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serpentandlily · 2 days

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Beneath the Ashes (I/II) - Azriel x Reader

Beneath the Ashes Part I - Azriel x Illyrian!Reader

Summary: Azriel finally finds the girl he’s been looking for all these years—his mate. But unfortunately for him, his mate happens to be an Illyrian who, upset over the fact that he’s turned his back on his own people, wants nothing to do with him. (Enemies to lovers vibes, angst)

a/n: based on this REQUEST. This is going to be a two part story because I kind of went a little too hard writing this haha. Thank you for your request and the inspiration! (Also I know a lot of you asked to be on a taglist for this story but since it’s only 2 parts I’m not gonna make one)

warnings: misogyny, sexism

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Part I of II

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Azriel was not happy, to say the least. Not as he landed on the cold, hard ground of one of the Illyrian war camps in the northern region of the mountains. He internally cursed at Cassian for still being on his mating honeymoon with Nesta because now he was being forced to do things Cass would normally be in charge of—primarily dealing with the Illyrians.

It wasn't a secret that Azriel hated Illyria and all its people. Hated that he came from such a barbaric, backwards culture. He knew Cass was trying to do all he could to break the traditions Illyrians held, but Azriel had always told him they were a lost cause. If he could never see these damn mountains again, he'd consider it a blessing.

But, evidently, that was not a blessing he'd be allowed—at least, not until Cassian returned. For now, he was the one who was being sent out on these missions by his High Lord.

Rhys had gotten word that some commotion was happening in the camp that had its people up in arms about something. He had asked Azriel to go check it out and who was he to turn down a request from his brother? So here he was. He was just hoping to get this over with soon.

He had tried sending his shadows ahead of time to collect intel, but they had been acting weird ever since they returned to him. They had swarmed him with their cryptic messages.

Beautiful.

Our master must see.

Permission to kill, master?

Needless to say, Azriel had no fucking idea what any of that meant. He had given them no such permission to kill, at least, not until he could see for himself what was transpiring here.

He was passing by the training rings, ignoring the stares of the brutes who were working out and sparring within them, when he heard several sets of loud voices. He quickened his pace, following the voices into the residential section of the camp until he finally beheld what was causing the commotion.

Three males were on the porch of one of the cabins, restraining a female Illyrian, who was thrashing around like a wildcat, screaming, "Let me go, you assholes!"

Another male Azriel recognized as the War Lord of the camp was standing on the steps leading up to the small cabin, arms crossed and a sneer on his face. A male next to him was holding a blubbering Illyrian toddler, whose arms were outstretched towards the female with tears pouring down her chubby cheeks.

None of them had noticed him yet which Azriel used to his advantage. His shadows were already wailing when he let them loose. They spiraled towards the group, swirling around the males holding the female and yanking them away from her. All of their heads snapped in Azriel's direction except for the female. She tumbled to the ground but quickly scrambled to get up and rushed towards the male next to the War Lord, not even sparing a glance at what had caused the males to unleash her.

She went to grab the little girl from the male holding her but was quickly held back by the War Lord with a growl. The War Lord twisted her arms behind her back, holding her in place, but his glare was firmly set on Azriel.

Azriel's face displayed no emotions as he stalked forward, his hand ghosting over Truth-Teller.

"Shadowsinger," the War Lord bit out in greeting. The other males quickly got to their feet and stood at attention.

"Silas," Azriel said, not bothering to address him properly which made the male bristle, "Care to explain what is happening here?"

"None of your business, Shadowsinger," Silas hissed. "I have it under control."

"Doesn't seem like it," Azriel replied, coolly.

The female was still trying to break out of Silas's grip, cursing under her breath. He tightened his hold on her, causing her to hiss in pain as he twisted her wrists in his hands. Azriel's shadows seemed to hiss in response, poised to attack as soon as Azriel gave them permission.

Azriel's gaze fell on the female, noting the frustrated tears in her eyes. It seemed like there had been a scuffle. Her hair was half falling out of her braid, she had scrape marks on one of her cheeks, and a bruise was beginning to form on her jaw. One of her wings was flared out proudly while the other drooped to the floor at a weird angle. His fists clenched at the sight and when she finally looked up at him, her eyes meeting his, the breath was completely knocked out of his lungs.

Despite her tattered appearance, she was single-handedly the most beautiful female he had ever laid eyes on. He stood frozen for a moment, taken aback before he shook himself out of the spell she seemed to cast on him, realizing how inappropriate of a time it was to be ogling her.

"Let her go, Silas," Azriel commanded in a dark voice.

"I don't take orders from you," Silas spat out. "Besides, this female has been breaking the law for months now. We're taking her into custody."

"Fuck you," the female barked out, stomping on Silas's foot. The male cursed and went to strike her on the back of her head but Azriel's shadow caught his wrist in their grasp before he could.

"I said," Azriel growled, lowly, causing the males to shift in place, "Let her go."

"Fine," Silas sneered, though a tiny bit of fear flashed in his dark eyes. He pushed her to the ground in front of him. She was quick to spring back to her feet and rush towards the toddler who was still screeching. The male could hardly keep hold of the little girl.

"Let the babe go, too," Azriel snapped. The male scoffed but set the little girl down. She immediately ran to the female who bent down with her arms wide open, catching the little girl and standing with her firmly on her hip. The little girl's cries quieted down and she buried her small face in the female's neck.

"Would anyone like to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Azriel snarled, taking another step closer. Half the males mirrored his step back and he fought the urge to chuckle.

"Like I said," Silas snapped, "This female has been breaking the law—”

“What law?” Azriel asked, firmly.

“Females are not permitted to live alone nor own houses,” Silas barked out. “She has ignored our warnings—”

“My father left the cabin to me in his will!” The female shouted, causing the small toddler in her arms to whimper. She stroked the girl's hair, shushing her. “It belongs to me.”

“I don’t care what your father promised you,” Silas growled. “It is against the law for you to be living here alone. You must surrender the cabin and go live in the barracks with the other unwed females of marrying age. Your sister will be placed under the care of the matron.”

“Like hell I’m leaving her under the care of that female! You’re just going to have her wings clipped and force her to do grueling chores all day! She stays with me!”

“You are out of line! I knew your father wasn’t raising the two of you right. Ever since your mother passed away—”

“Don’t you dare say another word about my parents!”

The War Lord lunged towards the female with a growl but Azriel shadowed between them, unsheathing Truth-Teller and pressing it against the male’s throat.

“Lay a hand on her and I’ll gut you right here in front of all of your brutes,” Azriel snarled.

Silas stepped back with a scoff. “You want to stick your nose in our business? Fine, then she’s your problem. I expect her out of this house by the end of today, Shadowsinger, or there will be worse consequences.”

He stormed away, his entourage trailing behind him while sending glares to the female. Azriel waited until they were out of view before he turned to look at the female but she was gone from next to him, already walking up the steps to the cabin with the babe—her sister—on her hip.

Azriel went to follow her but she stormed into the cabin and slammed the door in his face before he could so much as utter a single word. He let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose before he knocked on the door. When Rhys had mentioned a problem happening in this camp, he hadn't expected to deal with something like this. It would’ve been much easier if it had been a problem he could solve with his fists.

When she didn't answer, he knocked harder—nearly causing the door to shutter.

It flung open a second later, a seething female behind it. "I already told those assholes I'm not leaving. If you're here to tell me to pack up and move, you can kiss my ass."

Azriel had to stop his lips from twitching into an amused smirk at her words. He wasn't used to dealing with female Illyrians that had attitudes. Most of them kept their heads down and stayed quiet. His mother had been like that....

"I'm not here to tell you that," Azriel answered. "May I come inside?"

She leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms and staring him down. He found himself even more amused at how she was trying to intimidate him. Most fae avoided him and his gaze. But a female, whose head barely reached his shoulders, seemed to be completely unfazed by him.

"No, you may not," she snapped. "Anything you need to say to me can be said perfectly fine from where you're standing."

“Can I at least bring a healer to come check out your injuries?” He eyed the scrapes on her face, the bruise and her drooping wing. Azriel’s chest ached at the sight and anger pulsed under his skin. He wanted to turn around and go rip those males apart limb by limb for laying a hand on her.

“I don’t need your help, shadowsinger,” she spat out.

"Fine," Azriel sighed. "I was sent by the High Lord because there's been reports of someone here causing disarray. I'm going to assume that someone is you."

She shrugged, nonchalantly, her eyes flickering between his own and the shadows swirling around him that wouldn't shut up about how beautiful she was, how brave....They were singing her praise. It confused him. His shadows had never acted like this before.

When she failed to answer, Azriel cleared his throat, uncomfortably. “Will you answer my question?”

“Aren’t you the spymaster?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Shouldn’t you be able to gather intel yourself and not rely on a lowly Illyrian female?”

“A lowly Illyrian female?” Azriel raised an eyebrow at her crass words towards herself.

“Isn’t that how you and all the High Lord’s dogs view us?” Her tone was biting, her eyes filled with hate.

Azriel shifted, at a loss for words. He was used to being met with hostility by the Illyrians, but never usually from the females themselves. “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

It was a lousy response, but he truly had no idea what to say. She scoffed, rolling her eyes at him and moved from the doorway, grasping the door.

“Even if I could help you, I wouldn’t care enough to do so,” she snapped. “Now, if that is all, you can kindly escort yourself off my property, shadowsinger. Thank you.”

The door slammed in his face a second later.

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Azriel returned a few hours later with a letter from the High Lord in his hands. He stormed through the camp, once again ignoring all the glares sent his way. He pushed his way inside the main war tent where Silas was sitting at his desk, twirling a dagger in his hands. His dark eyes looked up at him as he walked in, narrowing.

“You’re back,” Silas said, voice dripping with disdain. “I noticed that the female has still not been relocated from the cabin.”

Azriel strode forward and slammed the letter down on his desk. Silas’s eyes dipped down to it, quickly reading the short message before he looked back up at Azriel with a sneer. “What is this?”

“A notice from the High Lord and Lady,” Azriel answered, face unreadable. “Any laws that forbid a female from living alone or owning property are hereby revoked. This repeal shall be set in motion immediately.”

"I can read just fine, Shadowsinger," Silas snapped. "I meant what the fuck is this? Does Rhysand think he can just snap his fingers and remove laws that have been around for centuries? I refuse to allow this."

"You'll address the High Lord properly or I'll cut your tongue out for your disrespect," Azriel growled. "The High Lord and High Lady can do whatever they want. You will abide by these new laws or your title of War Lord in this camp will be revoked."

Silas looked like he wanted to say more, a vein in his forehead pulsing, but he only tightened his hands into fists and let out a long breath. "Very well then, Shadowsinger. I assume you've already informed Y/n of this?"

"Y/n?"

Silas smirked. "You ran to tattle on us to the High Lord and didn't even know the name of the bitch you—"

Before anything else could come out of the War Lord's mouth, Azriel stalked forward and kicked his desk over, causing both Silas and all his paperwork and trinkets to smash on the floor. The War Lord let out a pathetic gasp in fear, scrambling to his feet and pressing himself against the back of the tent.

"Talk about her like that again," Azriel snarled. "And I'll rip out your throat."

Silas quickly tried to school his composure but Azriel could still see the lingering terror in his eyes. Silas straightened out his leathers before glaring at him. "It's nice to see the Illyrian is still in you after all this time, Shadowsinger. Once a brute, always a brute—isn't that what you like to say?"

Azriel felt his pulse spike at Silas's words. He hated being reminded that he was Illyrian, even more so being compared to the worst of them. He wasn’t even sure why such rage had sparked in him in the first place. Silas's lips twitched into a smirk as he saw the way his words striked through him. But Azriel didn't wait around to hear what else the asshole had to say, letting his raging shadows swoop him into their darkness.

He stepped out of the shadows and onto the porch of the cabin he had been at earlier. He took several breaths, trying to calm himself before gently knocking on the door. After no one answered for a moment, he lifted his fist to knock again but the door was pulled open, leaving his hand to hover in the air. He dropped it to his side, narrowing his eyebrows as he was met with no one.

"Hewwo."

Azriel nearly jumped in fright before his gaze dropped to the toddler that stood in the doorway. It was the little girl from earlier, Y/n's sister. He swallowed harshly, eyes darting around the foyer of the cabin in hopes that her sister would pop out any second but no one came. He wasn't good with children, and wasn't used to being around them. Nyx was the only child he had ever really been around and he was still a baby.

Azriel sighed and crouched down on his haunches, making him more eye level for the little girl. Her shoulder length hair was the same color as her sister’s, her eyes too. The resemblance between the two of them was undeniable.

"Hello there," Azriel said as gently as he could. "Is your sister home by any chance?"

“Mhm,” the little girl hummed, busy watching the swirling shadows all around him.

"Do you think you can go get her for me?"

She shook her head no, her hair bobbing with the motion.

"Why not?" Azriel asked, keeping his voice light.

"Cause I'll get in trouble," she said with a little lisp. "Mm not 'pposed to open the door."

Azriel smiled at her, trying to appear friendly. He was surprised that she didn't seem scared of him or his shadows, as most kids were. "Don't worry, I won't tell her you opened the door for me. It can be our little secret."

She looked to be contemplating his promise, her little nose scrunched up. One of his shadows whisked forward and started swirling around her tiny frame. To Azriel's surprise, the little girl giggled, swiping her hand around to try and catch it.

"Suri, what are you—Get away from her!"

Y/n came thundering down the hall, yanking her sister away from the doorframe. Azriel stood to his full height, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as she glared at him before turning to look down at her sister.

"Suri, go to your room."

"No," Suri pouted, crossing her little arms. "I wanna play with the shadows."

Azriel's lips twitched. This was quite possibly the first time a child had ever seemed anything but scared of his shadows. It was oddly endearing.

"Go to your room," Y/n commanded in a stronger voice. "Now."

Suri stomped her foot but did as she was told, disappearing from his view.

"What are you doing back here?" She hissed, once her sister was gone.

Azriel pulled out the other parchment paper he had brought with him, the same notice he had given Silas. He held it out for her. "I came to deliver this."

She took the paper from him, glancing at him suspiciously. Azriel watched as her pretty doe eyes scanned the parchment, reading Rhysand's elegant script. To his surprise, she started to chuckle to herself. She handed it back to him, her face twisted into a mocking smirk.

"Do you honestly think this is going to stop them from trying to kick me out of this house?" She asked him, sarcastically. His eyebrows furrowed. "I'm guessing you're going to patrol this camp for a week or two to make sure they're adhering to the notice and then you'll wipe your hands clean of this all, pretending the High Lord solved everything. But you know the day you stop showing up here, Silas will be at my doorstep."

"I can assure you that we'll do everything we can to make sure all the WarLords follow these new laws," Azriel said, his face unreadable and his voice detached. She shook her head with a smile that lacked any warmth. “I promise you that.”

"Right," she drawled out, "Well, thank you so much for your help, shadowsinger."

She went to shut the door but Azriel stuck his hand out, catching it before she could. His gaze fell to her drooping wing, still bent at an awkward angle. "Please, let me bring a healer to attend to your wing."

Her wing could heal on her own. It would probably only take a day or two, but just seeing it made Azriel's chest ache. He knew the pain she must be in.

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't pretend like you care about my wings."

"I've broken a wing before, too," he explained. "I know how much it hurts. Please, let me help you."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Do you want to know the difference between my wings and your's, shadowsinger? Your wings healed. You get to fly. Mine will never heal."

Azriel's gaze dropped back to her wings, now noticing the two scars—clipped. Her wings had been clipped. His heart dropped into his stomach, rage bubbling to the surface instead.

"Who?" he growled, his voice ice cold.

"Like I said," she bit out, "Don't pretend like you care."

"I do care," Azriel replied, fists clenching. And it was true, he did. Wing clipping was a heinous crime, one that had been outlawed since Rhys was sworn in as the High Lord of the Night Court. Of course, sometimes the practice of wing clipping still took place in remote camps that slipped through the cracks. "Wing clipping has been forbidden since—"

"I am well aware that wing clipping is forbidden," she snapped. "But like your stupid little notice, no one cares. And the High lord and all of his cronies, you included, Shadowsinger, have made it very clear that you don't either."

"We do care," Azriel argued. "We do. But we cannot keep watch of all the camps at all times. We rely on people reporting it—"

"Oh, spare me from hearing your excuses," she cut him off with a growl. "Do you want to know who did this to me? Here's a clue—go look in the High Lord's desk for a letter addressed from me. I've been sending one every single day for the past six years so there's bound to be at least one still around."

