#okay ill shout for you to save me if i run into trouble.

[mejomonster]

I'm only in ep 14 I'm so soft about fang xiaobao though. ;-; li lianhua simply. Switches to that as soon as he realizes. I want to see fang duobing make a mention of it

[jennaissantes]

sillage — yjw

sillage: (n.) the trace of someones perfume.

SYPNOSIS: yang jungwon knows youre pretty. hes always thought you were pretty. just how long can he manage to keep that to himself? OR the five times you catch yourself lingering on jungwon.

PAIRING: black cat!jungwon x golden retriever! reader [gn but a bit fem implied i think]

WC: 1.2k

GENRE: fluff!!! friends to lovers. sort of clumsy reader and jungwon who always takes care of them.

WARNINGS: none i think oh em jees

NOTE: happy birthday wonnie 💗💗💗💗💗 thank you for being such a wonderful leader and being with enha ☹️ pls take care of urself ilysm ☹️❤️❤️❤️ i hope u guys like this fic huhu 😅😋 do reblog!!

jungwon knew you were pretty.

he had always thought you were pretty, ever since the first time he met you, which was at jay’s house party. 

your hair under your baseball cap and pretty lashes peeking out, he knew he was in trouble. He wondered if hed ever be able to tell you how pretty you were.

i. 

“mom ill be home a bit late today! ill be at jungwons for a project, love you bye!” you shouted over your shoulder as you struggled to carry all your things through the door. 

your bag, along with a half eaten sandwich and your wallet and a book in your two hands, anyone could tell that you were running late. but you couldn’t care less, you just really needed to catch the bus on time and see jungwon. 

seeing his smile in the morning was something you couldn’t start your day without. 

you ran to your bus stop, thanking all the gods in a silent prayer when you saw your usual bus arrive.

“just on time again huh y/n?” the driver smiles warmly at you and you laugh at him in slight embarrassment before nodding and going inside.

you move towards the back of the bus, and sit at your usual place, smiling in excitement as you see jungwon boarding the bus. his eyes search for you and when he spots you, he sends you a smile, and you let out a sigh of happiness, returning the smile.

he walks up to your seat, eyeing all the things you were holding in your hands. “do you want me to hold a few of your stuff while you try to put them in your bag?”

you dont need to answer him as he takes your book and wallet from your hands so you can open your bag with your now free hands.

he helps you keep your things inside and sets your bag on your lap, looking at you. “rough morning?”

you look at him “yeah. oh god i missed my alarm again! how could i be so forgetful, really.”

jungwon just smiles at your ranting and gives you one of his airpods as he plays your favourite song. 

you try not to blush when you notice his lingering stare on you.

ii. 

you rushed out of your class, just almost tripping over your untied laces. it wasnt often that you fell down so why bother?

you were excited to see jungwon after that horrendous physics lesson. you had no idea how jake sim managed to love the subject so much. maybe someday youd ask him for his help.

you enter the cafeteria and your eyes search for jungwon. it was very crowded but you managed to find him, sitting by your usual table, with one seat reserved for you. he smiles at you and waves at you to come over.

“saved you a seat. how was physics?” you sit down and take out your lunch. “oh gods it was terrible. i will never understand physics.” jungwon smiles at you.

“anyways we should probably eat quick, riki said he wanted to show us something.” you raise your eyebrows. “that kids probably up to no good again.”

“as if you didnt sneak out with him just last week to go to that concert. i couldve bought us tickets you know?” you giggle at him “it was soooo much more fun to sneak around. you shouldve been there won. if only you didnt have to stay home that day.” you pout.

jungwon ruffles your hair, “its okay we’ve got so many more we can attend together. properly this time, not by sneaking around.” you feel your cheeks heat up at the thought of going to concerts with jungwon, alone.

“okay lets go, riki must be waiting.” jungwon walks next to you by the hallway, noticing how you try to match your steps with him. adorable.

“wait your shoelaces are untied. ill tie them for you.” he stops you and bends down before you can even say anything. “won its okay. its not like im gonna fall down anyways.” 

he gets up after tying them, a satisfied smile on his face.

 “still”

iii.

“you are such a dumbass. i swear to GOD y/n you have got to stop calling me at 3am to go shopping with you.”

you can only laugh at his tired frustration. of course no one liked being woken up at this hour, but you really wanted to go on a midnight convenience store run.

“i should. but i think we both know that i wont.”

he can only roll his eyes at you fondly. 

you drag him to the ice cream section and gasp when you see your favourite flavour at the top. but before you can grab it, you see jungwon grabbing it. 

“this is your favourite flavour isnt it? lets get this one and share.”

oh. he remembers your favourite flavour. 

you stand there, unmoving, as jungwon moves towards the cashier and pays for the ice cream. 

“y/n? arent you coming? i already paid for it.”

“what? oh. oh yeah. wait up.”

iv.

you were about to combust.

holding hands with jungwon was new. not a bad new, it was good. 

what if your hands were too sweaty and he felt disgusted? what if hes just being nice? you did feel cold after all. him holding your hands and putting it in his coat pocket was just.. normal. it happened between friends all the time. right?

“you feel any warmer?” his voice breaks you out of your train of thoughts.

“yeah i guess.” you dont look at him, opting to look at your feet and walking in sync with your best friend.

you think that he would let go of your hand now that youve told him you feel better. but no? he only tightens his grip on your hand.

your already red cheeks feel even warmer at the action.

if only you had taken a look at jungwons face too, youd have seen a small smile on his face and his adorable red ears.

v.

“how many times do i have to tell you to not play in the rain. youre going to get even more sick if you do.”

you had finally faced the consequences of playing around in the rain when you should have stayed in. jungwon had rushed to your place the moment he had gotten to know.

you looked at him apologetically, before you felt another sneeze coming up your nose. jungwon looked at you in worry before getting up to make you something hot, to help with the cold.

“you dont have to y’know.” you say to him weakly. jungwon was the only person who took care of you during times like this. he appeared put off to others, because he didnt like talking to many people. but only you and a few of his other friends knew how he really was.

“oh but i do. if i dont, whos gonna take care of you?” he says, giving you some tea.

you dont know if it was that particular lighting in your room, but you really wanted to kiss him. you were almost sure that he liked you back. or at least thats what you thought. either way it didnt hurt to try right?

“can i kiss you won?”

what. 

how could you just ask him that so casually?

“what?” he asks you, his heart stuttering in his chest. jungwon thinks hes never liked someone as much as he likes you. 

“can i kiss you jungwon?” you repeat your question, your heart beating out of your body in anticipation. 

“yes.” he manages to get out. but before you can do anything, he stops you. “but not now okay? youre sick right now. do you want to get me sick too?” he smiles at you pouting.

“no .. but… ok fine youre right. then id have to take care of you too.” you roll your eyes playfully as jungwon carefully slips into the bed next to you, and places your head on his shoulder.

“i really like you y/nnie.”

“i really like you a lot too won.”

and now jungwon knows he can never let go of your lingering perfume smell around him. ever. 

i.

jungwon thinks youre pretty. maybe even more than before. but this time, he lets you know how pretty he thinks you are, always with a kiss.

[abominationvault]

Session 34: Sat 4 May 2024

Being ill is rubbish, the DM and I do not recommend it. Hartvig has to paint a lizard on a moped. BWJ1 has missed his nap and is furious, BWJ2 is making lots of nappies and is very healthy and happy. :)

Magiloy is a lady Tengu, it turns out. (No wonder Jorg’ath had trouble talking to her.) If we need to improve her disposition towards us for the purposes of selling her our old shi- I mean, our hard-won treasures, Sprocket can do an adorable little dance at her. In a Danny Glover voice. (“I can dance, motherfucker!”) I am told that it’s canon that Sprocket has no inside voice, also.

Jorg’ath makes five Fortitude saves for the samples he is testing for Magiloy: 22, 27, 24, 24, 26 and an accidental 12 that doesn’t count because it was only five rolls. He is hammered, but otherwise okay. He gets 5 gold pieces for his troubles. Nadia sells some violet venom and a scroll and has a rearrange of her belongings, and helps Jorg’ath sort a backpack for Sprocket.

We trek back down, Nadia with her new crossbow in hand. Secret doors! Bird fancying! Secret doors first, we follow Jorg’ath to the one on the right. He kicks it open. “Bosh!” He finds carved sarcophagi, and some ledges that drop down into a cavern. There are blue lights, one of which is bright and constant and the other flickers softly. Jorg’ath backs up and boshes the other door open instead. 3 iron cages hang from chains, a wooden table and manacles and a red whip with a silver handle. In one corner, staring listlessly into space, is this:

She is regular person-sized. Skabb clears her throat. “Friend?” Jorg’ath closes the door.

We push Hartvig to the front. Jorg’ath has his back, he can do this. “Okay. I raise my shield,” Hartvig says, earning himself a Hero point. As he enters, it smells like iron. It might be rust. (“It’s blood. It’s definitely blood.”) Sounding disinterested, she says “Welcome to my torture chamber. Would you like to stay here forever?” Hartvig looks behind himself to make sure Jorg’ath hasn’t closed the door behind him.

She sighs. “You can either stay here and never return, or leave.”

Hartvig senses that her heart isn’t in this. He introduces himself. He makes a Perception check, in spite of Jorg’ath encouraging a Romance check. He rolls a red 7. “This game hates me.” Jorg’ath winces, sucking in air through his teeth.

She is waiting for Hartvig's response. He is going to not commit to a forever stay, also he is sort of generally opposed to torture although he admits there is a conversation to be had here. Vaulgrist sighs.

“Fine. Die.”

“These are some of those boundaries I was talking about,” Hartvig says as we roll Initiative and Perception checks.

Luna, Nadia and Sprocket can all join in with the initiative, but the others are distracted for a round.

Hartvig sees her - she is some sort of demon (I miss the description…). Jorg’ath: “She sounds like Hartvig’s kind of girl!” They have Pain Sight, once they’ve hurt you, you can’t hide from them. Cool.

Sprocket is first! (Radio silence for a bit. Hartvig: “He’s already asleep.”) “Our friends are in danger, follow me!” (Danny Glover Danny Glover Danny Glover.) He marches up the pathway to find Hartvig. “What’s this doodad on the wall?” Ah, it’s Grabbins. Sprocket uses all his actions on movement and still doesn’t really know what’s going on. Next!

Hartvig. “If you’d led with the whole pain thing, we could have had a different conversation…Would you vibe with this?” He casts Torturous Trauma, but 12 misses. “Shit.” He raises his shield.

Nadia runs in - we all have to do a Will save. (Because the DM forgot to make us do it before, not because Nadia arrived suddenly.) Jorg’ath and Nadia are fine, but Hartvig sees the demon’s face morph into the face of someone he’s loved and lost, and is Frightened 2. “Stop scaring my friend!” Nadia shouts and shoots her new crossbow, which misses. “… You. Knock it off. Or else.”

Luna does some measuring and runs up to join the group. “Is that a bad guy or a good guy? I can only see half of him.” It’s Hartvig. DM: “It’s a bad guy, but it’s your bad guy.” She hides, confident that she’s hidden.

Jorg’ath runs at the demon and strikes with his longsword, offended on Hartvig’s behalf that she seems to have turned him down. 27 just hits. Everyone at once: “Just hits?!”

Chains in the room sprout stuff and whip it at us:

38 hits Jorg’ath (groaning all around), 25 hits Hartvig, 29 hits Nadia. Owie.

Skabb rolls Initiative and joins in, and then we’re back to Sprocketses.

Sprocket will do Evolution Surge and make Augustus a lot quicker:

Augustus comes in and does a Fist Slam, but 21 misses. “… Th-that’s us.”

Hartvig. “Me again? Ohhhh…” He tries a Ray of Enfeeblement, but she says no. He casts Guidance on Jorg’ath.

Skabb is next, and spends her actions to move up the pathway.

Nadia, very much uncertain that we can win this, shoots twice because she might as well and then gets the fuck out of dodge.

Luna shoots Vaulgrist in the face. “Zing.” She hits, misses, and follows Nadia out of the room.

Jorg’ath takes a couple of swings and then will leg it also. 22 misses, 13 misses, and he’s outtie. “Run!”

“Stay there,” the DM tells him, as she gets an attack of opportunity with her bloody chains. “Have a little parting gift,” the DM says. “I appreciate it,” says Jorg’ath, bleeding gently.

Vaulgrist does Focus Gaze at Hartvig:

He rolls a 19 Will save and fails, so she is hidden from him. She hits him with her chain for 13 more damage. No wait - that’s 10 above his AC, so that’s a crit and he’s out… Also pinned to the floor:

Vaulgrist then does another chain attack on Augustus - 28 hits for 23 damage.

(Hartvig, idly: “I suppose the good thing is, I’m not afraid any more now that I’m dead.”)

Sprocket is up, and he has a question about attacks of opportunity in Pathfinder - in 5e you only get one Reaction per round. Can you use AOO’s just whenever in Pathfinder? The DM consults his book of nightmares and comes back with “… Oh, that is nasty.” It turns out that yes, she can just attack of opportunity as long as the trigger condition is met (a creature in melee range moves away from her. Or stands up from being prone while having the audacity to be on the floor at her feet).

Sprocket and Augustus have a hurried, telepathic, conversation. Augustus will make a grapple attempt on Vaulgrist, but the DM offers to tell him her Fortitude DC before he rolls. He decides to roll blind, and goes Athletics: an 8. “Ah.” He Hero Points for a 15, not good. He will keep her busy while the rest of us rescue Hartvig. Augustus Fist Slams and misses, twice. “Done. Sorry, that was very underwhelming.”

Hartvig does a Death Save: 3. “Ohh! Nope. It’s looking bleak.” He is now Dying Two.

Skabb has a question about the chains. Are they moving magically or mechanically? Grabbins thinks there might be magic involved. Dispel Magic likely won’t work here, however. Skabb will run in with Nadia and together they pull the chain from Hartvig’s body. Can we drag him out of the room with the rest of our turns? The DM will allow it! We drag him out! As a free action, Skabb wants to flick a bogey at the blue woman. Hartvig, impressed: “Badass.”

Luna’s turn. She leans in to the room, takes a shot, and ducks back out. 22 misses. “Poor Augustus,” she says, and shuts the door, leaving him in there with the torture demon. (The DM, highly amused, awards her a Hero Point.)

Does Jorg’ath want to go running back in? No, he wants to barricade the door.

Vaulgrist looks at Augustus, seeing that she’s damaged him but that there’s no blood. She pokes a finger in the bit where she hit him, and sits down, dejected. “Get out.”

Augustus pats her on the shoulder with his nail hands, shrugs, and walks away from her.

(Just so we know, if we hadn’t rescued Hartvig, she would have put him in a cage, revive him with potions, and proceed to torture him forever. Hartvig, sounding slightly shocked: “You put yourself out there, get yourself impaled-slash-disembowelled…”)

Jorg’ath shakes Hartvig back to consciousness and does some medicine at him. He is now no longer Dying 2, but Wounded 1. He comes to with a sigh. “Oh! Did she say yes…?” He turns a slightly rosier shade of grey, like liver.

Sprocket climbs onto Hartvig’s chest. “Better luck next time. Maybe the next lady will be more appreciative of your gifts.” Danny Glover Danny Glover.

Blue lights then? Yeah, let’s put our heads in. Jorg’ath boots the door back open again. “Oooh there’s a glowing rock!”

The ceiling rises to 25 ft, stone sarcophagi, carved with emaciated figures. The wall drops into a cavern. Lights to north and south, north lights flicker softly and south lights are stronger. Jorg’ath thinks the carved figures look like Hartvig.

“I’m going,” Jorg’ath announces, still wounded and before any of us can say anything or have a discussion about this. “Jesus Christ,” says Skabb, and sits down for a flask of tea.

The DM tells Jorg’ath, and Jorg’ath alone, to roll initiative. (Short pause, then giggling. Oh, that's bad.)

The sarcophagi burst open and something comes out. (Skabb to Jorg'ath, exasperated: “It’s like you’ve never played Skyrim!”)

(Hartvig, sarcastically: “Oh, Jorg’ath, have you asked her if she’s single?” Jorg’ath immediately uses an action to ask the Wight if she’s single.)

Jorg’ath attacks, and the Wight attacks back. 33 to hit. (Skabb: “You know we’re not going to come and get your corpse, right?”) He makes a Fortitude save, fails, and is Drained 1, giving his HP to the Wight. It hits him again. Jorg’ath: “Ohhhhh, no…” It hits him a third time, but it misses.

Another comes out and hits him as well. “Mmmm. I’ve… Mmmm. I’ve fallen down.”

Do the rest of us hear the sound of Jorg’ath bleeding to death? Nadia heard the sound of something dropping like a sack of shit. She sighs. “Come on then.” She enters the room to see the sarcophagus in front of her become see-through, and she sees a desiccating corpse. (Jorg’ath: “That’s me.”) She pulls out her Healing potion, pours it on her gun and fires it at Jorg’ath. 6HP back!

Another corpse animates. Nadia shoots, misses, shouts over her shoulder at the rest of the gang, and rolls initiative.

(Skabb, grumpy: “I’m only doing this for Nadia.”)

The rest join in, and Nadia is up first. She comes in, shoots a glue bullet and misses, and presses against a wall.

Jorg’ath Rages, as he’s furious, and hits the one behind him with his sword. “How does he feel about that.” 23 hits, then 19 misses.

El Goblino. She uses all three actions to move in and stands in the middle of the room, waiting for something to hit her.

We attack, they attack, Jorg’ath has another lie down. He makes a Fortitude save and is only Dying 2.

Hartvig does a 2-er for Jorg’ath (“My guy!”), giving him back 26 hp!

Nadia pulls out a Tanglefoot bag and slams it into the face of the wight in front of her, and runs the fuck away with all 9 of her hit points:

Jorg’ath misses an attack and does some Battle Medicine at himself. It fails. “Well, that’s me. Thanks guys.”

Skabb starts her turn with a Perception check: a 20. She hears a familiar voice coming from the east. “I smell you, goblin! I won’t warn you again!” Uh oh. It’s that werewolf. She warns the rest of us that he’s close by. She worries that he’s given her an ASBO.

Would it take an action to shout back at him? If she’s just mugging him off, then no. She yells something insulting, and turns her attention to the matter at hand. She has a scroll of Healing, so she pulls it out and can hopefully hit everyone including the wights with a 3-er. She Hero Points her 2hp back, transforming it to an 8. Yay!

Luna’s turn. “Eine minuten on the cat.” She takes out a vial of holy water and attaches it to an arrow. (Could we soak Sprocket in holy water and attach him to an arrow…? No? Okay.) 29 hits for 5 damage, plus the holy water (1d6) - and, one splash damage to the other one as well. She has an action left, so she hides. She is not, however, confident that she is hidden.

Augustus, with Sprocket in hand, moves into the room, rapidly evaluates the situation, and holds Sprocket up. Sprocket goes limp, and Augustus throws him over the heads of his chums toward the wights and Jorg’ath. Strength check: 10. Sprocket slides the rest of the way, fetching up at the feet of one of the wights. Augustus then casts Shield, and Sprocket remains prone like a fallen rag doll. “Step one of our multi-step plan.”

(Technical difficulties, Skabb, Jorg’ath and the DM all are kicked from Discord. We won the fight while the DM was out, we tell him when they come back. Sprocket cast Wish. DM: “I would tell him to wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up first, but sadly neither would fill up at all. Poor Sprocket.” Sprocket tells us that he imagines that if he could shit, it would look like Skittles.)

The wights do some more attacks on Jorg’ath. “Well, I guess next week we’re getting our cat back,” Jorg’ath says, dejectedly. They also swoosh up and attack Luna… She’s still up, but 32 is a lot. Does 25 hit Augustus Clementine? Yes. Ow.

Hartvig casts Heal at level 3 - 9hp back for everyone. The wights take some damage - well, one does.

Wait - the one that moved was Tanglefooted! It can’t move, so Luna and Augustus didn’t take the damage. (Nadia wins a Hero point for pointing that out.)

Nadia uses her last Ghost charge on one (dealing splash damage to the other in the process), then crits with her new crossbow for 17 more damage! Then Jorg’ath crits and gets the howdydoodis! “Very… Woundedly.” He painfully lifts his sword in one injured arm, and drops it on the wight’s head.

Skabber next, and she flips through her spell cards to find one that is roll-to-hit and doesn’t force a saving throw. “I think I can do slashing gust…?” She can use the wand of missiles, as we’ve rested since last time she used it. (Character sheet weirdness causes her some problems. Jorg’ath: “I guess that’s why they call them can’t trips. Heh heh. Heh heh.” Skabb, cross: “It’s not me who’s always falling on my ass.”) The DM rolls for her, and lets her roll her damage - 7 total. Good enough!

Luna is AFK, selfishly taking care of her week-old baby, so Sprocket takes over and fires her shortbow for her. She Hero points the 16 for a 14. (This Goddess of Death thing only works when she rolls for herself, it seems.) (It’s Todd Howard’s fault.) She scooches into an alcove to hide.

Sprocket’s plan is not coming together as he has to be in their space, but instead he yells “Surprise motherfucker!” He crits, and gets a Hero Point for Phase Bolt. 14 damage! Second attack misses, but no-one will remember that. Can Augustus run and belly-bump the last wight? He makes a Strength check, taking the rusty nails into account. 17, enough to get him up there.

Grabbins appears! She drops a healing potion onto Jorg’ath and a holy water onto the wight. Wait, it’s not Grabbins, it’s Skabb’s buddy… Belches!

“Skabbo! And uglies! Come to town!”

It’s the wight’s turn. It attacks Jorg’ath, and crits. He goes down again, and is now Dying 4… “Don’t worry, I got one more.” It hits Augustus and crits again, then goes for Sprocket and crits a third time. Sprocket: “… I was calculating what my hit points are, but they’re none.” All of our books and 30 gold pieces fall out of Augustus as he vanishes. Let’s hope the cat doesn’t spot the gold.

Hartvig does another level 2 Heal - no, he will do Needle Darts and then raise his shield. “Bam. I raise my shield.”

Nadia shoots a bunch and misses everything. “That was rubbish, sorry guys.”

Jorg’ath is Dying 4, so he has to roll a 14 or higher: 17! Yeah! He is stable, but still down.

(Sprocket: “Someone needs to heal me, I have a brilliant plan.”)

Skabb shoots her magic missiles again, for a green 5 Force damage per missile. She goes for Hydraulic Push, 22 hits for 8 bludgeoning. She has one action left, so she sling shots it. 25! Howdydoodis! She doesn’t care about killing the wight as she’s just realised she can go and cuddle Belches! She stretches on her tippy toes, grabbing at the air for him. He descends to just beyond her reach and lets her brush his belly; it’s the softest fur she’s ever felt.

“Where’s Grabbo?” he demands, and she remembers that she left her in the corridor, “because I respect her!”

“Come quick, the hippy ritual is going down!” He drops healing potions on Jorg’ath and Sprocket, bringing them back up. “Lazy uglies! Come on!”

We will leave Jorg’ath on a warm rock while we see to this. Wait - Flashbang will heal him up. We will start next week back in town. Skabb rummages in the wight remains to see if they have anything good. Swords, and studded leather armour. Anyone want that? Sprocket doesn’t think it’ll fit him.

“I didn’t think you were going to win that, guys, well done,” the DM tells us.

[stardewtales]

Your shane x reader are some of the first I read when i got into sdv, and they still hold a li special place in my heart <3 I love the way you wrote shane, jas, and the farmer (you kept the farmer rather neutral, but you still gave her moments of personality, rlly great stuff!), anyway, I'd love any shane related stuff you would do, but if your looking for a request, the reader teaching him abt farming/gardening (planting hot peppers together eee) i think would be rlly cute-ok bye lysm!!!

A/N: hey lovely!! If you're still around, thank you so much for this. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get to your request, but here it is! Hope it lives up to your expectations xx

Shane can feel you hovering behind him.

"What is it," he groans, not bothering to turn around.

"Sorry," he hears you say. "Just, be careful with the roots, please? I don't want all your work to be for nothing."

Well, he can't exactly fault you for that. If anything, he's ashamed because he was distracted while you showed him the whole thing about the roots.

He turns to look at you. "Would you, uh... mind showing me again?"

His stomach twists as you smile at him, thoroughly amused. "Sure thing. Here, let me get in there..."

You kneel beside him, knees firmly planted in the dirt beside his. You proceed to show him how to dig around the roots instead of into them for a second time that afternoon. For a second time, he finds it hard to focus with you so close, but he fights that a little harder this time.

"Here," you hand him back the trowel, "give it another shot."

He can't miss the way the look you give him is so damn encouraging. You've given him plenty of variations on that look by now, with various degrees of concern thrown into the mix. He proceeds to try digging up the pepper plant again, the sun boring down on the back of his neck as he does it.

"Am I getting it right, now?" he asks, glancing up at you quickly.

"Couldn't do it better myself," you nod exaggeratedly, and he fakes throwing dirt at you in retaliation.

It gets a laugh out of you, clear and joyful. It stirs something inside him, the feeling that's been nagging at him sort of often these days. It hits him like a ton of bricks in that moment that this is the feeling he used to chase all the way down the bottles, the sort of rush he used to think would make up for everything else.

He must've made a face when he realized it, because your brows furrow in concern.

"Are you o-" you start, but you're cut off short by a girlish squeal further down the field.

Him and you both shoot up, surveying the surroundings.

"Jas?" you half-shout, concerned.

"I think I need some help," her voice pipes up sheepishly, and the two of you finally spot her, fallen on her butt among the sunflowers.

