so he chocked up, caught by surprise.

“Uh…” He awkwardly cleared his throat and glanced between the two boys. And if guilt wasn’t already eating up his insides, all Mike did was roll his eyes, nod his head and move to another topic.

“Where are the others, anyway?”

Eddie was sure that the devil had fiery hair and a fuck ton of freckles, because she appeared just then. Beverly came from the back entry, probably there smoking, skipping on her steps with a giddy smile on her lips. There was a happy energy radiating from her that could be noticed miles away. She swung herself on Eddie’s shoulders and started jumping up and down, shaking him in the process. The shame was adding up along with a fastening heartbeat on his chest.

Not now. That’s all he wanted. Don’t panic now.

“You actually came!” She shouted over the other voices. The music playing changed.

In order to keep himself stable, Eddie placed both hands on her wrists. She kept laughing, Eddie wanted to breathe the outside air but she smelled of nicotine instead. With a forceful grip, he tore Beverly’s hands out of his shoulders but didn’t let go of them.

Not now.

But her laughs died down, and he felt even worse for ruining something they probably looked forward too. He shot a glance at the stage again and felt her tugging at his wrists. She was smiling softly, a cure for his worry.

“I think you need a drink, Eddie.” She meant those words.

For the first time in his life, Eddie didn’t think that was such a bad idea. “I think you might be right.”

 -

 Eddie’s little freak-out took him outside, elbows resting against the wooden fence.

Previously, he had pretended to be present while a cup was placed in his hand, he couldn’t remember which of his friends did it. Then, he had hovered around the group religiously and pretended to drink whatever he was given. He just needed the right moment to back away without them noticing.

Ironically, it was beer pong that saved his ass. His thoughts drifting completely from what was in front of him, which was pretending to agree with whatever Stan was babbling on about and watching a fair amount of people (Beverly included) cheer whoever was heavily invested in playing the pointless game. All it took was Stan giving up on being answered, turning his head to the other side to talk with Mike instead, and Eddie was out of there in an instant. He ignored the girl he run into on his way to the back entrance and took the longest breath of his life as soon as the chill air of the night hit his nostrils.

He tried hard to keep his head out of futile worries. With a swirling cup, Eddie’s mind hovered above many things, desperate for a healthy distraction:

Stan is quite talkative when he’s out of his comfort zone, which is very out of character.

Where did Ben and Bill go?

He stared quizzically at the party cup. What the hell do they put in this? Why am I still holding it, anyway?

I wonder what my mom’s doing.

Probably snoring.

I haven’t seen Richie yet.

Damn it. That’s not a healthy thought.

But it was impossible to stop once it set. Richie, what he could be doing. Who he could be with right now. And how they could be together outside, instead. Eddie would probably ruin his wild fun by begging for his company, not that he would do that anyway.

Maybe internally.

He licked his dry lips, then remembered Richie’s.

“I’m a lost case.” He huffed out, exasperated.

“Woah, don’t think so high of yourself.” Every muscle in his body jolted, startled. Yep, there goes the drink spilling out onto his fingers.

Parties, greatest human invention.

It was Richie, he acknowledged without turning around. Eddie was hit with such gratitude and relief that tears prickled his eyes. So, like the lost case he claimed to be, he lowered his head to let it rest against his upper arms that sat upon the wood railing. Now staring at the way his shoes were digging in the grass, the gravity pulled one on him and made it easier for the tears to escape, falling near his feet almost as soon as they abandoned his eyes.

Laboured breathing made its presence, he left the sense of reality behind and began to shake compulsively. Whatever was done to him for the following minutes would go subtly fogged up.

 Up until now, Richie had been with both Bill and Ben inside, convincing them to try the pot brownies they had previously baked for the party. Before, he had taken a little container, filled it up and put it aside to share among the Losers once they were alone.

Bill had agreed to eat them eagerly after listening to how Mike had to steal his mother’s recipe so that the three of them could bake them in his kitchen. How hard it had been to get her to miss the part where they added the best ingredient hidden in Bev’s coat pocket. His mom had bought it when they said the scent came from a burnt batch. Ben refused them kindly, Richie didn’t push him.

There was this annoying press near his heart due to Eddie’s absence that was pushed behind with a stupidly, fake, contented grin as he hung around with his two friends and some other teens that suddenly seemed to realise he existed.

A bunch of turds, if you asked him.

So, there he was, a deep need for a second smoke in less than two hours. Frustrated and disappointed, he snapped out at the sight of some brainless group hanging around the couch meant for his friends and his friends only. He was cursed at while hushing them away, head a bit weary due to the stupid drinks he downed already.

Once he turned back around, Bill and Ben weren’t with him anymore. He kicked the side of the couch with a curse lost among all sounds.

“Hey, easy!” Bev’s careful hand curled around the fabric of his sleeve. He turned to face her, surprised. How did he not see her? Taking a short glance over her head, Richie saw the rest of his friends laughing hysterically at something that he failed to catch.

Bev tugged at his sleeve again so he locked eyes with her.

“Sorry.” He said. “I didn’t-”

“Have you been drinking? You shouldn’t have, Rich.” He shrugged in response, careless. Worried, Beverly took his hand between hers. Richie lowered his eyes to stare at the faint bruises marking his skin.

“It’s healed, you know. I’m fine, all good. Fully operational-” He had to stop himself from babbling on and on.

With an excessively happy smile, she squeezed his fist and nodded her head towards the back-barn doors. “He’s in the back, you know?”

She laughed when his eyebrows disappeared behind his curly bangs. “You should go get him while we finally break in our red beauty.” She motioned towards the sofa he angrily kicked.

Suddenly hopeful but anxious, Richie silently mouthed fuck under his breath. “I shouldn’t have drunk.” He said to the air. As soon as those words left his mouth, Beverly flicked his forehead and hushed him away. Richie complied on heavy feet, unsure of how to approach Eddie.

At the sight of him outside, alone and tense, Richie felt guilty for making him come. He knew Eddie didn’t deal well with these things, and just a few days ago Richie had been the cause of a family fight. Way to go, dickhead.

As he got closer and closer, Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure became less ear deafening and gave him a chance to hear the incoherent mumbling that fell from Eddie’s mouth. Richie was watching his profile, noticing that he was frowning and staring deadly at the cup in his hands.

Now, that’s new. He thought.

Eddie’s distressed expression mirrored into Richie’s features as well. He seemed out of it, not even acknowledging his presence only a step away from touch. Richie was about to lay a careful hand on his shoulder when Eddie’s mumbles became clearer.

“I’m a lost case.”

“Woah, don’t think so high of yourself.” Richie couldn’t help it as the words left his mouth. At least he hadn’t acted like an asshole this time, that alone was a great achievement.

Eddie was startled, that much was expected. He was also waiting for the inevitable bickering that would follow next, but when all that happened was Eddie melting in his own body, hiding his face from the world and shoulders shaking compulsively, Richie had a hard time figuring out if he was laughing or crying.

Slightly freaked, he started by taking the full cup out of Eddie’s hands, which were doing a poor job at keeping it stable anyway. He balanced it on top of one of the vertical wood posts that constituted the fence. Then, he maneuvered Eddie’s body around until he saw how blotchy his face was. There were almost no tears staining his skin, but his breathing was irregular and faltering, a certain rasp to it.

“Hey, hey.” As if he was dealing with a child, Richie ducked his head and pouted, an attempt at making Eddie smile. It didn’t work, Eddie looked away and rubbed his eyes quickly.

“Sorry.” He said between wheezes. Confused, Richie studied him. What was he sorry for? He must have stared for a long time, because Eddie started looking around in every direction, anxiety once again filling him as he stared at the few people crowding the outside space, along with the both of them. Unshed tears filled his vision, fogging his eyes. Richie broke out of his trance once Eddie’s throat gave a pained and squeezed whistling sound as the air passed quickly.

“Don’t apologize, you moron. And don’t look around.” Richie fully crowded his space, hands coming down to circle Eddie’s waist, pulling his body flush against himself close enough so that he’d block the outside from him. “They don’t care about us, promise.”

Eddie stood unmoving. His hands limp by his sides as he let himself be hidden from the world and submerged in the heat Richie was providing. After some hellish minutes of trying to keep his heart at a normal, painless beating rate, he had to admit with, agonizingly but still.