"Six...six years?" Azriel questioned, quietly. "You've been sending a letter every day for six years and not one of them was ever answered?"

Sure, Rhysand had been gone for fifty years, of course and the rest of them had been unable to leave Velaris thanks to him. Then, they had been busy with the war and didn’t have time to deal with inner court problems. But it had been two years since then and she was still sending letters. Letters looking for justice for what happened to her. Letters gone unanswered.

"Not a single one," she huffed.

"Y/n...I am so sorry—"

"Save it," she barked out. "Now, if we're done here, I'd like you to leave."

"Please, let me help you—"

Azriel choked in surprise as something within snapped. He couldn’t breath, taking a single step back as a golden thread weaved its way through the space between him and the female standing before him.

Before his brain could even process what just happened, the door was slammed in his face. But Azriel stood frozen on her porch. Frozen in shock because he had finally found his mate. After all these years, he had finally found the person he had been searching for.

And she absolutely hated him.

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Your wing had healed enough by the next morning that you could lift it off the ground, though it was rather painful to do so. Your pride made you suck it up, not wanting to go to the healer and have anyone touch your wings. No one had laid a hand on your wings since the day they were clipped and you wanted to keep it that way.

You got ready for the day, putting on one of your mother's old white, chemise dresses. It fell to the top of your boots, swishing around your ankles. You layered a dark blue skirt over it before putting on a front lace-up corset. You grimaced as you did up the buttons under your injured wings before you tightened the corset until it fit snuggly. Lastly, you threw on a cloak. It was snowing outside today and the last thing you needed was to freeze to death.

You stepped in the hallway, the cabin quiet. You went to wake up Suri to get her ready for the day. Normally she was still asleep, so you were surprised when you heard her voice the closer you got to the door to her bedroom.

"Bad doggy," she babbled, her voice muffled through the door. "You can't go in there."

Your eyes widened, realizing she was talking to someone or something. You quickly slammed her door open, eyes darting around in concern. Suri jumped as her door banged open, spinning around on her bed to look at you. A small shadow wisped behind her, like it was hiding.

"Suri?" You questioned. "Who were you talking to?"

"Issy!" Suri sang out, jumping off her bed in her little pajamas. She still called you issy, unable to pronounce your name easily or the word sister. "The doggy came back!"

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "The what?"

The shadow darted out from behind Suri, swirling around her and causing the little girl to giggle, "Doggy!"

Your eyes narrowed. One of Azriel's shadows had not only lingered behind, but had been staying with your baby sister. You felt your pulse spike with anger. As if it could sense your emotions, the shadow stopped swirling around and instead pressed itself on the floor like it was bashful and guilty.

You scoffed, "Go back to your master! We don't want you here."

The shadow wisped upwards, disappearing through the ceiling. A realization had you clenching your fists. Suri pouted. "Issy, you scared the doggy away!"

"That was not a dog—" you cut yourself off with a sigh. "Suri, go brush your teeth and your hair while I get breakfast ready, okay?"

"No," Suri grumbled, her tiny nose twitching. "Not unless you get doggy back!"

"If you do as I say, I'll make you strawberry pancakes for breakfast."

"Strawb'rry pancakies!" Suri squealed, the shadow momentarily forgotten. Satisfied with your deal, your sister rushed off to get ready. You left her to it, stalking outside through the backdoor. You walked a few paces away from the cabin, staring up at the roof, using a hand to block the rising sun from your eyes.

"I know you're up there!" you shouted. "Don't bother trying to hide!"

Footsteps were heard and then there was Azriel, peering down at you from his perch on your roof. His annoyingly beautiful face was near unreadable, his hair in a bit of disarray like he'd ran his hand through it one too many times. Dark circles were underneath his hazel eyes and those familiar shadows were whirling around him.

"Why are you on my roof?" You snapped, crossing your arms over your chest.

"Good morning, Y/n," Azriel said, his voice low and husky from disuse through the night. "I've been keeping watch. I wanted to make sure none of those males would bother you again."

"I already told you I don't need or want your help, Shadowsinger! Now get the fuck off my roof," you snarled at him. You didn't want him here. You didn't want his stupid shadows near you or Suri either. Besides, since when did he care what happened to you or any other Illyrian females? He had turned his back on his own people the day he ran off to the High Lord's perfect little city, pretending like he wasn't one of you, wasn't Illyrian.

Easy for him. He was a male that could get siphons to use his powers correctly, a male who hadn't been forced down and clipped. He could fly wherever he wanted, go wherever he wanted. He had money and resources you wouldn't even bother dreaming for. Azriel could wipe his hands clean and pretend like he hadn't been born in these mountains and hadn't left anyone behind to suffer when he left.

It was one thing to escape this brutalizing, barbaric way of living. It was another to gain power and influence within the court and not bother to help your own people. Azriel was a traitor and he could go to hell for all you cared.

You hated him for it. Hated him and all of his friends. Hated the High Lord and Lady who did little to help anyone here. Hated the General for leading your father to his death in the war. You hated them all.

Azriel let out a quiet sigh. "I know you don't need my help, but I... I can't just leave knowing those males might come back and hurt you again. I made you a promise and I intend to keep it."

"I don't care about your stupid promises," you bit back. "Get off my roof and go home, Azriel. You're not wanted here."

"I know you hate me and I know we've all let you down," Azriel replied, guilt shimmering in his eyes. "I'm going to do everything I can to make it up to you, Y/n. I promise."

"Again with the promises! Your words mean nothing to me," you grumbled, tossing your hands in the air. "I don't have time for this. You know what? You want to spend all of eternity sitting on my roof, you go ahead! But I would really appreciate it if you would just fuck off!"

You didn't bother waiting for his response, storming back into your house and slamming the door shut behind you.

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A week went by and Azriel kept watch over you the entire time. Every day you would walk outside and peer up at the roof to see him perched there, oftentimes twirling his dagger in his hand lazily. He'd give you a small smile that looked more like a grimace and you'd roll your eyes and go back inside.

You hated that some part of you did feel better knowing he was there. You knew his reputation and you knew none of the males in this camp would bother you as long as he was there. But it still infuriated you to see his face every morning. To see him shake the snow off his wings. To see him glare down at everyone in your camp like you were all beneath him.

You especially hated how much Suri had come to love his shadows, always chasing them down the hallways of the cabin. You just wanted him gone.

And it seemed like you got your wish two weeks later.

It was nighttime, the house quiet now that you'd coaxed Suri into going to bed. You were getting ready for bed yourself, dressed in a nightgown and putting out the fire when a series of soft knocks caught your attention. You frowned, pausing to look at the door. Who would be coming by at this time? Certainly no one good.

You were debating on ignoring it when a dark shadow whisked its way underneath the door.

"Y/n," Azriel called out. "It's just me."

You rolled your eyes and opened your door, knowing he wouldn't leave until you did so.

"What?" You eyed him, taking in his disheveled appearance. You wondered how he survived spending the night in the snow. Just the small draft that came in from opening the door had you shivering. You hugged yourself, your hair blowing gently in the ice cold breeze.

Azriel seemed at a loss for words for a second, his eyes roaming down your body before he met your gaze. His cheeks turned a bit pink as you raised an eyebrow at him. He swallowed, his throat bobbing with the motion.

"I need to leave for a few days," Azriel finally said. "The High Lord is sending me on a small mission. I...I would feel a lot better if you'd let me take you and your sister somewhere else while I'm gone. I can set the two of you up in a nice inn or tavern in Velaris. Or you could stay at my personal residence. Just for a few days."

You stared at him utterly perplexed. "You're...you're joking, right?"

He shook his head looking dead serious. "No, Y/n, I'm not. I worry what will happen if I'm not here to watch over you. Please, just...just let me help. It might be nice for Suri to take her to Velaris and let her see the city."

"You're out of your mind," you hissed. "I'm not leaving my house and certainly not with you. I already told you I don't need your help."

You went to shut the door but Azriel reached out and grabbed it before you could.

"Please, I just want to help—"

“Azriel, I have survived here on my own for the past two years since my father died in the war,” you growled. “You can't sit on my roof forever. If you truly wanted to fix things, you would've done so centuries ago. So just leave, Azriel. And don't bother coming back."

“I do care,” Azriel pleaded. “Please—”

"I am not leaving," you snapped. "I am not letting those stupid males run me from my own home. I don't know why you even care! And stop with the whole 'I promised you' thing. You don’t even know me!”

He opened his mouth to say something else but you slammed the door shut in his face. You locked the deadbolt before letting out a sigh.

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Azriel was worried. Worried and scared and angry. Worried that Silas and his goons would bother his mate while he was gone. Scared that they’d hurt her. And angry at just the thought of that. His chest ached as he thought about his mate and her clear hatred towards him. He couldn’t blame her for it. She was right. He had abandoned Illyria a long time ago.

But that needed to change. He needed that to change. Not just for his mate’s sake but for her sister, for Nyx, for all the females and children whose lives were awful because of the males in charge of all their camps.

She had been the wake up call he needed. He had the privilege of being a male in Illyria. He got to keep his wings. Got to work at having a different life then the one he was born into. His mate hadn’t had those opportunities. She was flightless, stuck to the ground and stuck in her miserable camp.

Azriel wanted nothing more than to just grab her and her sister and get them far away from Illyria. To bring them to his apartment in Velaris where he could take care of them, could keep them safe.

But his mate didn’t trust him.

He would do anything to prove himself to her. Prove that he did care for her and all the other Illyrian females. No matter how much hate he was met with, he’d keep crawling back until he earned her forgiveness and a chance to give her a better life.

She deserved that more than anything. Not just because she was his mate but because she had been so strong all these years, standing up to males twice her size and keeping her sister’s wings from being mutilated like hers had been. She didn’t choose to be Illyrian anymore than he did.

And Gods, he wanted her to stop hating him. He wanted her to give him a chance. Just one chance to show her what she truly deserved. He had learned so much about her by just watching her this week and he knew that no other female would come close to capturing his heart and attention the way she had in just that short span of time he’d known her.

Azriel knew he didn’t deserve her or her forgiveness. He knew she was too good for him. Too beautiful, too pure of heart. He could see that just by the way she took care of her sister and the other females in her village, despite the torment it brought her from the males.

He let out a sigh, his eyes still locked on the camp of Autumn Soldiers. He was doing a reconnaissance mission. Beron was up to something again and these soldiers had been spotted on the coast.

It had been two days since he left his mate and so far, nothing had been unknowingly sent down the bond except for her normal moods she fluctuated with during the day.

He just needed to finish this mission and rush back to Velaris to drop off his report to Rhysand before he could get back to her. He normally liked to take his time on his missions but this was quite possibly the first time he ever had a want to get back faster. He was hoping to sneak into the River House and set his report on Rhys's desk without seeing anyone. He'd been ignoring and skipping family dinners for the past week and knew they'd have a lot to say about it.

Azriel faltered as a wave of fear crashed through him. No, not fear. Terror. Unbridled terror and then pain. He sucked in a breath, nearly falling from the tree he was perched in. He was frozen for a second before he realized what was happening---his mate was in danger.

It took him less than a second to decide to abandon the mission and shadow all the way back to the Illyrian mountains. Azriel let out a curse when he stepped out of the shadows in front of his mate's cabin to see it covered in flames. Someone had set it on fire and it was quickly crumbling under the flames. His heart was beating in his chest as he strained his ears to make sure no one was inside.

But then the most heart-stopping, chill inducing sound was heard ringing through the camp.

His mate's screams.

He sprinted towards the sound, his boots pounding against the cold hard ground. It led him to the town center where a crowd had formed, males hollering and shouting encouragement at whatever was happening.

Azriel pushed his way through the crowd, shoving aside male after male until he reached the front. His heart dropped in his stomach as he beheld what was happening before him.

His mate on her knees, holding up the tatters of her shirt to maintain her dignity. Silas standing behind with a whip in hand, raising it in the air again. Blood all over the white snow around his mate, staining it red. Tear streaks running down his mate's face, her beautiful face pale and twisted in pain. One of Silas's commanders holding a crying and screaming Suri, her tiny fists pounding on his chest.

Azriel wished he knew what happened next. Wished he had this memory to look back on whenever he remembered the rage he felt. But one second he was standing there staring at his mate in horror and the next second, he was surrounded by dead bodies with Truth-teller in his hand dripping with blood. The camp had fallen silent and his ears were ringing, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths.

Suri had been dropped in the chaos and had rushed towards her sister, throwing her small arms around her neck as she sobbed.

And his mate.

His beautiful mate was staring right at him, eyes wide from witnessing the carnage he had just unleashed in this camp. Silas laid dead behind her, his shadows still ravaging his body. Slit throats, broken necks on all the other males that laid dead at his feet. But his mate was looking at him.

Azriel took a step towards her, watching her carefully as she weakly wrapped an arm around her sister's body while her eyes never left his. And he knew the mating bond had just snapped for her, could see the realization in her eyes.

"N-no," she stammered out, her voice cracking. "No. Not you. Not...Not you! Anyone but you!"

Azriel could feel her dread pouring down the bond amidst the pain and terror she felt. He felt his heart crack in his chest, heard his shadows wailing as they too felt her pain and sorrow.

But his broken heart at finding his mate and hearing that she didn't want him was not important in this moment. Not as his mate's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she slumped to the ground.

Azriel rushed forward, scooping both his unconscious mate in his arms and her crying sister before disappearing in a whirl of screaming shadows.

#acotar #acotar fanfiction #acotar x reader #acotar x you #azriel x reader #azriel #azriel x you #azriel shadowsinger #azriel fanfic #azriel acotar #illyrian #illyrians

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rmytears · 2 days

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○ emily engstler x female reader.

↳ warnings: nudity, slight suggestive (just reader making fun of emily), emily in her tiktoker era.

I GOT A TATTOO WITHOUT TELLING MY GIRLFRIEND. THIS WAS HER REACTION.

"are you recording me?" was the first thing you said when you noticed the phone on the kitchen counter.

emily had arrived at the small but cozy apartment you both shared, after being out almost all day. you, on the other hand, had stayed at home enjoying a quiet afternoon watching a 2000s movie marathon.

she chose to ignore you, while you looked at the cellphone she had left on the table while preparing dinner. puzzled by her reaction, you turned your gaze away from the device and found her hoodie on the floor, revealing a seductive gesture that took you by surprise.

"what the heck- are you trying to seduce me or something?" you asked, noting her mischievous smile. "depends, is it working?"

"not entirely," you said. you decided to take the lead and play a little with emily, teasing her ego and getting her a little rattled. "what's next? are you going to switch the lights to intense red and play the weeknd in the background?" her immediate blush confirmed you were on the right track. although emily rarely blushed, it seemed that with you, she was an exception.

"can you just keep quiet, please?" she asked you amidst laughter.

but you decided to continue with the joke. "why are you so nervous all of a sudden? you're not going to propose me, aren't you?"

"if that were the case, you would definitely ruin the moment," emily replied, laughing. "okay, okay, i'll stop. go on."

after that exchange, emily continued with her task. as she slowly stripped off the top part of her clothing, you couldn't help but bite your lip trying to suppress a smile. with her torso already exposed and you were about to make a cheeky comment, she turned around, revealing her muscular back adorned with a freshly made tattoo. you were speechless at the unexpected revelation, and the dim light of the room highlighted the details of the design framing her back.

"you're kidding." a tattoo. emily had gotten a new tattoo that covered most of her back and, by the way, made her look even hotter than she already was.

"do you like it?" emily asked, knowing the answer.

you slowly approached emily's back, feeling the soft touch of her skin under your fingertips as you traced the outline of the tattoo. "it's beautiful," you whispered, sensing how her body slightly tensed at the unexpected contact. "it makes you look hot," you added with a mischievous smile, noticing the change in temperature of her skin as you continued to gently stroke the design.

"so, the seduction attempt worked, don't you think?" emily joked, enjoying your reaction.

"and there you go ruining the moment," you replied, tossing her white shirt for her to get dressed again, as you returned to your tasks in the kitchen, with a smile on your face.

emily chuckled as she watched the video once more, but her laughter abruptly ceased when she heard a movement and a groan coming from the naked and sleepy figure next to the bed in response to the noise. after a moment of hesitation, she decided to go ahead and post the video. she turned off her phone screen and placed it on the bedside table, then snuggled under the sheets and nestled close to the warm body next to her, quickly falling asleep in its embrace.

needless to say, the comments on her tiktok went WILD.

