#so it’s better to tell mama that ‘I’m going to hook up with someone near midnight I’ll see y’all in the morning’ is a much better and more | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

adelheidvonschicksal · 3 years

Note

Gosh, the Hawks x intern! Reader sure made me tear up :(

Like imagine him regretting not being there for her and his baby girl from the start and trying to make up for it now 😭😭💖

I was going to imagine this, but I couldn't because I ended up writing 3000 words. 😭 I just love fictional babies so much and want them to be happy, okay? I left it open-ended, so I wouldn't betray the "kick his ass" gang. I'm a weak woman 🥺 I still don't know much about him other than what Wikipedia and memes tell me but here we go!

Part One | Part Two

Hawks doesn’t think you’ll ever let him in, not that he could blame you. Every time you see him, your expression hardens, pretty eyes narrow into a glare, nostrils flare, breathing heavy. His only bright light during your last exchange is that you wait three seconds before slamming the door in his face rather than the usual zero.

Oh, he’s definitely softening you up. Not.

It’s been a month now that he’s been at this, and he is starting to wonder if this entire thing is worth the headache. All he’s accomplished so far is bothering you with his requests to talk. Then, he remembers the little angel that you have with you and thinks it’s worth the headache.

At first, he had ignored your previous exchange that day at the park and the nagging feeling in the corner of his mind upon seeing the two of you. Until that same feeling started to weigh on his heart. He quickly realizes what those feelings were. Guilt and regret at not taking another path with the high schooler he so carelessly took advantage of and impregnated.

If he had, he could be annoying Endeavor about his cute little wife right about now.

Hawks feels a bit like Icarus flying too close to the sun and now sinking in a turbulent ocean of his own making. Instead of drowning, the world decides to throw him a lifeline as the receptionist patches a call through to him.

His heart jumps when he hears you on the other side, resistant but succumbed in your plea, “I need your help.”

The very next day you arrive at the agency, a small hand latched in your own as you stand in the middle of his office. You didn’t want to be here. The thought of being in the same place where your daughter was conceived with the same man who left you makes you antsy. You can’t believe you actually let Fumikage talk you into this.

You remember that phone conversation.

Your daughter’s quirk had been coming in full force, so fast you didn’t know how to handle it. You hoped that Tokoyami would have been able to help her control it since he trained with the very person she received her quirk from much longer than you had and that he was part avian himself.

“Please, Fumi. It’s getting worse,” you begged over the phone. “She accidentally hurt a few of the kids at school. No. No. They’re fine, some cuts and a little shook up, but fine. They won’t let her back in until she gets it under control though, so please.”

“I told you there’s not much else I can do. The best solution would be to go to the person with the same quirk.”

He’s right. He’s absolutely right, but you don’t want to rely on someone like that man especially now. What if he ended up hurting her?

“I don’t want to do that.”

“I know you don’t, but he’s been trying to contact you, right? So I'm sure he'd do it if you asked.”

“Yeah…” You growled. “I swear if he makes one smart-ass remark, I might kill him in front of her.”

“Remember it’s not for you. Although, I don’t think you could kill him even if you tried.”

“If we combined our strength…”

“No,” Tokoyami immediately shot down.

You sighed. “I’m only joking. Do you have the number to the agency still?”

Now you’re here, watching the very man who abandoned you kneel down to your daughter’s eye level. Hawks couldn’t believe he’s actually seeing her. It’s a bit exciting to see how much bigger she’s gotten in such a short time with big fat wings at her back holding way more feathers than she can probably deal with.

“So, this is the special girl,” he says. She shies away from him, hiding behind your leg for protection. “Come on out, Baby Bird, you don’t have to be scared of me.”

Slowly, she peeks from behind you, fingers still clutched in your pants leg, and Hawks smiles.

“There you are. Did your mommy tell you who I am?”

“You’re her and uncle Toko’s old teacher, and you’re going to help me control my quirk.”

“That’s right. You just turned five, right? That’s when a lot of quirks can get kind of hectic.”

“Yeah. I had a birthday party with Elsa last month.”

Hawks’ smile falters for a second as he thinks he doesn’t know exactly what day her birthday is. At least now he knows the month. Quickly, he’s back to normal to keep an air of happiness in the situation. “You know I know a lady that looks a bit like Elsa. She has ice powers like her too,” Hawks says, having grown a little closer to the number one hero's family as he tried to figure out what to do about his own family situation.

When her eyes widen, Hawks knows he has her hook, line, and sinker. She throws her initial shyness to the wind in exchange for excitement. “She does? Can I meet her?”

“I’m sure we could make that happen. If not, her son has an ice quirk, too. I’m sure he’d show you.”

The young girl smiles at him, but Hawks notices her vision drifting to something else. Cautiously, her tiny hand stretches out to him, making him nervous as to what she’s doing, before chubby fingers clutch around the edge of his wing, squeezing into his feathers. “They’re pretty,” she mumbles.

“Want one?” he asks, and she nods.

“This is my birthday present for you, don’t lose it,” he says, offering her a single long feather from the back of his wings. She clutches it to her chest tightly, a happy smile plastered on her face.

Then, you interrupt.

“Baby, mama has to run some errands, but she’ll come right back to pick you up when the clock says twelve. You remember how that looks like, right?”

“It’s a 1 and a 2,” she says, bringing up her hands to show you.

Hawks decides to walk you out as your daughter sits in his office chair, twirling around his feather in her hand. He isn’t sure what to say to you now that he has you near him. Should he thank you for bringing her? Or would that only serve to piss you off since it’s not like you wanted to do this by choice?

“Hawks,” you say, bringing him out his thoughts. “There’s one more thing before I go.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t tell her,” you order. “Don’t you dare tell her.”

His chest squeezes at that but he can understand why you wouldn’t want her to know that information when the two of you aren’t even on speaking terms outside this issue. He didn’t want to do anything to make the situation worse either, so he brings his fingers to his mouth and zips his pinched thumb and index finger across his lips. “I’ll make sure mine and anyone else’s lips are sealed if they want to keep their job,” he calmly reassures you, always calm and carefree so you wouldn’t think that your rejection is successfully deterring him.

From then on, you drop your daughter off at his office twice a week to get a better handle on her powers. You didn’t stay long aside from that, but Hawks likes the small moments when all three of you are in the same room together.

The hero can be thankful that at least one of his girls likes him. His Baby Bird quickly attached herself to him, always pattering after his footsteps like a shadow, and always asking if he’d hold her hand, a smile forming whenever he engulfed her smaller one. He even keeps his promise to let her see Rei, or Elsa as Baby Bird so passionately refers to her, now that the woman is out of the hospital.

He thinks that if that family can recover from what happened then his shouldn’t be much different as long as he keeps trying to put in the effort and not step on your toes too much.

It isn’t long before Baby Bird begins to get a hang of her powers. At least enough that she wouldn’t be hurting anyone at school. Hawks had hoped you would still allow him to train her past that point though, but you quickly told him that she wouldn’t be returning to the agency when she reached that point.

He was sad to hear it of course, but he didn’t want to cause what little progress he made to be broken even if he really wanted to see her fly at least a few inches before she left. She’s been getting into the habit of jumping instead of walking to practice like he used to do. Although, she resembles more of a bouncy frog than a bird, to be honest.

He watches, amused, as she bounces along next to him in the hallway.

“You’ve gotten good at that,” he compliments, drawing her attention upwards.

“I’ve been practicing lots at home, but I’m not that good yet. Will you teach me how to fly like you do tomorrow?” she asks.

“No, Baby Bird. Didn’t your mommy tell you that we’re done with training after today?”

She hangs her head down, her bouncing stopping as she drags her feet. “…Yes,” she answers, letting his arm go lax as she releases his hand. Hawks pauses, watching as she draws her hands to her waist and anxiously bunches and twists the bottom of her shirt, and Hawks throat goes dry as she asks with glossy eyes, “Daddy, why doesn’t mommy like you?”

He’s completely silent, wondering exactly when she figured it out or if someone in the office had told her, let alone told her the fact that you didn’t like him. Well, he guesses it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. “How do you know to call me that?"

“Yesterday, my teacher told us that we inhe-inhe-inherent our quirk from our parents. I remember you said Elsa and her son had the same quirk, and you have big wings like mine and can make your feathers move.”

Hawks smiles. She’s a sharp one to piece it together in a day. “Your teacher is right. I bet you’ve never seen anyone else that looks quite like us.”

“No,” she answers, sniffling. “I don’t want to go home. I want to stay and play with you. Mommy is so mean to you. I hate her!”

Hawks cups her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Look at me. Don’t talk about your mommy like that. It’s my fault she always gets upset when I’m around. I was mean and bullied her a lot, so if you’re mad, be mad at me. I’m the reason we can’t play together more.”

She sniffs again but it isn’t enough to stop the globs of tears running down her cheeks. “When we saw you at the park, mommy started crying when we went home. I didn’t know why she did.”

Hawks knows why. The reason you’re always so angry at him is because of the hurt you still hold inside for what he did to you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have cried. The opposite of love is indifference as they say, and he knows it’s true because he had been indifferent to the pain he caused ever since the day you came to him with weepy eyes and shaking arms as you told him you were pregnant. You had been scared, and he told you to deal with it.

Hawks scowls. He’s starting to feel sick.

"If you make someone cry, you should say sorry."

Hawks smiles. “I know, baby. I'll apologize to your mama, and I’m going to try my best to make it up to her, and you, too. I’m not going to make either of you cry anymore. Then, when she forgives me, we’ll play together again.”

She looks to him, a small glimmer of hope. “You promise?”

Hawks chuckles and grins at her, the same charming expression that made you fall for him in the first place. He holds out his hand. “Even better. I pinky promise,” he says and confidently hooks her finger with his. “Repeat after me: birds of a feather stick together.”

“Birds of a feather stick together.”

“That’s my girl,” he praises before dropping her hand to pet her head. “I think we might have a little time for me to teach you something before your mommy gets here.”

At the end of the day, Hawks is already waiting for you at the front steps of the agency as your call pulls into parallel park at the sidewalk. You step out and walk towards the steps, but your daughter meets you halfway by hopping over them, her wings flapping to hover before she falls back down onto her feet.

You smile at her. You can’t believe she’s actually flying, at least a little that is, but your surprise is ruined when she cheers. “Mommy, look at what daddy taught me,” she says, bouncing to show you her new hovering skills. “Are you looking? Are you looking?”

“Yes, I’m looking. You’re so good at that. You need to show me more when we get home,” you say but to be honest it’s the last thing on your mind as you glance over to Hawks. “Baby, why don’t you go sit in the car, and I’ll be right there.”

Hawks watches as she obediently follows your instructions, turning her back and happily hopping towards the vehicle.

“(Name), I-” Hawks says, unsure what to expect when your angry glare turns back on him. It isn’t until his yellow visors are already clicking against the pavement that he realizes you hit him. He hisses at the sting on his cheek. “That actually kind of hurt. I guess I had it coming, but I’m not really sure what I did at least recently,” he tries to play off, but you aren’t having it.

“You told her, you told her,” you keep repeating, and he’s backing away in case you decide to strike him again. “Are you trying to get her on your side?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking, and I didn’t tell her,” Hawks explains. “She pieced it together on her own. She’s sharper than you think, she can see that we look alike when she looks in a mirror, and she knows how quirks work. That’s more than enough for her to tell.”