“My mom’s right.” And how it hurt him to say something like that.

Relief washed through Richie. At least Eddie was speaking coherent sentences, mostly. “I don’t know what you think she could possibly be right about, Eds, but your mom is wrong about everything.”

Squeezing him a little bit closer, Richie felt him shake his head against his chest. “I should have just taken the stupid inhaler.”

“What?”

“I’d be better by now and not-”

“Not what? Anxious?” He asked incredulous. “That crap’s fake medicine, wouldn’t have helped you.” Eddie’s arms made a shy way around Richie, making him smile. “You know what’d help, though?” That made him finally look up, searching for another type of comfort out of Richie, which he got just by watching him under the poor lighting. He looked… well, words are overrated.

There was glitter on his cheeks, which was new. Weird, but welcomed.

“Making good use out of that cup.” Richie answered his own question. “Never thought I’d ever see you holding alcohol.”

Ignoring the suggestion, Eddie nodded towards the boy’s glowing cheeks. “You’re sparkly.” He stated. A shit-eating grin took over Richie’s face, smug and victorious. Eddie felt embarrassed for no apparent reason. “What?” He asked in a warning tone.

“Nothing!” With a shrug, Richie tried to hide his amusement.

“No, what is it?” He demanded.

For a second time, Richie shrugged. “S’just, staring at my face calms you down?”

“Like hell it does.”

“Oh, so it’s the opposite? Gets you all worked up?”

“You need to stop putting words in my mouth.” Eddie warned with a typical roll of his eyes.

 See, he could have gone for ‘I could put something else instead.’ But he settled with for other words.

“Yeah? Some nights ago, you wouldn’t have valid arguments.” Which weren’t really better.

Eddie’s face paled up, whatever hints of a smile lost. Richie should really think before speaking.

"Fuck, okay, I'm an asshole." He licked his lip in a nervous habit. Mentally, Eddie stabbed him. "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable… I was too, you know…?"

The confusion behind Eddie’s eyes was noticeable, so he tried to explain it without really doing it. "You know... You couldn't feel it, but..." He spoke sheepishly.

Yeah, there it was, the moment of recognition he was waiting for. Embarrassed, Eddie adverted his eyes somewhere else.

Right.

"Shouldn't have said that, either…? Okay, well, we can just... we can pretend it never happened, right?" Richie gulped down, dry scratched throat. "If that's what you want."

But Eddie’s response never came, despite the fact that neither of them were doing much effort to let each other go of their embrace. Talk about awkward.

With a heavy sigh and pleading eyes, Eddie whispered. “That’s not what I want.” It was enough to relieve the tension, although both of them failed to see how fucked up their friendship was becoming with each and every one of these occurrences.

Whatever. As always, worry about it later. As usual, ignore the consequences.

Deciding it was best to leave it at that, with a much clearer mind there were some things that Eddie needed to confirm. “Just to be clear, hm… the live music is you guys?”

With an enthusiasm that Eddie himself couldn’t feel, Richie nodded eagerly, a large smile taking over his features. “Aye, captain. We sure are!”

Figures. Eddie groaned, dropping his head to let it hit Richie’s chest.

“See lots of excitement right there, uhm?” Despite the twist his stomach did, he hid the disappointment.

“Sorry…” Eddie sighed. “I need to apologize to Mike and Bev, too. I’m being kind of a jerk about this but… I feel embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?” That was weirdly unexpected. “What’s there to be embarrassed about?”

“…Your voice isn’t exactly up to society standards.” Upon seeing the true impact his words had on Richie, Eddie started spitting out words. “I mean, I’m afraid someone may pick on the three of you for it and then turn it into another way to mess up with you guys. And, and I just feel embarrassed, okay? I hate that I do but I’m being honest with you, Richie-”

“Eddie.” He frowned, reluctantly starting to step back from his space. Eddie’s heart broke.

“I’m sorry.” He pleaded.

“Hey, it’s fine. Hear me out.” He placed both hands on Eddie’s shoulders. “Do I need to tell you you’re overthinking? This isn’t really a big deal.” Well. “If it ends up being horrible, I promise you no one here will actually remember most of it.”

“Won’t we?”

“I sure hope not.”

“I’m the asshole tonight.” He said sheepishly. “Not you.”

Turning to look at the plastic cup, Eddie thought ‘fuck it’. He grabbed and gulped it down in one go, almost chocking up. Richie was stunned, looking at him as if he’d grown another head. Once Eddie finished, his face was scrunched up from the burning sensation rolling down his throat.

“You know that doesn’t have any alcohol, right?”

Richie almost lost it when Eddie’s skin burned red, even noticeable in the night, eyes so big and ashamed that, for a moment, he thought the boy would dig a hole in the ground and disappear. He finally cracked up, hunching over the railing to laugh until his eyes stung.

“God, I’m joking! Your face, dude.”

“Fuck you, you’re suck a jerk.” He threw the cup at Richie’s head, feeling guilty as it fell to the floor and picking it up immediately so as to not litter anything.

After straightening himself up and shaking the last remains of chuckles out of him, Richie started pushing Eddie in the direction of the barn once more. “There’s vodka in that, by the way.” It took them a little longer to actually get inside since he fell into another fit of giggles upon seeing the terrified look on Eddie’s face. 

 -

 After what felt like hours for Beverly, Richie finally decided to appear, Eddie by his side. She, along with the other four, were sprawled in the comfortable sofa waiting for them, barely any space to fit anyone else.

 “You turned us into a charity case.” The smile painting Richie’s lips fell at those words. With both hands resting on his hips, he looked at Stan comically.

“What do you mean?”

Stan rolled his eyes, a maddening habit, and spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You guys put this couch here for us.” Eddie hid a laugh under his palm when Richie looked at him, lost but trying to follow along.

“I’m… not following?”

Ben, however, laughed freely. “It feels like you’re protecting us from the beasts.” He motioned around.

Richie kept staring at Eddie, who was having a hard time keeping a serious expression.

“Is that a bad thing? It’s a nice-looking couch.” He stated, still confused. 

“You’re babying us.” Eddie concluded. Richie’s eyebrows shot up.

“No, no I’m not. I’m VIPing our club.”

“That’s not even a verb.”

“Oh, spare me, Stan. If you don’t like it why are you sitting on it?”

The piece of furniture was diagonally positioned to the stage. Now that they were closer, Eddie could see that the stage’s shape wasn’t regular, like the common rectangle. Instead, it was almost hexagonal, which made sense because they’d be standing in the middle of a large room and, this way, people would be able to watch from every corner.

Yeah, it’s not that bad at all.

“So, how long for us to see your talent?” Ben interrupted their little argument. Mike and Richie shared a look along with shrugs.

“We planned waiting until more people were around.” Mike explained.

“Yeah, but how much more can you fit in here?” Bev had a point, the place was crowded with familiar faces who kept trying to stick around their little hangout, but not tonight. Tonight, they had a silent agreement on staying close, for comfort and support.

To say that Eddie felt clingy as soon as the three of them excused themselves to go get ready (more like mentally prepared), was an understatement. The passionate kiss shared between Ben and Bev had him turn his face around, always felling wrongly intrusive when it came to public romantic gestures.

As the time passed, he found himself lower and lower on the couch, until most of him was hidden by the back part of it. Somewhere to their left, he could hear the far, yet familiars, ‘chug! chug! chug!’s over whatever crap was currently playing. A faint scent of what could be recognized as weed mixed with puke painted the air. It’s only been what? Three hours? I mean sure, they never arrive on time to these things, having come probably a little over an hour ago, but people lose their shit too easily.

Ever since he came back inside, his curiosity was stolen by Bill, drinking. Probably for the first time in his life, not probably, for sure, Eddie had finished a full cup of alcohol. He feels slightly looser, but he wasn’t sure it was due to that. Maybe, maybe not. He wouldn’t be caught accepting to be, what his friends called, a lightweight. Back to the main point, he wanted more. Might as well get it over it, get drunk once, regret it, never repeating it again for the rest of his life. But, unfortunately, he wasn’t really able to go get it himself, just because.