#emily engstler x reader #emily engstler #wnba basketball #wnba #wlw #woso x reader #wcbb x reader #wcbb

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zeldasnotes · 1 day

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𝖑𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖘 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 🦇

🦇 Lilith in Capricorn wants position & status and can be shamed for demanding the same respect and position as men. Example: Hillary Clinton & Kamala Harris both have this placement. Women are often expected to seek status by being a wife so women with this placement can awake a ”Wtf she think she doing?” reaction in men.

🦇 While Lilith most times shows a strong interest, fascination or even obsession with the sign or house its in or with the themes of the planet it aspects it can also show complete rejection of it & not wanting anything to do with it.

🦇 I dont know why but I never felt the need to be bitchy towards men who have their Lilith on my Moon. I get a ”you are not like other men” feeling with this aspect. They dont trigger my fight or flight response. Something very unique with this synastry aspect.

🦇 A lot of Moon conjunct Lilith people physically resemble the Moon in some way physically. Ive seen a lot of them have Moon shaped eyes or a round face & very rounded features, sometimes super shiny hair.

🦇 Lilith in the 11th house might be fixated with the ”in crowd”. Might hate them but at the same time watch them. Its giving Janis Ian from Mean Girls. They often have a past friendship with someone from the in crowd.

🦇 Lilith can show what you hate in society and feel a strong need to rebel against. Lilith 2nd house might rebel against stuff being done to their body(like vaccines),having to pay taxes, might shoplift and refuse to pay for things that are not their fault they need. Like tampoons for example.

🦇 Ive also noticed with Lilith 7th house people want to find something wrong with your partner or even convince themselves they dont love you. People might say stuff like ”He is only with you bc you have money” or something. Its like people are bothered by seeing you be loved.

🦇 Madonna is a good example of a 7th house Lilith. She is often shamed for liking younger men while its considered normal for men to be with younger women.

🦇 Lilith in Libra and the constant triangle drama??? Triangledrama EVERYWHERE. Why does every guy you meet seem to have a crazy ex or a female friend trying to get him? Or a coworker who wants him? Or a mother who competes with you?

🦇 If you have Sun conjunct Lilith you might represent what your dad dislikes about himself. You represent a part of him that he wants to keep buried deep inside himself and being close to you might remind him too much of this. This can make him your first bully.

🦇 With Lilith in the 2nd house there was often early experiences with money restricting them which lead to an inner bitterness which is often not noticed until you hear them talk about money. The reason they werent noticed by others might have been because they didnt have the clothes, phones, makeup or other material things that others had. The epitome of ”I wasnt ugly, I was just poor”

🦇 I find it interesting how many people with strong Lilith placements Ive seen literally live out the myth by being thrown out of ”the garden of Eden”. Most times thrown out by a friendsgroup, a community or neighbourhood. And this was a huge turning point in their lives.

🦇 Lilith in synastry 🤝 they confessing after 10 years they had a crush on you.

🦇 Lilith in Aries when undeveloped can make them very competetive with others of their gender especially concerning how the body looks. Comparing their bodies to others. Might have a trauma with people comparing their body to someone close to them like a sibling or even their mom growing up.

🦇 Lilith in Aries might also assert themselves and being quiet in the complete wrong situations. Might often end up thinking ”Why didnt I stand up for myself” or ”I shouldnt have overreacted”.

🦇 ”The girl he told you not to worry about” aka the one who touches his Lilith. I hate writing this but Ive seen this sooo much. Men talking shit to their girlfriend(their eve) about a woman they have Lilith synastry with.

🦇 Sun conjunct Lilith is basically like having a flashlight shining on your dark side so that everyone can see.

🦇 Lilith dominant women(women with a dominant Lilith energy in their chart no nobody is saying its your dominant planet omg) often get blamed for a mans lust for them. Might hear stuff like ”you were looking at him” ”you seduced him”.

🦇 Lilith reminds me of Saturn a little in the way that you need to learn to handle the energy which is hard but when you do it you will be so powerful and own that energy.

🦇 Having Lilith harshly aspecting Sun or Ascendant is getting shit whatever you do. Especially when its the square or opposition. Someone comes up to you and hits you in the face, people will call you crazy and aggressive if you hit back and a pussy if you dont hit back.

🦇 Lilith in the 8th house needs to understand that some things cant be controlled/hold onto. They often experienced situations in their youth where they were powerless.

🦇 Lilith in Virgo can be gossips because of their strong need to criticize. They need to say whats wrong with stuff. This can results in some verbal attacks and some very strong opinions on people.

🦇 LILITH CONJUNCT VENUS IN SYNASTRY: can mean Lilith shouldnt be attracted to Venus. Venus might not even be their type but Lilith will find them beautiful anyways. This can be very confusing for the Lilith person because Venus represent everything they shouldnt like or arent allowed to like. Lilith might be from a rich family and Venus is from a poor family for example. Can also be an age difference especially where the woman is older and the guy younger so its considered taboo. This one will be painful if Venus is in love with Lilith because Lilith often see Venus as someone socially unacceptable in some way. (10th house synastry can change this tho, because if yall have 10th house synastry he will want to parade you around like a damn trophy LOLLL). Lilith might want Venus as their side chick. They also always seem to bump into eachother when the Lilith person is in a relationship.

#astro notes #astrology #astro observations #astronotes #lilith #birth chart readings #lilith aspects #lilith in the houses

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rosefires20 · 2 days

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My brainrot today is thinking about just how incredible for a character Eowyn is.

Genuinely. The series might not have many female characters but the ones we do get go so fucking hard.

To me, Eowyn is literally the definition of defining being a woman for oneself. She rejects the roles she is given despite acknlowdging the importance and its mostly because she knows part of the reason is that she is a woman.

The reason why she is obsessed with Aragorn isn't because she loves him but because she wants what he has. She wants the freedom and courage and bravery that Aragorn has at every turn. She literally has multiple conversations during the Two Towers about how what she fears most is a cage. All this girl wants is the freedom to be and not be forced into a role. The best thing is that she literally gets that.

The segment of Return of the King about Eowyn and Faramir is literally about her piecing together what she truly wants. She doesn't want Aragorn. She wants freedom and the ability to choose. Faramir does nothing but encourage that in her. Their love story is literally one of the healthiest love stories I've seen in a long time because at the heart of it, their love is a place to return home to for both parties. Both go off to lead and help their people for a considerable amount of time before returning to each other but that does not diminish their bond. Even Faramir, I believe, falls in love with her bravery and dedication to her loved ones. The reason she went to Pelenor Fields and Gondor with the troops of Rohan was because she had things she wanted to fight for. She wanted to fight for herself, her people, and her loved ones. She is the one who protects Theoden after he is killed so that his body gets the treatment it deserves. She encourages Merry and helps him go to the battle because she sees her struggle in Merry. They feel helpless standing around when there are things to be doing.

Let's also not forget the fact that she was around Grima Wormtounge just as much as the King was. She was exposed to the same poison and awful words that eroded the king. It's even implied that her care for him is part of the reason why Theoden was savable when Gandalf showed up. She had the same power and bravery as everyone else even if she didn't see it in herself.

Then at the end of the day, SHE decides where she wants to go and what path she wants to walk. She walked the path of a warrior. The path of a princess/ruler. The path of a caretaker. But in the end she decides which elements truly mean something to her outside of gender definitions. That is what makes her character so incredible to me. In this she literally kills one of the biggest enemies in that battle with such a badass line.

#i could talk for ages about how i see the struggle of defining being a woman for oneself in her #she rejects the feminine roles given to her but she also doesnt quite want the masculine ones #she just wants the freedom to choose and have the same respect that men are given #she doesnt want to be belitted because she is a woman #thats literally what Faramir gives her and why she stays with him #Faramir loves her for her not anything else #he respects her as she does him #i am someone who is a woman but rejects the definitons of being a woman because they are toxic and caging #all i want is the freedom and respect of being a HUMAN being #i lend more masculine because that is where that freedom is more often but i also see how toxic that relam is too #niether side is good which is why i choose my own path and defintiom #the fact that eowyn gets such a similar story in a series written by a man in the mid 1900s is incredible #i am someone who would love to have more female characters but i do not want them at the expense of them being proper characters and humans #ive read a lot of fantasy women do not always get the agency they deserve #i would rather take fewer well written women then a bunch of poorly written female characters #lotr has that #eowyn arwen and galadriel are all given agency and the space to be their own individuals which makes them incredible characters #thats what i want out of books and ficition #god im making myself insane about my own thoughts lol #i could talk for ages im not kidding #eowyn #eowyn of rohan #lotr #lotr rambling #lord of the rings #the two towers #the return of the king

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lilghostiequinni · 3 days

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Baby Steps

Main Masterlist Lando Masterlist

Pairing: Finacee!female oc (Kaylen) x Lando Norris

Warnings: Fluffy, Established relationship

Summary: People only knew her as the girlfriend of Lando Norris, but it's a slip-up by Lando that reveals her to be more in an interview.

Requested: NO / yes

Kaylen was walking around the paddock waiting for her fiance, boyfriend; everyone still thought she was the girlfriend of Lando, not the woman who would soon be his wife, his fiancee.

There was nothing she could do about it, she wanted nothing more than to tell the world, but she much more enjoyed the peace of no one knowing but those trusted few.

She ran into a fan of Lando's accidentally, like she literally ran into her.

"I am so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. Are you okay?" Kaylen quickly says as she helps the woman she knocked over up.

The friends of the woman came over as the woman stood up. As one of her friends was opening their mouth to say something, the woman beat her to it, "It's okay, I wasn't watching either."

One of the woman's friends' eyes widened in recognition, "You're Lando's girlfriend, your Kaylen!"

Kaylen nods at the girl, "And you are fans of his? All of you?" She meant nothing negative, knowing that some are fans of her fiance's but also like another driver.

"Yeah, we all are fans of Lando. We have some bracelets of him, but we weren't able to give them to him before he walked away." The woman she knocked down told her.

"Well, I can give them to him, or if you stay right here, I'll be right back, and I'll get you some signed merch," Kaylen said. She had had worse run-ins with fans about her being with Lando, but there were many who weren't, and she usually got them like a shirt or hat.

"Really? You would do that?" Another in the group asked.

"Yeah, you must be some of the nicest fans I've met. The last fan I ran into was so rude, and she called me a whore for loving Lando," Kaylen says to them. "Stay right here, I'll be right back, here take my pass and they won't move you away."

When she received a nod, she turned and walked back to the McLaren garage, where Lando seemed to be ready to text her.

"Hey, I was just about to text you. Where were you?" Lando asked as he pulled her into a hug.

"I was exploring as always, and I got bored. But I ran into a fan, quite literally, and they are so nice I promised merch. So, please,' Kaylen asks, well, says to her fiance as she wraps her arms around his neck.

"Alright, hang on," Lando says; he lets go, prompting Kaylen to let go, too.

Lando walks away and returns with a box and a pen, "Lead the way."

Lando has a smile on his face as he says so, "Let's go before I'm called into the next meeting."

Kaylen nods and leads the way to the fans she has met, having seen them in the same spot she left them, "Sorry it took longer than expected. I had to wait for him." After she says something, the fans see Lando behind her with a box, and they are speechless.

Lando just chuckles.

"I told him how we met and that I promised signed merch, and he decided to get out of the paddock," Kaylen said to the group of fans.

Who had regained their voices and were talking a lot, and Lando was signing things from the box of merch and giving them to the fans and putting the bracelets they gave him on his wrist.

When the fans have their merch and leave, Kaylen hugs Lando with a smile before the two walk back to McLaren.

A few days later, Lando is doing an interview where he is supposed to tell the truth, a lie sector test.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No," Lando answers with a chuckle; it's technically true; he doesn't have a girlfriend, but a fiancee.

The man behind the computer nods, signaling that he's telling the truth.

"Oh, do you have many girlfriends?"

Lando puts his head and chuckles, and he thinks to his fans who call him their boyfriend, but none that he himself considers his girlfriend, but what he does think of is the way Kaylen smiles and how she makes him feel, "No, but I've got a fiancee."

After the interview is released, it's all over Twitter X, that he's scared people, thinking he and Kaylen broke up, but then when he says fiancee, fans are shocked, but the response over the new discovery rather than development is amazing, and people love it

A/N: A little short, but I like it.

Tags: @poppyflower-22 @samantha-chicago @barcelonaloverf1life @tallrock35 @hellothere9597

If you want to be removed from a tag list, let me know so I don't keep tagging you. If you are striked through, I don't know if you want to be tagged, but just let me know if you want me to continue or stop

#ln4 #f1 #lando norris #formula 1 #mclaren #lando norris x reader #lando imagine #lando norris fanfic #lando norris imagine #lando norris fluff #lando norris x oc #lando norris x you #lando x reader

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oddinary4bts · 17 hours

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Chasing Cars | ch 4.5 (jjk)

☆summary: when your brother goes to study on a semester abroad, your life collides with his best friend Jeon Jungkook, who's coincidentally your roommate. Will you survive the collision, or will you crumble into dust?

☆pairings: brother's best friend!Jungkook x younger sister!female reader

☆rating: 18+ (minors DNI, some chapters contain mature content)

☆genre: forbidden love?au, college!au, slice of life!au, smut, angst (as usual a lot of it), fluff

☆warnings: explicit content: mentions of jerking off and of fingering/cum play

☆word count: 852

☆a/n: please enjoyyyy this one made me v soft

☆join the discord server here!

☆series masterpost

☆☆☆☆☆

If I lay here If I just lay here Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol

☆☆☆☆☆

Campus is encased in ice, frozen on the spot in a magical way. Jungkook has been admiring it as you walk together, and he wonders where the magic of the moment truly lies. Is it in the ice coating everything, or in your presence next to him?

He pushes the thought away, trying to focus on what you’re saying.

“And then I was sick the whole night,” you say, retelling him a story of the first - and last - time you drank vodka.

He laughs. “You’re not supposed to drink a whole bottle to yourself, you know that?”

You glare at him, your eyes narrowed. “No way,” you let out. “I would have never guessed that.”

He grins at your sass, teasingly nudging you with his elbow. You shriek, almost slipping on a patch of ice, but he’s quick to grab your arm, steadying you. You look up, startled, your eyes going wide as you meet Jungkook’s gaze.

His heart picks up in his chest as blush creeps on your cheeks, and he’s struck thinking you truly are the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. He can hardly believe last night happened - you’re too pure to have partaken in the action that unfolded in your bedroom, like maybe he stained you. And he wouldn’t be surprised if he did. His heart clenches in his chest at the thought, and he lets go of you.

“You okay?” he asks, gulping.

You nod, taking a deep breath as you look away from him. “Yeah. You?”

Jungkook chuckles. “How could I not be, when I’ve got you by my side?”

He immediately cringes at the words, at the truth they hold, and his thoughts slide to Taehyung. What would Taehyung say if he heard what Jungkook said? If he knew the kind of things Jungkook thinks about you?

You roll your eyes, looking up to the sky as if searching for salvation. “You’re annoying, you know that, right?”

“You love it, peach,” Jungkook teases, trying to ignore the way his heart warms in his chest.

It’s been doing that on and off since yesterday, since he kissed you like you were the last two people on Earth. He hates it, hates the roller coasters that it’s been taking him on. It makes him feel vulnerable, and it’s not a feeling he enjoys at all.

Not when it brings back a share of insecurity he thought he’d gotten rid of when he started college.

You make a noncommittal sound, and then lead Jungkook towards the library building, though you both have no intention to go in. Jungkook follows you, listening to you as you start talking about a class you hate - biochemistry? - and he laughs when you tell him how the professor barely speaks English to begin with.

“I have a professor like that in econ too,” he admits. “I’m sure she is incredibly intelligent, but it’s so hard to actually understand what she’s saying that I feel like we’re never talking about the same thing.”

“Right!” you exclaim. “It’s annoying. Like we’re a good college, they could at least make sure the professors speak decent English.”

Jungkook agrees, but he doesn’t say anything. Indeed, his attention is elsewhere. He notices your friend in the distance, the shy one, and his lungs freeze for a second before he grabs your arm, pulling you in the other direction.

“What are you doing?” you let out, sounding slightly offended.

“I’m hungry,” Jungkook states, offering you a lopsided grin that he hopes serves as a good enough distraction. “Want to go home and grab something to eat?”

You frown for a few seconds, looking up at the sky. The clouds have been slowly dispersing, and blue peeks from behind them, revealing that the sun has started its descent towards the horizon.

“You’re always hungry,” you reply, letting out an annoyed huff.

“And what about it?”

You laugh at his words, and Jungkook grins, his heart skipping a beat in his chest yet again.

Taehyung, he reminds himself.