You huff, relieved, and tell him you've got it with a brief touch on his arm before you leave in Jas's direction. Now that he knows she's not hurt, he can go back to making sense of his thoughts, yet he barely registers the lingering feeling of your fingers on his forearm.

He kneels and gets back to work, distraught. His first instinct is to worry. The therapist Harvey connected him with cautioned him pretty early on about the way some addicts replaced one addiction with another, and that all good things should perhaps be enjoyed in moderation while he was on the road to recovery.

You're the best thing in his life by far, but he failed to keep you at arm's length a long time ago now. He's not dense enough to be unaware that he's developed some pretty strong feelings for you. But this particular feeling is new-ish, and he doesn't quite know what to make of it. As his fingers dig up the pepper plant out of the ground and he gently removes chunks of dirt from the roots, Shane hopes really hard this doesn't mean he's allowed himself to veer all the way of the right path he's been trying so hard to stick to.

He hates to think about it, but maybe he needs to cool off on seeing you so often so he can at least get a grip. He can't even recall the last time he went a day without seeing you. Sometime in the spring, probably? It's the very end of summer now.

After he's transferred the plant to the wheelbarrow, Shane stands up and looks around. You're still helping Jas uproot some sunflowers, even though her initial job was just to collect the stray seeds. Officially, he and her were there to help you wrap up the summer crops so you could transfer some to your greenhouse. In reality, he was helping you; Jas was causing more trouble than she was helping, but you didn't seem to mind at all, more than happy to show her over and over how to handle things properly.

He didn't know how you did it. It's like you had an endless well of patience, and he knew he ought to have reached the pit of it by now. And yet, he had not. There were depths to your kindness that reached far enough that even after dealing with him through his recovery, you still had plenty left for Jas in all her fumblings and ill-advised adventures.

For the rest of the afternoon Shane managed to clear his mind and just keep working somewhat efficiently. Marnie came around just before dinnertime to get Jas, who was too exhausted from running around by then to protest. Marnie had also let him know she'd save him a portion of dinner for when he came home, but to take his time, which he'd made sure to thank her for.

It wasn't long until Jas left before you and him moved on to replanting the uprooted plants into the greenhouse. He liked that part more than the digging up; liked the hazy warmth of the greenhouse more than the blaring heat of the field. The two of you worked mostly in silence, both exhausted, him perhaps more than you.

After you planted the last of yours and he was halfway through his own last plant, he heard you clap your hands together to shake the dirt off your gloves, before you fully shrieked.

"What's wrong?" he quickly turned towards you.

"Your neck!" you replied, walking over to him. "Did you not put on sunscreen like I told you to?"

Shane instinctively reaches for the back of his neck, and while the sunburn doesn't hurt yet, he can feel the tell-tale heat coming off of it.

"Ah, shit. Think I missed a spot."

You tut at him, shooing his hand off so you can take a better look.

"You big idiot," you chastise him affectionately. "You're lucky I have an infinite amount of aloe in the house from last summer."

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

As Shane steps out of the shower and into your steam-filled bathroom, he can already tell he'll be sore from all this work. He doesn't know how you do this every day. He tries to get a look at himself in the mirror, but it's too fogged up. Probably better that way, he thinks.

He's used your shower plenty of times before, and he's glad that at the very least it doesn't feel as awkward as it used to. While he was still in the pits of getting sober, you'd graciously let him stay over on your couch so Jas didn't have to see him struggle when it got too hard. He still doesn't know why you did that, or how to repay you for it.

After putting on his clothes, he steps out into your living room, where you're waiting for him with a huge tub of the goo you intend to smear on his sunburn. You've showered too, and made him do it after you because otherwise you claimed he'd just wash off the aloe later, which was probably right.

"C'mere," you beckon him over to sit on the arm of your couch.

He chuckles. It's funny to him, how bossy you get when you're trying to take care of him. Nevertheless, he does as he's told and dutifully sits down like you instruct him. And waits.

Nothing happens.

"You okay back there?" he asks, looking over his shoulder.

You raise a brow. "Aren't you gonna take off your shirt? How am I supposed to get this on you otherwise?"

He feels a bubble of panic rush up. He's in better shape than he used to be, but he's still not much to look at, and he doesn't like the idea of you finding that out like this. "Is that really necessary?"

You sigh, and he knows there will be no convincing you. He feels the tips of his ears burn as he lifts his shirt over his head, dropping it at his feet and taking precious care not to look back at you. "Happy?" he mumbles.

"Hmhm," you hum quietly behind him.

You bring your aloe-coated fingers to his burning skin, and instantly he feels consumed by ice-cold flames. He was not prepared for you to touch him quite so gently, to work the gel into his skin in tiny, careful circles. His throat runs dry as he's reminded of his earlier conclusion that he needs to take some time away from you, for both of your sakes. If the way his body is reacting to this isn't proof, he doesn't know what would be.

You let him know you're done, and he promptly puts his shirt back on. He wishes he hadn't when the stickiness gets a hold of the collar.

"So, just a heads up," you start, screwing the jar of aloe vera shut, "I'm gonna be really busy tomorrow I think. So maybe hanging out in the evening when I'm done would be better?"

He's taken aback by the way this is coming up faster than he anticipated. Still, No time like the present I guess, he thinks to himself.

"About that," he clears his throat, "I think it might be better if I spend some alone time for a while."

He watches you still. You look up at him slowly, visibly confused. "Have I done something wrong?" you ask, and it kills him. "I'm sorry if I have, I know I can be a little overbearing sometimes," you start to ramble, but he cuts you off.

"No, no, none of that," he tries to reassure you. "It's just, uh, how do I say this," he scratches at his head, genuinely at a loss. "Remember how I told you my therapist said I should, like, maybe be careful about things I enjoy a lot? And about... strong emotions?"

You nod, but he can tell from your slight frown you're still confused.

"Well, it's kinda like that. I feel really good when I'm with you. Maybe a little too good. Strong stuff. But I don't wanna depend on you to feel... good. I wanna keep this healthy, yeah?"

You ponder his words, and he can tell he hasn't really gotten his point across. "I mean, I think I get where you're coming from, maybe? But Shane, I think it's okay for you to have a support system. Is it really so bad if being with a friend makes you feel good? I think that's how most people feel."

He shakes his head, huffing. "No, it's not like that."

"Then what is it like?"

His eyes meet yours, and he feels weak. "Please don't make me say it," he whispers.

"Shane," you reach out to touch his shoulder, "You're worrying me."

He swallows. Before he knows it, it tumbles out of him. "I have feelings for you. I have for a while. And lately it's gotten a little out of control. So I need some time away from you to get over it, okay? I don't want things to be weird. I need you too much to have things be weird. So I need to figure it out before it gets there."

You stare at him, and he sees so many emotions run across your face that he gets dizzy.

"You... what?" you say quietly after a while.

He feels heat rise from his chest all the way to his ears, like some twisted type of nausea. "Forget it, alright? That's not the point I'm trying to make. I just..." he breathes, "I'll see you in a few days, yeah?"

He doesn't wait for a response. He goes for the door right away, in a real hurry to leave this place where everything is so blatantly yours, down to the smell of your lotion lingering in the air from your bare legs.

But you don't let him leave. He feels your hand on his arm, a real grip this time, and the next thing he knows you're reaching for his neck and bringing his mouth to meet yours. Shane thinks he's forgotten how to make his blood run, how to make his lungs breathe, how to make his limbs move. You're pressing your lips on his with a fervor he didn't even know you had in you. Then, with an instinct of its own, his body kicks back into gear, and he feels himself wrapping his arms around you, bringing you closer yet as he pours all the energy he has left into kissing you back.

It's desperation that compels him, because he never imagined this would ever happen outside of his mind, outside of his daydreams. He's not even convinced he'll ever get to do it again, so he's making this one count.

He genuinely has no idea how much time has passed when you break away from him, panting. You're not saying anything, just searching his eyes with yours.

"Please say something," he eventually breathes.

He watches as you swallow, then exhale loudly. "I don't want to see you in a few days only. I wanna see you now and in the middle of the night and every moment of every day. I don't want you to go and get over me, because I don't think I'll be able to get over you if you do, Shane. So don't leave me. Stay. Please."

Your words fluster him a great deal more than he already is. "Okay," he nods, in a half-daze.

"Yeah?" you make sure, still catching your breath.

"Yeah," he confirms. "Anything for you. Of course."

[texanredrose]

Prep and Goth

Day 1: Enemies to Lovers/Secret Library Time

---

Weiss stared at the clock, mentally urging the second hand to move faster. The transition between this period and the next always took the longest- or at least it felt like time slowed down around this point in the day. She hated how the end of the period never caught her off guard; she was always keenly aware of the clock, with her work done and backpack already packed and ready for her to leave the classroom. She was usually the first one out the door.

“Hey, if I give you five lien, could you get me a redbull?”

“No, Ruby; for the last time, I don’t have a release period next, I’m a library aide.”

“Oh, come on, everyone knows you just show up, sign in, and disappear!” Her fellow senior slumped in her seat. “It’s not like you’re going to get in trouble! Ms. Goodwitch knows you ditch and she doesn’t say anything!”

How she’d become friends- perhaps even best friends- with the school’s most energetic track star was beyond her; it involved an ill fated chemistry lab and the fire department but, honestly, she couldn’t remember specific details beyond that. While Weiss would love to say she merely put up with and tolerated Ruby, the truth was that she still hadn’t entirely adjusted to the concept of having someone who would be with her through thick and thin. She was being… persuaded to open up to the young woman but she still kept more secrets than she probably should from her best friend.

“I swear, Ruby Rose, if you keep spreading such slander about my character, I’ll be forced to take drastic action!” She tore her gaze away from the clock to glare at the woman. “I do not skip class!”

Rolling her silver eyes, Ruby rested her head on her desk and groaned. “Just because you’re the Valedictorian doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, Weiss. No one’s going to care if you ditch one period.”

“I care!” The bell rang a moment later and she forgot about the argument entirely as she quickly grabbed her pack and fast walked to the door.

The walk from her class to the library was a blessedly short one, made slightly longer by classmates and underclassmen getting in her way as other students emerged into the hallway for the passing period. A cold glare managed to persuade some of them to move but not all of them- those blessedly ignorant few she stepped around or nearly barreled through if she could get away with it. It probably contributed to her reputation of being a vicious, cut throat type of person like her sister but her patience had worn too thin and she needed to get to the library.

A few steps from her goal, a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder and spun her around, and only two people in the whole school would dare put their hands on her like that, and only one of them for no good reason. “YANG-”

“Calm down, Princess, this’ll be quick, promise!” With hands on Weiss’ shoulders, she guided them away from the throng of students to a small alcove next to the library doors. “Just got something I need to say real quick.”

“What could you possibly have to say to me?” Weiss scowled at the blonde, annoyed that she seemed to get taller every time they talked, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Last I checked, I didn’t have anything to do with the girls’ basketball team. Or the weightlifting team. Or the boxing team. Or-”

Yang clapped her hands together in front of Weiss’ face, smiling that do-you-really-think-they’ll-expel-me smile of hers. “Hey, do me a favor? Drop the frigid bitch act for, like, five minutes, okay? Because I really don’t have the time for it; if you wanna go toe-to-toe in the bitch-out-lypmics, we can schedule that another time, but right now, I need to have a serious talk with you. It’s about Blake.”

At the namedrop, her blood ran cold and her heart lodged in her throat, eyes growing wide as a genuine tendril of fear began taking root in her chest. “Is she okay?”

“Well, that depends,” Yang replied, looking around at their classmates walking past without paying them any mind. “Look. I don’t get it, okay, the whole secret girlfriends thing, I don’t even know how you two got together… but what I do know is that Blake deserves better than someone who’s ashamed of her-”

“Don’t you dare put words in my mouth,” she hissed, worry turning to fury in the blink of an eye. “I’m not ashamed to be dating Blake. If it was safe, everyone would know!”

“Yeah, can you define ‘safe’ for me in this context? Because I’m having a real hard time convincing Blake you’re being sincere when you don’t want anyone knowing the two of you are dating.”

“You know we’re dating!”

“Because I refuse to let things go and I knew she was acting weird!” Yang growled in frustration, fingers flexing as if she was seriously debating throttling Weiss. “Listen, I figured it out and I bullied her into telling me weeks ago, but not even Ruby knows beyond that. Not a fan of keeping secrets but I’ll do it for a friend. Now, answer my question, please, because with the rest of the school convinced you two hate each other, this whole ‘don’t tell anyone we’re dating thing’ is clear as mud, and it’s really starting to get to her.”

Weiss’ shoulders fell as she looked away, her anger abating in the face of the situation presented to her. “It’s… complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it for me.” Yang made a gesture with one hand. “Just give me a straight answer!”

“I can’t!” She stamped her foot, speaking before she could think about her word choice. “I can only give you a gay answer!”

Yang stared at her for a long moment. “So, that’s what Blake meant when she said you have the worst sense of humor.”

“I’m done with this conversation-”

Yang grabbed her arm and stopped her, expression turning serious. “Listen, you don’t wanna talk to me? Fine. But talk to Blake. If you really care about her, she deserves to hear that.”

As the blonde stepped away, the bell rang, making both of them late- not that it would matter. Ms. Goodwitch wouldn’t count her late and even if she did, a single tardy wouldn’t be much of a blemish on her record. There was a time when it would’ve bothered her but she’d grown past that a few years ago; perfection was, in some sense, in the eye of the beholder. Blake would notice, though, and she hurried to the library to keep her ‘secret girlfriend’ from worrying.

When she got to the library, she dropped her bag behind the counter and signed in, highly aware that Blake was somewhere among the rows reshelving books. 

The librarian gave her a small nod. “I presume you have good reason for being late but don’t make a habit of it.”

“Of course, Ms. Goodwitch.” With that, she grabbed a few leftover books that needed reshelving and went into the stacks to reshelve them. As soon as she was far enough away from the front desk, she spoke in a soft voice that Blake would be able to hear regardless. “Blake? I’m sorry I’m late.”

“Is everything alright?” She’d long ago grown accustomed to the faunus’ silent steps, which really shouldn’t be possible given the amount of glistening chains and bits of metal hung from her ensemble but it was one of those things Weiss had accepted about Blake at first and had grown to admire. “It’s not like you to be late.”

“I… got pulled into a conversation.” She debated, briefly, if she should mention who the conversation was with but ultimately decided against it. Yang would likely bring it up herself at some point but she didn’t want the distraction at present. “Blake… you know I care about you, right?”

“Yes, Weiss, and I care about you, too,” she replied, her voice holding that special lilt that Weiss used to think was snideness. Now, she recognized it as a gentle sort of teasing and, sometimes, a deflection. “What brought this on?”

“I’ve been thinking about some things… and I find myself curious about some… other things.”

“Truly, you have a way with words.”

“I’m trying to be serious!” Weiss whined, putting a hand to her head as she tried to think of a way to word what she wanted to say. In the next moment, Blake stepped up and wrapped her arms around her waist, resting her chin on Weiss’ shoulder in a silent show of support. This was, partly, where they differed, because even when words escaped Blake, the faunus could somehow find a way to convey what she needed; Weiss, in contrast, simply clammed up entirely if she didn’t begin insulting whoever was nearest. “You know the only reason we’re not dating publicly is because of my family, right? That, the moment I turn eighteen and gain access to my funds, I’ll shout it from the rooftops… right?”

Blake took a step back but one hand lingered on Weiss’ hip, a soft assurance that she wasn’t leaving but that they should probably have a conversation like this face-to-face. When she turned around, she searched shining amber eyes and found a touch of disbelief hiding there. “I’ll admit, I didn’t think it was the only reason.”

“It really is…” Weiss sighed, running a hand through her bangs in frustration. “I… I don’t know how to prove it, I don’t know if there’s anything I could say or do that would, but… I don’t want you thinking that I’m ashamed of dating you… that’s… that’s the furthest from the truth.”

Feline ears flicked towards one end of the row and both of them quickly focused on shelving the few books that remained as a group of students went back to one of the study rooms. Once the coast was clear, Blake sighed heavily. “I told Yang to drop it.”

“She’s trying to help.” Begrudgingly, she continued. “Ruby’s the same way. They meddle when they can but they have the best of intentions.”

“Still… she wasn’t too… forceful, was she?”

“She only threatened to throttle me, so no, she wasn’t too forceful.” Weiss tilted her head. “And, arguably, she has a salient point. I… I perhaps took it for granted that you would… that I made my feelings about you clear to you.”

Blake ducked her head, her ears flicking back briefly to blending into midnight black hair. As per her usual, the faunus was bedecked in all black save for the silver of the chains hanging from her pants and the snake bite piercings on her bottom lip. Whenever they were making out, Weiss found that flicking either of the piercings with her tongue would always result in a soft groan from Blake.

“So… when you turn eighteen…basically, when we graduate?” Blake took a step forward. “That’s… a long time to be a secret from everyone.”

“Well… not from everyone. Yang knows.”

“Uh huh.”

“And Ruby will know… when I tell her…”

“Right.” Blake came a bit closer. “I guess that means we won’t be going to prom together.”

Weiss raised a brow, then caught onto what her girlfriend was doing, a smile tugging at her lips. “You? Go to prom?” A soft chuckle. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be caught dead at… what was it you called it? A useless party for empty headed idiots?”

“And a waste of money. I said that, too.” Blake stopped just a hair’s breadth away and very nonchalantly shelved a book just behind Weiss’ shoulder. “But you’ve got a crown to win, right? Prom Queen to go with your other honors?”

“There’s only one crown that I care to claim,” she replied, reaching up to bury her hand in midnight locks between the faunus’ ears and pulling her down into a kiss. Normally, they didn’t indulge in such outside of Ms. Goodwitch’s office, which the librarian granted them access to once they’d reshelved all the books. If she suspected what they did in there, she remained silent, probably because while reshelving the books they would also fix what other aides did incorrectly and she appreciated the help more than she cared to curtail PDAs.

The kiss didn’t last too long- just long enough to drive her point home- but the look in amber eyes almost made her too weak to move.

Weiss gathered her courage. “I do love you, Blake.”

Not ‘care about’, not ‘fond of’, not any other arrangement of words she’d used over the past year to describe how she felt. Fear that caring too much would make her careless had prevented her from saying the words before. Now, though, she couldn’t go another moment without Blake understanding exactly how much she cared.

After the shock passed, Blake smiled softly, ears canting forward. “I love you too, Weiss.”

It took a moment for them to part but they returned to the counter and finished reshelving the books.

“Blake?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I’d look good in black?”

---

Hi, yes, please join me in picturing Blake as a late 90′s/early 00′s goth girl.

[rapspud]

Bittersweet

Bittersweet    A/N: Decided to rewrite this one. Please enjoy.

Yoongi looked at your friends as he sneered at your prone form sprawled out on the ground, your fingers scrambling to find your glasses.

“Aw what’s the matter? The poor baby can't see?” He purred as he picked up your glasses and dangled them in front of your face before throwing them into the dumpster. “Have fun diving!” He cackles as he slides past your prone figure, cruelly stepping on your hand as he passes.

You could hear the snickers of his friends behind you. You watched as his best friend, Seokjin clapped Yoongi on the shoulder, and whispered, “Oi, I get the whole I hate “y/n” thing but seriously—that was a bit much don’t you think?”

Yoongi  couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “She ratted us out! So I fixed it-and now she can’t see to snitch! And shouldn’t you be on my side? You’re in just as much trouble as I am!”

Seokjin could only look at Yoongi like he had a third head, “ Yeah I guess, but still...there is-” at Yoongi’s raised eyebrow he swallowed what he wanted to say, instead choosing to leave rather than to help Yoongi’s victim, “Hey I gotta go I’ll catch you later okay?”

Yoongi smiled and waved good-bye before walking away from the group. How could he possibly explain how much he hated Y/N? No one here knew the truth about your families-how he had to share a home with you,  your family serving his. He had no respite from you. Yeah, Y/N deserved everything she got, he thought as he got into his car. Plus it's not like you wouldn’t rat him out when you got home about what happened. This time as he drove past you and saw you hunched in on yourself, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt as he saw you clutching your injured hand, staring resolute at the dumpster, knowing full well that you would go in after the glasses. After all, he knew how hard your mother worked to buy them for you, he knew how you worked 2 jobs and also kept track of your younger brothers. Deep down, he really hoped that maybe this time you would finally explode and tell everyone about all the horrid acts he committed against you. 

Except that you never did tell on him. 

In fact, you avoid Yoongi like the plague.  After finally scrambling into the dumpster and reclaiming your glasses, you clambored back out, hand still screaming in pain. As you stand there wiping the garbage from the lenses and picking off random refuse from your clothes you honestly don’t think you can sink any lower than this. You swipe grimey hands at your cheeks as hot tears run down them, thankful that you are alone. And as you walk away you begin to make plans. You couldn’t keep doing this. And with renewed energy you begin walking home, not didn’t looking back choosing instead to forge ahead, putting one foot in front of another until finally you were in your mid=twenties, and had your own little place. You were happy with your life. But you should have known. All good things must come to an end eventually. You hadn’t thought about him in years, attending school, graduating, opening up a bakery with your best friend. Essentially you were hiding, but not really. 

And then by some ill stroke of luck, he found you.

You awaken to the blaring of your alarm with a groan. Was it really 8 am? The flashing numbers of your clock inform you that it was in fact 8:59. Shit you were late. Cursing your snooze butten, you scrambled out of your bed and grabbed the cleanest clothes you could find off the floor and stumble as you attempt a whole new balancing act: pulling up your pants while holding a hot cup of coffee and a piece of toast dangling precariously from your teeth. As you run down the street towards the bus, slinging your backpack over your shoulder while you scramble to tuck your shirt in you promptly run into a solid wall and fall on your ass. Your hair is covering your face as you look up at  what you had plowed into, an apology already leaving your mouth when you got to the face. “Um…hi, uh…sorry about that.”

“Y/N. From YHSN?”

“Yes?” you become wary, no one around here really knows you as you chose to keep to yourself…“Do I know you?”

The grin that spread across the man’s face could be described as nothing less than cruel and vicious. “Yeah, Y/N L/N right? I am here to inform you that you have 24 hours to vacate the premises. Good luck.” He stated before unceremoniously dropping an envelope onto your lap and turning on her heel to leave you in a stunned heap on the floor.

What the hell had just happened? Maybe you were still dreaming?

You were dazed for a moment as your brain tried to compute the absolute absurdity of what had just happened and then you were on your feet chasing the man, yelling at him to stop but he just kept on walking.

Finally catching up to the man, you grab her arm, “What the fuck man?” you yell, “this is illegal as hell! Thirty days is the minimum!” You shove the notice back at the man, hitting him in her (very solid) chest hard.

“Y/n, Y/n, I see you're still full of venom huh? It’s completely legal actually-you see I” he leaned forward, “own the building now. And to my delight, what do I learn? I find out that Y/N L/N happens to be a tenant! Guess how happy I was to finally find you again after all these years and then get to have you vacate your home.” he laughs as you gape at him like a fish.

“Min fucking Yoongi, I do not have time for your petty ass childish bullshit! ” you hers, voice laced with venom.

“Aw kitten you remembered! I am truly honored! But alas I cant stay and chit-chat, and well, neither can you. Tata chica!” With that he jerks her arm from your grasp, sending you back to the ground in shock for the second time that morning, before climbing into an expensive black car and driving away.

You scream curses to the sky, because after 8 peaceful years, the man you had spent so long  running from and then finally forgetting, had found you. But of course, the sky only decides to rain. And as you trudge back home to call into work, (because seriously fuck this day) you can’t help but wonder how everything came to this moment. After a shower and change of clothes, you fall into your bed, allowing yourself one moment of respite before you begin to tackle this new problem, closing your eyes.

You were back there again, trapped both in a small body and the cave that haunts you as you watch helplessly at the rising water. Your tiny voice is raised, tinted with fear, “I told you we shouldn’t come here! My mama said-“

The boy next to you cut you off, “Crying ain’t gonna fix it, I will save us”

“You can't even swim,” You yell, unable to remain calm. 

“I AM GONNA SAVE US!” the small boy shouted, “so don’t cry Y/N.” He gave you a small smile, one that made you feel slightly safer and he took hold of your hand. “Follow me and don’t let go no matter what.”

“Okay,” you say, for some reason feeling braver after placing your faith along with your hand into the boy’s hand. He said he would, so of course he would save both of you. After all, he was your best friend and you don’t pick losers.

It was a lot harder though, when all was said and done. Yes, the two of you made it out of the cave alive, but not without nearly drowning, and you had slipped and injured your ankle along the way. Luckily, you did make it out, and while the two of you spent a cold wet night huddled together on the beach, you were alive. In the morning, you were rescued further as the search teams found. And while your mother had you wrapped up in her warmth and was crying and thanking the people over and over that had saved you, the same welcoming was not happening to the young boy. You could hear screaming as a woman in a fine dress and her husband yelled at the boy, your tiny hero, before there was a loud smack. You watch as the boy falls, hand clenched to her face, tears streaming down her face as her mother continues to land hard blows upon her body until she is dragged away. You cried out for you friend and as the two of you met eyes, for the first time you saw hatred reflected back at you. That was the day Min Yoongi stopped being your friend and became your tormentor.

He followed you everywhere, taunting you, breaking your things, and ultimately breaking you. Your mother finally quit working for her house the day he’d thrown your glasses into the garbage and you had come home, broken glasses in hand, face streaked with tears and reeking of garbage -you had finally confessed what had happened, what all had been happening. You had moved away, your mom working several jobs and then as well as yourself working, then you working to  pay your way through chef school and finally moving out into your own place. And all of it had just been destroyed because he found you.