His explanation is enough for you to halt in your assault, and you angrily huff under your breath. You don’t shift to leave, and there’s no door for you to slam away. He finally has you available. “So, what do you want to do now?” he asks.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she knows; and honestly, I’m glad she does,” he confesses. “I wouldn’t mind seeing her again if you’d let me.”

Hawks swallows his anxiety as he waits for you to answer. Your eyes shift from him back to where she sits in your car, fiddling with the toys obviously left to clutter in the back before you look back at him, thinking.

“She does seem to like you…for some reason,” you add distastefully, but you know full well how happy training makes her. How her little smile beamed when she fluttered over those steps. How the word daddy came from her so sweetly. “She always likes talking about you after she spends the day here. You make her happy. But that’ll just make it harder for her when you leave ag-“

“I won’t,” he cuts off.

“How do I know that?”

“You don’t but I promise not again. (Name), I’m sorry. I’m sorry for telling you to go away like a burden and for not being there. You must’ve been scared, but I won’t leave either of you alone from now on even if you don’t want me there. I’ll be there if you need me.”

“Drop it. I’m not a part of this,” you tell him.

He knows that you’re rejecting his apology, but his ears can pick up what others can’t. He can hear those soft inflections in your voice right before you harden it into aggression, the slight stutter that you so cleverly thought you hid from him as you nearly fumbled your words, a little glimpse of a teenage girl with a crush on her sensei. “Not yet but do know I plan on trying until I make you fall for me all over again. I miss your cute little face when I'd smile at you.”

You glare. “Say that again, and I will smack you in your "cute little" face.”

"You already did that, but if it makes you feel better go ahead, I can take it if it helps you forgive me.”

He just didn’t expect you to actually take him up on the offer. This time, it’s the other cheek that burns.

“You’re right. That did make me feel better,” you say, smirking as you shake the sting from your hand. Hawks grunts, rubbing his jaw as you begin to walk towards your car. He bends down to pick up his shades before following close behind. You open the driver’s door, and say, “I expect you to pick her up at 9 tomorrow. If you’re late, don’t bother showing up ever again.”

Hawks smirks. You certainly became aggressive these past few years, but he thinks he kind of likes it. As you get in your car, he notices Baby Bird smiling at him from the window, her hand up and clutched around that birthday feather he gifted to her as she waves him off.

He’ll definitely be there on time.

#hawks x reader #takami keigo x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #hawks x y/n #bnha hawks

383 notes · View notes

writing-in-lesbian · 3 years

Text

You wanted to sleep with a goddess but instead had to settle for a priestess

Pairing: Yelena / F!Reader

Tags: angst, fluff, happy ending, mentions of alcohol

Rating: PG-15 (I guess?)

Word count: 2.5k

Translation: Pridurok = jerk

Disclaimer: all the Marvel characters mentioned don’t belong to me (if they did, Nat would be alive and Wanda would be hugged and in therapy!)

Synopsis: Inspired on an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S “You and Yelena have been dating for almost 3 years and you plan on proposing on your anniversary, but the universe has other plans and after a game of true or dare game you have to confess who you were actually looking to hook up the night you and Yelena did it.”