He desperately needs to get a grip of himself before things get out of hand. Though, he reckons they’ve gotten out of hand already. They’ve gotten out of hand when he jerked off under your watchful gaze yesterday night, fingering you with his cum after. They got out of hand even before that, when he decided to kiss you and pull you on his lap until all the thoughts he’d been trying to ignore since the beginning of the semester last year came forth, screaming in his head until he couldn’t ignore their existence anymore.

He sighs, burying his hands in the pockets of his pants as you walk, if only so that he doesn’t reach to grab your hand. He’s like a kid next to you, like a dumb teenager who’s never seen a girl before.

He hates it, almost as much as he loves the excitement that it brings. It’s all too confusing, but he figures that, as long as the power outage is still going strong, he can pretend that it doesn’t matter.

Reality is bound to hit again soon anyway.

Read chapter four here!

☆☆☆☆☆

hope you guys enjoyeddd!! jungkook is such a mess lmao :') let me know what you think!

#chasing cars ch 4.5 #jungkook smut #jungkook angst #jungkook fluff #jungkook x you #jungkook x reader #jungkook fic #jungkook #jjk smut #jjk fluff #jjk angst #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk fic #jjk #jeon jungkook #btswritersclub #chasing cars #chasing cars series

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orshii · 2 days

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Take Me Away

★ Author: orshii ★ Pairing: Choi San x female reader ★ Warnings: cursing, alcohol use, suggestive ★ Word count: 3,5 k

★ Summary: Needing to escape the pressures of school, you decide to hit a club with your friends for a night of fun and freedom. There, you meet a stranger who looks like a God, and as the night unfolds, the club's vibrant atmosphere and intense connection with this captivating figure lead to an unforgettable night.

★ A/N: Well...I don't know what is this tbh *cries and hides in a bush*, it's just randomly popped out of my mind and I needed to write it...and had to include San with a BIKE, pls...that is the hottest thing. So enjoy ig and stream Work!! Byee! (divider)

Sometimes, when studying gets tough and you want to run away from the pressure that the most educated university expects of you, the perfect idea is to go straight to a party where you can escape the chaos in your head and the pressure the world puts on you.

There are a few rules that night. The first is that university doesn't exist, that there are no exams coming up. And last but not least, we have to get drunk and have fun as if it were our last day on earth.

As soon as we arrived at the party with the girls, we decided that we wanted to escape reality today and went to this club and we called it a "girls' night out', where EDM music was playing, making our hearts beat to the same rhythm as the music. The club was already full of strange people, with some faces I already knew from university. The club was a colourful mess, with red being the main colour. Smoke clouded the dancing bodies, making it look like they were one body. The coloured lights illuminated the smoke when we finally found our reserved table.

I had to get a little drunk before I threw myself into the mix of sweaty and strange bodies. While we grabbed a few drinks at the bar, which was lit up with red lights under the counter, the bartender was a cute smiling guy with a lip piercing. As the bartender handed me my drink and I waited for my friends, my eyes lingered on a guy whose eyes were already on mine. As soon as I locked eyes with him, he smiled at me and drank from his glass. I couldn't see his face clearly because he was far away from the bar, but very close to our table.

When we returned to our table, I immediately noticed the stranger's eyes again. Their table was next to ours, and it seemed they were also having their own 'guys' night out'. As I sat down in my chair and sipped my drink, our eyes never left the other. When I looked at him, a little closer now, I was kind of speechless. It was still dark, a few red lights illuminated his face now and then, but God, he looked like a sculpture, like a real god, and I couldn't even see him clearly. I wonder what he looks like up close. What I saw was that he had very sharp eyes and high cheekbones, his hair was black and blended in with the background, and maybe I'm hallucinating it because of the lights, but I saw some red highlights in his hair, I'm not sure. Also, he was wearing some kind of leather vest, but I couldn't see exactly how it looked on him.

And throughout the night we kept staring at each other, once he even smiled at me while one of his friends whispered something in his ear. We clearly wanted something from each other, I'm not going to lie, he looked hot, I don't think I've ever seen anyone like him, he was a very unique person.

Once I finally felt dizzy from the shots and cocktails we were drinking, I was ready to dance. But when I looked into the crowd, there was something going on. People were standing in a circle, and there was clearly something going on in the middle of the circle.

"Is there a fight going on?" One of my friends asked, her eyes sparkling as she heard the drama.

We quickly stood up to see the drama, but as soon as we walked into the crowd and tiptoed into the circle, we saw two dancing bodies going along to every little beat of the EDM music. Now it was my eyes that were glistening with excitement. I've always been passionate when it comes to dancing.

"Uh, they're dancing yes, boring." My best friend said to me and they quickly went back to sit at our table and continue drinking.

I looked at them in disbelief because they had left me there alone, but I wanted to watch this dance duel. Unfortunately, I couldn't see everything because I was a little girl and the crowd was too big to see everything, but as I tiptoed around I could see some bodies dancing.

I pouted to myself as I gave up trying to see anything. I was about to turn around and go back to the table, but then I felt two big hands on my waist from behind and I froze. I slowly turned around to see who those big hands belonged to. And I almost gasped when I saw the strange guy looking down at me, towering over me with his huge shoulders that looked like a mountain that was hard to climb. He was wearing a black vest, but nothing was visible underneath, his waist was visible because a pair of black jeans hugged his legs, with a black belt that made his waist even narrower. And his face? I'd never seen a face like that before, the gods above must have blessed or cursed him, because his appearance was more than normal. And I was right about his hair, because I saw some red streaks between his jet-black hair, highlighted even more by the red lights around us.

"Let me help you." He said in a low voice and leaned down to my ear so I could understand what he was saying.

I just looked at him with round eyes, not understanding what was happening until he pushed me forward into the crowd by my waist, mumbling 'sorry". And suddenly I found myself in front of the crowd, where I could clearly see the people dancing in a circle. My heart wanted to jump out of my chest just because of that little gesture. I had the feeling that he was still standing behind my back, as if he was my personal bodyguard, hiding me from the crowd.

Slowly, I turned to face him and looked into his sharp eyes that were glaring at me.

"Thanks!" I said with a sincere smile. He smiled back and nodded, and that's when I saw his dimples, which suited him so perfectly. He looked like a god and I wanted to be his slave.

Time passed as we watched people dance, moving as if they were one with the music that moved them. I've always admired people who could become one with the music as if it were their other half.

I've always wondered where my other half is. I never really had the opportunity to find my soulmate because school was always the main purpose of my life and I didn't want to be led astray by anyone. I had a few flings over the years, but it was never more than a one-night stand. That's why after some hard knocks in life that knocked me down, I got up and never wanted to involve feelings in anything again, I was better for it.

As we watched people dance, there were times when they made cool looking moves and I turned excitedly to the stranger behind my back who was still standing stock-still, his hands still on my waist. For some reason it wasn't uncomfortable, instead he made me feel safe, his arms were around my waist like chains, but it didn't hurt, it tied me to the ground to keep me sane.

"Wow, did you see that? So cool." I turned to the stranger in awe as I saw a guy in the centre of the circle doing a back flip, my eyes lit up with passion as I looked up at the stranger.

He looked down at me, his eyes barely visible as if they were the shape of a crescent moon as he smiled and nodded, agreeing with me.

We had formed some kind of invisible bond and didn't even know it.

After it was over, we parted and went back to our table to talk to our friends and have a drink, our eyes still somehow finding each other. It was strange, it was like our eyes were attracting each other without us knowing it.

I wanted to dance when I had finally drunk enough to feel well. As I stood up, my eyes met with the stranger again, and I somehow tried to let him know that I was going to dance, and that he could join me.

So we went deep into the crowd with the girls and just enjoyed the beats of the EDM music, dancing around each other and feeling the music creep into our blood so it could steer us through the night.

Suddenly the world slowed down, the dancing bodies around me jumped up and down in slow motion, the lights slowly changed — red, blue, green— - then red again. The beats of the music slowed with the bodies and the colored lights illuminated his face in the crowd, he stood out from the crowd and all I could see were his god-like features as he slowly walked towards me.

As he got close to me and finally fought his way through the crowd, which was still moving in slow motion, he held out his hand to me. But I refused to take it and just danced around him, to the beat of the music, with a smile on my face as he tried to catch me, but I wouldn't let him.

"Gotcha!" He whispered in my ear as he finally managed to grab me by the waist as my back bumped against his pumped up chest. I almost disappeared between his hands, he made me feel so small in this big world, but I wasn't scared because I felt safe in his arms.

The dancing bodies around us finally returned to normal, time was no longer in slow motion, life simply went on. And so we danced on, his face in my neck as he embraced me from behind, and I grabbed his hair with my hands, ran my fingers through his black and red hair and just closed my eyes to feel the music, our bodies melting into one as we swayed to the rhythm.

I couldn't tell how many minutes or hours had passed, but when the music slowed down a little, I slowly turned in his arms, tying myself to him, and wrapped my arms around his neck to look at him up close like never before. Our lips were so close that we inhaled each other's breath.

"I want a name before I kiss you, pretty." He leaned down to my ears, just to whisper it in a low tone that sent shivers down my body.

"Y/N," I leaned in close to his ear, my lips brushing over his ears. "And yours?" I asked in a teasing voice, biting his earlobe.

"Mhmm…" He groaned in response. "San." He whispered, barely audible.

I broke away from him a little and looked into his eyes, which were so dark and full of desire. "Nice to meet you, San!" I said to him with a smile, my lips close to his.

"It's my pleasure, Y/N!" And those were the last words he spoke before he pressed his lips to mine with desire. My body was instantly on fire, the music not finding its way into my ears as all I could hear was his moans as I pulled away from my mouth to give him access so he could suck on my tongue, his hands on my waist pulling me impossibly close to his large chest, my fingers running through the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him even closer to me as I let out a soft moan. When he pressed his lips to mine, I felt like this was the kiss of my life. I had never been kissed so passionately in my entire life, and he was a stranger I had only just met, but it seemed like we had been together for at least a decade with the same fiery passion. I felt like I couldn't breathe as he sucked all the oxygen out of me, I was already feeling dizzy when he broke away from my lips and leaned against my forehead.

"We should…" He said as he took my lips between his teeth and sucked on them while I let out a soft moan. My body burned with desire and when our eyes met, I knew immediately what he wanted. And I wanted the same thing.

"We should," I whispered against his lips and kissed them again, it felt like he was the water and I was thirsty as hell, I couldn't get enough of him.

With that, San led me through the dancing bodies, carefully pushing the corpses out of the way like a bulldozer. I just followed him as if I had no other choice. He led us to the checkroom where our jackets were. I didn't know where he was taking me, I might not be that trusting of a stranger, but I guess you only live once.

As we stepped out of the club, my ears began to whistle from the sudden silence in the dark, cool night. San put on his leather jacket, which looked so hot on him that I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. As I put my jacket on as well, he took my hand and led me to a huge, black motorcycle with sharp features and as dark as the night. Another thing about him that made me gasp. There's no way he's riding a motorcycle too, I'm going crazy. He smiled at me when he saw the look on my face.

"You like it, pretty?" He tilted his head and looked down at me, still holding my hand.

"That would be an understatement," I said to him, admiring the bike and running my fingers over its sharp features.

San followed my fingers with his eyes as they scanned the bike, and he groaned. "Okay, here we go. Do you know how to ride?" He moved closer to me and wedged me between the bike and him.

"Mhmm." I nodded as his lips slid over mine. Slowly, he ran his hands down my tights to lift me onto the leather seat of the motorcycle and step between my legs. Then he grabbed my face and his lips were on mine in seconds. His moans were louder now because it was quiet, the city was asleep, and only the people partying kept the city alive at night.

His lips moved on mine, his hands gently caressed my cheeks, I pulled him closer to me by his waist where my fingers moved under his leather vest and I felt his skin burn under my touch. Our kiss lasted just long enough for me to almost fall off the bike, which wasn't exactly the most stable surface.

We giggled about it as we parted, and San sat me properly on the bike and helped me put on the red helmet he'd given me, giving me a light kiss first. Then he put on a black helmet too, -as if he knew he was going to ride with someone on the back— of it- but no matter, he was good for a one-night stand. Even though my heart tightened at the thought that I might not see him again, which was strange because I'd never felt that way with anyone before.

He sat on the bike and started the engine, kicking the kickstand and balancing us on his legs. Then he reached behind him, searched for my hands, pulled me closer to his back and clasped my hands in front of his stomach.

"Hold on tight!" He muttered under his helmet. "Ready?" He asked, looking to the side as I put my head on his shoulder and moved as close to him as I could.

"Ready!" I said with excitement in my voice.

And with that, San drove off into the passion-lit city. We drove through it like a ghost you can barely see, everything around us a blur as we drove past the huge buildings on the highway, past the rare cars that appeared in the middle of the night, who knows where they were going. I hugged him from behind with all my strength as he leaned forward a little to show how fast he was.

I was really enjoying it, the sudden adrenaline creeping into me made me brave and I straightened up from San to hold onto his shoulder with my left hand and I raised my right hand into the cool air to shout a "woo-hoo". At that moment, I couldn't help but smile.

There are moments in life when you're at a concert or with friends and a sudden feeling comes over you. It's like a sudden wave of happiness that doesn't last long, but at that moment you can say, 'I feel happy', and then when it's over you're still smiling about it, but the feeling is long gone. That's how I felt at that moment as San drove us through the city.

When we stopped, I got off the bike and smiled as I took off my helmet. San looked at me as he also took off his helmet, his hair was messy as he ran his fingers through his red and black hair, and his cheekbones were a little flushed because of the cool night.

He chuckled when he saw my reaction. "Did you like it?" He took the helmet on the seat of the bike.

"Very well. Thank you." I gave him a friendly smile as I put my helmet on the seat too.

"Mhmm." He grumbled as he came closer to me and grabbed my waist. "Maybe we can do it again?" His voice sounded soft as his lips slid over mine.

I hummed. "Maybe," I said, smiling teasingly at him.

And that look in his eyes was something I could not describe. He did not even know me as a person, but he looked at me like he was in love with me. I saw love in his eyes, or maybe it was just me, and desire was already taking over my brain so I could not tell the difference between the two. Because it's easy to feel confused as to whether it's love or desire that you see in the other person's eyes.

Then he kissed me again, and I realized I could never get enough of his kisses. I felt addicted, I wanted to kiss him every second of the time we had available.

Then suddenly we were in his apartment, I didn't even have time to look around, because as soon as I entered, he pressed me against the door and pressed his lips to mine, but it was hasty and rough, as if he wanted to devour me alive. Then his lips travelled over my jaw, leaving kisses all the way down to my neck, biting and sucking on my skin, which burned even more passionately after the kisses and the red marks he had left on my neck.

"You look so cute when you smile." He murmured into my neck as I tilted my head to give him more access. "I want to fuck that out of you." His lips travelled over my ears as he whispered it in a low voice, and he bit down hard on my earlobe as I let out a loud moan. My heart was beating so fast I thought it would stop. My body felt like a volcano and his body pressed against mine, pushing me all the way against the door.

"Do it then, handsome," I whispered as he finished with a groan, he was still attacking my neck, I could feel a long red line on my neck, that wasn't going to look good tomorrow, but I couldn't care.

"Fuck." He said as he straightened up to look me in the eye, his voice sounded like honey, sweet and rough, and then his lips were on mine again as my hands slowly reached under his leather vest, just for me to run my hands along his narrow waist that faded into a broad shoulder. I felt shivers run through his body and he moaned into our kiss. Then I seized the opportunity and slipped my tongue into his mouth, our tongues moving together as if they belonged to each other, sucking on each other's lips. While my hands ran up and down his back, leaving thin red lines. San bit his lower lip roughly and moaned as his hands explored my body, going under my shirt and running his big hands along my back, which disappeared under his big hands.

The next thing I knew, I was laying in his bed, him on top of me, looking down at me with the same gaze as before. His hands were running through every part of my body, as if he wanted to mark every inch of me with his lips, to leave little red marks and make me his. He whispered sweet promises in my ear that he would make me feel good. And as the night wore on, all I could see was him above me, looking down on me, taking care of me with all the kinds of pleasures that took me to heaven and back.

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violetasteracademic · 19 hours

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The Glass Coffin: HOFAS x Elriel

Many HOFAS spoilers ahead!! This is an INTENSIVE post on all the Elriel coding in HOFAS, so strap in! This is largely a theory post and my personal interpretations, so take it or leave it! It's all in good fun.

Let's start with The Glass Coffin. When it comes to the analysis of the songs Bryce played for Azriel and Nesta in the much beloved and much dissected bonus chapter, I have seen a lot of conversation around Stone Mother and significantly less (if any?) around The Glass Coffin!

