#oh see now y'all know why that image of her in the door with the sweatshirt hurts so much!

[nvrsaidiwasinurcloset]

ok, sorry abt my last request i’ll be more specific

can you do ethan landry is best friends with readers brother? and they annoy eachother a lot?

and it ends it a smut pls :3

love your work sm!!

Hiiii! I hope you like it :)

Bad Idea Right? - Ethan Landry x Fem!Reader

Ethan Landry x Fem!Reader

This contains SMUT- Minors DNI

Part 2

Summary: You hook up with your brother's irritating best friend.

A/N: If y'all want a part 2, let me know:)

You and your brother have a good sibling relationship, which you’re thankful for. The only issue you have is that his best friend, Ethan, is so incredibly annoying. They’ve been friends for the longest time, and they do everything together. When they both got into the same school, you weren’t surprised.

Ethan’s sort of became a part of the family. Your parents buy him Christmas presents; he comes on all the family vacations. It wasn’t a shocker when your brother wanted to come home to visit you for your birthday, that Ethan would be coming with him.

You’re the only one in your family that isn’t really close to him, which does feel weird from time to time. You’ll never forget the beach vacation when he chased you along the sand with a washed-up jellyfish, or when he was teasing you when you got your first crush, or when he went through a prank phase, and you were his target every single time.

As both boys arrived home to celebrate your birthday, you were excited to see them. Even though Ethan does annoy you, it’s been months since you’d seen them.

Your brother pulled you into a big hug as Ethan walked past you to say hello to your parents.

“Happy Birthday!” your brother said, you rolled your eyes.

“It was a month ago, dork,” you said, a playful tone in your voice.

“Sorry I couldn’t come home sooner. One of my classes this year has been brutal,” he said, as you nodded.

“Hi, Ethan!” you said sarcastically, as the curly-haired boy rolled his eyes when he faced you.

He looked like he was about to say something back, but he paused as he took in your appearance. You started to feel a little self-conscious, thinking you must’ve had a stain on your shirt or something, because he’s never looked at you like that. He’s usually just as annoyed with you as you are with him.

The next day, your brother told you he was throwing you a surprise birthday party.

“It’s not a surprise if you tell me, you know?” you said, “Plus it’s been a month. Why have a party now?”

“Because you only turn eighteen once,” he said, “And we always celebrate your birthday.”

“Okay, when is this surprise party for me, that I already know about?” you said with a giggle.

“That’s the part that’s surprising. It’s in 2 hours, you might want to get ready,” He laughed a little, looking at the sweatpants and big t-shirt you were wearing.

“Fuuuuck,” you whined, walking to the bathroom to jump in the shower.

After you got out of the shower, you stood on the mat reaching for your towel when the door opened.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” Ethan said, closing the door.

“Fuck,” you whispered, wrapping the towel around your body.

You’d gotten used to having your own bathroom while your brother was away, so you didn’t even think to lock the door. You started to get a little embarrassed, now that your brother’s best friend has seen you naked.

Once you dried off and put your robe on, you walked to your room to change.

As Ethan watched you walk out of the bathroom from your brother’s room across the hall, he couldn’t get the image of your naked, wet body out of his mind. ‘Why the fuck am I thinking about her like this?’ he thought to himself, his cock half-hard in his pants.

“I’m going to go get the cake. You want to set out the drinks and stuff?” your brother asked Ethan.

“Uh, yeah. I guess I can do that,” he said, even though the idea of him being left alone with you made him a little nervous.

“Cool, I’ll be back soon,” he said, grabbing his keys.

After you got dressed, you walked to the kitchen to get something to drink. Ethan was putting chips in bowls at the counter as you struggled to reach around him to get a glass. You brushed up against him, and he felt his breath hitch in his throat.

You got some water before sitting down at the kitchen table. You wanted to say something to him about the bathroom incident, but you were scared to make the situation even more awkward. As you sat there, you just had to say something.

“Hey, Ethan?” you said. He turned his head to look at you. “I’m sorry I forgot to lock the door. I know seeing me naked was probably the last thing you wanted.”

You watched him, waiting for a response. His face started to turn red, as you giggled to yourself.

“It’s..uh…it’s okay,” he said, directing his attention back to the chips.

While he was turning back around and you saw him from the side for a split second, you could see that he was hard in the sweatpants he was wearing. Your eyes went wide and you started to blush as you realized the effect you had on him.

“I’m going to go change,” he said, before walking out of the kitchen and to your brother’s room.

After your brother got back and all your friends started to arrive, Ethan was struggling to take his eyes off you. You noticed his gaze as you danced with your friends to the music, a smirk playing on your lips when he quickly looked away. You thought he was hot, but he annoyed you so much that you never realized it until recently.

You kept noticing his stares as the party went on, so when it was time for the cake, you decided to tease him a little bit. You swiped your finger through the icing, before putting the icing in your mouth. Your eyes connected with Ethan as you sucked it off, his bottom lip going in between his teeth at your actions.

After the cake, you went to the kitchen to get another drink. Ethan was leaning against the counter by himself as your brother shamelessly flirted with one of your friends in the living room.

“Hey, you might piss me off, but thank you for being here,” your voice was sweet as you spoke to him.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked, watching you sip your drink.

���What’s up?” you asked. He leaned closer to your ear so no one else could hear what he was saying to you.

“Are you intentionally trying to make me hard out there in front of everybody?” he asked, as his eyes scanned over your face. “I know you like to do things that embarrass me, so if you aren’t interested, please stop.”

You smiled at him, thinking back to all the things you’d done that were probably just as annoying as the stuff he’s done to you. But this was intentional. You wanted him to want you, and it’s obvious now that he does.

“Meet me in my room in five minutes,” you said, before walking away.

You scanned the living room to find your brother, still distracted from everything going on around him. You found your best friend, pulling her to the side.

“Hey, I’m going to disappear for a little bit. If anyone’s looking for me, tell them I’ll be right back, and text me immediately, okay?” you asked. The confused look on her face said you needed to explain more. “I’m about to hook up with Ethan. My brother can’t know, cover for me.”

She nodded, still confused at the situation.

You went up the stairs to your room to wait for Ethan. Your friend smirked to herself as she watched him scan the party for your brother, before heading upstairs not long after you.

“Lock it,” you said, as he walked in and shut the door.

“So demanding,” he laughed, as he locked the door.

You walked over to him and laced his fingers with yours as you led him back to your bed, pulling him down with you as you laid back. He looked in your eyes for a few seconds as he hovered over you, the sexual tension getting even stronger before he finally leaned down to kiss you. The second your lips touched, everything just felt right. Like this was what the two of you were supposed to be doing the whole time.

His hands started to roam under the fabric of your shirt, his fingertips grazed your stomach as you whimpered under his touch. As good as his teasing felt, you remembered that you didn’t have a lot of time to do what you came to your room to do.

“We need to be quick,” you gasped out, once his hand reached your breast.

"Right," he chucked to himself, before he slid your shirt up your body. You sat up a little so he could pull it over your head, and you reached behind yourself to unhook your bra to have one less thing in the way. “Fuck,” he whispered, taking in the sight in front of him.

He leaned forward to take one of your nipples in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it as he sucked before moving to the other side. Your breathing was getting heavier by the second, and feeling the way his tongue moved had you craving his mouth on you in other places.

He trailed kisses down your stomach, before he stopped at the top of your jeans. He looked up at you, silently asking for your consent before he went any further. You nodded at him before he smirked and unbuttoned your jeans, and slid those, along with your panties, down your legs in one motion. You took a deep breath once you were fully exposed to him, before he leaned in and started to place gentle licks to your clit.

"Fuck," you whispered, as you looked down to see Ethan's eyes on yours.

He started to swirl his tongue as he slid two fingers inside your soaked entrance with ease, your hips lifting off the bed as he rolled them against that spongy spot inside of you. You were trying so hard to be quiet, and even with the music downstairs, you were sure that if someone came upstairs, they'd know exactly what was going on. Strained whimpers were flooding out of your mouth as you struggled to hold them in, but Ethan was making you feel so good that it was impossible.

"Shit, Ethan," you rushed out, "This feels so good, but I need you to fuck me."

He pulled his mouth away from your clit before he mumbled "I wish I had more time to do this with you." He slid his fingers out, a whine slipping past your lips at the lost feeling as he unbuttoned his jeans and slid those, along with his boxers, down his hips.

"We need to be quick," you reminded him, once you felt the tip of his cock teasingly circling your clit.

"I know," he said, as he lined up with your entrance.

As he slid into you, a low moan flew out of your mouth.

“Shhh,” he said, his hips starting to move. “You need to be quiet, baby.”

You found it hard to do, the feeling of his cock stretching out your pussy feeling so good that you wanted him to know how much you loved it.

“Fuck,” you said, once you heard your phone vibrate on the bed beside you. Ethan kept going as you reached over to check it. “We need to hurry up. My brother was asking where I am.”

His thrusts sped up, until he started to pound into you. He angled your hips just right so your g-spot was getting the attention that it needed, and you couldn't hold in your moans. Once he reached down to circle your clit with his fingers, you cried out as that feeling built up so fast that your impending orgasm had your hands shaking as you gripped the sheets.

"That's it, baby. Cum for me."

Your legs were shaking on either side of his hips as that feeling washed over you, your bottom lip held in between your teeth so hard to attempt to not make the loud sounds that were threatening to escape. He was trying so hard to fuck you through it, but after he felt your pussy start to squeeze him, he knew he couldn't hold on any longer.

“Fuck,” he gasped, as he pulled out, releasing his hot cum on your stomach.

He took a minute to catch his breath as he tried to compose himself, but he couldn't stop looking at you. The way your blissed out eyes looked at him, the sweet smile on your lips, and seeing his cum on you was starting to make him hard again.

He finally tore his eyes away from you to grab some tissues out of the box on your nightstand, and cleaned you up before you both got up to quickly put your clothes back on. You could tell that he wanted to talk about what'd just happened, you did, too. But with the lack of time, you knew it would have to wait.

“I wish I could’ve taken my time with you,” he said, before you walked over to the door.

“There’s always next time,” you said, planting a kiss to his cheek.

You left your room first to join the party again. Your best friend came up to you once she saw you.

“So, how was it?” she asked.

“For a nerd, he sure knows what he’s doing,” you quietly joked, as he walked down the stairs.

“Dude, where were you?” your brother asked him, a blush rising to his cheeks at the question.

“Uh..I had to call my dad,” he lied, as your brother nodded at his response.

“Cool. I couldn’t find my sister either. I thought you two killed each other.”

[messedupfan]

Chapter 17

Summary: Wanda looks over her plans for her future after standing up to Vision. You discover something shocking about your friend on a night out. And the kids join you for a special haircut as Wanda collects her prize.

A/n: Hello! I didn't plan on posting this so soon but eh what the hell. Hope y'all don't kill me. Enjoy!

Masterlist | All Stories Taglist | All Chapters

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

Wanda stands in the middle of the large empty property that she now owns. She walks around the area as she visualizes a house. She sees the walls and the windows. She thinks about where the kitchen would be and the kitchen table for breakfasts and intimate family meals. Then she walks into a dining room where she’ll host holidays and birthdays. She pretends to climb a beautiful staircase as she envisions the separate rooms for her boys. A couple more rooms, maybe one of them is a guest room and the other is an office space. Then she sees a master bedroom. The image of climbing into bed after a long day has her heart racing as she pictures collapsing into your arms. 

Her phone ringing breaks her away from her fantasy world and back to the land with overgrown grass. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and sighs. “Hello Vision,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “What can I help you with?”

“Mom?” Tommy's voice has Wanda softening her tone almost instantly. 

“Tommy, hi, why are you calling me with your dad's phone? Is everything okay?” She asks as she starts to fill with worry. 

“Dad says he has to go out of town for something… for work! I mean um… I mean he has to go out of town for work. Can you come pick us up?” Wanda sighs when she can hear Vision correcting their son. She doesn't understand the man. He is constantly making a big racket about being in Tommy and Billy’s life but this is the third time in the last couple of months that he has had her pick up the boys halfway through the week. 

“I'll be there soon,” Wanda says in a soft tone. She does her best to not let her frustrations with his father affect her tone. Vision is being harsh enough as it is. “I love you, sweetheart. Let your brother know that I love him too, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Tommy says. “Bye, mom.”

Wanda hangs up the phone. She takes one last glance around the empty land and sighs. One day, she will be able to fulfill her dream. But that is years away. 

“Vision, you can't keep doing this to them,” she says quietly once the boys are in her car. 

“It's my work, Wanda. It's what pays the bills,” he says with a roll of his eyes. 

“Oh I'm very familiar with your work,” Wanda retorts. “Who is she this time? Another TA? No, that pairing has to bore you by now. Besides, you don't need a dating profile in order to date a student.” 

“You've been stalking me?” He asks, he's more intrigued than anything. 

Wanda makes a face, “Gross. No. That would mean I gave a shit about your personal life. I have friends that use dating apps. And you weren't exactly discrete about it on your profile.” 

Vision’s face starts to get red and Wanda knows that she has struck a nerve. Not only did she reveal that she knows he isn't being faithful in his current marriage, she revealed how she found out. She is almost certain that the mention of her friends being involved has painted a mental picture of her having a laugh about him with them. She’d put good money on Vision picturing you as the friend, causing him to grow even more upset. 

“Vis, I don't care what you do in your free time. I care that it affects my kids,” she states firmly. “Either end the affair or give me full custody. Because I will not allow you to keep hurting them with this deadbeat father act you have going on.” She starts to walk towards her car expecting him to slam the door shut but instead, he follows her. 

“Oh you'd love to have me out of the picture, wouldn't you? So that you can live happily ever after with, Y/n! That's it, isn't it?” He shouts behind her. Wanda stops and spins as she lets out a malicious laugh.

“What is with your obsession with Y/n? They have been nothing but kind to our boys when you fail them time and time again. They are always there for the twins when you've abandoned our boys. Y/n has covered for your ass over and over,” she takes steps towards Vision as she defends her friend to him. “They do nothing but try to make you look better to those boys. You should be thanking them instead of threatening them! You have no idea the kind of person they are. And it's not their fault that you are such a sorry excuse for a father. Gosh, your own family finds it difficult to be related to you.” 

Vision shakes his head, “You are a vindictive cunt.” 

“Call me all of the names you want. You can't hurt me anymore,” Wanda glares at her former husband defiantly. She scoffs. “You're a pitiful man. I hope karma gets you one day.” She walks away and doesn't turn back once as he continues to shout profanities at her. She does, however, raise her middle finger at him. 

“Mom, are you okay?” Billy asks from the backseat once Wanda has joined her boys in the car. She turns back and reaches out to hold his hand. She smiles at him and squeezes his hand. 

“Mommy is more than okay,” she says confidently. She doesn't recognize herself at this moment and it's a fantastic feeling. “Are you boys ready to go? You didn't leave behind any important homework or school books right?” 

“Right,” the boys say at the same time. 

“Okay, let's go home then,” she smiles at each of her kids before starting her car and driving away from Vision’s house. When she pulls into the driveway of her current home she can feel the ghost of the person she used to be. The woman that once believed living a life on eggshells was normal. That she was always meant to be careful around her husband. That her children were to be completely obedient and quiet. That woman and that life haunt every corner of the house. They start to hide when the boys laugh loudly at something that happens in the movie they’re watching. But when you stop by to return the tupperware, the ghosts seem to disappear instantly. As if they were never there.

“You know, Y/n,” Wanda starts as she closes the door behind you. “We are friends, you don't need an excuse to see me.”

“Okay, you caught me but we never really got a chance to ourselves last week and I thought since,” you are cut off when the boys come running towards you and wrap their arms around you as they crash into your body. “Oh! Hi guys! What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be with your dad this week?” You keep your tone light, you would hate to ever make them feel unwanted. You hug them back just as tight. 

“Dad had a work thing,” Billy answers with a smile. “What are you doing here? Rachel isn't here.” 

You look at Wanda, not sure how to answer. “That’s right, Rachel is not here. But Y/n had my container and I asked them to bring it back,” Wanda answers for you. “Come on boys, I'm sure Y/n has to get back home and you two need to get ready for bed.” 

“Can you stay and read us a bedtime story?” Tommy asks with wide eyes filled with excitement as he steps back.

“Yeah? Can you?” Billy asks as he jumps back, just as excited. 

You hesitate and that causes the two kids to start begging. “Please? You and mom tell the stories really well together!” You look at Wanda as you reminisce about the couple of times the two of you read bedtime stories for the three kids when you and Rachel were staying here. 

“I thought you said bedtime stories were for babies?” Wanda says as she messes with her son's hair. 

“They are but not when you and Y/n tell them,” Tommy defends. Wanda gives you a look that says ‘I tried,’ and it makes you laugh. 

“Okay boys, go finish getting ready for bed and I'll join your mom for story time,” you agree and the kids cheer as they run up the stairs. 

“Thank you for that. You know, you don't have to stay,” Wanda says as she tests the waters and puts her hand on your bicep. You shrug as your arm warms up from her touch. 

“They think we're good together,” you say with slight innuendo. “Besides, it won't be long before they despise my presence. I'm sure their dad will poison them against me as soon as puberty hits. I have to enjoy their praises while I still can.” You smile at her as you maintain eye contact and stand a little closer to her. 

Wanda bites her lower lip as her eyes travel to your lips. It's been a week and a half since the two of you kissed. You had been by every day since but neither of you have had a moment alone long enough to discuss anything. She had so much that she wanted to tell you that she couldn't. Not when the kids are so close. She would hate it if the kids got excited about something that may or may not happen. “I wish their father thought about the fact that we only have a few precious years left with them before they become moody teenagers. But,” Wanda shrugs. “I guess that's my fault for falling for a selfish man before my frontal lobe developed.” Wanda’s eyes meet yours again as she flashes you a sad smile. 

You reach out and hold her shoulder. You open your mouth to say something but you're interrupted by a loud screech of, “We're ready!” from Tommy and Billy. You laugh. 

“I guess that's our cue,” you say as you drop your hand from her shoulder. 

“You go first, I have to put this away,” she holds up the tupperware and you nod then you climb the stairs and warn the boys that you are on your way. Wanda takes a deep breath as her body craves your touch. It was an innocent touch but it made her mind wander to not so innocent thoughts and she needed a second. She serves herself a cold glass of water and chugs half of it. 

“Mom! Mom! Mom!” She hears you chanting with the boys and hearing you call her that almost makes her spit out her water from laughter. 

“Okay! I'm coming!” She shouts as she gets to the bottom of the staircase. The chants don't stop until she walks through the door. You and the boys clap and cheer as she comes in. Wanda stops for a moment and poses. You start whistling as the boys cheer louder. “Alright, settle down. Settle down. What story are we reading tonight?” 

The boys fall asleep halfway through the story. You were so engrossed in the storytelling that Wanda had to stop you in order for you to notice that they had fallen asleep. You shut the book and the two of you carefully snuck out of the room. You waited for her in the hallway as she shut off the lights and closed the door. 

When the door was shut she turned to face you. The two of you stand there, both wanting to embrace each other. Maybe even share another sober kiss that would intoxicate each of you. Wanda wants to thank you for helping her find her strength. You want to thank her for always being there for you and your daughter. You want to tell her the deep feelings you've developed for her over the months. You want to hold her in your arms and never let go. 

“Can I show you something before you go?” Wanda whispers. 

“Uh, yeah, sure,” you answer, feeling a little awkward. You clear your throat and gesture for her to lead the way. Wanda takes your hand and laces her finger through yours as she guides you to her office. You were a little surprised that she led you here but you were more surprised with yourself that part of you anticipated her taking you to any other room. Especially with her kids here. 

Wanda lets go of you and walks around her desk to shuffle through her files in the drawer. When she finds what she's looking for she looks up at you with a grin. “Close the door and come closer. It's a secret,” she says with a playfulness to her voice. You smile and shut the door to her office before joining her side. “So I have a plot of land,” she starts as she opens the folder. “And I want to build my dream house on it. These are some of the ideas that I have so far.” She shows you printed-out mood boards and detailed sketches along with images and measurements of the land. 

“Wow, I think this is great,” you say as you flip through the pages. You look at her with a curious glance. “What inspired this?” 

Wanda shrugs, “I'm tired of living under someone else's guidelines of what my house is supposed to have or not have. I'm a very overqualified architect, I know what I can and cannot do.” Her confidence makes you smile. “Besides, this is Vision-free land. He's never owned it. He's never lived on it. He's never traumatized me or the kids here. It's a land that is free to have an unlimited amount of good memories and none of them have to be tarnished by him.” Her grin widens and her shoulders relax at the thought. 

“That's wonderful,” you tell her softly. “So, why are you sharing this with me?” 

A blush appears on Wanda's cheeks and your heart picks up speed in anticipation for her answer. “I um, I could use your expertise in building it. Not anytime soon. I still have to get the money to fund the project but, there isn't anyone I'd rather have build it for me than you,” she smiles up at you. 

You lick your lips as you consider kissing her. But you think better of it. Billy or Tommy could walk in at any moment and catch the two of you. It's enough to make you stand up straighter instead of hovering close to her. “I'd be honored to build your dream house for you, Wanda.” 

Wanda rises from her chair and pulls you in for a warm embrace. “Thank you,” she says against your chest. 

“Of course,” you respond quietly as you wrap your arms around her. You close your eyes as you embrace the moment. “I should get going. It's pretty late,” you state without letting her go. Wanda hums in agreement as she also makes no motion to break away. 

Eventually, the two of you do break away and she offers to walk you to your car. You feel giddy as you remember the night of the kiss. Wanda’s mind is thinking about the same thing as she walks with you arm in arm. 

“I don't know if this is weird to mention but we did make a bet on it so I feel as though I kind of have to tell you about this,” you ramble nervously as the two of you get close to the car. “Uh, you win the bet. That volunteer texted me the other day.” Wanda's smile drops and her demeanor shifts a little. 

“Oh? And what did she have to say?” Wanda asks as she starts to feel her positive energy waiver. 

“Nothing worth mentioning,” you say in an attempt to let her know that you're not interested in Nebula as you reach your truck. “Anyway, I'm thinking about getting my haircut on Sunday after I pick up Rachel. Should I give you a call?” You lean against the door as you watch Wanda. She gives you a tight smile and you know that whatever you thought might happen isn't going to. 

“Yeah, I um, I think I have a few ideas ready. Just let me know where to be on Sunday,” she doesn't look at you as she speaks and you want to slap yourself for even mentioning another woman. 

“Okay, I'll make the appointment and text you the details,” you fiddle with your keys awkwardly. “I'll see you on Sunday,” you say as you climb into your truck. Disappointed in yourself. This was not at all how this was supposed to go. It was starting to feel like there are forces out there trying to keep the two of you apart. 

On Friday night, you stare at the message from Nebula as you consider responding while you sit at a booth with Darcy. It's becoming a common occurrence, hanging out with Darcy, Steve, and Bucky. Your coworker is typically the one inviting everyone out. You're surprised that he doesn't invite his girlfriend. In fact, you don't think you've seen Natasha since Wanda's New Years Eve party. And Steve hasn’t talked about Peggy in some time either. But you don't think about it too much. 

“I know that face,” Darcy says as she steals a couple of fries from your plate. 

“I don't know what you're talking about,” you put your phone in your pocket. 

“You have many faces, Y/n. That face is one of regret and frustration,” Darcy continues to steal your fries. You shake your head and look around the bar to avoid looking at your friend. “Come on, lay it on me. Is Wanda seeing someone finally? Did your former child-bride reach out to you?” 

“Daisy wasn't that much younger than me,” you defend as you take a sip from the beer bottle. “Besides, you never got to meet her. You don't get to judge.”

Darcy leans in closer with wide eyes, “She dumped you when your kid was in the hospital! What more do I need to know about her?” You shake your head. Then your eyes widen as they land on Steve and Bucky kissing. Your eyebrows knit together from the shock. “What?” Darcy spins around to search for what you could be seeing. Then she sees them. “Oh, yeah. That,” she turns back to you with a shrug. “I've known about that. Now back to you.” Darcy snaps her fingers in your face and waves until you look back to her. “Hello? What's going on with you?”

“What do you mean you knew about them?” You ask instead. “They both have girlfriends! They're cheaters! I didn't know I was friends with cheaters!”

Darcy sighs and rolls her eyes. “Calm down. The way I understand it, Steve and Peggy broke up sometime after that party at Wanda’s place. And Bucky and Natasha have an understanding. I don't know if it's an open relationship situation or a throuple or what. I don't ask them questions because I don't care. What I do care about is you. So, what's wrong?” 

You shake your head before running your fingers through your hair and sigh. “I fucked up,” you go on to explain the bet you made with Wanda about Nebula. “Then we kissed and before I could get a chance to talk to her about the kiss, I mentioned that she won the bet and she completely pulled away. I haven't been able to get a hold of her since. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just, she likes to win. I thought she'd like to know that she won and she gets to choose my next haircut.” You shrug then shake your head and then rub your face. 

Darcy reaches across the table and holds your wrist as a way to provide some sort of comfort. The two of you sit in silence for a moment. Darcy hasn't gotten to know Wanda enough to be able to explain her behavior. But she's known you for some time now and she knows that sometimes all you need is support. No encouraging words. No solutions to your problems. Just someone's presence. 

Steve and Bucky rejoin the two of you. Steve sits next to you and Bucky sits across the table next to Darcy. “What’d we miss?” Steve asks as he throws his arm around your shoulders. You shrug in response. 

“I'm an idiot,” you mutter. 

“Oh come on, I asked what I missed. Not what I already know,” he teases and with her free hand, Darcy throws some fries at him. “Ow, hey!” She snaps her fingers and points to you and you start to feel a little ridiculous. “Oh, I'm sorry Y/n,” he says once he is paying attention. You shake your head and stand up muttering something about leaving. “Hey, no, come on. It was a bad joke. Stay, Y/n,” he tries to call you back to the table. 

“You're so full of yourself, Steve!” Darcy says before she catches up with you. “Hey, lets-” 

“No, it’s fine. I'm fine. It wasn’t about Steve. He's always like that. I’m just…” you shake your head. “I need to go home.” You tell her calmly. “I won't do anything stupid, I promise.”

Darcy sighs then nods, “Yeah, okay. I'll see you soon. Oh! That reminds me, I will be moving to Germany to join a research team for a year. I leave in three months.” 

“Oh my goodness! Way to bury the lead!” You pull her into a quick hug. “Congratulations! That sounds like an amazing opportunity!” You pull away and admire her for a second. “You are possibly the coolest person I know.” 

Darcy closes her eyes, tilts her head, and smiles. “I know I am,” she says happily. She opens her eyes and pats your arm. “Get out of here. And tell Wanda I said hi.” 

You make a face, “Why would I tell Wanda-” 

“Oh please, you think I actually believe that you're going to your apartment? She is your home. And I better be receiving an invitation to the wedding by the time I come home from Germany.” 

You shake your head as you give her a final hug goodbye. You get in your car and consider driving to Wanda’s house. Her boys are with her so you try to not think about it. But as you're driving, you suddenly realize that you're close to her neighborhood. You sigh as you think about what Darcy said. Wanda is your home. You take the turn into her neighborhood and start to think about what you're going to tell her when you see her. 

As you pull up, you notice the time and frown as you see that the house is dark. You put the car in park and stare at her house. It was pretty late. You shouldn't have expected that she would be awake just because it was a Friday night. You don't even let Rachel stay up past eleven at night. But you know that sometimes Wanda likes to enjoy a glass of wine and catch up on her favorite reality show before going to bed. 

So you take your chances and call her. The phone rings a couple of times before you finally hear her voice. “Hey you,” she is speaking softly. You wonder if her boys are near her. Awake or asleep, there's a reason she is so quiet. 

“Hey, did I wake you?” You ask as you start to regret being here. 

“No, no,” Wanda says, her voice still low. “I’m catching up on my show. But um Billy had a nightmare. He’s sleeping next to me and I'm trying to not wake him.” Your eyes travel up to her window as you see the faint glow of the television through the blinds. “Are you okay? Do you need something?” 

You don’t respond right away. You just think about her. “No, I'm okay. I just,” you sigh. “I never responded to that volunteer. I want you to know that. I’m sorry if I-” 

“Y/n I don’t think now is a good time,” she interrupts. 

“I’m parked in the driveway. If you don't want Billy to hear,” you tell her quickly. You watch the shadows of the curtains move and the blinds open after a couple of minutes. Her silhouette stands in the middle of the window. “I think we have a lot to talk about.” 

Wanda is quiet as she stands still. You hope that she accepts your invitation. “Go home, Y/n. It's late and,” she trails off as she closes the blinds. “We don't have anything to talk about.” Your heart breaks at her words. 

“Wanda please,” you beg, “let's talk about this. Maybe not tonight but soon.” 

“Y/n, I,” her words seem to fail her as she goes quiet. You sit in your truck patiently waiting for her to continue. To say something. Anything. After a while you wonder if she hung up so you lift the phone off of your face and are slightly relieved to see that the call is still going. Then you watch the call end. Your eyes travel to the front door as it opens. 

Wanda walks out and you step out of the truck to meet her halfway but she holds her hands up to stop you. You stay close to the truck. “Wanda, can you explain to me what I did wrong? Because I don't feel like I-” 

Wanda waves her hand to cut you off, “Stop, you didn't do anything wrong. It's me. I'm… I wanted our friendship… I want us to…” she closes her eyes and shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I practiced this speech to myself since Wednesday but,” she sighs as she runs her fingers through her hair. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. “When we kissed, I did want us to explore the possibility of more between us. Hell, I deleted all of the dating apps I was on and blocked every person I hooked up with that night. I thought I was ready. But I'm not. And it's not because of you. You are great. You're great to me, you're great to my kids, to my entire family actually.” She opens her eyes and you can see the tears building up. “I'm in a better place than I was when we first met but I’m not ready for anything more than your friendship. At least not right now.” 