AN2: English is not my first language so I apologize in advance for any mistake. I’m also on AO3 as: writinginlesbian

~~~~~~~

The light coming through the windows is the first thing you notice, the warm sensation on your skin rousing you from your deep slumber. Groaning a little, you refuse to open your eyes, instead cuddling further into the cozy feel next to you. Now that sleeps is evasive, the second thing you notice is your bladder demanding you take a trip to the washroom.

Opening your eyes reluctantly, the third thing you notice is the mass of sand blond hair in front of you, tightening your hold on her you smile and hum contentedly, earning a little grunt from the body in front of you.

Chuckling, your lips place a kiss on her bare shoulder before you finally release her. Stretching your body, your neck and back crack a little making you moan softly at the relaxation.

“You better keep quiet y/l/n or I won’t be hold responsible if I keep you hostage in bed all day” a groggily raspy little voice informs you, her Russian accent thicker in the mornings.

Smiling and shaking your head, you get up from the bed and march to the in-suite bathroom, hearing Yelena mumble something similar to spoilsport before closing the door as quiet as possibly.

Yelena Belova. Your girlfriend.

A little angry ball on the outside but a total dorky cinnamon roll on the inside (although she would never admit this to anyone), came into your life like a hurricane. Her sarcastic side and dark humor was one of the things you noticed right away, followed by those musky green eyes, capable of grounding and keeping you in your toes with just one look. How you got her to agree to date you after hooking up one night, is still something you have troubles believing it but here you are, sharing an apartment with her, a dog named Fanny (which she got to name) and just a week away of your three year anniversary… the one where you plan on proposing.

You got the ring ready, specially custom made to your request, paid by Tony (as annoying he can be, he’s been more family to you than your blood family). He squealed (actually squealed) when you told him about your plan for proposing and insisted on being your “best man of honor”.

Finishing your business, you wash your hands and clean your face with cold water, staring at your reflection in the mirror and smiling at the sight of Yelena’s creams and her messy side compared to the organized one of yours. You can’t wait for Saturday to get here soon enough.

The sound of the alarm from your cellphone can be heard through the door, followed by a thud and then silence. You forgot to change it last night, so of course it ringed at 7am disturbing the dreams of the beauty in your bed.

“You better not have broken my phone again Yelena” you try to be serious while walking back to the bed.

“So it’s more important a phone than my sleep time? Okey, I see how it is, pridurok” she says covered in blankets, but you know she’s pouting.

You get back to bed, picking up your phone quickly inspecting it placing it on the nightstand, kneeling in front of her and slowly you take the covers off her face. She’s looking at you with and unreadable expression and you can’t think how it’s so similar to the one her sister often gives you during training sessions.

“No, you’re more important to me love… but this would be the third phone screen you break and I doubt Tony would be happy about it” you said while bopping her nose with your finger.

Yelena looks at you and cracks a tiny smile. You kiss her forehead, standing up you try to leave but her hand at your wrist stops you. You turn to her… only to find her middle finger directed at you.

“Still that damned thing woke me up and you weren’t here, so it deserves the fall” You chuckle as you see Yelena rolls off and pretends going back to sleep.

You go downstairs and start preparing breakfast after turning on the coffee machine. You know Yelena needs a little bit of a kick to fully wake up. While you wait, you open the “just add water pancake mixture” opting to add half milk and half water with a little bit of melted butter for extra fluffiness. After getting the pancakes ready, you go to the fridge to pick some fruit before placing it at the counter to be chopped.

Hearing soft padded steps nearing the kitchen, you grab a plate and put some pancakes on it, grabbing some strawberries and quickly cutting them in four, adding it to the plate along with some blueberries. The coffee pot indicates it’s ready so you grab a blue mug and fill it with the exquisite elixir, snatching some clutter, you place everything except the cup on the table just as Yelena enters the room.

Without a word she grabs the cup form your hands inhaling it before taking a sip. A hum and nod of approval is all you receive before a peck on your lips. Smiling you gather a plate for yourself and proceed to seat with her at the table. You both make small talk while eating before she asks your plans for the day.

“I’m supposed to meet with your sister in about an hour and then lunch with Wands and Bucky. Might get to see Tony in the afternoon though, depending on how my cellphone is” you try to be serious but the smirk on your face gives you away.

“Your phone is fine pridurok, I checked it before coming downstairs”

“Okey, then I shall be back around 6ish. Wanna do something babes? Get advantage of the weekend and that?”

“Maybe”

Before you can propose a plan, Yelena’s phone sounds. She looks at the display before answering.

“Hey mama”

You wave at her and she catches your intention, passing your regards to Melina before leaving the room. You decided to send a quick text to Natasha before texting Tony telling him you’ll meet him quick before heading to your lunch date to pick up the ring.

Cleaning up the table and putting the rest of the pancakes and fruit back on the fridge, you leave the kitchen and find Yelena still talking on the living room. You finish getting ready as you don’t wanna be late with Nat. This might be the most important coffee date you have with her, you know, since you’ll be asking for her little sister hand in marriage, so you don’t want to risk it by making her angry by being late.

Of all of Yelena’s family, Nat is the one you worry must about. She’s so fierce and protective when it comes to her baby sister. Despite being reluctant at first, (she’s your BFF so she knows all your dating history) she approved of you once she saw how happy you made Yelena, not before giving you the scariest shovel talk anyone can give. Melina and Alexei both agreed immediately, both of them giving you a slightly (emphasis on slightly) less frightening talk of “you hurt my baby daughter I won’t hesitate to kill you” talk than Natasha’s. You tried to joke by saying that if you ever hurt Yelena, she would be the first one to chop your head off before them. It didn’t make them laugh.

Grabbing the keys, you check your cellphone to see Tony’s reply consisting of only a thumbs up emoji. Making your way to the living room, you wave in front of Yelena, giving her a quick peck on her lips before whispering a “see ya later babes. Love you” before leaving.

// // //

You can’t help being nervous. In all your life you never imagined thinking of getting married. You liked your space and time alone, you weren’t afraid of intimacy or commitment, but you never quite connected with your past partners in the level you connected with Yelena. Strange thing honestly, considering how you started dating: hooking up after Steve and Peggy’s wedding. You both tried to keep it casual and secret, not wanting to make a huge deal about it. And you were fine with it until one day when you were having lunch with all your friends at Natasha’s place, you saw Yelena and your breath caught in your throat and you knew, you just knew you were in love with her.

“What has you smiling like an idiot?” A raspy voice brings you back to the present.

Noticing just now, Natasha is seated in front of you cup of coffee in her hands. You must have spaced out more than you thought since there is a refilled cup where your last empty one was.

“Yelena” you said it without a doubt, a smile on your lips.

Natasha smiled amused by it. In all of the years she has known you, she never saw you this smitten and happy with someone. And honestly she was happy it was with her baby sister. You both were a cute couple, with their ups and downs, but were still going strong and you both took care of each other.

“So where did you left her? It’s weird to see you without her attached to your side”

“She’s at home. I know she wouldn’t like to be up and out this early being Saturday”

“You asked me for coffee this early on purpose”

It’s meant to be said as a joke but giving the current topic you want to talk with her you don’t laugh.

“I did actually. I wanted to talk with you about something”

Natasha sees the seriousness on your face. She stares you for a little bit before her curiosity gets the best of her.

“Okey”

Your leg stars bouncing and Nat takes notice of it. Your hands grab the cup in front of you to avoid drumming the table with your fingers, a habit you do when your nervous.

“It’s about Yelena”

Nat’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion. You were smiling a few minutes ago so it shouldn’t be nothing bad, right?

“What about her?” You can’t help to flinch a little bit with the hardness of her tone.

Your fingers drum a little on the cup, you open your mouth but no words came out. You sigh.

Nat is silently observing you, giving the benefit of the doubt and actually waiting for you to speak, but since is her little sister you wanted to talk about, she can’t help but get impatient.

You heard her huff in annoyance after what seems seconds but it has been a few minutes, you got lost in your mind again.

“Iwanttoaskforyourpermissiontomarryher” you say in one breath, taking half of your coffee in one gulp and not looking at her.

Natasha blinks in surprise, trying to decipher what you just said. Her mouth opens slightly once she process what you just dropped on her.

“You… you want to marry her. My little sister, Yelena… you want to marry her?”

Finally looking up you see Natasha is a little bit speechless. Something you haven’t seen in like never. You try to gauge her reaction but she’s a master in hiding her emotions, so you opt to answer her honestly any question she might have.

“Yeah, I do”

“Have you proposed to her though?” a fair question.

“No. I wanted to talk with you first”

“Why?”

“You’re her big sister, your blessing is important to me Tasha. I know that we both think that this tradition of asking for someone’s hand in marriage is an archaic thing and that and Yelena would probably get angry if she knew I did this, but you mean a lot to her, she adores you and respects you a lot. I know I could work around your parents but if you were to oppose, I don’t think Yelena would be as happy. Plus you’re my best friend Nat, I care about you”

Natasha stays silent thinking in what you just said. Basically, you gave her a lot of power here, if she were to say no, would you really not propose? She has seen you grow by Yelena’s side and has seen the same with her sister. She knows you never would hurt her.

“So if I would to say no?”

Your stomach hurts at hearing that. You drop your eyes to the table before answering.

“I might postpone proposing but I would still do it”

“You really love her”

“More than anything, I’m in love with her Tasha” the smile on your face and the brightness of your eyes give her all the answers to the questions she might have.

When she found out you were hooking up with Yelena she was so mad and furious with you, more so when you denied it when she confronted you about it. She was on her way to forbid you to see her sister when she caught you both asleep on the couch. Yelena had her head on your chest while you hold her securely in your arms. Both your faces were peaceful and happy.

“When are you planning on doing it?”

You looked up surprised.

“Saturday at-”

“Your dinner anniversary”

“Yeah… how-”

“It’s all I’ve been hearing Lena talk about for the last week, this big dinner plan you have for it and how you won’t tell her what it is, so she doesn’t know what to wear and is a ball of nerves, is kinda annoying actually”

You can’t help but blush at hearing that. You know the Romanoff-Belova sisters are reserved so the fact that Yelena has been gushing about your relationship to her sister has your stomach doing flops and your heart beating harder.

Natasha studies your face and can’t help but smile with you.

“Alright y/l/n, you have my blessing to marry my sister. Don’t fuck it up okey? It’s my baby sister I’m trusting you with”

You are speechless for a moment. You know deep down that she would say yes, but hearing it saying it it’s another thing. You stand up and grab her in a bone crushing hug.

“O…key… need… to breath…”

“Sorry, sorry… thank you Nat, really, you don’t know what it means to me, truly”

“So you have a ring picked yet?”

“Yes. Actually, I’m meeting Tony before lunch to pick it up, wanna come?”

“Of course, I need to make sure my baby sister gets the best of the best”

You laugh and throw the napkin at her, she catches easily but laughs with you. You’re not nervous anymore, at least for the moment.

Now, you only need to ask Yelena… easy right?

#yelena belova x female reader #yelena belova x reader #yelena belova x y/n #first work for this fandom #au #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #cross posted on ao3

83 notes · View notes

avengers-age-of-fanfics · 3 years

Text

just for you, honeybee (1/?)

pairing: bucky barnes x female!reader, steve rogers x reader (platonic!)

word count: 3,172

warnings: a few curse words, bucky being cute, steve being awkward but also a great friend

authors note: hello! this is my first ever post on this account and the first chapter to a new series! im not sure how many chapters this is going to be as i got inspiration to write it a few days ago but im hoping to keep up with it. also, once TFATWS ends, i intend to do a series based on that as well! anywho, i hope you enjoy this and please leave feedback/lmk what i can do to improve! thank u :)

summary: dating back to 1943, you, james barnes, and steve rogers were best friends, including bucky being your boyfriend. when you get a notice that bucky died in the war, you make it your mission to find closure for yourself and protect steve as he is the only remaining piece of bucky you have left. once you are offered the super soldier serum, you and steve must make your way through world war 2 - and the unknown future hardships to come.