The Glass Coffin is played next after the Stone Mother. And it is a ballet.

What is the The Glass Coffin?

My friends, it is Sleeping Beauty.

Now we all know that many suspect Elriel to be a Sleeping Beauty retelling. And I'll be honest, I take a lot of the mythology or "retellings" with a grain of salt when it comes to SJM, because she doesn't do incredibly loyal retellings but takes bits and pieces of inspiration. I suppose it's up to you where you draw the line of a retelling, or free IP inspiration. But one thing to understand about IP is that Sarah J. Maas would have to get Disney's permission to call her work a retelling of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Much like Beauty and The Beast, she did not "retell" the Disney princess movie, but the original La Belle et la Bête by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve published in 1740. So with that little lesson in intellectual property, lets look at the story of The Glass Coffin, because it is actually quite interesting:

A magician forces a proposal on a Maiden using his magic. The Maiden is repulsed by the use of magic in the proposal and rejects him. The Magician turns her brother into a stag, traps her in the glass coffin, and enchants the land around them.

There is a LOT to unpack here. I do not think Lucien is "The Magician" in this story. Instead, I think the Cauldron is, and I do think that the use of magic to force a proposal is a very close parallel to what Azriel discovered in HOFAS: That the Cauldron had been corrupted by the Asteri to serve their will. If you have read all of the books in the multiverse, you know that there is no other SJM universe where mating bond rejections happen. There is no other universe in which there are unhappily mated pairs forced together because the function of the mating bond, at a base level, is simply to produce the most powerful offspring. Mates in other worlds are true soulmates, and they fall in love before discovering they are mates.

In HOFAS, Azriel listened to a song from The Glass Coffin. He also listened to the story of Silene, and learned that the Cauldron was corrupted by the Asteri. It is not a theory or interpretation that the Asteri curate powerful bloodlines to ensure they have the strongest food from the souls that they eat. It is a fact. So it is not a jump to interpret that the Cauldron's corruption by the Asteri, and mates that are not a good fit on a soul level but forced together to produce powerful offspring, are one and the same. At this time, both Azriel and Elain have discussed feelings of repulsion or discomfort regarding E/ucien's bond. There are also negative consequences to a female rejecting the bond, as there were for the Maiden in The Glass Coffin. Rejecting a bond can lead to madness on the males end in Prythian because he believes he is entitled to her, just as the Maiden rejecting the Magician's proposal led to him trapping her in glass and enchanting the lands so no one else could have her.

This is already quite interesting, but it gets even more powerful as you continue to breakdown the Elain coding in HOFAS.

This line basically started a war:

"I can hear your heart beating through the stone." She angled her head, as if the city view held some answer, "Can you hear mine?" (ACOWAR, chpt. 24)

Now many people have used this to claim she is Lucien's mate, because she can hear his heartbeat. Though only a few pages earlier, we had this moment:

Elain can hear Feyre's heartbeat. She says if she listens carefully, she can hear hers too. At the time, we all assumed she was talking about Nesta. And yet we've discovered that Vesperus, an Asteri, (or Valg, depending on which theory you vibe with) was also a beating heart under the stone.

Inside a glass coffin.

More than that, we have this passage:

We now know that the Prison was once the Dusk Court, and just like UTM, The Hewn City, and Ramiel, it is encapsulated in stone beneath the mountain. Within the stone of the Prison lies the long buried heart of the Dusk Court. When you look back at Elain's line to Lucien, and see that she is staring out at the city, looking for answers at the heart she can hear beating beneath the stone, and not Lucien, this all starts to click together in a brilliant way. And the imagery, the island having a soul nurtured and blossoming under her care, has Elain written all over it.

Now, the reason I bring up the Hewn City here is because I believe there is a reason for Elain's lifelessness and distress in the Hewn City that has nothing to do with her wearing the color black.

In HOFAS, we discover a few important things about Earth Fae. Lidia discovers in her time on Team Archives what the Earth Fae did, and what their powers were used for:

Earth Fae were used on Midgard to discover ley lines of power to create powerful strongholds. One important thing I have noticed is that all Fae on Midgard are said to come from either Erilea or Prythian (at least that is all that is mentioned) and yet there is no indicator of where the Earth Fae come from. it is my personal belief the Earth Fae are from Prythian. Yet the entire Dusk Court disappeared, and their story continued on Midgard. It is my belief that Elain is not only a Seer, but that she has also been gifted with the Earth powers that have since been lost on Prythian, priming her to both restore Earth powers on Prythian as well as the Dusk Court.

What does this have to do with the Hewn City?

Earth Fae experience distress when they are in places where the magic is dead or warped, and they are the only ones that can feel it:

Bryce mentions she forgets the Earth Fae even have magic, because what they can do is often unseen.

If Elain is in possession of the lost Earth power, she would have been able to feel her power literally shriveling up and dying anywhere that has been warped by that magic.

And then of course we have the fact that the cave on Prythian is an exact match to the Cave of Princes on Avallen. We end HOFAS with all the weapons in the possession of the IC, the knowledge that there are cache's of magic hidden in the lands, and that there are places where the magic has been twisted and must be freed, one being the Prison/Dusk Court.

This was the imagery used once the magic was freed on Avallen, and it took its true, lush, blossoming form:

If what is true on Avallen will also be true once the Dusk Court is freed on Prythian, answer this question honestly: When you read this imagery- blooming vines and roses, beautiful and surreal, the land seeming to know her, small blooming flowers nestling around her body and in her hair- who do you think of? Who could this possibly be alluding to back in Prythian?

Elain's coding was all over HOFAS, and Azriel's "what if the Cauldron was wrong storyline" continued. These statements are true, even if none of my theories about her being an Earth Fae are right, though I know I'm not the only one who believes that is where we are headed!

The fact that The Glass Coffin is Sleeping Beauty, and that Azriel listened to it, may not be a powerful statement on its own (though I think it is). But the fact that the Cauldron corruption was revealed, and The Glass Coffin is a story of a woman who was entrapped due to her rejecting a proposal forced by magic, and Sarah used the Glass Coffin again with Vesperus, potentially tying her back to the heartbeat Elain can hear if she listens closely, it's all just too much to ignore.

I was personally overwhelmed by all of the Elain and Azriel nods in HOFAS. I think they get buried under all of the criticism in the book. I am so excited to see where everything goes, and I hope you had fun going down this rabbit hole with me!

#elriel #pro elriel #elriel endgame #elriel theories #elain x azriel

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galahadwilder · 8 hours

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I think the brilliance of Ricky September is not just to show that Lindy Pepper-Bean has no empathy. Ricky September’s role in “Dot and Bubble” isn’t just to die, or to show that not everyone in their society is terrible.

Ricky September is the Doctor.

He’s a handsome, flamboyant weirdo who drops out of the sky to save the female lead who is a stranger to him because he’s noticed she’s in trouble.

He’s confident, more confident than makes any sense for his situation; he’s observant, investigating and picking apart the actions of the mantraps the way the Doctor would. He knows history better than anyone around him (though for different reasons than the Doctor would). He’s clever enough to hack a computer that Lindy had just failed to even turn on—sonic screwdriver much?—and then immediately, well. What’s rule #1? The Doctor lies.

The subsequent scene of him trying to open the door? He’s completely undaunted by the unnecessarily complicated code, just fascinated, as he gets down to business. The scene is practically straight out of “42,” the one with the living star and the complicated locks, and he and the Doctor both have the same reaction to the puzzle.

Like the Doctor, Ricky disdains the vapid and self-obsessed society he is part of (though Gallifrey and Finetime are very different), and he grabs the first chance he can to find a companion and run the hell away. He uses a fake name, and his real name is such a terrible secret that its revealing has disastrous consequences.

Hell, watch the mannerisms. He and Gatwa even move their hands the same when they’re in “performance mode.”

In short, Ricky breaks every single standard set by Finetime the exact way the Doctor does, and what does Lindy do? She idolizes him. She treats him like he’s an unparalleled genius, the greatest moment of her life.

If we leave aside the murder for the moment, Ricky’s purpose isn’t just to say, “look how sociopathic Lindy and the rest of Finetime is.” Ricky is there to say, “this is how Finetime would’ve treated the Doctor if he were white.”

#doctor who #doctor who spoilers #dot and bubble #ricky september #the doctor #fifteenth Doctor #lindy pepper bean #original content #doctor who meta #dw spoilers

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martian-astro · 12 hours

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D9/ Navamsa chart observations - Part 4

Sun in 3rd shows that your spouse will either have a business of their own or even if they work for someone else, they'll be in a managerial position. As a result of this, your spouse will be focused more on their career than the marriage, and it could make you feel a bit lonely. (Jupiter in fire and water signs can balance this out)

Moon in 7th is a really good placement, i have seen this in the charts of female celebrities who have a handsome husband. so if we're going just by looks, then it's good. Your partner can be emotional and sensitive but they can also be moody, this placement is better if you have more earth signs in your chart. (i know a woman with this, and her husband is like okay but he can also be quite whiny sometimes, and also he acts like his hands are gonna fall down if he puts them inside the dirty dishes water, so, i just find him very annoying, so just make sure that there are planets in earth signs)

Mercury in 1st... I love it. A lot of "happily" married couples have it. This is a placement that makes you address the issues in your marriage. If you guys feel like there's something wrong, you're gonna approach your partner and talk to them about it. (i think that even if the conversation ultimately leads to divorce it's still better than just staying in a dull and loveless marriage, and if the problem gets solved, then great). I really have a soft spot for this one because a lot of strong women in my life have this and i just love the fact that they were brave enough to go against the society's rules, so if you have this placement, you're very very lucky and you'll have a good marriage, you know what you want and that's great. (this can also cause late marriage)

Venus in 1st, this one is not for your partner but for yourself, the number of celebrities that have this is just....shocking. If you want to work in the entertainment industry and you have this, go ahead, seriously, just give auditions, put videos on youtube, make reels, do it, you WILL be famous. (talking about the people that i know personally that have this placement, they're really creative as well, one of my sister's friend has sun conjunct Venus in 1st house and she's such a charismatic speaker and like really persuasive, this is helpful to her in regards to career, so even if you want to work in some other field, this placement makes you the best in that)

Mars in 4th.. I love this one as well. This makes your partner really protective of you and your kids (if you wish to have them). I used to think that this would make your spouse more protective of their parents (especially mother) rather than their partner, but I've been proven wrong, many many times. I have seen it play out right in front of my eyes, a lot of times, so I'll give examples. (if you're a woman, and your husbands family is talking shit about you, he won't like it at all and in some cases, may even move out of the house cuz they can't stand seeing you being humiliated. Another example, if you're being harassed then.. They're gonna get physical, and not because, someone touched THEIR wife, but because someone touched YOU, there's a huge difference. And if you're a man, you are LUCKY, your wife's gonna be like 5'1, but if someone's hurting you, she's gonna stand in front of you and be like "stop hurting my man, get the fuck away from him" and having that kind of support in your life is really rare)

Jupiter in 5th... DUDE, every person i know that has this have more than 2 kids, if its well placed then you're gonna be great parents and your children are gonna love you. Your partner is gonna love kids and that's why... More kids. If you're a woman, then please make sure that you marry someone who loves you just as much, because this is one of those placements that can cause "good parent but bad partner" thing. (I've also seen this placement in a lot of men's charts, who only marry a woman because they think she would make a good mother, which is not good, so be a little cautious of men with this)

Saturn in 10th, now if you're a woman and you have this, then please please marry a man who's okay with having a wife who's more career oriented (every woman should marry a man like that) but sometimes you'll see that a woman is forced to become a SAH wife and she's unhappy but she does it (even though she shouldn't) but women with this, they won't, they'll just get divorced instead, they DO NOT like staying at home (valid), a partner who encourages you to pursue your dreams will be the best. (i know a couple where the wife has this, he's a house husband but a good one, he actually does all the household chores and doesn't just laze around while his wife works, and they also love each other, and i love them 🥹)

Venus in 9th, i read on a lot of websites and books that these people should marry after 30 and i agree. An early marriage with this will lead to separation or an unhappy marriage. (i also noticed this to be true, but i couldn't find out WHY, like the reason). This is also an indicator of marrying someone from a different culture or background. Even more so if Venus is in movable signs.

Saturn in 5th, (bro my memory is so bad, i feel like I've already written about this but i can't fucking remember 😭😭), okay so this placement also delays childbirth, or you may end up having just one kid (which is not wrong), you may also have a kid after 30, Ranbir kapoor, priyanka chopra and deepika padukone have this. Even if you have ketu in 8th, this will happen because saturn has a stronger effect.

Mars in 2nd, this placement is like a double edged sword, your partner is gonna be a spendthrift but they manage to earn back that money just as fast, but here's the thing, it's like, you have to pay your rent on the 1st of a month, your partner uses that rent money to buy something for themselves, now you're stressed AS FUCK and on the 31st, out of nowhere, they're gonna give that same amount to you. I've seen this happen a lot. So you're just gonna be constantly stressed out. (this works well for people who themselves are spendthrifts, cuz none of you give a shit, so whatever)

#astroblr #astrology #vedic astrology #astrology content #astrology community #astro observations #navamsa chart #d9 chart

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theodorenmyth · 12 hours

Note

Funny little jealous Theo thing where an exchange student from Italy comes to Hogwarts and reader jokingly says something like “guess you aren’t the hottest Italian man in Hogwarts now.” To Theodore and he takes it personally whenever reader tries to talk to the change student. He just drags him away, cursing under his breath in his native language

-🧚🏾‍♀️

Envious Hearts

Pairings : Theodore Nott x M! Reader Summary : When a charismatic exchange student from Italy arrives at Hogwarts, your playful remark to your boyfriend, Theodore Nott, sparks unexpected jealousy. Theo's possessiveness escalates, leading to tension between managing his insecurities and your budding friendship with the new student. Through reassurance and heartfelt confessions, you navigate the complexities of love and loyalty, reaffirming that Theo is the only one for you. A/n : Enjoy (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠) Warnings) : Nothing! Word count : 1.7k+

The Great Hall buzzed with the excitement of a new school year, and the news that Hogwarts would be hosting exchange students from various wizarding schools only added to the fervor. You sat at the Slytherin table, surrounded by your friends, chatting animatedly about who these new students might be.

Your boyfriend, Theodore Nott, sat beside you, casually picking at his food. His dark hair fell into his eyes as he leaned over to listen to your conversation. You had always admired how effortlessly handsome he was, but today, there was an air of anticipation in the hall that was hard to ignore.

The doors of the Great Hall creaked open, and Professor McGonagall entered, followed by a group of students. The hall fell silent as she began to introduce them. "Students of Hogwarts, I am pleased to introduce our guests from various wizarding schools across Europe. Let us welcome them warmly."

Your eyes were immediately drawn to one of the exchange students—a tall, handsome boy with dark, curly hair and striking blue eyes. He had an effortless charm about him that seemed to catch the attention of everyone in the room. When McGonagall introduced him as Luca Moretti from Ilvermorny, you couldn't help but nudge Theo and whisper, "Guess you aren’t the hottest Italian man in Hogwarts now."

Theo’s eyebrows shot up, and he turned to look at you, his lips pressing into a thin line. "Very funny," he muttered, but you could see a flicker of irritation in his eyes.

Over the next few days, it became clear that Luca was not only attractive but also incredibly charismatic. He quickly made friends and was often seen surrounded by a group of admirers, both male and female. You found yourself intrigued by his stories of Italy and his experiences at Ilvermorny, and you often sought him out to hear more.

One afternoon, you found Luca in the library, engrossed in a thick, leather-bound book. "Hey, Luca," you greeted him, taking a seat across from him.

He looked up and smiled warmly. "Ciao, bella. Come stai?"

"I'm good, thanks. How are you finding Hogwarts so far?" you asked, leaning in slightly.

"It's wonderful. Different from Ilvermorny, but in a good way," he replied, his accent making every word sound like music.

You chatted for a while, laughing and sharing stories. But just as you were getting comfortable, you felt a presence behind you. Turning, you found Theo standing there, his expression dark.

"Theo! Hey, we were just—"

"We need to go," Theo interrupted, his voice tight. He grabbed your arm and pulled you to your feet.

"Whoa, Theo, what's the rush?" you protested, trying to free yourself from his grip.

"Now," he insisted, not even glancing at Luca as he dragged you out of the library.

Once you were in the corridor, you yanked your arm free and glared at him. "What the hell, Theo? We were just talking!"