Because, well, he’s just Eddie. That’s a valuable reason. And like the coward he is, as soon as Bill gets up with an empty cup in hand, Eddie grabs him by the arm. Bill jumps and curses as if he was being attacked. Drama queen.

Trying to act nonchalantly, Eddie asks him if he could possibly bring something for him, too. He has never felt as thankful before as when Bill simply nodded and asked if he could bring the same stuff he was having. As expected, though, once the drink was in his hand and Bill by his side, there was no courage to actually drink it. Paranoid that everyone else was watching, he just twirled the liquid around for a while.

That’s when the music stops abruptly, a chorus of complaints emerging quickly. Eddie’s heart skipped a bit, looking around for a moment until the lights go off and suddenly, his pupils grow significantly, for the place is nearly pitch black. The grunts of disapproval were replaced by gasps, then an eager silence.

If he could see, Eddie would bet that Stan was probably rolling his eyes from the extravagant and unnecessary suspense that they wanted to cause over something like this. But on the other hand, Eddie was finally excited, even giddy with anticipation. His worries about Richie’s voice failing or any other components were tossed to the side momentarily, and he took this chance to gulp down half of what Bill brought him, which Eddie recognized as the same thing he had outside. Its taste was okay, besides the burn. However, he choked up when, out of nowhere, these beautiful lamps over the stage glowed an orange tinted light over the space.

It was still a dark environment, but warmer and cosier. That turned out to won’t be the big surprise as Mike, Beverly and Richie were already on their spots, having come up while it was room was dark, mysteriously not tripping over the dozens of electric cables crossing the surface. Eddie wanted to melt through the floor.

A round of cheering came and Bill placed two fingers between his lips to give a high pitch whistle that Eddie envied so much. Once the shouting, whistles and clapping began to fade, Richie’s impertinent voice was amplified through the one microphone standing in front of him.

“Fuck yes! What an entrance.”  Even Eddie laughed along with all the others. “So, I’m not gonna make a pretty speech about how thankful we are. You’re all drunk by now, just enjoy the shitty entertainment.”

More cheers. Why is Eddie surprised. He should have guessed this, but now it’s too late to take back that mild insult to Richie’s voice and hope for the best.

He took his time to watch them in this specific setting that he never would have guessed to see them. Beverly was all smiles, torn between looking at Ben and scanning her eyes through the room. Ben, on the other hand, was at the edge of his seat, right by Eddie’s side, giving her a silent pep talk every time they locked eyes.

Mike, his cheeks were glowing. Oh. Now he sees, all of them have glitter on, which he failed to notice and feeds into his guilty state. Mike’s cheeks are the most noticeable due to the contrast between colours. He looks amazing, no doubt, sending goofy, genuine smiles at the back of Richie’s head while he talks nonsense into the mic. His hands are skilfully turning the drumsticks as if they were bendable and the tank-top he chose to wear does him justice on showing off the strong arms he built over the years of hard farm work.

“I’m making the fine assumption that we’re all broke here.”

Right, Richie’s speaking. What’s all of that about? Eddie finishes the second alcoholic drink of his life, distracted by the happy sight in front of him. Richie’s still the same, dishevelled person. Nonmatching clothes and big teeth for a big mouth for a regular-sized face. Uncombed hair, which is the best way to go around it, and a non-filtered brain-to-mouth way.

Yeah, Richie’s still the one Eddie fell for two years ago and hasn’t been able to let go yet. Nor is he trying to. And, holy, if that’s not a hard thing to admit to himself after so much time of dancing around his feelings. So, maybe it’s the vodka-ish drink. Or maybe it’s his screwed-up appearance. Or the lightness that settled upon Eddie’s stomach moments ago.

Right now, in this room, if someone asked him who’s the most attractive person present, Eddie wouldn’t have thought twice before flinging himself at the mess that Richie Tozier is.

“Dear poor, empty-walleted high schoolers, this one was meant for us.” Richie started by running his fingers over the frets in such a rapid motion that Eddie gave up following it with his eyes. The tempo of the song was quick, his ring finger held a golden slide, and the sounds produced by it were actually good. It was really, really good. If there’s one thing that he’s actually committed to, is self-learning guitar. He had begged for one a few years back, and his parents gave in to his request after making him do all types of chores to prove how far he would actually work for it.

Eddie watches, with big shinny eyes, skilful hands and a concentrated face. A bitten tongue as he focused on the repetitive pattern and tried not to mess it up. The rings are missing from his fingers, tonight.

When the first hints of Mike’s drumming skills started to show, Richie began to sing, if you could call it that, and Beverly busied herself with the sound effects produced by the keyboard Eddie’s seen so many times before in her house.

It wasn’t really singing, it seemed to him that Richie was speaking at a fast speed with a certain rhythm, which made perfect sense. They had certainly picked songs that go along with his voice, what a relief.

Eddie paid attention to the words, and an inevitable groan made its way under the music and all types of encouragement everyone was giving as feedback. He was fucking singing about a prostitute, and using his famous voices to impersonate her within the song. He chose what seemed to be British hooker.

‘If you can pay the right price, your evening will be nice But you can go and send me on my way.’ I said, "You're such a sweet young thing, why you do this to yourself?”

And the rest of it went subtly ignored once Eddie turned to stare at Bill who looked like he was having the time of his life. To his right, Ben was laughing, reasons unknown. Stan was hiding his amusement behind a hand. After the prostitute, came a robbery. What the fuck’s this song about? Yeah, got it. Being broke. Unbelievably, Richie was putting another voice into action every time a new character made an appearance.

The robber sounded from the south. But maybe it was a failed attempt at any other accent really.

‘Give me all you've got, I want your money not your life But if you try to make a move I won't think twice I told him, "You can have my cash, but first you know I gotta ask What made you want to live this kind of life?”

Was it bad that Eddie was enjoying it? Richie either had his eyes closed or stuck on his guitar, and if he knew him well enough, it was from being nervous or afraid to face an audience. But if Richie did dare to look, he’d see so many faces of contentment. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their selves once Eddie turned to steal a glance. Mike was killing it, too, lost in his own world and feeling things to their maximum extent. There were other faint background sounds that made everything better, those were Beverly’s contributions. Eddie could hear bass, xylophone, too, played by her skilled moving hands over the keys.

Sure, the song’s also about a priest stealing money from the church.

By the end of it there were so many whistles and cheering that Eddie saw the exact moment of realisation hitting Richie in the face. Take that, he thought. The idiot should think better of himself, and Eddie can be a real horrible being sometimes. To prove his point, he got up from the couch to applaud them that way, a genuine smile to go with it.

Richie seemed surprise, eager to get some kind of support. Eddie shot him a wink and didn’t think twice before puckering up his lips in a quick air kiss.

So, I’m drunk. Okay.

With eyebrows suddenly flying off his face and a stupid grin, Richie didn’t look away from him as he tried to switch guitars, blindly feeling for the stand. When things got messy and he lost his balance for a second, he had to actually look away and do the task properly. Once the electric was hanging around his shoulder and properly connected to the speakers, Richie started a new combination of chords without a word. Eddie let his body hit the couch again, face red and suddenly overly shy. He placed both hands on his cheeks to check the temperature rising on his skin. What’s gotten into me?

It took him exactly 3 seconds to realise what song they were playing. It wasn’t shocking, either, to anyone, that tonight they’d be hearing Teenage Dirtbag. What a classic. Richie sings it all the time at Losers’ hangouts. Once again, it’s obvious that the voices will come into play, for every time he sings or performs, hat song he always sounds like a clogged-up chicken in a puberty-hit preteen boy.

“That’s my Noel impersonation!” It’s what Richie claims once the ‘I’ve got two tickets to Iron Maiden, baby’ part comes along and someone mocks him for how bad it sounds.

Truth is, Eddie doesn’t think it sounds so bad this time. Maybe Richie does it on purpose when they’re all together, but tonight he sounds different, there’s effort, there’s rehearsing. There’s an expectation he put on himself and that he won’t fail to achieve. Eddie is in love. Tipsy, likely, but in love.

It's a great surprise when Beverly’s voice joins Richie’s in some harmonies. Their voices crash, not at all alike. Bev’s serious, Richie’s playing around. When people hear the first words out of her mouth, most of them wowed, stunned, which made her giggle in between words and her chest faulter with quick breaths, probably nerves, after returning her full attention to the keyboard. Ben was ecstatic.