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes laid across from you on your bed, eyes softly glancing over your features as your hand grazed over his cheek and jawline. You chuckled to yourself, “looking a bit scruffy, Buck.”

He hummed, eyes now fluttering closed at your touch, “thought you liked it, doll.”

With a quick kiss to his lips, you nodded, “oh I do, don’t worry – no reason not to, really.”

Bucky let out a soft laugh before he ran a hand over your cheek, “I gotta get goin’ soon, doll. ‘Uniforms at Becca’s.”

With a sigh, you rolled onto your back and stretched, “she’s a saint, you know, washing and steaming your uniform for you.”

Bucky nodded in agreement with you, “that I do know, honeybee. I’ll meet you at Stevie’s, yeah?”

As you got out of your shared bed, you looked back at Bucky, “of course! Gotta see you off before you go put your life on the line, no big deal.” Bucky quickly dropped the conversation immediately after, understanding how you're feeling.

You weren’t mad at Bucky for joining the army – you couldn’t be, it wasn’t his fault. He was drafted and you knew that if he could stay, he would; and you knew you were being slightly immature about him leaving. You just wanted more time with him. So many people you knew had received letters that their loved ones hadn’t come back, that they had died in battle. It wasn’t fair, but when was life perfectly balanced?

By the time you got changed and got yourself cleaned up, Bucky was straightening out his shirt before he turned towards you, eyes hesitant. You walked to him, buttoning up his final buttons before you ran your hands over his shirt, “I’ll see you soon, Buck, okay?”

Bucky ran his tongue over his lips, “I know, honeybee. Try to keep Steve out of trouble for the time being, okay?”

You laughed, “I’ll certainly try my best – now get outta here!” With a smack to his ass, Bucky gave you one last kiss before he headed out the door to see his sister, Rebecca. You had asked her to iron Bucky’s uniform before he got sent off to war, wanting him to look his best – but you were sure he would look handsome in anything.

Looking in the mirror, you straightened out your favorite belted Peter Pan collar dress, fit with a pair of white heels; only the best for your Buck. You had begged him multiple times to let you register to become a nurse, in the slight chance of being close to him, but he always responded with the same answer: “I want to make sure I have someone to come home to, doll.”

You’d never tell him, but your heart warmed every time he said that.

Doing one more look-over, you smiled to yourself, grabbing your purse as you headed out the door. Steve’s apartment was only a few blocks away from your own, and honestly, you wanted to spend more time with him before Bucky left. The two were inseparable, and you knew Steve was going to struggle with Bucky being gone – that, and the unknowing if he’ll come back.

With sharp and prideful steps, you made your way across the street, saying hello to familiar faces and grabbing a newspaper from Grover, a vendor along the streets of Brooklyn. He stopped you before you headed off, “heard your boy’s goin’ off to war, y/n. How ya doin’?”

With a soft chuckle, you glanced down at the newspapers in your hands – one for you, Steve, and Bucky while he was on the train. You looked back at Grover, “I could be better, if I’m being honest. But I know he’s doing a good thing, so my silly feelings shouldn’t hold him back, Grove.”

Grover grumbled with a roll of his eyes, “you and your selflessness, just like ya ma. I’m telling yous, y/n, that boy loves you to the moon and back. Ain’t nothing he wouldn’t do for ya; if you asked him to stay, he’d go and fake his death to make sure you two go runnin’ off into the sunset together.”

With a laugh, you pushed the tears back, “and I love him too, Grove – but I can’t ask him to just not go. That just isn’t how it is, you know?”

Grover nodded, “yeah, kid, I know. . .Now get lost, I got customers to deliver these too.”

You glanced down at the stack of newspapers, “I’m headed over to Steve’s, anyone near his you gotta drop them off to?”

The vendor let out a hum and rested his head in his palm, “hmm, I think just Richie and Betty Davis right next to Rogers’ place. They get two, you good carryin’ an extra bundle?”

You gave Grover a look as he held up his hands, “just as fierce as ya mama, too – and being Barnes’ girl, probably the wrong question to ask.”

With a laugh, you held out your stack of papers, “pile them on, Gro. I’ll see you later, alright?” The vendor nodded and shoo’ed you away as you continued your journey to Steve’s apartment. Once you arrived, you left two newspapers on his neighbor’s doorstep, knocking once as you crossed back over to Steve’s.

As the Davis’ door opened, you knocked on Steve’s, already hearing rustling inside. Betty was at her door, “y/n? That you, sweetheart?”

With a turn, you greeted Mrs. Davis with a smile, “hi Mrs. Davis, how are you? How are the kids?”

The woman smiled back, “’mm, they’re good – always askin’ when the next batch of those delicious brownies are coming!”

You laughed and noticed Steve had opened the door, small statute waiting until you were done talking with Betty, “I’ll drop them by the next time I get to bakin’, Mrs. Davis. I’ll see you!” You waved to her, as did Steve, as he stepped aside to let you in.

Steve looked at the newspapers, then back at you, “you look great, y/n. . . Looks like I’ll be tellin’ Buck to shut his mouth when he sees you.”

You chuckled, “’cus he’ll catch flies or the obscenities he’ll be sayin’?”

Steve let out a laugh, “both, definitely both.”

Now that you both were in the safehouse of his apartment, you finally got a good look at your little army-hopper. He spotted a new black eye and a small cut on his cheek, yet he still looked as if he could go again if he wanted to. You nodded towards him, “where’d you get into a scuffle at this time?”

He shifted his feet until he let out a sigh, “behind a theatre. They were showin’ commercials for the army and some guy just started saying stuff.”

With a bite of your cheek, you sat down on one of his chairs, “so you had to fight him?”

“Just gotta be one of the good guys in the neighborhood, y/n.”

“I know, Stevie.”

An hour had passed and, in the meantime, you and Steve enjoyed some tea and tried to complete your own crossword puzzles. A small conversation had taken place between the two of you, talking about plans once Bucky was off fighting the war. You had talked about Steve moving in with you, but he was always so stubborn, wanting to prove that he could live on his own. You never thought that he couldn’t, but it could be a money saver.

One more glance at the clock, you figured it would be almost time for Bucky to show up. And, just like that, a knock was heard from the door and you smiled, getting up to answer it as Steve stayed back, grumbling at the pieces of paper in his hands. Opening the door, you saw your James Buchanan Barnes standing tall and proud in his new uniform.

Bucky whistled, glancing over your outfit as you did the same to him, “you look gorgeous, honeybee – even though I told you to not dress up.”

He stepped inside the apartment as you crossed your arms, “I mean, Steve agrees that this is kind of a big deal, so I think a nice dress will suffice.”

Steve and Bucky clasped hands and Bucky nudged his shoulder, “thought you were supposed to be a good influence on my girl, Steve.”

The smaller man shrugged, “kind of is a big deal.”

Bucky shuffled his feet, “yeah, well, I don’t want it to be. Let’s just go to the future and then see me off, alright?” The three of you stood in silence, light tension hanging in the air. With a sigh, you grabbed your purse, “well, off we go! C’mon now, boys.”

Bucky, you, and Steve headed to New York World’s Fair, hooked arms leading towards Howard Stark’s Expo. With bright lights, fireworks, and amazing technology surrounding you, your eyes failed to see Bucky staring at you with so much adoration. He never wanted to leave you – he’d stay if he could – but he had been drafted. All he wanted to do was stay in Brooklyn with you and Steve, and just never leave your arms. Hell, really, wherever you went, he went.

But that wasn’t the case in this scenario.

With a hand on your waist, Bucky looked up at Stark’s presentation of his repulsor technology with a flying car, head shaking in disbelief. While his car may have only hovered for a few seconds, the idea of not even needing to touch the ground to drive absolutely boggled your mind. During the presentation, Steve glanced up at you two and silently snuck off, hoping you didn’t notice his absence for too long. But he knew you and how observant and protective you were.

However, once you glanced around after a few minutes and found Steve in front of an army poster within the United States Armed Services Recruitment center. Squeezing Bucky’s hand, you slightly pulled him towards where Steve was, trying his best to fit his head within the frame.

With a slight push of his shoulder, Bucky nodded his head towards the Expo, “come on, we’re goin’ dancing – and hopefully find yourself a girl.”

Steve shook his head, “you – uh – you go ahead, I’ll catch up later.” He looked around, trying to divert the conversation between him and his best friend.

“Steve,” you started, “please? Just this one night?”

Bucky held your hand as he looked back at Steve, “you’re really gonna do this again?”

“I just – guys, it’s a fair, I’ll try my luck,” he started, looking between you both.

Beside you, you felt Bucky grow agitated, “that’s who, Steve from Ohio?”

“Bucky,” you said, squeezing his hand once more, “let him try one more, okay? We can go dancing and Steve will catch up later. If he doesn’t, I’ll hang his head on my wall like a prize.”

The boys let out a chuckle as Steve continued, “one last time, alright? I promise I’ll come later on – Mac’s, right?”

You nodded your head as Bucky sighed beside you, “don’t think you got to prove anything, Steve.” A small pause came over the three of you as Bucky continued, “don’t do anything stupid until I get back.”

You started to walk back with Bucky, letting go of his hand as he continued his conversation with Steve as he let out a small laugh, “how can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” You held up a finger at Steve, “you better mean that about himself, Rogers.”

Steve held up his hands, “yes ma’am! And Bucky –“

Bucky turned around once more to his best friend, “don’t win the war until I get there.” With a mock salute, Bucky dragged you back towards the Expo as you waved back at Steve, making sure he’d meet you at the bar before your boyfriend was shipped off.

With a sigh, Bucky wrapped an arm around your shoulders, pulling you close as he kissed your head, “that punk is gonna get himself in all loads of trouble, honeybee.”

You held his hand that was around your shoulder, “I’ll keep Stevie in his place. Seriously, Buck, try not to worry about him.”

“I just,” Bucky gripped your hand, “I don’t wanna come back to nothing, you know? Steve’s my best friend and if he somehow gets himself killed here or in the war, I don’t know what I’d do.”

You pulled Bucky to a stop, putting your hands on his cheeks, “James, look at me, please.” With soft eyes, Bucky looked into yours, “I promise you, Steve is going to be okay – he won’t do anything stupid, at least without me. We’re going to be okay, and you will, too. . .’cus if you aren’t, I may go and kill Hitler myself.”

Bucky chuckled, “I don’t doubt that for a minute, sweetheart. I love you, you know that, right?”

You leaned up, kissing Bucky softly before pulling back, hands tight on your waist, “I love you too. Now C’mon, I wanna go to Mac’s and celebrate my newfound freedom.”

Bucky groaned and pulled you even closer, “maybe I should tell Steve to keep an eye on you.”

With a mock salute of your own, you giggled at your boyfriend, “aye, sir, my new mission is to protect Steven Grant Rogers from being an idiot!”

Bucky couldn’t help but laugh, “toughest job in this whole war, honeybee.”

As the night continued on, Steve actually showed up to Mac’s and had a new look in his eyes.

‘Hmm,’ you thought to yourself, ‘looks like I gotta ask him about something later.’

Steve, you, and Bucky didn’t drink, but instead enjoyed each other’s company before Buck was shipped off; this really only included Bucky and Steve making fun of each other and you keeping the boys in line. Laughs and a few smacks on the head filled the atmosphere, but you knew it wouldn't last long.

By the time it was nearing close to Bucky’s train departure, the three of you took to the streets and headed to the train station, silence enveloping you. Bucky’s hand was wrapped tightly around yours as you dreaded this goodbye, even if you had high hopes he’d return to you and Steve.

At the sight of the train and fellow troops heading into their cabins, Bucky turned to Steve, “you take care of yourself, alright punk? I don’t want any letters from my girl telling me that you’ve been actin’ out.”

Steve shoved his shoulder, “you’re acting like I’m 12 years old again. I’ll be fine, Buck.”

Bucky nodded, but looked to his best friend, “and Steve?”

Steve held his breath but let go, “yeah, Bucky?”

“Please take care of her.”

Steve glanced back at where you stood, picking your nails as your anxiety was pricking at your skin. He nodded, “I will.”

Bucky let out a sigh of relief, “thank you, pal. I love her, so make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid either, okay?” Steve nodded in response.

Bucky then headed over to where you were standing, his eyes raking over your beautiful dress, your heels, and most importantly, your face. He did not want to forget a single thing about you or your features – he wanted them committed to memory. With a gentle hand, Bucky tilted your chin up towards him, “you alright, honeybee?”

You nodded, too afraid to use your voice as tears flooded your eyes. Trying to dry them up anyway, you nodded once more, unable to look at Bucky. He sighed, “c’mere, sweet girl, I got you.”

With no hesitation, you fell into Bucky’s arms, tears threatening to fall as you felt his hands rest upon your back and your head. You sniffled, “I’m going – I’m going to miss you so much, Jamie – so, so much.”

Bucky kissed your head, “I’m gonna miss you too, sweetheart. Don’t you dare think that I won’t for a second. You’ll be the first thing on my mind every second of the day.”

You breathed, “can living through this war be the first thing on your mind? And maybe completing a crossword puzzle?"

Bucky let out a small laugh but held you tighter, “just for you, honeybee.” Pulling back, he wiped away stray tears that threatened to fall from your eyes, a soft smile on his face. “You’re gonna be alright, and I’ll be comin’ home to you in no time.”