You sigh looking up at your ceiling letting your anger consume you as you curse Min Yoongi to a lifetime of diarrhea. And an itchy butt. And you hoped her eyebrows fell out, just for good measure.

You look around your apartment one last time before closing the door with finality. this asshole, you think to yourself. “Just wait” you say as you look down at the address your brother had just texted you.

An hour later you stand before a gated house and ring the doorbell. And ring it. And ring it. And continue ringing it (after all it was nearly 6 am, and as you had learned that morning, if you want to ruin someone's day, do it first thing in the morning) until a sleepy figure stumbles outside and smacks your hand away. You take this opportunity to dart inside the gate and into the house carrying your things with you.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Yoongi yells at you from outside, beginning to stomp back to her front door. You could only grin as you take in the pajama bottoms and robe, while you stand there like a goddamn Amazonian queen, “You took my home. this is payback.” and then you dialed the police, “Yes? Officer? There’s a half naked man on my lawn, please send help! I’m so scared”

You couldn’t help the grin that covers your face as you smile at Yoongi, “Good luck asshole.” You say sweetly, before slamming the door in her face. Nothing had ever sounded so sweet as the sound of the lock turning over, followed a second later by desperate pounding at the door. And Yoongi could only pound on the door until the cops showed up and he explained that this was, in fact, her home, as well as that the intruder was actually you. The officers had asked him if he wanted you arrested and for once he let it go, telling them that you were having a lovers quarrel and apologizing that they had to come out over something so silly. As the cops pulled away, he went to the back of the house and slammed the sliding glass door open only to find the house seemingly empty. As he walked from room to room he couldn’t help but get angrier and angrier. But when he found you passed out on her bed, he paused, somehow her anger dissipating instantly. He stood there, looking at your sleeping body and wondered if you would ever know her real feelings for you. If he would ever be able to tell you. And the real question: could you forgive him? He knew it was asking a lot, but he could only hope. He sat and thought about how to express to you the things he needed to say. He wondered how exactly did one explain how guilty he felt about how he treated you, how he didn’t really understand why he went out of her way to make your life miserable back then…and then you had left him. How, when you left he realized just how broken he was inside. When he bought the building he couldn’t believe her luck when he saw your name as one of the tenants, but her old ways came back hard and for some ungodly childish reason he couldn’t control himself. That he should have been apologizing that morning and telling you how thankful he was that it had also brought you back to him. He guessed that it was far too late for him to ever have your forgiveness and he couldn’t help the smile that played on her mouth as he approached the bed. He reached out a hand to smooth back some hair that covered your face when you wherpered, “Yoongi...” he stilled, “…I’m sorry” you mumbled. What could you possibly be sorry for? He couldn’t help it, but it made him angry that you would apologize to him after everything he’d done and especially while in such a vulnerable state that the next thing he knew he was grabbing the blanket and ripping it away from your curled form. It’s momentum  sends you over the edge of the bed to land in a heap on the floor. You sit up cursing her very existence,

 “What the hell Y/N?!” He yells right back, while you could only manage to stare up at him from where you sat on the floor. But this time you weren’t having any of her bullshit. You jump up and get in her face “ What the hell? What do YOU mean what the hell? Who the hell buys a building solely to evict one person?! Are you that rich? Do you hate me that much?”

Yoongi yelled back, “Hell yeah I do!“ 

"You have issues, Min Yoongi! I did nothing to you except be born! Do you know how hard I worked to forget what you did to me? And you come just back,” you pause, swallowing thickly, you would not cry. Not here. Not now, “But not anymore! I won't let you break me again Yoongi. I am worth so much more than that!”

Exhausted, you  move to push around him but he grabs your wrists instead and pins you against the wall.

“Let me go you asshole!” you yell at him fighting back for once in your life, all while trying to hide your face and the tears that were no longer just threatening to spill over. “Can't you just hate me from a distance? I’m sorry your mom was a horrid cunt to you! I’m sorry, okay! But please, just let me go! Leave me alone” And then her hands were gone, and you were free. You couldn’t help it, you looked up and stared him in the eyes, for once determined to make him see how he wrecked you.

Yoongi could only stare at you, watching as the tears fell, tears once again caused by him, and then he heard the five words that ripped open her wounds, words he knew he deserved, said in a voice so broken he didn’t know where he should start to even attempt to repair it.

“I hate you Min Yoongi.“

He couldn’t stand it, he knew he deserved them but he just couldn’t stand there and just accept them. Accepting those words would be like giving up, and giving up probably the only pure thing he still had in her life. Had. And so he moved, not thinking about consequences, only a desire to cleanse those words from the air around him. He grabs you again, pushing you against the wall, capturing your face in one hand, forcing you to meet her eyes, while he brushes your hair away with the other, "Good. Never forget it.”

And then he crashes her mouth against yours.

You didn’t know how what was happening was happening and some stupid part of you was excited to have him pressed against you,  mouth was moving against yours and then you were responding and for some reason it felt so good–like coming home. It was like your body suddenly was against everything you wanted-you found yourself wrapping your arms around her neck and pulling him closer, deepening the kiss, a giggle bubbling up when you nipped at her lip and he groaned. and then you both were tearing at each other's clothes in desperation. And then the world stops making sense. You and Min Yoongi, enemy of the state #1 were having sex. And it was good. It felt so right, like you two had been made to fit each other only. When it was over he lay behind you, placing gentle kisses along your neck and down your collar bone. The last thing you remember before falling asleep in your enemy’s arms was Yoongi gently wherpering a muffled “I’m sorry” into your ear over and over.

When you wake, you are surprised to find an arm wrapped around your waist and you freeze as the memories of the night before come rushing back and you begin to mentally beat yourself up as you carefully slide out of the bed and grab your clothes, making a mad dash out of the house, dressing yourself along the way.

No way had you slept with Yoongi and enjoyed it. You were an idiot of the highest order. You slept with the man who wanted you homeless because he hated you.

You let out a deep sigh as you did a very new special walk of shame to your job, where your boss, Mandi greeted you by yelling, “Oi ! What cat pissed in your cheerios?”

Causing the other workers to laugh until you pinned them with your patented Crazy-eye ™, at which point they scurried away except for that moron Seokjin who slung his arm around your shoulders jovially, “So why is my favorite girl doing the walk of shame?”

You glare and shrug his arm off, “None of your business.” 

“Dude its obs-you’re like a whole 4 hours late-and you are never late. So what happened? Anyone I know?”

“You’ll just call me an idiot if I tell you.”

“I swear on cake I won't.”

You raise an eyebrow before saying a name you never thought you’d say just to see him eat his words. “Min Yoongi.”

“Shut the front door! You’re an idiot”

“The cake is ashamed of you and asks that you keep your distance.” You say as you move to the back rooms to put away your belongings.

Not giving up, Seokjin follows you, even going so far as to hand you your apron, “Seriously? Didn’t he like-”

“Terrorize me to the point of moving? Then find me years later and evict me? Yep.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“You okay?” Seokjin asked worriedly, For the shit talking between the two of you, you smile to know he does really care.

“I have to be.”

“Did you at least use a condom?” He asks.

“Oh my god.”

“You really are an idiot. But don’t worry…you know I’ve got your back right? Well, we’ve got your back.”

You could only stare at Seokjin as your mind whirls through the consequences of last night, “It should be fine right?” you ask.

“Sure, cupcake. Keep telling yourself that”

There is a ding from the door and you see your brother Jungkook shuffles in with your other brother Namjoon, and giving Seokjin a look that clearly says “Keep your mouth shut if you want to live” you take a deep breath and head behind the counter to wash your hands, greeting them as you go.

“COFFEE. COFFEE NOW.” Namjoon grunts demandingly, taking a seat and burying her head in her hands,  while Jungkook adds a half-hearted “Please…and a raspberry jelly for me.”

“Rough night?” You ask as you pour the two men coffee and grab Jungkook her donut and slide it in front of them.

Jungkook grins, “Nah, Joon thought he could out drink me. He thought wrong.”

“Shhhhhhhhh!! You’re so loud,” hersed Namjoon, shoving a hand at Jungkook’s face and missing entirely.

You grin and speak extra loud, “Shouldn’t you know by now to let the kids drink and you go home and sleep?”

Namjoon just glares at you, “I have a gun.”

“I aint scared of you.”

The shop bursts into laughter as Namjoon buries her head in her arms on the counter, “Why do you hate me so much?” He whines.

“Mom likes you more, and I’m a petty bitch.”

Jungkook grins, “But she likes me most!”

Both you and Namjoon glare at him, “Shut up!”

Yoongi wakes up to an empty bed and he frowns, crawling out of bed and pulling on her boxers. He wanders around the house looking for you, hoping that you haven't run away and when he can’t find you, her heart sinks. Was he that awful that you would still run away from him even after what you had shared? And worse, what if he had gone too far this time?

He makes her way back to her room and grabs her phone, calling her secretary.

“Yo.” Answered Hoseok.

“Really that’s how you answer the phone? You do know that I am your boss right?”

“Debatable today.”

Yoongi rolls her eyes, “Anyways, I need you to find someone…”

“Well you know Imma need a little more…”

“Y/N. You remember her right?”

“You mean the girl you tortured in school because you didn’t have the balls to tell her how you lurrrrrrrved her.”

“I see you wish to die today.”

“No, not today. So you wish for me to find your wayward love?”

“Yeah.”

“Mandi’s shop.” Hoseok cheerfully replied, as if this should be common knowledge. 

“Oh yeah, great idea bring me some coffee please?”

“No, you idiot, Y/N works there. She is actually her partner” Hosoek irritatingly says matter of factly.

“The hell?! Why do you know this but I don’t?”

“Dude, seriously? You do know they were friends growing up and just because you made her run away by being a complete ass doesn’t mean they stopped being friends.”

“My best friend and my sister have been lying to me.” 

“It’s not lying when you never asked. But Yoongi…you should let her go. It’s been a long time and I know you had feelings but with how you treated her–“

"She was here.” Yoongi grunted, running a hand over her face as he stood in her closet trying to think of what to wear. What says “I come in peace”? Maybe he could get Hoseok to dress up as Spock and talk to Y/N before he does. 

“What? And you’re alive?”

“Yeah. We…um…she was gone this morning,” Yoongi sits down on her bed, running a hand through her hair.

"Oh…” and as realization hits, Hoseok intones sagely,” ...oh my god you’re fucking moron.”

“You know I can fire you.”

“Please bitch, I know all your deepest darkest secrets you ain’t gonna fire me.”

“Just…shit…what should I do?” Yoongi asks, finally letting go of her big bad boss act.

“Dude, I don’t know. You slept with her…maybe you should just…”

“I um…fucked up more than that…” He thinks about how you had felt, how he had felt...how absolutely perfect it had been for just one night, A flicker of fear strums through her heart at the thought that this was not salvageable at all. 

“No. no way. Our friendship is over.” Hoseok cracks from the other side of the phone.

“Just help me okay?” 

There was a long pause before he heard a heavy sigh, “Fine, but no games. She has a good thing going on and you-”

“I swear it's different this time!” Yoongi pleads. 

“Whatever. I should warn you though.”

“Warn me about what?”

“Her brothers.”

“Namjoon and Jungkook? We were old friends, what about them?”

“You were old friends until they found out how you treated her. And bonus points-they are both cops now. Partners even, so you should probably pray for your soul.”

With a groan, Yoongi finally gets up and begins to get dressed putting Hoseok on speakerphone. “I’m so dead.”  

“Yep,” affirms Hoseok, “So does that mean I can have your stuff?” 

Rolling her eyes and thinking he really needs a new assistant, Yoongi growls out“See you at the office.” only to hear Hoseok laughing before he hangs up the phone. 

Yoongi finishes getting dressed, and running a hand over her face as he contemplates this new information. You’d been right under her nose the entire time and everyone had kept it a secret. He guessed he deserved it though, he was a complete and utter ass to you. He also guesses it’s time to make it up to you and hopefully, you would forgive him and let him into your heart, where he belonged. After all, you’d always been in his.

2 months later

Yoongi stands outside her (former) sister’s shop watching as you serve your customers, and realizes sadly that it was the first time in a long time that  he’d really ever seen you smile. He wanted that smile for himself and himself alone, but he wasn’t sure how to get it. When he had remodeled your former apartment, expanding it through the two vacant units on either side of you, you just got mad at him for evicting you, when he was just redoing the apartment and you claimed it was far too large for you by yourself now. But that was the point wasn't it? He was hoping that somehow you would just...come back to him on your own and he wouldn’t really have to put any work in. Yoongi realizes then that he is an absolute dumbass.

After all, nothing he’d done so far had managed to make you smile at him or hell just give him the time of day and he was beyond frustrated. Couldn’t you see how hard he was trying for you?

Mandi pokes her head out of the shop interrupting his train of thought,

“What the hell are you doing here?” she snaps at him.

“Wow, do you greet all your customers like this?”

“Yoongi. Listen. Whatever it this is about now isn’t–”

Realization hits for the second time that morning, “Were you ever going to tell me?”

Mandi pauses, looking him up and down, “There’s nothing to tell if you already know.”

He could almost feel the metaphorical walls slamming down around him as Mandi went on guard. “Mandi!”

“No. Not about ther.”

“I’ve known for almost a month.”

“Then you should go know somewhere else.”  Mandi stepped outside, becoming a most effective blockade. If someone was to ever wage war against his sister, his money, hell, his entire fortune would be on Mandi.

“Listen, you’re my brother and I love you and I know you know what you did wrong, and really it's sweet you want to make amends but …Yoongi, sometimes things…”

“I slept with her.”

“Do you want a trophy?” Mandi snapped, her fists clenched, before she  shook her head, “you have five seconds or I’m opening ther door and I’m calling her brothers out here.”

“We didn’t use protection.”

“Well then I guess today you die you little fucking weasel.”

“I love her.”

That’s when he remembered his sister’s left hook and then the lights went out.

Mandi stomps into the store grabbing you by the arm and dragging you upstairs ignoring your protests, shoving you into the bedroom and giving you a look reserved for her son’s Taehyung and Jimin when they are acting up. “Stay.”

Mandi goes back downstairs and motions Namjoon and Kookie over, “Listen, I know you hate Min Yoongi with like the passion of 7 fiery suns but I need you to hold that rage in and help me get his ass inside.”

Namjoon was already up and out the door at the sound of Min Yoongi’s name, and seconds later was dragging a barely conscious Yoongi in by the collar. While Kookie held open the door, Namjoon made sure Yoongi purposely whacked his head on the door frame and when Mandi winced he gave her a look that clearly said “sorry not sorry” before dropping Yoongi on the shop floor like the sorry sack of shit he thought he was.

“I’m sorry folks,” Mandi announces, “due to my crazy family, the shop will be closing early.”

The patrons all scrambled out of the shop while Jungkook handcuffed Yoongi to a chair and dumped a cup of ice water on him.

Yoongi jerked back, fully awake now and met by 3 pairs of eyes. 3 very angry pairs of eyes. He shook his head and tried to move but found himself handcuffed to the chair and he gives Mandi a look that says “Really?”

“Kook uncuff him. Seriously. And you and Joon leave.”

“No.”

“Did I stutter?”

“Okay, but we get dibs if you decide to kill him.” Jungkook, grumbles as he undoes the handcuffs.

“I’m not going to kill him. Today.”

“Fine.”

Jungkook finishes unlocking the cuffs and Yoongi immediately rubs at his wrists and watches warily as Jungkook and Namjoon leaves the shop, rolling his eyes when Jungkook gives him the international sign for “I’m watching you” while Joon drew his thumb across his neck. They were dramatic as fuck, but then again he might just be dramatically fucked.

Mandi pulls up a chair and sits across from Yoongi and stares at him for several long moments until Yoongi breaks the silence, “Just say it.”

“Why?”

“It just happened like that.”

“Bullshit.”

Yoongi sighed, “I’ve grown up since then. I no longer want to pull her hair.”

“Clearly. And you didn’t just pull her hair, you did a lot worse.”

“Shouldn’t you be on my side?”

“I am fucking Switzerland.”

Yoongi couldn’t help the anger that swelled up and choked him, “Clearly not. You knew where she was all these years and you never said anything. This is why you never let me come to the shop then? You knew I was looking for her, that I wanted-”

“Of course,” interrupted Mandi. 

“Why?”

“Because you are an idiot who doesn’t know how to communicate. Look at what happened--when you did find her, your first action was to take her home. Who fucking does that shit?”

“You’re right, I was. I was cruel and spiteful. Keyword: was.”

“Bullshit. Taking away her home wasn’t because you were being spiteful. You wanted what she had. That’s called envy. She left because she wanted to live, and the only way she could was to leave. You made it like this. I almost lost my friend. So of course I kept it a secret.” Mandi sighed, rubbing her hand over her face. “Look I know. I know what y

our mom and dad did. How they treated us. We were mere points on a checklist of creating a picture perfect family. But you had no right-”

“I was stupid. You think I don’t know? That I don’t regret it? I love her. I always have.”

“Actions-”

“Speak louder than words I know. I’m trying to fix that now!”

Mandi closes her eyes, debating her next few words  "Can I trust you? That’s the-“ ”

“Yes. I swear I'll spend my life…”

“Doing what?” You interrupt, “Sorry, since you seem to be discussing me I couldn’t stay put,” you say to Mandi. “Yoongi I don’t want your money and if you are worried because we didn’t…,” you swallow before continuing with a brave face, “....I’ll be fine. but you really have to stop sending me presents. I don’t want them. Can’t you just stay…”

“Y/N I’m sorry. I was an ass.”

“Still an ass.” Mandi interrupts, “Look, you two clearly need to talk this out so I’m out. Come on Seokjin, let’s go see a movie.”

With that Seokjin and Mandi beat a hasty retreat leaving the two of you alone.

“Your jaw is swelling.” You say after noticing the blossoming bruise that marred his handsome face. Handsome? What the hell were you even thinking?

“Mandi hit me.”

“Why?”

“I told her what happened. She’s very protective of you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Y/N…that night…I shouldn’t have that.”

“I let you. It wasn’t just you alone.”

“Please, just listen. I’m sorry. For everything. And I’m sorry for not saying that when we met again. It's just…”

“It's just..what?” You questioned, meeting his eyes. 

“I don’t know. When I look at you I want you. You are so good and pure and you deserve the world. I wanted you to myself but I was scared…”

“Scared of?”

“You.”

“Me?” You scoff at the idea of anyone being afraid of you.

“Yeah,” Yoongi stood and walked over to you. “You had everything even though you had nothing. Brothers who worshiped you, a mother who did everything for you…what if I ruined that? What if my mother-”

“How would you ruin that?” You ask, finding patience from who knows where.

“I was messed up…and the older I got the worse…things got worse. You saw, you can’t pretend you didn’t. I took out my suffering on you because nothing good could possibly exist and you were just hiding your real nature. But you never retaliated. You kept reaching out to me over and over again. ”

“But I did retaliate.”

“By locking me out of my house after I took yours? Not really. I mean…I deserve far worse,” chucked Yoongi. He wanted so badly to touch you, to pull you into his arms and just...feel you. 

You stare at Yoongi. This broken version of Yoongi with tears in his eyes. Could you trust him? You wanted to give him a chance.

“Let’s….go on a date.”

Yoongi’s eyes widened, “What?”

“You like me right?”

“Well–I mean–I did when I was—I do”

“Take me on a date, final offer going in one–two..”

“Fine! I’ll take you on a damn date,” Yoongi smiles.

“No fancy shit tho. $100 limit.”

“I’ll take you on the best damn date of your life!”

“Good.”

Yoongi didn’t know why he was being snippy now, but as he left the shop he couldn’t help but do a little cheer when he got into his car. Hoseok rolled his eyes and politely ignored him.

Yoongi stood at the door of your apartment, and for the first time in his life he hesitated, hand poised to ring the doorbell, and then you swung open the door and suddenly the world stopped. You looked amazing. Your hair was curled, makeup accenting your eyes perfectly, wearing black skinny slacks, a hound’s-tooth patterned sweater over a white button down and pink heels. He took in the perfection that was you and thought, “She was made for me.”

And the fear was gone as he smiled at you and he took your hand, interlacing his fingers with yours, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah let me grab my purse,” you say as you try to let go of his hand to grab the bag on the chair beside your front door but he wouldn’t let go. You couldn’t help the blush that blossomed over your cheeks as he stepped inside and grabbed the bag for you and waited for you to lock up so you both could leave.

He pulled you along, never letting go, until he reached his car and opened the door. It was only enough time for him to run around and get the car moving before he was locking fingers with you again.

“What’s up with you?” You smirk.

“Just…making up for lost time.”

“What?”

“I just…I should have been doing this for years now.”

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes, “So…are you always this cheesy?”

Yoongi’s eyes went wide, “I mean…I’m not…no…,” Yoongi stuttered and then stopped, “I guess I am cheesy it's just…I can tell you I’m sorry but…”

“Actions speak louder than words?”

“I see you have met my sister,” he joked softly, “And we’re here.”

“A movie? Really?”

“I always had wished to take you…”

Yoongi’s eyes stared into yours, “Yoongi…” you say timidly.

“Yeah?”

“I’m not her anymore you know? I grew up…you grew up…let’s leave it behind us and start fresh yeah?”

“What do you mean?”

You stick your hand out, “Hi, my name is Y/N. It’s nice to meet you.”

Yoongi stared at you you’d suddenly sprouted a third eye on your nose before awkwardly taking your hand and shaking it, “Min Yoongi…the pleasure is all mine.”

You can’t help but laugh at his stunned expression, not knowing he was just in shock from receiving your smile. To him, your smile in that moment could have powered a thousand suns. 

Yoongi was quiet but still took your hand and you entered the theater with a smile on your face, happy that things were getting better, that you could almost believe you had your first love back.

2 hours later.

“Yoongi,  why are you pouting?” You ask as you take his hand.

“Look no matter how I look at it, it's just not fair.”

“What’s not?”

“Mandi. Seokjin. They have spent years with you…years that should have been with me.”

“I thought we were moving forward.”

“But.”

You sighed. “Look. You want to know the truth?”

Yoongi stopped and stared at you, “yes.”

“Okay then.” You face him, “You crushed me in every way possible. You were my world. I followed you everywhere. I trusted you, and you were always there and then you weren’t. The night we got stuck in the cave I gave you my faith—but it also is and was the moment I gave my whole heart to you, willingly, without any doubt. And the next day when we were found…you stomped on it. And you continued to stomp on it. I cried so many tears everyday because I hoped that one day my hero would come back. But he never did. He became a villain.” You couldn’t help the tears that fell down your cheeks, “And even through all that I still…” you sighed. “I can't do this Yoongi. I can't. I’m sorry,  I was wrong to try.” You turned on your heel and ran away, ignoring him yelling after you, you just ran until you couldn’t hear him anymore. 

And then you found the alcohol.

You sat at the outside bar drinking as you thought about the past two months. All the things you had done with Yoongi , and how disgusted you were with yourself for letting your old feelings come back so easily. You knew it wasn’t the right choice, but it was the one you wanted. You had decided to drown yourself in alcohol,  and you were on your third bottle when the object of your conflicting emotions, sat down across from you.

“Y/N.”

“Mmm?”

“What are you doing?”

“Drinking!” Your giggle turns to a frown when you hear the heavy sigh come across from you, “Are you judging me? It’s not nice to judge you know! “

“Why are you drinking Y/N?”

“Because,” you leaned forward, whispering conspiratively, “I’ve been bad.”

“Bad? How so?”

You sigh dreamily, a wistful smile playing upon your lips, “There’s this guy…”

“There always is.”

“Shhh! This is my story!” You shout.

“Sorry.”

“Where was I?” 

“Something about a guy…”

“SHHHHHH! So rude interrupting me! Anyways…I’m supposed to hate him but…” you thump your chest hard as tears prick your eyes, “But…”

“But what?”

“I can't…I remember him before…and the him that I remember…he’s still there…and all the warning alarms are going off and I’m so scared to love him but I…I think…”

“You think?”

You lay your head on the table, mumbling, “Think it’s too late…think I love him. Think it has always been too late for me. Even after all the bullshit…you see…he’s still here” You thump your chest hard and sigh as you feel the tears slide down your cheek to land on the table, “ I love him and I don’t want to…I didn’t mean too…”

“Mean to what?” 

“To love him, but…”

“You do.”

“Yeah” you whisper softly.

“Yoongi…” you can feel the man smile, you don’t know how you know but you do, “why do I have to love you?”

“You love me?” He asks, the hope wrapped in fear in his voice twisting your heart even more than all the past crap that had happened. You wanted to let it go. You wanted to love him. You can only nod your head as your eyes slide close, and you struggle against the darkness when you hear him whisper, “I love you too Y/N…I’m just scared…I’m not good enough…I was such an ass…and I know you said to let it go…but God Y/N…I should have treated you like a princess…because the truth is…”

Those words cause you to sit up, eyes squinting hard as you try to make out his face, “Yoongi?”

“Yeah?”

You lean forward and his face comes into focus, a smile spreads on your face and you lean forward to press your lips to his, softly at first, and then he responds, a hand sliding up your arm to cup your neck as you express to him what you can’t say in words. This was so much better than petty arguments and revenge pranks.  

You pull away, breathing heavy as you rest your forehead against his, “Yoongi,” you whimper, keeping your eyes firmly on the buttons of his shirt, scared to look up, scared to see the fear in his eyes. Does he not know?  “Can I…can I be yours?“ You ask in a voice so quiet it is almost lost in the noise of the world that surrounds you. 

"Can you forgive me?” The pain in his voice was sharp. “I forgive you.” You whisper into his mouth as you make promises with your lips.

He pulls away for a moment, and you lock eyes finally. “Then believe me when I say, I was always yours, and you were always mine.” 