"Talking? Sure, that's what it looked like," he snapped, his eyes flashing with jealousy.

"You're being ridiculous," you said, crossing your arms. "He's just a friend."

"A friend? He's flirting with you, and you're eating it up," Theo retorted, his voice rising.

"Oh, come on, Theo. You can't be serious," you scoffed. "He's new here. I'm just being friendly."

"Friendly," Theo repeated, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Is that what you call it when you're practically hanging off his every word?"

You sighed, exasperated. "You're overreacting."

"Am I?" he shot back, his eyes narrowing. "Every time I see you with him, you're all smiles and laughter. What about us? Do you even care?"

"Of course, I care, Theo," you said softly, reaching out to touch his arm. "But you have to trust me. There's nothing going on between Luca and me."

He pulled away, running a hand through his hair. "I don't like it. I don't like how he looks at you, how you look at him."

"He's just a friend," you repeated, trying to calm him down. "You have nothing to worry about."

Theo muttered something under his breath in Italian, something you didn't quite catch but knew was a curse. "Just stay away from him, okay? For me?"

You hesitated but finally nodded. "Fine. But you need to stop being so paranoid. I love you, Theo. Only you."

He looked at you for a long moment, then sighed. "I love you too. Just… be careful, okay?"

You nodded, and he pulled you into a tight embrace. "I will. I promise."

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Despite your promise, avoiding Luca proved to be more difficult than you anticipated. He seemed to be everywhere—at meals, in the common room, even in some of your classes. And every time you did run into him, Theo was never far behind, his jealousy simmering just below the surface.

One evening, you were heading to the Great Hall for dinner when you bumped into Luca. "Hey!" he greeted you with his usual smile. "I was hoping to see you."

Before you could respond, Theo appeared, his expression darkening as he saw you with Luca. "We're late for dinner," he said curtly, grabbing your hand and pulling you away.

"Nice to see you too, Theo," Luca called out, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Theo didn't even look back, dragging you down the corridor with a grip that was just shy of painful. "Theo, stop," you said, trying to pull your hand free.

He finally let go, turning to face you. "What did I just tell you? Why are you still talking to him?"

You took a deep breath, trying to keep your patience. "Theo, he’s in our classes. It's not like I can just ignore him completely."

Theo ran a hand through his hair, his frustration evident. "I don’t care. Just… keep your distance."

"You’re being unreasonable," you said, crossing your arms. "Luca is just a friend. Why can’t you see that?"

"I see how he looks at you," Theo muttered, his voice low and angry. "And I see how you look at him."

You sighed. "Theo, you’re the one I love. Luca is just—"

"Just what?" he interrupted, stepping closer. "Just a charming, handsome Italian who you find endlessly fascinating?"

"Stop it," you said, your own temper flaring. "This is ridiculous. You're jealous of a guy who hasn’t done anything wrong."

He was silent for a moment, his jaw clenched. "Maybe I am jealous. Maybe I have a right to be. Have you thought about that?"

You opened your mouth to respond but closed it again, unsure of what to say. Theo's insecurity was unexpected, and it hurt to see him like this.

"Look," you said softly, reaching out to touch his arm. "I don’t want anyone else. You’re the one I chose, Theo. You’re the one I love."

He looked down at your hand, then back up at you. "I just… I don’t want to lose you."

"You won’t," you promised, stepping closer. "But you need to trust me. Can you do that?"

He hesitated, then finally nodded. "Okay. I’ll try."

"Thank you," you said, giving him a small smile. "Now, can we please go to dinner? I'm starving."

He managed a faint smile in return. "Yeah, let’s go."

As you walked into the Great Hall together, you couldn't help but glance over at the Ravenclaw table where Luca was sitting. He caught your eye and gave you a friendly wave, but you quickly looked away, feeling Theo’s hand tighten around yours.

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Days turned into weeks, and though Theo's jealousy didn’t completely disappear, he made an effort to trust you more. You, in turn, tried to be mindful of his feelings, limiting your interactions with Luca as much as possible.

But one evening, while studying in the library, Luca approached you with a worried expression. "Can we talk?" he asked quietly.

You glanced around, making sure Theo wasn’t nearby, then nodded. "Sure. What’s up?"

Luca sat down across from you, his face serious. "I’ve noticed that you’ve been avoiding me. Did I do something wrong?"

You sighed, feeling a pang of guilt. "It’s not you, Luca. It’s… complicated."

He raised an eyebrow. "Complicated how?"

You looked down at your hands. "Theo’s been a bit… jealous. He thinks there’s something going on between us."

Luca frowned. "But there isn’t."

"I know," you said quickly. "But he’s worried. And I don’t want to make things worse."

Luca nodded slowly. "I understand. But I hope you know that I’m here if you ever need a friend."

"Thank you," you said, giving him a grateful smile. "That means a lot."

Just then, you heard a familiar voice behind you. "What’s going on here?"

You turned to see Theo standing there, his expression a mix of anger and hurt. "Theo, we were just talking."

"Talking," he repeated, his eyes narrowing. "Always just talking."

Luca stood up, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "Theo, I don’t want any trouble. I was just—"

"Stay out of this," Theo snapped, grabbing your arm. "We’re leaving."

You resisted, trying to keep your voice calm. "Theo, please. Let’s just talk about this."

But Theo was having none of it. He pulled you away, muttering curses in Italian under his breath. "Come on."

As he dragged you out of the library, you could feel the eyes of other students on you, whispering and staring. Once you were outside, you yanked your arm free and glared at him. "This has to stop, Theo. You’re being ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" he echoed, his eyes flashing. "I’m trying to protect what’s mine."

"I’m not a possession," you shot back, your anger rising. "You need to trust me, or this isn’t going to work."

He took a deep breath, his shoulders sagging. "I know. I’m sorry. It’s just… I can’t stand the thought of losing you."

"You’re not going to lose me," you said softly, stepping closer. "But you have to let go of this jealousy. It’s tearing us apart."

He looked into your eyes, his expression softening. "I’ll try. For you."

"Thank you," you said, wrapping your arms around him. "That’s all I ask."

As he held you close, you could feel the tension slowly ebbing away. It would take time, but you knew that as long as you had each other, you could get through anything.

And maybe, just maybe, Theo would learn to trust that no matter how many charming exchange students came to Hogwarts, he would always be the one you loved.

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gyubeom · 3 days

Text

Victorias Secret

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Pairing: Bf!Beomgyu x Gf!Reader

Genre: smut, fluff

Warnings: Reader is a female, mirror sex, riding, blowjob, face fucking, nipple play, public sex, degradation, use of the pet names (babe, baby, and honey sexually and non sexually)

a/n: Hi ya’ll back with another fic. Hope you guys enjoy! Btw this is a non requested fic!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You and your boyfriend Beomgyu went to the mall today to shop for some new clothes. After walking around for a while you came across a Victoria’s Secret store. You wanted to buy lingerie sets to wear and a couple of new underwears.

“Baby, Im going to shop at Victoria’s Secret for a while, can you come with me?” you asked Beomgyu. You saw his cheeks flush red “Wh-what no Y/n I can’t go in there” he said in worry. “Oh don’t be silly come with me I’ll just check a couple of things then we can go” you said. Beomgyu gave in and went inside the store with you.

You giggled at your boyfriend who struggled to keep his head up. A store clerk then approached you “Hi ma’am what do you need help with?” she asked. “Oh hi, yes I need help finding lingerie sets. Where are they?” you asked. She lead you to the lingerie section and held up two sets “ma’am try these two, they would look good on you” she said with a smile. “Thank you” you said while getting the sets she held up. She then smiled and walked away.

“Honey come with me, Im going to fit something” you said to Beomgyu. “Okay” he says in response, with that the two of you headed to the dressing room. You picked the one big enough for two people and started fitting the lingerie sets.

The first set was a light pink baby doll dress with fur that decorated the bottom. After putting it on you turned to Beomgyu, “Babe does this look nice?” you asked spinning around once. When you looked back at him his jaw was on the floor. You giggled as he pulled you in by your waist.

“Honey you look so hot in this right now” he said kissing your jaw. You smiled “so should I buy it?” you asked him. He looked at you for a second before pulling you in for a passionate kiss. You melted into the kiss and draped your arms on his shoulders.

He started to unclip the hooks holding the dress in place and removed the straps without breaking the kiss. The dress fell on the floor along with your underwear. You felt your wetness drip on the changing room floor. You then tugged on his shirt, gesturing him to remove it.

He pulled away and removed his clothes. Once you were both undressed, he left hickeys on your collarbone and neck making you moan softly. He then pulled away and turned you around. You let out a small gasp when you saw a big mirror in front of you.

Before you could say anything, Beomgyu bottomed out inside you making you moan in pleasure. He thrusted a few times before using his free hand to cover your mouth to prevent you from being heard.

Wet skin slapping filled the room with a few muffled moans. You felt the hand covering your mouth and the one holding your hip trail up to your tits. He then started to rub circles on your swollen nipples with his thumbs. You gasped at the sudden action. He then leaned his head down to leave more hickeys on your neck.

You closed your eyes at the sensation. Beomgyu then pulled away from your neck and leaned in your ear “Open your eyes baby” he said in a dark voice. You felt his thrusts increase in speed and his thumbs rubbing your nipples faster. You moaned and struggled to open your eyes.

When you did open your eyes, felt yourself get wetter at the sight. You can see your fucked out face and tits bouncing each thrust. You also saw Beomgyu’s lust filled face as he fucked you hard. The view made your high approach quickly. “Ah! Fuck Beomgyu Im gonna cum!” you screamed.

You then felt one of the hands playing with your nipples rub your clit. Thats all it took for you to cum hard. “Yeah thats it princess, cum on my fucking cock slut” he said while filling you up with his load. You moaned at his remark.

You then saw Beomgyu leave to sit down on the bench. “Come here baby” he said with a seductive voice. You then sat on his lap, feeling his cum drip out of your pussy. He then aligned his cock to your entrance and pushed you down. You let out a moan at the sudden action considering you just cummed.

“I wanna see you ride my cock like the slut you are baby” he said. You started grinding and bouncing up and down on his dick. Your hands gripping his shoulders, nails slightly digging in. You rested your head at the crook of his neck. He then reached down to roughly rub your clit making you jolt.

“Fuck you look so hot baby, riding my dick in a changing room” he said while increasing the speed of his fingers on your clit. You let out a small whimper followed by a small moan. You lifted your head to be met by his dark eyes, his hair sticking to his forehead.

You then felt another high reaching, “Ah! Beomgyu Im gonna cum again!” you said. “Go on let it all out baby” Beomgyu replied, he suddenly shot his load deep inside you, completely covering your insides with hot white liquid. Shortly after you came undone as well.

He then lifted you up and led you back to the mirror. He then bent you over making you lean on the mirror. You moaned when you felt him spread your ass open to reveal your cum dripping pussy. He groaned then pushed three fingers into you, fucking the cum back in your pussy. After a few pumps, he pulled out and helped you back up.

“Get on your knees whore” he said, you immediately complied and got on your knees. You then took his dick in your mouth and started sucking its tip. He moaned in pleasure and bucked his hips forward, making you gag a bit. He then gathered your hair into a ponytail and thrusted his hips forward.

You moaned on his cock as he continued to fuck his dick in your mouth. You hollowed your cheeks which made him groan “Yes thats it slut” he said. You continued to take him in your mouth. You felt his dick harden each thrust which indicated he was nearing his high.

He then shot his cum deep down your throat forcing you to swallow it. He let out a small moan as he cummed, he pulled away and took a look at your face. Cum was leaking out your mouth with a fucked out face to match. He smirked before helping you up.

He kissed your forehead and leaned in the crook of your neck “Thank you baby, you felt so good” he said. You smiled and patted his head before realizing you were still in the dressing room. You gasped “Omg honey we’re still in the changing room!” you and Beomgyu looked at each other in shock before quickly getting dressed.

You walked out the dressing room shyly considering your loud moans earlier. You bought both of the lingerie sets and quietly exited the store. You and Beomgyu burst out in laughter and continued your mall trip.

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a/n: I hope you guys liked it! Thank you for reading!

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thebiggerbear · 2 days

Text

Call My Name Chapter 1: Phase 1 is a go - Soldier Boy x Female!Reader

Summary: And so begins Phase 1.

Pairing: Soldier Boy x Female!Reader

A/N: Ahhhh I'm so excited to take this journey with you guys. I've been working on it for forever!!! I really hope you like it. It has been so much fun to write!!!

I have to be honest, I'm still learning all the ins and outs of posting fanfic on here and what that entails so I want to say up front that this is a sort of dark fic but not completely? Without giving anything away, there will be some dark elements. I will absolutely put those warning when that chapter happens but I just want to give you guys a heads up early on in case.

Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.

Songs for chapter (also listened to while writing): Prison Fight - Tyler Bates; Run For Your Life - The Siege

Series Masterlist

Warnings: sanctioned assassination; violence/blood; implied gore/death/murder; Soldier Boy being Soldier Boy; language; implied sexual imagery; hints of manipulation

Word Count: 8515

Please do not do any of the above. Thank you for your understanding.

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Series Taglist: @mostlymarvelgirl; @deangirl96; @avada-kedavra-bitch-187; @ej13928; @rieleatiel

SB Taglist: @deans-spinster-witch; @birdiellie; @heartlessdelusions; @nancymcl; @brightlilith; @muhahaha303; @just-levyy; @solacedthistest; @deansimpala; @foxyjwls007; @onlyangel-444

Jensen Taglist: @samanddeaninatrenchcoat

Some days were tough. Some days were harder than most. But here you were, getting through each day with only one goal in mind. Everything you did, every decision you made, every breath you took — it was all leading towards one specific objective.

And that’s why you were here now, at a black op CIA site, watching as they pulled a comatose Soldier Boy out of containment.

“Are you sure about this?” Grace Mallory asked as you both stared down from the observation deck at Vought’s original Supe they had cooked up. It wasn’t too often that Grace showed her soft side; most didn’t even know she had one actually. But right now, out of the corner of your eye, you could see concern mixed with understanding topped off with a bit of careful hesitation. While you hated the concern and appreciated the understanding, you couldn’t blame her on the hesitation. Soldier Boy was basically a nuclear reactor in human form and he hadn’t gone down under the best circumstances, which was putting it lightly. Not only did he not want to go back under for another deep sleep, but Butcher and his team would be in his sights now. And based on what he did to the last team who betrayed him, you all were in for a shitstorm.

You knew this was a terrible idea, that you could very likely die before achieving your goal and you could bring hundreds if not thousands of people with you if you weren’t careful. But you were out of options and just like Butcher and company had arrived at the same decision some months earlier, you had chosen to unearth the strongest weapon you had in your arsenal in the battle between Supes and humans.

Grace had fought you on it of course. The government had strongly agreed with her assessment; Soldier Boy was too much of a risk to allow him to gain consciousness never mind walk around free. And yet they had no answer when you questioned why they didn’t just destroy him and end it, making the world that much safer. You knew why; they wanted to be in possession of that power, that weapon deep within the Supe’s chest. And that you could work with.

The older woman already knew your backstory and when you pressed the right buttons, backed by Butcher of all people, eventually she came around. You had no idea who she spoke to or what favors she had called in, but sure enough, your mission was greenlit with barely any resistance though a ton of uneasiness. Not unexpected and not entirely unfathomable. Funnily enough, President Singer was kept in the dark on this one; he was too close to Vought and by extension, Homelander and Victoria Neuman. You didn’t exactly mind. It was better for you and the mission as a whole if no one knew that Soldier Boy was still alive. How Grace managed to keep his existence under wraps for all of this time, you had no idea, but you were grateful she was on your side. So when you got the go ahead, you and Butcher took the win and hightailed it to the CIA facility before anyone could change their minds, or worse, figure out what you were up to and try to stop you.

There were stipulations as you figured there would be: daily briefings, a carefully selected unit of CIA under Grace’s command would be monitoring your every move closely, they reserved the right to pull the plug at any time and put Soldier Boy back into containment, and while you were in charge of the op, Butcher was who you had to answer to in Grace’s absence. That definitely set your teeth on edge. You and Butcher had different ideas on how to get things done, but you reminded yourself that you both had the same goal and that was all that really mattered. So you begrudgingly agreed and now here you were ordering the staff to begin the process of waking the original Supe up.