You nodded, a few tears slipping free from your eyes as you looked up at Bucky, thumbs rubbing over his cheeks and light stubble. You slowly traced over his lips, his nose, and his eyebrows, committing everything about him to memory. With a small smile, you leaned up, catching him in a kiss once more, “stay safe, you hear me? And take this damn thing with you - maybe you'll complete it." With gentle hands, you handed him the newspaper you had gotten today.

He carefully took the newspaper from you, already hoping the crossword puzzle would be easy this time around. Then, Bucky pecked your lips before he headed towards the train, “gotta come back for my best girl. I love you!”

As he stepped onto the train and hung out the window of a cabin, he continued yelling, “I love you, y/n l/n! I love you!”

You cried, a bright smile on his face, “I love you too, James Buchanan Barnes!” Blowing kisses towards him, both you and Steve watched as the train slowly started to pull away, seeing him mindlessly hand his ticket to the worker, not bothering to tear his eyes away from you or his best friend.

“I love you!” he shouted once more, all before his train sped up, leaving you and Steve behind on the platform.

Wiping your eyes and your nose with a cloth, you cleared your throat and turned to Steve, “gah, sorry. Let’s uhm – do you want to head back to my place?”

Steve nodded towards you, “yeah, yeah that sounds good. You alright?” He hooked your arm with his as you headed out of the station, continuing to wipe your eyes. “Yeah,” you started, “I’m okay. I knew this was coming. . . I guess I just hated the whole ‘saying goodbye,’ you know?”

Your best friend rubbed the back of his neck, “I get it, y/n, but he’ll come back – he has a reason to, and that’s you.”

Your heart fluttered, and tears welled up in your eyes once more. With a quick sniffle, you reached into your purse and grabbed your key, unlocking your door to your apartment. Once inside, you quickly got to making tea for you and Steve, something to get your minds off of your missing puzzle piece.

Once tea was made and you both were sitting in your living room, you turned to him, “tell me, Stevie. Please.”

Steve looked at you, a confused look etched upon his face, “tell you what?”

You leaned back into your chair, picking at your nails once more, “what happened at the recruitment office? I’ve known you long enough to see that there’s something you’re not telling me, there’s something in your eyes, Stevie, so please, just tell me.”

Steve seemed shocked that you were able to read him like that, but was defeated. With a sigh, he turned and reached into his handbag, pulling out a file, “there was this Doctor there, Doctor Erskine, who uh – he approved me for the army, y/n. But it’s for an experiment, something they call a super-soldier experiment, I’m not sure. But, I’m going – I leave in a couple days.”

How is your world falling apart this quickly?

170 notes · View notes

howdoyousleep3 · 3 years

Note

Miss k hiiiiiiii hello hey 💜💜💜💜 I love your daddies so much they give me the most life ahhhh

so okay I’m a good lil southern girl although I moved away from the south and sometimes I like to let my redneck side come out and today is one of those times 😭 Im outside drinking shitty beer and listening to some old country music and uh I’m havin thots

I just wondered if you ever thought about a real country daddy steve and baby Bucky and what that might be like 😅🥵 like are they both down home country boys? Or does country boy (cowboy also acceptable) daddy steve show city baby boy a good ol country time or 🤤🤤 anyways idk if this will even tickle your fancy but like just know your daddies and babies live rent free in my head and even if you never imagine them as little country boys I doooooo okay bye ily

Ohhhhh, babey! You’re takin’ me back. Y’all know I grew up on a farm and in the country, sheesh. I have a super fucking weak and awful spot for someone that is country country, little southern garbage, ahaha. Give me the bonfires and the PBR (before it became cool and expensive?? I am beside myself lol) and the driving on backroads and giggin’ and those awful flannels with the sleeves cut off and driving way too fast down dirt roads.

Okay for full effect do listen to Big City by Merle Haggard. 🥰

I’ve thought about this kinda AU with Steve and Bucky so much. Like…so much and in all kinds of ways. It more than tickles my fancy, pumpkin. I’ve thought all about a City Boy Bucky rolling through a townsy bar on a Friday night and finding him a big ‘ol Farm Boy Steve and the two of them just falling head over ass for each other. Steve’s never seen anyone that resembles an angel on Earth until he sees those eyes and those lips upturned towards him. And Steve is everything Bucky never knew he could like, beard thick but not as thicc as those thighs and that ass, not donned in tailored suit pants, laugh boisterous, personality taking up as much space as his body does.

I’ve thought about Steve taking Bucky down by the river, teaching him how to catch a catfish with his bare hands, how to bait a hook, how to jump from the rope swing perfectly. I’ve thought about Steve teaching him how to shotgun a beer, how sweet his mama would be on Bucky and her teaching him how to make the perfect peach cobbler from scratch. I squeal inside when I think about Steve sitting there at the kitchen table watching his mama and the boy he’s sure he’s fallen in love with work together beautifully, the dopey look on his face when he takes a bite of Bucky’s warm cobbler and makes a surely inappropriate noise.

“Marry me, darlin’,” he’d joke with an underlying seriousness only he is aware of, and Bucky blushes up a storm, stammers. Steve is left with no choice but to pull Bucky into his lap and kiss him loudly on the cheek before finishing his helping and asking sweetly for another.

I’ve imagined the way they’d dance at the bar to Just Got Started Lovin’ On You, how close they’d be, all lined up together and Bucky moving so gorgeously and easily with Steve’s lead, the two of them looking so disgustingly in love. I’ve thought about the look of pride on Steve’s face when Bucky drinks a heckler right under the table, tequila simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever run through Bucky’s veins. Steve would stop Bucky from getting into a fight not shortly after his competitor concedes, wrapping Bucky up in two strong arms, mouth at his ear, eyes ablaze and wordlessly telling the other man to fuck right off or he’ll let this kitten go.

I’ve thought all about Bucky pushing at Steve, shouting about how he can walk to the truck, and then how he’d damn near topple over on his baby deer legs.

“You done bein’ a brat?” Steve would ask him.

“No. M’grown,” Bucky would huff as Steve wraps an arm around his waist and then picks him up under his knees anyway. Bucky biting him on the jaw for being right.

I’ve pictured Bucky reading to Steve out loud as they lay under a tree, sun high in the sky, hand knocking Steve’s hat off his head and playing with his hair as his head rests in Bucky’s lap. I’ve thought about Bucky explaining city life to Steve, the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple and how tall the buildings are and the job Bucky left behind. I’ve thought about the first time they fight, Steve getting up in his feels about how perfect and smart Bucky is and how he doesn’t deserve to be here with some country bumkin like him.

I’ve imagined how much it tears Steve up, seeing his sassy Buckaroo spittin’ and cryin’ because of him, how he’d let Bucky get in his face with a pointed finger and tell Steve that he better take his words back or else. He’d grab for and hold onto Bucky as he tries to run out of the kitchen and into the yard after Steve says he can’t take them back though, unable to watch Bucky leave.

(For full effect, make sure you do not listen to “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” by Willie Nelson, don’t do it, don’t)

I’ve imagined how their makeup sex has them both damn near in tears, how lucky Steve feels to be able to feel someone this close to his body and his heart, Bucky the prettiest thing he’s ever seen gasping there underneath him. I’ve imagined the way City Boy Bucky’s bottom lip would tremble, how his hands would run up and through Steve’s hair as he breathes, “I love you so…so much, Steve. Bubba…” right before Farm Boy Steve curses and cries and makes him come.

Oh yeah, I’ve thought all about this shit, my friend. I’ve let it consume me in full on numerous occasions. Maybe it’s because I projected and dreamt up my own little dream, hehe. Thank you for being in my inbox and for letting me pop off! I hope this is what you wanted. Lub you bunches. 💕

#askK #y'all give me the best opportunities to pop off #City Boy Buck #Farm Boy Steve #stucky #fanfic #i dream a dream #lol #should i make a country playlist #oh lord #i'm in my feels now!#i was writing some to que up but I couldn't wait to share this one

114 notes · View notes

e-of-west-glendia · 3 years

Text

Line Without A Hook

So I said in an earlier post that when I hear songs my brain thinks in movie montages?? And that I figured out how to make it into words...kinda. Welp! This is it.

Would highly recommend listening to the song (same as the title) while reading :))

Background: Sometime in the near past, James got asked out and he said yes. (Because I have this headcanon that after James and Lily became friends James tried to move on and not ruin their friendship wile Lily fell in love with him). And now they’re having their usual study session.

Present

Accidental hand brush

She was only reaching for more parchment

I don’t really give a damn about the way you touch me when we’re alone

Lily is in the library

She’s walking to a shelf, replacing books she took down earlier

She bumps into something— or rather someone bumps into her

It’s James

Her books fall to the floor

James helps her pick them up, muttering apologies

His hand brushes her arm...it lingers too long and before she can say something about it

It’s gone

You can hold my hand If no one's home

They’re laughing about something

Nudge with a shoulder

Smiles like the sun but eyes like cracked glass

Someone turns away

Do you like it when I'm away?

James laying on the grounds, talking to Sirius and Remus

Lily watching from a common room window

Small smile as she watches

If I went and hurt my body baby, would you love me the same?

Random girl walks by and says hi to James

Something settles

A cold feeling on warm day

I can feel all my bones coming back

And I'm craving motion

They’re in class

They��d been put in pairs for group work

They disagree on an answer to something

A teacher comes by

Says Lily is correct

The triumphant smile she gives James could light up a city block

Mama never really learns how to live by herself

It’s a weekend

Everyone is hanging out in the common room

James and Lily volunteered to get food/snacks for everyone

It's a curse

And it's growing

Some type of food ends up on Lily’s hands

James laughs

Lily just boops him on the nose with it

Something along the lines of “there, now we’re the same”

You're a pond and I'm an ocean

After a quidditch match

The usual common room party

Lily stands in the doorway watching everyone cheering for the team

Her smile is something soft...like nostalgia but without the memory to associate with it

James looks for her

A flash of red hair disappears around the corner

Oh, all my emotions

It’s in that archway thing...where Draco got turned into a ferret?

James waves at Lily

Feel like explosions when you are around

Lily waves back and smiles

And I've found a way to kill the sounds, oh

Girl from earlier smiles at James and says hi

James smiles back

Lily’s smile dies and she leaves

She’s gone next time James turns to her

Oh, baby, I am a wreck when I'm without you

This is just the Hogsmeade weekend James goes on the date

Lily is with Marlene and Dorcas

She’s talking to them

James and the girl walk by

He’s laughing.

She’s made him laugh.

Lily can’t stop watching

(Present)

I need you here to stay

It’s the common room

James is looking at where her hand brushed against his

I broke all my bones that day I found you

Lily is taking a walk to clear her head, it’s early morning

The pitch is on her route

Crying at the lake

She sees James practicing

She stops to watch

Was it something I said to make you feel like you're a burden?

It’s breakfast, everyone is in the great hall

Lily is watching James

Oh, and if I could take it all back

He’s talking

He’s the center of attention

I swear that I would pull you from the tide

But it no longer seems like she’s the center of his

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa

James is talking to Sirius

I said no (I said no), I said no (I said no)

They see Lily tutoring some third years

James is watching her

Sirius raises an eyebrow at him

Listen close, it's a no

James just shakes his head and walks away

A moment later Lily looks up

It’s the feeling that someone’s watching you when you aren’t looking

But no one is there

The wind is a-pounding on my back

James is flying

It’s a quidditch match

And I found hope in a heart attack

James is looking around at the stands

He sees Lily, she’s watching him

She sends him a smile

A rouge bludger finds its way near James

Oh at last, it is past

He’s hit by it

Now I've got it, and you can't have it

There’s concern in Lily’s eyes before he’s surrounded by team mates, and can no longer see her

Baby, I am a wreck when I'm without you

It’s time for them to do their rounds as Head Boy and Girl

James is late

I need you here to stay

He’s running through the common room to get outside

I broke all my bones that day I found you

He makes it outside

Lily is waiting

He didn’t expect her to wait

Crying at the lake

She smiles at his surprise

“Alright Potter?”

Was it something I said to make you feel like you're a burden, oh

Lily is sitting on the grounds

James is walking by

He stops to say hello

And if I could take it all back

She looks like she’s going to say something

Someone appears behind him, nudges his shoulder

It’s the girl

He turns to say hi

I swear that I would pull you from the tide

When he looks back to Lily she’s already halfway across the grounds

Walking away

Darling, when I'm fast asleep

It’s the library again

And Lily’s collecting her books

Trying to place one on a high shelf

I've seen this person watching me

James reaches it for her

Saying, "Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Tell me, is it worth it?"

He smiles at her

One of those soft James Potter smiles