“I was?”

The amount of disbelief in your voice causes Yoongi to tear up as he pulls you into his arms, “Kitten?”

“Yeah,” you say as you rest your head into the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent.

This time it was his turn to ask, “Am I yours?”

“You always were Yoongi. I was just waiting for you to remember where home was.”

Yoongi places the softest of kisses on each of your eyelids, and then he kisses away your tears and finally his mouth was on yours, and the kiss was full of yearning. “Y/N.”

“Yes?” You ask, sad he had pulled away. 

“Don’t leave me again…I love you too.”

“Okay.”

[themurphyzone]

PatB: Snowball Ep Talk

You know, I really do love the episode Snowball (my personal favorite AKOM episode) but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here much, and if I did it’s probably really only because of the flashback sequence. 

Okay so all looks good so far. Chain letter scheme and superstition, a standard introduction to Brain’s latest plot of world domination. All looks good. Plus I just like this shot of Pinky. Don’t mind me, just starting off light here with a smushed Pinky. 

I just like Pinky’s pose here. He’s so cute. 

You will bow before Troz.

“I met a Snowball today! Right here in the lab!” -Pinky

You know, I just find the implications of this line hysterical. This means that Snowball was in the lab that day, waiting for the moment to strike, and he definitely pushed his stolen chain letter through the mail slot. 

And then he lets Pinky see him, and no it’s not just a passing glance either cause Pinky specifically describes a tattoo with an A and a circle and points to his leg. Which means Snowball deliberately lifted the fur on his leg and showed his tattoo to Pinky. 

Like, wow. 

“It means, Pinky, that evil lurks among us. By the name of Snowball! SNOWBALLLLLLLL!” -Brain 

Talk about a bad breakup. *Alexa play Bad Blood*

Personally I think one of the interesting visual cues is that Snowball purposely plants himself into the mice’s space. There’s a lot of that in this episode. He knows how to rile up Brain and hit him where it hurts, namely through Pinky. 

Brain values his personal space, and he values a sense of control. When Snowball invades that space, Brain loses control, and his anger can lead him to make some very ill-informed decisions. Which is exactly what Snowball aims for. 

“You think Pinky is an asset?” 

“Anything I can take from you is an asset.”

Ah yes, Snowball’s mission statement. Crush everything Brain has into dust. 

The flashback sequence. Dear God this flashback sequence. They were both so cute! 

You know, it’s really sad that a younger Brain acted more like Pinky. Making silly faces and trying to get someone to laugh are such Pinky things to do. I know canon is loose but if you consider this flashback taking place shortly after Brain was captured from the wild, then young Brain didn’t gain a grasp on what happened to him until after the gene splicer.  

Ok but Brain was literally right there when the gene splicer exploded. Imagine having your cranium size dramatically increase, you’re injured, you’ve suddenly gained sentience, and as if all that wasn’t enough, you see the gene splicer explode with your only friend inside. 

Oh, and said friend’s mind was probably damaged in the explosion and now he hates your guts. And though you’re angry with him for his betrayal, some part of you will never stop caring about him. 

Once again, Snowball needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. 

This conversation here establishes Snowball as the perfect third character. He appears only in a handful of eps, but he’s fun to watch and love to hate. Snowball challenges the mice’s relationship. Snowball sees the weak points; the insults, the reliance on each other, and twists them to his advantage. And Pinky even admits he’s hurt by Brain’s insults occasionally, though he still loves being around him. 

“Pinky, the Brain doesn’t care about you. He’s just using you.” 

“No, he’s not.”

It’s really interesting to me how Pinky denies Snowball’s statement, yet his ears go down to show that he’s affected by the idea of being used. Pinky and the Brain may be night and day, but one thing they do have in common is their tendency to deny certain things. Brain with emotions and affection and Pinky with concepts he’d rather not admit the possibility of. 

Coming back to this later. 

Non plot related but Brain is teeny tiny and I love how he just trusts Pinky to catch him

Side note: I apologize if any of these screenshots look weird. It’s an AKOM ep. 

WHY ARE YOU TWO SO BAD AT SNEAKING AROUND. 

I just find it hilarious how they clearly run around where Snowball can see and hear them. Like they just shout Snowball’s name in the middle of the room. You’re terrible at being sneaky little mice. Please. 

Those dang boomers and their old timey 90s computers. Technology is ruining boomers. Can’t even hold a conversation anymore cause they keep looking at their screens. 

No touchy! 

Well, it’s awful nice of Snowball to engage in nepotism and offer Brain a position in his administration...and then tempt Pinky with an amusement park when he refuses. 

You really gotta appreciate the complexity of Snowball’s plans. Stealing the chain letter fails->plant seeds of doubt in Pinky’s mind, even if this doesn’t work right off the bat, the idea will still be there-> take over a corporation->impersonate Bill Gates->When the mice show up, offer to co-rule the world on expectations that Brain will refuse->make co-ruler offer to Pinky->wait for Brain to open his big mouth and drive Pinky away. 

All to take everything Brain has. His dignity, Pinky, his meager resources. Like holy Snowball, Batman.  

And then Snowball reveals the amusement park he had specifically built for Pinky. 

And here we have the most heartbreaking line of the ep. If I had the ability video edit I would’ve put the entire line on audio because Brain’s tone is very important here. It’s about 12:38 to 12:57 in the ep if you want to see for yourself. 

“Oh, go ahead, Pinky. I don’t need you. What did you think, I just have you around so I can steal your brilliant ideas and claim them as my own? That I’m just using you, Pinky? Oh yes, I’m using you for your brilliance!” 

First of all, very poor word choice, especially to someone who has trouble understanding sarcasm. I just want to dissect this statement here. 

The Literal Meaning: You’re an idiot to think you were ever more than an assistant. 

This is what Pinky hears. 

But if you listen to Brain’s tone rather than just reading the line, he sounds genuinely hurt that Pinky would ever be tempted by something as frivolous as an amusement park. It’s Pinky, so he just sees ‘ooh fun rides, cotton candy, and carnival games’! 

But Brain is perfectly aware that this is Snowball’s well-crafted method of taking away the only thing he truly has, and he knows it’s working. And he’s hurt. 

The Actual Meaning: Snowball’s trying to separate us and you’re falling for it, Pinky. You may be an idiot, but many of my plans never would’ve come to fruition without you. You’re much more than an assistant. You’re my friend and my world.  

Unfortunately, all Pinky hears is that Brain was only using him. That Brain values him for manual labor and an extra hand only, rather than a treasured companion. The fact that Brain often falls short of making Pinky feel appreciated just adds to this. 

And now that he no longer has Pinky, Brain’s spirit is crushed. Brain is persistent, but without Pinky, he has no reason to be. 

As far as he knows, his only two friends have turned their backs on him and couldn’t care less if he has nowhere else to go. 

Poor thing. He needs hugs. 

“I didn’t think it was possible. Humanity has actually gotten dumber.” -Brain

OK I think this one shot establishes what the world would be like under Snowball. His name is everywhere, and he tells the population to do stupid things just to bask in his own superiority. 

However, I can’t see Brain putting his name on every building so frivolously like this if he ruled the world. Sure, he’d name a bunch of things after himself and Pinky, but it would be more meaningful to them. 

Brain wants humanity to advance, not regress. 

Poor Pinky. Despite all this new extravagance and luxury, he’s also lonely. The room and bed are large, but it lacks personality. He’s sleeping with an ACME Labs snow globe, and other than a reference to Citizen Kane, it also shows that he’s not happy with this. 

The worst thing in the world for these mice is separation from each other. 

Suicide by cat. 

Poor little guy can’t make it on his own. Luckily, he snaps out of it. 

“My world. I must save MY world!” 

Said while looking at a picture of Pinky. Real subtle there Brain. 

“Look, you fool. You have no brilliant ideas. I’m only using you to get at him! So just stay quiet!” -Snowball

“You’re...using me?” -Pinky

He was just a bargaining chip. Never a friend. 

“What do you want?” 

“My friend. And MY world!”

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

He makes martial arts noises like a dork. I love him. 

I love how their characters are reflected in the mecha designs (also I had no idea Snowball was Iron Man!) 

Snowball’s is overall the more efficient design. It’s also much more combat ready and violent. In comparison, Brain’s suit is simply operated with a bunch of levers. It’s alright for peaceful situations like getting around faster or simply blending with a human population, but in a straight up fight the levers take too much time to operate. 

Snowball is more efficient than Brain, and while he’s got the ego, he lacks the insecurities that hold Brain back. His confidence makes him such an effective foe. And more importantly, Snowball doesn’t value Pinky’s companionship. He’s a tool and nothing more. Compare that to Brain. While Brain struggles at showing it, he ultimately wants Pinky’s input and values his jumbo-sized heart. 

Somewhat off topic, but I feel like the reboot missed this aspect of Brain and made him too overly edgy and violent (reboot!Brain would probably prefer Snowball’s mecha design over his counterpart’s). The only time Brain should become violent, if not for comedy, is when he’s protecting Pinky. His plans should have a level of restraint to them, and Pinky is the moral compass.  

I just like this shit-eating grin right here (I mean, he did eat shit in Welcome to the Jungle so...lol)

This is such an insanely clever move for Pinky. I feel like Brain would be like ‘oh my god Pinky!’ and then ‘wow, that’s actually brilliant what the heck is this tingling feeling’. 

ACME LABS IS IN NEW YORK CITY??????

I know this is a case of Where the Hell is Springfield but gdi aren’t they supposed to be in southern California. 

Ok fine I realize the ending to this ep is a reference to North by Northwest cause they somehow got to Mt. Rushmore but still 

Weird tangent but North by Northwest’s ending bothers me (not gonna fault this ep as it’s just a parody)? I’m sorry the girl is barely hanging onto Mt. Rushmore, the dude pulls her up, and then they have sex in a car. The sudden transition always seemed weird to me. 

I am ending this analysis post with a weird shot of Snowball cause i can and it’s his episode. 

[icyexorcist]

🥨 Unforgivable deeds Genshin men x Reader

🍙Summary: Genshin Men and Reader have an argument, reader walks out and gets into trouble, they call out their S/O name multiple times, but they don’t come and the inevitable happens with the reader passing away

🍭Notes: I sort of copied how childeluv writes their fics as in the layout, but I don’t steal other people's work

🍜Character’s Included: Xiao and Fem!Reader

Xiao-

“Where there is Anger, Pain is always underneath” - Eckhart Tolle

Xiao was a timid person by default, being an adepti had its pros and cons to it, for him the pros could be living long enough to meet you and fall in love with you, being strong enough to protect you, the cons on the other hand would be all the gore and brute force he has witnessed on the battlefield, the never-ending karma that creeps up behind him, so even he would have his bad days and today just happened to be one of them... except he’d wish it never did.

“Y/n! You wouldn’t understand, okay?!” Xiao raised his voice, irritated at you're attempts to cheer him up

“Well obviously not, including if you don’t tell me!” Screaming back, you feel just as irritated, if anything more irritated than he himself is

“I'm trying to cheer you up Xiao, I don’t see why you’re so angry about it alright!” you feel a headache build up and you know you’re going to regret it later; you just don’t understand how- no why he got angry at your attempts to cheer him up like always? He himself couldn’t quite understand what got him so irritated, maybe the fact that couldn’t save that one girl today? Maybe his karma finally caught up to him. He didn’t know and he was too blinded by rage to care either

“Have you ever thought that you might be the problem Y/n?! Well, have you? Of course, you haven’t! You know what, just leave!” He got up and walked to you beginning to shove out of your shared home, your mind began racing and before you could wrap your head around the situation you were already standing in the rain outside a locked door

“H-Hey! Xiao! Let me in its raining!” you begin pounding on the door desperately, hoping he’d snap out of his anger trance and come back to his senses

“XIAO!” With a last bang to the door, you let your hand slide down the wooden frame as you feel heavy tears slide down your face, creating a stream. Moving back, you realise he isn’t going to open the door for you, you turn to look at the wet scenery of the hill on which your house was built, it was dark, but you could see the stars as clearly as day, your white hair dancing with the wind and being soaked by the rain, it was painfully beautiful. You began trailing down the muddy path into Liyue Harbour hoping to seek shelter in a friend’s house, perhaps Mr. Zhongli’s home.

“haah hah haah” your breathing is becoming uneasy, the road was already difficult to walk on before the rain, but now it’s even harder with the fact that you must account for all the slippery spots, so you don’t fall off the side of a 200-meter cliff, But it was as if God decided to go on a break and let the Devil takeover for the time being, because as you pushed forward you spotted a Fatui Pyro Agent and A Cicin Mage ‘Just my Fvcking Luck’, sneaking past them you pray that they don’t notice you, which happens for a certain time, until the Cicin Mage turns your way staring at you with a sinister smile on her lips, as you feel a blade upon your neck, you begin crying as you get pulled by your hair to their hideout or whatever hellhole they came from to torture you at your dying moments, out of desperateness and despair you try one last time

“XIAO!”

Waking up in a cold sweat Xiao looks around the room, searching for any sign of where you could be

“Y/n~ where are you?” Xiao trails the house, ‘bathroom? No, living room? No, kitchen? No, guest room? No’ he could feel anxiety build up in him, a fear that you were gone or something worse, something he didn’t want to think of, sitting on the coach he rethinks the events that happened before he decided to rest

“Xiao! Open the door!”

“XIAO!”

Eyes wide open, he speeds to the door praying you’re still there, still there waiting for the door to open, still there may be sleeping on the step, anything as long as you were right outside that door, he could apologize to you, but opening the door with deep breathes, you were gone. He begins running down the cliff, earning a few scratches here and there, but he doesn’t mind if he is able to find you faster

“Y/N!! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

He begins shouting like a mad man, until he stops, he spots white hair leaning against a tree, sprinting to your figure, joy, ecstasy, relief all begin filling him. Whilst he enjoys the pure bliss of relief, he fails to see your polearm thrown a few feet away from your body, or the fact that there’s a red puddle surrounding you

“Y/N!! WHY DID YOU LEAVE? WHY DID YO-”

He freezes, turning to the other side of the tree he sees the full view of you, a sword pierced through your body making sure you couldn’t leave the tree, even if you somehow survived, he begins to shake, hoping and praying this is some twisted joke or dream, hoping that he’d wake up anytime soon, to your resting face Infront of his on your bed, he clamps his eyes together, and opens them... but it’s the same, he begins searching for your heartbeat, that’s what you humans do right? He put his hand on your chest hoping to feel it lightly going up and down, just like it does whenever he lies on it, but it doesn’t, he’s panicking, his hands are shaking as he cups your face, making you look up at him but your eyes are closed

“hey, y/n~, wake u-up the jokes over hun.. Please..”

He sobs, looking at you, you always woke up when he called, losing hope he pulls you in and kisses you, you always kiss back whether you want to or don’t want to, so this was his final attempt to see if you were still alive.. But when you don’t kiss back his heart shatters and he finally breaks

“im s-sorry hun, im so sorry.. Please come back I need you, y-you and me, w-we were gonna have a family r-right?”

He cries into your dead body, remembering all the dreams and hopes you had, but you were long gone so what was the point

“I promise love, ill kill who ever did this to you, I promise”

[jordanstrophe]

Going Once, Going Twice, part 3

CW: Whump, Auction Whump, Pet Whump, Trafficking, Slavery, Restraints, Cages, Manhandling, Gag, Trauma, A Pet being “chipped” through the wrist

((Overall, Peter just kinda having a rough night. Fluff will strike eventually.))

Masterlist

The room was distant, his body felt numb. He couldn’t feel the tears staining his face, or his feet being drug across the floor. He could only feel the hands wrapped around him, pulling him along, but even they felt unreal. 

In an instant, it felt like someone slammed his body against a wall. His vision jostled and his body ached. He opened his eyes, and realized he was laying on his side, he had been tossed in a large metal bar cage. He was too shaken and dizzy to try and sit up to look around. He was just tired. Tired, and hungry, and cold... And apparently, sold.

“Oh have mercy...” Winola crumpled into a seat backstage. She buried her face within her trembling hands. When she opened her eyes, there was a glass of water hovering in her vision. 

“Thanks Neal...” She muttered, taking the glass from his hand. “So... He did it.” Neal shrugged.

“Yeah, He did it. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to ask that of him, but the Baron...” She shuttered.

“Ma’am, pardon me, but you shouldn’t have gotten involved in that.” Neal tsked.

“Quiet now, I know what I’m doing. And besides, Rob owed me a favor.” 

“Winola!” Robert rasped, trying not to raise his voice, speed-walking past the workers backstage, who all had eyes on him. The man who had fought the Baron, and won.

“Ah! And there’s our lucky winner now. Congratulations, sir.” She smiled. 

“Is an explanation free? or do I have to pay millions for that as well.” Robert sassed.

“Oh hush you, now come on over.” She waved, pulling him over into her room. Neal guarded the door from the outside, as Winola slowly draped herself in a old rocking chair with a groan. Robert leaned his shoulder against a wall with his arms crossed expectantly.

“We both know what the Baron is known for. Buys a pet, they mysteriously “run away”, never to be seen again. He gets taken in for allegations of Pet abuse, pays his way out, everyone forgets, repeat.” She muttered.

“I’m aware. Everyone is aware, and as sick as it is, there’s really nothing we can do about it.” Robert sighed.

“Yes there is. We just did. You saved that boy's life.” She pointed.

“But now what? I own a human being, what am I supposed to do with him?"

“Take him home. Feed him, care for him, love him.” She shrugged. “Okay, I’m being half serious here. I needed someone with the money who could outbid the Baron. If you really don’t want him that badly, I’ll look for some nice owner who can take him off your hands, just give me a week.” 

“So I spent five million to rent a boy for a week? Do you realize how insane this is?” Robert argued.

 “Don’t raise your voice at an old woman, young man. I didn’t ask you to bid five million, you didn’t have to bid anything. Besides, you have money, because you literally don’t spend any of it. I’ll get you paid back as much as I can, but I wasn’t expecting you to drop five million.” She waved. Robert took a deep breath, with his fingertips rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Alright, don’t worry about it. What’s done is done. I’ll care for him for a week, but please try and find someone who will take good care of him, this week.” Robert begged.

“Good, do be patient with him, he’s going to be very frightened. But if anything happens, or you need help, bring him in. I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, he’s a sweetie.” She smiled.

“Hey, I’m frightened too, where’s my hug-” “-Oh shut it.” She snapped, chuckling at him. 

“You bonded with him. Didn’t you?” Robert sighed. She quickly struggled to her feet, shooing him out the door “Go on now and collect your prize.” She waved, shutting the door in his face while chuckling. “Give those two a week and he’s going to bond with him too.” She giggled to herself.

<><>Later<><>

A loud clattering sound woke him. His vision was flipped from laying on the floor, but the could make out a man opening his cage, and was standing at it’s entrance. Reality struck, as arm wrapped around his chest and pulled him to his feet. All he could do was whimper as he placed in a hard metal chair. He gasped as it felt like dozens of hands grabbed him at every side, strapping his arms, legs, chest and waist down. One of his arms was specifically strapped out further, twisted upwards. He panicked, but before he could even cry out, his jaw was wrenched open as a wooden bar was shoved between his teeth. 

“Don’t move.” A voice growled. His sight was blurry with tears, but he could see someone looming over him, with something cold pressing hard into his wrist.

 “W--Wai-AAAAA!” He screamed, his arm shooting with sharp pain. It felt like someone had just impaled his wrists with a sharp spike. He bit down on the wooden bit hard, desperately trying to rip his wrists away, biting back the rest of his cries. His wrist was then gently wrapped with a white bandage and he was given a rough pat on the cheek. His breath shuttered, as he sobbed, his cries muffled.

“Sir! He’s all ready for you.” The man set down the chipping gun, waving Robert over who was just now showing up. Robert shot a glance at the young man who now apparently belonged to him, restrained, sobbing, twitching, hyperventilating. His wrist slightly bleeding through a fresh new bandage.  

‘’He’s just been chipped, and I see here he’s been fully paid for. Must have really wanted this one, huh?” The man chuckled. “If you need any help getting him to your car, we have a transport team that can take him, if you have a cage or a trunk set up in the vehicle.” The man said.

“I-I.. That won’t be necessary. I think I’ll handle him on my own, thank you.” Robert shuttered.

“Oh! Well that’s new... In that case, do you have a muzzle and restraints? Perhaps you would like him sedated?” The man asked, quite casually.

“What? No! None of those, I’ll walk him, if that’s fine.” Robert argued.

The man broke down laughing hysterically, Robert would have felt flattered if he had said something funny, which he hadn’t. 

“You uh... You didn’t come very prepared, did ya?” The man laughed, wiping away a tear. “Pets who have just been sold are always shaken up, so they tend to be stubborn, sometimes even aggressive. I highly suggest at least a muzzle and straps, sir.” The man huffed.

As convenient as that would be, Robert liked to think he was a decent man. He didn’t want to manhandle a traumatized boy, he just looked so scared... He just needed some time and space, and he would come around when he was ready... Goodness what was he doing. He was already planning strategies on how to handle him when he got home. It was only going to be a week at most.

“I’ve got it, really.” He said, as Peter was unstrapped from the chair, wooden bit pulled from his teeth, but the cuffs stayed, with a firm hand holding him down. “In that case, keep the cuffs. You paid enough already. Besides, something tells me you might need them.” The man chuckled.

 Robert bent down in front of Peter and put a gentle hand on his knee. “Hi there.” He smiled. Peter was gasping for air, trembling, holding his wrist tightly with his bound hand. It was around three AM, he was exhausted, slightly nodding off, but still in shock. “I’m just going to pick you up okay?” Robert asked. 

Peter looked up at him, was this the man who owned him now? He couldn’t see him in the darkness of the crowd, but he recognized his voice. The same voice shouting millions in his name. He yelped when he was picked up in the man’s arms, the pain in his wrists, fear and adrenaline combined kicked his defensive instincts hard, and before he could even stop himself, he bit the man’s shoulder.

Hard.

“Sir! This is why we use the muzzle!’’ The man yelled, running over to help.

“No!” Robert yelled, not giving the man a chance to touch him. “It’s-It’s fine... He’s not hurting me, he just has a latch on my coat...’’ Robert grunted.

Peter’s could feel the vibrations in the man’s neck as he spoke. He wanted so badly to just let go and crumble at the man’s feet, apologize and beg for mercy. But he couldn’t move. The shock kept him frozen, being carried bridal style, bound wrists gripping the man’s coat collar, teeth biting into his shoulder and mouth full of material.

“It’s alright...” Robert whispered to him, readjusting his grip around his trembling figure. He carried him through the parking lot, it was pitch black out, with only the streetlights luminating the vehicles around. He could make out distant scenes of other buyers loading their new Pets, some being thrown in a trunk, while some vehicles had entire cages in the pickup. The air was frozen, he could feel the man shaking uncontrollably in his grasp. He could only pull him in close to his chest, hopping that provided some warmth. 

He opened the back of his pickup truck and climbed in. He laid the man down in the backseat, who still had a death grip on his coat shoulder.  He placed a hand on his tear-soaked cheek. 

“I’m letting you go now, so can you let go for me too?” He soothed, the man’s eyes looked up at him pitifully, almost apologetically. Robert sighed as he unbuttoned his coat, and shuffled it off his shoulders. The man came off him along with his coat, as he laid him down and tucked the rest of his coat around him. He climbed into the driver's seat and glanced back. He still had his jaw locked onto the coat, but his eyes were half closed. 

“It’s okay. Just try and get some sleep, everything’s alright.” Robert soothed, turning up the heat in the car, as he was also shivering. He hoped the man would be tired enough he wouldn’t cause too much trouble for the first night. 

(press X to doubt)

Tag list: @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @moose-teeth @ill-eat-you-if-you-cross-me @yet-another-heathen @sillypizzazineoperator @freefallingup13 @alien-octopus

ʕっ• ᴥ • ʔっ *:･ﾟ✧ Thank you for reading!

[writing-of-a-british-bitch]

Blame Me - Chapter 2

Fandom: The Walking Dead

Specified gender: Female

Word Count: 5.8K

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x reader,

TW: canon typical violence, canon divergence, gore, somewhat major character death (OC), Child death, murder, implied/suggested threat of rape, 

Genre: Horror ig?

Series: Blame Me

Requests: CLOSED

Masterlist

A/N: This one is a tad dark, so, uh, get ready. I forgot to clarify last chapter that this series is going to be about 10 chapters, possibly more. Enjoy!

It happened overnight. Well, that was what it felt like. (Y/N) had only been in South Carolina a week, a few days before she was set to return to Georgia. Weird stories started arising on the news, stories of increasing cannibalism, and a weird illness going around. At the time, she and her mum had thought nothing of it. She wished she had paid more attention to it.

The sun was peaking through the windows, and the birds were chirping. It was any other day when it started. She would have never expected anything. (Y/N) rushed down the stairs, smiling as music filtered from the kitchen, blaring her moms' favourite song "Easy Street". Despite her daughters' constant teasing of immaturity, she still loved it. And admittedly, it had grown on her as well. (Y/N) danced into the kitchen, pressing a kiss to her mom's cheek as she passed, and sitting down at the kitchen island.

"Morning, honey," Her mom, Lily, smiled, placing some food on the table for the pair of them. They both sat down, and ate quietly, listening to the birds outside, and the lighthearted music. "So, I was thinking, since you're heading back to Georgia in a few days, maybe you could finally talk to Daryl about coming back up and giving me crossbow lessons," She teased, raising an eyebrow. (Y/N) rolled her eyes playfully and went to respond when a loud scream sounded from outside. They shared a panicked look with each other, eyes widening. before they dashed outside, not even bothering to put shoes on, looking for the cause of the noise.