By now, a lot of people are dancing around the weird lyrics, singing along too. This song makes better justice to Beverly’s capacities, along with Mike’s. The electric guitar is louder and different to Eddie’s ears, it does sound amazing, and Richie’s eyes are open for a change. Something quite great strikes his chest when that famous girly voice comes out of his lips. Eddie laughs because it sounds girlier and perkier than ever before, improved. And what were the chances of Richie singing those exact words without breaking the eye contact with him.

‘I've got two tickets to Iron Maiden, baby Come with me Friday, don't say maybe I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby, like you.’

Instinctively, Eddie bites his lip, and it stays between his teeth right until the very end of the song. The only thing that pulls him out of it is the intervention that follows.

“Alright, alright, chaps! There’s one last song we’re gonna play, and if you wanna get yourself laid tonight, you should take care of the arrangements in the next three minutes.” Richie took a small step back to laugh at his own joke and catch his tired breath. “I’d like to dedicate it, personally, to a lovely human being tonight.”

That’s when Richie winked in his direction.

That’s when his heart stopped.

“Eds, this one goes to your mom and all the amazing nights we spend together.” If he hadn’t looked away right in that moment, Richie would have seen the disappointment painting Eddie’s face. A hand made contact with his elbow, Bill was babbling on while the beginnings of a new song were born.

“A duh-douchebag once, a douchebag f-for life.” He’s high, Eddie thinks. He doesn’t bother with a reply, instead sinking down on the couch seat and trying to pay attention on this lovely tribute aimed for his overbearing mother. He begun to lose hope after some horrid words like:

‘I hope it's not a one-night stand

It's just you're so cool, and I wanna steal this moment with you.’

The images in his mind were worse than ever. But some made him laugh.

‘I miss your pain, I miss your brain, I miss your kiss, already’

And Richie was using this as a way to mock her, so Eddie felt thankful for the obvious hatred behind the words he was singing. Things only started turning the wrong way, a better one, when something changed in his voice. Eddie just knew, right when their eyes met without further interruption. Eddie was sure, when hating sentences softened and eased the lines on the skin of their foreheads. It was clear that, unlike before, Richie had a new subject of dedication. It was Eddie.

‘I'll hold you dear I hope that you don't think I'm weird’   I don’t.

‘Pretend it never happened’   That’s not what I want. That’s not what I want, Richie.

‘Cause we made a pact And I'll try my best not to get attached …I'm such a fool for you’

And like all good moments, there’s only one person to ruin them.

‘Well, I miss your sex, I miss your lips, I miss your tits I miss your kiss, already’   Richie smiles playfully, still a hint of seriousness hiding underneath. This time, Eddie blushes and mouths at the edge of his cheap party cup with a fire growing inside his chest.

Maybe parties aren’t so bad after all.

 -

 Eddie didn’t have any sense of what time it was. Late, probably.

“Why’s everyone leaving?” He pouted and turned to look at his friends, who were entertained by the sight of Eddie and Bill dancing comically in front of them. They had their arms linked, facing different directions and spinning around in circles. “Woah, the room’s spinning.”

Beverly lowered the cigarette from her mouth, Mike allowed her to smoke inside now that the space was clearing up. “That’s because we shut the power down half an hour ago so they’d get bored and leave.” Tightening the grip he had on Bev’s mid-section, Ben chuckled.

“You’ve been dancing without any music.” Bill started to sing some tune they all remembered from childhood, tugging on Eddie’s arm to keep spinning. He wasn’t prepared for such movement so he fell on his butt and dragged Bill along by the arm, who started laughing as soon as he hit the floor, and Eddie.

Their little show had ended some hours ago, with a lot of success, anyone would say. A group hug was shared, along with some drunken apologies from the ones that hadn’t shown support previously. Needless to say, everyone was forgiven without resentments.

Eddie let his head hit the floor, laying there with Bill half on top of him. It was very warm inside.

“So, what now?” Stan asked, although he would regret this as soon as Richie dizzily got up without a word. “Oh, no.”

“Shhhh.” Richie said while rounding the couch to stand behind it. He placed both hands on the cushioned back and pulled so hard his knuckles turned white. At last, he gave up and huffed out an exhausted breath.

“What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish?”

“Stanley, I’m starting to believe you have a fixation on me. I’m flattered.” He ducked his head to lick a long stripe on the side of Stan’s face. He jolted with disgust and desperately rubbed the spot with the back of Mike’s hand.

‘Such weirdos.’ Eddie thought. But he was still on the floor, maybe Bill was snoring by now. Who’s the weirdo, in the end?

“Miikeeeey.” Richie keened. “Come save me with your guns.”

The said boy turned his head around in his seat. “My what, now?” But he got up anyway at the sight of Richie’s baby pout. They both stood behind the sofa and started pulling again, moving the piece of furniture along, gaining speed at each step.

“What the fuck?!” Stan jolted in his seat while being moved backwards.

“We wheeled the couch, babes!”

“Why would you do that?!” But Stanley didn’t get an answer, watching Ben and Beverly have fun. The room was moving in the background. Soon, Mike and Richie were giving one final tug and running out of the way, the couch rolled around at a fast speed until it stopped right before hitting a wall. Richie mocked Stan for the high-pitch scream he let out.

Eddie sat up, shaking Bill out of his sleepy state, to stare with amusement at the little wheels he failed to notice drilled on the couch feet. When Richie and Mike resumed their previous place ready to push their friends to the opposite wall of the barn, Eddie got up and tried to run without falling. He messily threw himself on top of the legs of those who were sitting, earning a groan in response. No one tried to move him away.

“I don’t think we can move the four of you as easily.” Mike stated.

“Cowards, do it.” Eddie retorted back, and everyone laughed at him. What’s so funny?

“Hop off, Eddie. I’ll help.” Beverly pushed Eddie off of the couch. He ended up on the floor for the second time that night before sitting on Bev’s previous spot and bending his legs underneath his weight.

Bill stumbled to his feet and tried to look for the main power switch to turn on the stage lights again while Bev, Mike and Richie finally started their little race. A collective scream came from the group at the speed they were gaining. The barn was wide, sure, but they were close to hit the wall if it wasn’t for the sudden turn the ‘drivers’ managed to do. The sofa started to spin at a slower speed until they decided to keep doing that instead of running around. The three of them pushed the right places to keep the couch rotating until Ben begged them, with tears streaming down his face from laughing, to “Please, stop, I’m going to pass out.”

It was the most stupid thing they could have done, but it was also the most fun.

That fun was instantly killed when Eddie threw up outside after getting up. He had ended up crying, too, maybe because he was pissed, or maybe because his feelings were all over the place.

It was probably around 4 a.m. that Mike announced he would get everyone some blankets and throw pillows from his house. He was gone, approximately, 15 minutes. That time was enough for Bill to park his car inside the barn and scrape his right rear-view mirror even though the barn entrance could fit a bus.

By the time Mike came back, the lights were already off and he was greeted with the sight of Bill’s car inside, every door opened and the couch placed directly underneath the trunk. Both Beverly and Ben were already squeezed on the red sofa.

Bill was awkwardly trying to curl himself inside the trunk without stepping on the couple sleeping. Mike suppressed the urge to laugh and helped his drunk friend inside while giving him one of the many blankets he brought, along with a pillow.

Another one was draped over Ben and Bev, but no pillows for those two, lucky ones. When Mike peered inside the car, he saw, fondly, that the backseat was slightly tilted back, minimizing even more Bill’s space. Richie and Eddie looked very uncomfortable in there, bigger legs hanging outside. He threw them a blanket aggressively, startling both of them up. He was flipped off, worth it.

Lastly, both front seats had also been tilted back as much as they could go. Stan stood on the driver seat, laying sideways and looking at Mike with interest. He was minorly tipsy, but his cheeks were the most flushed. No words were spoken as he climbed on the passenger seat and gave Stan the last pillow. His arms curled around it. The remaining two blankets were sorted between them, deep breaths already being heard by some of their sleeping friends.

That night, the only reason Eddie woke up was to curl around Richie’s body and being held tighter right back.