You cast your eyes down to the ground for a moment to allow your heart to break. You bite your lips to keep from letting the emotions show on your face. Then, when you feel ready, you swallow your feelings and you nod. “Okay, yeah,” you look at her as you try to hide your sadness. “I can do that. I can be your friend. It’s okay, I understand that you still have a lot of healing or whatever to work through. It's okay, Wanda. I lo-” 

“Don't,” Wanda cuts you off and you nod with your mouth shut. “I know that you care about me. A lot. I care about you too. A lot. But I… I don't expect you to wait for me to be ready. No. Let me rephrase,” she steps closer and holds your hands. “Don't wait for me. Don’t put your life on hold for me.” 

You want to argue and fight for her but if this is what she wants then there isn't much else that you can do. You look her in the eye and ask, “Are you sure this is what you want?” Wanda nods. “Okay. I won't um I won't wait and I won't bring this up again. Not until you do. I understand.” 

“Thank you,” she says softly. 

“Will I still see you on Sunday?” You ask as you think about the bet again. “You still have a prize to collect,” you remind her playfully. 

“Yeah, I'll be there,” she flashes you a small smile that drops as fast as it appears. You drop her hand and shove your hand into your pockets. 

“Darcy wanted me to tell you that she said hi. I was hanging out with her before this,” you tell her. 

“That's nice, how is she doing?” Wanda crosses her arms over her chest to keep her body warm as a cool breeze comes by. 

“She's good, she'll be gone for a year. She got a big opportunity in Germany. But she's got three more months of being stuck here,” you inform her conversationally. Trying to move past the emotionally heightened moment. 

“Wow, that sounds fascinating. I'll have to reach out to her. I liked meeting her,” Wanda says. 

“I'm sure she'd love that,” you nod then you look at your watch. “I'll let you go back inside. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-”

“No, I'm glad you did. I'll see you on Sunday,” Wanda kisses your cheek before she walks away. “Goodnight, drive safe,” she shouts over her shoulder as she continues walking to her front door. You climb back into your car and drive to your apartment. 

You allow yourself to cry and feel the heartbreak. You don't drink alcohol to forget it or make it easier. You don't smoke from the pack of cigarettes that you purchased on the way home. You just lie on your bed and clutch a pillow to your chest. 

On Sunday you pick up Rachel from her mom's house and tell her that you lost a bet to Wanda and that she is going to pick out your new haircut. Rachel giggles with excitement. 

“A mullet? Really?” You look at Wanda like she is crazy. “Are you trying to sabotage my dating life?” 

Wanda laughs with a shrug, “It's not my fault your hair is long enough for it. Besides, I hear it's a very popular style for the They/Thems of the world.” You shake your head as she plays with your hair. The hairdresser laughs at the request as well before promising that the style is coming back. You tell him to just get it over with. 

In the end, you don't completely hate it but you still don't feel like it's your style. However, Wanda's boys love it. “Mom, I want my hair like Y/n's! Mom, can we get our haircut too?” 

“Oh, I'm sure that the schedule is busy and we didn't make an appointment for you two,” Wanda tried to tell them.

“Oh we have a couple hours free, I don't mind giving them a cut. The kids want to match their parent,” Clint says. 

“Oh I'm not,” you stutter. 

“We’re just friends,” Wanda corrects. 

Clint nods as he eyes the two of you with a knowing smirk. “So am I cutting the kids' hair or not?” he asks a little loud, drawing the attention of the boys. The twins begin to beg over and over until Wanda caves. They cheer as they each hop into a chair. Clint disappears into the back to collect his wife to cut Billy's hair while he works on Tommy. 

You sit next to your daughter and Wanda sits on the other side of her. “What about you? Do you want to get a haircut?” Wanda asks. 

Rachel shakes her head with a scrunched-up face. “No, I'm okay.” 

“Her hair doesn't grow back fast. It took a while for it to get this long,” you explain. “That's her mom's genetics,” you say lightly as you mess with Rachel's hair. She swats her hand away and goes back to playing games on your phone. 

When the boys are done with their haircuts the group of you decide to grab some ice cream together and enjoy the treats at a nearby park. 

Wanda is messing with your hair as you watch the kids play on the playground. “Why are you suddenly so obsessed with my hair?” You ask with a laugh.

“I don't know, I've never seen a mullet in person. It looks so… touchable. I don't know. I can't explain it,” Wanda replies as she continues to move her fingers through your hair. “Business in the front,” she touches the front of your hair and then moves her hand down to the back, “party in the back!”

You shake your head slightly, “You're insufferable, you know that right?”

“I know,” she says. As much as you are giving off the impression that you don't want her to touch your hair, you're happy that she is. 

“I'm starting to rethink this whole friendship thing,” you grouch with a playfulness to your tone. 

“Whatever, Uncle Jesse,” she pulls her hand out of your hair and holds her phone up. “Say cheese!” You roll your eyes as she takes candid pictures of you. Then she calls her boys over to pose with you. The three of you show off your new haircuts. 

After going to a fast food restaurant for dinner, you and Wanda decide it's best to split from each other so that the kids can get ready for school on Monday. Everyone hugs each other goodbye. 

“Baba?” Rachel asks for your attention as you're driving home. You hum to let her know that she has your attention. “When you do fall in love again. I hope it's with someone like Wanda.”  You don't say anything as you keep your eyes on the road.

Chapter 18

Taglist: @princessprudy @sayah13 @agaymilflover @awkwardmandalorian @bentleywolf29 @thatshyboy1998 @artisannat @thisischaismagic @wqndanat @madamevirgo @likefirenrain @tearsofglitter @feltlikethat @the-writer-arcane @natashasilverfox @karsonromanoff @aloneodi @lovelyy-moonlight @red1culous @jovialsublimecomputer @natasha-maximoff @iliketozoneout @doudouneverte @druggedduck @notbornbutforged @when-wolves-howl @lifespectator @justyourwritter69 @wandaromamoff69 @awesomelygayasf @nekoannie-chan @diaryoflife @wuwu96 @wandanats-goodgirl @sincerely-indi @blueredg52 @sisiofthemultifandom @fuzzyuniversityeclipsefriend @arcturusseer @scarlettwidow34 @chasethemoon @raven-ss @canyonyodeler @sokovianbaby @alexawynters @bittysworld @hopeless-romantic17177 @spongebobtentacles @the-ox-fan20

[ziteyra]

A good soldier

Quarritch!recom x reader

Part 3

🐟 Summary: Getting tired of Quaritch harsh style of command you start to take interest in Lyle Waynfleet who also doesn't seems so uninterested himself.

🐟 themes: same as last time, a bit of love, jealousy this time, banter xD

🐟 Characters: Lt. Quarritch as recom, Lyle Waynfleet, Zdinarsk

🐟Warnings: none :)

🐠 Note: since y'all seem to especially like the first part I hope this lives up to the expectations. A bit of jealousy seems to always go well ;) Feel free to recommend or suggest anything else !

Tagging: @babyduk213 💙

"You know y/n he isn't always like this," Lyle muttered while senselessly scrolling through his datapad. 

"He can take great care of you when you are his teammate. Sure, he can be harsh, well almost brutal, but he's a good man. A great soldier too."

"Sure thing"  you answer him slowly nodding along to his rambling of the last few minutes. After what happened at the last meeting he had been all around you, being a total counterpart to Quarritch's menacing aura. 

In his way, you thought, he probably tried to apologize.

He truly was a bit like a ray of sunshine in the dark gray environment of the new RDA home base. Although you knew that the team had been out of the compound a few times there was never a need for you to go with them. 

Spending your days in the clean and disinfected hallways of the RDA had maybe even made you a bit more compliant to Lyle's attempt at swaying you. 

" You know doc. If you wanted you could also come with us. I mean it's your job to document all our little adventures, why not see them live ?" He smiled as he finally put down his datapad and now just cheekily stared at you. 

"Or at least I could show you around. It doesn't have to be the whole team. Or are you scared ?" 

"No Lyle, I'm not scared. I just have a lot to do right now. And it's not like you're helping me anyway."  You answered trying to sound uninterested but in truth, the idea to visit the lush jungles of Pandora already gave you goosebumps. Even more together with Lyle. 

"Ay. Don't pretend like you wouldn't enjoy it. I can see you smile. Even if it's true with your mysterious load of work. Don't you need to do a more in-depth report on my body instead of always moping around the Lt. ?"

You didn't even get a second to answer as the doors to your laboratory burst open and Zdinarsk entered with her usually energetic character. 

"Well, aren't you two a bitter-sweet couple? Seeing this would make the Lt. more than happy! " 

"Ah shut your mouth Z-Dog. That's none of your or the Lt. Business. The doc and I just wanted to start a little surveillance tour of the jungle Didn't we? "

"You know what" you answered slightly annoyed by Zdinarsk's usual games. " I would like that. And while you're at it. I wouldn't even mind you telling the Lt. since he doesn't even bother to show up here anyway."

Very proud of yourself you manage to grasp Lyle's hand and promptly leave your office with him following you on foot. "Oh not so quick little y/n I didn't expect this kind of motivation with you. Just give me a few seconds and we'll meet back here again." Lyle laughs at you seemingly also very proud of himself with his tail swinging happily from side to side. 

While Lyle quickly storms off you brush a bit of invisible dust off your coat and look around you. Surely you shouldn't keep this old thing while going out into one of the most dangerous places known to man. Dutyfull you make your way to your locker and squeeze yourself into one of the new RDA-issued body suits. A bit too tight for your taste but seeing as you rarely went outside anyway it shouldn't be much of a problem. 

You manage to take your eyes off your image in the mirror next to you as you hear footsteps behind you. Turning around you freeze as you stand eye to eye with Lt. Quarritch. Again standing just a bit too close to you and almost undressing yourself with his eyes. 

" Have you seen Zdinarsk? " he harshly spits out. 

"N..No." you stutter, suddenly feeling vacuumed inside your suite. 

"Great." He says abruptly turning around just to look at you again after a few steps with his cold eyes. 

" Not bad a suit like this. Almost makes you look like a soldier."

After this you were standing there in the hallway, frozen in place not even moving a muscle. 

" God bless me. I must have done something really good in my last life to deserve this stunning scientist on my team" Lyle shouts out loud as he finally arrives for you. 

Again, before you can even answer he just lifts you like it's nothing. You just manage to mutter some incoherent sounds of surprise as you turn around on his arms. 

Just managing to take one last look over his shoulder you see Quaritch again leaving your office, Zdinarsk behind him. His eyes pierce you even deeper than before. But not only you, it seemed that one of his rage filled looks even hit his most trusted friend and second in charge.

Part 4

[sea-owl]

Bridgerton Prompt: Okay so what if Marina and Penelope grew up together? Prudence and Phillipa get sick so baby Penelope is shipped off to her cousins. Ever since, Penelope often visits Marina's family throughout the year and as a result the two girls are more like sisters than cousins. Penelope also gets to know the family next door to her cousin, the Crane family. She and Philip often spend time talking about books while Marina and George flirt. Because of this, of course she finds out George and Marina anticipated their wedding vows and talks(threatens) him out of going to battle before marrying her cousin. It seems being married and knowing he would be a father made George more cautious and he lives! Penelope is also there for the twins birth and is happy to play aunt to them. Marina is also the first to find out about Whistledown and encourages her but also warns her to take care not to ruin anyone. Now comes the idea (yes there is a point to knowing all this information I swear). Marina is in town during the Featherington ball and is invited to attend. While comforting Penelope after her fight with Eloise, she also hears Colin's comment about courting her cousin. As she holds her crying cousin that night, Marina comes to a decision. She's had enough of people like Penelope's family and Colin Bridgerton stamping all over her heart. She's going to help her cousin find a husband who will cherish just as Marina does. And she knows just the candidate for the position. Come next season, Colin comes home, confused about why Penelope never responded to his letters only to see her at a ball, not wearing yellow and dancing in the arms of an unfamiliar man. From across the Marina cackles to herself as she watches Colin's stunned face as Penelope and Phillip dance while George just smiles in confusion. Oh she would love for Penelope to marry Phillip (they'd really be sisters then!) but she has more than one option in mind for her cousin. And Colin Bridgerton is not one of them. All she can say is game on Bridgerton.

Ok first HELL YEAH BESTIES PHILLIP AND PENELOPE! (Sorry y'all if this is your first post you've seen by me. I am a hoe for Penelope and Phillip being nerd friends.)

But now I'm imagining this as like a battle between Eloise and Marina. After Penelope and Eloise make up Marina and Eloise start to duel for Penelope's hand to be their sister. Marina is backing Phillip as her first choice to be Penelope's husband while Eloise is backing Colin. It's like that image where the cinnamon roll in the middle and is all smiles meanwhile the two hugging on either side of the cinnamon roll are glaring at each other.

It just becomes a grand match making game of Eloise and Marina shoving Penelope at their choice for her. Unkown to them Penelope is coming in with that plot twist with trying to match make Phillip and Eloise. Colin, wanting to win back his wife's favor is her scheming partner. Phillip is just along for the ride. but he does find the feisty fifth born Bridgerton to be very cute.

George Crane has no idea what's going on, he's just there to make sure Oliver and Amanda are taken care of while their mama schemes.

[rjmartin11]

Just One Kiss Chapter Seven

Pairing: Elvis & female!reader

Summary: Once upon a Memphis time, you and Elvis were very close friends who turned lovers. After he went into the Army, you both drifted apart, leaving you heartbroken. Time passes, and you go on a Vegas business trip with your long-term boyfriend, Edward, and find out that your old lover is performing at The International Hotel. Old feelings surface once again, and you plan on making this a trip neither of you will soon forget.

Word Count: 3.1K

Warnings: Smut, cheating, breakups and make ups, lite comedy. Happy ending.

Author's Notes: Welcome to Chapter Seven a.k.a the end of this series. I love the response this has received. I knew this was not going to be a long story when I started writing it. I can see myself writing more in the future, but only time will tell. There will be an epilogue coming soon to a Tumblr feed near you. 😉

Thank y'all again for all the kind words and thoughts. If you like this chapter, like, repost, comment, and follow! Here we go!

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ💋✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ

You run off the elevator to your room with Eddie. Hoping... no! Praying he's there, so you tell him how you feel about him. Eddie was the best guy for you now. He was there for you at a point where you didn't think you could go on. Yes, he worked a lot, but a good guy works a lot for the things he wants. He's honorable, kind, and brilliant. He's everything plus more. You're going to tell him.

You know he's been distant lately, but you are to blame for that. You haven't told Eddie you love him because of fear. Fear that all men are the same. Fear that he'll hurt you the way Elvis did. If you didn't say, "I love you," to Eddie, and he hurts you. The sting of disappointment wouldn't be the same. But he's different. You know he is different, so you must tell him.

You grab the handle to the door, realizing that the door is open, and you burst into the room.

"Eddie, I.... Oh my g!!!" You shout.

"Y/N!" Eddie shouts.

Eddie naked in all his glory in a compromising position with Jacqueline, his secretary. You turn around fast to erase the fact that Eddie had her in the bed you shared with him less than twenty-four hours ago. You want to erase the image of Jacqueline sprawled on all fours, with Eddie taking her from the back.

"Y/N..." Eddie says, running up behind you and turning you around to face him. "Baby, it's not what it looks like."

"So you were just balls deep in Jacqueline's ass?" You say calmly.

"Y/N..."

"Stop, Eddie." You hold up your hand to stop him from speaking. "Does she make you happy?"

"What?" Eddie is baffled by you question.

"Does. She. Make you happy?"

Eddie holds his towel and looks away from your eyes. You see the wheels in his head turning and turning. He's so concentrated on your question.

"She... she does. Yeah." Eddie finally answered you.

"Does your heart glow when she's around you?"

Eddie nods his head.

"What the fuck is her problem, Eddie?!" Jacqueline asks. "I knew she was soft, but..."

"Jacqueline, dear heart. You aren't worth my energy." You say.

You look back at Eddie and smile. You shake your head, feeling quite proud of yourself. You almost gave your heart to a man who didn't truly care about you.

"Eddie, if she makes you happy. Be with her."

"Y/N, I..."

"Shhhh. You don't own me any explanation."

"Why can't you be mad? Why aren't you fighting me? Fighting for us?!" Eddie shouts.

"I'm furious." You spoke calmly. "There's nothing left to fight for. You took a page out of the female harlots playbook and screwed your way to the top."

Eddie tears up at you. "Y/N, I'm sor..."

"Shhhh." You place your finger over his mouth. "Don't you dare apologize to me. In this business, you can't apologize. They eat you alive." You wipe Eddie's tears away.

"I take it. You became partner at the firm?" You ask.

"I did." Eddie says.

"Congratulations. I know how hard you worked for this, partner."

You kiss his forehead and walk away to the door, grabbing your clutch off the dresser. Your plane ticket is in there, and you have enough money to get you wherever you need to go. You head to the elevator.

"Y/N, wait. Where are you going?" Eddie runs behind you.

"Edward. Don't worry about me. I know my way home. Go be happy and enjoy the spoils of your hard work. You earned it."

The elevator opens, and you step inside the car.

"Bye, Edward." You say as the doors close between you two.

Where are you going now? Tears stream down your cheeks as you think about what you just witnessed. You are glad you didn't give Eddie your heart. You learned your lesson the first time around.

You start to question yourself. What's wrong with you? What is it about you that makes people treat you less than you deserve. What evil could you have possibly done? Do you even deserve to live? Then it hits you. The place you need to go.

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ💋✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ

Meanwhile, upstairs at the penthouse...

Elvis practically mopes into the suite with you heavy on his mind.

"Elvis, darling, where have you been?" Laura asked.

Elvis, shocked, looks up at Laura. This early in the morning, Laura is still fast asleep.

"I huh... I was talking to a friend about an issue." Elvis stuttered out. "We worked it."

Elvis sits on the bed next to Laura. He looks into her eyes and touches her face. She's beautiful and young, yet Elvis wonders what exactly is it about her that draws him to Laura. She hangs on his every word and barely as a thought of her own. She's sweet, but she's a suck up.

Elvis prides himself on reading people, and as he reads Laura at this moment, he doesn't like what he sees. Since you left him in 1960, Elvis had several girlfriends. Great girlfriends, in fact. They had good hearts and great intentions, but they weren't you. And Laura, isn't you. Laura isn't even June or Anita. They loved him for him, the money wasn't even a thing to them.

Elvis could go back driving a truck, and they would still be by his side. You would have been by his side. Now, your words ring true. Money was all Laura was after. A part of Elvis didn't care, but a huge part cared deeply. The part that didn't care just wanted someone to love him and hold him in the lonely moments. The part that cared was telling him that there was a woman who would love him fully. Like you.

"Elvis, what is it?" Laura asked, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Elvis smiles and shakes his head. What Elvis is doing at this moment is searching your soul. He sees a greedy little girl who is a bit selfish and deceiving. This little girl hides behind her good looks.

"Nothin', baby."

Elvis kisses her lips, trying to feel something. Something good and wholesome. Someone kind and loving and fun, but what Elvis is searching for is not there. What he wants is you. He was searching for that brief kiss you gave him for old time sake, but it wasn't there with Laura.

Elvis leans his forehead against Laura's forehead and wishes you stayed with him.

"Wow, Elvis. You have never kissed me like that before. Darling, what's got into you?" Laura asked.

"My heart." Elvis whispers.

"What? What about your heart? Are you okay?"

"Laura, why do you love me?" Elvis asked on the serious note.

"What do you mean, Elvis? I love you for everything you do for me. I love how fun you are. How we travel all over the place is fun. Your deep voice. Elvis, you are everything." Laura finished up.

Elvis smiles and shakes his head. Everything Laura said has to do with the money in his bank account. In order to give her gifts, Elvis has to have money to do that. In order to travel, you need money. Laura was truly superficial.

"Laura, baby, you are an individual." Elvis finally said, laying down in the bed.

"Thank you, Elvis. I guess that's a compliment." Laura says, getting out of bed.

She goes into the bathroom and turns on the faucet.

"Elvis, darling, you know what I was thinking?" She shouts out.

"No, baby. What were you thinking?" Elvis asks.

"I was thinking when we get married. That we go to New York City and go shopping on Fifth Avenue. I know how much you love to shop. Almost as much as me." Laura says.

Elvis never ever truly asked Laura to marry him. He never had the intention of doing so. He sits up in the bed as she speaks. Is she insinuating that she wants to marry him? Putting in the universe so he will push himself to marry her so she can leach off him?

"Baby! You can take me to Paris!" Laura shouts, her voice filled with excitement. "We can see the Eiffel Tower, eat buttery croissants, and more shopping."

"Laura..." Elvis pops up behind Laura, scaring her.

"Whoa... baby, when did you come in here? I didn't hear the door."

"There's not going to be no Paris, Laura." Elvis says, looking her in the eyes.

"That's fine, Elvis. We don't need Paris. We can go to the Caribbean or Mexico." Laura says, placing her arms around his neck.

Elvis pulls her arms away.

"No, Laura. Baby, there ain't gonna be no Mexico. No Caribbean. No shopping in New York. No marriage between us." Elvis speaks, and he sees the color leave her face.

"Elvis, where is this coming from? I thought you loved me?" She speaks with tears wailing in her eyes, and her bottom lip trimbles.

"Stop. Crying is beneath you, Laura." Elvis looks her over and sees her trying to manipulate the situation. How long has she been playing that game? How long has he been falling for?

"Laura, I can't do this anymore." Elvis finally says, dropping her hands.

"Do what? Us?" Laura asked. "What did I do wrong?"

"Not what you did? It's what I need to do. I need to be on my own for a while, and I believe that you'll be better off on your own."

"But Elvis, I..."

Elvis puts up his hand, stopping Laura from speaking.

"I'll get you a plane ticket for Memphis and New York. You get all your stuff out of the house. One of the boys will see to it that everything that's yours is gone. They'll drop you off in New York. You should go home. I know how much you miss it. That's why you keep talking about it."

Laura is at a loss for words. Did Elvis really just dump her? All her dreams were crashing down around her.

"This is all so sudden. You really don't want me anymore? What is it? We have a good thing here, Elvis. Why are you asking me to leave?" Laura asked. Her tome is frustrated.

"I told you. I need to be on my own." Elvis says, walking out the bathroom.

"I don't except that!" Laura shouts.

"Baby, you don't have a choice."

At that moment, Red and Lamar came into the suite.

"What are they doing here?" Laura asked.

"The boys are taking back to Memphis to get your things. Then they'll drop you off in New York." Elvis says. Elvis gives Red an envelope with her plane tickets, some cash, and instructions for Red to give Laura the money in New York.

"Elvis, you can't be serious!"

"Laura, don't. Just don't. Let things end the way they are. You're a little girl who has some more things to learn."

Laura stormed to the closet and got her things, but not silently. She spoke the most hurtful and ugliest things that she could conjure up to hurt Elvis.

"You're right!" Laura shouts. "You aren't shit Presley! You're no king. You can't even sing all that well!"

"Keep talkin' your shit as you walk your ass out the door." Elvis said, lounging on the bed.

Laura got dressed, got her bags, and headed for the door. Red walking behind her, and Lamar in front. The look on Laura's face read disgust and fury.

"Have a good life, Laura." Elvis spoke honestly.

"Fuck you, Presley. I hate you!" Laura screams.

"Not the first time I heard that one tonight." Elvis says. "Red?"

"Yeah, E.P.?"

"Remember, her package label. Caution: handle with care, man."

Red nodded his head and shut the door. Elvis took a deep breath and exhaled. Elvis was praying for peace and sleep. He prayed he did the right thing, letting Laura go. Letting you go. The more he prayed, the more sleepy he got. Before he knew it, he was asleep.

✧･ﾟ: ✧��ﾟ:✧･ﾟ💋✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ

Six hours later...

Elvis slept from the five o'clock hour to the nine o'clock hour. The next two hours, Elvis and the rest of his entourage parked up camp and set sights to go to Memphis. After a triumph six weeks, Elvis was ready for Graceland. He was ready to see Dodger and spend time with her. I was ready for home cooking. He was ready.

As Elvis, Jerry, and Joe were walking to the garage, Elvis looked around the lobby. Looking to see if you were around. He just wanted one more look at you, even if it meant you were arm and arm with that damn Eddie.

He didn't see you, but who did see shook him up. Eddie. Kissing a girl who clearly was not you. A blonde? Who the hell is she? Where were you?

Elvis stormed across the lobby, grabbed Eddie, and laid him out. The blonde screamed as Elvis continued to shake him, holding Eddie by the collar of his suit. The Mafia tried to get Elvis off of Eddie.

"What did you do you, son of a bitch? Where is Y/N?" Elvis asked Eddie.

"Presley, get off me, and I'll tell you." Eddie choked out.

Elvis released him. Eddie got up off the floor, Jacqueline brushing off his suit.

"Gentlemen?"Jerry steps in. "Maybe we should take this elsewhere? Out of the lobby."

Elvis nodded his head, and everyone is escorted out of the lobby and downstairs to the garage. Where Elvis' caravan of limos lie waiting.

"What happened to Y/N?" Elvis asks.

"She... left me. I-I-I haven't seen her since she left."

"Let me guess... she caught you with the blonde?"

Eddie nods his head. Shame covering his face.

"Yeah. She has a nag for that." Elvis chuckles. "Where did she go?"

"I don't know, man. She just took her purse and said she knew her way home." Eddie said. "I never meant to hurt her. I loved her."

Loved? Eddie speaks about his feelings for you in past tense. How could he? Elvis didn't have time to talk about it.

"Eddie, you fucked up with a great woman. Don't fuck up with the blonde."

Elvis starts to run upstairs.

"E.P., where are you going?!" Jerry shouted.

"I'm gonna look for Y/N!" Elvis shouts back. The elevator doors closing.

Elvis runs up to room 202. He looks around the room. He calls out to you, but you don't answer him. He's afraid something may happen to you, and he wasn't there to protect you. Why didn't you just stay with him?

Elvis leaves the room and starts to pray silently.

"Dear God, be with Y/N. The woman I love the most. Help me find her. God, if you help me find her. I will do right by her. I'll let her make an honest man out of me." Elvis concludes his prayers as the elevator doors.

Elvis doesn't want to go back without you. He passes by the pool side on his way to the garage and spots a beautiful girl with her feet in the pool.

A sign of relief passes through Elvis at the sight of this beautiful girl. Thank the Lord, it's you.

"Y/N?" He calls out to you. "Y/N?"

You look over and see Elvis running over to you. Elvis gets down and embraces you.

"Y/N, baby, where have been?" Elvis says, so overwhelmed that he has let you go.

"I needed some air, E."

"Baby, I'm sorry about... Eddie."

You pull away from Elvis, looking him in the eye. How could he possibly know? Was your shame spread around the hotel?

You look back at the water and cry. "I'm... I'm so lonely. Elvis, what's wrong with me? Why do men use me and leave me?" Y/N cry out.

"I made a mistake." Elvis says. "So long ago. Y/N, baby, there's not a damn thing wrong with you. You're magnificent. You're beautiful and strong. And I love you so much."

You look at Elvis, taken aback by his kind words. A tear falls down your cheek. Elvis wipes it away and traces your jaw with his index finger.

"Y/N, will you come with me?" Elvis asks.

You nod your head, smiling at his request. Elvis stands, offering his hand to you. You take it and get your feet out of the pool. Elvis sit you down on one of the lounge chairs, drying off your wet feet. Thank heavens, no one is there at the pool except you two. He places your heels on your feet and leads you away from the pool.

Elvis leads you to the elevator that takes you both to the garage. You're both silent for the duration of the ride. You just hold on to Elvis. You're in such a need for affection. You need to know that you are worthy of love. A hug will do for now.

The door opens, and you both are in the garage. You silently walk to his limo, and he opens the door for you. You come to your senses, stopping yourself from entering the limo.

"Wait. Where are you taking me?" You ask.

"Home. To Memphis." Elvis answers.

"To Memphis." You are truly alert now.

Elvis opens the door and offers to get in first, but you slam the door shut.

"One moment, Elvis. We must discuss a few things before I get into this car and go anywhere with you." You state, crossing your arms.

"Okay, Y/N. Whatever you want. I'll give it to you." Elvis says, honesty graces his voice.

"First, if we into a relationship again. You can only be with me and me alone."

"I can do that."

"So help me, E. If you break my heart again, you'll never ever hear from me again. I'll disappear off the face of the Earth. I swear."

"I won't let you, baby." Elvis says. "I'm gonna love you so good that you'll never leave me."

"You better, Elvis Presley."

"Shall we go home?" Elvis opens the door for you.

You get in the limo and watch as he slides in after you. He shuts the door behind him. Elvis gives you that infamous crook smile as the car drives off. You wrap your arms around him and kiss those precious lips of his. Elvis kisses you back with vigor and much passion. You slowly pull away from him.

"What happened to Laura?" You ask.

"She had one problem, baby."

"What?"

"She wasn't you, my love." Elvis says.

You smile and kiss him once more. In your heart, you feel like this is love. This is right. All you ever needed or wanted.

"I love you, Elvis."

"I love you, Y/N."