You watched as two men in Hazmat suits appeared to be choosing who would pull the figurative straw. You rolled your eyes; they were wasting time. Before you could hit a button and bark out an order, the one on your right seemed to be the one who had lost and warily approached Soldier Boy to remove his mask, practically darting away once he was finished. The staffer on the left was holding a radiation meter in his hand. From your viewpoint, you could see the levels slowly begin to rise. Sure enough, when you flicked your eyes over to the Supe, you could see movement underneath his eyelids, as if he were having an intense dream.

Grace saw it, too, and she ordered the two men out at once. There was no hesitation in following her command. Once they were out, Grace nodded to the staffer on her other side and he stayed at the ready, finger hovering over a button that you assumed would flood the room with Novichok gas within seconds if needed. Another employee darkened the windows in front of you. You could still see out but Soldier Boy wouldn’t be able to see in. A switch was flipped somewhere and the lights went down. The backup power source came on and the room was flooded with a red halo from the emergency lights. An alarm started to sound throughout the facility, as if someone had infiltrated the building, but everyone’s lack of movement and surprise confirmed there were no intruders. Instead, everyone’s focus was on the Supe who was going to open his eyes at any second.

Grace turned back to you. “Are you ready for this?”

You grabbed the gas mask that had been given to you as a contingency. “Butcher and his team ready?”

“Ready and standing by,” someone informed you both.

You gave Grace a nod and turned to leave the room.

“Hey,” she called, stopping you in your tracks. You glanced back over your shoulder to see that concern again, this time framed by the cold steel you’d gotten to know over the last few months. “If it looks like it’s not going to happen…” She let her warning trail off; both of you knew what would happen if things started to go sideways. She’d do her best to get you out before you got killed, but there was a high chance it wouldn’t happen. Then you’d be sealed in with a live nuclear reactor and that would be the end of you, and all of that would be before Soldier Boy could choose to unleash any of his wrath on you.

Giving a curt nod, you swiveled your head back in the direction you were headed in, determination filling your veins no matter the outcome. People cleared the path for you, fear plain as day on their faces. Not fear of you or even for you, but fear of what lay beyond in that chamber. Fear of what you had lobbied hard for to be woken up that would have been better left sleeping, for all eternity if some of them had their way. You didn’t pay them any mind and held your head up higher, a familiar blanket of cold indifference settling over you. You ignored their terrified gasps as you pulled one of your swords out of its sheath and headed for the open door. Once you were past it, after a few feet, you stopped right before the entrance to what could very well be your death, ignoring the sound of the door sealing shut behind you.

You waited to be confronted by a group that had been specifically chosen for this op by Grace and Butcher. You could hear them approaching, talking low amongst themselves and trying to formulate a plan, which from some of their tones you could tell it wouldn’t hold up very well and not even that long even if you weren’t there to stop them. Sure enough, as you knew would happen with a few more footsteps, they rounded the corner, looking for an exit, only to find you.

The group of men had been dressed as security for the facility and the six of them varied in size. The one in front, a big burly guy who appeared to have declared himself as leader, sneered over at you. “Well, what do we have here?”

The way he looked at you, the vibe coming off of him as well as a few of the others… They had been chosen well; you could already feel the urge to wipe them off the map radiating throughout your body. Your thoughts were running rampant and as one of them leered, you could sense an all-too familiar rage attempting to burn brightly within you that you then masterfully directed throughout your body.

You swung your sword in your hand and tensed, getting ready.

The leader laughed, turned to the other five, and ordered, “Get the bitch.”

The corner of your lips lifted in response. This was going to be a fun little workout for you that you could get in right before facing off with the final boss. Three men came charging at you and your sword flew with incredible precision as you spun in a dance you’d practiced a thousand times during training. You sliced open one and cut the other’s throat before either of them could even dream of laying a hand on you. When the third came closer, you made short work of him, and as you were about to injure the leader, he took one of the other two that had been hesitant to engage you, practically cowering, and used him as a human shield. He shoved the lanky man forward, right into your sword. You left it there and pulled your other one, kicking the dying man to the side. The sixth man cursed out loud and began running in the other direction. You pulled one of your knives from your belt and sent it careening into the back of his head, making him fall flat on his face. You then turned towards the one you had purposely saved for last.

“You fucking bitch,” he hissed. “You want some of this? Then come get it!” He pulled your sword out of the guy he’d thrust onto it and began trying to swing at you. You effortlessly dodged each of his blows and you waited for him to lose energy. He wasn’t even worth parrying with. Sure enough, when you saw the arc of his arm begin to slow down, you made your move. You avoided the blade coming for your torso by dropping to your knees and sliding over to him and cutting into his side with your sword. Your movement propelled you forward, cutting deeply, and he let out the loudest yell you’d heard yet. He pathetically tried to point the sword in your direction but you easily sidestepped the movement, watching him begin to bleed everywhere.

He tried to weakly lift the weapon once more as he held a hand over his gaping wound but you stopped him by bringing your blade down on his arm, effectively removing the limb and forcing him to scream out in pain again. It was like music to your ears and you stood there before him, glaring down at the piece of shit who didn’t deserve to be alive to even have come across you. You had a sneaky suspicion that Grace had chosen this one.

“Now you know what they felt,” you snarled quietly.

He scowled back at you and spit blood in your direction, with you stepping back to avoid the spray. “Fuck you, you dumb bitch! Just like all the rest!”

You gave him a nod and lifted your sword, his eyes slightly going wide at the sight. “Like all the rest,” you echoed and brought the blade down, hard.

Though his screams turned piercing, you took him apart piece by piece within seconds, making sure he felt everything before you finally ended him. It was more mercy than he deserved. He was worse than all of the others combined, not that they were angels themselves. Blood coated you and both swords so you used one of the others’ shirts to wipe the red stains from one of the blades. You pushed it into its sheath on your back once you were finished and held the other aloft as you pulled out the security key card Grace had given you. You could hear Soldier Boy’s breathing increase and you knew you had to get into his room and fast.

You made your way to the control panel on the left side of the doors, scanned the card, and tossed it once the green light appeared. The tell-tale sound of the doors opening sounded and you readied yourself, sword in hand.

Once the doors had pulled aside and a low level of smoke cleared which you suspected was gas (perhaps Grace had to keep him subdued while you were meting out justice on that asshole), you saw exactly what you had come for.

There stood Soldier Boy, glaring at you, his chest rising and falling, his hands in fists. Obviously, having just woken up and gotten to his feet, he was still a bit disoriented but not enough that you could take him by surprise and win. You could also see a sheen of yellow beginning to form in the center of his figure and you knew you only had seconds.

You stepped into the room, knowing there was no going back now and that Grace was watching every move from behind the dark glass. The yellow glow started to manifest and you took a quiet breath in. His eyes narrowed and he moved to face off with you, his right fist clenching harder.

You held up your free hand. “I’m not here to fight you. I’m here to break you out.”

He scoffed in disbelief. “You’re with the Reds, aren’t you? You Commie motherfuckers expect me to believe that again?” He roared with a rasp, the color of the light in his chest turning from yellow to a luminous gold with a pinkish haze.

You lifted your sword and placed it into the other waiting sheath on your back. At the action, Soldier Boy tensed further and took a step towards you.

You raised your other hand. “I’m not here to harm you.” He eyed you sharply, disbelief all over his face. “We’re not in Russia. We’re in the US, in upstate New York, at a black op CIA facility. You’ve been here for the past six months and I’m here to get you out.”

His expression didn’t change. “Why?”

“We can talk about it later. Right now, we—”

“Why?” The Supe yelled, fury lacing his tone, and the gold light got even brighter.

Gas suddenly began to flow into the room from vents in the ceiling and another loud alarm sounded, one you hadn’t heard yet. Shit. Grace was getting ready to lock it down. You’d had your shot and it hadn’t worked. You literally had one minute to get the hell out of there. But you were nothing if not stubborn and determined to see this through.

You pulled the gas mask from underneath your thin coat and held it up for him to see. You tossed it over at him and he caught it just like you hoped he would. His eyes snapped up at you, distrust and anger still clearly in his green gaze. You really couldn’t blame him but right now, you didn’t have the time.

“Like I said, I’m here to help. We don’t have time for me to explain right now. So unless you want to go back on ice…” You nodded your head towards the billowing gas making its way rapidly down to him. He glanced back in the direction you indicated and he cursed, quickly slipping the mask on. You noticed the light in his chest didn’t get any brighter but that didn’t mean he wasn’t locked and loaded, able to go off at any moment.

He met your eyes again and you inclined your head back towards the doors that were just beginning to close. “I suggest you come with me,” you threw at him and then spun on your heel, making your way out of the room. You walked a few feet and stopped, glancing back over your shoulder, hoping like hell he would follow you.

Right before the doors could close the last few feet, Soldier Boy slipped past them and came to a stop in front of you. He yanked the gas mask off but held onto it, breathing deeply of the clean air. You had made it out of the room, gotten him out of it — you’d survived the first phase of the plan and now you just needed to get through the next.

His eyes roamed over the remnants of the scene you both were standing in, seeing the bodies and blood everywhere, and landed on the mask in his hand. His gaze snapped up to you and his expression hardened, his tone dark and dangerous. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because,” you took a step towards him, staring into his eyes, pretending not to notice him tense in preparation for a fight. “I need your help.”

He huffed out a chuckle that was lacking any amusement. “Always a fucking catch. What do you want?”

You took another step towards him and you observed his jaw tightening. “We can talk about it later but right now, we really need to keep m—”

“What do you want?” He repeated.

“I need your help to take someone out.”

“Based on your handiwork,” He gestured to the scene around you with a hand. “I’d say you don’t need any help there, doll.”

Your own jaw clenched. “It’s a Supe.”

His eyes flashed and you knew that he was now aware of just who you were talking about. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together, you knew that. There was only one Supe in existence that Soldier Boy had been made to go up against before; the only one that had been as strong as him and he had been evenly matched with; the only one that he would be woken out of a Novichok coma like King Kong and sent to go fight Godzilla. “Homelander,” he spoke through gritted teeth.

You gave a nod of confirmation.

He watched you for a moment and then scrubbed a hand at his jaw. “Why the fuck would I help you?”

You lifted your chin. “He’s always been a problem but he’s only gotten more dangerous and more unstable since you were put under.”

“Not my problem.”

You crossed your arms, narrowing your eyes but trying to keep the rage boiling within you in check. “Actually, it is your problem. He wouldn’t even exist if you hadn’t given Vogelbaum a sample of your DNA to work with.”

He approached you quickly, the fury radiating off of him and the rose gold pulsing in his chest. You stood your ground. “I didn’t know that Vought would make a fucking kid with it!” He roared.

You wanted to ask just what he thought the mad doctor would do with his sperm but you kept that thought to yourself, knowing this wasn’t the time. You never broke eye contact and you watched as he panted harshly, his hands in fists again, the gas mask dangling from one. You remained quiet, waiting to see what would transpire. One wrong move here and you’d be toast, gone before you could even begin the most important mission of your life. One you were determined to see through no matter the cost.

Seeing that you weren’t going to respond or react in any way, the gold light dimmed slightly and his hands slowly relaxed. “I didn’t ask for them to betray me and hand me over to the Reds where I was tortured every goddamn day for years. I didn’t ask for them to whip up some wannabe replacement behind my back. I didn’t ask to be forgotten,” he hissed.

You were a little surprised when you noticed the hurt and betrayal shadowing his gaze, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. You watched as he turned to glance behind him, presumably to glare back at the room he’d been held in. But you knew he was also attempting to mask the tiny piece of vulnerability that had unexpectedly come through. You’d seen the videos of the torture he’d endured back in Russia, read his file back to back, sat through his crappy films, and you’d been fully briefed by Grace, Butcher, and the rest of the team who had exclusive dealings with him the first time he’d returned to the States six months ago. You’d also delved deep into Payback’s history and studied up on each and every one of its members. You knew about his PTSD, how he tended to self-medicate with booze, drugs, and women though he was in denial about having the disorder. You also knew that while some of his toxic beliefs and archaic attitudes were still in place, he was not entirely the same person he’d been before he was strapped to a table and Russian scientists proceeded to check off a list of several hundred different ways to try to kill him. The cocky swagger that had come so naturally to him before that was no longer the real deal. If anything, he overcompensated to try to make people believe he was the same Supe he’d been and just as dangerous as ever, with the added bonus of a nuclear threat sitting inside his chest.

“Maybe not,” you agreed quietly. He turned back towards you. “I can make it worth your while.”

A sly smile began to form on his face as his gaze roved over you. “Appreciate the offer, sweetheart, but you’re not my type. I like ‘em a little older. Although, I will say the swords and the blood, you walking in there like some goddamn avenging angel…kinda hot.”

You fought not to roll your eyes. “That’s not what I was talking about.”

“Well then, unless you’ve got some fucktastic pussy waiting for me to wreck it along with some Bennies and grade A reefer, we’ve got nothing to talk about.” He lifted the mask up in a gesture of thanks and turned to slip down the hallway past you.

Watching him step barefoot in the blood, you waited until he had made it a few feet before saying, “Your freedom.”

He froze at that, turning his head slightly to the side, listening.

You walked up to him, only stopping a foot or so away. “You help me with Homelander, and you get your freedom. No more Vought, no more government, no more pulling of your strings. You’ll be free.”

He slowly turned to face you, his expression hardened though you didn’t miss the tiny glimmer of hope carefully hidden away in his gaze. “Bullshit. You don’t have that kind of pull no matter how you found me and got me out.”

“You’re right, I don’t. Grace Mallory does.”

“Who the fuck is Grace Mallory?”

You took a step closer, noting how this time he didn’t tense in preparation. In his mind, he had already dismissed you as someone he needed to worry about. While that was a good development for your plan, it irked you a little. You may not be Homelander, but you were certainly no weakling. And with this guy, guaranteed he automatically dismissed you as a threat because he saw you as weaker than him, and also because you were a woman. “Someone who does have that kind of pull.” You took yet another step towards him, confirming your theory when he only glared down at you. “You should know, you’ve met her before.”

At his knitted brow, you supplied, “Nicaragua, 1984.”

You watched as he searched through his memories, realization dawning on his features when he found the right one, his brows arching in slight surprise. “Captain Lesbo?”

You gave him a scowl that would have made a lesser man curl up in a ball. Grace and Hughie had warned you about his outdated and toxic takes on the world around him.

That sly smile was back on his face. “She was gorgeous back then. I bet she’s aged like a real fine wine by now.” His tongue ran along his bottom lip and you felt queasy at his obvious lustful thoughts of the older woman. Right. Butcher and Hughie had given you a heads up on that, too.

Before he could get too lost in that fantasy, you made sure to interrupt with “She’s got the pull. So, are you in?”

He eyed you sharply, thinking over the offer. You also knew that he was thinking over how to secure the freedom you had dangled in front of him without having to deal with you or Grace. The sound of approaching security had you both snapping your gazes towards the noise. This was a group you couldn’t dispatch as easily as you had the first considering they were the real deal. Well, you could but you wouldn’t. You snuck a glance at his chest, seeing the gold beginning to shimmer underneath his skin once more. You had to get him out of here before the guards showed up.

He glanced back at you. “What do you get out of this?”

“I told you. Homelander dead.”

“No,” he ground out, taking a step towards you, his eyes burning into you and the light in his chest shining a golden halo on your face from his close proximity. This time, you were the one tensing, preparing to defend yourself. “What do you get?”

“My freedom as well,” you informed him, never breaking eye contact or stepping away. You were telling him the truth. Once the strongest Supe on the planet was no more, you would be free, in a way. He didn’t need to know how, though.

His eyes roved over you and he let out a disgusted huff. “You’re a Supe.”

You didn’t respond; you didn’t need to. “So, do we have a deal?” You both could hear the men getting closer. “Tick tock,” you reminded him.

The anger never faded from his expression but the light in his chest began to grow a little brighter. “How about I blow this place to hell instead and you come with me? I could do with a little entertainment after being locked away in this shithole.” He let his gaze roam over you appreciatively and you could see just what kind of entertainment he had in mind.

You squared your jaw, not at all in the mood for his womanizing machismo bullshit. “If you blow this place up, the deal is off the table. Mallory won’t stand for it and considering my freedom is on the line, neither will I. I don’t need a bunch of CIA crawling up my ass while I go after Soldier Boy Junior. As for entertainment, now’s a good time for you to get reacquainted with your right hand because there’s no way you’re getting any of that from me,” you snarled. “So either take the deal or I leave you to be hunted down by every single agency and military across the globe once word gets out that you’re still alive. And it will get out.”

You both continued glaring at one another but he didn’t say a word. The men were getting closer.