Happiness was truly intoxicating.

rooftop taglist:   @richietoaster   @rainydayriots   @reddieloves    @thetrashmouthclub   @lemonboi03 @noodleboyshane    @pillsandglasses   @studpuffin      @dandelion-stan     @reddiesetrichie     @squishynonbinarytwink      @itschunky      @burymestanding     @duderrific    @its-rye @salty-kaspbrak  @youtubequeens   @reddieseggrolls   @addimagination   @pastelstozier @sleepysirenprincess @constantreaderfool   @mrs-vh @eds-trashmouth

perma taglist:  @constantreaderfool   @mrs-vh  @eds-trashmouth @girasol-eddie

[pinkettepoet]

In Which She’s Caught In A Crossfire

Summary: Heated tension between you and Clint Barton surprisingly ends in unexpected confessions.

Warnings: Clint Barton x Fem!Reader, Violence, Decent Swearing (?), FLUFF.

Note: The last imagine absolutely exploded! I’m so happy that so many of you enjoyed it. For this one, all I have to say is that Hawkeye is one sexy man.

You were seething with anger.

And frankly, everyone in the Quinjet could see the heated tension between you and Clint. To be fair, you weren’t exactly subtle with the piercing glares you sent him or the murderous threats you muttered every time you passed by the famous Hawkeye.

Just the thought of Clint Barton brought fire to your veins. And for reasons that you couldn’t explain, you couldn’t get him out of your head. It was as if you didn’t know whether to hug him to death or to push him off a bridge.

You hated his stupid, large muscles. You hated the graceful baritone in his voice. You hated the way he acted so differently around you. Most of all, you hated his smirk that reeked of pride. But honestly, everything related to Clint Barton just set you off.

“So, uhm,” Steve coughed, poorly attempting to slice through the thick atmosphere. “Today was a successful mission—”

“I wouldn’t know.” You were quick to intervene, not missing a beat to throw another dark glare Clint who was seated across from you. “Someone kept me from all the action.”

You didn’t exactly have the tendency to be a violent woman. However, when a person stood in the way of you and your mission, there wasn’t much depth to it except that you felt cheated. Just as Clint did to you.

For today’s job, you were paired with Clint to keep an eye out for any Hydra agents who tried to run away. Him being on the lookout on the trees, and you dealing with them face to face.

Unfortunately, before you could even land a punch on anyone of them, a certain someone pierced an arrow right through their heart. He did that to every single one of them. Even when there was only literally one person.

When you confronted Clint about it on the way to the jet, he merely shrugged and said, “I’m just looking out for you, babe.”

It was a load of crap, honestly.

Just recalling the events today got your veins surging with irritation and fury. Clint had a habit of getting under your skin and today was no exception.

You were brought out of your thoughts when Natasha coughed beside you. It was only then you realized that your gaze was on Clint himself, or rather his lips.

“Daydreaming about me, sweetheart?” He smirked. At this point, you were seconds away from punching his perfectly structured face.

Perfect? Where the hell did that come from?

Must have been the heat getting to your head.

“Only about how much I want to bite your head off, sweetie.” You plastered the most bittersweet smile on your face, hoping to piss him off instead the man smiled widely.

“May I ask why Sir Barton and the Lady Y/N are in a quarrel? Is this some sort of mating ritual between mortals?” Thor said, his booming voice filling up the room.

Gone was the discomposed tension in the air, and replaced it was a series of awkward coughing. However, you and Clint never ceased from your stare down. In the background, you could hear the God of Mischief blasting with laughter, clearly the only one who didn’t give a damn.

“Thor, honey, I would never associate myself with an idiot like Clint.” And as melodic as you tried to make your voice sound, you knew that the venom in your words would reach Clint.

A part of you exploded with pleasure when you saw Clint stand up, eyes burning with rage. Finally, you got to see the layer underneath his sarcasm. You finally ticked the bomb within him.

“How am I the idiot for trying to protect you?” He asked. For some reason his harsh tone and the cold stare sent irregular shivers to your spine.

You brushed the fact away and stood up. You tried to make yourself seem taller but failed miserably as you could only seem to come in contact with his chin. Despite that, you put in every fiber of your being to intimidate him.

“If you didn’t notice, Clint, I’m an Avenger. And for a good bloody reason, too.” Your tone was raising higher, fueling with rage by the millisecond.

“Well, I’m sorry if I worry about you!” He took a few steps closer to you. His presence overwhelming you to the bone. It seemed as if you drowned out everyone else.

That sentence earned a scoff from you. It was a lie and you both knew it. The man didn’t have the ability to care for you, he just wanted to see you crash and burn.

“You worry about Nat but I don’t see you coddling her during missions, do I?” You spat out as loud as he did. It was becoming a crossfire and you were determined to make it out alive.

“That’s because she’s different, Y/N!” Clint fired back with just as much rage and insult.

“How is she different, Clint?” You practically screamed. “We both have eyes, nose, ears, and whatever. And as far as I’m concerned, we both have breasts! So tell me, how are we dif—”

“Because I love you, you dumb girl!”

“So I’m the dumb one now? Wow, you really are— wait what?” You paused, his words finally registering into your brain. And damn if that didn’t stop your heart for a bit.

“I love you, Y/N.” His tone was softer now, gentler. There was no more malice and you could practically feel the adoration seeping through.

Love?

Your mind became dizzy as you searched for anything that could have led to this. Instead, there were only images of you salivating of the man himself. How could you be so stupid?

“I have loved you ever since you came into the compound, wearing that stupid hat of yours—”

“My hat isn’t stupid. You are.” You whispered, eyes still locked on to his. You prayed hard that he didn’t hear the nervousness in your voice.

You still didn’t understand why your body was reacting this way. How could a simple sentence turn your insides putty?

“Of course, it is.” He laughed, tucking a stray hair behind your ear. “But it seemed like the most beautiful thing on earth when you wore it.”

“I love the way you don’t back down from a fight, the fire in your eyes is just something else. I love the way that you fight everyone for your food. I love the dimples when you smile, right there below your eye. I love you, Y/N.”

“And I’ll be spending the rest of my life making sure you know that.” Clint‘s arms came around you, pulling you for a hug. Then his hands slowly came down to your shoulders, tracing the outline of your body until he settled them onto your waist.

You tucked your bottom lip between your teeth, hoping to hide the smile. You didn’t even notice any of that. Unfortunately, you let your emotions get to the best of you as a small laugh escaped past your lips.

Surprisingly, you were rendered speechless and as you were thinking of something coherent to say, Tony interrupted your thoughts and suddenly stood up. If it weren’t for him, you’d have forgot that there were other people. You shyly moved away from Clint but he pulled you back to his body.

“Alright, people, pay up.” Tony laid his palm flat out for everyone to see. Slowly, Pietro, Steve, Bruce, Peter, and Loki put a handful of dollar bills onto his hand.

“What’s this?” You cleared your throat, trying to not let the stares faze you. But your head was so high up in the clouds that you didn’t care.

“They,” Tony said smugly, pointing to those who had just paid him. “Bet that you would kill Clint before he could confess his feelings for you.”

“And I,” Natasha grinned, grabbing all the money showcased for her. “Bet that Clint would confess his love for Y/N in the sappiest way sometime this month.”

“Why are you all against me?” Clint chuckled, tightening his hold on you. “Also, this month is oddly specific.”

“Oh, yeah,” Wanda shuddered, accepting the money from the others. “I saw your thoughts about Y/N and I was pretty sure you were going to explode by the end of the month.”

Soon laughter and teasing exceeded the jet’s space. You didn’t focus on that, instead you gave your full attention to Clint’s lips which were hovering around your ear. Not a moment later, you heard the very voice that sent goosebumps all over your body.

“You do know that this means I’m going to be even more protective of you now? I’m probably going to spend the rest of my life scaring away everyone I hate who comes near you.” He whispered.

“Then I’m going to spend the rest of my life kicking your ass.” You said.

Then Clint smiled, “You do know that you just said we’re going to spend our lifetime together?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

(marvel tag list: @not-jk-rowling, @hydraliciousbarnes, @thewhinersoldier)

[jojotier]

Ebi, Kuromame, Kurikinton

It was a quiet night. It was appreciated, of course, even though it was unusual for this apartment complex and its penchant for illegal fireworks- but Tsukishima would take what he could get, particularly on New Year’s Eve.