A gasp escaped her mom when they caught sight of the noise' cause. There was blood everywhere. And some dirty, almost decayed, man with his teeth sunk into Alisha's, her mom's neighbour, arm, pulling flesh and muscles away. Blood all around his mouth, blood all over Alisha, blood on the ground. Blood fucking everywhere. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Was this what those news reports were blabbing about?

"What the fuck!" She exclaimed, and the guys head moved to look at you, quickly losing interest in Alisha, who fell to the ground, clutching her arm in shock. The blood wouldn't stop flowing. Lily pulled on her arm as the man started stumbling forward towards them, making an awful snarling noise. More neighbours were flocking from their houses, gasping, and running over to help Alisha. One of them, Daniel, she thought his name was, sprinted to this man and tried to pull him back and restrain him, but to her disgust, the guy's arm pulled straight from the elbow, when Daniel tried to pull him away. Daniel froze in disgust, and apparently, that was enough time for the man to take a chunk from his neck.

"(Y/N), c'mon, we need to get out of here!" Lily whispered to her, tugging her again. This time, her daughter allowed her to pull her into the house, her heart pounding in fear, and her eyes still wide. When they were back in the house, she seemed to snap out of it, but her mother knew it would come back to haunt her later. She rushed into motion, grabbing one of the large backpacks from under the stairs, and going to the kitchen, grabbing as much canned food and water she could find. Lily watched her for a second, before following her lead, snatching up food and dashing upstairs to grab them a few spare pair of clothes, as well as one of her picture albums. She knew it wasn't a smart plan and took up space, but if she was leaving this house, she'd be damned if she left this behind. (Y/N) made quick work of raiding the bathrooms of medicine and supplies, as well as grabbing the gun her mother kept for self-defence.

She didn't know what had just happened outside, but the increasing volume of groaning and screams that filled the street told her it was bad. If this was the cannibalism that the news was talking about, she wasn't risking being caught without a weapon. With this thought, she dumped some of the knives in the bag as well and by that point, her bag was full.

A loud bang on the door made (Y/N) jump, and she darted out of the kitchen to lock the door. She glanced out the peephole and saw that same guy banging on the door. Mouth red, and flesh caught between his teeth. His eyes were milky white. There was no way this guy was still alive. Fuck, they had to get out of there. She shoved her feet in her boots, quickly making work of tying the laces. Lily came racing down the stairs and followed her daughter in putting her shoes on, before the pair did a quick look around the house, ensuring they hadn't missed anything. There were two things on (Y/N)'s mind right now. Keeping her mom safe, and getting back to Georgia. Back to Daryl. Georgia was only a three-hour drive - they could get there before midday. Nothing could go wrong, right?

Damn fucking wrong. They got an hour into the drive before getting caught in a complete standstill of traffic. People were rushing out of South Carolina. The air was chaotic with fear, the beeping of the cars, and aggressive shouting from everyone in the traffic. (Y/N) was getting antsy, and she couldn't stop bouncing her foot anxiously. Her mother kept looking at her from the corner of her eye, but (Y/N) hardly noticed. Daryl and Merle had gone on a hunting trip. Did they come back? Are they at home, waiting for her? She doubted it, but what if they were? What if they were in trouble? What if they were already dead? Her panicked line of thought was put to an abrupt stop as her mom reached over and squeezed her knee.

"Those boys of yours are survivors. They keep each other safe. They'll be fine. We'll find them," Lily reassured, eyes skimming over the people who had climbed out of their cars. It was starting to get dark, they'd been there so damn long. If there were more people like the man this morning, being outside at night couldn't be safe. They wouldn't be safe. (Y/N) let out a sigh, putting her hand over her mothers, and giving her a tiny smile.

"I know, I'm sorry. I just worry about them," She replied, biting her cheek. "They may be survivors, but they're damn idiots too."

"Well, I can't lie to you and say that you're wrong," The pair chuckled lightly, ducking their heads. She always made her feel better, even if they were talking about her idiot husband and his dumbass brother. But the calm moment was once again broken as the sound of gunshots broke through the air. Their heads shot up and saw a woman fighting off another one of those decaying motherfuckers.

Shit.

As soon as the woman went down a second later, (Y/N) shot from the car. There was no saving that poor woman now, not with the decaying thing's fingers wormed into her stomach, ripping out intestines. Her stomach churned, and she heard her mom open the car door and throw up onto the road. They couldn't stay here either. It was time to go.

"Mom, grab a bag and get off the road," She hissed out instructions once her mom was done emptying her stomach, as chaos broke out around them. Her mom nodded almost instantly and followed her instructions without defiance, and (Y/N) followed suit, but while her mom ran to the tree line, she was stopped dead in her tracks. She was vaguely aware of Lily calling her name, but she couldn't take her eyes off the sight in front of her. The woman who had been dead on the floor a minute ago was up and walking. Her stomach was spilling out, blood still flowing from the wound, but she was walking. Movement slug-like and staggering, but moving nonetheless. Her eyes. Milky white. How the hell?

Some stranger grabbed her elbow, pulling her back. While she had been stuck like a stick in the mud, the dead woman had gotten close. Close enough that (Y/N) could hear the noise her teeth made as they clashed together. The stranger, pushed her behind him, before using a knife to stab this woman in the head. He was talking to someone on the other side of her. When had they gotten there?

"What the hell! You killed that woman!" The person said, but it was muffled like she was underwater. She could feel someone touching her back, but the touch felt familiar. Her mom.

"She was already dead, Danica! We've got to get these two out of here!" Her 'saviour' snapped back, pulling the bag off (Y/N)'s back and shoving it on her own. Slowly, their words grew more clear, but so did the crying, screaming and snarling. Her head looked over to her mom, who had a panicked look in her eyes, but showed more relief when she finally looked over.

"Are you okay, honey?" Lily asked, fear making her voice tremble. Her daughter paused but nodded. She gave her a reassuring smile before Danica narrowed her eyes at them, and giving them a slight shove further into the trees.

"Let's go, unless you guys want to become zombie dinner," She snarled, and her companion (brother, boyfriend? who knows) glared at her. She stormed ahead, her buddy following after her. (Y/N) looked over at her mom and raised her eyebrows.

"Well, isn't she just a peach?" She whispered a mischievous look in her eye and Lily choked out a hushed laugh before the women followed after the couple. They didn't know if they could trust them, but hell, what other choice did they have?

It had been months. The walk from South Carolina to Atlanta was only meant to take 3 days, but as always shit happens. They were a few miles out from Atlanta, but they'd learnt from another member of their group that Atlanta belonged to the dead now. (Y/N) and her mom was still with Danica and Ben (as she'd found out his name was). They were non-identical twins, and while Danica was sometimes a pain in the ass, they all took care of each other. (Y/N) couldn't deny that she'd never been more glad she married a hunter, who'd taught her more than a few things. She kept them fed, so they didn't need to use as many cans of food, and she'd even managed to teach her mom a thing or two. A few days after the highway traffic, they met up with some more people too, and they'd joined their merry band. A married couple, Andrew and Oliver, and their daughter Anna, and an ex-military soldier, Kai. Kai and (Y/N) had become the unofficial leaders of the group, which seemed to get under Danica's skin, and they'd made a little camp in an old service station they'd found while on their way to Georgia. It had been pretty much untouched, and they'd found a shit ton of food, medicine, and even some ammo behind the cash register. Andrew and Danica were the people who went scavaging went they were running low, while Ben and Lily helped take care of Anna, along with Oliver of course.

(Y/N) hadn't wanted to stay for so long. If she were on her own, she probably would have left the group by now, and would already have been in Georgia months ago. Maybe she would have found the rest of her family by now. Her stupid, bigotted brother in law, who was amazing at running his mouth, and her man. Her stupid husband would always put her and his brother before himself. She just wanted to see him again. Just one last time, if that was all she could get. But she couldn't take off. Not without her mom. And she wouldn't leave a little girl. (Y/N) honestly didn't think she could either.

"What're ya thinkin' about, Dixon?" Kai asked as they come to sit beside her on the roof. It was her turn on watch, and she couldn't help but notice that the number of snarlers that had come through the trees was getting higher and higher every day. She and Kai had become good friends, though it was what you'd expect after spending months with them, planning almost everything together. They were kind, and actually listened to what the group had to say, but also knew when they should step in. It was refreshing to see Danica getting put in her place every once in a while. a

"Nothing much. How's Anna doing? Has that fever gone down?" (Y/N) asked, glancing over at them, and they let out a heavy sigh, shaking their head. Anna had caught a cold or something a week or so again, and it was only getting worse and worse. She was a sweet kid, and Andrew and Oliver were worried sick. Everyone was working ten times harder to take their jobs, so they could be by their daughters' side. But she wasn't getting better, and the medicine was starting to run out.

"Her fever is higher than before. She was throwin' up blood this morning. I hate to say it, but I think she ain't gonna make it. We've scavenged every house and buildin' near here and there ain't no medicine left. We're runnin' low, and a few more days and it'll all be gone. It's gonna ruin Andrew and Oliver," They answered, running a hand over their face. (Y/N) looked over to them, and she couldn't help but notice the bags under their eyes. They were exhausted. But, she supposed she probably didn't look much better. Her mom kept fretting over how skinny she was. But the apocalypse didn't exactly result in the healthiest figure.

"Well, if, or when, it happens, the only thing we can do is be there for them. Make sure they don't fall in on each other," There was a heavy pause, and Kai took the rifle from her hands, signifying it was their turn on guard, but she didn't move. "We can't stay here much longer, Kai. The snarlers in Atlanta are running out of food, and they're starting to venture further out to find it. We've had more snarlers today than we had all of last week. It's not gonna be safe here for much longer."

"Believe me I know. But until Anna gets better, or until she-she goes... we can't go nowhere," Kai's voice shook slightly, but their shoulders soon tensed when a tree bristled, and out came three snarlers. "Shit."

Thank god they were a good shot, otherwise the group would have lost way too many bullets by now. The snarlers went down quickly, and Kai relaxed again and they let out a sigh but shot (Y/N) a bright smile, that didn't quite reach their eyes.

"So, ya know what I did before snarlers took over, but I don't know shit about ya. C'mon, it's nostalgia hour," Kai joked, nudging her, to which she rolled her eyes playfully and nudged back.

"I didn't do much. Just another 9 to 5 job. Nothing interesting. My life was good though, despite it all," (Y/N) answered, chuckling slightly. Kai raised their eyebrows, then nodded towards her ring, which she'd started spinning around absentmindedly.

"What was he like?"

"Without sounding cliche, he was the best thing that ever happened to me. Daryl was one of those guys that people were scared of, and who could look scary, especially with my brother-in-law, Merle, by his side. But he was sweet. He liked to pretend he was made of stone but, he did pretty much anything I wanted. Hell, he didn't even want a wedding. He just wanted to go and get it registered, get some rings and be done with it. But he remembered me telling him that I dreamt of getting married as a kid, and suggested having a small one. And it was small; Merle, my mom, some of my friends and one of Merle's biker buddies. But it was perfect," Kai smiled at her, seeing the adoration in her eyes. They didn't think they'd seen her this happy for the whole time they'd been together.

"Merle used to make these dumb videos of us when he found this video recorder. He'd film us all the damn time because he knew it pissed Daryl off. When we were on a hunt, in the kitchen when we were cooking, even if we were just walking around the house. I, um, I was going to visit mom, and he and Merle were going on a two-week hunt. Gave him the recorder so he 'wouldn't forget me. Then, the world went to shit. Mom and I came from South Carolina back down here to find him," Her face fell further as she got into the story and Kai put a hand on her arm and squeezed.

"I hope ya find him. He seems like a great guy," Their eyes flicked over as the squeaking of the roof's latch told them someone was coming up. There was Lily, face sombre and eyes sad.

"(Y/N), Andrew and Oliver want to talk to you. Ben is coming up to sit with Kai," She said, and (Y/N) knew it wasn't going to be good. She didn't say anything, just got up and went through the hatch, climbing down into the service station.

Andrew had tears going down his cheeks, holding Anna to his chest as she coughed and sneezed, looking deathly pale. Oliver looked like he was barely holding it together as he pulled her to one side. Danica was sat next to Andrew, trying to comfort the pair.

"She's coughing up more and more blood. We're running out of options and time and me and Andrew we want-"His voice hitched, and his eyes filled with tears. She rest a hand on his shoulder, telling him to take his time and he took a deep breath. "We know she's not going to get better. We-we want to take care of her so she doesn't turn. So she doesn't have to suffer."

(Y/N) eyes softened, and she tilted her head to look at Anna and Andrew. Anna was dying. Everyone knew it. She was such an energetic kid, but for the past few weeks, she'd been drained and quiet. Normally, she'd be pestering Ben or Kai and asking to play games, filling the air with questions and laughter. It had been quiet. Too quiet.

"I'm so sorry, Oliver. Is there anything I can do?" (Y/N) whispered. Oliver was quiet before yanking her forward and into a hug. He clung to her like she was the last thing on Earth. He needed this.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but we know neither of us could do it. I- We'd like to know if you could. I know we have no right to ask. But she adores you. And you're the one we trust with our little girl. Please, we're begging you. Don't make her suffer," He was sobbing by that point, tears seeping through her clothes and onto her shoulder. She felt for them, she really did. She wished she could have saved Anna. But if this was what they wanted, they knew what was best.

"Of course. Of course, I will. You shouldn't have to go through that, either of you," She stated simply, squeezing him tightly, and not pulling back until he let go. Oliver scurried to wipe his eyes, not noticing the hard look Danica was giving him. She'd deal with her later.

"Could we, uh, possibly wait until tomorrow morning? Or even late tonight if tomorrow is too much to ask? We just want to say goodbye to her. Spend as much time with her as we can," He wasn't asking anymore. He was begging. He was desperate. She only nodded. The look in his eyes only read gratitude as he left to sit with his family. Danica stood up as Oliver came over, glare fixed on (Y/N). She grabbed her arm, but not in the kind way that Kai had previously. it was bruising and painful as she tugged her to the back of the store.

"What the hell are you thinking? Anna could survive!" Danica snarled, getting a little too close for comfort. (Y/N) took a step back, and glared at her, with pissed off eyes.

"Look, Danica, I know it's hard, but this isn't my decision. It's what Andrew and Oliver want," She shot back, glancing over as Ben came down the ladder from the roof, wandering over.

"What's going on?" He questioned, softly, coming to stand by his sister.

"She's going to kill Anna!" She barked, looking up to Ben with a dark look. (Y/N) stepped forward again, and stood in front of Danica, grabbing the front of her shirt. She was at the end of her fucking tether with this damn woman

"You listen to me, and you listen well. That little girl over there is dying. She's been in pain and dying for two weeks now. Her fathers are struggling and they can see there are two options here. Either we keep giving her medicine and using up our supplies, and continuing to let her suffer. Or, we put her out of her misery. Quick and painless, and she doesn't have to live like this anymore. Now her dads have chosen the latter option, and who the hell are you, or I to argue with that? So you keep your fucking mouth shut and trust her own fathers to make this decision. It's not in your hands," Ben's eyebrows shot up, looking between her and his sister, not sure who he should side with, so he stayed quiet, watching as the two women stared each other down before Danica shoved her off and stormed over to the cash register. Ben hesitantly trailed after her, shooting (Y/N) an apologetic look.

Lily was running her fingers through (Y/N)'s hair, humming quietly. It was something she did when her daughter was a kid to soothe her. Her head was resting in her lap and Kai was sat next to them, fast asleep. (Y/N) wasn't asleep but with how still she was being, she might as well have been.

"Ma?"

"Yes, love?" Her fingers were working her hair into a tiny braid and with the small amount of moonlight that shone through, she watched as her daughter's eyes opened.

"Am I doing the right thing? With Anna? Do you think the groups going to hate me for it?" There was a pause, where Lily could tell (Y/N) was about to continue "Do you think Daryl would hate me for it?"

"Oh, honey. Andrew and Oliver would never have asked you to do this if they didn't think this was right," she whispered and looked over to the family, curled around their daughter as her rattled breaths shook the air. "The rest of the group understands. Well, maybe not Danica, but we both know she isn't exactly your best friend regardless of what you do."

"And Daryl?" (Y/N) questioned, and Lily glanced at her. She was finding it harder and harder to be vulnerable, and she could see her daughter was losing herself. Losing who she was. Losing the joy. One of the only things that was keeping her going was Daryl, and she didn't know what would happen if that hope were to be destroyed. She was finding it hard to vulnerable and only Lily and Kai got to see that side of her, even if it was rare.

"Daryl could never be ashamed of you. You know him better than anyone, but I know him pretty damn well. He knows you wouldn't do anything like this unless you had to. He loves you," She stroked her cheek, and she saw a bright but reluctant smile rise on her cheeks. But it seems they could never have a calm moment. A snarl filled the air, but no one could respond before Oliver's scream followed through. (Y/N), Ben and Kai were immediately up and Andrew's scream of pain and fear soon accompanied. Fuck

"Did you guys see all that smoke earlier? Looked like it was coming from the old prison a few miles down the road," Ben inquired meekly, watching the fire flicker and dance. He was perched on a log beside Kai, while Lily, (Y/N) and Andrew sat on the floor. No one said anything. No one really said much anymore, unless it was necessary. Everyone was hurting too much. Ben was the only one who tried to keep the group alive, in more ways than just survival.

"Does it matter?" Andrew asked flatly, not even bothering to hide his annoyed look. Lily nudged him with a noise of discontent. Kai huffed, turning their head to look at Ben.

"If it was the prison, and someone was seekin' refuge there, I pity the poor bastards," Was their comment before turning back to the fire. Ben's shoulders slumped looking deflated.

"Where should we go next?" (Y/N) asked, trying to ease poor Ben's rejection. All heads looked to her, surprised she said anything. Out of them all, she was, unexpectedly the one who has spoken the least. It was her fault they were gone. Oliver and Andrew had trusted her to take care of Anna, and she'd made the stupid decision of waiting until the morning when she should have known Anna wouldn't have lasted until the morning. She knew Andrew held it against her. She tried to do the good thing and she got Oliver and Danica killed. Fuck, she didn't know how much longer she could do this. Kai cleared their throat.

"Well, I was thinkin' we should start headin' up. I mean, there clearly ain't nothin' left in Georgia. Nothin' worth our time, anyways. Now, I know y'all said South Carolina had gone to shit, but what about further up, like Washington or something. They got a shit ton of medical facilities and research centres up there. I'm willin' to bet it's our best shot. We got nothin' to lose," Kai explained quietly, head perking up slightly as the branches nearby rustled.

"What's the point?" Andrew grumbled, aggressively stabbing his knife into the ground next to him.

"We could find someplace safe, even if we don't find a research centre. A refuge, or a sanctuary. People are bound to have started them. We can't be the only people left in the whole of America," Ben's optimism was starting to get on everyone's nerves but this time, (Y/N) couldn't help but appreciate it. Maybe Daryl had the same idea. Maybe him, or maybe his group (would he even be in a group?) were already up there.

"But, Washington? That's a nine-hour drive, pre-apocalypse when we could easily get gas. Is there any promise we'd even get there?" Lily piped up, knowing she had to be the rational one, even if her daughter was already dreaming about it. Andrew opened his mouth to leave a snarky comment when there was a click, and (Y/N) stiffened at the feeling of hard metal behind her head. The whole group went stiff, panicked eyes watching behind her intently.

"There ain't no promise at all missy," A gruff voice spoke from behind her. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to calm her breathing down. It was okay. She was okay.

"Hey, look, we don't want any trouble," She declared, trying not to let the confidence in her voice tremble. A sinister chuckle sounded as more rustling was heard, before more men, at least 12 or 13 surrounded the group.

"Neither do we. Just hand over all your supplies, and we'll be on our merry way."

"But, we'll die!" Ben exclaimed, looking terrified. She narrowed her eyes at him, telling him to shut up, before locking eyes with Kai, who quietly shushed him.

"Ho, ho, boys! I think I found the leaders first try! Well, I say leaders, but there's only ever one really in charge, no matter how much they both claim to be," The man with a gun to her head climbed around and knelt in front of her, so (Y/N) was staring right down the barrel of the gun. He was old, and he looked disgusting, blood and grime mixed into his overgrown teeth. No one really looked good any more, what with the lack of clean water, but he had a dark look in his eye, and a wicked smile on his lips, yellow teeth shining at her. "So, who is it?"

Kai gave her a look, clearly telling her not to do anything rash. But she'd be damned if she didn't try to save her friends.

"Me, I'm in charge. And I say you can't have our supplies," She said, holding the man's amused gaze. He dropped his head, laughing bitterly, before raising his gun and shooting Kai, right between the eyes. "No!"

She lunged forward but two of the men held her back as the rest of her group made varying noises of grief, shock or fear.

"No! No! Let go of me, you motherfuckers!" She growled, not hiding her panic or the anger that was bubbling up inside of her. Lily had started crying as soon as the gun went off, and she couldn't bear to see her mom like that. " Okay! You win! Take it all! Please, just take it!"

"Hmm, well if you'd listened to me the first time around, maybe your little friend over there would have survived. But because of your stubbornness, your friend is dead. And now, the deal no longer stands. Boys, you know what do to do," He grinned, as his men stalked forwards, becoming more visible with the early light of dawn. They started raiding their belongings, taking their guns, food, water. Anything they could take.

"Boss!" One of the guys' goons pulled out the photo album her mom had brought, holding it up and the man in front of her snatched it but still keeping his gun trained on (Y/N).

"Well, is this baby you? Weren't you just a cutie! And oh, what's this?" He was flicking through the pages, stopping near the end and twisting it about, so she could see. It was (Y/N) and Daryl on their wedding day, grinning at the camera. Her eyes hardened, her heart aching at the thought of Daryl being used against her. "Hell, you're a married woman! What a damn shame. The things I would have done to you."

Andrew was glaring at the men, under those thick ginger eyebrows, but Lily and Ben were trembling. They were frightened, but (Y/N) was trying to promise using only her eyes that she'd keep them safe. She didn't know what she'd do if she couldn't.

"Well, I'll be virtuous, and let you keep this since you don't have the real things anymore. Count that as a favour," He grinned, and she went to ask what he meant before the men holding her tightened their grip.

One of the other men took a knife to the side of Ben's head and he fell forward, lifeless eyes staring back at her. Next, they took Andrew, and hell if he didn't go out fighting. Tears were streaming down (Y/N)'s cheeks as she cried out in fury and anguish, begging them to stop. Andrew kept swearing and spitting, and he even managed to get a good punch in before they shot him, point-blank. He'd had nothing to lose. He got to be with his family now. Finally, they grabbed Lily's hair, and (Y/N) had never fought so hard in her life, swearing at them and sending death threats their way. Lily kept talking and talking, never taking her eyes away from her daughters even as they brought a knife to her throat.

"Please honey, this isn't your fault. Find Daryl. Find him. I love you, I love you, I love you, I lov-"

A quick slice was all it took, and she let out a cry that left her throat burning and definitely alerted every snarler for miles around. She could hardly get a breath in, she was sobbing so hard, hiccups taking her throat. The men just laughed, shoving the bag of spare clothes and photos at (Y/N) as they let her go, the bag void of anything other than that besides a half-full water bottle, a knife and a can of beans.

"See, we've left you stuff to survive, so really you should be thankin' us. Appreciate the gifts you've given us darlin'. You've been a real treat. C'mon boys, let's move."

She didn't know how long she was frozen in place. How long she sat there, begging her mind to wake up. To take her back to the gas station. If she just kept pinching then maybe she'd wake up to Lily's fingers in her hair. Her tender motherly touches that no one else could possess. Maybe she'd wake up to her and Daryl stood at the aisle, her mother grinning up at her.

But that's it. It was a nightmare. This was real. She was alone. She didn't get to wake up from this. She got reminded of that as a snarling rose from next to her as Lily's milky white eyes. She knew that when she had to put a knife into her own mother's brain because that damn group wanted her to suffer. (Y/N) felt anger coursing up her spine, filling her every atom. Every part of her was burning up, and she didn't know how to control it. So she glared at the dying fire and picked up the backpack. She used her fingers to close her mother's eyes, before fishing the knife out and bringing it to her side. She walked and walked, and she didn't look back.

'Terminus. Sanctuary For All. Those Who Arrive, Survive' read the sign as (Y/N) crept closer. Her bag was heavy with food she'd gotten lucky with when scavenging. It didn't sound right. It sounded too good. Maybe Andrew had been right. What was the point?

Daryl. Daryl was the point. Maybe she could follow those tracks. Maybe she'd find Terminus. Restock, spend a few days there to get better, then head to Washington. Wasn't like she had much of a choice otherwise. Besides, maybe she wasn't wrong and Terminus was true to its word. Or maybe she was right. What did she have to lose?

TAGS: OPEN

Tags (for this series): @graniairish​ @fuseburner​ @gloomystorm​ @bxxbxy​

[potionsprefect]

In The Storm

Pairings: Ethan Ramsey x Victoria Clarke

Word count: 3.5k

Summary: An E.M.T ride along takes a terrifying turn.

Rating: T

Category: fluff, angst

The dark skies of Boston stretched for miles, the heavy thunder echoing throughout the hospital. Every so often there was a flash of lightning and the rain thrashed against the windows.

Victoria was waiting by reception to be picked up so she could do her paramedic ride along. It was necessary for doctors to take an E.M.T ride along for experience in case they were called out to an accident.

Victoria ran her hands through her double braids sighing as she checked the time on her phone. The rain wasn’t supposed to ease at any point during the day so Victoria’s shift would be done in the pouring rain.