Taglist: @missmaywemeetagain @beeandheroddobsessions @headfullofpresley @everythingpresley @epforeverohyes @plasticfantasticl0ver @pianginferno @powerofelvis @ab4eva @foreverdolly @searchingforgravity @thatbanditqueen @daffieapple @18lkpeters @dkayfixates @epsgirl @richardslady121 @literally-just-elvis-fics @thememphisflash1935-1977 @vintageshanny @iloveelvis

[neutrallyobsessed]

EPISODE 7!!!!!!!!!! I SAW THE PREVIEW IMAGES

NOW I KNOW WHO MARY IS Y EL ALMA ME VUELVE AL CUERPO!!

sehh el sindrome de abstinencia de topher bus viene con español de mas, asi que deberia ser tobi col, que se yo puta madre DONDE ESTASSSSSSSSSS

but lets see how this revelation comes to them~~

hmm so theres this kinda lack of feelingggg, like now Joan and Abe are literally each other's girl and boy next door,,,, they're doing this taylor swift thing were they speak from the windows....hmm i need more jealousy fits from each other about each other yknowww

BUENO COJAN YAAA A VERRR POR DIOSSSSSS

wait, so if Abe is gonna be like JFK, and JFK is gonna be like Abe.. then wHO'S DRIVING THE VAN???????

oh man, i love that type of joke! in the fic im writting i put it several times like actually lolol

((((~~save me oh, save me topher of the intro~~))))

ohhhhh new clones??? or maybe not, it does sound like a lot of work lmaoo yeahhhhh

without raisins lol

oh damn that epic yo but like, did you fuck harriet at least?

TOPHER!

aghhhughhohgoihjbnjdwieouwhaoaogsghhh hhhhh ok,,, okkk ok we all know that i wanted him back and HE IS BACK FUCK YEAH but i cant really decided if that was a good way or a bad way but lets just say that my ice cold water bottle has completely evaporated!! and imma- imma get a new one...... brb yeah :)

but like- yeah that's 3 (THREE) unfunny yet popular hcs disproven by canon all at once: he DOES shower, he DOES have hair and he DID fuck at least once.......... tbh the balding virgin is kinda funny but i have my reasons~ and come on people! who doesnt love a good cold shower cuaNDO TE ESTAS CAGANDO DE CALOR VIEJA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NO WAIT 4(FOUR) HCS! He doesn't dye his hair either! but like, that's not bad or unfunny is just- Do you know why el Dibu Martinez is nicknamed like that?

NO YEAH VAN GOGH I BELIEVE YOU 100% LIKE ACTUALLY SJKSJSKJSKSKS and can we get a hell yeah for Ivan? hell yeah!!

EL PRIMAS!!! EL JOTA EFE KA ES EL PRIMAS!!!!!! tho i expected that more of topher yaknow? like! like he had the sleepover with abe como no vas a traer a tus primas???

ooooooooooh Erica Rivinojaaaa you wouldnt fuck abe? thats actually super cool and a breath of fresh air. like a lot of writers and producers self insert in their shows to fuck their characters but here Rivinoja is like "nope im not gonna fuck the characters!" and thats actually hella based, we love to see it!!! leaving that to the fans eh ;)

yeah you know all bout cementary film screenings dont you joan? lol

ok i know she means she doesnt like having her picture taken without consent but still, you did sent a titpic to abe soooooo

UUUUGHHHHH FUCKING FINALLY i thought they all knew tho, like especially Cleo? who dated Abe?? eh whatev lol

OMG THATS FUCKING HILARIOUS THOSE FUCKING BLINDERS AMIRITE PEOPLE!!!

YEAHHHH JEALOUSY FIT, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING~~♥!

OH SHIT J- CL- BUT NOW WITH M- IS BACK!!!!!!!!

my fav gags making their appearances once again!

ohohoh they gonna find out~~ NO SHE DIDNT GO BACK~~!!! OOOO- yeah explain that Cleo wasn't invited there.... that she was barely in the show last season.......... LIKE- YKNOW

Ahahaha funny you say that cause before that you were like tHiS SO laMe and now you do want to get invited aaaa

This scene is so aesthetically pleasing.... and ok if it is Bloody Mary, it's ok for an overuse of blood, but still, it could have a lot more impact if y'all DIDN'T overuse blood all those times before!!

people die all the time, yeah ok lmaooo

HI! JSKSJSKSJKSJSKSJKSJJSKSJS

Aww the boys care for her- NOOO UN PINCHE FURRRO AAAAAA

oh what is this? scott pilgrim?

Hmmm didn't understand that reference...

And that's why we all need to stay hydrated and have a nice cold bottle of water near by~!

Hahahah~~! HAHAHAHHHHH!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO GIRL! you having sex with EVERYONE who DONT MATTER what the fuck

there is SO MUCH jealousy and regret in this screenshot, i love it!!

Rating: Abe still a virgin/10!

Topher Bus has appeared on screen for 8 seconds.

[rocksandrobots]

Phantoms of the Past Chapter 35 - The Prelude

"So you know what to do?" Hiro asked.

"Keep Varian busy while you talk about him behind his back." Trina rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat.

"We're not talking about him behind his back," Fred defended, "We're just discussing his very traumatic backstory while he's... not... present.............. Yeah, okay, we're talking about him behind his back."

They were all inside the Big Hero Six headquarters on a Wednesday afternoon. Trina was there to collect Varian and keep him distracted for the day as per her agreement with Hiro.

"By the way, has Varian mentioned anything about what happened on Halloween?" Tadashi asked. "Has he ever told you anything about Corona?"

Trina sighed and sat back up. "Varian told me everything."

"Really!? What did he tell you?" Hiro asked.

"I'm not a snitch." Trina snapped. "If you want to know so badly just ask him."

"We have tried asking him." Tadashi complained. "multiple times now. He refuses to talk about it."

Trina shrugged. "Then I guess he doesn't want you to know. Some friends you are."

"Trina, we're not asking because we don't respect his privacy," Gogo explained. "We're asking because we've had people come from Corona to try and kidnap him, and we weren't prepared because we didn't know who they were."

"And who knows what else can come through that portal if he keeps working on it." Tadashi added.

"Ha! I finally figured out the screen share!" Wasabi suddenly announced. Up on the view screen popped up the image of the three Coronians that Wasabi had taken on Halloween.

"Do you know who these people are?" Tadashi asked Trina.

She pouted. "Th-that's the princess, isn't?"

"Yeah," Tadashi nodded. "you saw what happened on stage that night. Can you explain it?"

Trina slowly shook her head. "No... I couldn't even see what was happening through most of it... It was like something was interfering with my scanners."

"Radiation." Hiro said. "Baymax detected Gamma Radiation that night, coming from that woman, and you were so close to it, it must have messed with your sensors. You haven't had any problems with your eye sight since that night, have you?"

"No, whatever it was, it went away as soon as that girl disappeared."

Everyone in the room shared a disquieted look. Yet before they could discuss anything further they heard Varian coming down the stairs.

Wasabi quickly changed the image on the screen to his 4 2 Sing screensaver while everyone else scrambled to look busy with other things.

"Ah, did your favorite band come out with a new album?" Varian cheerfully asked his best friend when he saw the screen saver.

"Not yet, but they're expecting to release one after their tour ends this month." Wasabi said. "I've already strongly hinted at Sam that I want a copy for Christmas."

"Ready to go?" Trina asked.

"Yeah, I finally found the keys. They were hidden under my bed." He shook the car keys as he said this, then he turned to the rest of his friends. "Y'all wanna come? We're heading to the gym."

"Why would a robot need to exercise?" Fred loudly whispered, before being roughly elbowed in the ribs by Gogo.

"You go on ahead and have fun." She said. "Tell us who wins the racket ball match."

"Oh we all know that'll be me?" Trina smugly insisted before heading out the door.

"You wish..." Varian said as he ran after her.

Everyone let out a collective sigh as soon as he was gone.

"Is it okay to come out now?" Honey Lemon timidly asked from the top of the stairs.

"Yeah the coast is clear HL." Tadashi reassured her.

Honey Lemon walked into the meeting room clutching a yellow bit of rock close to her chest. "Are you sure this is necessary? I hated stealing this out of Varian's lab."

Hiro took the amber from her. "It's necessary. Besides, it's not stealing. We'll return it before he even knows it's missing."

Hiro placed the amber upon a stand. "Baymax, do a thorough scan of this."

Hiro stepped back from the table so that Baymax could get a better look at the rock. The robot stared at the table with his coal back 'eyes' for a moment before asking, "Scan what?"

"The amber, on the table." Hiro said.

Baymax looked again at the table. "My scanners do not detect anything on the table."

"Weird. That was his response last time. Remember? When Momasake attacked us." Wasabi pointed out.

"Spooky." Fred gasped.

Hiro shook his head. "No. It can't be. I defragged his memory banks and did a 'system clean' since then."

"Or maybe he can't detect it, because it's not made of any known substance in our world." Tadashi suggested.

"What are you getting at?" Gogo asked.

"Varian claims that magic exists in his world, and given all of the freaky stuff that's been happening around here we can't rule out that possibility... But what if 'magic' is just a form of radiation? After all, we're talking about a completely different world. It could have different elements, energy, even different physics from ours."

"Hmmm... that would make sense." Hiro thought out loud. "It's not unheard of for gamma radiation to make things glow."

"Yeah, but can it bring people back from the dead?"

Everyone looked at Gogo as if she'd just grown another head.

"Th-that's what Varian claimed happened." She explained. "He said that the girl with the long hair brought someone back to life."

"Yeah... he mentioned that her hair could heal people..." Tadashi said. "I guess if radiation can deteriorate cells... Why couldn't it also regenerate cells too? I mean there's just so much we don't know. Like... why would you be able to control such energy with music?"

"Oooh, ooh, I know!" Fred jumped up and down while waving his hand in the air. "The music of the spheres! Varian was talking about it earlier. Different things vibrate on different frequencies. Manipulate the frequency and you change the energy's molecular makeup."

"Fred, are you seriously suggesting that you can alter the structure of the universe by singing?" Wasabi admonished.

"Sure. Why not? After all, sound is caused by changing vibrations in the air, and matter changes its state by vibrating molecules. Like you get lighting from water by vibrating the atoms so fast they become a super heated plasma. "

"That's a gross oversimplification of the process Fred," Hiro replied, "But it's a theory that we can't rule out. Especially since we don't fully know what we're dealing with."

"Well I think we're focusing on the wrong things here." Wasabi said as he brought the picture of the Coronians up once more. "Instead of the 'how', we should be thinking about the 'why'. As in why did these three come for Varian, and will they be back?"

"They wanted Varian to translate some scroll. It was written in the same code as that journal Varian got from Canardist." Hiro explained.

"Why am I not surprised that she's involved?" Gogo huffed.

"I don't know how involved she is or isn't. No one brought her up when talking, but they're looking for a way to stop these... black rocks... from destroying everything."

"The pointy spikes that popped out of the ground? Or so you said." Wasabi clarified.

Hiro nodded yes.

"Varian sort of explained a little of that." Tadashi added. "Apparently a comet hit their world a thousand years ago. It split into two and the pieces are deemed magical artifacts, or as we're calling them 'radioactive nightmares'. One is something called the moonstone, and it is the source of the rocks that destroyed Varian's home, and the sundrop, which apparently gave Rapunzel her glowing hair."

"Wait... her name is actually Rapunzel?" Gogo asked with disbelief.

"I told you." Fred gloated. "I told you that  Varian was from a world of fairy tales."

"You... you mean Varian is a fairy tale character?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Probably... I still think he's an elf."

"I vote he's Little Boy Blue." Tadashi joked.

"You can't be serious." Wasabi said, clearly not amused. "Also what fantasy character has a pet racoon?"

Hiro ignored their discussion. "You said the Sundrop gave her her powers?"

"Yeah."

"That's the medicine Varian stole to save his dad. The one they arrested him for treason over."

Everyone grew somber as they remembered that Corona wasn't a storybook land from their childhood.

"That makes sense... if he thought it could heal people." Gogo quietly said.

"Maybe it can... maybe that's why he hasn't given up on his dad?" Tadashi suggested.

"You don't mean that.. that he'll try to steal it again, do you?" Honey Lemon nervously bit her fingernail.

Tadashi shook his head. "I don't know what his plan is, Honey Lemon. He won't tell us anything. We still don't know what this amber stuff is, we don't know how Rapunzel and her friends got to this world or if they'll be back, and we don't know what has Varian so scared that he's too afraid to tell us, his closest friends, what's going on."

"Well he did tell Trina, apparently." Fred pointed out.

"Okay, but why her and none of us?" Gogo asked.

Fred shrugged. "Maybe 'cause she's the only one who knows what it's like being a former supervillain?"

"For the last time Fred." Wasabi sighed. "Varian's not a supervillain."

Hiro's face darkened at the suggestion, "No... but those Coronians were afraid of him."

``Who could ever be afraid of Varian though?" Honey Lemon laughed off his worry. "It's Varian... cute sweet adorable little Varian. He wouldn't hurt anyone."

Everyone looked at her awkwardly and the smile faded from her face. "What?"

Gogo sighed and decided to move the conversation along, "So what else are we missing?"

"He said that the moonstone comes from his father's home country originally, and that his family are supposed to be a group of knights sworn to protect it. Only they failed to stop the rocks and their home got destroyed years earlier."

"And that.. freaky paperweight we found at Canardist's... it was from Varian's home country as well. It may even be made from the same stuff as these rocks." Hiro added.

"You mean the th-the thing that made him faint that night?" Honey Lemon bit her lip with worry.

Hiro nodded.

"Oh and it gets even more complicated," Tadashi finished. "Turns out the moonstone has been stolen by some girl named Cassandra."

Honey Lemon pouted. "Cassie..."

"Who the heck is Cassie?" Gogo asked.

"Just a girl... from Corona... that he likes." She sighed.

"Okay, let me get this straight," Wasabi said, "Varian is a wanted criminal for stealing a magic healing flower that gave a fairy tale princess her long hair, and he did it to stop these supernatural black spikes that come from his dad's home country from destroying his own home. Only for his old girlfriend to steal the object causing those rocks, and said fairy tale princess needs Varian to translate an ancient scroll; written by the same dude who invented the portals, that Varian turned into a time traveling device to rescue Tadashi with, in order to stop the old girlfriend. Meanwhile the creepy old lady from the antique store who has a pet monkey that can tell the future, also owns one of these black rocks, which Varian has, like, a severe allergic reaction to. Is that right?"

"Oh and he fought in a war alongside a group of displaced people called the Saporians to overthrow said fairy tale princess." Fred added at the end.

Everyone one went quiet at that.

"Geez, it's like the world's worst magical soap opera!" Gogo cried. "How is anyone supposed to make sense of it? What's next? The monkey is really his long lost uncle?"

"Well... turns out the princess's boyfriend is his long lost cousin." Tadashi said.

"Of course he is.. cause nothing is simple."

"Listen, I think we're losing sight of what's important here," Hiro sighed, "Whoever these people are, whatever history they have with Varian, it doesn't matter. They're trying to drag back into the same mess he's just escaped from and steal him away from us, his family. We can't let that happen."

"So what's the plan?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro picked up the amber. "I'm going to run what tests I can on this before I return it to Varian's lab tomorrow. Also... I'm going to need the paperweight."

                                                 --------------------

"Sooo.... do you wanna talk about it?" Trina asked as she sat cross legged on the floor.

"Talk about what?" Varian grunted as he took a practice swing at the ball.

Honey Lemon had taught him racquetball, and he was getting a little better at the sport, but Trina had still curb stomped him during their game.

"About what happened on Halloween."

Varain stopped swinging, completely missing the tennis ball as it sped past him.

"No." He said, and then turned around and started to gather his things.

"What happened to not running away from your problems?" Trina mocked.

"Trina... drop it." Varian warned.

Trina stood up and placed her hands on her hips, blocking the doorway while doing so. "Make me."

They stared at each other challengingly.

"That was Rapunzel, up on stage, wasn't it?"

Varian didn't answer, he didn't need to.

"I thought you said that they couldn't come here?"

"Well I was wrong, okay."

"Then what are they going to do if they come back?"

"I... I don't know... but I'll think of something."

"And does that 'something' involve trusting your friends to help you?"

"I told you, you can't just stomp on Rapunzel. She is more powerful than you know, and she could break you."

"I know... I was on sage with you, remember?"

Varian pouted, but didn't answer her.

"Varian, I don't know anything about magic, but the energy radiating off you and her that night was so much that it nearly blew out my photoreceptors. Hiro said it was gamma radiation... I think you might have another name for it though."

"The sundrop..." Varian whispered.

"Yeah, you said the princess got her powers from that flower, but what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You were glowing too."

Varian shook his head. "No.... no, that had to be something else... Rapunzel must have done something to me or it was a trick of the light, or..."

Trina only frowned at him sadly.

"Stop looking at me that way."

"Varian, I know you're scared. Believe me, I know how frightening it is, to find out that you're different... that you're not what you once thought you were."

"I am not magic." He hissed.

Trina stepped closer and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Then... what are you?"

Varian's eyes went wide as he searched her own.

"I'm... I'm just me. That's all." And with that, he pushed past her.

                                                --------------------

Honey Lemon groaned as the morning sunlight filtered through the window. Last night she had stayed up late finishing her weekly art project for school, and now her head was pounding, her stomach was rolling, and she felt like the bed was rocking beneath her, as if she was on a boat.

"Time to get up, Honey Lemon." Gogo called to her as she ran around the studio apartment. When she didn't receive an answer, her roommate kicked the foot of the bed. "Come on, we have thermodynamics in thirty minutes."

Honey Lemon moaned again, kicked the covers off herself, and finally sat up. Only for the room to start spinning as soon as she did.

She let out an overly dramatic whine and collapsed back onto the bed; burying her head underneath the pillows.

"You stayed up too late again, didn't you?" Gogo asked.

Honey Lemon whimpered her muffled reply.

Gogo rolled her eyes. "You can't keep doing this to yourself Honey."

She gave a muffled protest from under the pillow.

Gogo sighed. "Fine. Where's your homework?"

Honey Lemon lifted her hand up and pointed to her bookbag hanging up by the front door.

Gogo walked over and gathered her things. "I'll drop your assignments off and take notes for you in our shared classes, but I'm only doing this once."

Honey Lemon finally poked her head out from under the pillow, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Just get some rest." And with that order, she flipped off the light before leaving.

                                                --------------------

Hiro tiptoed into Varian's lab early that morning. Satisfied that the alchemist wasn't around he replaced the amber back on its stand.

"Hey, did you find anything?"

Hiro jumped at Tadashi's voice. He turned to find his older brother behind him, staring at the strange alien object.

Hiro shushed him and quickly pushed him out of the lab before Varian could arrive.

They didn't speak until they had made it back to their own private lab, which they now had to share.

"When are you going to clean up this mess?" Tadashi complained as he shoved some clothes off the desk chair and took a seat.

"I've been a little busy, okay." Hiro snapped back, irritated. "I was up late last night studying the spectrograph readings." He sighed and shook his head. "I've seen nothing it like it."

"Let's see it then."

He swung around and turned on the computer. Hiro placed the thumb drive into the socket and stood back as Tadashi brought up the readouts.

"Wild." He breathed in awe as he scanned the contents. "What is this stuff?"

"I don't know, but it's certainly not amber." He leaned over and clicked on another reading. "And look at the radiation on it."

"Uh... are you sure this stuff is safe to handle? Do you need to see a doctor?" He asked with sudden concern as he saw the readings.

Hiro gave an exasperated shrug. "I don't know, but Varian's been handling the stuff for months, maybe even longer."

"Yeah, but come to find out, Varian also glows in the dark."

"I'll have Baymax run a health scan later." Hiro hand waved the concern away. "In the meantime we still need Madame Canardist's paperweight so that I can pull up comparative readings."

"Alright, then Gogo and I will go talk to the lady today after school."

"And I'll-"

"And you'll have Baymax do a thorough check up of you, and call the doctor immediately if he finds anything wrong." Tadashi interrupted.

Hiro sighed. "Fine. You win... What about Varian?"

"Honey Lemon called out today. He's going to head over to her apartment after school to check on her, so he won't be any the wiser."

                                                --------------------

Honey Lemon was feeling much better by the time afternoon rolled around. She had taken a nap and then downed a smoothie for lunch. Then she spent the rest of the day in bed, taking care of upcoming assignments or reading the notes her classmates had texted her. She was just debating on if she should get up and fix some real food or not, when a knock came at her door.

"Hey! How are you feeling?" Varian gave her the biggest grin as soon as she opened the door. Then without waiting for an answer, he sailed inside carrying a paper grocery bag. "Gogo said that you were sick, so I stopped by the store and got you a few things."

"Thank you, but I'm not really sic-"

"I got some aspirin for your headache, a compress that you can either freeze or warm up in the microwave, and some Poweraid to keep you hydrated." Varian ignored her protests as he sat the bag on the table and started to pull stuff out of it. "AI also thought about making some chicken soup for dinner, but then I remembered that you don't like to eat meat sooo... roasted eggplant it is."

He held aloft the aubergine proudly, as if showing off his own cleverness.

"Varian that's really sweet of you, but you don't have to go out of your way-"

"Oh it's nothing. You just relax and I'll take care of everything." And with that, he started to rush around the small apartment kitchen, pulling out pots, bowls, and spices as he prepared to cook dinner for them.

Honey Lemon sighed, and decided to grab the compress and lie back down. There was no use in trying to talk Varian out of anything, and besides roasted eggplant did sound pretty good.

She curled up on her side and cuddled with her pillow as she absently watched the teenage alchemist run around. Something about him looked different, but she couldn't place her finger upon what.

"Are those new pants?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah," He nervously laughed as he looked down at his new jeans. "Aunt Cass bought these yesterday. My last pair was getting too short."

As it dawned upon Honey Lemon that her friend was now a good foot taller than when she had first met him, Varian opened the fridge door to hunt for some more condiments.

"Hey now, what is this!?" He slyly smiled as he pulled out a bottle of cooking sherry. "Now where did you get this little miss 'always follows rules'?"

Honey Lemon only looked at him confused. "My mom gave it to me when I moved in. It's just cooking wine."

Varian raised an eyebrow at that and flashed her his most disarming grin. Then he unscrewed the cap and took a swig of the stuff before Honey Lemon could stop him.

"Varian, wait! No!"

She rushed to him as he made a disgusted face. Then he turned and spat out the foul liquid into the sink.

"Wh-what is in this stuff?" He wheezed as he read the ingredients label in confusion.

"I told you. It's just cooking wine. It has preservatives in it- wait! What are you doing?"

Varian held up a hand to stop her from grabbing the bottle away from him as he poured the contents down the drain.

"If you can't drink it, then you can't cook with it."

"But-"

"If you can't drink it, you can't cook with it." He repeated as he tossed the empty bottle into the garbage. "Like half of that was just salt, potassium sorbate, and artificial food dye. You don't want to consume that. Fortunately, I have a solution."

He reached into the paper bag again and pulled out a jug.

"Apple juice?" Honey Lemon asked in confusion when showed off his find.

"Actually it's apple cider, but it won't be for long." He smiled his Cheshire grin and pulled out the mini portals from his pocket. He then poured some of the juice into a glass, added some sugar, and half a packet of yeast.

"Watch this." He winked. He then created a mini-portal, no bigger than the glass itself and slowly lowered it over the glass.

"By using the time displacement technology that we invented to rescue Tadashi, I can accelerate the molecular breakdown of the sugar within this glass." Satisfied, he turned off his device and lifted the glass. "What once took weeks now only takes mere moments. Viola! Instance hard cider!"

Honey Lemon frowned with worry. It was a technically impressive feat of engineering, but leave it to Varian to use science as a means to skirt the rules.

"Varian..." She sighed disapprovingly.

"What? The law says I can't buy alcohol, it doesn't say that I can't make my own."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Sure I'm sure, besides we're just going to use it to cook with. It's not like I'm going to drink it." He said, only to take a drink of the concoction right afterwards.

Then his face screwed up in disgust, and he turned to spit into the sink once more.

"Oh... ohh, no, that was vinegar..." He gagged. "I, uh, need to recalculate my equations... js-just some minor readjustments and we... uh, it should be good to go."

                                                --------------------

"Why are we here again?" Gogo groaned.

"Hiro need's that freaky paperweight so he can run tests on it, and compare it to the amber." Tadashi explained as he stared at the antique shop in the mall.

"No, I know why you and Hiro want it... but is this really necessary?"

"Of course it is. We need to figure out what's going on. It's for Varian's own good."

Gogo stopped him before he could open the door. "Is this really for Varian's protection, or is it just to satisfy your own curiosity?"

Tadashi frowned. "What are you getting at?"

"I don't trust this woman, and I don't see how poking our noses into this magic stuff is supposed to help. We're way out of our depth. As difficult as it is, I think we'd be better off just talking to Varian."

"We tried talking to him. He's hiding something, Gogo. You know he is, and whatever it is, it's something to do with these rocks."

"I thought we were trying to stop that princess from taking him, not figure out the mystery behind Varian's past." She pushed back.

"They're one and the same thing, Gogo." Tadashi insisted as he opened the door.

No one was inside when they walked in. Gogo shivered. "Man, this place is creepy."

"Hello!?" Tadashi called out. "Anyone here? Madame Canardist? Vigor?"

He scanned the shelves but did not see the mysterious rock sitting upon any of them.

"We've come to buy something from you!" He called out as he bent over the counter to see if she had stashed it there.

Suddenly Vigor popped up from under the counter and screeched at him.

"Ahhh!" Tadashi backed away quickly as the monkey hopped up onto the desk and raged at them.

"Who is it, Vigor?" Canardist sweetly sang out as she stepped out from behind the curtain. Her face fell as soon as she saw them. "Oh... it's you. Whatta do you want?"

Gogo stepped forward "We're wanting to buy that paperweight that you had."

"The one that glows and has that inscription on it." Tadashi explained.

"The Mind Trap?"

"Yes! That's it! That's what it was called. Do you have it?"

"Why would anyone want to buy the Mind Trap?" Carandrist looked confused. "It's useless."

"Then why do you have it?" Gogo countered.

"I traded for it. The Spire Keeper gave me a big box of antiques in exchange for my special onion soup."

"Why would anyone trade a priceless magical artifact for soup?" Tadashi asked, not believing her.

"It was very good soup. Old family recipe." She paused as if a thought suddenly came to her, "Though come to think of it, I also lent him a magic cloak that changes one's appearance..."

Tadashi rolled his eyes. "What exactly is the Mind Trap? What is it made of? What does it do?"

"What does it do?" Carandist echoed. "Exactly what it says it does. It traps minds. Makes you control their wills."

"Wait. You're telling me that you just happen to have a magical mind controlling rock, and you want us to believe it's worthless?" Gogo pressed.

"No, not worthless... useless, to you anyways, and to most other people." Madame Canardist explained. "The mind trap does not work on just anyone. It only controls those connected to the moonstone; not many of those left in the world."

"You mean, not left in your home world." Tadashi corrected her. "We know you're from another dimension, the same as Varian."

Canardist gave a sly smile. "Oh do you, now? And what else do you know, young man?"

"Argh! Enough games!" Gogo leered at the old woman as she pounded her fist on the counter. "Are you going to sell us the dumb paperweight or not?"

"Hmmmm... I thiiinnk… not." She cheekily replied.

Tadashi had to physically hold his girlfriend back to stop her from crawling over the counter to manhandle the older lady.

"Listen, you don't want to sell it to us, that's fine, but can you at least tell us what you know about it?" He patted Gogo on the shoulder to calm her down. "We think Varian might be one of those connected to this 'moonstone' that everyone seems to be after."

Madame Canardist raised an eyebrow at them. "You really want to know?"

"Yeah."

"Very well." And with that, she snapped her fingers and all of the lights went out.

"Yeah... we have clapper lights in this world too." Tadashi called out into the darkness.

Canardist struck a match. "Harumph... some people have no appreciation for the dramatic." She complained as she lit a wick underneath her crystal ball.

The ball lit up, and showed the image of a comet falling to Earth.

"A millennia ago a comet fell from the heavens! It split in two, and separated. Legend says one half melted into the soil, and from it sprung a magical healing flower. While its counterpart struck the earth so hard it ruptured the ground and caused black spikes to spring forth. While the sundrop brought life, the moonstone brought death."

She turned a little dial on the crystal ball and the image changed again. This one of a golden flower and a blue stone surrounded by rocks.

"Yet, the moonstone had its uses as well. It provided protection for the small kingdom that grew up around it, and for a very special few, the opal would grant strength and durability to its chosen hosts. Some tried to use this power as a conquering force, so an elite guard, called The Brotherhood, was created to protect and secure the moonstone from those that would mis-use its powers."

She changed the scene again to a painting of black armored knights.

"Varian's family." Tadashi said. "That's how he's connected."

Canardist nodded. "For generations the Brotherhood guarded the moonstone and the kingdom of Umbra from invaders. They were heralded as heroes and keepers of the peace by many the world over, but some did not believe the Knights. 'Power corrupts,' they said, and so one brave young soul decided to create a contingency plan."

She switched the image again, showing a young man in brown robes standing in front of what looked like a large oak tree.

"His name was Tromus of Quercus, a student of Demantius..."

"The guy who built the portals?" Tadashi asked. Canardist frowned at him for interrupting. "Sorry."

"Tromus invented an explosive device, something that could break even the indestructible rocks. He traveled to the edges of the Kingdom of Umbra, where the rocks reached the furthest out, and detonated the device. But the explosion failed. The rocks remained while everything else in the area was destroyed. The only damage to the supernatural spikes that he could find was the tip of one small rock that had been severed."

The next picture was that of a burnt forest with spikes jutting from the ground.

"Tromus took that lone rock back to his master. After ages of studying the object, and finding nothing to stop the black spikes themselves, Demantius decided to stop those that would wield the moonstone's power for evil. He and his disciples cursed the rock with a spell. An enchantment that would control any who possessed the essence of the moonstone within them. He called this curse, The Mind Trap!"