Nugget softly grunted from his place beside Tsukishima, stub of a tail wiggling excitedly as he eyed Tsukishima’s sparse dinner. The slow dwindling of his remaining army pension didn’t have as much to do with it as the fact that he was never particularly hungry this time of night. He wasn’t even entirely sure why he was eating now in the first place, other than to fulfill an offhanded promise he’d made to his therapist, to try and “be open to festivities”. Even if those festivities were spent alone, in a quiet evening in his own house.

The pitbull had its singular eye set on Tsukishima’s black soybeans, slowly inching its clumsy body closer along the edge of the kotatsu. “No, Nugget,” Tsukishima admonished halfheartedly, because the dog had already eaten dinner, and more besides. Nugget either heard and didn’t care or heard and didn’t comprehend, because he was still staring Tsukishima down.

“Nugget,” Tsukishima said in a warning tone as the dog set its head on the table, singular focus shifting between the soybeans, the kuri kinton, and the shrimp. It’d been a few months since he’d gotten the old dog, and the thing still didn’t listen to Tsukishima half of the time. Normally, Tsukishima might have been put off by that, but considering the fact that Nugget was a dog? He didn’t mind it as much.

Nugget snuffled along the table, lifting his head as Tsukishima ate another piece of shrimp. “Nugget, this is going to set bad habits. You know this.” The dog might not have known this. But he knew Tsukishima’s tone, so that was similar, right?

Nugget stuck his tongue out slightly, as if in defiance. Tsukishima’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Nugget. I can’t give you human food.” Nugget’s mouth opened into a wide, dumb smile, tongue lolling all the way out and snaggle teeth on display. “... Nugget. Sit back.” But Tsukishima was already reaching for his phone and googling ‘can you feed dogs soybeans’.

Soybeans were safe, so he picked up a small handful and held them out to the dog. It was a shame that Nugget’s tail had been cut, because it looked painful, how fast that nub was vibrating. In about five seconds, there wasn’t anything in Tsukishima’s hand other than a wet tongue licking all over it. Eugh. Even if Tsukishima loved this dog, he didn’t really love the slobber. He’d bear it, though. Especially since Nugget had finally gotten the hang of not accidentally nibbling a little too hard.

He watched for a moment- somewhat contented, even- as Nugget wiggled his head onto Tsukishima’s lap to be pet. It was…. Peaceful.

At least until Nugget suddenly jolted, muscles tense. The dog started scrambling his way under the kotatsu, growling and panting heavily. Tsukishima tensed, his right hand twitching for a trigger that wasn’t allowed to be in his hand anymore. That didn’t stop him from nearly rushing to his room to draw his perhaps-illegal pistol out when there was staccato knocking at his front door.

Tsukishima didn’t have visitors. Sometimes, he spoke to his old platoonmates from the 7th, and sometimes he went out to go to the therapist or search for a more permanent means of employment, but he never had people over. It was New Year’s Eve, when families and friends crowded each other, and when the rest of the complex were alone. Tsukishima had no family.

And yet, there was more knocking. Tsukishima gently shushed Nugget, scratching behind one ear before getting up the courage to at least peer through the peephole. Or at least, grab a pocket knife so he felt prepared enough to do so.

Silently making his way to the front door, Tsukishima strained his ears to hear for any other indications of people outside. There was some stuttered breathing, some shifting- but nothing outright disturbing, like the sound of guns cocking or blades being taken out of sheaths. Peering out the door, Tsukishima saw a vaguely familiar face partially hidden by a baseball cap.

Tsukishima recognized his neighbor and vaguely remembered meeting him once, at a Christmas party a few weeks after he’d been discharged the year before. Sugimoto Saichi- he wasn’t someone that demanded attention and mostly kept to himself. Sometimes his apartment got loud, but he’d quiet down if someone asked, looking rather sheepish while doing so. Even if he likely had honest intentions, Tsukishima only opened the door a sliver, peering out. Just in case.

“Hey there, Tsukishima-san!” Sugimoto waved a little, bending to the side a bit to meet Tsukishima’s eyes. “It’s nice to see you- how are you doing this New Year’s?”

“Fine,” Tsukishima said politely, fingers tightening around the hilt of the blade, “What brings you, Sugimoto?”

“Well, we figured since it was New Years, it’d be nice to drop by-” Sugimoto started to say before being slightly tilted off balance, shoved vaguely to the side. A second face appeared, slightly lower than Sugimoto’s face and flushed lightly. The smell of sake on this stranger’s breath nearly made Tsukishima recoil, knuckles turning white as his free hand clenched into a fist.

“Heyyyyy, Tsukihime-san!” The bald stranger grinned, head seeming to bob from side to side. “It’s so good t’ see you- great to meetcha, I’m Shiraishi Yoshitake-”

“Where’s the dog.” came a third voice, and soon a third face, belonging to a girl much shorter and younger than the two above her, peered into the gap.

“Asirpa, please,” Sugimoto laughed a little, trying to hide the smile behind his hand, “don’t make it look like that’s the only reason-!”

“But you said yourself that you wanted to pet the dog, Sugimoto,” Asirpa’s eyebrows rose as she tipped her head back, staring at the scarred man in the door.

“Well-!” Sugimoto’s face flushed a bit as well, giving a bit of a sheepish look. “I also wanted to say hi to the owner, of the dog.”

Tsukishima glanced over the three of them. It was unlikely that Sugimoto had ill intent, bringing both a drunk and a pre-teen along with him. He kept his pocket knife in his pocket and opened the door just a bit wider, looking to his impromptu guests and remembering Nugget in the living room, whining underneath the table. “Sorry. My dog doesn’t like being around a lot of people- he’s easily spooked.”

“The dog or you?” Shiraishi snickered a bit, seemingly trying to peer over Tsukishima’s shoulder into the apartment. Tsukishima reconsidered not thinking about the merits of “accidental” greeting stabs in the future. Except there wouldn’t be a future, because Tsukishima didn’t want to deal with visitors. “Noah Fence, dude, but you’re like- this super hermit! I don’t think anyone’seen you outside this apartment... Tha’s what I heard from other people-”

The girl, Asirpa, turned around and kicked Shiraishi in the shins. Sugimoto followed suit, smacking Shiraishi upside the head while glaring at him. Tsukishima’s eyes narrowed as he went to close the door anyway. “Good night, Sugimoto. Asirpa.”

“Wait! Wait,” Sugimoto shoved his hand in the door hastily, trying to fold in on himself so he could hold up a package wrapped in paper the same shade of blue and white that the headband that Asirpa wore was. Of course, the designs were much different, looking more like silver leaves and boars. That’s right- it was the year of the boar soon, wasn’t it?

“We made too much mochi and yokan,” Asirpa explained, peering up at Tsukishima.

“We figured we’d give some to you since it’s the holiday season and all,” Sugimoto said with a sincere, sweet smile. “It… didn’t really look like you had anyone else over, so…”

“I see,” Tsukishima said. “but it’s fine. There’s no need to go through the trouble. Thank you, in any case.” He wasn’t really one for sweets, and he wouldn’t know what else to do with the mochi, other than eat it as was. He was only just now getting into eating the ‘traditional’ things to eat for the occasion, after all.

“We insist,” Asirpa said brazenly, reaching up to take the package from Sugimoto’s hands and poke it through the gap. It didn’t quite fit. “We worked hard on it, and I don’t want to waste it on Shiraishi when he gets himself in a useless stupor like this.”

Shiraishi whined, sinking to the ground and just laying there. Outside Tsukishima’s door. Okay. Tsukishima looked to the kid and, upon seeing that she looked deathly serious and far too intense for someone trying to pawn off leftovers onto someone, eventually opened the door wide enough to take the package. “That’s very fair.”

Shiraishi whined louder, and then from behind Tsukishima, there was a shuffling behind Tsukishima. Tsukishima glanced behind him to see Nugget, whining back at Shiraishi. The dog tried to hide poorly around the corner, staring back at the trio outside with shaky disdain.

“Thank you again,” Tsukishima said, starting to close the door.