“Still in the building?” A sarcastic voice said behind her. Victoria turned around and saw Ethan chuckling.

“Are you that desperate to get rid of me for the day?” Victoria laughed.

“I’ll be able to maintain my lunch schedule on time today.” Ethan pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her.

“Don’t you like it when I have lunch with you?” Victoria looked up at him.

“I like the company. But I also like to finish my lunch on time.” Ethan smiled.

“Well I’m sorry I’m such a distraction.” Victoria pretended to pull a sad face.

Ethan, knowing she was pretending, cupped her face with his hands and leaned down to kiss her. Victoria melted into the kiss, smiling as she pulled away resting her forehead against his.

“Try not to get into too much trouble.” Ethan said.

“Trouble and I are complete opposites.” Victoria laughed.

“I’ll be the judge of that when you’re back here in one piece. Have a good day and I’ll see you later.” Ethan gave Victoria one final kiss before heading back into the main part of the hospital.

Victoria smiled as she watched him walk off. She didn’t think anyone could make her heart (and fanny because she’d been watching too much of Love Island UK) flutter as much as Ethan did. Being around him made her so happy.

“Victoria!” A voice called out from the entrance. Victoria looked up and saw Tamara, Rafael’s E.M.T colleague wave to her as she walked over.

“Hi Tamara!” Victoria grinned giving her a hug. The two women had gotten to know each other over the years, having met through various paramedics runs.

“Are you excited for your paramedic ride along?”

“Yeah but I’m also nervous. The weather isn’t helping either.” Victoria laughed a little.

“You’ll be fine. Just imagine every patient is in a hospital bed and you’ll feel like you’ve never left.” Tamara nudged her in encouragement as they headed out the hospital.

They both ran to the ambulance getting absolutely drenched as they opened the doors and sat inside.

“Jesus! I’ve never known Boston weather like this!” Victoria exclaimed as she shivered.

“Welcome to the East.” Tamara joked.

“I am from the East! I can’t remember the last time New York had a storm.”

“It’ll probably travel to New York. Then they can be covered in a wet blanket.” Tamara winked as the ambulance pulled away from the hospital.

The ambulance drove round the city, this was protocol in case they passed an emergency and were there on hand to help out. That way, lives would be saved much quicker. Just as they turned the corner towards the Common, the radio buzzed.

All available emergency vehicles to respond to Northeastern university, there has been a road traffic accident outside the university campus.

Tamara turned on the sirens and pushed her foot further on the pedal. “Here we go. The adrenaline is about to kick in.”

— — — — —

The doctors and nurses at Edenbrook were moving as fast as they could as they tried to clear beds, get the trauma tags sorted and find all the spare equipment they had. A road accident meant all hands on deck.

The patients were rolling in one by one, Edenbrook and Mass Kenmore were the nearest treatment facilities and both hospitals were expecting a high volume of patients.

Ethan looked at the scene around him as the interns were treating the green and yellow tagged victims. He had heard on the radio that a patient in arrest was on his way in. The doors then flew open.

Ethan saw Victoria doing chest compressions as the monitor beeped loudly. She was completely drenched from the rain. Ethan rushed over to take over chest compressions as they wheeled the patient into the trauma room. There was no time to hang around as she hurried out the room and out the hospital ready to treat the next flux of patients.

Ethan and the team around him worked on the patient before calling it. He took off his protective gear and walked out the room, watching Edenbrook work it’s magic.

Doctors and nurses were moving between patients as fast as they could, all tending to the victims of the accident. Ethan set to work, moving fluently between patients, tagging and treating.

It must’ve been at least an hour before Ethan had a moment to himself, he retreated to his office where there was peace and quiet and he could gather his thoughts.

Ethan made a coffee from his coffee machine and sat down at his desk. He looked at the photos on his desk. One of them was a photo of himself and Victoria, the other a sole photo of just her. Ethan smiled as he picked up the latter photo and ran his thumb across it.

He was so proud of her when she announced she had been called up to do a paramedic ride along. He knew how much she had wanted to experience the life of an E.M.T. Ethan had joked that she should’ve become an E.M.T so she can experience the adrenaline more often.

Ethan drank his coffee and pulled out his phone, sending a text message to Victoria. He knew she probably wouldn’t read it but she would have a nice message to come back to later on.

Little did he know, she was right in the middle of the action across town.

— — — — —

The sound of thunder was deafening and the rain was falling from the sky like bullets.

Victoria and Tamara raced back to the scene to help other victims. They got out of the E.M.T and ran towards the scene.

“Are there anymore trapped?” Tamara yelled to her supervisor.

“There’s two in the car near the entrance to the uni! But there’s a power line that is threatening to fall so we can’t get to them yet!” The supervisor shouted.

“How long do you reckon?” Victoria said.

“It could be a while. We need to tend to some other patients.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

“Just sit tight. We’ve got other rescue vehicles dealing with the patients needing treatment.”

Victoria and Tamara retreated back into their vehicle.

“We can’t just sit here surely. We need to go help.” Victoria sighed.

“It’s too dangerous Victoria. We’re just meant to treat not rescue.” Tamara replied.

“But they could be seriously injured!”

“And so could we if we go and help them. The experts will get them out and then we’ll treat them. It’s the only way.”

Victoria sighed in defeat. She knew it would be dangerous to go and help. There were emergency workers with much more experience than her who had helped those trapped before. Victoria was only a doctor, not a firefighter.

But sitting around doing nothing made Victoria feel useless. People needed their help. And Victoria was never one to just sit around.

Not hesitating any further, she opened the ambulance door.

“Where are you going?”

“I can’t just sit around.”

“Victoria you’re mad. If you end up hurt we’ll both be in trouble.”

“Well we have to at least try. And I’ve never given up on anyone and I’m certainly not going to today.” Victoria jumped out the vehicle. Tamara rolled her eyes but followed her.

The two women raced towards the scene again, as they saw a car near the power line.

“Hello?! Can anyone hear me?” Victoria shouted into the vehicle.

“Yes! Over here!” A voice cried out. Victoria cautiously moved closer and saw a young woman lying in her seat, blood covering her head.

“It’s okay. We’re going to get you out.” Tamara reassured the woman.

“You need to help my daughter! Take my daughter first!” The woman winced in pain.

Victoria looked in the back seat and saw a young girl lying in her car seat unconscious.

“I’ll go help her. What’s her name?” Victoria asked.

“Amy. She’s only seven.”

Victoria leaned out of the car and moved round the side so she could get better access. She learned inside the left window.

“Amy? Amy can you hear me?” Victoria called out to the little girl who didn’t respond.

“Is she going to be ok?” The mum asked.

“She’s going to be fine ma’am but I need you to let me help you too. Can you tell me your name?” Tamara said.

Tamara talked to the woman, learning her name was Lucie and that her head and chest hurt. Victoria focused on the young girl pressing two fingers to her neck, breathing a sigh of relief that she was alive.

“I’m going to call for back up. We need to remove some pieces of the car before we can get them out.” Tamara reached for her radio and relayed a message.

Victoria reassessed the little girls injures, feeling blood from the back of her seat. She didn’t look like she had any other injures.

“I need a a paediatric backboard now!” Victoria called.

“They’re on their way. Just hang on.” Tamara yelled.

It wasn’t long before help arrived, firefighters and the paramedic supervisor arrived with the necessary equipment.

“I told you guys to wait!” The supervisor shouted.

“Dan we have a woman with internal bleeding and her seven year old daughter with a head injury! If we waited, we might’ve lost them both!” Tamara shouted.

“That doesn’t matter!”

“Can you guys stop arguing and get to work. We have two critically ill patients here!” Victoria shouted.

The two others stopped and nodded and moved out the way to let the firefighters through. Victoria stepped back shivering in the rain that was still heavy and the wind had picked up rapidly.

“How long do you reckon it will take them?” Victoria asked Tamara.

“They work as quick as lighting. They’ll get to them in no time.” Tamara replied.

“Speaking of lightning.” Victoria looked out over the water and saw flecks of lightning in the distance.

“Looks like the storms not over yet.” Tamara sighed.

“Hold it.” A voice yelled. The two women looked back towards the damaged car where the firefighters were looking underneath.

“What is it?”

“There’s someone underneath. We need another backboard now!”

Victoria raced towards the ambulance grabbing another board before racing over to the scene again.

“Got it!” Victoria placed the backboard underneath the vehicle. Other paramedics helped take the person away whilst Victoria and Tamara went back to focus on Lucie and Amy.

“Take the girl first. We’ve got room for both of them. Make sure she gets warm.” Tamara said.

Victoria nodded as she gently undid the seat belt and slid the backboard in with the help of others as she got Amy out the car. Victoria assessed her once more just to make sure she hadn’t missed any injuries before hurrying over to the ambulance.

“Watch out! IT’S GONNA GO! GET BACK!” A voice yelled.

Victoria turned round and it was like everything was moving in slow motion. The power lines above them was falling and everyone was sprinting away to avoid getting hit. Before Victoria could react, she was thrown to the ground by someone, their body shielding her from harm.

She saw a lot of sparks before everything went black.

— — — — —

“Make sure Mrs Cassell has her morphine injection before moving her to a room.”

“Will do Doctor Ramsey.”

Ethan sighed as the nurse headed down the hallway, chart in hand and he sat down in one of the free chairs.

“Doctor Ramsey?” A voice said. Ethan looked up and saw Doctor Trinh.

“Are you okay Doctor Trinh?”

“Yeah I just... wondered if you’d heard from Victoria at all. With not many patients coming in I guessed she might be available and near her phone.”

“I haven’t heard from her. But don’t worry, I’m sure she’s ok. She’s tough remember that.” Ethan smiled at the small resident.

Sienna smiled back before nodding and walking off. Ethan knew she was always on edge when Victoria went off to do something. It might’ve been months since the Senator attack but she wasn’t the only one still nervous when she didn’t see Victoria. Ethan hated her being out of his sight but he knew he couldn’t hold her back forever.

As he was filling out patient charts, Ethan checked his phone every few minutes, his conversation with Sienna still on his mind. Despite reassuring others, he would never fully be able to relax until he saw her in the flesh.

As Ethan got up and made his way to his office, he ran into Ines.

“Doctor Ramsey thank god!”

“What is it?”

“A power line fell close to one of the ambulances outside the traffic site, we’re getting three out of the seven injured.” Ines explained.

“Do we know who?” Ethan asked panic rising in his chest.

“All I know it’s that it’s rescue 74.” Ines explains running off down the hall.

Ethan’s heart sank.

Rescue 74 was Victoria’s ambulance.

— — — — —

“BP and heart rate are stable.”

“Let’s order a head CT.”

Victoria recognised that voice. It was one that she didn’t hear often but for some reason, it sounded oddly familiar.

“She looks like she was very lucky.”

“I agree. Let’s clean these scrapes. If the head CT is clear, I see no reason to keep her here, she can be discharged.”

“Yes Doctor Carrick.”

Doctor Carrick? What was she doing at Mass Kenmore? Victoria opened her eyes.

“Seems like trouble seems to find you often Doctor Clarke.” Tobias chuckled as he looked down at her.

“What am I doing here?” Victoria asked groggily.

“You have the pleasure of being treated by the Kenmore doctors.” Tobias said. When Victoria tried to sit up he gently pushed her back down. “Woah hey no sudden movements, we’re ordering you a head CT to rule out anything.”

“And if there’s nothing there?”

“Then you’re free to go. Ethan will be worried about you.”

“When isn’t he.”

Tobias laughed at that. “He cares about you a lot. And so do many others. You bounce back from things very quickly. You’re probably on your eighth life by now.”

Soon, some doctors came in and cleaned the blood off of her and wheeled her to her CT scan. She had taken plenty of patients there before but it was different when you were the one having the scan. Victoria suddenly felt the nerves her patients must’ve felt when they had theirs done.

“Very good Doctor Clarke. You kept very still.” Tobias’ voice echoed through the room.

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“No this is just how I am. Although sarcastic is my middle name as Ethan has probably already told you.”

Victoria rolled her eyes as she was taken back to a room. Tobias had her results in hand.

“Well I don’t see any problems. Maybe the youngest member of Edenbrook’s diagnostics team has spotted something I haven’t.” Tobias held up the CT scan for Victoria to see.

“It would appear she agrees with you. Does that mean I can go?”

“Indeed.” Tobias replied.

“Fabulous. And it’s such a shame as I’ve enjoyed yours and Kenmore’s company so much.” Victoria rolled her eyes sarcastically.

“Was that sarcasm?” Tobias raised an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you know? Sarcasm is my middle name.” Victoria winked at him.

Tobias laughed back as he filled in Victoria’s chart and signed her discharge paper. “Is Ethan coming to get you?”

“He probably doesn’t even know I’m here, let alone what happened.”

“I can take you to Edenbrook if you want.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“It’s the least I can do.” Tobias smiled. “Maybe you can give me a few tips on how to diagnose and treat quicker.

“Ha ha very funny.” Victoria swung her legs off the side of the bed.

It wasn’t long before they were both in Tobias’ car driving to Edenbrook. Tobias kept looking over at Victoria as she stared out the window.

“So what were you doing in an E.M.T uniform? Thinking of a career change?”

“Hoping to take my spot on the team?”

“God no. I just didn’t think the diagnostics team would let go of their youngest recruit.”

“I was doing the traditional paramedic ride along. Although it wasn’t supposed to end up with me being the patient.” Victoria laughed a little.

“Well you do have a habit of getting into trouble.” Tobias said

“Am I that obvious?”

“Just a bit”. Tobias laughed.

Victoria laughed. “It was just... so thrilling and exciting. Just like being in the hospital.

“I did it once not that long ago, even considered a career change.”

“How comes you didn’t?” Victoria asked.

“I guess I would’ve missed the solving. Once you hand it to the doctors they take it from there. I would’ve missed the mystery.”

“Fair enough.”

They reached the entrance of Edenbrook and Victoria got out of the car.

“I can make my own way into the hospital. Thanks for the lift.” Victoria smiled.

“No problem Clarke, see you around.” Tobias smiled as he drove off down the road.

Victoria sighed as she stared up at the hospital, the events of today catching up on her. She walked into the hospital, each footstep heavier than the last.

“Have you called round the hospitals?”

“Yes she’s okay. She was taken to Mass Kenmore.”

“Well she’s not there anymore.” Bryce gestures to his friends.

“Victoria!” Sienna cried as she ran towards her and hugged her tightly.

“Woah Sienna I’m okay!” Victoria laughed a little.

“We’ve been so worried about you!”

“You don’t need to worry anymore I’m fine.”

“Christ Rookie you nearly gave me a heart attack.” Another voice said. Victoria turned to see Ethan heading towards her pulling her tightly against his chest.

“I’ve been known to make people worry often.” Victoria replied wrapping her arms around him.

“Come on. Let’s get you home.” Ethan took her hand and lead her out the hospital to his car. Victoria sighed happily as she felt the warmth of Ethan’s car sink into her skin.

“What happened to the others I was with? Is Tamara ok?”

“She’s fine. She was brought here and explained what happened. Looks like the power line missed you guys and only hit your ambulance.

“What about my patients? I had a seven year old girl to look after?! And there was someone trapped under the car!” Victoria sat up straight worried.

“Woah Vic calm down. Was her name Amy and her mum was called Lucie?” When Victoria nodded Ethan continued, “they were both brought here. The mum needed surgery but she’s going to be fine and so is her daughter. And the guy trapped under the car is fine too.”

“Thank god.” Victoria breathed a sigh of relief.

Ethan pulled his car into his apartments garage and led Victoria up to the elevator. When he got his keys into the door he made a beeline for the bathroom.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to run you a bath.” Ethan replied.

“I see. Am I allowed to bring a special guest?” Victoria grinned.

“I think you can.”

Grinning, the couple stripped off their clothes as the bath filled up and got into it, both sighing happily. Victoria sat in front of Ethan and leaned back into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.

“So how was your day?” Ethan chuckled.

“Wild. But it was exhilarating and scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Well I’m glad you’re back in one piece. Just like I said so this morning.”

“I’ll always come back in one piece.” Victoria smiled.

They laid in the bath in silence, Ethan’s hands running up and down her sides as Victoria turns to lay her head and snuggle against his chest.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Ethan broke the silence.

“I was just thinking about everything. Being an E.M.T is just as exhausting as being a doctor.”

“Not thinking of a career change are you?”

“You sound like Tobias.” Victoria chuckled.

“Tobias?” Ethan asked.

“He brought me back to Edenbrook once I was discharged from Mass Kenmore.”

“As long as that’s the only time you’re car sharing with him Rookie.” Ethan narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t worry. Tobias doesn’t have me in his bed most nights. Only you get that pleasure.”

Ethan laughed as he tightened his arms around her.

“Victoria?”

“Yes Ethan?”

“Promise me you’ll always come back to me.”

Victoria lifted her head to look at Ethan properly. She leant forward and pressed her lips to his softly before breaking away.

“I promise. Forever and always.”

— — — — —

Happy Open Heart Day everyone!

Hope you enjoy this! Let me know if you would like to be tagged

Tag list: @ohchoices @openheartfan @queencarb @genevievemd @iemcpbchoices @choicesaddict5 @schnitzelbutterfingers @alina-yol-ramsey @stygianflood @malakemads-blog @gryffindordaughterofathena @magicalshepherdtreeprofessor @openheartfanfics

[peachyaone]

sparks

pairings: sugawara kōshi x gn! reader

warnings: mild angst/fluff, brief mentions of sh. ex to lovers.

plot: after the two of you part ways, an event requires you to need him much more than ever. (timeskip!sugawara)

A/N: this became a little of a vent fic, and also wanted to start writing for this cutie. also, this is kinda based on sparks by coldplay!!!

Did I drive you away? I know what you'll say You say, "Oh, sing one you know"

You didn't know what came over you today, you just felt the urge to cry. Problems after problems kept on coming non-stop, ever since you've graduated.

For example, you broke up with Sugawara, your high school sweetheart. It was a mutual kind of break, the two of you agreed to part ways, he wanted to move to Tokyo, while you had to stay in Miyagi because you needed to take care of your ill brother.

You text each other quite often when the two of you had any breaks in your work and daily life. But time passed and the two of you didn't talk as much.

You were working multiple jobs, to pay for your brother's medications, but nowadays the prices for simple medicine are high and your jobs weren't paying enough. Ukai, the coach of the volleyball team at your former school, took you in. He gave you a job at his family shop. He would give you free lunch, much to your protest of letting you pay for it.

But ever winter begun, things have been much harder. The illness that your brother had worsened and you were desperate. You brought him to his weekly checkup, the doctor said that your brother might not make it.

But I promise you this I'll always look out for you Yeah, that's what I'll do

That's what brought you to where you are right now, your head in your hands, crying your heart out. Your throat raw and scratchy from shouting. You never felt so helpless, so hopeless. And the fact it was almost Christmas made you feel worse.

Your phone buzzed.

[5:30 pm] Suga: Hey Y/N!

[5:30 pm] You: kōshi...

[5:30 pm] Suga: hey, what's wrong?

[5:31 pm] You: ...

[5:31 pm] Suga: I'm calling you.

A second later, your phone rang,

"Hey, Y/N?" You hear his voice through the phone, you missed it. The tears came back. "Hey, are you crying?" He said, worriedly. You heard rustling. "Suga..." "What is it? Did something happened?" You sobbed. "Everything happened." You choked out.

"Oh my, Y/N, I'm so sorry." He said. " 'need you, kō." You said. You heard him take a deep intake of air. "I'm heading over to Miyagi later tonight." He said. "Kō-"

"No objections. You need me right now, I promised I'd always look out for you, don't you remember? Even if we broke up." He said. You did. You would never forget the things you did together, even if you tried. "I'm staying until Christmas." He said again. "Are you sure?" You said. "Yes. I'm not leaving until you're okay." He whispered.

"Thank you. Kō." You whispered. "No problem Y/N, you still put the spare key at the same place right?" You hummed in reply. "Alright, I'll see you then. Bye." He said.

My heart is yours It's you that I hold on to Yeah, that's what I do

Sugawara was packing his clothes in his bag as quickly as he can, he didn't want to waste another minute. He needed to know that you, physically, are okay. That you didn't... hurt yourself or anything. He rushed to a supermarket to buy a fruit basket for your brother.

He called his parents to tell them that he's coming over and that he would be staying at your house in the meantime. They were ecstatic. He ended the call and made his way to the train station.

He couldn't wait to see you again.

You were at the hospital. Your brother was in a bad shape. He was still bedridden, too weak to stand but strong enough to sit up and move his arms. You stroked through his hair, he liked it when you did that. You felt him leaning towards your touch. Your heart broke and you start to tear up.

"Hey, kiddo." He said, his voice raspy. You looked at him, with a smile. "Hey there, big bro." You said. "Are you crying? Please don't cry." He said, his shaky hand reached up and wiped your tears. You held his hand and place it on the bed. "Save your energy," you said. "You need to get better okay? I know you can." You whispered. He nodded. "I will. And when I do, I'll pay you back for everything you've for me." "Oh, there's no need-" He shushed you. "Don't think I don't know that you've been taking extra shifts at Sakanoshita's." You sighed. "You caught m-"

"S-Sugawara!"

Turning around, you saw him.

He still kept his usual go-lucky self, but you could tell he was out of breath. From running, you guessed. He still looked so good as the last time you saw him. "Kō." You gasped. His eyes connected to yours and he was love-struck all over again.

"Y/N." He said, breathless. He placed the fruit basket next to the hospital bed. He greeted your brother, gave him a light shoulder pat and he finally looked at you. He hugged you gently, taking his time to feel you in his arms again. "You okay?" He whispered. You shook your head against his neck.

"Get a room you two."

The two of you pulled away, flushed.

You went to your brother, lightly smacking his head. "Ouch~" He whined. You sighed and kissed the spot where you hit him. He beamed. "I need to head out now. Remember to take your meds, and remember to eat the food that they gave you-" You rambled. "I know, kiddo. I'll be fine for now. Go reunite with loverboy over there." He teased. You hugged him before saying goodbye.

——————————

The two of you were sitting on your couch. You were nervous, fiddling with your fingers. He was sitting next to you, his eyes giving you small glances every now and then.

“So, do you want to tell me what happened this evening?”

Sighing, you turned, moving to face him, you were looking down at your hands. It was hard, there was a lump in your throat, tough to swallow.

Seeing you were having trouble speaking, he slowly brought his hands up to hold yours, rubbing circles with his thumb, both to soothe you and ground you. "Take your time," he said, softly.

You were looking at him, teary-eyed. "It's so hard," you said. "What's hard?" he asked. "I've been taking multiple jobs. Working day and night, first, the cafè we used to go to." Taking a breath, holding back your tears. "Then at Shimada Mart, the restaurant down the street, and then at Sakanoshita's ." You said. "I was struggling financially. The money I worked so hard for, wasn't enough for my brother's treatment." You started sobbing.

Sugawara instinctively pulled you into the crook of his neck, but you pushed back with equal force, shaking your head. "I don't want to get you wet with my tears," you whispered. He lifted your chin with his finger. “You can cry on me.” Honestly, it would make him feel better- he wanted for you to seek comfort in him like you used to. While still seeing the slight hesitance, his worries increased tenfold. "Y/N..." he said.

"Kō.." You sobbed.

And I know I was wrong But I won't let you down Oh yeah I will, yeah I will, yes I will, yeah I will

His heart ached.

“Y/N, Look at me,” he cooed, he gave you a small smile, trying to put on a tough front for your sake, trying to conceal the way his heart was beating faster, the way his lips was twitching every so often, betraying the anxiety he was feeling inside. “Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" He whispered. "I would've come sooner."

You looked at him. " But you have children to teach-" He shushed you softly. "There's a thing called substitute teachers, remember?" He reminded you. "You're way more important," he confessed.

You leaned forward, placing your head in the crook of his neck, your body slightly shaking. "The doctor's said that my brother might not make it-" you cried. "I was supposed to tell him earlier. But I couldn't bear to." You felt his arms wrap around you tightly. You almost had the nerve to cry harder, right then and there- you felt so hopeless while Sugawara, felt guilty.

He should've been there for you. But that doesn't matter now, because he was here with you. "He can get through this, I believe it," he said. "He's a fighter, like you." He whispered. You moved to look at him and chuckled sadly. "I'm no fighter, Kōshi," you said. You felt a poke on your forehead. "Negativity begone~" He joked softly. You smiled a little. "There's the smile I love-" He stopped suddenly. His cheeks were flushed. "I'm so sorry I-" You shushed him. "It's fine, Kōshi." You smiled.

The two of you sat in comfortable silence, in each other arms. You broke the silence. "Do- Do you still love me? After all this time?" You asked. He went silent for a minute before answering. "I do. I still do." He said. You looked at him. "I couldn't stop thinking about you ever since I moved to Tokyo." He continued. "I still haven't gotten used to you not being there, I still reach for you when I'm sleeping, and I still call out for you when I wake." You quietly exhale. He clasped your hands, his eyes looking for yours.

"Do you?" he asked. You looked at him, confused. "Do you feel the same way?" he said.

You nodded.

"I still do, Kō. I feel the same way." You say tears filled your eyes again. He smiled. And his hands reached up to caress your cheek. He stared into your eyes. You were nervous, the way he looked at you, with so much love and care. It was overwhelming, in a good way. You could feel that Sugawara truly loved you, truly cared for you. You felt butterflies in your stomach, just like the first time.

His eyes were on your lips, flickering back to look at you with a question, "May I kiss you?" he asked. Your tears welled over as you nodded. "Please," you whispered.

When his lips touched yours, you swore that you saw sparks. It reminded you of the first time the two of you kissed. His lips were soft and warm against yours. You missed this.