Suddenly Vigor screamed and slammed the stalagmite down in front of them.

Gogo and Tadashi jumped back in surprise. Canardist cackled at their fear.

"Hahaha. Got you... you should see the look on your faces. Haha."

Gogo threw the old woman a furious glare. Then she marched over to the crystal ball, lifted it up, and silently pulled out a little round card from the bottom. It looked like one of those cartridges for those toy viewfinders she would play with as a kid. Each image was painted on small cellophane windows cut into the disk.

She held it up for Canardist to see.

Canardist shrugged. "So I like to be entertaining when spouting exposition, so sue me."

Tadashi stared at the Mind Trap again. There was something hauntingly mesmerizing about it.

"So you won't sell it to us?" He asked.

"No."

He took a step closer to it. "Would you let us borrow it then?"

"What?"

Before she could say no, Tadashi grabbed the paperweight and ran away.

"Stop! Thief!" She called after him.

"What are you doing?" Gogo hissed at him from behind as she ran to catch up.

"Relax. We're only borrowing it." Tadashi excused as he made it to the escalators.

"Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Canardist frantically called after them. She was running towards them but her old bones couldn't hope to catch up to the teenagers.

"We'll return it tomorrow! Promise!" Tadashi yelled back at her, before sliding down the railing of the escalator.

Gogo sighed. "Sorry! I'll make sure it gets back to you!" She also called back, before following her boyfriend.

He grabbed her hand as she hopped off the rail and together they ran out of the mall before Madam Canardist could stop them.

                                                --------------------

After a couple of more tries and a few more failures, Varian finally created the alcohol he was wanting to make. And true to his word, he used it primarily to cook with; basting the eggplant in a tangy apple wine sauce, complete with mushrooms, onions, garlic, and a light sprinkle of Parmesan.

Honey Lemon had to admit that it was delicious.

As they finished dinner and polished off the last of the non-fermented cider, her and Varian played a round of truth and dare.

"Okay, your turn," Varian said, "truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Alright, have you ever actually broken a rule, and what's the worst thing you've ever done?"

Honey Lemon rolled her eyes. "Of course I've broken a rule before, everyone has." Then she sighed, "But I guess the worse one was… maybe… borrowing my mom's car without her permission, aaanndd, maybe sneaking off with my boyfriend…"

Varian raised an eyebrow. "Andre?"

"Yeah…"

"What did you do that was so bad?" He asked, confused.

Honey Lemon turned beet red, and Varian just about snorted apple juice out of his nose as he broke down laughing.

"Stop it!" She whined.

"Hahaha.. I'm sorry.. haha, I'm sorry HL, but 'I went on date with my boyfriend, where we did the normal thing lovers usually do' is like the least 'bad thing' in the world."

"Weeeell… I also kinda stole a car to do it."

"Did you return the car?"

"Well of course…."

"Then it's not stealing. Face it Honey, you're too sweet. You haven't a rebellious bone in your body."

Honey Lemon looked wholly offended by that. "I can be plenty rebellious! Like… like last week the professor told us to make an impressionist painting but I did a post-impressionist artwork instead."

Varian only stared at her with the least impressed expression ever.

Honey Lemon threw up her hands in exasperation. "Okay, so we all can't be ex-convicts."

She then gasped in horror as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

"I-I didn't mean it that way! I just… I meant… I was comparing myself to supervillains, n-not you…"

Varian frowned and stood up from the table. "No… you're right. I lived for a year with murders, thieves, and violent revolutionaries… some of the worst people you can ever imagine. That's why I have to laugh at something so ridiculous as getting trouble for drinking a beer or going on a date."

He walked over to the sink and started to clean his plate; refusing to look at her as he finished his spiel.

"I wish 'sneaking off to make out with my boyfriend' was the worst I've ever had to deal with. That actually sounds like a very nice problem to have."

Honey Lemon pouted as she watched him wash the dishes. She didn't like the turn the conversation had taken, but she also didn't like the dismissive tone Varian spoke with.

"Look… I'm sorry. I put my foot in my mouth." She sighed. "But, you know what, you don't get to tell me what is or isn't a problem."

She stood up, gathered her own plate, and joined Varian at the sink.

"Oh, you're going to tell me how you regret it just because you and Andre didn't work out?"

"No… I don't… 'regret' isn't the right word… but it was impulsive, and reckless, and mama really wasn't happy when she found out about it."

"Wait… you regret it just because your mom didn't approve?"

"Well, nooo… b-but she did have a good point about not rushing into things. I'm only eighteen. I have my whole life ahead of me."

Varian looked confused again. "What part of dating means that you can't have a life? What kind of sense does that make?"

"Well, no, dating isn't necessarily bad… it's just… you shouldn't go too fast."

Varian blankly blinked at her, not understanding her meaning at all.

Honey Lemon sighed. "I thought Andre and I were going to be together forever. Like in the movies where you marry your high school sweetheart, buy a house, and have babies and puppy dogs running around. B-but that's not realistic, and had we stayed together or had I run off to New Jersey with him, then I wouldn't be here, with you and all my friends, or become a superhero!"

Varian shook his head. "See, now we're just back to you regretting dating him specifically because it didn't work out."

"No, that's not what I'm saying… like you can't have it both ways. You can't be a housewife and earn a degree at the same time-"

"Why not?"

"Be-because… it… it just wouldn't be practical. There's not enough time to do both."

"Mrs. Goodenberg does it. You know, from computer programming class. She's going back for her masters."

"Yeah, but Mrs. Goodenberg is also forty two."

"So?"

"Well… all her kids are grown and she had to put her education on pause for twenty years. See? You can't do both at the same time."

"But you can still do both… one doesn't necessarily cancel out the other, you just got to, like, prioritize which you want first. Also who said you had to marry the person that you're dating?"

"Well, isn't that the point of dating? To find someone who you'd want a committed relationship with."

"Uh, I thought the point of dating was to have fun?"

Honey Lemon rolled her eyes. "That's such 'a guy' response. You never think about the future."

"That's because I don't have a future to think about." He snorted as he gathered the now cleaned dishes and carried them over to the cabinet where they were usually stored.

Honey Lemon frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Varian paused in putting up the dishes and gave her wide-eyed look. Then he turned away from her and put the last of the chinaware plates up. "Nothing… I just… I just think that if you want something, then you should just go for it. No one is promised tomorrow. "

He closed the cabinet and started to pack up his things, not daring to look her in the eyes.

Honey Lemon felt the same lump of dread she always did whenever they stumbled into the topic of Corona. True he had avoided mentioning the kingdom by name, but Honey Lemon knew what he was alluding to anyways.

"Th-then what do you want?" She asked, hoping to change the subject. "I mean what plans do you have for the future?"

"I would like to rescue my dad. That's all I got for now."

"Ooookaaay, but what about after that? What do you want to do then? Let's say you do get him back, then what?"

Varian looked past her as if he'd never considered such a possibility before.

"Well… I.. don't know. I haven't quite gone that far yet."

"Well what about selling your portal tech, or maybe studying chemistry because you like it so much?" Honey Lemon suggested, only too glad to be discussing happier matters. "I mean, you can do anything you want, be anything you want."

Varian only shrugged. "What do you want to be?"

"Well I'd…" Honey Lemon paused. It was a surprisingly hard question to answer. "Well I'd like to do everything. Draw, paint, invent, travel, and yeah… maybe meet someone nice and settle down… eventually. But I don't have to do it all at once; see by not rushing into things I get to keep my options open."

"Yeah, but you gotta choose at some point, right? Otherwise you won't get anything done."

Honey Lemon blinked in surprise. She hadn't considered that point of view before and she didn't like it.

"Well, it's better than just not having any goals at all."

"But I do have a goal. Just because it's not a long term life-long plan doesn't mean that's not valuable. By focusing on what matters here and now, I can follow through till the task is done."

"But at the expense of everything else? School? A career? Hopes, dreams!?"

He gave an odd look before mumbling. "What good are dreams? Dreams don't put food on the table, or keep a roof over your head. They don't protect people from wolves or corrupt governments out to destroy you."

"No." She whispered and shook her head. "You got it all wrong. Dreams are what inspire you. They're what keep you going when it looks like things will never get better. Dreams are the most important things a person can have-"

"Honey, please," He held up his hands in protest. "I adore you, but I am begging you to stop."

Honey Lemon looked offended and Varian gave an exaggerated sigh.

"Look, I've heard it all before. The whole 'you can do anything if you just believe hard enough' is crap. It doesn't work! Wishing doesn't rescue my dad. Hope doesn't save my village from dying. No amount of dreaming gets me my life back!"

An awkward silence fell between them as they both stared at each other, each growing ever more self conscious as the seconds quietly ticked by.

Varian finally tore his eyes away from her and stared at his shoes instead, while Honey Lemon wrung her hands. She hated it when they argued. Hated it.

"I'm sorry I yelled." He softly said, still refusing to look at her. "I know… that you're only trying to help… but, I… I don't know how to make you understand. How can I even explain it… but please, don't ever tell me 'I need a dream'."

"You're right… I don't understand." She sobbed. "I know Corona was awful, b-but you're not there anymore. I… I thought things were better now."

Varian finally looked at her and frowned.

"They are better. Of course San Fransokyo is a thousand times better than Corona, b-but just because I'm here now doesn't mean that it changes the past. Honey, you ask me what I want, what kind of future I'd like to have, but I can't tell you because… because it was stolen from me."

Honey Lemon sniffled as she looked at him confused.

Varian sighed and shook his head.

"I didn't grow up like you did. I never thought about colleges or careers. I knew since… since birth, that I was going to be the leader of my village. Same as my father, my grandfather, and his father before him. People have lived the same way as their parents for generations where I come from."

"Th-that sounds awful."

"But it's not. It only sounds that way because it's not what you grew up with. Not knowing your place in the world, not having that security and heritage behind you, supporting you. That sounds awful to me."

"But what if you don't want that? What if you wanted to be something else, like a baker or a dentist?"

"But that's just it. I never wanted to be anything else. The thought never even crossed my mind growing up. I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to take care of my people. I wanted to be just like my dad."

"But I thought you wanted to be a scientist."

"Yeah, I did...  I still do, but that's only because science is my best skill. I can use it to lead, to make things better. I figured out pretty quickly that I could never actually be my father… we're just too different. But I could still be myself, and do what's expected of me. I could solve problems using science. I could help my people prosper with my inventions. Or at least… I thought I could."

He hung his head again.

"Turns out most of my inventions were more of a hindrance than a help. I… think the town would have loved it if I had just stopped. But… I was so sure that if I just kept trying I could… I could prove to everyone that I had what it took to be a leader. Especially my dad…

Then… suddenly… one day I didn't have a people anymore. I didn't have home anymore…. I didn't have my dad anymore. I can't believe in 'dreams' when literally everything you know can just be ripped away from you in a second."

His bottom lip trembled and Honey Lemon's heart went out to him.

"Oh Varian…"

She wanted nothing more than to wrap him in a hug and never let go. Reassure him that everything would alright and bring his normally cheerfully smile back. But when she reached out her arms to comfort him, he stepped away from her. He still wasn't done. He had her pity, but not her understanding.

"Listen, I'm lucky to even be alive right now. I never thought I'd survive past fourteen. Let alone make it to sixteen. Now you're asking me to think ahead… to when? Next year? The year after? You think I can actually make it to eighteen without accidentally blowing myself up or throwing myself into the stratosphere? How about twenty? Forty? I can't do it."

"Yes, you can." She insisted as she grabbed him by the arms. He returned the embrace, clasping her own elbows, but he still shook his head.

"How do you know? Why do you keep believing in me?"

"Because… you have us now, and you can do anything with your friends. Even time travel."

He couldn't fight the smile from slowly creeping back onto his face, though he certainly tried to.

"You really think that?"

"I really do." She pressed her forehead against his own, and they broke down into soft giggles even as they still blinked back their tears.

"I can do anything, huh?"

"Yup."

He let go of her arms and then pulled her into a closer hug. She returned the embrace and snuggled her head onto his chest. Without her usual heels on she found the task surprisingly easy. They were nearly the same height now, minus an inch or three.

"Then I want to save my dad and bring him here, so that he can meet all of my friends." He finished.

"That sounds nice… and then what?" She asked.

Varian raised an eyebrow, "And then?... I may have to look for a new place to live."

Honey Lemon looked up at him in surprise. She hadn't expected such an answer.

"Dad will hate the city, I know he will." He explained. "Also, I know Hiro and Aunt Cass have talked about turning the attic into a spare bedroom, but really it would just be crowded with all five of us living under one roof; eight if you count Baymax and the pets."

"Sooo where would you move to?"

"Well… I wouldn't want to go far, so that way I can still go to school and visit everyone, but Dad would like land… something he can farm."

"Like a vineyard? They have a lot of those around here."

Varian looked thoughtful. "Hmm… Never worked a vineyard before, but it can't be much harder than an orchard surely. Yeah, I bet dad would love that, and then I could have all the wine that I wanted."

He snorted as Honey Lemon gave him a playful slap at such a joke. He then laughed again as pulled her into an even tighter hug. She allowed him to. It was so nice when they got along. She didn't know why they ever fought over anything when they could be cuddling like this instead.

"There's just one thing… how would you pay for it?"

"Well, Krei did offer to make me his business partner. We're heading down to meet up with that potential investor this weekend. Maybe, I'll seriously consider taking the job… you know, after I'm done with the portal."

"Really? So you'll actually think about your career for once, and plan on finishing school?"

Varian nodded and the biggest smile spread across her face. She squeezed him tighter, locking him a big bear hug as she jumped for joy.

"Oh you'll see! It'll be perfect! Everyone will be together, and we'll all get our degrees, and become both world renowned inventors and superheroes!"

"Haha! Is that what you want? Is that your future?"

"I… I just want everyone together."

"Yeah I know what you want," he winked, "you want a castle. One big enough for everybody to live."

"Yeeeesssss! OMG yes! That would be the best thing ever! Then we'd all be like one big happy family. Everyone would get their own room and we'd have weekly game nights, ooohhh and banquets!"

"And a dance hall?"

"Yes! Of course there has to be a ballroom and huge dining table to fit everyone!"

Varian laughed and leaned on closer. "Well what if I bought the vineyard and built you a castle on it? Would that make you happy?"

"For everyone?

"For anyone who wants to stay there."

"You'd do that for me?"

"I'd do anything for you."

He rubbed his nose against hers.

"Even believe in dreams." He laughed.

She giggled at the touch, but her laugh caught in her throat when she turned to see her roommate standing at the door.

"Oh, Gogo! I…uh.. I didn't hear you come in." She nervously gulped.

Varian coughed and pulled away from their embrace. "We, uh, save you some dinner."

"Oh yeah! We have a plate over here." Honey Lemon ran to pull the tray out of the oven where they had kept the leftovers warm.

"Thanks." Was all Gogo said.

Honey Lemon and Varian shared an awkward glance.

"Well, I b-better get going." Varian hastily excused himself as he finished gathering his things. "I have a writing assignment due in the morning. See ya later."

And with that he hurried out the door.

"Sorry if I was interrupting something." Gogo said as she filled her plate up.

"Oh you weren't interrupting anything." Honey Lemon dismissed.

Gogo gave her a skeptical look as she took a bite of dinner. "It sure looked like 'something'."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Honey, you do know that Varian likes you, right?"

"You mean 'like' as in a friend, right?

"No I mean 'like' as in he 'likes you' 'like.'"

Honey Lemon looked aghast as Gogo smugly smiled.

"No." She shook her head. "You got it all wrong. Varian and I are just friends. Besides, it's Karmi that he actually likes."

Gogo rolled her eyes. "If he was ever into Karmi that ended the moment she and Hiro started flirting, but he's liked you since forever. It's so obvious."

"No it's not... We just enjoy hanging out cause we have a lot in common. Why are you making such a big deal of this?"

Gogo didn't say anything, just took another bite of eggplant parm.

"Stop it' Honey Lemon whined.

"Stop what?"

"You're judging me."

"Oh I'm totally judging you." Gog agreed as she finished her meal.

Honey Lemon rolled her eyes. "Nothing is going on between me and Varian."

"Well if you really feel that way, then you need to tell him that." Gogo sighed as she placed her dirty dish in the sink.

She turned back around to see Honey Lemon staring ahead wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights.

Gogo folded her arms across her chest. "You're doing it again."

"D-doing what again?"

"Avoiding the problem."

"I'm... I'm not avoiding anything, and there is no problem. We're just friends and I'm sure he knows that."

"Then why don't you talk to him to make sure?"

Honey Lemon grew defensive at that. "Ugh! Since when are you all for 'talking about one's feelings'?"

"Oh I hate 'discussing feelings'. The very thought makes me queasy, but it's not my life we're talking about here. Look, I get it. Emotional honesty is hard, and mushy stuff is just gross, but you own it to Varian to let him know how you really feel."

Honey Lemon pouted. "I... I ... umm..."

"You don't know how you feel, do you?"

"Of course I do. He's my best friend, same as you, and It's not like I'd want to date you. N-no offense."

"Hey, none taken." Gogo shrugged. "See, it's that easy. If he really just sees you as a friend, as you insist. Then he's not going to care if you want to clarify that."

Honey Lemon didn't answer, instead she sat upon her bed and clutched her blankets close to her.

"You're afraid I'm right, and that he's going to be upset when you turn him down. Aren't you?" Gogo persisted.

Honey Lemon didn't reply but only gave her best friend a pleading look.

Gogo shook her head. "It's only going to be worse if you don't tell him and it winds up blowing up in both of your faces. What are you going to do when he gains the courage to ask you out for real? Or what if you decide to date someone else? What are you going to do then? Are you just planning to avoid ever mentioning that you're already in a relationship to him?"

Honey Lemon snuggled deeper under the covers, till only her eyes were visible above the quilt. "Th-that's not going to happen." She whispered, not at all confident in her prediction.

Gogo spread her arms wide in frustration. "Give up, Honey Lemon. Do what you want. But don't say I didn't warn you when it all comes crashing down around you."

She grabbed a bottle of water and started to head up the stairs. "Now, I've had a very annoying day and I'm going to relax before bed. I turned in your homework for you today... is there anything else you need before I turn in for the night?"

"No... Thank you though." She mumbled back.

"Alright, then goodnight. Thanks for dinner. It wasn't half bad."

Honey Lemon watched her as she headed up to the loft, but she wasn't paying attention. Her mind raced with worry as she sat there thumbing her hair.

                                                --------------------

"Well, what did you find?" Tadashi asked Hiro.

They were inside the lab at HQ. Gogo had already gone home and he, Baymax, and Hiro were the only ones left inside the superhero hang out.

"Only that's it's very similar to the amber... whatever that stuff is."

He stood to the side and let Tadashi read the printout.

"Hmmm... same radiation signals.... but this spectrograph still doesn't make any sense... is it even carbon based?"

"What else could it be?" Hiro asked.

Tadshi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. It looks like I nicked this off Canardist for no reason."

"I still can't believe you stole something from the mall." Hiro laughed.

" 'Borrow' . I borrowed the paperweight and I'll return it tomorrow." He corrected me.

"Well, we know what it's made of... sort of... but that still doesn't answer the bigger question." Hiro said, slowly. "How were you able to read the inscription?"

Tadashi frowned. "I still don't know," he whispered.

"Let's see what Baymax can find out." Hiro hopped off the stole, grabbed the mind trap, and held up for Baymax to see.

"Can you detect this in my hand?" He asked the robot.

"I see nothing there." The faithful nurse said.

"Wait... let's write it down." Tadashi suggested.

Hiro held the rock up as Tadashi copied the inscription.

"Okay, Baymax. See if you can cross-reference this. Let us know what language it is." Tadashi said as held up the paper.

Baymax studied the writings for a moment.

"I am not finding a match."

"hmmm..." Tadashi hummed in thought as he read runes again... or tried to read them, at least.

"What is it?" Hiro asked.

"I can't read these."

"What do you mean you can't read them?"

"I mean I can't read them, now. They just look like random lines."

Hiro peered over his shoulder to look at the markings.

"To be more precise." Baymax said. "They are hieroglyphics from various languages."

"What do you mean?" Hiro asked.

"That rune is Finnish, and this marking is ancient Mandarin." Baymax said as he pointed to each letter.

"It's a code." Hiro said as realization dawned on him. "It's the same code that the journal is written in and that scroll."

"Canardist said that Demanitus was the guy who helped make the mind trap."

Tadashi said as he picked up the paperweight again.

Hiro shook his head. "That still doesn't make sense though. Why could you read that stuff last time and not now... Tadashi?"

Tadashi didn't answer. He only stared at the rock in his hand. It was glowing, and his eyes glinted back that glow.

"Ta-Tadashi?"

"Open the gateway..." He whispered.

"What?"

"So that the darkness may consume all..."

Hiro shook his big brother. "Tadashi! Snap out of it!"

"And the kingdoms will fal- Hey!"

Hiro knocked the artifact out of Tadashi's hand before he could finish the rhyme. It landed on the floor and rolled til it came to stop at Baymax's foot.

"Why did you do that!?"

"Very funny, Tadashi! Stop trying to freak me out!"

Tadashi blinked as if he just realized something. "I was reading it again... wasn't I?"

Hiro looked at him horrified.

"Wh-what's going on?"

"I don't know! It's like.. whenever I look at that thing, it..." He paused, dread filling his face... "It.. it takes over my mind. B-but... but it's not supposed to work on me. That's what Canardist said anyway."

He gulped and scooted away from the stone.

"Hiro, I'm sorry. You, Varian, Gogo, you were all right. I shouldn't have been messing with this stuff."

Hiro closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He'd never seen Tadashi so scared before, and it was unnerving.

"There has to be a logical explanation." He slowly said.

"Like what?"

"I... don't know yet, but in the meantime let's return this to Canardist."

Using a pair of tongs, Hiro picked up the radioactive rock. "Let's put this in something though, until then."

"Like a lead box?" Tadashi asked.

"Yeah, that would be good... but do we have one?"

"Roddey left some lead boxes in the storage closet, just for this occasion." Baymax stated.

"Oh, thank you Roddey." Hiro sighed as Tadashi ran to go get the box.

He found a suitable one and Hiro gingerly placed the cursed object inside and shut the lid. Both boys breathed easier at not being about to see it.

"We'll both return it in the morning." Hiro said. "Baymax, can you stay up and guard the box?"

"Affirmative."

                                                --------------------

"Hey!" Varian beamed at them as Hiro and Tadashi made home. "Where's Baymax?"

"He's staying at HQ tonight. He, uh, he's running some diagnostics on the computers." Hiro lied.

"How's Honey Lemon?" Tadashi asked, changing the subject.

"She seemed to be feeling better when I left. I think she's going to try and show up for class tomorrow. Speaking of which, I still have this writing assignment to finish." He bit the end of his pencil in thought.

"Has Granville handed out her usual creative short story assignment for the semester?" Hiro asked.

"Yeah, I'm trying to write my own Flynn Rider plot. I'm right at the part where he stabs the evil count during mid duel... but I don't know.. it sounds like it's too easy an ending."

"Let's see it?" Tadashi said and snatched up the paper from him before he could protest. "Blood gushed from Count Derrick's mouth as the steel blade sliced through his gut. He gasped in surprise before falling over the ramparts and landing on the rocks below, where his evil form lay twisted and broken. Flynn Rider turned away from the bloody sight as the vultures started to swirl overhead... Hmm... It's grotesque, gory, and depraved... I like it."

Hiro rolled his eyes and took the paper from him. "'Flynn!' The Duchess Adel yelled out to him. She stood upon the balcony waiting for him, her long red hair glinting gold in the sunlight. Her green eyes shone with love and her soft lips... You just wrote in Honey Lemon as the love interest didn't you?"

"No I did not!" Varian protested.

"Let me see." Tadashi laughed and grabbed the paper before Varian could take it back. "Rider climbed down from the roof and embraced the duchess. He leaned in for a kiss, but was interrupted when his page Dashi... Okay, why am I the sidekick?"

"Because you annoy me the most." Varian said as he finally snatched the paper back.

"Am I in the story?" Hiro asked.

"You are, but you were stabbed in the back by the count and I…I mean Flynn Rider had avenged your death."

"Dude, you couldn't think a cooler was to kill me off?"

"Nope."

Tadashi snickered at that. "Alright Shakespeare, and are you planning on publishing your story for the world to see?"

"Maybe?" Varian straightens up. "Hey, maybe I'll become a professional author and write a whole new series of Flynn Rider adventures! Who knows?"

"But no one here knows who Flynn Rider is." Hiro pointed out.

"So? All the better. I can introduce a whole new generation to the awesomeness that is the swashbuckling defender!"

Both his brothers burst out in laughter.

"Yeah, maybe you can get a movie deal out of it?" Tadashi wheezed.

"Yeah, and he'd cast himself as the main hero if he did." Hiro snorted.

"Hey, I could pull off a decent Flynn rider if I wanted to." Varian defended. "After all, I can do anything I set my mind to."

Hiro raised an eyebrow at him. "Egotistical much?"

"It's called self-confidence." Varian snootily replied, then his face broke out into the widest grin ever, "Besides, a man can have dreams, can't he?"

The smile never left his face as he gathered up the rest of his homework.

"See ya tomorrow." He told them and went back to his room.

                                                --------------------

"Sorry we took your paperweight, Madam." Hiro apologized as he offered the lead box to the elderly lady.

Canardist quickly snatched the box out of his hands, as she gave the two guilty boys before her a withering glare. She then peered inside to make sure that the container's precious cargo was actually there and unharmed.

"Aannd?" She demanded as she snapped the lid closed with a huff.

Tadashi sighed, and rocked back on his heels. "And you were, right, we shouldn't have been messing with things that we don't know anything about."

Canardist placed her hands upon her hips. "Very well, apology accepted." The she cupped her hand to her mouth and quickly called out behind her. "Security!"

Hiro's and Tadashi's eyes went wide when a bulky mall cop came running towards them. They turned on their heels and ran out of the store as fast as their feet would carry them.

[goddamnvegans]

And if we text I get pissed when I get no reply I know that she's the key to love She is who I'm thinking of when I am beating Richard up To mental images her face look The closest that I got is when I'm poking her on Facebook Video chats are so exciting Cause it's like she is inviting me to her world full of privacy I'm getting gassed up, I think she's liking me She's gullible and I just wanna take it like a pirate I see her in class Not really two doors down but in anytime that I pass To take a piss in a stall, I picture us in the hall Locking lips on the wall, her hand grabbing my dick My left hand on her tits, oh my shit's getting hard From thoughts of dating this bitch Her name is my passwords, fuck All my niggas got they bitches and stuff But she special, I know to y'all I come off as rough But I'm the nicest to her, and I just want to concur A relation, I want the cheesy dates at the movies And stupid walks on the beach, and sharing straws in a cup I never had that, so when we holding hands walking home I look past that, the fact that she's fucking guys that I hate But, things are looking great cut copy Last time we talk she said that her relationship was Rocky (Action) Now that Mr. Fag is gone, there's no one that can stop me From bagging her, I got these tickets to the Roxy Next day metro's taking me home I see her in a car at Wendy's, but she's not alone Who's that guy? Wait, why the fuck he 'bout to kiss her? Come to find out she got back with her nigga, damn, fuck She's so pretty, fuck self pity, I feel so shitty I wanna text her in a jealous rage But if she reply to say anything, I'ma smile I know What do I do with myself, sit in my room for some days Play Xbox and piles full of wet socks? Fuck that My nigga ask, "Ace, what happened to such and such?" I could smother her name, and then tell him I probably fucked Or I could tell him the truth, and just say she ain't like me much But instead I lie and say she moved to Nebraska

(It's this girl)

[orchid-and-co-comics]

Meet Mason (Page 9-12)

(words below images)

Mason reluctantly got up to answer the door to find one of the farmers there. "Morn'in Mason, found your bucket just out in the woods, so I added some crops to it to give ya." He handled the bucket over

"Thank you..." Mason reached for his bucket.

"By the way, have ya heard?"

"No what?"

"Illagers have been spotted near by..."

Mason was now fully awake "I-illagers?"

"Yeah I know you don't like to hear that but it seems they're close by... At least two." The farmer continued... "Yeah, Cedric decided to call upon some heroes to come out and see if they could stop the pillagers, he said that they would be here at least this afternoon. Even said that Steve and Alex would be the ones arriving ain't that great, the best of the heroes... He also told me you found your sister. I didn't even know you had a sister... He said you told him that they were from far away but you never said how far... Mason are you okay?"

All this information was hard to seep in... he was starting to panic..

"Uh... I got to go..."

"okay well I'll be seeing you then." The farmer left.

Mason ran inside quickly and placed down two stones in front of his door to keep the other villagers from trying to enter, he didn't want one coming through the door just to check on him...

He ran over to his bed "Orchid! Orchid, please wake up!" He tried to wake her up "This is an emergency. We got to get you out of here now!"

She didn't move "Orchid?" The breathing was shallow and in a rapid session.

"Something's not right." He stated. He took off his glove...

He checked her temperature. "You're burning up, on top of having injuries... and from the looks of it lack of sleep.... I don't think you'll be able to go anywhere now with the condition you're in..." He looked down at the bed "if I can't move you what can we do now?"

Orchid started to stir awake "...mason?" She asked in a weakened state...

"Orchid!" He needed to know "Please tell me the whole story, where have you been sleeping? Have you eaten anything in the past few days? Have you drank anything?"

"You're... not going to let this go are you?"

She gave in, knowing that he would constantly ask her until he got in the truth...

She finally told him...