Sugimoto was about to say something else, but Asirpa interrupted with, “It’s no problem- we’ll see you around, Tsukishima.” Tsukishima closed the door and locked it, turning away. He left the sounds of the two outside the door (apparently trying to get Shiraishi off the ground, so that shouldn’t take long) and walked back towards Nugget, bending down slightly to scratch behind his ears.

“Good boy,” He said. Nugget’s nub wiggled as he tried to lean against Tsukishima’s legs, shaking slowly subsiding. “Good Nugget- they’ll be gone now.”

Tsukishima walked back to the kotatsu, not surprised to find his food intact. Having them at the door probably spooked his poor dog something bad. Settling in, he opened up the package and opened the top. White squares of mochi sat in rows alongside rows of yokan, wiggling slightly. In the middle, on top of the confections, there was a little card.

Hey! If you ever need anything, I’m two doors down the hall. Sometimes I have to go out, so just give me a call, then! - Sugimoto

There was a cell phone number on the back.

“Huh,” Tsukishima mumbled, musing silently to himself. What a nice guy. Almost too nice- but maybe that was just how he was.

Beside him, Nugget slowly inched forward. The dog’s only functional eye was trained on the box of new food that Tsukishima had gotten. Tsukishima looked at the dog, who was already drooling. “Nugget…” Well. What the hell? The dog had been good- hadn’t even tried to eat Tsukishima’s dinner while he was otherwise occupied. Surely, red bean flavor wasn’t anything too bad for him- even if this would set a bad precedent.

He took three pieces of the yokan and held it out to Nugget. Nugget eagerly scarfed the jelly bits down, rear end wiggling just as violently as his stub of a tail. Then, he was licking all over his hand, seeming to grin at him. Tsukishima sighed, perhaps somewhat fondly. Gross...

[harleyquilt]

Beware the green eyed monster

Summary: Jealous touka when she notices some confident girls making a move at her overly densed husband. 

Notes: Thanks for the amazing prompt from @catsoul2 that inspired this fic. Feedback is appreciated and I hope you enjoy~

Rating: fllluuuuffff

With a heavy sigh, touka sat opposite to the white haired boy who cocked his head to one side when he looked down at the ‘meal’ presented to him. Touka watched intently as he hesitantly took a bite out of the food, only for his face to twist in disgust and his head to shake rapidly before he spat the food back out again, touka’s brow twitching slightly at the response.

“It still tastes like crap, manager.” Shio scoffed, pushing aside the plate with mush on it. “I hope you didn’t add any dog shit into the recipe, because that’s what it definitely tastes like right now.”

“You’re a piece of shit, I hope you know that.” Touka scowled and got up from her seat to dump the poorly made food into the bin. “You can starve for all I care.”

“Don’t be like that.” Shio rested his head onto his hands, a goofy grin across his smug face. “It was better than last time…I think.”

“I don’t see why you ask me to cook for you in the first place.”

“Because…” Shio wondered, not exactly sure why. “Well…”

“You do it to torment me, don’t you?” Shio nodded enthusiastically, prompting a glare as a response from touka. “Whatever, next time you can cook for yourself-”

Just then, her gaze drifted to the two giggling women who strolled into the room, whispering to each other with more childish laughter, touka feeling a deep annoyance towards the two ghouls. They were a little younger than touka, both cute and cheery with all these attractive features of big eyes, slim figures and long wavy hair. Unconsciously, touka reached up to her own hair, which was shorter and simple compared to the two others. What annoyed her more though was the topic of their dialogue.

“The king is so handsome.” A petite brunette spoke, giggling to herself. “And all those nicely toned muscles.”

“Despite his appearance, he’s surprisingly really nice. To think he’d actually give us ‘lessons.’” The two girls laughed some more before the other dark haired girl turned around into an innocent pose of her hands behind her back as she leaned against her toes. “My king,” she said in a high pitched voice. “I could really use some more help reading this kanji.”

“It’s so hard.” The other girl joined in, fluttering her lashes and twirled a lock of her hair hair with her finger. “Please, oh please, help me with this small problem.”

“I bet he’s good at sex.” The other girl whispered, but obviously not quiet enough for touka then snapped and slammed her fist down against the table.

Startled, everyone turned to touka, who bit down hard against her lip as an attempt to hold back her very violent thoughts and instead took a deep breath before she lifted her head with a big, fake grin.

“Sorry.” Touka apologised, opening her eyes only to glare at the two women. “There was a bug that I needed to squash.”

The two girls exchanged worried looks before they rushed out of the room, murmuring to one another in a (luckily for them) now quieter tone. Touka sighed, shaking her head and bit the inside of her cheek, shio also giving her a slightly concerned look as he watched her jaw clench and her grip on the edge of the table tighten.

“Manager-san?” Shio said slowly. She turned to him, a disturbingly fake smile now replacing her angry look.

“Yes, Shio?” Touka said, her voice tight with a hint of anger in between.

“Well…” He scratched his chin, avoiding her heavy gaze. “What’s sex?”

…

Kaneki rubbed his temples, blinking hard before he looked back up to the blaring screen. He felt exhausted, his mind quickly becoming distracted by every little thing. Unsurprisingly, his thoughts drifted back to touka, her smug smile, that cute little laughter, that small blush and her-

“Kaneki-kun,” a woman called, pulling kaneki out of his wandering thoughts.

Shaking his head slightly, he looked up to the doorway where the young woman stood expectedly - he was tutoring her, as well as a few others, on reading Japanese better, remembering how some ghouls never got the opportunity of school. He was more than happy to help them and whenever he did, he felt a sort of warmth within him at the thought that he was of some help to others.

“Yes, Mina-chan?” Kaneki smiled. The girl giggled, leaning against the doorway.

“Could we have another lesson? You’re such a good teacher and me and my friends are very eager to learn.”

Not noticing the way she subtly bit her lip or the way her voice shifted to a more sultry tone, he nodded enthusiastically, beaming with pride to see his students so eager to learn. He couldn’t wait to tell touka about how he was helping these ghouls learn more, despite circumstances.

“Of course! I’ll be down in a bit.” Mina flashed another smile before she hurried away down the corridor. “The work can wait. I could use a break. Besides, she always looks so happy when I help her read.”

He joined Mina soon after he switched off all the computers and such, finding her just a few rooms away with two other friends. They all sat comfortably together around a table, continuing their ongoing giggles whilst they whispered behind their hands, glancing towards kaneki every now and again. With big grins, they encouraged him to sit in between them, a large book of kanji in front.

“Kaneki-kun,” a dark haired girl leaned her body against kaneki, who awkwardly tried to shuffle a little out of the way to give her more room. “How would you read this?”

He looked down onto the page and read out the kanji aloud, the girl repeating slowly and carefully afterwards and ended with a other bright smile. It reminded him of how proud touka would be after reading something correctly, that smug smile always-

“Kaneki-kun, did I say it right?” The girl linked her arm through his and though it added some discomfort on his part, he felt it would be rude to push her away.

“Yep, very good.” Kaneki praised and the girls giggled in return.

“Say, Kaneki-kun, don’t you feel warm in this stuffy room?” Another girl asked, shuffling closer to his other side.

“Well,” He didn’t feel too hot, but the air was thick with humidity and he must admit that he indeed felt uncomfortable under the heat. “I guess.”

“Maybe you should take your shirt off.” Mina suggested, tugging the edge of his shirt. “We don’t want our sensei to suffer like this.”

Kaneki started to panic, his eyes widened and he stammered over his words, not exactly sure how to respond to such a proposal. They all had this determined look in their eyes, and kaneki was truly flattered that they cared so much for his comfort and wellbeing, but taking off his shirt…It was crossing the line a little.

And then there was them calling him sensei…to think they’d look up to him as their teacher. How honourable! But he couldn’t help but blush at such a statement, the name bringing back too many memories of nights he spent with touka. The situation was becoming an awkward one indeed.

“It’s, uh, fine, girls.” Kaneki scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

“But, Kaneki-kun~” The black girl drawled in a high pitched voice, dragging out his name. “Aren’t you uncomfortable?”

“Yes, you’re gonna get too hot.” Mina placed her hand onto his head and let out this little gasp of shock. “Sensei, you’re so hot. This simply won’t do.”

“Must be a burden being so hot.” The girl to his side murmured dreamily.