The both of you pulled away, breathless. "Did you see what I saw?" You quietly asked. He was crying too. Smiling as he nodded,

"I saw sparks."

Yeah, I saw sparks Yeah, I saw sparks And I saw sparks Yeah, I saw sparks Sing it out

[kuronanox]

Your Knight - Leopold Vermillion

"Leo." (Your Name) calls waiting down the hill for him waving her hands as the wind blows through the air, and the autumn leaves fly around them as he runs towards her with excitement, his smile ear to ear.

"I'm running away from my brother!" He tells her as they grab each other hands and run to the field where they would play together. "Princess and Knight?" Leopold asks her as she nods her head with a smile.

It was a cute little game they played often where the usual the knight saved the princess and there was a happy ending. "Wow your magic is so strong!" She says with sparkles in her eyes as he shot a baby fire out into the sky.

"You should see my brothers it's way better." He says as it explodes and they looked up to the sky to mesmerize it.

"You won't get in trouble being out here?" (Your Name) asks as she picked at the green grass and threw it into the air.

"Not if I don't get caught!" He chuckles as he slightly pushes her and she runs after him. "Hey that's not fair! I'm not fast." She pouts chasing after him.

"Huh?! Lame Leopold I didn't know you were one to play with commoners!" Solid shouts from afar with a smug smile on his face. (Your Name) gasps as she hid behind Leopold and watched Solid walk towards them.

"Come here little girl!" He says snatching her roughly away from the youngest Vermillion and threw her onto the floor. "Commoners like you don't get to have the luxury to hang out with us royals, got it!" He sneers kicking dirt on her dress as she looks down and lands hard on the floor.

"Leave her alone!" Leopold yells and threaten to use his magic on Solid but the older boy just scoffs and places his hands on his hips and chuckles.

"It's okay Leo, he's right. Commoners shouldn't speak to royals." (Your name) says trying to get up from the floor. Her voice was soft and shaking as if she was about to break down in tears.

"Shut up peasant! Who told you to talk!" Solid yells kicking her back to the ground as Leopold punched him in the face.

"What's little 8 year old Leopold going to do? Go snitch on me?" Solid taught as he laughs and dodges the punch before swinging his own fist hitting Leopold right on his cheek as the younger boy fell on the floor across from (Your Name). The two children look at each other with sadness written in their eyes.

"That's enough!" They heard a deep voice yell from behind as 22 year old Fuegoleon was watching with furious eyes and his mana flaring, carefully he picks up (Your Name) from the ground and looks towards Solids direction.

"Go home now!" He sternly says to Solid as the boy grew in fear and ran back to the Silva estates.

Fuegoloen holds (Your Name) as she starts to cry and wipe her tears as she says "I'm sorry Lord Fuegoleon I won't play with Leo no more."

Leopold runs besides them and sits on the ground next to them feeling ashamed he couldn't protect her from Solid and he didn't try his best to prevent it from happening.

"What is your name?" Fuegoleon asks kindly as he kneed down eyes to eye with her.

"It's (Your Name)." She sniffles as Leopold takes a hold of her shaken hand.

"It's a very pretty name, don't let anyone tell you who you can be friends or not friends with. We are all the same. I am thankful you let Leopold comes home everyday safely." He tells her with a smile as she looks up to him and nods with determination.

"Leo is my best friend I would never let him get hurt!"

"And I am thankful for that. You did take on a powerful kick."

Leopold squeezes her hand as she squeezes it back.

"Let's get you home now." Fuegoleon says carrying both Leopold and her in his arms.

"Aniue! I'm 8 years old I can walk myself!" The boy pouts as his older brother drops him and continues walking with (Your Name) on his back.

Once they reached her home she gave Leo a hug and Fuegoleon a shy smile before saying a farewell.

"Leo, I'll teach you have to defend yourself. How will you be her knight if you can't even protect yourself." He lectures as Leopold looks down ashamed, he kicks the ground and clench his fist with frustration. "Imagine if your sister was here."

"How do you know about that?" Leopold grimly says playing with his feet avoiding eye contact from his older brother.

"Don't think I don't know where you run off to everyday." Fuegoleon scolds as they walked back home together.

Now 8 years later Leopold was becoming a grown man and learning his full potential. He hadn't seen (Your Name) in a few years since she moved to the country side. He achieved so much after the fight with the elves and preparing for the fight with Spade Kingdom he was proud to say he was 100x stronger than he was years ago.

There were times he missed her dearly, someone he could run to and talk to about his royal problems or how training went but she was gone and all those feelings were kept hidden in his heart.

Although he was a happy kid he did have times where he fell into the dark. Like sometimes being the shadows of both his siblings.

"I miss her." He says sitting on the open field where they use to play, starring into the scenery and slightly cringing at himself. They were both children with imaginations never did he think he would ever be anyone's Knight but he was thankful it was to (Your Name).

Knitting his brows he wondered if she was doing alright, he remembered a time where he ate dinner at her house. Her parents were poor and they ate soups most night but he never had ill thoughts towards there life style.

Leopold remembers his younger self sitting next to (Your Name) as they ate potato soup and bread. The last of the bread her family could get. They offered him the biggest piece but he refused and let them have all the pieces. He finally realized how good of a life he was born into. As he drank the soup he remembers a feeling of warmth go down his stomach.

He realizes it was made with hard work and dedication, her family poured their heart and soul to support a roof on their heads. That night before he left home he hugged her tightly for a few moments longer as she questioned what was wrong with him. "I promise you won't have to suffer when we get older." he says seriously to her as she just laugh.

"Don't worry Leo, we were just born into different classes, some people have it worse than me."

Leopold smiles to himself as he made that silly promise that he wish to make come true, maybe in another lifetime it was worth trying. He couldn't even find out where she was at now.

"Leo let's go." Fuegoleon says from behind the younger boy, recently he would find him at the field whenever he had bad days or if he wanted to get out of the city. Fuegoleon wouldn't say much but take him home every night.

(Your Name) had returned to Clover Kingdom after a few years away, her parents making enough from farming to move back to the city. The place was still the same, nothing changed much besides some rebuilding from the damage that the elves had left behind.

"I wonder if I can see Leopold again?"  She wondered looking at the capitol before going back into her family business.

"Why don't you go visit him?" Her mother said to her that night as she got ready for bed but she shook her head and remembered the brief memory of solid telling her they don't belong together.

"We are on a different level with royals, I was just a kid."

"Still, you guys were inseparable."

Walking into her bedroom she closed it slightly and laid in bed. Would Leopold still be the same boy he was years ago. People change and out grow sometimes. For all she knew he could have turned out snobby but that was not likely.

One early morning Leopold ran after a thief that he caught early as he was heading towards the fields. "Stop right there!" He yelled chasing the hooded figure as civilians were pushed onto the ground and caused a commotion around the city.

(Your Name) turned her head to find the hooded figure running towards her and the basket of bakery goods fell on the floor as she gasp and tried to get out of the grasp of the thief. "Let me go!" She shouted as she was lifted into the air with a rope around her neck.

"Let her go!" Leopold shouts from below with his fire spilling out of his hands, his face filled with anger.

"Leopold!" She yelled surprised to see him. He was tall, his hair more spiked and his tooth was growing out.

"(Your Name)?" He says confused, he didn't recognize her. She was a women now. "How many years has it been?"

The thief pulled the rope around her neck as she tried to get out of the grasp only to be dragged around as it choked her. "Help her!" Someone yelled from behind Leopold as he froze in place.

He trained for this, he had to show her how much of a man he became. He wasn't the little boy back then that couldn't fight back. Her cough echoed in his ears as tears fell from her face from not getting enough oxygen. "Fuck it."

Charging towards the hooded thief he threw a row of swirling fire as it went down a few yards and the place was fired up to where everyone had to evacuate.

The ropes burned off her neck as he grabbed her hand to safely. Only to grab the hooded figure and punched him onto the floor. Sitting over the thief he punched him one after another till his knuckle was bloody and bruised.

"Leopold stop! Your going to kill him!" (Your Name) echoed, pleading him to stop.

Focused on punishing the thief he was blacked out but was awake in his own world.

"You tried to kill (Your Name)."

"This thief tried to kill her."

"He tried to take her away!"

The thief was on the floor not moving as she touched his hand only to flinch back. Leopold body was burning with heat. He was angry. His eyes had murder written on them as she pulled his body back not caring how hot it was burning her.

"Leo!" She screamed as he looked back up to her.

"(Your Name)?" He says as she looked down at him with fear, glancing at the man on the floor not responding he lifted his fists to see them marked with red and purple.

"Stop, that's enough." She tells him as he looks around them. The place was covered in smoke and ashes. "You saved me it's enough."

Embarrassed he couldn't control his anger he yelled into his hands as she led him back to her place a few streets down.

After he settled down a bit, Leopold couldn't look into her eyes. "You must think lowly of me." He says with a whisper as she shakes her head. "No I don't, it's just scary how violent you got."

"It's only cause he was going to kill you! I had to protect you! Don't you know how it works here! The weak die unless they are strong enough and I wasn't going to lose you again!" He yelled as her eyes widen, Leopold had never yelled at her before.

(Your Name) had to understand they were older now, they weren't kids in a daydream anymore.

"I'm sorry." She says as he felt his stomach drop. Walking towards her he pulls her into a hug and dropped his head on her shoulder.

"I can't lose you again. You don't know what it's like to be the shadow of both my sibling and carrying the burden of the Crimson Lions when my brother was in a coma and when I had to fight the elves and train for the upcoming war with the Spade kingdom, it's just so much going on. I didn't have anyone to tell or go to."

(Your Name) wrapped her arms around his body and embraced him lovingly. He had grown up so much over the years she couldn't believe it.

"Leopold, I'm not scared of you, just shocked. I know you would never hurt anyone with out a reason. And I'm here now. I'm not leaving again." She rubbed his back as he hid his face by her neck. Like a baby cub he was yearning for warmth with the only place he found comfort. In her company.

"I'm no princess but I'm glad my knight showed up." She chuckled as he slightly smiled and embraced her tighter.

"I'll always be your knight and shining armor." Leopold says with a smile on his face.

(Author note: Leopold looks so good with the skip time! My baby ;-;)

[sunmoonandeddie]

don’t forget to sing

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

word count: 4,973

summary: You meet someone new in the most unlikely of ways during the quarantine in New York City.  An alley is six feet apart, right?

chapter warnings: swearing, mention of sickness

masterlist

a/n: Let me know what you think!

This was just fucking perfect.

Of course.  Of course you’d move to New York City three weeks before a fucking pandemic.  Cities were a cesspool for illness, and the Big Apple was no exception.

Your dreams of going out and exploring the city and finding little spots that you could call your own now that you were a real New Yorker and not just a tourist anymore were gone.  You’d been so busy unpacking and getting set up at your new job that you’d only gotten to go out for groceries.

And now all of New York City was shut down.  Broadway was closed, for heaven’s sake.  You couldn’t remember a time when that had ever happened in your lifetime.

It was mildly terrifying.  And by mildly, you meant extremely.

Thankfully, your job was primarily online anyway.  You were a playwright and you were basically an intern and assistant for Tony Kushner, possibly one of the greatest playwrights of all time.

But you were lonely.  At least before you were ordered to stay home, you could go out and get a little human interaction at the grocery store, even if the cashier was just telling you your total.  But now, everyone at the grocery store eyed each other warily.  Like you’d infect them with the virus at any second.

Which, it was possible.  It was why you only went late at night in order to avoid most of the crowds.  And also why you’d sewn a mask out of an old t-shirt in order to protect yourself.  And also why you’d stocked up on groceries so you wouldn’t have to go for about two weeks.

“I don’t know,” you said as you held the phone to your ear, wandering back and forth in your tiny little apartment.  Your best friend was on the other side, a thousand miles away.  “It’s getting really bad here.”

And, of course, she could try to understand, but Hope was all the way across the country.  She’d gotten a job in her hometown in California after graduation.  “I think we’re starting to head that way, too.  Are you going to be okay?”

“I think so,” you said, trying to be cheerful as you sat at your desk, pulling your knees up to your chest.  “I’m used to being alone, remember?  I’m a writer.  All I need is coffee and my laptop and I’m ready to hibernate.”

Hope let out a sigh, and you could hear the creak of her bed as she laid down.  “I don’t know.  I just think that maybe you should come out here.”

“I can’t.  I don’t have that kind of money.  And I just got here.  I don’t want to run away at the first sign of trouble,” you said as you opened up your laptop.  “Besides, I’m probably safer here locked away in my apartment by myself than I would be in your big house with you, your parents, and Scott.  Your parents work in a lab with hundreds of other people.  They have no idea if any of them have it.  It’d probably be safer for you to come stay here with me.”

“Me in that shoe box?” She scoffed.  “As if.”

Your laptop whirred to life as you ran your finger back and forth over the mouse pad.  “We talked about this.  You’re a California girl.  I’m New York.”  A smirk settled over your face as you cradled the phone between your ear and your shoulder, typing in your password.  “Two households, both alike in dignity—”

“Jesus, theatre kids are the worst,” she muttered.

You barked out a laugh as you pulled up your latest word document.  “I’m a grown woman, you know.”  You reached over your desk and opened up the curtains, figuring you could use a little change of scenery, even if it was just the apartment building across the alley.  The red brick was illuminated by the setting sun, the sky painted in shades of orange and gold.

There’s a tense pause between the two of you.  There’s a lot of unspoken words.

The both of you know that this is serious.  People are dying and there’s nothing the two of you can really do except hope and stay inside as much as possible and wash your hands.  And this is the first time the two of you have lived apart since your sophomore year of university.  It’s a big change and of course, all this happens right when you’re on your own.

“Are you going to be okay?” Hope asked, her voice cracking.

Taking in a shaky breath, you rest her head in your hand.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I’ll be okay.  You just worry about staying healthy yourself, okay?  And take care of your parents.”

Her parents were both a little older, and they were at risk with everything going around.  They’d become your second family in the years since you’d first met Hope, and had even let you live with them for a while after graduation while you saved up for your move to New York City.  Hell, they’d paid for you to come spend school breaks with them.  They were your family.

And now you were all alone with no way to get to them.  Even if you did want to fly, all incoming and outgoing flights were being canceled.  They hadn’t officially announced that they’d be closing the airports, but it was coming.

A light in the apartment across the alley from yours flicked on, and your eyes were immediately drawn to it.

“Oh…,” you breathed out, accidentally cutting off what Hope was saying.

“What?”

“There’s a…  There’s a man.”

“A man?!  We are in a pandemic!  There’s no dating in a pandemic!”

You went quiet as your elbow rested on your desk, your chin in your hand.  “He’s… gorgeous.”

And gorgeous, he was.  He looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower, with the towel swung low on his hips.  Dark hair was smattered across his broad chest like some hero on the cover of a trashy romance novel.  He ran his fingers through his long, damp hair as he opened up the drawers of his dresser, picking out boxers and sweats.

“God…  He looks like he just walked off a photoshoot with, like… Vogue,” you said quietly.  Drool was starting to drip from the corner of your mouth, you were so entranced.

“Wait…  Really?” Hope said, her voice rising.  “I need details!  Now!”

Brows furrowed, you couldn’t take your eyes off of him.  “You have a boyfriend.”

“Who I haven’t gotten to see in over a week.  Scott is the love of my life, but I need to live vicariously through you,” she said.  “The most romance we have right now is when his internet actually works and we get to FaceTime.”

You were in a trance, just watching him move around his room.  “You know how cute I thought Jimmy Woo was?  He was in my Econ class and then we went on, like… two dates?”

“Yeah.”

“I would feed Jimmy Woo to a pack of hyenas if this man asked me to.”

But of course, nothing good could last.  Your elbow slipped off the edge of the desk and your face slammed down onto the wood.  “Oh, my god,” you groaned as you fell to the ground, clutching your mouth.  “Holy fuck…”

Hope was shouting at you through the phone, demanding to know whether or not you were okay.  She was more frantic than you’d ever heard her.

Pulling your hand away from your face, you winced as you saw the dark red blood.  “Shit. Shit, shit, shit…”  You didn’t think you’d knocked out a tooth, thank god.  You were sure that you’d be able to feel that.  “Yeah…  I think I’m okay.”  You started to pull yourself up, glaring at the blood that was on the edge of the desk.

But when you found the Most Handsome Man in the World staring at you from his window, looking just as worried as Hope sounded in his towel, you quickly ducked back down, willing him to go away.  You don’t think you’d ever been so embarrassed.

“Hope, I’m going to throw myself from the Brooklyn Bridge,” you hissed into the phone as you sat on the floor, leaning against your desk.  “He saw me bust my face open!  Or he heard it!”

There’s a pause, and then a snort.  “You have to admit, it’s kinda funny.  And the type of thing that would only happen to you.”

“Gee, I’m so happy you’re having fun with this,” you said.

You stayed down there for an extraordinarily long time, hoping to whatever god was out there that he’d stop looking.  When you finally emerged from your hiding place, you found that he was watching a movie with his bedroom light off, his eyes completely focused on the television.

And there was a whiteboard leaning against the window, messy scrawl in blue marker.

Hope you didn’t hurt yourself too bad!!  And I’m glad you enjoyed the show ;)

More than a little appalled at how blatant he was, you grabbed a piece of notebook paper and a Sharpie, writing out your reply before sticking it to the window with a piece of tape.

Nothing but a busted lip and broken pride :(

You shut your curtains, carefully cleaning your wound before getting to work on your latest writing assignment.  Though occasionally, you could remember the strange interaction and a smile would creep across your face.

Which would then cause you to wince in pain as the cut on your lip came open again.

Right before you went to bed, you peeked out of your curtains to see if he’d replied again.

Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone what I saw :)  Goodnight!

You quickly wrote out a reply, taping it up before heading to bed.

Pinky promise?  Goodnight!

When you woke up, there was already another note left for you, and the man seemed to be gone.

Good morning!  I hope your lips feel better!

You had no idea when he’d be back or why the hell he’d left.  It was a pandemic after all.

Granted, a lot of people still had to work in this whole mess.  It was ridiculous.

Feeling a little bold, you wrote out a message.

You wanna kiss it better?

But you quickly crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it away.  Despite the fact that you’d seen him almost completely naked the night before, you didn’t know him.  He’d only said three sentences to you so far, and they were written out.

It was the quarantine equivalent of sliding into someone’s direct messages on Twitter or Instagram.

Should you even reply?  He was…  He was the kind of guy you saw on Love Island.  Too perfect and too ripped and sweet and mysterious and friendly, all at the same time.

You’d been getting into a lot of shows you wouldn’t have watched before while quarantined.  You’d watched the entire first season of the American version of the show, and you’d probably start the United Kingdom version sometime that day.  It wasn’t like you had anything better to do.

“Have you written back to him?” Hope asked as you set up your laptop on your desk, pulling up Spotify.

“What?” You asked, your phone cradled between your ear and your shoulder.  “No.  It was a one time thing.  It’s done.”  Before she could reply, you said your goodbyes and hung up.  You really needed to clean and that wasn’t going to happen if you chattered away on the phone with Hope like you usually did.

Music blasted from your laptop’s speaker after you hit play, and you threw open the window, letting the late winter air in.  It had started to get really stuffy in your apartment and you needed something to do other than work and binge watching or you’d go insane.

You didn’t even notice that your neighbor that lived across the alley had come home, and was watching you with a delighted smile on his face.

You were half-dancing, half-cleaning, belting out the lyrics without a care as you got more and more into it.  “Didn’t even know it!  No punches left to roll with!  You got to keep me focused!  You want it?  Say so!” You sang, twirling around with your trash can in hand as you picked up all the various little items.  “Let me check my chest, my breath right quick!  He ain’t ever seen it in a dress like this!  He ain’t ever even been impressed like this!”

Unseen by you, the mysterious stranger took a few steps forward, grateful that he’d left his window open.

“Prolly why I got him quiet on the set like zip!  Like it, love it, need it bad!  Take it, own it, steal it fast!  Boy, stop playin!’  Grab my ass!  Why you acting like you—”  You turned around, breaking off with a squeak as you saw him standing there watching you, your trashcan and an empty mug in hand.  You were completely frozen as he stared at you with a slight smile, leaving you a deer in headlights.

Suddenly, you were hyper aware of just how awful you looked.  Your hair hadn’t been washed, or your face.  You were wearing a men’s two XL hoodie that you’d stolen from some guy you’d fucked for a few months in college and a pair of sweatpants that you’d had since you were on the middle school track team that were still too long in the feet.  You’d done shot put and discus.

Why the fuck were you thinking about shot put and discus?  You hadn’t thought about it over twelve years.  It wasn’t like you were ever any good at it.

The Most Handsome Man in the World was staring at you, holding a takeout box at a mug of tea.  But at least he was fully dressed, even if that didn’t awake away from how attractive he was.  “Hey,” he said with an easy smile.

“Hi.”  Your voice cracked as you spoke, and you’d never wanted to slam your head against the wall more.  How could you be this much of a fucking loser?

“I like your music choice.  Who is that?” He asked curiously as he set his food on the bed, kicking off his shoes before sitting down.

Yeah, he was definitely just as attractive fully clothed as he was naked, which was truly a feat in itself.  Surely there was some kind of award for that, right?

You realized you’d been staring at him in silence and coughed, replying, “Doja Cat.”

“How’s your lip?”

“Good.”

“Good.”

The two of you stared at each other, him happily munching on the chicken nuggets he’d picked up.  You hadn’t moved an inch.

“I’m James,” he said after swallowing.  “But my friends call me Bucky.”

You gave him your name as you slowly moved a few steps closer, sitting down in your desk chair and pulling your knees up to your chest.  “What kind of a name is Bucky?”

He chuckled, dipping his next nugget into the sweet and sour sauce.  “My middle name is Buchanan.  My best friend, Steve, started calling me Bucky when we were in kindergarten, and I don’t know… it just stuck.”

“I mean…”  You shrugged, wrapping your arms around her legs.  “‘S alright.  I like James though.”

“You can call me James.”

“Oh.  Okay.”

It felt intimate, somehow.  Calling him by his first name.

The quarantine was forcing people to revert back to Victorian ways of social conduct.  If you were lucky, you’d get your own Mr. Darcy.

But with the sweats you had on, it was more than likely that you’d end up an old spinster.

How did he find it so easy to talk to a complete stranger?  Granted, you were a lot less intimidating than he was.

“How’s your lip?” He asked, his head tilting to the side as he peered over at you.  “You don’t need stitches, right?”

There was an unspoken worry there.  Needing stitches meant you’d probably go without, since all the hospitals were so backed up with those that had fallen ill.  And going to the hospital just meant you’d risk your own health by coming in close contact with those going to get treated for Covid-19.

“If you do, I have a first aid kit I keep here in my apartment with the stuff to do stitches,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.  “But I wouldn’t exactly be able to come over there to help you.  You’d have to do the stitches yourself.”

Your brows furrowed as you looked at him.  “Why do you have the stuff to do stitches in your first aid kit?  I did see this one episode of one of those crime shows where they used safety pins to hold a gash open, but I can’t remember what show it was.”

Mirth sparkled in his eyes as he watched you.  “I’m a nurse.”

“Oh,” you said, relaxing.  But then you remembered, and your heart sank.  “Oh.  I… James.”

James looked rather sheepish as he looked down at his feet.  “It’s nothing really.  But I can’t use the elevator since it would risk someone being in an enclosed space with me.  So… you know.  I don’t really need leg day, right?”  He let out a weak laugh, clearly trying to blow it off.  “I’m not allowed to use the gym anymore.  Not that I would.  I don’t want to risk infecting anyone, even if I don’t have it yet.”

The way he said ‘yet’ hurt your heart.  He knew the position he was in, how dangerous it was.

There was nothing you could really say to him.  What the hell could you say?  Thank you for your service?  Technically, you could, but you remembered how your dad had felt about it.  He’d been a field doctor over in Afghanistan until he’d died on his fifth tour.

“I was just doing what needed to be done, sweetheart,” he’d said to you when you’d asked.  “Trying to save as many people as possible.  I don’t need thanks for that.”

But fuck.  James was going out everyday to fight an opponent that he couldn’t see.

“My lip is fine,” you said eventually, breaking the silence with a weak smile.

“Good,” he said, clearing his throat.  “I’ll let you get back to your solo concert.  I’ve gotta shower.”

Things went on as normally.  Or, at least, as normal as things could be in a time like that.  Only now, you had someone to talk to that wasn’t Hope every night.

He wouldn’t tell you about what it was like at the hospital though.  He’d get this far away look in his eyes and his face would pale.  “Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about, darlin,’” he’d croon, a sad smile on his lips.  “You let me worry, and you just keep yourself safe and inside, okay?”

Sometimes you’d miss him.  He’d be at the hospital for days on end, sleeping in on-call rooms and eating from vending machines.  That’s when you’d leave little notes all over your window for him to read when he got back.

But then one day he came home and you could just tell that he was more worn down that usual.

“James?” You called out softly as you pushed the window open.  You hadn’t seen him in two days.  “Are you okay?”  You leaned half out the window, your elbows resting on the ledge.

He took in a shaky breath, his eyes squeezing shut as he willed himself not to cry.

“James?”  You’re about to repeat your question when he looks up, staring blankly at the wall.

“Steve has it,” he said quietly, his voice cracking.

Your heart stopped inside your chest.  “Oh.  Oh, James…,” you breathed out.

A few tears slipped down his cheeks, his hands clenched at his sides.  “I went into a room in the ER and there he was.”