For 2 years she's been living off the land, unable to sleep, struggling to find food and water and only 6 months ago had been chased by the other pillager...

All alone...

Mason couldn't believe it...

all of this... all by herself...

What did she do to get kicked from her tribe? Did she even have one? why was she all alone? and why was the other Pillager hunting her?

He got his answer, but it led to more questions for him... but he was silent...

"What about before then? didn't you have a tribe? A home? Friends? Family?" He asked her, wondering if she truly was alone in the world.

There had to be someone still out there waiting for her... A brother... A sister... Father. Mother... Someone...

He could only hope...

She looked away "I... I used to live in a village..." She stammered.

"That's great news, I can see if we can..."

"The village is gone." She rolled over, away from Mason "no one is there..."

"A.... Are you sure?"

"... Yes..." She answered quietly

There was a sudden sound of blocks being moved by a pickaxe. Mason looked in the direction of the noise, Orchid bolted up "no... They'll see me... Then you'll..." She started to panic "I can't perform the spell again... I'm too weak..." She became silent from worry and zoned out.

"it's going to be all right, I'm here." Mason pulled her close protectively. She dared not move or breathe...

"Hello, someone here? If you are, are you okay?" ask a voice.

"We're fine thanks..." Mason responded hoping they would go away...

They did not...

"I figured someone blocked you in so I freed y'all, Alexander is my..." The stranger started but "... Name... Oh my, y'all are looking a little worse for where." He stated....

"... You're not going to..." Mason started to ask but was cut off...

"No, I'm not going to attack." He smiled "We're here for Illagers yes, but your friend there is obviously not a threat." He moved closer, handing Mason a potion. "I always carry spares, take one..." He offered.

Mason took the healing potion.

"Well now it's obvious that you were the one that put the stone in place. I'll put it back on my way out, but my mentor Steve and I will be back to check on y'all." Alexander placed the stones back as he left...

Mason gave a sigh out of relief.

Orchid finally released the breath she had been holding, a sob soon followed... "I'm weak..." She whispered.

"It's ok sis..." Mason started to comfort her, holding her close as she finally broke down...

"Smith.... Jay.... I couldn't... I'm sorry..." Was all she could say...

Mason knew there was more to Orchid's story than she was telling, but he thought it best to leave it for now...

Sometime later Orchid had passed out again and was dead asleep.

Mason decided to work on a small sculpture to organize his thoughts...

'Smith and Jay... They must have been close to her.' he thought looking at her for a moment. 'They must have been her brothers... Or the closest family she had still...'

"I wonder what happened..." He spoke out loud, not noticing the Vex watching him work on the sculpture...

"Something is missing..." Mason looked at his sculpture.

"'It depends... What type of villager is it?'" asked the Vex...

"Well, I was thinking that I was making a ill....." Mason stopped and looked at the Vex... "......."

"'You know my son, it's rude to stare.'"

"...sorry..."

After a moment of clarity Mason sat down. "First I adopted an illager for a sister... now a Vex is talking to me.... What next, a ravager for a pet?! What's wrong with me?"

"' Nothing but a kind soul my son...'" the Vex assured him.

Mason thought for a moment...

"You knew Orchid when you were alive, right?" He asked

"'Correct, I not only knew her I raised her...'" the Vex stated

"Can you tell me about her, please... She won't tell..."

"'I can do better, I can show you.'"

"What really?"

"'Yes, but you have to be asleep...'"

"will this take long?" Mason asked

"'No, it will be a moment in the real world...'" the Vex sat on his back "'You will learn a lot in a short amount of time my son.'"

Mason closed his eyes, opening them to see bright sand and sandstone homes. Before him was a sandstone well...

"Where are we?" He asked

"'My memories...'" the Vex stated "'... Though I don't know why I started them from here?'"

They both heard the sound of a child...

"Look daddy, it Georgie." They looked down. They saw a small gray skinned villager child waving to the iron golem...

"Hi Georgie!" She waved and smiled

"Stay close Orchid..." The father said

"Ok, Bye Georgie! I love you!" Little Orchid smiled and waved to the golem.

"That's Orchid?" Mason and the Vex brought their hand up "Oh My! She's so precious! My heart!"

"'Now I know why! My child...'"

[traghoul]

essentially ,   seiji’s ‘main’ non ghoul verse she’s simply a girl that’s doing her best !  she works erratic shifts at a 24/7 day care center.  she makes good money but more than once she’s used portions of her pay to help cover the ‘tuition’ of a child whose parent(s) are struggling that month.  ( she’s an employee so she gets a discount. )  her father pays her rent perpetually so it’s not like she’s worried about her housing situation,  but money can get tight with her hobbies,   cats ,  ‘relationship situations’ .  ( as  we know ,  she has her biological half brother, adoptive brother & adoptive sister via a ‘normal’ byoki.    occasionally she works as detective-for-hire aka song seiji ! professional (not really) snooper !

i was being nosy and i think the layout of her apartment would be something like this.   enough for her ,  mittens ,   her video games etc.  seiji’s not much of a cook so she’s a frequenter at the local corner store or (more likely) getting things delivered. her neighbors are an older couple that worry for her alot and she comes home sometimes to container of fresh food with a note saying she shouldn’t eat so much candy.

relationship wise? her mother is deceased.   a large amount of her internal trauma (across all verses but peaking in her ghoul verse ) comes from finding her mothers body in the bath as a child.   she was an artist / illustrator.  she used to draw things for both her children -  they would say what their imaginary friend was or what dreams they’d have,  and she’d come back later with a watercolor picture or a doodle.   (    it’s why seiji likes people drawing for her so much ! )   her mother never married her or eiji’s respective fathers.   [ seiji wasn’t an expected baby but her mother loved her very much ! ]  as such,   her father came into the picture after her mother died. he traveled too much & seiji didn’t wanna keep moving so eventually a friend of her mother’s (byoki) helped her get settled in as an independent.   she was introduced to her new siblings in middle school.  they adore her but who wouldn’t adore seiji!  

as i’ve said - eiji is a culinary student.   he works at a restaurant during the week and then once a week he helps out at a friend’s thrift / vintage shop ( stashing the best stuff for his sisters - how do u think seiji n’ juno are so cool. ) a newcomer into the cooking world,  but he’s already showing out & is a rising star. noboru is finishing up his degree and following in the path of a true ‘author’ -  working at a cafe and visiting bookstores on the weekend.  he has won a number of writing awards.  his debut novel is HIGHLY anticipated  miss juno is the most prolific of them all - living that jetsetting cover of elle magazine model life.     seiji thinks all her siblings are  VERY cool and in comparison,  she feels very ordinary and a bit like she’s not good like them.

she was an average high school student.   again, she tried her best so while she was never in the top of her class she was always passing!   sometimes she’d even do above expectations! ( which resulted in a cake from her siblings. )  admittedly,  she didn’t have too many friends ( her bestie makima moved to a new city.   they still talk weekly tho! ) & between her shyness & her anxiety stutter,  she often got bullied by high school boys.   

one such boy eventually became her ‘boyfriend of sorts.  his last name’s not important for this post,  but kenta became her boyfriend in their final year of school.    privately though.  he was fairly ( to extremely) popular and a good student and how could one expect to be seen with the ‘painfully average girl who looks like she crawled out of the morgue’ -  his words.   seiji didn’t mind though!  she was happy that someone liked her.   everyone fawned over her siblings while they were in school & seiji felt left behind!  but not anymore !  she’s got herself a popular boy that likes her !   seiji’s light of the relationship is still colored through rose colored glasses - so she can’t be trusted to give a proper reflection of it.   (  what everyone close to her saw was someone controlling ,  mean , somehow neglectful & manipulative. )    as yuu knows quite well ,  he was quite forceful in ensuring seiji did’t do anything not approved by him.    however their relationship ended when she came over unexpectedly,  saw a girl from his university in a state of semi - undress and having the door slammed in her face after he said very choice things.  ( she doesn’t like to talk about it still.  unfortunately,  he’s doing quite well in university & his karma hasn’t caught up with him. ) 

i’ve spoken briefly about her history with self injury before.  i don’t see the need rehash that here ( we’re all already a bit upset after that previous paragraph ) but between that and the fact that she often trips in her platforms ,  it’s not uncommon for her to have bandages!  she’s a frequent at the clinic!    that aside though !  her hobbies are independent clothes design ,  ( she’s really good at it indie designer seiji when ! ) ,  skateboarding ( in her sk8 verse,  she’s a skater known as the ghouligan!  the only female skater thus far ) ,  playing her guitar and singing.    because she’s designing things,  she’s trying to work up the nerve to go buy a sketchbook!

main verse fc     /          high school fc    /         live action fc

+ this gif is actually her snoopin’ 

that’s all i can think of off the top of my head just know seiji song is doing her best and existing as part of the bunny brigade!

[jaeminscoffee]

Daddy Issues | S. Jn

Pairing | Seo Johnny x Fem!Reader

Genre | Smut, fluff

Wc;type | oneshot: 3.93k [not proof read]

Warning(s) | Pwp, dilf!johnny, y/n's a pillow princess, daddy kink, overstimulation, teasing, edging, dacryphilia, slight voyeurism, degradation kink, heavy use of the words 'doll, princess, slut, pretty, angel', typical lyra smut, i made haechan johnny's son (i was about to write changbin as johnny's son but decided against it) age gap, unprotected sex ( the Reader's on pills. Remember this is a fiction, don't play the wrong card irl) filth.

a/n- i found this request buried in my asks and was tempted to write it. Sure, the warning looks intimidating, but i know you wanna read it, y'all whores (ily) shoutout to @bakugou-is-my-bae @cvntzennie and @jenopollo for helping me decide what to post first! @suhpersonic

Minors try not to interact! <3

Age is just a number, so surely, there's nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed of, right? 

There's no reason for you to not fall for the friendly neighborhood bachelor, well not so bachelor bachelor, since he does go around asking people who knows of his marriage to pretend it never took place. 

Johnny's hot, super hot. Has the build of a supermodel. Has the face that one can only imagine belongs to a greek god, as you'd jokingly tell him how he seemed to be god's favorite and how you loathe Aphrodite for showing favoritism (which would always end up with you getting a very sultry, teasing look from the lad) 

Johnny has the type of personality that women can only wish the entirety of the male species would possess. He's an absolute sweetheart, life of the party, definitely the center of attention wherever he goes. And oh god, does he have an immaculate fashion sense. 

But Johnny's also the father of Donghyuck. Your best friend. 

More than being ashamed about the fact that you actually fell in love with a man who has a child of your age, it was the fact that you had to fall for Donghyuck's father of all people. 

Donghyuck is a sweetheart, definitely got his personality from his father but he's also got that glare that could creep the Lord's of the darkness from his father. He's got so much from his father that the resemblance is uncanny. 

You'd not want to get onto hyuck's bad side since you've gotten first hand experience at stopping him from almost committing homicide to someone who spoke shit about his friends, more specifically, you. 

But Hyuck's not in town. So a little fun with Mr. Suh wouldn't hurt anyone, correct? After all, you're still only a human with desires and the want to take risks. 

You'd always not so subtly drop hints at Johnny and he'd always give you that look that would have slick collecting itself between your thighs. A warning look. 

A look that said, "cross the line and you'll get it" 

But that's the thing, you want to get it and will do anything to get it.

"Y/n." 

You'd ask yourself less than a million times if you want to do this or not.

Sure, you weren't this hesitant when you decided to sext your best friend's father knowingly when he was in business mode to irk him up but that's one thing. 

And having to confront the same father who left a message smaller than a sentence that completely disregarded all the obscene text and images to show that he's not the slightest bothered or suprised by your behavior for that matter was another thing.

"Tomorrow at mine." 

It's almost as though he deals with hormonal teenagers one as such as yourself on a daily basis and that thought kind of backfired at you considering the whole 'Let's piss Johnny off so that he'd finally give me what i want' agenda. 

Ironic, huh? 

"Mr. Suh." you start hesitantly, unsure of what to call him, scared of what his reaction would be after your inappropriate shenanigans last night. 

Your stiff demeanor broke down a little with just a hint of shiver passing down your spine as you watch his features contort into a subtle but cocky smirk, "So now you're being all formal,"

"Well, what else would you like me to address you as?" you inquire, feigning oblivion to his tone and what he's implying at. "You tell me, doll. You seemed to have a lot of names to call me last night," he takes a step forward, prompting you to walk a step backwards, further into the corridors of his apartment and away from the actual location. 

"I do not know what you're talking about.. " you let your voice shrivel towards the end, eyes wandering around the complex, finding interest in every small detail as you avoid Johnny's teasing gaze. 

"You don't?" Johnny takes another step forward, latching his hands onto your forearms to prevent you from stepping further away, "You must have had a heavy sleep to forget all that you did last night," his voice drops dangerously low as he begins to walk backwards and back into the safety of his apartment, all the while keeping his gaze fixated on you.

"That won't do, would it? How about we take a walk down the memory lane? And see if that rings any bell?" He brushes your hair away from its static position on your shoulder, allowing him to appreciate all those fine details of your shoulders and neck that are exposed from your selection of clothing, an off shoulder. 

"How about we don't...?" You ask with skepticism, jolting slightly when you hear the door shut behind you and at the new intrusion of personal space by the lad.

"Why are you acting all shy now, Y/n? Weren't you the one so eager to get into her best friend's fathers pants? Just be the whore you are, darling. Your facade's fooling no one." okay you definitely didn't see that coming. 

Johnny's expressions morph into that of mischief as he watches your eyes grow wide and mouth fall ajar, "Am i not correct? Are you not a whore?" he asks with an eyebrow quirked up in a questioning manner.

You don't reply, almost as though the question was meant to linger in the open and that it was a rhetorical one. What you didn't expect, however, was for Johnny's hands to find pursuit around your neck, not necessarily applying pressure, but there as a warning. 

"Answer me." 

"I'm not.." you answer with a feeble voice, internally cringing at how squeaky you sound which only added to Johnny's amusement. 

"Really? Because I don't think good girls go around drooling at a divorced man, her friend's father for that matter and definitely do not send lewd images and voice out their fantasies to a guy twice their age, still want to pretend you're innocent? Or you admit it and we cut down the chase?"

"Yes, I am." you breathe out when his fingers tighten around your neck, a triumphant smile making its way onto his lips. Yet, Johnny felt the need to keep pushing,

"you're what?" 

"I am what you said I am," you speak, trying to avoid looking at the scrutinizing look on his face which seemed futile as he had his arms wrapped around your neck, keeping your head in place. 

"I want to hear you say it, doll. I need to hear you say it." At this point Johnny's intent was to get you into a flustered puddle in his hold and it sure as hell was going in that direction, seeing how you can't even hold his gaze for more than a few seconds in a shot. 

"I am.. I am a who-"

The sound of a phone ringing loud cut you off midway through your sentence, to which you were absolutely relieved. Johnny only seemed to grow annoyed the more he heard the phone ring. With a loud huff, he lets you go, not before giving you a stern look, "Go to my room." he instructed, making his way to the study. 

You let out a breath you've been holding in unknowingly the moment he steps away from you. You watch his figure retreat from you with awe, only now realizing how messy you felt between your legs and how your knees keep buckling. 

"Oh Hyuck!" you hear Johnny exclaim into the phone the minute you step forward to follow his command. 

Your best friend is on call with the guy you're about to fuck. 

Your blood runs cold as you shakily make your way into the apartment and towards the bedroom, shrugging off your sling bag, hanging it behind the door as you place your phone on the bedside table to wipe your hands dry from all the sweat that had accumulated at the palm of your hands. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, about to eat to my dinner actually" you hear the moment to make yourself comfortable at the edge of the bed, looking over to the door where Johnny stood with his arms across his chest, the other holding up the phone as he leans his weight onto one shoulder, leaning into the doorframe.

You take the time to really appreciate his appearance. He adorned nothing more than a simple grey sweat and tight black tee but he seemed ready to walk down a runway at any given moment now. His long hair, slightly disheveled looking almost intentionally messed up, compliments his features. And oh his features. 

The everlasting smirk stayed still on his lips, moving as he exchanged words with his son.

You only come back to your senses when Johnny snapped his free hand in front of you, gaining your attention. He points at his own shirt, then points at you, mouthing 'off' while he listens to Donghyuck speak about whatever he's speaking. 

"Really? Jeno said that? Tell him I'm more than willing to welcome him as my gym partner, the lad seems strong" Johnny makes a quick move to remove the gadget from his ear, before holding it in front of him after placing the call on speaker mode 

Your eyes widen the moment you hear the disturbance in the background and Donghyuck's voice resonate through the room. "no?? Why would you want to work out with him? He'll only make you feel old, you know?" 

"Says the one who still can't beat me at arm wrestling. If anything, i think Jeno would make the perfect gym buddy for me," Johnny raises an eyebrow at your defiance, cocking his head towards the side, staring down at you with a predatory look, "Hyuck, you know, Y/n-" you scramble to take your shirt off at the mention of your name on the call, "-stopped by earlier" he lets out a silent laugh of disbelief.

"Oh? Oh yeah! I'd told her I'd give her book back before I left but I forgot, did you perhaps give it back to her?" Donghyuck questions. 

"I figured you must've forgotten so, yeah i did." Johnny replies, pushing himself off of the doorframe, now walking towards you. 

"Man, I miss her! I might facetime her after I end the call with you," Johnny sets down the phone beside you on the bed, leaning down, placing both his hands on either side of your lap, finding comfort at the crook of your neck,

"I remember her mentioning something about her cousin coming over? Maybe wait for an hour or so before calling her" his lips graze against your neck each time he spoke, you let out a tiny whimper at the so longed feeling, only to earn yourself a small bite at the earlobe, immediately accompanied by a hand over your mouth, "you need to be quiet, doll. Or my son would find out how much of a slut his best friend is," he whispers in your ear. 

"Yeah? Did she mention which one?" 

"No, not really, she kinda just stormed out after getting what she wanted" Johnny creates a trail of kisses all the way from your neck to your shoulders, down the collarbone while one of his hand worked to unhook your bra, "Yeah, she's weird like that," you hear Donghyuck let out a chuckle as you whine into Johnny's palm, your figure slightly trembling from the fear of getting caught all the while being excited about the risky situation he's put the two of you in. 

"Anyways, I'll call you tomorrow? The boys are coming over now so I got to go! Night, dad!" Donghyuck speaks up again, "Night, Hyuck." 

You hear the beep indicating the call has ended. Johnny let's his hand drop from your mouth and makes its way towards your hair, brushing through the strands before pulling at it with a firm grip, "I had my son on call and here you are making all these sweet noises, you wanted to get busted, doll?" 

"It's not my fault! You-"

"ah-ah! Don't talk back, angel. You're already in deep trouble, don't want to add onto that now, do we?" He makes a swift move to have you lying on your back, your torso completely exposed to him while he remains clothed. 

"But Johnny-" you whine, jolting when you feel his hands caressing the soft flesh of your inner thighs, "How do you think Hyuck would feel about this?" his hands travel further north, cupping your heat from underneath your skirt. "fuck, you're drenched"

"Now tell me, pretty girl, what are you supposed to be calling me, now?" 

"Johnny-, tha-that was a joke! I don't have daddy kin-" you try clenching your thighs close from the sudden attention your core was receiving. Johnny wholeheartedly lets out a laugh at your attempt to hide your true feelings, making a quick act of disregarding your soaked panties somewhere behind him.

"Darling, the more you deny it, the longer we keep going at it-" his thumbs at your clit, applying pressure but making no move to quench your needs. You let out a sigh of bliss at the feeling, your back arching off of the sheets at the sensation.

In any other situation, you'd be embarrassed at how sensitive you'd gotten just from all the dirty talking and looks Johnny passed you. But that's the catch, he's Johnny, the only one who can get you this sensitive while doing the bare minimum. 

"Say it, Y/n." 

"No, Johnny! It's-it's embarrassing.." you plead with your eyes, grinding your hips against his fingers, earning a satisfied, dirty look from the lad. 

"Very well.. I'll just draw it out of you"

Without warning, Johnny with little to no resistance, slides two slender digits into your wetness, setting a pace fast enough to draw loud chains of cries from your mouth.

"You hear that, doll? You hear how fucking wet you are? Hm?" he growls animalistically, the thumb that remained on your clit now moving in circles with a motive to get you undone in seconds. 

"Johnn-..!" you whine out, feeling your orgasm growing so close that you could almost taste it, "Still going at that, angel?" he questions, not really expecting an answer as he soaks up the pleasured look on your face. "Johnny- I'm close.. -" you fail to notice the mischievous grin growing on his face as he speeds up the movement of his fingers. 

"Of course you are, doll" He feels you clench around his fingers, back coming off of the mattress as you ready yourself for your release, waiting until the last minute to draw his finger out.

"Why would you-? Johnn-I was so close!" you cry out as you sense your core clench around nothing, whining about the incomplete orgasm. "Why would I give you what you want when you wouldn't comply, baby? That's not how this works." He shrugs, licking his fingers clean of your essence, moving up from the bed to remove the shirt that seemed to be suffocating now.

"Johnny, please!" you whine louder, rubbing your thighs together to create some sort of friction, all unsatisfactory as it did not meet the same intensity as that of his fingers. 

"Please what, doll?" He smirks, knowing the ball is in his court and that you'd had to give in any moment now. Johnny leans down once again, drawing lazy circles at your clit, using his other hand to hold himself up above and close to you, his minty breath which had a hint of coffee fanning your face as you whimper, finally feeling your high building itself up again. "Spit it out, princess, you know you want to." he speaks in a soft voice.

"Please..please" you beg for nothing in particular, getting all worked up again, "The begging's lovely, doll. But you're starting to anger me here, will you say it? Or should I leave you hanging again?" 

You mutter prayers under your breath, hoping he wouldn't actually leave you hanging again, "Fine-" he moves again to remove his fingers from you to deprive you of pleasure all over again when you finally latch onto his wrist, keeping his hands in place blurting out, "Daddy! I'm so-sorry.. There, daddy, please make me come" you give in, the name, the feeling and look of pure victory on his face as he grins like a cheshire cat only intensifies the heat growing at a rapid pace at the pit of your stomach. 

"Final fucking ly, princess. Daddy will make you feel good" He reinserts his fingers in, drilling it with desperation to see you come undone as he draws rapid circles on your now sensitive clit with the other hand, watching you squirm under him.

"Joh-Daddy i'm coming..!" you cry out weakly as you feel your orgasm hit you with much force, easily driving you into over sensitivity. Johnny's patient in helping you ride out your orgasm, not stopping until you let out a throaty sob and plead him to stop to allow yourself some room to breathe. 

Johnny, however, makes no move to stop, only speeding up his fingers, his gaze fixed on where his fingers disappeared inside of you while his other hand held you down with a vise grip, "Give me one more, doll. I know you've got one more in you. " he pants, the feeling of his girth in confinement only throwing himself to sensory deprivation as he feels himself twitch inside his sweats painfully. 

You shake your head, tears now flowing elegantly down your cheek, your lips puckered into a slight pout, your eyebrows drawn together as you let yourself melt into the pleasure Johnny was providing you with. "Daddy.." 

You whine, feeling your second high reaching you ridiculously quick as you see Johnny's face contort in concentration, 

"I need to get you nice and wet for me, princess, you're doing so well. Give daddy another one" you coaxes you with his sultry tone, words and actions, inevitably having you come undone under him for the second time that night. 

You let out a choked moan, finally having enough as you curl upon yourself the minute Johnny removes his fingers from you, full fledged crying at the overbearing feeling of sensitivity. 

Johnny groans at the sight, leaning down to press a soft peck on your sweaty forehead before getting off of the bed to remove his pants alongside his boxer at a slow speed, granting you some time to recover.

"Condom?" he asks, readying himself to reach into the drawing when he notices you shake your head a no as a reply, "I'm on pills.." you mutter weakly. 

You hear him curse out at the thought of doing you raw, flexing his muscles before climbing on top of you again. He takes his time to gently turn you back onto your back, pressing his tender lips against your irritated one for the first time that night, his hand ever so slightly moving to play with your clit once again, making you jerk, "Daddy!" 

"Sorry, doll. Daddy just needs to make sure that princess is ready to take his cock" 

Your whining intensifies at his words, wiggling your hips to move closer to his own, "But I am ready! Look, daddy! I'm so wet and ready for you!" you whimper, earning a chuckle from the lad. 

Just like all the other times that night, he aligns his cock at your entrance without a warning, the tip ever so slightly pushing through your walls, "Alright, big girl. Show daddy how much of a slut you can be for him."

Suddenly, Johnny detaches himself from you, moving further away as he leans by the edge of the door, smirking at you whining at the loss of contact, "Patience, angel" 

He grabs hold of your hips, manhandling your body into all fours as he enters you completely with no trouble once he's got you where he wants you to be.  

Something about having to take Johnny from behind was so sexy that you could almost immediately feel your orgasm grow, "Fuck baby, keep clenching around me like that and i won't last long," he grunts, moving in you with a steady pace, 

"I never expected my son to befriend such filthy sluts like you, Y/n. Look at the mess you're making on my sheets" He grabs a fistful of your ass in a tight squeeze, the sudden shift in his demeanor only serving as a whiplash as you feel yourself growing closer and closer to the sweet orgasm. 

"Jesus, doll, you're so fucking tight i can barely move" Johnny growls, talking to keep himself from coming too fast. 

"Daddy.. I'm close. M-I'm so so close" you cry as your arms give out and you fall face first onto the mattress, the new stretch in your back only encouraging his cock to hit you deeper, finding the sweet cushion that serves as extra pleasure for you. 

"Me too, princess, me too.. '' You hear him let out a whine, his thrusts growing sloppier as he does you slower but deeper. 

He reaches around your body to find pursuit at your clit for the nth time that night, rubbing rapid, messy circles to go with his deep thrusts, "Daddy!" you reach your high with a high pitched cry of his name. 

Johnny comes not too long after you as he couldn't resist the constant tight clenching of your walls around his cock. He thrust slowly to ride out his high as you twitch helplessly, face scrunched up in too much pleasure. 

You feel your body being manoeuvred onto your side as he whispers sweet nothings which pass right through your ears as you feel him softened inside you, the feeling ridiculously soothing for your used up walls, 

"You did amazing, darling." he kisses your temple, not making any move to remove himself from within you, which you silently thanked him for. 

You both lay in silence as you turned your body towards him, earning a hiss and a playful smack from him as it added pressure onto his sensitive member. You wrap your arms around his torso, about to nuzzle into his chest and just drift away to dreamland when you hear the familiar ring of your phone from the table beside the bed. 

You feel Johnny's body shift to reach out to get your phone, looking at the caller ID before handing it to you with a smirk that you knew meant that he was up to no good. "Oh! It's hyuck" you exclaim in shock, quickly accepting the call and placing it near your ear, moving to get away from him. 

But Johnny seemed to have other ideas, as he latched an arm around your torso to keep you from moving, "Hey-" you begin, immediately feeling Johnny experimentally thrust into you again, making you whine, "Y/n! I miss you~-oh hey, are you okay?" you hear Donghyuck's voice from the other side, 

You look at Johnny with a pleading and warning gaze to which you earn yourself a toothy grin from the lad, 

"Of co-course! Just a little.. peachy,'' You turn around to place a hand on his chest to halt his movement, "You don't sound just peachy.. I've heard you like this before!" you hear Donghyuck make those noises he makes when he's thinking as Johnny keeps thrusting lazily the more you look at him, you see him open his mouth to speak, "Oh fuck! You're getting laid, aren't you???" 

"Tell Hyuck daddy says hi"

[iguessweallcrazyithinktho]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 2

Part 1

Hiii I don't know if you take request but can i request like a chris evans x reader like the reader and chris are married and chris is having a bad day or something so chris go out to the pub and go home drunk and its been going for 3 days and the reader and chris has a 6year old and the reader have been doing all the work and taking care of they're daughter and they're daughter miss chris bc chris is never home and just go home until 12 or 2 in the morning or if chris is home he never play with her daughter and they're daughter is sad abt it bc they're daughter though chris doesn't love her anymore and chris miss her play in school even though chris promise so that day when chris miss her daughter's play the reader confront chris abt it and chris said he doesn't care abt his daughter and he said he didn't know why he married the reader bc she's clingy but chris didn't know that they're daughter heard what chris said abt her and chris didn't know also that the reader is 6-7 weeks pregnant and the reader and chris heard they're daughter sob and that moment chris realize it all his mistakes? and apologize to them idk if this make sense and im sorry if this is so longg, thank you in advance stay safe! <3

𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒔𝒕

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: 𝒄𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈

𝑷𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈: 𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒙 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒅𝒂𝒅! 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔

𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕

Chris paced back and forth as he tried to call you for the 10th time. It was the next day, he was sober and the images from last night clouded his brain. Seeing the pain and anger on your face as he said he wish he never married you.

Seeing isabella crying from his disgusting words. That hurt him the most, he regret everything.

The phone went to voicemail again making Chris groan. You had every right to not talk to you, but he wanted to know you and isabella was okay. You were still his wife.

Chris sighed sitting down on the couch. He rubbed his eyes with his palm, exhaling for the hundredth time.

The house phone on the table beside the couch rung causing Chris to quickly grab it. He thought it was you but no, it was your doctor.

"hi is this Mrs Evans?" Chris frowned, "uh no but this is Mr Evans." Chris said, he was deeply confused.

"oh well you tell Mrs Evans that have her next appointment date to check on the baby."

Chris stood up, he wasn't sure he heard right. "I'm sorry, the baby?"

The innocence lady on the other side of the phone phone gasped, "oh I'm sorry, you didn't know."