“What-” Kaneki turned into a bright red, the girls inching closer. “I promise. I’m fine, really!”

Touka raised her head, hearing a familiar voice down the hall. She was heading towards her room, but after she listened some more and realised that the voice belonged to kaneki, she smiled and headed to where he was. However, once she neared the room he was in, along with three other, younger women, she paused with a deep frown.

Standing near the doorway, she peered into the room, the three girls all dressed in shorts and low cut shirts, the black haired girl leaning forward slightly to reveal more of her obvious cleavage. They all fluttered their lashes with these radiant smiles and annoying giggles. These were the girls from earlier.

A newfound agitation grew at the pit of touka’s stomach and her hand gripped the doorway tightly, her nails digging into the wood until she left scratch marks. Her jaw was clenched and she felt ready to pounce at the idiots that threw themselves at kaneki.

And then there was kaneki.

He looked a little flustered but he didn’t seem to take any notice to their advances or if he did, he’d simply brush them off as if they were nothing to him. He couldn’t be that dense to not know what they were doing…right? He helped them read from a book in front of them, something about kanji, but the girls didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the book as they did to his face, like little school girls admiring their stupid idols. It sickened touka to even consider how much time they must’ve spent trailing around kaneki with their lame advances and annoying voices.

“Kaneki-kun.” The way they called his name made touka’s skin crawl and stomach churn, their lust filled expressions sickening to look at. She wanted to slap that innocent smile off the girl’s face.

“You should take your shirt off. We don’t want our sensei to suffer.”

That’s it.

She was about to storm right in, but she hesitated for a moment, pausing in her step and instead waited for kaneki’s response. He turned into a bright red, his eyes widened and mouth agape slightly, but he soon broke into an awkward, goofy smile as his eyes darted to each of the advancing girls. He seemed flustered but more uncomfortable than embarrassed. Touka couldn’t help but smile at his dumbstruck expression.

“Must be a burden being too hot.” One girl let out dreamily.

Someone like you wouldn’t know then, touka thought with an annoyed snarl.

She had finally decided that enough was enough and walked into the room. Everyone lifted their gazes to watch her as she stepped closer, her arms crossed and an unreadable expression upon her face.

“Don’t you kids have anything better to do?” Touka sighed, shaking her head. The girls looked at each other with uncertain looks before one of the girls stepped forward until she stood in front of touka.

“Do you mind?” She glared. “The king was kindly helping us with our reading. He doesn’t want some high minded woman interrupting us.”

She glanced towards kaneki, who’s face lit up once their eyes met and laughed nervously at the situation he was in with a small shrug. With another bothered sigh, touka rolled her eyes and faced back at the cocky girl in front of her. She took another step towards her and the girl flinched, trying desperately to keep up her confident act and with a sly smile, touka leaned in close to her face.

“Little girls shouldn’t play with things that don’t belong to them.” Touka warned. She smiled after she saw the girl lower her face with her brows furrowed and her smile now a childish pout.

“Touka-chan.” Kaneki called, his voice lighthearted and pure. “It’s no problem, really. They just wanted-”

Touka walked over to kaneki and leaned down from behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest and pressed her lips close to his ear. He remained frozen in place and bit back his lip before he could let out an embarrassing gasp.

“Kaneki, I’m getting a little bored on my own.” Touka whispered and the girls stared at her in sheer shock and horror. “Why don’t you come and entertain me for a while.”

Kaneki could barely respond, a stammered mess of a response was all he could muster before he felt Touka move away. Her hand brushed against his shoulder as she walked off, his eyes mesmerised by her perfectly round ass before she disappeared into the hallway.

“Sensei, is she bothering you?” Mina asked softly, a concerned look written across her face.

“I- uh-” Kaneki felt a little lightheaded but at the same time, a thrill of excitement as he stood up from his chair. “I need to go.”

“But, Kaneki-kun.” One girl grabbed his arm in desperate hope to sit him back down. “We’re not done with our lesson yet.”

“Yeah,” Mina pressed a hand against his chest and looked up with innocent eyes. “We need you-”

“I’m sorry, girls. I’m sure Tsukiyama or nishiki could help, though.” With that said, kaneki quickly rushed out of the room to follow touka with an excited glint in his eyes.

“Hmph,” the black haired girl complained. “No fun.”

…

“Touka-chan?” Kaneki looked into the room they often met each other at night in - it has the one nice bed in the whole underground that they use for…stuff. “There you are.”

Touka sat on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed, resting her head on her hand with her eyes shut and a slight smile on her lips. As he neared, he hesitatingly brushed her fringe back and she opened her eyes, her smile growing.

“Are you…ok?” Kaneki asked, her silence giving him no comfort. “I didn’t think those girls would bother you.”

She sighed and straightened, tugging him closer with the hem of his shirt. Kaneki felt flustered once again when touka leaned up and cupped his face to bring him down towards her lips. She did say she was bored after all-

“You idiot!” Suddenly, he felt her pinch his cheeks, her tranquil look from before now a hard look of disapproval. “Why the actual fuck were you with those bimbos?”

“I…” He winced at her harsh tone of voice and was unable to speak clearly with the way she pulled his cheeks. “They wanted help reading kanji.”

“Is that a fact?” Touka let go and crossed her arms again, raising a brow. “Nothing else that they did suggested that they were up to something else?”

“They said they saw me as a teacher,” Kaneki said, ashamed. “And it felt nice being some help to others. I didn’t think they would see me like…that. I-I promise I wasn’t interested in them in any other way than students.”

Touka’s look softened and she rested a hand against his cheek, kaneki avoiding her eyes to prevent his own embarrassment from consuming him whole. He seemed genuine and there was no reason to think otherwise - she knew he loved her with every ounce of his soul. He wore his heart on his sleeve, after all and it was true that he enjoys helping others with reading.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re an idiot.” She than began to laugh a little, lightening kaneki’s heart. “Though maybe that’s a good thing. I could tell your intentions were pure, even if their’s wasn’t Honestly, what should I have expected with someone like you? You’re thicker than pea soup sometimes, I swear.”

“Were you jealous touka?” His question startled touka and though she had too much pride to admit it, she did felt the sting of jealousy upon watching those brats so close to him.

“I don’t know.” Touka admitted and kaneki lifted her face, kissing the top of her head with a chuckle.

“There’s no need to worry about that. You’re the only queen in my eyes, touka-chan. I promise I’ll be more aware next time.”

With that said, touka relaxed a little and scooted across the bed to give kaneki some room as he joined her, crawling on top of her as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“One more thing,” touka said before kaneki could kiss her. “What made you think they weren’t advancing on you? Any other person would’ve seen it as clear as day.”

“Well,” He began to blush again, hesitating before answering. “I’m not really the type that girls like.”

Despite his cheerful tone, she could sense a deep insecurity in his tone. He mentioned before that Rize was the only date he ever had and well…that wasn’t saying much. Even now, these girls only appreciated kaneki for his role and looks.

“Hey,” she made him face her, their eyes locked onto one another. “I like you, ok? Doesn’t matter what those other girls might think. Besides-” she reached beneath his shirt and moved her hands against the nicely toned muscles of his back. “They don’t know what they’re missing out.”

She finished her sentence by pushing her body against his and nipped the side of his neck as she grinded against him. He let out a hiss of air and buried his head into her shoulder, moving his body against hers for more friction before he let out another smile.

“Oh, is that the real reason you like me?” He teased, helping her wrap her legs around him as they continued to rut against one another. “The shocking truth has finally been revealed.”

“Shut up,” she giggled, pulling his shirt over his head and admired all of his muscles. “I won’t deny that it’s a nice perk though.”

“Well, maybe I should indulge you with this perk then.” He smirked, his hand trailing down across her stomach to her the waistband of her shorts, tugging it open before sliding his hand underneath.

Just then-

“Kaneki-kun!” He heard Mina call from the hallway. “Please don’t go~”

He looked down to touka’s face which was now dark and filled with boiling rage. Mina called his name again in the same childish tone, touka shuddering beneath him.

“That’s it!” She yelled, pushing kaneki aside and making her way to the door with her kakugan released.

“W-Wait, touka-chan. There’s no need for-”

“Get back here, you bimbo!”

Maybe…It was better if he didn’t get involved this time.

~~