Where his eyes crinkle in the corners a bit

He runs his fingers through his hair

God she hates it when he does that

“I should get going.”

“Yeah...yeah…”

He starts to leave.

She wants to say something

Anything

“James?”

He turns

“Yes?”

“See you in class”

He smiles and walks away

Guess there is something, and there is nothing

James is walking down an empty corridor

Footsteps echoing in the silent halls

He hears something— no, someone

It’s Lily

There is nothing in between

She’s jogging to catch up with him

He slows down

They’re talking

And in my eyes, there is a tiny dancer

She pauses mid sentence

“What?”

“Nothing it’s just— there’s something on your glasses…”

“Oh?”

She nods and then gestures, “Can I?”

“Can you…? Oh! Yeah sure.”

Watching over me, he's singing

She has to stand on her toes to reach them

Pulling them off gently

She was right, there’s something on them. A speck of dust

He didn’t even notice

She wipes them off, looking up at him

"She's a, she's a lady, and I am just a boy"

He can barely see but he doesn’t need to...he’s already memorized her

The green eyes shadowed by a curtain of red hair

The smattering of freckles across her nose

She’s staring back at him...her gaze seems searching but he couldn’t tell you what she was looking for

His glasses are placed back on his face with a soft “There”

He's singing, "She's a, she's a lady,

He wants to say something

Anything

“Lils?

“Yes?”

and I am just a line without a hook"

“We better hurry...they’re waiting for us”

And they continue down the corridor

Baby, I am a wreck when I'm without you

Lily is watching James practice, it’s the same memory as earlier

It’s right after the Quidditch injury with the bludger

I need you here to stay

He flies down

He looks exhausted

I broke all my bones that day I found you

He rubs his shoulder with a wince, it still hurts

She’s going to go to him, to see if she can help

Crying at the lake

The girl appears, she was there the whole time

She looks concerned, and James gives her a reassuring smile

Was it something I said to make you feel like you're a burden, oh

She’s talking to him, and he seems more at ease

Less pained…

He’s giving her one of those rare, soft smiles

Lily rarely seems him smile at people like that

At least not to people who aren’t— who aren’t her

And if I could take it all back

I swear that I

She leaves, deciding on a different path for her walk

Casting a last glance back at James and the girl

They’re happy

He’s happy

would pull you from the tide

That’s all she needs

Present

James has just registered the brush against his hand

He gives her a curious look

“Alright Evans?”

She shrugs, “Accident.”

He nods and smiles a bit

Then he goes back to his work

And the common room is silent once more

#okay okay it took me like 20 minutes to format all this shit #so if there are spelling errors or lyric errors I am sorry #but I refuse to spend more time proofing this #like nope #also after I wrote this I not only named mystery girl but I made her a picrew #her name is Aelia and as much as she's driving a wedge in my ship...I love her #she's great #and now I wanna write a full length Jily fic that spans 7th year #damn #I have too many wips for this shit #yes this what my brain does #apologies if it doesnt make sense #I tried to pace it as well as I can so shush #I spent three hours of my life trying to make mental pictures into words...if you can like it...you can take the two extra seconds to reblog #don't need a rant about reblogging and commenting on artists hard work because I still have more tags to add #anywaysss #hopefully you enjoyedddd #my writing and my moderately passive aggressive tags lmao #jily #James Potter #Lily Evans #james x lily #harry potter #marauders #marauders era #bullet fic #song fic #harry potter fanfiction #marauders era fic #jily fic

98 notes · View notes

general-kenobi357 · 3 years

Text

Someday Soon-Chapter 10

Pairing: JJ Maybank x Fem!OC

Summary: The Pogues work together to get John B off the island, a difficult task to complete when everything seems to be falling apart all around them.

Note: The last chapter of season 1, exciting but also sad. I probably won't be updating this series until after season 2 comes out so that I have it as a base but I do have a few oneshots I have been working on that I might post in the meantime. I hope you enjoyed my spin on the first season!

Word Count: 4.1k

🔅🔆🔅

I paced around the Wreck waiting for the others to wake up. JJ stood on the opposite side of the room clicking a lighter on and off. We hadn’t spoken to each other since last night and every time he caught my eye I would quickly look away.

I saw Pope starting to wake up before he made his way to where JJ stood watching police cars drive by.

“He's pinched for sure, man.” JJ said to Pope as I continued to pace while I listened to their conversation.

“No. They wouldn't still be patrolling if they caught him.” Pope reasoned.

“Let's hope.” JJ spoke defeatedly.

“You know, we were in that car. They're probably looking for us, too.” Kie spoke up, alerting us all that she had woken up.

“Well, if we're gonna be outlaws, we might as well help John B.” Pope addressed us all.

“So, find him before they do?” JJ asked while we watched Pope grab the keys to JJ’s bike and make his way towards where I had stopped near the door. “Pope?”

“I'm gonna get gas for the boat.” He explained before turning to me. “You coming?”

“Uh, yeah.” I answered unsure, I figured it was better than staying here with Kie and JJ.

“Hey, you be careful.” Kie told Pope. “Okay?”

“Meet us at the dock at three. Don't be late.” Pope reminded the pair we were leaving behind before we made our way outside.

“Okay, what is your problem?” Kie asked Pope, I didn’t even hear what had happened between the two and I was pretty sure I knew what his problem was.

“No problem, Officer. I'm just doing my job.” Pope answered as we got onto the bike.

“Look, I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings.” Kie tried to tell him as he started up the bike and revved up the engine.

“What was that?” He asked as if he had no control over the sounds of the bike.

“Look, I didn't mean to.” Kie tried again.

“Sorry, I can't hear you. What was that?” Pope kept taunting.

“Pope let’s go.” I told him, getting impatient with the game he was playing.

“Pope, I'm being serious…” Kie yelled as Pope lifted his feet off the ground as we started to drive away. “I'm trying to talk to you!”

I looked back as Pope drove off and locked eyes with JJ, his face was painted with concern and it looked like he wanted to say something but we were already too far away. I turned my head back around and gazed at the road over Pope’s shoulder. My grip tightened around his waist, in all the excitement of Kie and Pope’s argument, I hadn’t had time to rethink if I really wanted to get on the back of this death trap with a newly sober Pope driving.

“Are you good to drive?'' I called to him over the sound of the engine.

“Yeah I’m fine.” He reassured me, I supposed I would have to trust him as I didn’t really have any other options at the moment.

🔅🔆🔅

Once we arrived at Heyward’s we found a couple of empty gas canisters that we carried over to the gas pump out front. As we waited for the first one to fill up I tapped my foot on the ground, anxious to get back to the others. Even if we were fighting it was better to all stay together than to get split up.

“So.” I started unsure if I should continue or just keep my mouth shut. Pope was my only friend that was not on the run or not speaking to me at the moment. “You and Kie?”

“You and JJ?” Pope countered clearly not wanting to talk. I chuckled at his response to me.

“No, if yesterday proved anything it was that there is no me and JJ.” I explained.

“Yeah well that sounds about the same for me and Kie.” He finally said to me.

As much as the situation we were in sucked it was almost comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

We were quiet again as he switched the tanks and I put the cap back onto the now full one.

“Look at you two.” I heard a deep voice say from behind me. Turning around I found Heyward standing a few feet away, arms crossed over his chest. “Like some damn street hoods out here stealing gas from me. Isabella, I thought your mama raised you better than that and my own blood, I don’t know which one disappoints me more.”

“We're not stealing.” Pope tried to explain, I shook my head at him knowing it would be better if we stopped talking.

“Stop lyin'. I saw it in your damn hand.”

“Our friend is in trouble, and we need to help him.” I tried to defend, figuring it was too late to not get into trouble.

“John B did not kill anybody.” Pope added.

“Says who?” Heyward challenged.

“Says me.”

“I'm supposed to believe you?” Heyward continued. “After you ran out on your interview? Shit, boy, get in the house.”

“No.” Pope said staring right at him. I didn’t like where this was going.

“Oh, you a man now? Huh?” Heyward continued to push. “You wanna have a go at it with me? Is that it?”

“I'm taking these cans. You’re not gettin' in my way.” Pope said going to grab the gas canisters.

“Oh, I'm gettin' in your way.” Heyward said, walking past me to stand right in front of Pope. “And one day, you might be able to whoop my ass, but it ain't today.”

“That right?” Pope asked, getting angrier with every word.

“Yeah.” Heyward concluded just as Pope threw a punch at him. I stumbled back shocked that he had actually done it.

“Pope stop!” I tried to yell but it came out as a whisper.

“Oh, yeah! It's gonna take a little more than that. Try again.” Heyward challenged again after recovering from the first blow. Come on. You wanna hit your daddy? Try again. Hm? You want to hit me?”

I put a hand on Pope’s shoulder and as he turned it was like he realized what he had just done.

“I don't have time for this. I gotta help my friend.” Pope said as he turned away from his father.

We both grabbed a gas canister and tied them to the sides of the bike. I could see the tears streaming down Pope’s face as we climbed onto the bike.

“Yeah, yeah, you just go ahead. Yeah, you take everything, son. And Isabella don’t think I’m not telling your mama about this!” I heard Heyward continue to yell at us as Pope started up the bike. “You're an ungrateful son of a bitch, Pope.”

“It’s okay Pope. It’s gonna be okay.” I tried to comfort him as we drove off and Heyward’s threats faded.

🔅🔆🔅

As we pulled up to the garage that held The Phantom we heard yelling and clattering from inside.

“What the hell?” I asked Pope who looked just as confused.

I noticed two dirt bikes parked near the door as I pointed to them Pope nodded to confirm he saw them too. We rushed towards the door and Pope grabbed some old pipes on the way.

“Be careful.” I said as he passed me one of the pipes.

As we ran inside I wasn’t sure what to look at. Kie was being screamed at by some blond whose face I couldn’t see and JJ was one the ground being punched by Barry, the guy who had tried to take the gold from us.

“Hey! Don't touch her!” I heard Pope scream as he began to bash the blond’s back.

I moved towards where Barry was and hit him with the pipe in my hand. It didn’t seem to do much damage but it was enough to distract him and give JJ time to punch him square in the jaw. After we got the gun out of his hand JJ essentially beat Barry to a pulp.

As Barry laid out on the ground groaning in pain we moved to where Kie stood watching as Pope began to strangle the blond who I now recognized as Rafe Cameron.

“Pope.” Kie called to him as we watched him continue to beat on Rafe. “Pope, that's good! Stop!”

“He's had enough, dude.” JJ added trying to get Pope to stop.

“Snap out of it, Pope!” I said as JJ tried to pull them apart.

“Okay, we gotta go.” Kie reminded us as Pope finally let go of Rafe.

JJ and Kie rushed away to finish hooking up the boat but I stayed standing next to Pope as he looked at me terrified.

“It’s okay Pope. You’re fine.” I tried to tell him but I felt just as shocked as he looked.

“Stay off the cut.” Pope threatened Rafe who laid at our feet half conscious.

“Pope. Iz. We gotta go.” Kie called as she got into the car.

“Let’s go.” I said to Pope, taking his arm and guiding him towards the car.

As we drove away I noticed Pope staring at his hands as if they didn’t belong to him. I took both of them so he would stop and as we got further from the garage I continued to try and reassure him that he was fine.

🔅🔆🔅

Once we had arrived at the boat launch we had all silently begun to silently load up the boat after getting it into the water. Kie and Pope were standing watch as I packed the last of the food into compartments and behind me JJ checked the engine over. Once I was done I turned leaning on one of the seats as JJ checked various switches.

“A 1983 Formula 402 SR1.” JJ marveled at the boat.

“Mm-hm. The first boat to make the run to Bermuda in under 16 hours.” I added, with the number of times he had told me about this boat, I would never forget the speech he made every time he saw it. “Forty years old! And still the fastest thing that Kildare's ever seen.”

“Huh, seems like you’ve heard about her before.” JJ mused as he stood up to face me.

“Yeah once or twice.” I teased him, the smile on my face grew as he moved closer to me. I thought he was leaning in closer to my face when Pope interrupted us.

“Dude, where is he?” Pope asked worriedly. JJ cleared his throat as he turned away from me to address Pope.

“Give him a second. He'll be here. He's coming. He'll be fine.” JJ reassured us all.

“Shit.” I muttered as I spotted the lights of a cop car approaching us.

“Hey, yeah. Get back on the boat.” Kie told Pope as she moved to start untying it from the dock.

“Wait.” JJ stopped us all as we turned to see someone getting out of the cop car.

“No way.” I mumbled with a smile as I recognized John B closing the door behind him.

“No effing way.” Pope added.

“I'm sorry. You've gotta be kidding me.” Kie continued laughing.

“Shoupe let me take it for a spin.” John B explained as he walked towards the boat.

“Okay. That's believable. I'll buy that for now.” Kie said, she hugged John B before he hopped onto the deck of the Phantom where JJ and I stood.

“It wasn't easy, bro, but I got the Phantom for you, and she runs like she was made yesterday.” JJ told John B, handing the keys over. “You ready to go?”

“Where's Sarah?” John B asked, noticing she was absent from the group.

“She's not with you?” Kie asked him.

“No, we got separated in the swamp.” John B explained his worry growing. “She said she'd meet me here.”

“No, we haven't seen her.” I told him.