"no it's fine." Chris sighed softly, his heart picking up speed in his chest. "I'll tell her, thank you." He hung up the phone throwing it onto the couch. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He mumbled to himself. He really needed to find you and isabella.

*

You laid in the uncomfortable bed, isabella sleeping soundly beside you. It was around 8 in the morning and thoughts from yesterday filled your mind.

"I wish I never married you"

"Forget isabella, I don't care about her stupid play"

It hurt just knowing he thought those things. It took some time last night, but you managed to go to sleep around 3am. Now it was morning time, you were in a crappy hotel, and Chris was blowing up your phone like crazy.

You sighed pulling back the blanket. You walked to the bathroom. You looked in the mirror, your almost 3 month along bump was showing. You tore your eyes from it looking at your face. You were trying not to think about Chris in that moment.

"get it together y/n." You whispered to yourself.

"mommy." You looked back to the doorway seeing isabella. Her stuff bear was in her hands as she rubbed her sleepy eye with the other hand.

"good morning honey."

You walked over to her, "did you sleep good?" Isabella looked up at you. "Yeah, I slept great." You laughed, "that's great. Uh do you wanna go get some breakfast? We can eat some pancakes and waffles, what you say bug?"

Isabella started to think, it was almost like you can see the wheels turning in her head. "Uhh yeah. Can we see daddy too?"

Your stomach did a flip, you didn't think she'll be okay with what he said about her, but She was 6 so maybe that was the reason.

"umm... Yeah, yeah. We can see daddy." Isabella smiled, "okay, I watch TV now." She walked back over to the bed, hopping in it. You exhaled, running your hands over your face. Here goes nothing you thought to yourself.

*

Chris phone ringing interrupting him from his daze. He picked it up seeing your contact. His heart picked up as he answered it.

"y/n, are you okay?" On the other side of the phone you sighed, "yeah, I'm fine. Look um isabella want see you so can you meet us at the diner at (some street name)?"

Chris nodded even though you couldn't see him. "Yeah, of course." He walked to the foyer to put on his shoes. "Umm, I love you." Chris said. He wasn't expecting you to say it back, but you did. When you did, his heart skipped and a smile formed on his face.

You hung up the phone. You let out a sigh once again. Here goes nothing.

*

You sat in the diner, isabella beside you coloring in the booklet they gave her. You both were waiting for Chris to come.

Your mind was filled, you couldn't even figure out what you were thinking about at all at this point.

After waiting a few more minutes, you heard the diner door open. In walked Chris. In his hands was a bouquet of flowers and stuffed animal. You were guessing it was his apologize.

He walked over to you both, just like yours, his heart was beating pretty hard in his chest.

"hey." Chris smiled shyly at you as you got up. "Hi." You tore your eyes from his, looking down at isabella. She was looking up at her daddy with a soft smile on her face. Chris kneeled down to her height. "Hi baby." He said to her softly. "I'm sorry for yesterday, I didn't mean any of it, I promise. Can you forgive me?"

isabella's small smile grew to a bigger one. "Yeah." Chris smiled at her. "Okay, give me a hug."

Isabella giggled as she Wrapped her arms around his neck. Chris hugged her close. He felt relived she forgave him, he felt so bad for saying what he said to her and he's going to spend the rest of his life making it up to her.

He pulled away from her, he handed the stuffed animal to her before standing back up.

He looked back at you. "Uh these are for you. It's not an apology, I'll give you a sincere apology later, but for now I have these." He looked at you, he had bags under his eyes from his sleepless night, and tear streaks on his cheeks from the crying he did.

you quickly tore your eyes from His taking the flowers. "Thanks." You cleared your throat. "Uh shall we have breakfast?"

Chris inhaled, "yeah." He walked over to the opposite side of the table and took a seat. You did the same sitting back beside isabella. You all ordered trying to forget about the tension that was very much between you and Chris. It was nice that you both were talking, but you just couldn't wait for the much needed talk later that night.

*

It was around 8 pm. You and Chris decided to drop her off at his mom's house. You didn't want what happened the day before to happen again.

You sat on the couch fiddling with your shirt end. Chris was in the kitchen getting you both something to drink before you talked.

"so um.. I got you some water." Chris said walking over to you handing you the glass of water. You thanked him Taking a sip before placing it on the coffee table. Chris sat beside you with a sigh.

"I.. I'm sorry for yesterday. I didn't mean any of it. It just slipped out because I was drunk and tired, I wasn't in my right head space in the moment and I took out on you and Bella and I'm sorry." He breathed out. He scanned your face waiting for you to speak. You shook your head, you didn't look at him but you spoke.

"yeah you're sorry, but you really hurt me. I wish I was never, that's fucked up and it hurts so much. If you never wanted to marry me why did you?"

You turned to Chris, tears threatening to spill over. The look on your face hurted Chris, he fucked up big time and he knew it.

"no, I didn't mean that, I swear. I love you more than anything. I don't regret marrying you, it was just a stupid mistake... I'm sorry baby."

Tears were starting to form in chris' eye. He felt guilty, he knew no amount of words could fix what he done but he was sorry more than anything.

"you promise?" You looked at him. Your lips were trembling Because of your crying.

"I promise." Chris said. He cupped your cheek with his hand. He placed a light kiss on your nose, but it wasn't enough for you. You went way too long without kissing him, you weren't going to waste another second not.

You grabbed his chin kissing him. Somehow his chap lips felt soft. They felt like home to you, you missed them so much.

You pulled away looking back at Chris. "I have something I need to tell you." You said fiddling with his hands.

"I'm pregnant."

Chris gave you a sour look, you already knew why. "You know?" Chris nodded, "the doctor called. they have an appointment for you, they want you to call them back to tell you."

You exhaled, "well... Surprise." You laughed making Chris smile. He missed that sound. He's been gone for so many nights he totally forgot how it sounded.

"can I come to the next appointment?" Chris pouted his lip making you laugh. "Of course you can. You need to your little peanut. I'm thinking it's a boy"

Chris frowned, "no I'm pretty sure it's a girl."

"you haven't seen them yet." You said to him Rolling your eyes playfully. "I know but I want another princess."

"touche."

--

It's not that good but thank you for reading. I had fun breaking y'all hurts on the first part lol

@chris-butt @patzammit @bval-1 @raveviolet @mrsbbarnesrogers-reading @enn-j @london-dreamer71 @harrysthiccthighss @captianamerica-is-bae @la-cey @weirdowithnobeardo @baby-i-am-fireproof @denisemarieangelina @evans713 @smyfmj @thereisa8ella @rororo06 @keiva1000 @ughitsnic @adriannajackson123 @marvelnaturalock @notyourtypicalrose @dummiesshort @onetwo3000 @hhiggs @katiew1973 @andreasworlsboring101 @skepticnovak @funfickgirl22 @hxnesthxneybee @christhickevans @melchills-j @franchesca-791 @moonlacebeam @wallowsgirl14 @areamir

@thevelvetseries @chaoticfiretaconerd @chrisevansgirl34 @a-moment-captured @shookbeech @pamelalur15 @llamaproblem @jessyballet @hazeljean2 @ohbarracuda @mrspeacem1nusone @n3ssm0nique @youthought-iwasa-nicegirl @chrisevanisliterallysir @beautiful--blessing @coldmuffinpartycloud @mylittlecrazyworldofinterest @writingmeow29 @corrinez

[ragingbookdragon]

The Secrets Best Left In The Dark

Batsis x Batfamily One-Shot

Word Count: 4K Warnings: Angst, Mentions of Death

Author's Note: I thrive on angst, so I have no apologies for y'all. Enjoy! -Thorne

They’d never claim their eldest sibling was cowardly. Far from it, she put her life on the line every day, in and out of the suit, defending those she cared for with a strength that they’d never seen in anyone. But while everyone in their family was typically hot-tempered and ready for a beatdown, she was calm and quiet. Always kind, and never letting anger, or any type of other emotion show besides pleasantness. For a while, they merely assumed she was the doormat type, simply on the basis that she never argued with their dad over anything—the whole “It’s my way or the highway” and his way was what she always went with—and that made her seem like an alien surrounded by humans because everyone argued with Bruce. That, and the fact that whenever she got into the rare fight during patrol, she’d never hit anybody. She was trained to take down multiple combatants and not once did she ever punch, hit, or kick a single person.

It was practically abnormal to be in the Batfamily and never lay a hand on a criminal, and yet that was what their sister did. Hardly ever did she use force to get what she wanted, always relying on stealth. Even on the minute cases when she got caught in an infiltration and had to fight her way out, she used electrified gauntlets to subdue them, rarely coming to blows. So, in a sense while everyone in her family was an aggressive fighter, she was a defensive—or perhaps a passive one—and that’s how she acted in life too. Always passive by nature, but always playing the peacekeeper between brothers and between fathers and sons.

They never knew why she was such a way, from the stories that Diana and Clark used to tell, back when it was just their sister and Bruce, she was a whirlwind that got into fights with anything that dared breathe in her direction—apparently, she made her angriest siblings look like mice. But no matter how many times they pried or even asked Bruce (apparently, he didn’t know what changed either—and this was coming from the World’s Greatest Detective), she never talked about it, simply saying that she grew out of always being angry and wanted to be calmer.

They suspected she held a dark secret—but no one could’ve prepared for just how dark and damaging it had been to her all these years.

***

In hindsight, taking a trip into Scarecrow’s lab was a bad idea, but when the offer had come up in the cave from her father, (Y/N) was happy to lend a hand, knowing that with his recent injury, he wouldn’t’ve been able to get out there during the night. It was also amazing, in the twenty-seven years she’d been alive, and in the past nineteen years that she’d been a vigilante, she’d never seen her father take a break—she could count on one hand how many times he had, and even then, he was still working in the cave, so technically it wasn’t a break.

But after tangling with Bane and Croc, he’d broken a few ribs and after repeated complaints and worries from her, his sons, and Alfred, Bruce finally agreed to let his children handle patrol. Which is why when the quadrants of the city were split up between Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian, it left (Y/N) to pick up specific places that Bruce wanted checked out—she warmly agreed to do so. And while she was confident in her abilities to do everything, he asked of her, she should’ve called for backup when it came to infiltrating Scarecrow’s hideout.

***

Another vent went off above her and she ducked, eyes narrowing as she watched the orange fog, appearing blue through her detective mode, drift out. She would’ve sprayed it, but she’d used up all of her explosive gel covering the others. Now she simply had to avoid them and hope that her gas mask filtered properly—so far, it was. A shrill laugh echoed through the speakers above her, and shivers went down her spine.

Anytime now, Batgirl. You will fall too.

She frowned. “I’m not afraid of you, Doctor Crane.” Ducking under another pipe, she added, “I can help you if you’ll let me.”

Help me? Help…ME? You can’t even help YOURSELF!

Scarecrow had always been a talker, much like the majority of the villains they faced, and he was looking for a rise. She came to the end of the corridor where the pipes met a brick wall and she sighed, searching for a way through. A vent covered the top right corner and she pulled out the grapple gun, pointing it at the grate. She pressed the trigger and it latched onto the metal bars; grasping the cord, she yanked as hard as she could, stepping backwards when it fell, hitting the ground with a clang.

(Y/N) heaved herself up into the vent and crawled on her hands and knees, as quietly as she could, twisting and turning through the maze of confined metal. When she came to the end, another grate covered the exit and she pressed her foot against it, pushing until the bolts popped loose and she could slip out.

From the looks of it, if the advanced chemistry equipment were any help, she’d ended up in Scarecrow’s lab. He wasn’t in sight, but that gave her time to look around and see if he’d changed any formulas recently. She raised her wrist and tapped at the blue screen, taking a moment to run a program. When it beeped, (Y/N) sighed in relief and reached up, pulling the gas mask off—the air was clean.

She set the mask down on the counter and put a finger to her ear. “Batman, do you read me?” His voice came through a moment later.

“I read you Batgirl. Loud and clear.”

“I’m in Doctor Crane’s lab,” she said, poking around at the notes he’d scrawled out. “I don’t see anything new. The formulas all look the same.”

“Compounds?”

She frowned and read. “Honestly, it’s a bit hard to decipher. His handwriting is a lot like Red’s when he’s had one too many energy drinks.” A quiet huff came from over the line, telling her that he was amused. “I’ll send you pictures of it and see if you can.” (Y/N) snapped a few photos. “Get ‘em?”

“Just now,” he replied, and she walked over to one of the lit Bunsen burners.

“Looks like he’s got something brewing right now though,” (Y/N) leaned over and peered into it, careful to avoid any steam that was rising.

“Recognize it?”

She paused. “It’s not the usual stuff he’s got. It looks almost golden and—”

All at once the dish exploded and she had just enough time to cover her face from the shattering glass, letting out a gasp as she recoiled.

“Batgirl, what happened?”

(Y/N) coughed and waved a hand, and when her hand appeared double, she breathed out in shock. “Oh no,” she whispered.

“Batgirl, report.” She hurried to the exit of the lab as Scarecrow’s cackle sounded overhead.

“I’ve been hit with a blast of toxin.” Pulling open the door, she fumbled with her utility belt then let out a sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

(Y/N) shook her head and weaved down the corridors, the faster she got to her bike, the faster she could get back to the cave.

“I don’t have any anti-toxin on me.” She pushed against the doors and stumbled out into the cold and rainy night. Her mind was already beginning to fog over as she climbed onto her bike, and she barely had enough focus to keep it steady while she programmed it to auto-drive.

“I’m sending one of the boys to you.”

She grunted and lifted her foot as the bike revved and shot forward. “Don’t. I’ve already programmed the bike to the cave’s coordinates. I’ll be back in less than fifteen minutes.”

“You won’t make it that long.”

(Y/N) groaned as the lights began to flash around her and she saw faces and images passing her. “I just have to…focus.”

Horns blared around her as the bike weaved in and out of cars and she held onto the frame with all the strength she had. His voice started echoing in her ears and she shut her eyes, trying to block it out.

You could’ve saved me.

Another groan escaped her, and she heard, “(Y/N), talk to me.”

She shook her head. “I can’t—I have to—focus now.” But with every passing second, his voice got louder and more insistent.

You let me die. You watched me die.

(Y/N)’s eyes filled with tears and they dripped down her cheeks. I tried to save you. she thought, hoping it would suffice, but she knew it wouldn’t. I tried so hard to. The last thing she remembered was turning onto the street that led to the cave.

***

Bruce was already pushing away from the Batcomputer when the boys arrived back at the cave, Dick and Damian from the Batmobile, and Tim and Jason from their own rides. Knowing that their father wasn’t one to sit around, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to be moving, but with how quick and worried his movements seemed, they knew something was wrong.

Dick pulled the cowl away from his face and asked, “B? What’s wrong?”

Bruce didn’t respond at first, hurrying towards the medical station they had. “Your sister was dosed with fear toxin and she doesn’t have anti-toxin to counteract it.”

Jason, who’d already taken his hood off, was already in the process of putting it back on. “Let one of us take it to her.”

Their father shook his head, rummaging for an antidote. “She’s coming back here.”

“Here?” Tim repeated, striding over. “Fear toxin works within seconds on normal people, minutes for us.” He looked at his brothers. “She won’t have enough time to get back here and not be under the effects.”

Bruce nodded, focusing as he poured a vial of glowing green liquid into the needle gun. “I know.” He looked at Tim. “That’s why I’m getting it ready for her.”

“Father, can we do anything?” Damian questioned, pulling away the domino mask from his eyes.

“Get ready to be on the defensive if she’s offensive,” he replied. “I don’t think she’ll hit anybody, but you never know.”

“She can’t hit that hard. (Y/N) only weighs—” Jason cut off as the rev of an engine cut though the air and they turned to see their eldest sister coming in on a sleek black motorcycle, that was shaking badly.

“(Y/N)!” Dick yelled and the bike suddenly shifted and toppled sideways, throwing her from it. It slid across the cave floor in a hail of sparks, metal, and plastic flying in every direction as (Y/N) rolled too.

They started running towards her, hoping to stop her when her back collided with one of the glass cases that held their suits, and she went limp.

Bruce reached her first, and knelt down, setting the antidote aside to check her first. The way she hit the case and with how hard, it was possible that she could be seriously injured—or worse.

“(Y/N)!” he called, hands coming to pull her away from the case. She whimpered and he let out a sigh—she was still alive. “(Y/N), can you hear me?” he inquired, reaching up to pull the cowl from her face.

Her brothers crowded behind him and they all stared in horror as tears streamed down her cheeks, and blood out of her nose.

“I’m sorry,” she bawled. “I tried to save you.” Bruce looked at her then grabbed the needle gun, bringing it up to her neck.

“Hang on, (Y/N). You’re gonna be okay.”

She grabbed his hand and cried, “I held on as long as I could, but my grip was slipping. I’m sorry I couldn’t hold onto you. I’m sorry I let you go. I let you die. I’m sor—” her sobs cut her off as she curled in on herself, and as if finally snapping out of a trance, Bruce pulled his hand from her grip and pulled the trigger of the gun.

(Y/N) jerked as the needle entered her skin and they watched the neon green liquid in the vial emptied. She fell into whimpers and mumbles of “I’m sorry” before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed in Bruce’s arms.

He stared at her for a second, feeling numb at his daughter’s admissions. Whatever her fear had been, it’d been there a long time, and he had no idea what it was about. Sighing heavily, he drew his eyes to his sons, to Jason.

“Will you take (Y/N) to her bedroom while I get an IV ready?”

Jason nodded and bent down, picking up his unconscious sister. He tucked her head in the crook of his neck and looked at Dick. “Get the doors, yeah?” Dick nodded and hurried ahead of him, while Tim and Damian followed in suit.

Bruce was left alone in a matter of moments, and all he could do was rise to his feet and ready the medical supplies, all the while, thinking back on every night that (Y/N) had gone on patrol in the last nineteen years—and the last time someone died in front of her.

***

Her head felt like an overripe melon ready to burst, and that first moment of cracking her eyes open was the biggest mistake since she told her dad what ‘Thot’ meant. The second she opened them, she shut them once more, inhaling deeply through her nose as the fog started to clear from her mind.

“Queenie, hey, you’re awake,” Jason murmured, and she nodded, blinking a few times before his face came into focus, Dick appearing Tim appearing behind him.

“Go get dad,” Dick said to someone, and she figured it was Damian since neither Jason nor Tim moved.

(Y/N) started shifting, trying to sit up when Dick put his hand on her shoulder, gentle, but firm as he said, “Don’t try to move, Barbie.”

“Where’s dad?” she asked, craning her neck to see.

“Damian’s going to get him sis,” Tim answered, smoothing out the blanket covering her. “Just relax. You took a beating when you came into the cave.”

“I did?” she questioned, eyes widening in shock when they nodded, faces pinched with worry.

The ceiling light turned on just bright enough to give sight and they looked at Bruce who was coming in, Damian following.

“(Y/N),” Dick moved, letting Bruce take his spot, and he took her hand in his, running his thumb over the back of her hand. “You had us all worried.”

She frowned and exhaled heavily. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” She gazed between them, and something in their eyes made an emotion she couldn’t describe rise in her chest.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?” (Y/N) met Bruce’s eyes. “What happened?” Before he could answer, she gasped and looked at her brothers. “I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”

A chorus of hurried, “No’s!” rang out and she sighed in relief, reclining back on the pillows.

“Oh, thank goodness.” She went silent, then started, “But…something did happen, didn’t it?”

Her brothers glanced between themselves then they looked at Bruce who sighed and squeezed her hand, drawing her attention to him.

“What?” she asked and when he said nothing, she repeated, “Dad, what?”

His steel blue eyes met hers and he murmured, “You were apologizing for…letting someone die.”

Whatever had flashed in her eyes that told them she knew exactly what they were talking about was shocking enough because Jason said, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t wanna, Queenie.”

(Y/N) fell silent for a full minute and when she spoke again, her voice was quiet and the look in her eyes was far away. “Before Dick came to the manor it was just you and I patrolling Gotham. At eight, I wasn’t really let out of your sight, but one night I had wandered off while you were dealing with Two-Face.” She looked at Bruce. “I found an injured GCPD officer on a bridge. He had been tailing Killer Croc.”

She glanced at Tim. “His name was Grady Richards.”

Tim’s eyes fell to the tablet in his hands, and he tapped at the screen for a few moments, then read, “Hero cop Grady Richards honored after dying in line of duty. He fell off a broken bridge on Miagani Island.”

Bruce’s eyes found hers again. “He didn’t fall, did he?”

(Y/N) felt tears grow in her vision and she shook her head. “No…no he didn’t.” Inhaling deeply, she recounted, “Croc came back and there was no way either of us could’ve taken him, so we ran. And Croc chased us.” She shut her eyes, remembering the night.

***

Fear pulsed through her veins as she sprinted as far away from the overgrown crocodile as she could. The GCPD officer was ahead of her, but he stopped and spun around to see her.

“Hurry!” he yelled, pointing back to the car. “Get to the cruiser!”

She spared a glance over her shoulder, eyes going wide when she saw Killer Croc picking up one of the concrete guards.

“Duck!” was all she heard, and she hit the ground, watching as if in slow motion as it flew overhead, then smashed into the top of the cop’s car, glass and metal shattering under the pressure.

Someone grabbed her by the back of her suit and hauled her up, slinging her behind them, and the back of the GCPD officer’s uniform came into view.

“Start running, Batgirl! And don’t stop!” he yelled, and when he has his sidearm drawn, he looked down at her. “You’ve got as much time as I have bullets.” He turned, opening fire, and she took a moment to stare before scrambling to her feet to start running.

A cry of pain sounded behind her, and against her better judgement, she turned and looked, gaping as Croc’s arm sent the officer flying. He hit the guardrail and collapsed against it and her feet were moving before she could stop them.

The first punch went to the back of Croc’s knee and she knew it had to have hurt her more than it did him because he didn’t even flinch. But when those glowing yellow eyes peered down at her, she knew she was in trouble.

“Looks like I’ve got an appetizer for the night!” he laughed and reached for her, but she ducked and rolled out of his way, standing in front of the wounded GCPD officer, who weakly looked up at her.

“What are you—doing? I told you…to run.”

She couldn’t beat Killer Croc, and she knew it, but she shook her head and stared down the villain before her.

Croc’s attacks were wide and though she was small, she was pushed to her limit rolling and dodging every one. After a few moments, she was practically dead on her feet, huffing as her lungs begged for air. She kept wiping away the rain that splattered against her mask and on a particularly unlucky step, she found herself slipping.

And it was all the opening that Croc needed because he swiped at her and she flew backwards into the officer who’d managed to stand, just barely. Colliding with him tipped his balance and they went over the guardrail, barreling towards the ground.

She reached out as fast as she could and grabbed hold of the metal beam that ran the length of the under bridge, crying out in pain as it pulled the joints and bones. Her other hand gripped the officer’s and she held on tight. Croc leaned over the bridge, apparently not seeing them because his footsteps went off in the opposite direction, leaving them in silence.

Time passed and she wasn’t sure how long, but both her arms were getting tired, and she looked down at the officer.

“Sir?” she called, and he looked up at her. “You have to climb. I’m starting to lose grip.”

He tried to reach up but let out a cry and grabbed his side with his free hand. Pulling his hand away, she saw the crimson dilute with rainwater.

The hand that held the ledge began to cramp and she started hyperventilating. “Please, you need to hurry! I can’t hold on much longer!” Again, he tried, and she looked down at him as her fingers began to shake.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered and let go of his hand, and the last thing she saw until he hit the ground was the sight of his eyes, wide with fear and pleading.

***

“I watched his head explode when he hit the ground,” she said, tears pouring down her cheeks as she stared out the window, watching the rain hit against the glass. “I had to make a choice. Either both of us died or one of us lived.” (Y/N) looked at Bruce. “And I chose my life over his.”

No one could believe their ears at the story she’d told, but suddenly, the self-sacrificing attitude their sister had, the way she’d bend over backwards for anyone, made perfect sense—she did it out of atonement, for a wrong she carried since she was eight years old.

“I pulled myself back up onto the bridge and I ran as far as I could and didn’t look back,” she said. “I kept my mouth shut when the paper ran his story and never told anyone about it.”

(Y/N)’s breath shuddered. “I just pushed it down as far inside me as I could and tried to forget about it.” Her eyes met Bruce and she tearfully stated, “But every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face.”

He leaned forward and took her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly, dark brows furrowed in hurt.

She swallowed thickly and shook her head as she replied, “I killed someone that night. I was terrified about what you would’ve said. About what you would’ve done.” He gazed at her and (Y/N) whispered, “I’m sorry, dad.”

Bruce dropped her gaze and took a deep breath before murmuring, “It was just an accident, (Y/N).”

“I let go of—”

“I would’ve been more upset having to bury my daughter,” he interrupted, and she fell silent, gaping at him. He searched her face and reached up, placing a hand on her cheek. “I understand why you kept this secret, but you should’ve come to me, (Y/N).” Shaking his head, he added, “You didn’t deserve to be buried under this for nineteen years.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, lowering her head and Bruce shook his head in response.

“No, I’m sorry.” When she met his eye, he continued, “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were carrying this. Then and now.”

(Y/N) swallowed and rested back against the bed. “I send his widow money on the anniversary of his death. I slip it into the pension she’s given.” She let out a sigh. “It’s the only way I’ve found that I could sleep at night.”

Her eyes drifted to the window and Bruce placed a kiss to her forehead. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.” She nodded and before he left, he said, “And when you feel up for it, we’ll see about setting up a fund in his name.”

She wished it didn’t make her as emotional as it did, but silent tears dripped down her cheeks as the door closed, leaving her and her brothers alone. They gathered on her bed, leaning close to offer their support, and she was thankful for them doing so. And for the first time in nineteen years, when (Y/N) closed her eyes, she didn’t see Grady Richards’ face.

[whaleofatjme1920]

The Ends of Hallways (Proxies X F!Reader)

The Ends of Hallways

[Proxies X F!Reader]

[Warnings: slight language]

[AN: Y'all are just gonna have to thank Eris for always sending me the best requests. I don't have favorites,,, but Reader, I have favorites. Also no Kate sorry :( ]

Your face was practically squished against the glass of the car Hoodie had stolen as the four of you pull into the parking lot of woods that brim with the Operator’s energy. You’ve never seen these woods in person - only in dreams. You’ve never even really seen your master in person, once again, like these woods, he too has been confined to your dreams. But you hear him, and often. His voice falls down on your ears like gentle rains that fall from the heavens. He is everything and more. That is why it is so exciting for you to finally be here, so close to him, and to his presence.

“You excited?” You hear your group leader ask.

You nod and press harder up against the glass. “Are we going now?” You’re ready to bounce out of the car and everyone can see that.

He chuckles in response. “What do you think Hood? Time to go?”

The hazel eyed man behind him shoots the driver a look. “Masky, just look at her, she’s gonna break the window if we don’t.” There’s a slight playfulness in his tone that tells you the right hand really isn’t annoyed with you.

“Fair enough,” Masky smiles. He then reaches behind his seat, hand slapping at who used to be the runt’s knee. “Tobes? Tob-Tobes, get up.”

Toby’s eyes shoot open as he lurches forward. “I’m u-u-up, I-I’m u-up,” he yawns as his hands rub tiredly at his eyes. “Are w-w-we here a-alaready?” He asks, the exhaustion still clear in his tone.

Both of the men in the front seats nod. “C’mon, let’s get going,” Hoodie says as he pulls up the lock on his car door before sliding out.

You wait impatiently for Masky to unlock the car then zip out like a bat from hell. You’re immediately at the edge of one of the forest’s many trails and taking in the sights and sounds of your boss’s woods. They’re beautiful, really. The autumn colors bathe the woods in fiery oranges and passionate reds with threads of gold to interlock it all together. The sky is just the slightest shade of blue as clouds cover the sun. There weren’t any people here either - not under the little structures, not exploring, not anyone but you and your comrades.

“Wrong one,” Hoodie says as he closes the trunk to the car before tossing a backpack to Toby, who catches it like second nature.

You whip your head around to see that Masky, Hoodie and Toby are smiling at how excited you are before silently asking you to follow them. “Where are we going?” You ask, eyes wide as you jog up to them.

“Across the field. There’s this cool tunnel of trees we think you’ll appreciate,” Masky replies as he leads his group across the grass. It crunches slightly as the four of you move, like it hasn’t been watered in a long time.

“R-Really?” Toby hums as he puts his hands in his pockets. “You s-s-sure we’re n-not gonna be l-late?” The young proxy gives a slight look to his group leader, eyebrow raised as if he’s sure the Operator is okay with them possibly being tardy.

Masky shakes his head before tapping his temple with his free hand, “he told me it’s okay.”

“He did?” You ask as stars cloud your eyes. The Operator, as you’ve heard so far, is to be feared and respected. He’s like a father you can look at but never touch. He seems so out of your range, like he’s not even visible - not even if you squint your eyes. You wonder what makes you so… interesting… in his eyes. You really don’t think you’re worth all the fuss. Clearly he does.

Masky chuckles before ruffling your hair with his hand, “yeah. I think he finds your enthusiasm endearing.” Masky’s not entirely incorrect. When they first got Toby, the Operator was strangely favorable towards the young proxy as well - maybe because he was hand plucked, special, and therefore deemed worthy of his time. You were similar to Toby, albeit, you accidentally got involved with the Operator. He liked you, chose you, then kept you.

Hoodie whistles slightly as the four of you step into the trees, his gloved hand reaching up to tear off a branch from one of the low hanging trees then swing it aimlessly as his side. “Seems pretty obvious in my opinion,” he whacks Toby lightly with the stick making said proxy laugh. “Looks like Toby isn’t the only golden child anymore.”