“Best of luck with that,” you snapped, and turned to slip past him, intent on leaving him behind. Your anger wasn’t feigned; you were pissed. You knew he would be stubborn, mistrustful even, given what he’d been through, but this was just beyond irritating. You didn’t have time to stop and hammer out details; you were now on the run for Christ’s sake.

You headed in the opposite direction of the guards, pulling one of your swords, readying yourself for the sprint to the exit you’d planned for. Grace must be pissing her pants right about now; she’d given you both plenty of time to get out of the building. And if she was pissing her pants, you knew Butcher and his team were crapping theirs. Soldier Boy was awake and now it was up to Grace and the CIA to put him back under, your plan a complete failure. It wasn’t your fault that the Supe was indeed the most idiotic one as Grace had stated him to be. You’d given it your best shot.

You surged forward, planning to keep casualties as low as possible should you come across anyone. A hand gripped your shoulder, hard, and turned you to face one very pissed off Soldier Boy. You got ready to start the battle of your life, knowing you were most likely going to lose, but you stopped when you noticed his chest was no longer glowing.

“You got a way out of here?”

You arched a brow up at him. “You’re taking the deal?”

He snorted and released you, his eyes flicking back towards the opposite end of the hallway you were in before returning to you. “You get us out of here, get me some food and the shit I ask for, and we’ll talk.”

“No deal, no dice.”

You went to move past him when he stopped you again, his hand gripping your upper arm. You could feel the superior strength behind it; if he wanted to, he could snap your arm like a twig, exerting very little pressure. But thankfully, he seemed more focused on getting you to listen to him rather than harming you. “You want me to help you kill Homelander?” At your nod, he let out an angry breath. “Done. I would have hunted down that sniveling pussy on my own, anyway. But after you give me what I just asked for. And then I get my freedom,” he dictated.

“We both do,” you tacked on, still shocked that you had managed to get him to agree.

His eyes roamed over your face and then he gave you a nod, letting you go. “So which way to the fucking exit?”

Just then, the guards broke through the door and spilled out into the hallway, spotting you and shouting at one another to take you both down. Soldier Boy turned a ferocious glare on them and began to step around you to take them on when you grabbed his bicep. The action prompted him to glance down at your hand, his gaze then lifting to yours. “This way,” you urged, and began to run. Thankfully, he fell in step right behind you. Bullets were suddenly being fired in your direction and you had to practically fly out of there. Those bullets might ricochet off Soldier Boy but they wouldn’t bounce so easily off of you.

As you were passing a small vehicle that you’d seen security guards traversing in on your last visit, he picked it up and launched it at the guards pursuing you. You heard the sickening sounds of machinery crunching flesh and you could only hope no one had died or had life threatening injuries. Instead, all you could manage to do now was to distract the Supe and get him out of there.

“Through here,” you called back to him. Relief pooled in your chest when you glanced back to find his attention on you. He hurried over towards you and you punched in the code Grace had given you to memorize. The door opened and you ducked as you pushed past it, hearing the sounds of more bullets flying your way. Soldier Boy was right behind you and you hit the button to close the door. Once it was shut you used your strength to punch the control panel and destroy it so the guards couldn’t follow.

You turned to find Soldier Boy’s brows arched at you in surprise before a leering smirk appeared on his face. “Well, that answers that.”

You let out a quiet scoff and slipped your sword back into the empty sheath on your back. “Like I said, that’s not happening.”

“A shame,” he practically purred at you, amusement clear as day in his eyes alongside a fire you hadn’t seen there before. It became quickly apparent just what that fire was. The image of you both tangled up in one another, the blood still on your skin, and him slamming into you up against the walls of the hallway you were now in made the queasiness from earlier reappear. It got even worse when the image transformed into one of you emerging into the room he’d been held in and him taking you right on the gurney he’d been laid out on, neither of you caring who showed up, who watched, or who ended up dying when he was finished. The queasiness had become full blown nausea at this point, and you forced it back down. You had a job to do after all.

You ignored his eyes roaming over your body and lifted your chin. “Time to go.”

You marched past him and continued on the route you and Grace had planned. Thankfully, he followed and the images began to peter out the closer you got to the outside. You were beyond grateful for that; you could only see his face contorted in pleasure as he rutted into you so many times before you would actually throw up. Not for the first time since you’d been turned, you cursed this gift you had been given.

“I take it Captain Lesbo gave you the code back there?” He asked.

“Who do you think told me where to find you?” You countered.

You led the way through another tunnel until you came to a heavy door that supposedly led to the parking lot outside. You yanked out both swords, pulled your hood up, and flicked your gaze over to the Supe. “Ready?”

You watched as his hands clenched into fists once more. “Lead the way.”

You tested the door. It swung open and suddenly both of you were engulfed in the bright light of the sun. You scanned the parking lot when you noticed the office supplies van parked about three hundred feet away, right where Grace said it would be. “It’s a short run but we’ve got to make it fast. She’ll only be able to get us a blind spot from the cameras for a few minutes. We’re headed for that van over there.” You gestured in the vehicle’s direction. “So when I say go, we run like hell.”

The man gave you a curt nod and held a hand over his eyes, looking over the lot as well.

You waited, tensed and prepared for a fight, hoping it wouldn’t be a long one. Grace should have eyes on you by now and Team B should be ready to engage you the moment you both stepped out further. You really wished you had an earpiece for this part but due to Soldier Boy’s extra sharp hearing, it had been decided across the board that it was too much to risk. You would just have to keep trusting in the timing of the plan you had come up with. You could hear the rumbling of a motor coming closer, picking up speed and gaining momentum. You held up a hand near the Supe and began to manually count down from 5.

A box truck was about to pass by as you got to 2, signaling to you that Phase 3 was a go, when suddenly everything went to hell. Soldier Boy stepped out in front of the vehicle, unflinching as it made impact with his body. To your absolute amazement, you silently watched as his feet stayed stationary and the truck began to wrap itself around the Supe, the object needing to go somewhere, and split right down the middle. You could hear the loud screeching of the metal and the terrified yell of the driver before it was abruptly cut off. Your brain barely had time to process what you were seeing when Soldier Boy picked up one half of the sliced truck and launched it in the air as if it were a football. It was aimed at a location where you knew reinforcements were waiting to rush out and engage you from. You heard the tell-tale screams and ensuing splat. Mallory was going to be pissed.

The Supe then turned a glower back onto you. “No need to run now.” You could see that though he had been attracted to you a few minutes ago, had mostly agreed to your deal, and you had broken him out, he still didn’t trust you completely. You could understand that, respect it even. But you couldn’t have him going off script like this if your plan was to succeed. And the plan could not fail. Something you would make clear to him once you were both far away from here.

Truthfully, you should have anticipated something like this. Soldier Boy was volatile, unpredictable at best, but once you had gotten him to switch off the nuke in his chest, you had naively thought you could get him out with a low body count. That certainly wasn’t the case now. You were grateful that you were already mid-op because you knew if you weren’t, Mallory would have immediately shut you down. No way in hell was that happening.

That last thought spurred you into action. You nodded and sheathed both of your swords, heading towards the van. A strong hand on your shoulder stopped you.

“Choose something else,” he ordered.

You shot him an irritated glare. “That’s the vehicle they have set up for us. Which means there’s keys, gas — the works.”

“It also means they can track us.” You were slightly surprised but you kept it off of your features. “Butcher and his cumguzzler thought I wasn’t listening to their bitchfests when they were tracking down my old team for me.” His eyes snapped to yours. “I was.”

Of course he had been. You could see now that this was something everyone had missed when dealing with him in the past, his most recent foray into the modern world included. Butcher and his team had been so focused on the danger the Supe presented and his lethality, that they hadn’t realized just how closely he had been listening and watching. Several examples of this behavior flickered through his mind quickly and you saw every single one which had always turned things to his advantage while turning badly (sometimes deadly) for others. Butcher and Hughie had easily dismissed him as a fossil who didn’t know what a smartphone was. Even Mallory had said he was the most idiotic of all the Supes to ever exist. And he had let them. He let them think he was the Soldier Boy they had seen on their TV screens once upon a time, in old newspaper clippings, and what had been jotted down in his file over the years he had been active with Vought: the public persona and the demanding celebrity personality behind all of that. But this Soldier Boy…this one was far more clever, calculating, and you knew then that this was where the real danger resided. A quick flash of a woman you recognized as Crimson Countess bound to a chair in a double wide followed by an explosion and another image of her charred corpse afterwards confirmed your suspicions.

Right now, any other person having realized what you just did, they might have turned back. Or they would get him to the next location and bow out, let Butcher and Mallory handle it from there on out. But you weren’t that person and you were fully in this. You had started this and you were committed to see it all the way through. And see it through you would, come hell or high water or murderous Supes. There was no other option; there never had been from the moment you woke up with a foreign chemical running through your veins, enhanced abilities, and fine-tuned senses. What you just discovered about the Supe currently glaring you down could only help the plan in the long run while also ensuring you were even more careful than you already planned to be.

You turned to face him fully and stared into his eyes. “Understood.” You wanted him to know that you knew, even if he didn’t know how yet, and that despite that, you were still sticking to the plan which included him.

He studied you for a moment and you could see that while he was still unsure about you, he was deciding to trust you…for now. He released your shoulder and slightly relaxed his stance.

“Any ideas?” Since he had changed this part of the plan, you figured he could offer up an alternative.

“Don’t care as long as it runs.” He glanced towards the lot filled with other heavy duty vehicles.

“Agreed. But we still need to move. We don’t have long before the cameras turn back on.” You immediately made your way towards a dark blue SUV sitting parked near a curb. You had a feeling this may have belonged to some of the agents he had just killed, but it only meant three things to you: keys, gas, and a working car that could handle the speed and damage you would need to get out of here. You tried the back door, finding it unlocked, and you immediately knew you had been right. No one was coming to reclaim this vehicle, not for a while anyway.

You quickly removed the scabbard from your back and slipped it into the backseat before jumping behind the wheel. Soldier Boy hopped in next to you, watching you as you turned the engine over. You didn’t bother mentioning that once Mallory and Butcher figured out you were in this vehicle, they could track it as well; that would only be counterproductive to the plan and make him more suspicious of you.

You pulled away from the curb and sped out of the lot. When you got near the security booth, a platoon of armed guards tried to flag you down. This was one of the reasons why the office supplies van had been selected. You could have removed your gear and passed yourself off as a delivery driver; Mallory had already greenlit that part of the plan. This…well, you would need to improvise.

You glanced over at Soldier Boy who was scowling in their direction. “Hang on,” you warned. Not that he needed to; he’d already proven that nothing could damage or even dent that super strong body of his. You, on the other hand, had to duck down as you pressed the gas pedal to the floor, gunning it. Bullets began flying towards your car but you didn’t let up, not even when you presumably hit a couple of the guards in your bid to escape. You felt Soldier Boy’s hand roughly push you down further in your seat and his other hand land next to yours on the wheel. A few more sickening thuds, pings from bullets, and wet crunches when the car jumped up slightly as your wheels mowed over those who hadn’t moved, and then you were scot free.

“We’re clear,” Soldier Boy gruffed out next to you, releasing you and moving back into his seat.

You lifted up and glanced in your sideview mirror, seeing the destruction you had just caused getting further and further away. You tried to feel remorse about it, you really did, but that emotion — any emotion — was the gateway to weakness and you couldn’t afford that. Especially not now.

“You injured?”

You weren’t but you slid your hood back and automatically glanced down at yourself to double check. “Nope. You?”

You looked up at him and as expected, his bare muscular chest was smooth, free of any injuries. His arms and face contained barely a shadow of a bruise, never mind an actual wound. He noticed your perusal of him and his lips twisted into a cocky smirk. An image of him railing you in the backseat had you turning back to the road, trying to mask your disgust.

“I’m good, doll,” he assured you. “Real good. Fucking horny as shit, though. It’s been a while. Think you can find us a place to pull over and let me fuck you quick?”

This was going to be a long ride. “Seems to me your right hand is free.”

Instead of being annoyed at your answer, he only smirked wider. “Is that your way of telling me you’d like me to start us off by jerking it while you look for a place?”

“No,” You met his gaze head on. “That’s my way of telling you not to let your wrist cramp up on this mission because you’re going to be jerking it quite a bit.”

He seemed completely unbothered by your words. “You want to see my dick?”

You scoffed in disgust and focused back on the road.

“I’m fully hard right now and let me tell you, it is a fucking sight to behold. Extra strength wasn’t the only thing the V gave me.” His teeth dug into his bottom lip as he continued trying to convince you. “Women love my dick. There isn’t a woman I’ve fucked that has ever walked right again.”

“Wow,” you quipped. “Quite the selling point.”

He ignored your snarkiness. “You see it for yourself, dollface, and I guarantee you’ll be changing your mind. All I’ve gotta do is pull it out, right here, right now, and you’ll be begging for me to slip it inside you.”

You had noticed the bugle in his sweats out of the corner of your eye before you turned away just before; you knew he was telling you the truth. He was horny, hard, and literally about to whip it out. Not unless you shut him down hard. You may not be able to keep him from pleasuring himself right there next to you, but at least he would know there was no way in hell you were going anywhere near his supposedly legendary manhood. You wished you could tell that he was lying but you could only see images of women worshiping him and his body as he thought back over his vast amount of conquests. When you saw his hand reaching into his sweats from your peripherals, you decided the time to make your firm boundaries on this subject known was now.

“I’m never having sex with you so don’t even bother. I’m here to do a job and that job isn’t you, as much as you might like it to be. When we get to the motel, if you want to find an old lady willing to help you with your problem, fine by me. But this,” you gestured between the two of you. “Is never happening.”

He snickered next to you. “You say that now but I’m telling you, doll, one peek at my dick might change your mind. Or when you hear how fucking good I’m giving it to some other gal.” He turned another filthy smile on you. “But just know that when I’m wrecking that pussy, I’ll be thinking of you and how good I know you’d feel squeezing around me.”

The images of you in the throes of pleasure returned and you tensed, your jaw tightening, but you forced yourself to think only of the plan. “What every girl hopes to hear,” you muttered. You glanced in the rearview mirror and very far back, you noticed Butcher’s vehicle following you. You weren’t surprised; Mallory had never really turned the cameras off and it’s not like you hadn’t left a big blinking neon sign back there to get her attention on where you had exited the compound.

Soldier Boy’s hand rubbed over the bulge in his pants a few times before he chuckled under his breath and went to look out his window. “So, you know who I am, you know my name… I don’t know yours. Why don’t you tell me?”

You clenched your fingers on the wheel and held your breath, focusing your vision on the rearview.

A moment later, Soldier Boy turned to look at you, smirking. You subtly let out your breath and relaxed your grip on the wheel, placing your eyes back on the road. “I bet it’s a real pretty one. Come on, tell me.”

You could hear him dialing up the flirtation, switching from being direct to now trying to charm you. “Name’s Persephone.”

“Persephone? That is pretty but it sounds like a Supe name.”

You briefly glanced over at him. “It is.”

He seemed to think it over, nodding after a moment in approval. “What’s your real name?”

“Nope.” You shook your head.

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

You met his eyes once more. “Because you haven’t earned that yet.” You waited another moment before finally breaking away from his intense gaze.

You could see as he took you in, how his eyes roamed over you hungrily, and you knew the moment he decided to accept the challenge he was determined that you presented. Another chuckle escaped him and he looked out his window again. “Alright, doll. We’ll play it your way, for now. Besides, it’s really my name that matters in this situation here.”

Your brows began to furrow and you did your best to get a read on him. What was he talking about? “How so?”

You watched as he turned to look at you and you could feel the rush of desire that immediately ran through him as images of you screaming, begging, and moaning “Ben! Oh my god, Ben! Ben, don’t ever stop fucking me, please! Fuck, Ben! Fucking give it to me! Oh fuck, right there!” floated to the forefront of his mind. You knew what his words would be before he even said them. “Because you’ll be screaming it before long.”

The nausea from earlier was back but you tamped it down and waited until he turned away from you again. Your eyes flickered to the rearview mirror and relief consumed you when you noticed Butcher’s vehicle was no longer anywhere to be seen. Not only had you successfully distracted the Supe but the moment Soldier Boy became interested in the topic of you, Phase 4 of the overall plan began. Now you only had to get him to the motel, get him rested and recharged, and then your work could truly begin. Leading you all down the path to the only thing that mattered: the eradication of Vought, and the end of Homelander once and for all.

A/N: Please let me know what you think. 👉👈

#soldier boy x reader #soldier boy x female reader #soldier boy x you #soldier boy x y/n #soldier boy #soldier boy fanfiction #the boys fandom #call my name chapter 1 #call my name

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