“Okay, well, I'm not leaving without her.” John B concluded.

“John B, look at me.” JJ started to say. “I know you feel bad for leaving, but there's no time, man. You've got plenty of gas, plenty of food. Once you get around that point, it's a straight shot across the sound to Dismal Swamp, okay? Once you get there, lay low, all right? Hang out for a couple of weeks and then go overland, cross the border at Brownsville, you got that? Brownsville. You... Hey! You got that?”

“Yeah, yeah. Brownsville.” John B confirmed only half paying attention to what JJ was telling him.

“All right. Saddle her up, saltwater cowboy. Let's do this.” JJ said, hopping over the side of the boat onto the dock.

“Hey, John B.” I said, pulling him into a bone crushing hug. “I love you.”

“Yeah. I love you too.” He mumbled back to me. I felt like I was losing my brother as we pulled apart and I jumped down onto the dock. John B paused for a moment as he looked at us all. “Hey. I'm sorry for basically... throwing us off a cliff with this whole treasure hunt thing.”

“John B, we were bound to run off a cliff at some point, right?” JJ said, as we all laughed at his statement.

“Yeah.” He confirmed.

“At least we did it together, though.” I told him with a sad smile.

“Pogue style.” Pope said.

“Pogue style.” We all repeated.

“Get out of here! Please. Now.” Kie told John B, reminding us all we were running out of time.

“We'll see you in two months, down in Mexico.” Pope reassured John B as we started to untie ropes.

“Hey, wait... wait a second.” John B stopped us before we could push the boat out. “Tell Sarah I said goodbye, okay?”

We all nodded our head confirming that we would find her for him.

“Don't forget. Cross the border at Brownsville, okay?” JJ reminded one last time.

“Got it.” John B confirmed as he started the motor up.

We all stood huddled together as we watched him fade from view as he picked up speed. I knew we would see him again but it felt like we were saying goodbye forever.

🔅🔆🔅

John B was long gone, hopefully far enough away that everyone looking for him couldn’t find him but I still stood on the dock looking at the sun set. Further down the dock Kie and Pope stood together, I couldn't hear what they were saying as they were talking quietly but I saw them hug. I smiled slightly, happy that the pair had made up.

But then my eyebrows knitted together in confusion as I watched the pair kiss, how could Kie warn me not to do something then turn around and do the thing she warned me against. I felt frustrated with her, I knew better, I knew I shouldn’t take it so personally but I still couldn’t help but feel my annoyance towards her grow.

That was until I felt a pair of hands settled on my hips and as I turned my head I saw JJ resting his head on my shoulder. I smiled at the action as I leaned into him content to just stand and watch the sunset as my worries faded further away.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you the other night when I said we weren’t together.” JJ finally spoke after a minute. “I didn’t mean that I didn’t want us to be together just that we weren’t yet. After all, you haven’t even asked me out.”

I turned around to face him and saw a huge grin on his face, his hands which were still wrapped around my waist loosened slightly. There was a mischievous look in his eyes as I rested my hands on his shoulders.

“JJ Maybank.” I started to say dramatically. “Will you go out with me?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure.” He began pretending to think about it. “Where are you gonna take me?”

“I don’t know, I'm sure we can sort out the details later.” I smiled.

“Well I’d like to know now so that I can figure out if it's worth it. Plus I mean I’ll have to find the right outfit.” He began to ramble, I playfully rolled my eyes at him.

“How about you worry about your outfit later and right now you just kiss me?” I interrupted him with my bold statement.

He stopped talking after that and began to lean closer to me. As I was about to lean in as well I stopped and looked into his eyes.

“Hey, don’t run away this time.” I playfully threatened him.

“Never again Sweetheart.” He replied before closing the gap between us and capturing my lips in his.

We were cut off after a moment though due to the sound of police sirens which I could tell were growing closer as they sounded louder with every passing second.

“Hey, guys, I'm sorry to ruin the party, but, uh, we gotta go right now.” JJ called to the others as his arms dropped from around me. “Come on!”

But it was too late as the cars pulled up surrounding the four of us, we had no other option than to stay put and listen to them.

“Hands up! Hands up!” The cops all called as they began to climb out of their cars.

“Pope, hands.” Kie reminded him as we all lifted our hands in surrender.

“We're too late. He's gone. God damn it!” A bald man yelled out as he ran to the end of the dock.

“Bratcher, have your guys stand down. Let me talk to these kids.” Deputy Shoupe called out before approaching us. “All right, where the hell is he? Where the hell is he?”

We all stayed silent as he tried to figure out where John B had gone. We all knew vaguely where he was headed but in all honesty none of us could have pointed to his location on a map, we had no idea how far he had gotten.

“JJ? I see you're livin' up to your name.” Shoupe began to single us out. “Pope, how about you? This isn't a fucking game! You can do the right thing now! Where'd he go?”

None of us answered his questions and before long he gave up, ushering JJ and Pope into the back of one car and Kie and I into another. I didn’t want us to be split up but I knew we didn’t have a choice, we were probably all being taken to the same place.

🔅🔆🔅

We sat in silence for a few minutes as I looked out the window until I noticed that Kie had tears streaming down her cheeks as she quietly cried.

“Hey, hey.” I whispered to her not wanting to get into more trouble. I shuffled closer to her, holding out a hand which she took. “It’s gonna be okay, we’re all going to be fine.” I tried to reassure her but in all honesty I had no idea if it were true.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered to me as she leant her head on my shoulder. “I’ve been awful to you lately.”

“No it’s okay. I was being just as terrible.” I whispered back to her. “I’m sorry, I know you were just trying to keep the Pogues together.”

“Yeah a lot of good that did.” She said defeatedly.

“Yeah well those boys always know how to mess everything up.” I tried to joke. I saw the hint of a smile playing on her lips before I pulled her into a hug.

“I just want to be friends again.”

“Me too.” I sighed. “I mean come on we’re the two that never fight with each other.”

We pulled apart with sad smiles as the car parked. I was nice to know that we were all friends again even if everything else had fallen apart.

🔅🔆🔅

The door opened to reveal Shoupe on the other side ushering us out. Once I stepped onto the ground I spotted JJ and Pope standing a few feet away, we were all directed into a tent with a table in the center and rows of chairs on either side. I sat down between JJ and Kie and Pope was sitting on the other side of Kie.

“Sit down. Don't move. We got a lot to talk about.” Shoupe said to all of us before turning to a couple of armed guards. “Keep an eye on these kids.”

We all watched as Shoupe left the tent. A silence fell over us as we listened to everyone around us talking, hoping to hear that John B was okay and that he had gotten away safely.

My hands found both JJ’s and Kie’s hands and I held onto them for dear life. Right now it felt like we only had each other and I sure as hell wasn’t going to lose anyone else.

“It’s gonna be okay. He’ll be fine.” JJ muttered under his breath as his thumb rubbed circles on the back of my hand.

My knee began to bounce as we all anxiously waited for any news they would give us.

🔅🔆🔅

Sirens continued to wail as people shouted to each other. The storm was only getting worse and all we could do was hope that John B had outrun it or found somewhere safe to wait it out.

After what felt like forever Shoupe finally returned but by the look on his face he didn’t have anything good to say.

“Did you find them?” Pope asked hopefully as we all stood up.

“No.” Shoupe responded bluntly.

“So, they got away?” Kie asked

“We, uh... we lost them.” Shoupe replied vaguely. “I'm sorry.”

“You lost them?” I asked in disbelief. “What do you mean you lost them? Like, they're gone?”

“What are you talking about?” Pope added to my questions.

“They took an open boat into a tropical depression, Pope.” Shoupe tried to explain.

“So, they're dead?” Kie asked as tears began to cloud my vision.

“We don't know.” Shoupe tried to defend himself.

“You drove them straight through the storm, man!” JJ snapped. “Are you kidding me? Come here! I'm gonna kill you!”

“JJ, stop!” Kie tried to tell him.

“I'm gonna kill you, you bastard! You killed him!” JJ said before trying to take a swing at Shoupe. Another cop grabbed JJ before he could continue. I moved to his side trying to get him to calm down, from behind me I could hear Pope start to yell.

“He didn't kill anyone, and you know it!” Pope cried.

“We're still looking for him, all right?” Shoupe tried to explain.

“Pope. Pope, just stop.” Kie said to him. “Please, stop.”

Kie fell silent for a moment and I turned to see what had happened. I followed her gaze to the other end of the tent to see all our parents walking towards us and at the end of the line little Emmy stood next to my Mom in her bright red raincoat.

As soon as she spotted me she let go of my Mom’s hand and ran towards me. I leant down wrapping her in a giant hug. The tears that stung my eyes fell down my cheeks as I held her tightly.

After a minute I picked her up and turned around to look for where my Mom had gone. I spotted her behind me holding onto JJ as he sobbed into her shoulder, my heart broke even more when I realized that JJ’s dad hadn’t even bothered to show up. I walked a few steps forward to wrap my free arm around JJ. We all stood holding each other, after a moment Kie and Pope joined our group as we all huddled together.

We were all a little broken without John B but we knew we had each other and for now that was enough.

🔅🔆🔅

#outerbanks #outer banks #jj maybank #jj obx #obx #jj x oc #jj maybank x oc #jj x reader #jj maybank x reader

71 notes · View notes

roberttchase · 3 years

Note

Brettsey prompt - established brettsey relationship and jealous Sylvie.

Have some cute Brettsey with kids! They are from my Must Love Dog series. This is set in the future. I will be writing more with them but for now, have a tiny little sliver.

At four, almost five years old, Adelaide Casey is going to be the death of Matt. Whether it’s from her curious, independent personality, or him being wrapped around her finger, he’s not sure which. It’s early; barely eight am, but the little girl has been restless since Sylvie left for her usual cycle-bar lesson, and she’s been asking for the past twenty minutes straight to go to the park.

Matt’s usually pretty good at tuning things out (he had to be when Otis and Cruz were galavanting around the firehouse), but the relentless determination his daughter seems to have woken up with is finally cutting through the barrier. That, or he just can’t say no to her. Looking at where she’s laying splayed across the couch, playing with two small animal figurines, he smiles. He sends a quick text to Sylvie, then walks over.

“Go get dressed and we can go.” The words make the tiny girl freeze, then she hops up, grinning and all but running up to her room.

They’ve been working on letting Addy dress herself more, and make more decisions, instead of just telling her. It’s definitely an ‘Addy-day’ as she so affectionately calls them, because when she reappears a few minutes later, she’s dressed herself and looks proud. Looking her over, Matt thinks it could definitely be worse. He and Sylvie have been explaining to her about the weather lately, and how to dress accordingly. It’s September, and the little black and white striped leggings with panda faces on the knees, paired with her favorite short sleeve shirt that reads ‘Jedi in Training’, should easily be enough to keep her warm.

“Can you put my hair up like Mama’s please?” Big blue eyes look up at him and Matt is amazed (as always) how much she looks like Sylvie.

“Of course. Do you think you can sit still for me long enough?” He teases, taking the hair brush and hair tie from her little hands, leading them to the living room. She sits on the coffee table while he sits on the couch behind her, brushing her wild mess of long, curly blonde hair.

“Papa, do you think Mama will wanna to get a donut after? She’ll be real hungry from the bike, right?”

Matt snorts as the hair tie hangs loosely between his teeth, pulling her hair up before catching it all with it, pulling it through to make a ponytail.

“She might be. Are you still hungry? We have more oatmeal and banana,” he offers, knowing exactly what game she’s playing at. He can’t help the smile taking over his face.

“No! I’m allll full. Jus’worried ‘bout Mama.”

“It’s very sweet of you to worry. When she finishes and meets us at the park you can ask,” Matt suggests, kissing her head. “You ready to head out, Chief?”

“Yes sir!” She gives him a mock salute and he laughs, following her to put their shoes on.

“Can we take Beau? I’ll walk him!” She freezes in the middle of the hallway, making Matt stumble.

“...we can. But only if he wants to go. Go find him and ask okay?” Another thing they’ve been working on- everyone has feelings, even animals. You have to ask before assuming someone wants to do something.

Moments later, while Matt’s pulling on his Nikes, Addy comes back with Beau trailing her, little nub wagging wildly. Matt nods and grabs Beau’s leash off of the hook near the door to the garage, handing it to her. She clips it on and grabs her sunglasses, another new development lately.

“Let’s head out. We can go to the park a few blocks away, yeah? The one with the tire swing?” When he gets an excited smile and wiggle, Matt lets her out into the front yard and locks up.

The walk doesn’t take long, and Matt, as always, is impressed with how well she walks their little frenchie. They get to the park that’s blissfully empty, though he’s not surprised. It’s early enough most kids are just waking up. He’s sure that Andy, their two year old, is just waking up with his Aunt Stella, Uncle Kelly, and their three year old (his best friend) Jackson. Sleepovers with the two are common, enough so that they know they’ll happen twice a week. Addy prefers Cruz’s twins, even if they’re almost two years older than her. Beau starts sniffing around near Matt, extending his leash to the longest it can be.