“P-Probably not,” Toby hums, a slight melancholy coming into his tone. “Think I-I’ve been losing f-f-favor with h-hin for a w-while.” He glances over his shoulder and smiles at you.

You frown slightly and place your hand on his shoulder, “I don’t think so,” you say. “Just means he has two golden child-s now.”

Toby beams.

You do too.

The group continues to move through the trees, mostly silent save for Masky and Hoodie pointing out little memories from time to time. Things such as some guy named ‘Alex’ chasing them through here, Masky’s waking up with no memory, Hoodie’s nature shots, and everything in between. You learn a lot about the hands of your group from when they were just scared film students to the things they’ve done as proxies here. It’s kind of nice as you’ve never really spoken to them this way before.

When you first came into this life and were placed in this group, the hazing process kicked in like wildfire. Almost every day was a mentally or physically, sometimes both, a draining task and a bonding agent. Authority was not to be questioned and they made that more than clear. Eventually, the hazing grew lighter and lighter until it just… didn’t exist. That was how it went - you were no longer considered naive and starry eyed. Still, authority was not to be questioned, and it’s why you and your comrades have never really talked on this specific level before.

It’s why it’s such a treat that you get to talk to them like this now.

Eventually, the four of you make it to an odd stretch of trees. They tunnel over each other, a lot like a thorny funnel, but they frame the sky so well.

“If the sun was setting,” Masky starts. “It would look like a cradle.”

You take a step back and observe the tunnel of trees, trying to imagine the setting sun. The mental image is pretty. “Will we ever be back here to see it?”

“Oh definitely,” Masky continues. “But uh, the business we’re here for today? Don’t know if that’s meant for anyone but me and maybe Hoodie.”

You look on instinct to Hoodie who nods. “Is that normal?”

“Sure is,” Hoodie says as he takes in the scent of the cooling autumn woods. He knows the group is almost to the limits of the Operator’s realm. “Tell me what you feel right now, Reader,” he says in passing as he flicks the stick somewhere off the given trail.

With a glance around at your surroundings, you attempt to get a feel for the area you’re in. It’s cold, much colder, but the atmosphere still feels a little thick. The further you go into the woods (and by extension the Operator’s bounds to which you don’t even know exist yet), you get that odd feeling in your legs that feels like they’ve fallen asleep. It’s like the physical sensation of static. You try to explain it in words, but they fail. Instead, you allow Hoodie into your thoughts.

“Nice,” he smiles. “Alright, try to ask for permission in.”

“I need to ask for permission?”

“E-Everytime,” Toby begins as he and the others pause. They’re right on the edge of the bubble and can feel it so much stronger than you can. “It’s t-to ensure n-normal humans c-can’t come in,” Toby begins to explain as you gaze around your surroundings, wondering how you’ll even begin to ask. “T-Though, their f-feelings sometimes k-kick into o-overdrive and they e-end up p-piercing through the v-veil on a-a-accident.” He chuckles softly and you know exactly what he’s referring to - you’ve heard tales of the people who get stuck wandering where they shouldn’t: always ends in someone strung up in the pines. “W-We’ve all learned t-to ask p-permission like b-breathing.”

You shoot your comrade a confused glance, wondering what that will mean for you. “I just ask?”

“Kind o-of,” Toby says. “Just l-let your f-f-feelings guide you. She’ll t-t-tell you whether you’re a-a-allowed in or not.”

You close your eyes and begin to hone in on whatever your heart is telling you. It’s a cold feeling, mostly like vines that slip up and down your limbs as they grow upwards and then inwards towards your heart. It’s an odd feeling. Once the static vines pierce through your heart, you physically see a fog roll into the forest around you. It consumes you and your comrades before you remember Toby mentioned ‘she.’ The fog thickens. “Wait, she?” You say as the static begins to leave your system. It feels like you’re tearing through roots as you walk forward.

“He didn’t mean it,” Masky quickly replies as he begins to pull you through the fog. “Good job on asking though. Strong response,” he says as gestures to the fog, his hand swimming through the billowy clouds. “Wives’ tale is the stronger the fog, the more genuine you were in response.”

You wade your fingers through the thick fog as you and the others walk forward, deeper and deeper into the darkness where there was none. “Must’ve had a really genuine response, huh?” You mumble to yourself. The fog doesn’t even feel like normal fog - it feels thick and heavy and leaves slight dew on your clothing as you walk. How interesting.

‘Head talk from here on out,’ Hoodie says as the four of you reach a stretch of woods that feels slightly dangerous.

‘Did you feel it too?’ Toby asks, his hand at his hatchet.

Hoodie nods slightly, his eyes narrowing as he slows his pace so he’s guarding the back. He gives you a slightly concerned look as the fog evens out. Everyone but you knows that they’re in perhaps one of the most dangerous parts of the veil. The Operator’s mere presence is usually enough to deter the things like the Rake from his grounds, but that often means they get trapped here - in the in-between - and lash out on the first thing they sense. The sooner the four of you get out of this dangerous spot, the better.

‘What do you sense?’ You ask, cutting mentally through the rough silence, your own hand moving to your blade.

Hoodie looks like he’s about to answer you before he holds his fist up and the other three of you duck down instantly, dipping below the fog. Just then, some deer begin walking past.

‘Deer?’ You say in a questioning tone.

‘Not just any deer,’ Hoodie begins as the deer slowly nibbles on the leaves and other things. ‘Take a good look at their bodies. They look normal to you?’

You narrow your eyes slightly and get used to peering through the fog as the deer pass. Eventually, you’re able to look at their coats. There’s something off about them, something wrong. Something you can’t quite place. The longer you watch them as they move in front of you, the stronger that off feeling gets. They have every physical part of the deer down but it’s just not right. It’s like their joints don’t fit well beneath their skin. And their eyes… Their eyes are completely hollow.

‘You see it?’ Masky asks as the last of the deer passes by. He glances over his shoulder briefly to see you nod. ‘We’re lucky they didn’t change this time,’ he mumbles, slowly inching forward while crouched against the earth.

‘What would’ve happened if they changed?’ You inquire, moving quietly alongside your comrades.

‘Nightmare fuel,’ Toby finally pipes in. ‘Nothing about them looks right. Big mouths full of sharp teeth, black eyes, too many limbs, like a messed up centipede,’ he finishes, a slight shudder coming into his mental tone.

You notice the other two of your group members nodding in agreement before finally deeming it safe enough to stand up and finally exit the in-between of the veil.

You’re greeted to the sight of a beautiful, rustic looking Germanic mansion surrounded by iron gates that hold honeycomb patterns that trail skywards only to end on sharp peaks that you’re almost certain your boss has spiked people on plenty of times. There’s also flowers of every kind in the front gardens that catch your eyes the moment you step through the grand gates. There’s fountains and topiaires, statues and benches that tell you the Operator drips with style and elegance.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Masky smiles.

You nod, “it’s gorgeous.” The air smells slightly expensive, but mostly sweet. How is it that a place like this can even possibly exist? Around the mansion are autumnal trees, mostly maple, some sycamore and other birch. Scattered on the front lawn are other proxies and some independents, mostly catching up and talking before leaving through the same gates you entered from. Some of them smile and wave as they pass you, others grunt and turn their nose up at you upon realizing you’re the youngest. This place sings with the Operator’s overwhelming presence.

Your comrades continue to watch your amused expression as they lead you to the front doors of the mansion. They’re large and stained glass, slightly gothic in woodwork and tower over you.

“Go ahead,” Hoodie chuckles as he nods for you to open the doors.

You glance back to him, then at the large doors before tentatively placing your hands on their surface. With a small breath, you push them open and find yourself greeted to the most exquisite foyer you’ve ever seen. Large chandeliers hang from the ceiling, sapphires and rubies drip from the fixtures and shine the light beautifully across the marble floors. Gold leaf adorns almost everything that juts out while the huge staircase in front of you beckons you forward.

“Doesn’t seem like he needs us yet,” Masky says as he checks his watch. “Got here earlier than expected, huh?” He lightly ribs Hoodie who rolls his eyes in response. “C’mon, let’s go to the sun room. Don’t wanna wait around in here.” He nods for the three of you to follow.

Toby clears his throat slightly as if to remind the two in charge that you’re still very much here and new.

“Oh, right,” Masky says. “Reader, this is super important, so listen up,” your group leader begins as he turns on his heels to eventually rest his hands on your shoulders.

You raise a brow at his sudden contact. Masky normally didn’t touch you unless what he had to say was important - which really, really didn’t happen often.

“This mansion likes to play off your thoughts, feelings, and logic,” he says, his hand gesturing to the staircase that’s slowly moving directions. You didn’t even hear it begin to shift. “The Operator usually keeps things in line for when he summons you, it’s almost a guaranteed path you’ll make it to him, but,” his eyes go serious. “If it’s just you and you’re moving around, you need to have a place in mind or it’ll accidentally spit you out somewhere totally random. We’ve had people get lost in here because the mansion is slightly playful and weirdly baneful depending on the individual walking around.”

“The Operator has a playful side?”

Masky stifles a laugh before shaking you lightly. “I legitimately mean it, you need to have a place in mind or you’re gonna get lost and the Operator isn’t gonna be happy. By extension, I won’t be happy because I need to come get you.”

“Mhm,” Hoodie nods in agreement. “And you can’t have the thought in passing either, it’s gotta be on your mind until it’s in sight.” After Hoodie’s words leave his mouth, Masky lets you go.

You take all the information in and wonder just what makes the place run. It’s like it has its own personality - it’s playful and baneful? You have to ask it permission to even enter its grounds and it deems whether you’re worthy or not? What kind of power does the Operator even have and why on earth would he even care about that kind of stuff? If he truly wanted his proxies to access him, he’d do it with no hesitation. The humans that would wander into his rooms would just end up tasting someone’s blade.

“Sun room?” Hoodie reminds Masky.

Your entire walk to the sun room you try to conjure a mental image in your head. They say it’s doubtful you’ll get lost so long as you’re with them, but you consider it good practice. When you finally make it to the sun room, you’re pleased to see it’s relatively empty save for a few groups interspersed in the large, window adorned room overlooking a silver lake. There’s a few independents walking around with carts holding different tea time finger-foods and waiting tea sets on every table. Maasky leads you over to one of the tables nearest to the view of the lake.

“So, what business exactly are we here for today?” You ask as you waste no time in pouring yourself some tea.

Masky shrugs, “no idea. He said he just wanted us to come.”

“T-Think he r-really only n-needs an audience w-with them though,” Toby adds before silently thanking you for pouring him some tea as well. “L-Leaves us some t-t-time to chat. Y’know, t-the thing H-Hood hates us d-doing,” he lightly jokes.

Hoodie scoffs and feigns being annoyed, “I only hate you two chatting when we’re in the middle of tearing out some guy’s entrails.”

“Y-Yeah, which is a-all the time,” Toby giggles.

You laugh as well.

The four of you are in a heated argument about something relatively stupid when static overtakes Masky and Hoodie’s hearing. They visibly pause, as if they’re trying to key into something you can’t understand when it suddenly stops.

“Have t-to go?” Toby inquires before taking a strawberry tart and popping it into his mouth.

Both Masky and Hoodie nod.

“Yeah. Keep an eye on Reader, please? We won’t be too long,” Masky replies with a small, tired smile.

Toby flashes the two a thumbs up before the both of you watch them leave, a clear destination on their minds.

It’s not long until Toby gets distracted by some other independents that stroll into the mansion. You recognize the two of them as relatively minor legends - well, maybe not the one with the smile. His name is Jeff.

“So, this is your fresh meat, huh?” Jeff chuckles as he lightly pushes Toby’s shoulder. “She looks a little scrawny. Are you feeding her right?”

Toby laughs and nods, “Masky w-w-would lose his m-mind if you s-s-said that.”

Jeff’s chest rumbles as he laughs. “I’m joking,” he holds his hand up as a sign of truce. “Hope you know you’re running with one of the only decent groups out there, Reader,” he says before picking up his tea cup. It looks slightly comical as he brings it to his lips.

You offer him a smile and nod, “yeah, I know.”

The man to Jeff’s left nods in agreement, “Masky’s really good at what he does. Got one of the best.”

Toby immediately fights the notion (playfully) and the three engage in conversation that’s lively and vibrant all the same. You listen to the three verbally duke it out before you find yourself bored. You can’t just leave though, but you want to move at the same time.

“Toby?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I excuse myself?”

“W-Where to?”

“Washroom,” you reply.

“Do y-you need m-me to a-accompany y-y-you?”

Both Eyeless Jack and Jeff scoff.

“She’s a big girl, let her go,” Jeff says as he nods his own approval for you to go. “You told her about the mindset thing?”

Toby nods.

“Yeah, then she’s good to go,” Eyeless Jack agrees.

You flash the men at your table a smile before getting up. You push in your chair and then make it to the entrance of the sunroom, leading into the halls. You don’t have a set destination in mind. The moment you step out of the sunroom, you feel the air change. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s different. On instinct, you turn your gaze over your shoulder to see the sunroom is gone. It’s just hall and lining the hall are doors upon doors.

Alright, you can work with that! A small smile comes to your face as you begin to walk forwards, allowing your curiosity to bloom. The first door you decide to open is one that’s honestly not that exciting. It was just a storage unit. Another was a study. Then it was someone’s room. Another room. And another. How many residence rooms are there?

You close yet another door and then feel a thought come into your head, taking a seat on your train of thought like a butterfly sunbathes on a flower. She - Toby had mentioned it. And you wondered. You let the thought stay. Before you know it, you’re walking through the halls guided by forces you don’t quite understand, and the further you get into the mansion, the stranger the atmosphere becomes. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s not a normal feeling either. You watch as the light fixtures change from something relatively modern and regress into something more vintage. The dust begins to kick up. Irish lace begins to pepper the ceiling. You notice how the doors change style as well. How strange.

Eventually, you reach a dead end stretch of hall. At the very end of this hall is a singular door that looks weathered, as if it was sunbleached and painted over in oils. There’s an elegance to it you can’t quite place, and like a siren song, you find yourself being beckoned to it. Your proxy instincts kick in like second nature the closer you draw to it. You feel your breathing lighten, your steps as well, and you move towards it with a silence that is unmatched - as if you’re floating on air. You draw closer and closer to the door. It’s so magnetic, and you can’t quite explain why/ But closer still you must be to it.

Your hand tenderly grasps the doorknob - it feels like ice - and you twist it open. You wonder if you should be doing this. A part of you feels like you shouldn’t be doing this, but another part of you says this is what you were meant to see. You push the door open ever so slightly, just enough to be able to see inside, but the door is heavy, almost as if it doesn’t want you to. Like it’s trying to protect you from something further. You wonder if it just wishes to keep its secrets.

It’s gorgeous, it truly is. It puts the rest of the mansion to shame. It looks old - perhaps from 16th century Germany and fit for royalty. Plants of all kinds line the walls. They look like emeralds as light shines through their leaves. The sunlight kisses the flowers that sprout from the stalks. Beautiful woodwork surrounds the windows that are covered in fairytale-esque stained glass pieces. The scent is of something much, much sweeter and warmer than the rest of the mansion. Your eyes then draw to the center of the room, where an ornate table sits. There’s gold leaf decorating its legs followed by symbols you can’t really pin down. A tablecloth that looks like it was weaved from the stars above is the only thing that separates a delicate tea set from the precious mahogany table. The tea smells heavenly from where you stand.

Before you can press into the room, you pause upon seeing slender, pale hands take hold of the tea pot. Your eyes follow upwards to the owner of the hands only to see a woman so much more beautiful than the moon in twilight and the sun in the morning. Falling from her shoulders was golden hair that looked like a sea of amber as it cascaded down near the floor. Flowers were woven into it - mostly snowdrops, baby’s breath and queen Anne’s lace. She’s dressed in something from medieval Europe, and never once does her sleeve touch the table. She begins to pour herself some tea, a honey like hum coming from her being as she pours the sweet liquid. Her eyes flick upwards for but a moment when she hears a bird chirping outside. Her eyes are so dark, there exists no white sclera. They’re so dark, like black holes that hide in the depths of space, but you feel as if she holds the universe inside of them. She’s so beautiful, you’re not sure she’s real. A cat has jumped up onto the table, purring at her. When she smiles, your heart sings.

You want to say hello to her and spend time in her presence when you attempt to open the door some more. It creaks slightly. The hinges are ancient. Before you can say anything, the door is slammed shut, sending you flying backwards. You let out a sound of shock before seeing Toby reaching down to get you.

“What t-the hell a-a-are you thinking?” He hisses as he picks you up, grabbing your bicep and beginning to drag you away from the door that still holds your attention. “You r-really just w-wandered off l-like that?”

You furrowed your eyebrows, attempting to get free of his grasp as he continues to pull you along. No matter how hard you smack at him, he doesn’t let go.

“M-Masky said it’s not s-safe for y-y-you to wander o-off. A-And without m-me? D-D-Did you have a-any cognitive t-t-thought when you w-went out on a l-limb like t-that?” He sounds so heated.

You find he’s bringing you back to the sunroom, undoubtedly going to tell Masky and Hoodie about your misbehavior. “Why are you being so weird?” You retort as you attempt to wriggle out of his grasp. “It’s just a room!” You cry out in an exasperated tone.

Toby only reprimands you louder. It’s a losing game.

You eventually find yourself back in the sunroom. Only, instead of Eyeless Jack and Jeff, you see the deeply concerned and slightly pissed off faces of Masky and Hoodie. They’re not happy to see you, and you’re not exactly thrilled to see you either.

“Take a s-s-seat,” Toby says in a harsh tone as he thrusts you back into your seat.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Masky asks, not even attempting to mask his voice because that’s the privilege of being a proxy. You’re able to reprimand your proxies without anyone giving a care.

“You can’t just go off like that,” Hoodie continues as he furrows his brows. “You could’ve gotten-”

“Hurt? This is the Operator’s mansion, what the fuck is gonna hurt me in here other than himself or you two?”

“That’s it,” Masky points out. “He can seriously hurt you if you snoop where you shouldn’t!” His hands grips at your wrist, tightening to a point of pain.

When you feel tears prick your eyes, Hoodie sighs and puts his hand on Masky’s shoulder, “stop it.”

Masky hesitantly lets you go.

“What did you see?” Hoodie asks with a deep sigh, his posture tensing. He’s really hoping you didn’t see the Operator’s trophy room.

You give your comrades a concerned look, not sure whether you should answer or not when Hoodie raises a slight brow. Damn it. You’re emotionally compromised. He’s seeing what he needs to without your permission.

“That’s… Odd…” He says.

Masky glances to Hoodie. “No.”

“Unfortunately, I think yeah,” Hoodie says with a growing frown. He glances to Toby for confirmation, and upon seeing Toby’s nod, says “yeah,” again.

Masky groans and puts his face into his hands, finding comfort in being buried into himself.

You hold your wrist in your hand and lean back in your chair. “Just… What is it you guys aren’t telling me?” You question, hoping they’d just bite the bullet and tell you.

The group shares a look, debating whether they should even say it or not. When no one says anything, you press them again.

“Come on,” you sigh. “It can’t be that bad.”

“It really could be,” Masky says as he finally releases his face from his hands. “No one knows what seeing it does.”

Your eyes widen before you bark a laugh. “What?”

“No, he’s serious,” Hoodie picks up. “Seeing that door is rare, like, rainbow pikachu rare. Proxies think it’s an omen or a bad luck thing. To see it means a group’s eventual demise.”

You briefly scoff at the thought of proxies being superstitious before you remember some of you can actually cast portals. It’s really not that out of pocket.

“N-No one has e-e-ever found o-out though,” Toby shrugs. “W-We just know t-that the g-groups that h-h-have n-normally e-end in death.” He looks a little uncomfortable as he says the words, like there’s a legitimate truth to what he’s saying even though he’d rather it be utter BS.

“To be fair, we thought it was a rumor prior to you sneaking off,” Hoodie says as he tries to calm down his group.

You take in this information with a small frown. How could something that beautiful be that evil or a harbinger of doom? The thought of it left you perplexed as your comrades continued to lecture you on not wandering off until Masky and Hoodie were called away.

“I don’t know if I feel comfortable leaving Reader here with-”

Toby rolls his eyes, “you c-cant just s-say you want m-me to come with i-instead. N-Not need to insult m-my competence a-a-as a babysitter,” he mumbles before glancing down to his hatchets.

Masky sighs and nods for Toby to follow him out. Looks like it’s just you and Hoodie.

“So,” you awkwardly begin, not really sure what to do or what to say.

“So,” Hoodie hums back. “Anywhere you wanted to go?” When he sees the glint in your eyes, he shakes his head. “Like, a normal place. We’re gonna be here for a while while those two are out,” he chuckles, watching as you visibly deflate.

You allow the question to bang around in your head until you nod with a thought in mind. “The library. I’d like to go to the library.”

Hoodie smiles at that suggestion and finishes the rest of his tea before standing up. He stretches for a moment, then leads you to the hallway your original snooping began. You noticed as his thoughts immediately became clouded with the word and vision of ‘library’ as the two of you trekked the halls. As you walked, you barely recognized any of the doors you passed. They weren’t on your radar, which was odd in your opinion as you had opened a lot of door you probably shouldn’t have.

Eventually, you reach two large oak doors. Hoodie pushes them open and you’re greeted to the sight of a beautiful library. It’s impossibly huge - how could such a place exist in the mansion? You’re well aware it’s a huge place, but the fact that all of this is here… It’s bigger than a downtown city library you visited when passing through Chicago a few months ago. The Operator’s influence is beautiful, isn’t it?

“I’m gonna be in the sci-fi section,” Hoodie says as he nods over to the right wing of the library. “It’s on the second floor.” You notice the spiral staircase that leads to what appears to be a balcony - it must stretch backwards forever. “Check in with me in about 15 minutes. Don’t do anything stupid.” It’s surprising how relaxed he’s being with you. You would have expected someone like Hoodie to be a lot angerier and more observational.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, you nod and flash him a thumb’s up before bounding over to the left wing of the library. Nothing is properly labeled, but you get a strong bout of intuition where everything is. Right now, you’re on the hunt for history.

The aisle that holds the history books looks just as old as you would have expected it to. The books here aren’t any you’ve ever seen in stores either - they’re largely from the time period they’re to be representing. Some are more modern, but you get the feeling that they don’t exist anywhere else but under the Operator’s influence. You find a few books that talk about the early history of proxies, some on independents, but nothing to inform you on what you had found.

It’s honestly a little maddening. You check in with Hoodie when you have to - he asks you to list the spines of the books you’re currently looking at - and then you’re back to your fruitless search. You run up and down the halls of the history section looking for anything when you hear static begin to buzz in your heads. The feeling travels upwards like the vines you felt earlier from your heels to your chest. When they claw deep into your heart, you feel a pull. And once again, like a sailor beckoned to the rocks due to a siren’s song, you follow it.

It twists and turns you through the shelves, making you zip past the few proxies and independents that are currently visiting this wing of the library before you’re drawn to a rotunda. You look backwards and see in the distance the front doors of the library. When did this place get a middle wing? It was just straight shelves and a wall with large windows overlooking the rolling hills of the woods. You turn your attention upwards to the ceiling of the rotunda. There’s a large skylight that allows sunlight to cascade down. Around that are gems you don’t even know the name of that weave a mosaic of something positively divine. You allow your gaze to follow the shaft of warm sunlight down, and there, sitting at a table with a book in hand (it looks like a journal) is the Operator himself.

“S-Sir!” You manage to squeak out as you find yourself startled to be in his presence, Heat rises to your cheeks when he looks up from his book to turn his attention to you.

“How did you get here?” He asks, confusion etching his body as he curiously tilts his head.

Your breath hitches. “I’m so sorry,” you apologize, bowing your head almost immediately. “I don’t know how I got here. It just felt like a pull and suddenly I was here? I was in the left wing and looking over history books and I-” you continue to rattle off until the Operator holds up his hand, silently signaling you to stop. You do so as soon as he asks.

“I-. It’s no matter,” he waves off. “Come, sit down beside me.” An inky black tendril sprouts from his back as he pulls the chair in front of him out, allowing you to sit in his presence.

You will your stone-like legs forward and attempt to gracefully take a seat in front of him. It’s a slightly awkward silence before he speaks again.

“How have you been, Miss Reader?”

“I’m alright,” you reply, voice no higher than a whisper.

The Operator hums. “Good.”

Another pregnant pause.

“Child, where is your book?”

“I uh, didn’t grab one?” You answer softly. You can tell the Operator is looking at you with what he can convey to his fullest as confusion. “When I was pulled here I just.. Followed,” you attempt to explain. “I don’t know why I’m here.”

“And what have you done today?” He asks, giving his passing attention to you like a father would.

You bite your lip before steering the conversation towards the room you saw. “I think I met someone.”

“You did, did you?”There’s a passing interest as if he’s saying ‘that’s nice, honey.’

You nod. “She was in a tea room-”

He pauses.

“I found her by accident-”

He makes sure he’s hearing you correctly.

“Her hair was golden-”

He looks up.

“She had plants-”

He’s sitting upright now.

“She had a cat-”

He leans forward.

“Her smile rivaled the stars-”

He’s focusing so intently on you now.

“Her voice was like honey-”

He entirely focused on you.

“She was beautiful.”

The Operator’s ichor pauses for just a moment as he takes in the description of the woman you described. It makes a part of him sing and another part of him sob. He hasn’t heard of her in so, so long.

When you look up, you see the Operator practically leaned halfway over the table and entirely focused on you. It makes you jump. “I’m sorry,” you apologize sheepishly, thinking you saw something you shouldn’t have. “I wasn’t thinking and I uh, think the mansion led me to her?”

The Operator wordlessly nods. “Was she pouring tea?” He asked, voice so much gentler than anything you could ever expect him to conjure up.

You slowly nod. “She was.”

The Operator suddenly slumps down, making you jolt. You rise on instinct to help him when he waves you back down. “Do you realize who you’ve come into contact with?” He asks.

You shake your head. “I’m afraid not, Sir,” you say with slight remorse.

The Operator chuckles deeply - it rumbles his chest and in your head. “You found her.” He could smile, you were sure it would be from ear to ear if he had the correct facial features. “All these years later and you found her.” He emphasizes you like a bittersweet affirmation.

“Who is she?” You ask softly.

Your boss sits back up again. “Someone who loves me,” his tendril sprouts once again from his back and moves towards you. “Someone who loves you,” it taps your nose. “Someone who loves us.” The tendril makes a grand, sweeping gesture.

You take in the words and nod, still not knowing what they mean. Upon seeing your confusion, he decides to elaborate.

“A long, long time ago, in a realm you could not begin to fathom, there was light and there was dark,” he begins, his voice slipping into something akin to someone saying a bedtime story. “I was the light, and that cur we call Zalgo was the dark.”

You scrunch your nose at the sound of his name.

“The dark and the light were born from nothing, and she was beautiful.” His audible smile is actually endearing to hear. “Throughout the years, the light and the dark fought, constantly at each other's throats. It was woven in the threads of history, it had been our birthright. When we came to this place, this planet after being cast from our home - a palace amongst all palaces, a kingdom that rose far above any other, the nothingness came with us. She called herself Liebevolle Frau. She loved her children.” By this point in the story, the Operator has taken the liquids from the coffee cup he drinks from and animated them into the characters for this story.

You watch with stars in your eyes.

“But no guardian is without its favorites, and I happened to be hers.” Liebevolle Frau’s figure was shown sheltering the Operator’s much smaller one. “And this caused a rift that could not be mended through the light and dark. Eventually, the dark waged war on the light.”

It’s a war you’re still fighting to this day.

“In the 1500s, long after this mansion had been built and my power continued to grow, Zalgo had almost wiped us off the face of the earth to splatter out remains across all the five realms. Liebevolle Frau, thought caught off guard,” that would explain the tea, “sheltered me and protected this place and all who resided in it. At the time,” the Operator looks at you. “Independents and proxies had lived here much more commonly than they do now.”

You smile softly.

“Liebevolle Frau’s power had been pushed to its limit in holding back her first born son, and mind, as well as her heart, broke because of it. In her remaining moments of lucidity, she imbued herself, her soul,” the liquids take the form of something fluttering and soft, like a bird, “her everything, and became the place I hold jurisdiction over today.”

Your eyes widen as you think back to the odd feelings you’ve had coming here for today - and Toby’s slip-up.

“I have not been able to find her since the late 1500s,” The Operator explains as the liquids dance back into the coffee mug, the figure of Liebevolle Frau taking a hair longer than the rest. “She lives in everything.”

You’re honestly speechless over everything the Operator has said because it’s so… It’s strangely heartfelt. You’ve never even spoken face to face with your boss and when you do, it’s because some force is guiding you to do so. But if that force felt so alive, it must have meant she wanted you to know.

“Her physical form,” you finally manage to wisp out. “She wanted to be at peace, didn’t she?”

The Operator chuckles deeply. “I would assume so.”

Before you can respond to anything or even come up with another response, you hear both Masky AND Hoodie yelling for you in your head. The jarring difference between your boss’s gentle voice and Masky and Hoodie crying out for blood is enough to make you jump (once again).

Upon seeing your sudden switch in atmosphere, the Operator hushes the voices in your head and calls them to his side.

Toby is the first to show up though, and quickly trailing after him is Masky and Hoodie. They both look ready to reprimand you but upon seeing you sitting with the Operator, nothing but reverence crosses their minds and bodies.

“Good evening, Sir,” Masky says as he bows his head. “Are you well?”

“Thoughtful, aren't you, Timothy?” There’s no animosity or anger in the Operator’s tone, but it makes Masky blush all the same.

A pregnant pause passes.