You’d heard so many stories about his best friend since childhood that you felt like you knew Steve already.  Bucky had met him when they were just five years old, on the first day of kindergarten, and it’d been history from there.  But Steve had been sickly and small up until they were about seventeen, when he’d undergone some revolutionary clinical trial.  Fixing his heart and lungs had kick started his entire system and it was like everything magically went away.

“Not even that stupid treatment prevented him from getting sick,” Bucky said quietly.  “He looked…  He looked like he was on his deathbed.”

You paused, before crawling out of the window and out onto the fire escape.  “James, take my hand.”

You knew it was stupid.  It was really, really stupid.  He was around those with the virus daily, but he needed you.  You’d risk it to give him a little bit of comfort.

“What?” He said, looking at you like you’d grown a second head.  “No.  No.  I can’t.  What if I give it to you?”

“Then we’ll figure it out,” you said, insistently holding your hand out to him.  “Take my hand.”

Sniffling, he reached his hand out of his window and took yours, your fingers intertwining.  He took in a shaky breath, a fresh wave of tears coming on as he squeezed his eyes shut.  “I don’t know what to do,” he admitted after a long moment just holding your hand.  “I’m so fucking scared.  I don’t want to go in there day after day.  I know people need me but I…”  He looked up at you with sea glass eyes.  “I don’t want to die.”

“You’re not going to,” you said firmly, with as much conviction as you could muster up.  “You hear me?  You’re not going to die, and neither is Steve.  We’re going to make it through this.”

“Sometimes I just… hold their hand,” he said, so quiet you could barely hear.  “They’re dying alone.  Their family and friends aren’t allowed in to see them.  So I just… stay with them.  So they have someone there.”  Bucky lets his head fall into his chest, his shoulders slumping.  “And then I have to call the family to let them know.  And I just hope that maybe…  knowing I was there with them helps a little.  But it’s not the same.”

You tighten your grip on his hand, not daring to look down because you’re several stories up and if you lean a little too far, it would result in a trip to the hospital you can’t afford.  You haven’t been outside in days.

You don’t realize that you’re crying right along with him until you taste the salty brine of your tears on your lips.

“We’re going to be okay, James,” you said, though you weren’t sure if you were trying to convince him or yourself.  “This won’t last forever.  And I’m going to be here with you, okay?  No matter what happens.  I’m here.  I’ve got you.”

He squeezed your hand once more before letting go, nodding for you to go back inside.  “Go wash your hands.  Now.”

A smile creeps across your face as you surrender to his wishes, crawling back through your window.  “Yes, sir.”

He’s touch and go the next few days.  Sometimes he seems upbeat, positive even, about the whole situation.  Others…  Well.  He had plenty of reason to be down.

“You know, you’re a pretty good singer,” he commented one night.  He was sitting against the window, leaning his head against the frame.  You had climbed out onto the fire escape again with a blanket wrapped around your shoulders.  “That night that I heard you singing to that song…  The Doja Cat one?  You’re good.”  His head tilted to the side in the way that a puppy might.  “Why don’t you sing more often?”

“I used to,” you said after a deep sigh.  “I used to sing a lot.  I was going to be a musical theatre actress.  But I got told so often that I was better at writing than performing so… I don’t know.  I guess I just decided it’d be better to pursue something I was better at.”

His lower lip was caught between his teeth as he looked at you.

You’d never had someone look at you the way he did.  Like he wanted to see all of you, like he craved it, needed it, even.  It was exhilarating.

“That doesn’t mean you stop singing.”  He moved to rest his chin in his palm.  “Even if you don’t become a performer professionally, you don’t stop singing.  Especially in times like these.”

“What?  Like those fake videos of people in Italy?” You asked with a snort.  A breeze wound through the alley and you tightened the blanket around you.  “The one that Katy Perry retweeted?”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” he said with an eye roll.  “My ma used to sing around the house.  Hearing you…  It made me feel like I was home again.  Just for a little while.”  He smiled slyly.  “And you have pretty sick dance moves.”

Groaning, you climbed back into your window, shooting a glare at him.  “You promised not to talk about my dancing!”

“It was cute!”

“Was not!”

“Was to!”

You took in a deep breath as you stared at him with narrowed eyes.  “No,” you said, pointing a finger at him.  “No, it’s not.”  Before he could reply, you started to shut the window, calling out, “Goodnight, James!”  The window shut with a definitive click and you winked as he flipped you the middle finger.

Steve came home three weeks later, completely clean of the virus.  The quarantine finally ended on May 22nd, 2020, the amount of cases down to maybe a hundred that were contained within the hospital.

In that time, you’d gone outside a total of six times to get groceries.  You’d gained ten pounds, even with the basic exercises you were doing in your apartment to keep you active.  You’d also saved up two thousand dollars, since you weren’t going out and you’d put a parental lock on your laptop and phone so you couldn’t go online shopping until further notice, but you were lucky in that way.  You had an extremely well-paying job that you could do online, and your boss wasn’t an asshole.

Millions of New Yorkers flooded the streets, crying and hugging and touching everyone.

You hadn’t been touched in so long.  The last time had been when you’d held Bucky’s hand on your balcony, and that had been the only time he’d allowed it since he didn’t want to get you sick.

He’d been lucky that he didn’t get it himself.  Most of those that had fallen ill were healthcare workers.  Overworked, tired healthcare workers.

You stepped out of the front doors of your apartment building, feeling an overwhelming sense of elation.  You’d already talked to Hope that morning on FaceTime.  Her and her parents were celebrating by going to their favorite restaurant that was allowing dine-in again.

Tears pricked your eyes as you watched the people around you.  It reminded you a little bit of those pictures of V-Day in New York City at the end of World War II.

But where was Bucky?

He’d been at work yesterday, and since you hadn’t seen him, it probably meant that he’d passed out in an on-call room instead of coming home.

But you needed to see him.  You didn’t care if he was all gross and greasy.  You just needed him.

You loved him.

Your eyes locked in on a familiar head of long, brown hair sticking a little bit above the crowd.  He was awful tall.  When he turned his head, it only confirmed it.  “JAMES!” You shouted, trying to break through the roar of the crowd.  “JAMES!”

His brows furrowed, his head turning a little towards the sound of his voice.  When his eyes landed on you they went wide as saucers, his lips forming your name even though you couldn’t hear him over the people.

The two of you pushed through the hordes of people, trying to reach one another.  When you finally broke through, you threw yourself into his arms, your arms wrapping around his neck as he twirled you around.  The both of you were crying happy tears, wide smiles on your faces.

“We made it,” you whispered, your voice cracking.  “We’re okay.”  You pulled back enough to cup his face, so many words you wanted to say getting caught in your throat.

But before you could say them, he pulled you into a kiss, one hand on the back of your head and the other on your hip.  Grinning against your lips, he dipped you just a little, holding you tight.  To passerby, it was a remnant of the iconic V-Day kiss.  But you couldn’t think about that.  All you could think about was Bucky.

“Hi,” he said softly as he pulled away, breathing heavily.

Your nose nudged against his as your eyes fluttered open.  “Hi.”

He stole another kiss, your heart skipping a beat inside your chest.  “You better not stop singing now that this is over,” he said quietly as he held you to him, refusing to let go.  “Can’t go a day without hearing your pretty voice.”

“You’re a sap.”

“Your sap.”

“My sap?!”

He had a cheeky smile as he looked at you, cupping your cheeks.  “Does this mean I can take you on a date now?”

You were lucky.  You knew people who got the virus, but none of them had died.  Others didn’t have the same luck unfortunately, and it was a tragedy.  But you don’t stop singing during dark times.  You just sing a little louder.

[celosiaa]

Another asthma!Jon prompt if you're interested? Jon always had asthma as a kid but he grew out of it so he doesn't even carry his inhaler anymore. Cut to early days of working at the institute, stress/dust starts getting to him and he has his first attack in over a decade. Panic and embarrassment ensues, he tries to hide it as long as possible but eventually has to ask one of the others to drive him home to get his inhaler, or to the hospital if it's really really bad. Cue caring friends!

woohooooo time for transcript style, baby!! This is the fastest I have ever written anything so we’ll see. Let me know what y’all think of the style.  Hope you enjoy! <3

[CLICK]

[A SOFT KNOCKING UPON AN OFFICE DOOR]

SASHA: Jon? You busy?

JON: (distantly) Hmm? Ah—

[FABRIC SHIFTS AND HE GIVES A SIGH, WHILE SASHA LETS OUT A SMALL LAUGH]

SASHA: Sore?

JON: A bit, yes.  Been sitting too long.  Just look at this mess—

[SOUND OF PAPERS BEING PASSED OVER]

SASHA: Wow.  I can’t—wait, does that say “vampires?”

JON: (irritably) Well, if you can read that illegible monstrosity, the statement’s yours.

SASHA: (smirking) Touchy. Did Martin not bring your tea yet?

JON: I’m not a child, Sasha. I do not need Martin to bring me tea.  In fact, I asked him to stop.  On several occasions.

SASHA: Yes, he said. You rather hurt his feelings, you know.

JON: (surprised) …I did?

SASHA: (obviously) Yes.

JON: (determinedly) Right. Good.

SASHA: (audible eyeroll) Sure.  

[SILENCE, AND SHE TAKES A DEEP INHALE BEFORE CONTINUING]

SASHA: Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me.

[FLIPPING THROUGH A FILE]

SASHA: I’ve been trying to follow up on this statement, but I just noticed that there might be a second part to it somewhere in the archive.  Any ideas on where I might find it?

[SOUND OF HANDING OVER THE FILE, JON FLIPPING THROUGH IT]

JON: Hmm.  I’m not sure there is really any order to where things have been…strewn about down there, but (sigh) I am happy to help you look.

[SOUND OF A CHAIR BEING PUSHED BACK FROM THE DESK]

SASHA: (surprised) Oh! Right.  Cheers, Jon.

JON: (softly) It’s no trouble.

[SOUND OF TWO PAIRS OF FOOTSTEPS, ONE SET WITH HIGH HEELS CLICKING ON THE FLOOR, THE OTHER ACCENTED BY THE TAP OF A CANE WITH EVERY OTHER STEP]

[SOUND OF A HEAVY DOOR OPENING]

SASHA: After you.

JON: Right.

[HE SNIFFS]

JON: (Dryly) Nice and dusty down here, as usual.

SASHA: ‘Course. Wouldn’t be an archive without it!

JON: (muttering, insecure) I suppose I wouldn’t know.

[CLICK OFF]

[PAUSE]

[CLICK ON]

[SOUND OF AUDIBLE MOUTH-BREATHING, A BIT WHEEZING, AND PAPERS RUSTLING]

SASHA: (from a distance) Found anything yet?

JON: (voice rough) No, nothing yet.

[HE COUGHS TWICE IN RAPID SUCCESSION, THE SOUND MUFFLED BY FABRIC]

[A FEW SECONDS OF PAPERS BEING SORTED THROUGH, THE WHEEZING SOUND GETTING LOUDER]

[JON INHALES SHALLOWLY, COUGHING FOUR TIMES IN SUCCESSION, EACH LONG AND LABORED]

SASHA: Goodness.  You okay?

JON: (breathless) Fine—(shallow inhale) —fine.  Sorry.

SASHA: (muttering) You don’t sound it.

JON: (irritated) I’m fine.

[SILENCE, PAPERS RUSTLING]

[A BOX TIPS OVER AND LANDS HEAVILY, LID SCATTERING OFF ACROSS THE FLOOR]

[JON INHALES SHARPLY]

JON: (surprised) Oh—

[ANOTHER SHALLOW INHALE, AND HE’S COUGHING AGAIN, RAGGED, WHISTLING, AND WET]

[SOUND OF HURRIED FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]

SASHA: (worriedly) Christ, Jon!  You alright?

JON: (panicky) As—asthma. Need to—

[HE BREAKS OFF FOR ANOTHER TERRIBLE-SOUNDING COUGHING FIT]

SASHA: What can I do?

JON: (breathless) Help me up.

[SOUND OF FABRIC AS JON IS ASSISTED TO HIS FEET, AND TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS EXIT THE ROOM]

[SOUND OF JON SLUMPING AGAINST THE WALL AND SLIDING DOWN TO SIT]

SASHA: (voice kept intentionally calm) Where’s your inhaler?

JON: (still breathless) Might not need it.  Better out here.

SASHA: (incredulous) I’m going to get it Jon.  Where is it?

[SILENCE REMAINS FOR A FEW MOMENTS, SHALLOW BREATHS STILL CONTINUING]

SASHA: (impatient) Where is it, Jon?

JON: (mutters inaudibly)

SASHA: What was that?

JON: (child caught stealing cookies from a jar) …it’s at home.

SASHA: (pitched higher in frustration) At home?

JON: Haven’t needed it in…a while.

SASHA: Unbelievable.

[SHE STANDS, STEPPING A BIT AWAY FROM JON]

SASHA: (shouting) Tim! Need your help!

[DISTANT SOUND OF TWO CHAIRS BEING PUSHED BACK, AND TWO SETS OF JOGGING FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]

TIM: (worried) What’s wrong?

[MARTIN GASPS, STEPPING FORWARD TOWARD JON]

MARTIN: (very worried) God! What happened?  Are you hurt?

JON: (irritated, still breathless) I’m fine.  Good lord, just—just go back to work.

MARTIN: (ignoring him) Why are you breathing like that?  Are you ill?

[SOUND OF HAND BEING SLAPPED AWAY]

JON: (vitriolic) Don’t touch me.

MARTIN: (softly) …sorry.

SASHA: He’s got asthma, Martin.  He’s having an attack.

TIM: (intense) Where’s your inhaler?

SASHA: (furious) At home.

[TIM AND MARTIN SIGH IN UNISON. SOUND OF KEYS BEING PULLED FROM A POCKET]

TIM: (exasperated) Right. I’ll run and fetch it then.  Call an ambulance if he gets worse.

MARTIN: (determined) On it.

[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS WALKING AWAY.  JON GIVES A HEAVY SIGH, TURNING INTO A PAINFUL-SOUNDING COUGHING FIT, WHICH HE STRUGGLES TO CONTROL]

MARTIN: Alright, just sit up straighter if you can.  It’ll help.

[JON CONTINUES TO COUGH HEAVILY FOR SEVERAL SECONDS]

SASHA: My hand is over the call button, Jon.

[COUGHING SUBSIDES, BACK TO HEAVY BREATHING]

JON: (breathless) M’fine. Getting better.

SASHA: (audible eyeroll) Right.  Course you are.

MARTIN: (gently) Just save your breath, Jon.  Tim’s a really fast runner.

JON: I know.

[CLICK OFF]

[PAUSE]

[CLICK ON]

TIM: (out of breath from running) Got it.  Here. You gonna make it?

MARTIN: Here, Jon. Can you hold it?

JON: (breathless, voice ragged) Course I—can.

[HE EXHALES AS MUCH BREATH AS POSSIBLE BEFORE PRESSING DOWN ON THE BUTTON, INHALING DEEPLY]

SASHA: Alright?

[JON TAKES A FEW MORE BREATHS, STILL SOMEWHAT SHALLOW.  HE EXHALES DEEPLY AGAIN, BEFORE TAKING ANOTHER DRAW FROM THE INHALER]

MARTIN: (sympathetic) Poor thing.

[TIM SNICKERS]

[SOUND OF HIS ARM BEING PUNCHED]

TIM: (quietly) Ouch.

JON: (voice stronger) I’m alright now.  Really.

MARTIN: You sure?  You can sit here as long as you need, I’ll bring you some water—oh, careful—

[SOUND OF JON RISING SLOWLY TO HIS FEET]

JON: I’ll get it myself.

SASHA: Here.

[SOUND OF CANE TAPPING ONCE ON THE FLOOR]

JON: (quietly) Thank you.

[TIM GASPS]

TIM: (grinning) Did you just thank us, Boss?  Is that what I just heard?  A thank you? For what, just saving your life?

JON: (irritated) Fine. Yes.  Thank you.

MARTIN: (nervous) You sure you’re—(gasp) woah woah woah—

[SOUND OF STAGGERING FOOTSTEPS, CANE CLATTERING TO THE FLOOR. TIM AND SASHA GASP]

MARTIN: (very worried) I’ve got you, I-I’ve got you.  Sit back down, here—

[FABRIC RUSTLES AS MARTIN SETTLES HIM BACK DOWN, BREATHING RAPIDLY]

MARTIN: (gently) Just sit quietly for a bit.  You’ll be alright.

SASHA: I’ll get you some water.  Stay put.

[FOOTSTEPS WALKING AWAY]

JON: (vague-sounding) I’m…I’m sorry.  I-I don’t—

TIM: (lowly) Just save it, Boss.  You’ll be back to your usual stubbornness in no time, I’m sure.

MARTIN: Just try and take some deep breaths.

[JON DOES AS HE’S ASKED, BREATHING TWICE A BIT SHAKILY IN THROUGH HIS NOSE, OUT THROUGH HIS MOUTH]

MARTIN: Good.  That’s good, Jon.

JON: (still shaky, whispering) …thank you.

MARTIN: (audibly beaming a sunny smile) It’s no trouble at all.

[CLICK]

[bevvydraws]

Sweet Justice (cont.)

1, 2, 3 , 4

Chapter 5 

Princess Justice looked up at the roof just in time to see a spotted figure swing down and land in front of her. The ladybug-themed outfit made it clear to her that this was, in fact, someone who had taken her old earrings. But that didn’t make sense. Her earrings were left in her room, the only way someone would have gotten them was if Tikki herself gave them to another. But who would she trust enough to do that? 

The white flame that seemed to erupt from the ladybug symbol from his chest gave her the answer. But she almost didn’t believe it. He looked so different. Luka didn’t have red hair, and he certainly didn’t have red hair with pink tips. She couldn’t clearly see his face because the bottom half was covered in a mask. His eyes didn’t have a mask, only what looked like red makeup surrounding them. 

Red makeup that made the blue stand out. Blue that she certainly recognized and found comfort in. 

It was Luka. Luka had her earrings.

“Who are you?!” Chat Noir sounded frantic, “How did you get those earrings?!” 

Princess Justice was frozen, her eyes still locked with Luka’s. 

“I’m Harmonia,” Luka answered, not breaking eye contact with Princess Justice, “I’m here to help since Ladybug is away for a bit. She… needed a break, and she’s never been good at asking for help.”

Realizing that this would throw a wrench in her plans, Princess Justice quickly composed herself. “Oh dear,” she cooed, sounding much more amused than she felt, “Poor little Ladybug is such a pitiful hero she needed to ask a civilian for help? How pathetic.”

“I’m not here to argue about Ladybug,” Harmonia said, voice soft, “I’m here to save you. Before you do something you’ll regret.” 

Princess Justice felt herself bristle slightly with rage, “You don’t get to decide anything for me! No one decides what is best for me anymore! You have no clue what I will or will not regret,” Part of her yelling was theatrical, but even she could recognize the true anger behind her words. She was sick of people claiming to know her. And she wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of what she had planned. She was so close to making everything right. “Alya, Nino, tie that bug up and make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble!” 

Alya and Nino moved in tandem, diving straight for Harmonia who barely managed to evade the two. His reflexes obviously weren’t as good as hers were, but he still looked determined. Evading and dodging the knights, Harmonia seemed to be lost in thought as he tried to plan his next course of action. 

Before Princess Justice could stop him, he had made a running start, grabbing and lifting Chat Noir over his shoulder before swinging away with him. 

“No!!” Princess Justice cried out, “Bring him back! Bring him back right now!” 

Chat Noir seemed to be reaching out for her, shouting something she couldn’t hear as he was already too far away. Harmonia only glanced over his shoulder and looked at her sadly before he quickly maneuvered them out of sight. 

All of the knights in Princess Justice’s army felt their hearts break as their princess screamed in frustration and agony. 

--------

The two heroes had barely landed on the rooftop when Chat Noir got in Harmonia’s face. 

“Just what the hell was that?!” Chat Noir practically growled.

“Look,” Harmonia said, not flinching at his threatening aura, “We need to come up with a plan to rescue her, and you were tied up.” He gestured to the ropes still tying his arms to his sides and his wrists together. 

Chat Noir only scoffed and effortlessly broke free of the restraints, “I was playing prisoner. I’ve been captured by much worse than simple rope before.”

Harmonia frowned, “So why were you playing prisoner? That doesn’t make any sense.” 

“I was helping Lady--” Chat Noir slapped a hand over his mouth, “I was helping Marinette.” 

“Chat, I know who Ladybug is. But that doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t make sense why you would help her help Hawkmoth.” 

“She wasn’t helping Hawkmoth!” Chat yelled, “Marinette would never!” His hands were balled into fists, and he almost looked ready to swing in order to defend Marinette’s honor. Harmonia looked over him, a thoughtful look on his face. 

“I believe you,” Harmonia said, “and I would never intentionally work against Marinette.”

“You just did.” 

“I’m not a mind reader, Chat Noir,” Harmonia sighed, “And Marinette was very convincing. But that was the point, I’m assuming.”

Chat only scoffed, crouching down and ruffling his own hair with his hands as he racked his brain for what to do now. 

“Look,” Harmonia started, “I may have messed up, and I apologize for that. But it isn’t too late to help her. But we need to work together.” 

“It’s weird, having a partner that isn’t Ladybug,” Chat Noir admitted softly, looking down at the ground. “I failed her. Of course, she doesn’t blame me. Marinette never blames anyone except herself.”

“You didn’t know,” Harmonia told him. He offered a hand to help Chat stand and he hesitantly took it, “Look, Marinette wouldn’t want you beating yourself up. I… also feel like I failed her, and I got quite the earful from her earlier today.” Harmonia sighed, and looked Chat in the eyes, “I know it’s weird for you to have a partner that isn’t her, but she needs us right now.”

“Yeah, she does,” Chat Noir nodded. 

“Besides, we’re both fighting for the same thing, so I’m not worried about anything,” Harmonia smiled wistfully, his voice almost humorous. 

“What do you mean?” Chat Noir looked at him skeptically. 

“We’re both fighting for the girl we love,” Harmonia said, as if it were the most casual thing in the world. Chat Noir looked like he was about to say something, but Harmonia kept talking, “and right now the girl we love is counting on us to help her, yeah? So we need a plan.”

Harmonia extended his hand out to Luka to shake, “Partners for now?” 

Chat Noir hesitated for only a second before he reached out to shake Luka’s hand, “Partners for now.” 

The two both knew the true implication behind the “for now” but both decided to focus on the more pressing issue at hand. Chat Noir looked at the note Princess Justice had handed him before Harmonia had crashed her speech. 

“Marinette knows how to get to Hawkmoth,” Chat explained while Harmonia listened intently, “he’s hidden somewhere in the Agreste mansion most likely. She told me Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agreste.” 

“How does she know?” 

“Maybe through their mental link? I mean it would make sense, because when we fought Dark Owl, the fake miraculouses that Ladybug tricked Dark Owl with were sent directly to him. That must mean those under his influence know his general location.”

Harmonia seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding, “Okay that makes sense. But wouldn’t it be easier to just tell you that and you go take care of it alone when he isn’t expecting it?” 

Chat Noir shook his head, “No, because the mansion is heavily secured, and it’s very likely that his assistant Nathalie is Mayura,” Harmonia noticed Chat Noir seemed increasingly sad as he said that, “there’s no way I’d be able to handle all of it on my own. She was going to take me directly to him under the guise of me being a hostage and bring her army with her as backup.” 

“Would Hawkmoth really fall for that?” 

Chat Noir laughed bitterly, “This is the same man who has akumatized babies more than once. I think he’d delude himself into just about anything to get his hands on these miraculouses.” 

Harmonia nodded, “Alright, so now we just need to figure out how to let both of us get captured without it being suspicious.” 

“Yeah but how are we going to do that? If Hawkmoth suspects anything, he’ll get rid of Marinette’s powers.” 

“While I don’t think that would entirely be a bad thing, because that means she’d be back to normal, I actually think this is something she really needs,” Harmonia sighed, “Getting justice for herself rather than getting justice for everyone else.” 

Chat nodded in agreement, “So we have to find a way to help her get that justice without being obvious to Hawkmoth.” 

“What if we ate one of her macarons?” Harmonia thought out loud.

“What do you mean?”

“What if we ate one of her macarons? Hawkmoth would have no reason to doubt we’d do whatever she said.”

“I suppose that could work… but you don’t automatically turn into a knight just because you eat one,” Chat Noir frowned, “Lila was put in some magical stocks.” 

“Hmm.. Marinette mentioned something like that to me, too,” Harmonia frowned, “When I asked her to give me a macaron before I got these earrings, she told me I’d just be put in stocks.” 

“What? Why?” Chat Noir looked at him incredulously. 

“It probably has something to do with a ‘justice’ system in her macarons.She also mentioned something about seeing injustices in people, I think.” 

“Oh! That would make sense!” Chat Noir said, “I remember seeing people who ended up becoming knights crying and begging for forgiveness before they transformed.” 

“So that means they need to be truly willing to face their injustices and be willing to change themselves, otherwise they end up in stocks…” 

Chat Noir and Harmonia looked at each other nervously, both realizing that this would probably be the best course of action for them to convince Hawkmoth. Taking a deep breath, they both nodded at each other in silent understanding before launching off the roof in search of Princess Justice once again.

--------

reminder: this is not a ship fic. there is no endgame pairing. this is just taking note of everyone’s feelings and how it effects their relationship with Marinette and each other. 

taglist:  @fandom-trapped-03 , @justafanwarrior , @ultimatetornshipper , @lunadensmidnightprowl​ , @starpony999​ , @minth0l-illness , @the-bollywood-miraculous-girl​ , @akioshiwarrior​ ,  @queencommonsense ,  @id-dance-with-draco ,  @all-mights-asscheeks