“I was just speaking with your newest member, Miss Reader,” a pale hand gestures to you. “Come, join us. I could use the company.”

You watch as confused glances get shared between your three comrades before they take a seat beside you.

A pleasant silence passes through the air before a gentle humming that’s sweeter than honey overtakes it like a passing breeze.

[chaoticpizzalawyerbiscuit]

Jealousy

Hey hey hey!!!

How are y'all doing? Here's another one, hope you enjoy reading it just as much as i enjoyed writing it!! Just a heads up, this is filthy, long, intense... but it gets a little cute at the very end ;)

Thank you @wickedazriel​ for this request! IT IS AWESOME!!!

✨don’t forget to make your own request✨

• I don’t own any of Sarah J. Mass’ characters or any of her plots, I’m just a fan having fun. Also I do not own the images. This is story is mine though, so please do not copy •

WARNING! cursing, sex... this is a hatefuck one

∞ I see red - Everybody loves an outlaw

Author’s P.O.V.

Y/N was sick and tired of that bullshit. Ever since Elain arrived in Velaris to visit her sisters, Feyre and Nesta, Az was with her. They went to shops, restaurants and pretty much everywhere else. All the damn time.

To worsen it, this last month was rough on their relationship. Loads of work, constant arguments and sleeping on different beds was their new routine, and honestly, Y/N was so done with it. She tried time after time to get him to open up and share what left him so disturbed, like he had other times, but it was in vain. He became more distant, and was currently avoiding her. 

Tonight, she wanted a change. She missed her mate, and just wished it was over. Determined to go talk to Azriel, she headed to Feyre’s house, knowing that he would be there. 

As she walked the streets of the city, the sun was setting and an ocean breeze stirred lightly. It reminded her of when they met, years ago, and their first kiss. Smiling, she remembered those sweet moments, of glimmering glances and tentative touches.

Eventually, she arrived at the house and started to look for Azriel, hoping that the Inner Circle’s meeting was done. Roaming through the corridors, she caught his scent. And Elain’s, she realized with an exasperated sigh. Following it led to the main living room, and she would never be prepared to witness what happened before her eyes. 

Elain and Azriel. 

Kissing.

“What’s going on?”

Azriel turned around, startled. Shit. Holy shit. This is the last thing he needed. Looking into his mate’s eyes, he was panicking. Elain had kissed him, caught him by surprise, hoping he had feelings for her. But he did not want her. Elain has a mate. Elain is not Y/N. 

“Y/N, wait. This is not what you think, just let —

Y/N's bitter laugh cut him off. Stepping closer, she glared at him. “It makes sense now. You acting distant and harsh, ignoring me all this time. How long has this happened.” Her cold voice tugged at his guts. “Actually, don’t answer me. You know, if you didn’t want me around anymore, you should’ve said it. But now it’s crystal clear.” She turned on her heels, and stormed out of the room.

Az moved, holding her wrist.

“Do not dare touch me.” Poison laced her voice, as she met his eyes at last. The anger there was enough to make him flinch, and he let go.

Desperate to get out of there, she stomped away from that place, hair whipping furiously. Tears came to her eyes, but she blinked them away. She had never been this angry, or heartbroken. Hungry for revenge, an idea came to her. Her smirk was devilish. She arrived home, put on his favorite dress, fixed her hair and painted her lips a bloodred tint. And like this, she went out seeking for the main part of the plan. Ace.

Now, Ace was a fae male who worked in the Rainbow. Handsome and with a talent for music, he was a charming male straight out of one of those smutty books Y/N owned. Azriel made sure she knew how much he hated the guy’s guts (with those green eyes and oh so perfect blond hair), even when she never had feelings for Ace.

With a killer look, she walked around Velaris and spotted tonight’s target. She reached him, asked if he wanted to have a drink and dance for a while, and he agreed without hesitance.

So they drank into the night, and he eventually invited her for a dance. She obliged, but as soon as the music started YN regretted it. It felt wrong, like it was missing something.  This wasn’t Az. And she hated herself for being so foolish, in believing that the pain would go away this easy. That his presence would just vanish from her heart, even when it was burned into her soul.

Walking home, she wanted the day to be done. Y/N barely remembered bidding goodbye to a very confused Ace, her mind still clouded with everything that happened. She never expected anything like that from Az, even after years of relationship and many problems faced together.

Y/N reached her apartment, opened the door and found Az waiting for her. Seeing him made her anger rise to the brim, and she wasn’t the only one that was mad.

“You were with Ace?” He seethed, standing up from the couch. His blood boiled at her scent mixed with his.

“Yes.” 

“Why?”

She stilled, drunk in jealousy. 

“Why?! Oh I wonder why. Maybe” walking towards him, pressing his back against a wall “it was because you were kissing dear sweet Elain in the middle of a fucking living room.” They stood closely now “Maybe it’s because I feel like a fucking idiot for falling in love.” Their breaths mingled, and Y/N’s gaze burned him. With anger, with panic, with… desire.

She glanced at his lips. The room was filled by their aroused scent. 

She pounced on him. His lips met her with unwavering hunger, devouring her, and she equaled him. A delightful heat started between her legs and clouded her mind, enhanced by his now roaming hands all over her. A moan left her lips, and she felt him grow hard against her stomach. She palmed him through his pants, and his hips jerked.

Grabbing her wrists, he pushed her against the opposite wall and pinned them above her head. She whined in protest, and pushed her body into his. He went crazy with desire, her dress made her look like a goddess. All he wanted was to put his scent over that male’s.

“Jump” He ordered.

She did, wrapping her legs around him, with his hands now supporting her, fingers digging on her ass.

The kisses now were more important than air itself, their lips greedy for each other. Taking them to the bedroom, the shadowsinger was going mad for her. Y/N was on her own path to insanity, as her hands struggled with the buttons of his shirt and her body begged for more attention. 

He set her down and their kissing halted, overtaken by the need to shed their clothes. Fast. Mere seconds later, the pieces of clothing were discarded on the floor and the frenzy returned.

His mouth was on her lips, her neck, her breasts. Her nipples were rock hard, begging for attention as he wrapped his lips around one, licked, sucked and bit down. Her moans got out of control, thighs clenched together. Moving on to the other nipple, her hands (who had been wandering around his wings) suddenly gripped his throbbing cock, and surprised, he moaned into her chest as he thrust forward against her hand.

Her other hand grabbed his shoulder, and pushed him into the bed. He let himself fall into his back, and she got onto her knees. He will go crazy tonight, she thought, I’ll make him. 

The feeling of her mouth around him made him moan loudly. The view of her hand touching herself as she sucked him off almost made him cum. He gritted his teeth, and tried to hold it. But, with exceptional expertise, she teased him to the edge. And denied him right after. Twice.

Now, ready for more, Y/N stood up, straddled him, guided his shaft to her entrance… and lowered herself. Their moans sounded, and she started to move. Up and down at first, and then she ground into his cock. She pinned him to the bed, as he did with her against the wall.

Azriel lost any scrape of sanity after this. 

Y/N couldn’t control herself, and said

“Does she ride you like this? Do you fuck her like this?”

His eyes glittered with the challenge. Getting out her grip, he freed his arms, slid out of her and flipped them over. Then he flipped her, positioning her on all fours. Slid back in. Grabbed her hair. Pressed his fingers on her clit. And whispered on her ear 

“Does he make you feel this, Y/N?”

Her response was only a sequence of squeals and screams, pleasure crashing into her with violent waves. Their release was close, and the thrusting became faster, sloppier, desperate. Azriel thrust one last time, deep and strong, as pinched her nub, and she came around him. He followed her, getting squeezed by her muscles, tightly and uncontrollably. 

Their exhausted bodies lay entangled on each other, neither daring to move. Azriel slid out of her after a few minutes, and she whimpered softly. Still on the bed with her back to him, Y/N worked up the courage to ask.

“Az, what happened there?” 

He took a deep breath.

“Elain is having trouble with Lucien and their relationship, she talked to me a lot about it. There’s a lot of crap going on between them, and I advised her as a friend. Exclusively as someone who wants the best for her.” His mate remained in silence, and that quiet despair started to take over him once again.

“Y/N," he touched her exposed back gently, “turn around and talk to me. Please.”

A beat of silence went by. Two. On the third she moved, and their eyes met. His bared nothing but honesty and love.

“I love you, Y/N. My mate, my best friend, my everything. I truly did not expect a kiss from Elain, and I have no interest in another. I’m yours.”

And hers bared nothing but thankfulness and adoration.

“Thank you for being honest with me, Az. I believe you,” he let out a breath of relief at the words, “ and I’m sorry. I acted wrongly in going to Ace, in not hearing you and in dumping my insecurities on this.” 

“What went on between the two of you?”

“We had drinks, he asked me to dance. I said yes, and lasted for half a song. Because it wasn’t you.”

Azriel said nothing, and her heart broke a little more. 

"Can you forgive me?”, she asked, her voice nothing more than a whisper.

He looked into her eyes, and thanked the Mother for such a stunning, courageous and honest female in his life.

“Yes.” She smiled brightly at his reply, touching their foreheads. “Can you forgive me? For making you feel insecure and for staying so distant? I shouldn’t have shut you out”

“I can, Az. And please, let’s not do this again.”

“Oh absolutely, it was dreadful” the shadowsinger agreed, and leaned in to kiss her lips, the trouble now forgotten.

And so they kissed.

Once.

Twice.

Their hands started to–

Well, you know what happens next...

-From A.

Ps: talk to me, make some requests 😁 my box is open

[sharkbait77]

The Sun Sets With You

Chapter Five: Just A Man

Summary: A simple yet despondent farm life suddenly sparks with new hope when an unusual traveler makes your town his latest stop and brings with him intriguing and promising viewpoints and no one to share them with. Until he meets you.

Pairing: Ezra Prospect x f!Reader

Rating: M

Warnings: Fluff! (It's getting cute y'all!), death of a parent, grief, smoking, food, Silas🤢, a little sad Ezra in this one

W/C: 4k (made it a little longer to make up for the wait! 🥺)

A/N: We are back! I'm so so so sorry this took so long to get out! What can I say, life happened & kept knocking me down & I couldn't find the strength to write for this fic. I'm still not even completely happy with this chapter, but after reading it so many times, I think it's okay lol a huge thanks to everyone for being so patient & lovely to me ♥️ okay, I'll shut up, hope you enjoy!

Series || Main || Taglist || AO3

Chapter Four || Chapter Six

~MAY EIGHTH OF EIGHTEEN SIXTY-SEVEN~

As the days and weeks passed, Ezra finally felt comfortable enough to join you and Pa for meals at your family table, sitting and eating quietly until responding to a thought or question of Pa’s. It felt nice. It felt…warm and natural. As opposed to the slight coldness you’ve felt sitting with Pa, without your mother. Though it was still as quiet as your meals alone with your father, the silence now was more comforting.

You realized shortly after that last evening under the tree with Ezra what exactly ails you when near him, why exactly your pulse quickens and you feel heat flush your neck and cheeks. It was a startling conclusion, given that you have been inexperienced when it comes to the term ‘love’, outside of the love you felt for Ma and Pa. This, with Ezra, contrasts immensely.

It had caught you off guard, a small infatuation with the man that you realized must have taken hold of your heart from the first moment you met him, when you simply could not remove your eyes from his face. You now find your eyes lingering on his features longer, learning the curve of his smile, the fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, memorizing the tone of his voice and his laugh to be replayed in moments of silence.

It’s strange; a simple emotion that you had witnessed your whole childhood into adulthood from your Ma and Pa, an emotion you carry in your heart for each of them, though the way you experience it now, the strength in which it has grasped onto your very being – and so suddenly – has been enough to make the room spin whenever you lay your eyes on him. The idea of taking a husband has never been one of priority. Up until now, at least.

“Many thanks for the delicious meal, miss. I am grateful you have welcomed me into your home as such,” Ezra says as he stands, helping you take the soiled dishes to the wash basin.

“You have always been welcome, Mr. Prospect. I am glad you now feel comfortable joining us,” you say with a gentle smile, looking up at him as he approaches you with the dishes. You catch a faint hue of pink spreading across his sun kissed cheeks.

“Would you care for a pipe, Mr. Prospect?” Pa calls out as he sits in his chair by the fireplace, beginning to pack away tobacco in his own pipe.

“I very much appreciate the offer, sir, however I do not smoke,” Ezra replies kindly as he turns away from you to face Pa and you begin washing.

“Good man; do not start the nasty habit until you become old and worn as I am now,” Pa jests.

“I only see a wise man, years of strength and kindness the only evidence that you have lived a wonderful life thus far,” Ezra compliments and Pa releases a hearty laugh.

“As I said: ‘old’,” Pa replies and both Ezra and you laugh along.

The genuine and natural lightheartedness of the conversations Pa and Ezra shared tonight warms your heart and you realize tonight has been one of the few nights you’ve smiled so freely, so frequently, since Ma’s passing and you strongly sense her spirit surrounding the three of you. Almost as if you could hear her laughing along with you all.

Although a feeling of sadness lingers in your heart that she cannot be here physically, you remember Ezra’s kind words and let them ease you. The comfort you feel wash over you leaves you pondering if it’s a sign of acceptance from above, from Ma, that she welcomes Ezra’s presence amongst you and Pa.

“Can I be of any assistance, Sunflower?” Ezra turns and asks quietly, out of earshot of Pa and addressing you by his personal endearment he has bestowed upon you.

“Thank you for offering, Ezra,” you reply just as softly. His given name had nearly slipped from your lips on more than one occasion tonight, but you felt it best to remain coy in front of your father. “I’m nearly finished now.”

“Perhaps tomorrow night. I will not miss my chance then to be of service,” he smiles and the inside of your cheek stings from the bite you dealt to keep from grinning widely. “I will take my leave for the night. The lovely beasts I room with will be missing my presence, I fear,” he says, loud enough for Pa to hear as well and Pa chuckles at his statement.

“Always a pleasure to have you for dinner, Mr. Prospect,” Pa says and stands to shake Ezra’s hand. “Daughter, would you be so kind as to walk Mr. Prospect to the door?”

“Yes Pa,” you nod, abandoning the soapy dishes for the time being and you wipe your hands to dry on your apron as you head towards the door with Ezra.

Pa smiles again in Ezra’s direction as he walks past and takes his seat once again, watching the flames dance and flicker. Ezra opens the door, allowing you to walk through and step on the porch and he follows suit, shutting the door behind him.

“Shall I walk you to the barn?” You offer.

“No, Sunflower, I would prefer you to stay. The dark of night may carry with it many dangers lurking around the corner.”

“All the more reason I should walk with you,” you grin, wrapping your arms around the wooden support post as you watch him step down into the dirt.

“Then I would intend on escorting you back here and we will only find ourselves repeating the action for one another until daybreak,” he chuckles. “Until tomorrow, dear Sunflower.”

“Tomorrow,” you smile and nod. “Good night, Ezra.”

“Good night,” he bows his head in farewell and turns on his heels to head toward the barn. You linger a moment longer to assure he is well on his way, waving when he turns back to steal another glance at you.

You take a deep breath to calm your galloping heart and turn to walk back inside, Pa sitting quietly as he continues smoking. You head back to the wash basin to finish the chore, rinsing, drying, and putting away the dishes before heading over to sit next to Pa, grabbing a new book from your small collection.

You decided to leave Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland to read with Ezra under the tree and the image of the two of you lying in the grass as you read to him brings a contented smile to your face. After quite a bit of comfortable silence, you feel the curiosity inching through your brain like an insect and decide to give in to the itch.

“H-how are the crops faring, Pa?” You ask while picking at the corner of your book.

“They grow fine,” Pa replies simply. “Each and every week another inch to their lives added.”

“And… Mr. Prospect has been much help?” You continue carefully.

“Oh yes, he has taken on the majority of the labor. We are blessed that he sought to help us.”

“Yes,” you smile softly as you lower your head slightly, gathering the courage to continue the conversation. “And… How do you feel about… Mr. Prospect?”

“What do you mean, child?”

“The townspeople think him...odd.”

“They must reflect on themselves before passing that judgement onto an innocent man. Especially the four hens, as you like to call them,” you giggle and look up at Pa, a slight smirk hidden beneath his thick, grey beard as he lets out a deep chuckle.

“Yes, but… What do you think of Mr. Prospect?”

“Why the curiosity, daughter?” He asks, though no irritation is found in his voice; instead, a light-hearted tone, one of knowing. Knowing why you insist on finding out his opinion.

“Merely curious, Pa,” you say quietly, just loud enough for him to hear over the crackle of the fire.

“Hm,” he hums as he inhales smoke through his pipe, taking his time to retrieve an forthright answer from his mind while you gaze at him in anticipation.

“He is an honest man. Good and kind. A hard worker. I believe he is fit to be a lawful husband to any girl who seeks his affection,” he finally says, looking deep into your eyes and his words go straight to your fast beating heart.

You catch the smile on your face growing, evident in the strain you feel across your cheeks and you put your head down to face the book in your lap.

“That's nice,” you reply once you've cleared your throat and regained control of the muscles on your face.

“Yes. Yes it is,” Pa smirks as he inhales another puff from his pipe.

~MAY TENTH OF EIGHTEEN SIXTY-SEVEN~

Today is as exhilarating as the rest; you attempt to sort through the inventory of the shop, taking note of which supplies are dwindling while also marking down new items the townspeople have requested, such as candles and playing cards for the children. As you walk toward the back of the shop, beginning your count of products there, the shop bell dings and you hear boots stomping from whoever has stepped through the door.

“Just a moment, please,” you call out to the customer from over your shoulder, hoping not to lose track of the count in your head.

“Please, do not rush, Sunflower,” a gentle, familiar voice replies and you feel your heart thumping faster in your chest now as you turn quickly, inventory be damned.

“Ezra,” you greet the man standing meekly at the front of the shop. He takes a few steps forward to meet you beside the counter. “What brings you to town? Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh, no thank you, Sunflower. I needed to send a letter off at the post and thought that my day would be much brighter were I able to visit you as well,” he says with a soft grin and you lower your head to hide the bashful expression on your face.

“Well, my day has brightened now, too,” you reply, gaining the courage to look up at him again, the apples of his cheeks reddening. “I trust you were promptly taken care of then?”

“Yes, Mr. Williams is a kind man,” he nods. “The elderly woman who works there as well – she is quite the conversationalist,” he releases a soft laugh.

“Ah, yes. Mrs. Williams,” you shake your head. “She actually does not work there, just adores to be in the center of it all,” you jest and Ezra chuckles. “I do hope she was not too overbearing.”

“Only slightly,” he shrugs. “After you and your Pa, her and Mr. Williams have treated me the kindest since my arrival.”

“Oh Ezra,” you share a perturbed look. “I am truly sorry for the way the town has behaved.”

“Sunflower, you have no reason whatsoever to apologize for the actions of others. Unfortunately, this town has not been the most unpleasant I’ve come across. I was very lucky to have found you. And your Pa,” he rushes the last phrase and you smile knowingly, his mouth curving slightly as well.

You open your mouth to continue the conversation, the innocent coquetry between you, yet no sounds are released from your mouth before the shop bell dings again and you sigh at the interruption. You turn your head and your racing heart, caused by Ezra’s presence, races faster, only in anger now.

“And what do we have here?” Silas’s booming, uninvited voice resonates through the shop. “What business could a queer like you have to conduct in town?” He looks at Ezra and you step in front of him.

“I told you not to call him that, Silas.”

“It does not seem he’s made any purchase,” he says, making a show of looking in Ezra’s hands for any paper bag. “Yet he is allowed to stay and converse while you toss me in the dirt.”

“Go away, Silas.”

“Sunflower-” Ezra calls gently from behind you, unable to finish his thought.

“‘Sunflower’?!” Silas laughs. “She does not need a freak to endear her, not when she has a real man. Like me.”

“Silas, he is more of a man than you could ever hope to be,” you spit out.

Of all the times you had the opportunity to speak your mind to Silas, you held back. Though, now that it is directed to Ezra, you feel that innate protectiveness for him wash over you again, no matter the cost or consequence.

“You dare say such a thing to me, girl?” Silas takes a menacing step forward.

“She is not a girl and you will not speak to her as one,” Ezra moves to stand in front of you now. “And I do believe she has requested for you to take your leave.”

“And exactly who will force me out? You?” Silas puffs out his chest, as if he were attempting to assert his role as an alpha, and frustration grows on his face at Ezra’s lack of response to the tactic.

“If I must.” Ezra replies simply and calmly, the tone of his voice even, though underneath lies a hidden message that he would not back down from a brawl, if it were to come to that.

“Ezra, please, he isn’t worth it,” you say softly, reaching out to hold his forearm.

“Oh, aren’t I?” Silas scoffs.

“I will summon Sheriff Wilson here to collect you himself if you do not leave my shop right this instant,” you hold your unyielding gaze to Silas’s, raising your chin slightly so as to challenge him to defy your wishes.

Silas hmph’s, his thick brows arching menacingly as he glances down at where your hand rests firmly on Ezra’s arm, clearly displeased at the contact. You feel Ezra’s form tense next to you, and you use your free hand to lightly press against his back in an effort to calm him.

“Fine,” Silas finally says harshly as he turns his back to you and Ezra and stomps to the door.

He looks over his shoulder one more time at the two of you and something about his animalistic eyes sends a nasty shiver down your spine. Before he can see you falter, he rips the door open, walks through, and slams it shut, rattling the frame as he leaves. You exhale shakily and Ezra turns his body to face yours, his hands gripping onto your upper arms as his eyes rake over your face in concern.

“Are you alright, Sunflower?”

“Oh Ezra,” you gaze at him thoughtfully. “It should be me asking you that same question.”

“Please, don’t worry about me. My only concern is you,” he continues, his eyes trying to follow yours as you look away from him. “Does he come here unannounced often? Has he bothered you before?”

“Ezra, he has always been a thorn in my side, but it is nothing for you to concern yourself with. I promise,” you look in his eyes, hoping to convince him, but you suspect it does not work and his hands fall from your arms.

“Sunflower… I did not appreciate the way he looked at you and spoke to you.”

“It’s alright Ezra, it is not anything I can’t handle,” you smile and grasp one of his hands in both of yours, squeezing it gently as reassurance.

You’re unsure of what to say. What could you say? That up until now you have been cowardly when it came to Silas Taylor? That it was not until Ezra’s arrival to town that you have come to know a stronger side of yourself, willing to risk your already frail reputation to defend this man’s name?

Ezra sighs heavily, staring into your eyes a moment longer before looking away. You watch his eyebrows crinkle together, the worry wrinkles along his forehead becoming more prominent as he reflects on the situation that just passed.

“Are you alright? Please… Do not take anything he says to heart,” you say softly and your kind voice pulls him back from his thoughts and to this moment with you. He smirks and huffs a chuckle through his nose.

“No fear, Sunflower. It is not a trial I cannot handle,” he cocoons your hands in both of his and squeezes lightly, as if to reassure you he is alright. “I will go now, Sunflower.”

“I understand,” you nod. “Then… I will see you back at the farm for supper.”

He smiles to acknowledge your words, releasing your hands and heading to the door. He turns once more to nod his goodbye, places his hat back on his head, and walks out the door. You walk to the front of the shop to watch him through the window, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slumped forward as he walks swiftly to leave the area.

Your head feels on fire, ready to blow steam at any moment as you watch the townspeople around staring at him. They turn to each other, presumably whispering gossip amongst themselves about him. Unfortunately, as you have come to know Silas, you know he will be spreading word of the ‘threat’ he felt from Ezra, which you surmise will only result in the townspeople turning their backs on Ezra even further.

~MAY TWELFTH OF EIGHTEEN SIXTY-SEVEN~

Ezra had not shown up for supper that night or the night that followed. You had wanted to take supper to him, but Pa advised against it. He had heard on his last trip to town what transpired between you, Ezra, and Silas. You prepared yourself to, once again, defend Ezra, however, Pa’s unabated rancor of Silas all but guaranteed Pa would not believe a word from his mouth.

Pa informed you that when he returned and asked Ezra about the situation, he assured the man that he was not at risk of losing the job at the farm, and while he was grateful, he did not wish to speak on it further. Pa told you to leave him to gather his bearings and you complied.

On your way to the oak tree, you pick two apples as you had done the Sunday prior, and to your earnest disappointment, you do not see Ezra as the tree comes into view. You look left, then right, hoping it was possible he had just walked along the riverbank, but you were alone.

Heaving a sigh, you turn to face the way you came as you debate on heading back. Your weekly tradition almost seemed silly to continue alone, after having been in Ezra’s company the past few weeks. It almost felt...incorrect to spend time here without Ezra now. You take a few steps forward, now under the shade of the tree, sparing another moment in case you missed him.

“Sunflower,” his elated voice from above frightens you and you quickly turn your head to follow the sound, seeing his bright smile from where he sits on a thick branch.

“Ezra! You startled me!” You chuckle as you take a few breaths, covering your racing heart with your hand.

“My apologies,” he chuckles. “I did not hear you walk up otherwise I would have made my presence known sooner.”

“I did not expect to see you in the tree today,” you smile up at him.

“Come, join me,” he smiles, patting the bark to the side of him.

“I have not climbed a tree since I was a child, Ezra. I will fall,” you shake your head.

“I will never let you fall, Sunflower,” he smiles and your now settled heart begins to race again. “It’s simple, really. Nothing to it. I will guide your steps.”

You take a deep breath, pondering for a moment if the risk was truly worth it, but there’s an excitement in this small adventure that you feel your soul reaching for. You smile at Ezra and nod, removing your bag and placing it at the base of the tree.

You follow Ezra’s voice commands as he tells you where to step up and you use more muscles in your body than you have in so long. You heave yourself upwards, careful that your boots do not miss any section of the tree that will have you flying all the way back down.

Finally, you make it far enough for Ezra to take hold of your arm, using his strength now to help pull you up until you’re close enough to attempt to sit. He scoots over, keeping his hand tightly grasped on your arm to make sure you don’t fall. Though, at this point, if you were to fall, Ezra would certainly fall with you.

You plant your bottom firmly onto the branch, breathing heavily and smiling widely at the accomplishment and Ezra chuckles along with you. You try to settle yourself further and suddenly get the sense of falling, reaching out instinctively to hold onto Ezra’s arm and you practically glue yourself to his side for support.

“You will not fall, Sunflower,” he reassures and you feel him lean closer into you to comfort you.

“Pardon me,” you giggle, feeling steady enough now to remove yourself from him. You take a deep breath and look out ahead at the river and the grassland, spotting the other farms in the distance. “Wow,” you say breathlessly. “It’s a beautiful sight.”

“Yes, it is,” Ezra responds softly. You turn your head to him where you already meet his gaze and turn away again as you smile.

“Oh no,” you gasp as your eyes meet your bag down below. “I left the book… And the apples,” you turn to frown at Ezra.

“Do not fret, Sunflower,” he smiles. “I enjoy your company regardless.”

“Maybe...you could read me more of your prose?” You prod gently, hoping he will be willing.

“Yes,” he says wistfully as he glances down at his journal. “I do like when you read to me, however.”

You smile as he passes his journal to you and you cradle it with care in your hands. You move to open it and the binding opens automatically to one page, clearly still stiff from where he had it open, this addition to the pages only written just recently. You clear your throat and let your eyes dance as they pick up the words in his neat handwriting.

“‘A being from a different universe desires to live amongst the men in peace on Earth, for his purpose to be written in the stars. A nomad, an outcast on the run, desperate for a residence more suitable than his dreams. Soon, he will find home, and soon, he will find life’,” your voice trails towards the end of the passage, your heart wrenching at the meaning behind it.

“Ezra…” You call softly once you notice his head has lowered.

The silence stretches and you can almost visualize it expanding across the lands in front of your view, any helpful or comforting words escaping from your reach. The only conclusion your mind seems to come to is just to place a hand softly on his thigh. You feel his muscle twitch at the contact and he glances over at you, a light tint of pink beginning to spread across his cheeks.

You suddenly feel embarrassed to have placed your hand there and you immediately think to yourself that perhaps it was not welcomed, though before you can remove your hand, Ezra places his own, large and warm, over yours. Your mind settles while your heart beats rapidly. You still do not know what to say, but it does not seem Ezra is expecting for you to say anything at all.

“I’ve missed you at supper, Ezra,” you whisper and grin softly.

“Forgive me for my absence, I was not… I did not feel…” You sense him struggling as he lowers his head again and you place your other hand on top of your intertwined ones.

“I understand; you have no need to apologize.”

He looks at you again and you give him a reassuring smile and he returns the gesture. You two say nothing and let the comfortable silence blanket the air around you while you gaze out to your surroundings again, your hands not leaving each other’s grasp.

“Sunflower?” He calls and you turn to face him again.

“Yes, Ezra?”

“I’ve missed you as well.”

Chapter Four || Chapter Six

Series || Main || Taglist || AO3

Tags: @the-ginger-hedge-witch @asta-lily @honeymandos @pascalpanic @aliwritesfic @mandocrasis @hnt-escape @winter-fox-queen @sarahjkl82-blog @day-off-inkyoto @pedrocentric @astoryisaloveaffair @amandalovess @foli-vora @lucrezia-thoughts @chasingdreamer @quica-quica-quica @pedro4ever @mishasminion360 @wardenparker @librariantothejedi @fan-of-encouragement @javierpinme @writeforfandoms @ew-erin @you-got-me-starry-eyed @beskarboobs @andiesturgss @maryfanson @princessxkenobi @castleamc @magpie-to-the-morning @pbeatriz @radiowallet @stevie75 @honestly-shite @bison-writes @amneris21 @disgruntledspacedad

Ezra Prospect Tags: @quietpainter @grogusmum @tenderwhat