“Want me to come with you, or do you want to explore and play alone for a bit?” Options, Matt reminds himself, as his daughter thinks them over.

“Alone, but together later?”

“Of course. Go play.” With a smile, Matt watches Addy run over to the large structure, climbing up the little fake rock wall. They’ve come a long way from three months prior, when she was scared to do it on her own. Now she’s handling it like it’s nothing, and Matt couldn’t be more proud. Around ten minutes later, a mom and her two girls who seem to be around Addy’s age appear, and within seconds all three girls are talking and playing.

“They seem to be getting along,” the mom, a red head says, walking over. “Normally Katie’s pretty shy, but she seems to be warming up to your daughter quickly. I’m Elise.”

Matt’s never been one to just talk to other parents, that’s Sylvie’s specialty. He’s of course capable of making small talk, but his reserved nature makes him weary of it. Giving the woman a smile, he nods.

“Addy’s pretty quick to make friends,” he supplies, not fully sure he even wants to give her name out, but it seems rude not to. The girls look well adjusted enough, and his paranoia is put to rest when he sees their features resemble the woman’s next to him. “Matt, nice to meet you,” he adds. Beau snorts and Matt can’t help but laugh. “And this is Beau.”

They talk about their kids, and Matt’s unsure if he’s imagining it; he’s never been good at picking up signals, but it feels like Elise is flirting with him. He’s suddenly, acutely aware he doesn’t have his wedding ring on, doesn’t have it at all, actually. An accident a few months back involving cribbing being dropped on his hand and swelling had resulted in his ring finger swelling enough they’d had to cut his ring off. He definitely needs to get it replaced.

As the minutes tick by, Matt relaxes a bit. Elise is nice enough, and maybe she really is just being friendly. He can’t imagine her flirting with her kids so near by. Or...maybe not. The redhead is inching closer to him on the bench, and the firefighter tries not to look uncomfortable. Before he can say anything else, he hears Addy yell ‘mama’ at the top of her lungs. Looking up, Matt sees Sylvie walking towards them, breathtakingly beautiful. Though she may have just come from spin class, she’s still the prettiest woman in the world, blue eyes bright and smile wide.

Elise, for her part, looks only slightly thrown for a loop. He watches her smile tighten as Sylvie walks over. There’s something unreadable in her expression that Matt can’t quite place.

“Hey sweetheart,” Matt stands and presses a kiss to her cheek.

“Hey love. Hi! I’m Sylvie, Matt’s wife. Nice to meet you.”

Elise’s eyes are calculating, then she huffs. “Elise.”

Watching the interaction, Matt feels like he’s missing something, but with the way Sylvie is suddenly eyeing the woman, he thinks that maybe his first assumption of Elise flirting with him was right. By now, Addy’s next to them, clambering to try and get into Sylvie’s arms, one of her favorite places to be. Sylvie, while still reaching down to hold her, keeps eye contact with the other mom, cocking an eyebrow.

“I think we’d better get going,” Elise informs them, when her twins start making their way over. When Sylvie doesn’t reply, Matt speaks up.

“It was great meeting you!”

“Likewise Matt.”

When the family is walking off, he turns back to his wife, looking at her curiously. “What was that?”

“She was flirting with you, and needed to be put in her place.”

Matt’s not sure what to do with the information that Sylvie is jealous, and not only that, she’s adorable when she’s jealous, like a grumpy cat.

“Mama, can we go get donuts? You must be reaaallll hungry after workin’ out….”

#my fic #prompts #matt casey #sylvie brett #brettsey #mld

43 notes · View notes

chews-erotically · 4 years

Photo

Waxing Gibbous

Pairing: Ezra + femNurse! Reader

Rating: Hard M / 18+ ONLY

* Warnings: Angst/ mentions of childhood trauma/ mention of domestic abuse, violence/ killing both in- and unintentional/ SMUT/ hand job/ fingering/ mentions of partner-sharing, threesomes/ PTSD/ nightmares

* Summary: Confessions of sin and of desires.

* Word Count: ~2200

*Part ONE* *Part TWO* *Part THREE* *Part FOUR* *Part FIVE**Part SIX* *Part SEVEN* *Part EIGHT* *Part NINE* *Part TEN* *Part ELEVEN* *Part TWELVE*

PART THIRTEEN

The weather on Central turned cool as the months stretched on. You’d realized after the bar that you had perhaps pushed too far, too soon. You’d both retreated back to the sanctuary of your home to regroup. The insidious nightmares continued for you, though nowhere near the level of intensity of the first. You continued to sleep with the lights on, limbs entangled with Ezra’s. You held on to one another, fingers drifting over pulse points, entwining fingers and legs. Two halves of some damaged whole.

You’d found some solace in cooking. You had gone so long without anything more than the nutritionally dense, yet bland and uninspired nutribars and ration packs that you were desperate to experiment. It was slow going at first, but Ezra was far from selective with what he’d eat. He devoured everything you put in front of him, even burnt and strangely seasoned. He offered profuse compliments that expounded upon his good fortune in having found someone so willing to graciously cook for him. It always made you snort, but you appreciated the fact that he was supportive.

Ezra had begun writing an autobiography of sorts. You often heard his dictation well into the stretch of your afternoons, his voice animating into flights of vivid imagery and florid, expounding descriptions. He dictated, but he also typed, pecking with the pointer fingers of each hand. You knew that when he was typing he was not to be disturbed. He never said it outright, but you knew that he typed because he could not bring to life the horrors he’d both witnessed and committed, he could not convince himself to speak of things he’d done that would shake the foundations of a kinder man’s moral compass.

You were not privy to those thoughts. You stayed away, you respected his need to keep that part of him tucked away. You knew it was his way of working through it, of processing the deeds that had led him to what seemed in the reaches of his mind to be an unearned reward. He would tell you in his own time, you did not press or push him as you knew better than most how fragile peace of mind could be. You would allow him any indulgence that may work to keep the dreams away.

When Ezra had a nightmare, you were most often awoken by a keening whine between clenching teeth. He did not thrash as you did, rather he’d lie beside you as if paralyzed. You had to talk to him to bring him back, coaxing his rigid muscles to loosen with careful, even strokes of your palms across his limbs and torso.

“Come back to me, love. You’re not back there. You’re here with me.”

He would reemerge from his fathomless depths gasping, and reach out to you, winding his limbs through yours as a thistle seeks to weave itself into the wind that caresses it.

You moved your hand to his chest, felt the frantic pounding beneath his breast. Like a trapped bird desperate to escape. You smoothed your fingers across the expanse of his bare chest, his skin warm and alive, thrumming. Present. And then lower, rubbed against the soft curve of his belly as its panicked heaving incrementally slowed.

Lower still to the soft curls beneath his navel. Your fingers wove through the hair, teasing the skin with your nails. Ezra huffed, eyes fluttering. He turned his head toward you, knocking his forehead against yours.

“My Dove….the succubi had their talons hooked into my tattered soul once again, I’m afraid.”

You leaned forward and kissed him softly. His hitching exhale made its home within your mouth.

“Is there nothing I can do to take this away, Ezra? Nothing I can offer you that will soothe you?”

Your finger dipped down, lightly tracing the curve of his half-hard cock. You felt it twitch, followed by Ezra’s sharp intake of breath.

“The demons that consume the nether regions of my addled mind cannot be placated so easily, Dove. The things I have done, the wretched life I’ve lived would leave you without thought of staying. My greatest fear is your discovering the nefarious deeds of my past, of learning exactly who it is that you lie willingly next to in this bed.”

“I know who I lie next to, Ezra. I lie next to a man who decided to trust me, who gave me my voice back and showed me that I am worthy of love. That will never change. No matter what sins you’ve committed, I can stop loving you no more than I can keep the moon from waxing and waning.” Your hand encircled his length, rubbing gently. You trailed kisses across his shoulder as he gasped. He reached a hand to cover yours, stilling your actions momentarily. He paused for what seemed an impossibly long beat, seeming to consider his next words to you.

“When I was a child in Louisiana we were poor. Mama worked three jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. My father was a drunk, shiftless sonofabitch. He put his hands on Mama and on me and Isaiah like clockwork when his life did not go his way. It did not go his way often. One night, he was really workin’ Mama over something awful. Isaiah was out in the shed fiddlin’ with an old transistor we found earlier that day at the salvage yard. I was alone in the house and Father had his hands around Mama’s neck.

“She was strugglin’ and kicking at his knees, wherever she could reach, but Father wouldn’t stop. When he maneuvered close enough to the root cellar I saw my chance. I ran and I screamed, as loud as I could, and I shoved up against Father with all of the force I could muster. A meager show, to be sure, but Father was well on his way to obliterated by that time. He was just unsteady enough on his feet to topple forward down the steps. I heard his neck snap like a twig and he was dead before he hit the dirt. Mama and I told Isaiah it was an accident. But the truth is, Dovie, I took a life for the first time when I was nine years old.”

Your hand raised from his groin to cup his cheek, your throat constricting around the lump forming there.

“You were just a little boy, Ezra, scared for his Mama. You were protecting her. He may have killed her that day, if not for you.”

His eyes narrowed, his voice thick with emotion. “That day set my path. I knew that I was not fortunate. I hated that I didn’t have what others were so freely given. I was born under a bad star, under an awning of misfortune. I was determined from that day forward to do whatever it took to survive. Kill, maim, steal. I have sold my soul a million times over to ensure my own victory in all my ensuing endeavors.”

When he paused to collect his thoughts further, your hand drifted back down to his groin. He was now fully erect, and you felt the precum beading at the tip of his cock. He was hot, unbelievably so, and his eyes squeezed shut with a low groan as you swept your thumb through the slick of his crown. His head tipped back into his pillow. He resumed his confessions with a straining voice.

“Later on, when Isaiah and I began prospecting as a means of finding our fortunes, we often found ourselves on the wrong end of an underhanded deal. We were green, and we were easy marks. We were swindled, robbed and double-crossed more than I care to admit, Dove. It took me a fair amount of time to become just as ruthless as those who would venture to hoodwink myself and my partner. The first time I killed on a job, it was a woman who thought she could bewitch and seduce me. Isaiah had overheard her plans with her partner to satiate my carnal desires before making off with my haul in the dead of night. I saw the knife in her hand as she tried her best to take my cock down her throat. I wrested it from her and used it to penetrate her chest. The third intercostal space of the ribcage houses an anatomical landmark known as Erb’s Point. Her own weapon found its home at the apex of her heart, and she bled out summarily.”

His breathing was becoming more shallow, his exhales more explosive as you continued to stroke him as he spoke, reaching every so often lower still to cup and gently roll his balls, which were steadily drawing themselves up, tightening against his tensing body. He canted his hips up into the air as you worked him. He rasped out a stuttering groan and panted up into the ceiling before whipping his head toward you, turning his body onto its side in the bed beside yours.

“You know by now….”

(gasp)

“Isaiah was stabbed and left to die in an alley. It was the work of that woman’s partner. While I…”

(groan)

“While a did heartily mourn the loss of my only sibling, I could not….Kevva, girl….I could not begrudge him his need for karmic justice.”

You brought your palm to your mouth, licked a wide, lascivious stripe from the base of your palm to the tips of your fingers. Ezra’s hand found your hip and squeezed. His eyes were dark, lust-filled and far away. He was lost in his reverie while consumed with your ministrations.

“Keep going, sweetheart,” you soothed to him, nipping at the junction of his neck and shoulder. “I’ll take it from you. Don’t hold it back..”

He answered with a full-body shudder, teeth catching his lip. He swelled and twitched and leaked into your eager hand; you knew he was close. He canted his lips to the cusp of your ear, breath hitching, stirring the hair there like chaffs of wheat in summer wind.

“I found...myself alone and so I was available to partner up with whomever I could find that I deemed beneficial on my various excursions. I...fuck, I….found myself attached to a most open arrangement related to a job I signed up for on the Pug. A married couple, male and female. They….they both took a shine to my proselytizing, indeed they each became in short order equally enamored with...other more physical aspects of my prowesssweetmother….”

His canting hips began an erratic stutter as your hand squeezed and stroked and twisted around his turgid cock. Your own breath became thick and shallow, a pool of arousal collecting at your center that you soon felt drooling onto the flesh of your inner thighs. You nipped at his jawline as his eyes fluttered shut, eyebrows knit together, mouth open as he embraced the divine sensations you were giving him.

“Ezra….” you moaned against him. “Ezra, did you fuck them? Tell me how you fucked them…”

“Always….shit….always together. That was the agreement. His cock in my mouth, her mouth on my cock… oh my gods sweetheart I’m close….he’d eat her pussy while I fucked his tight ass….she...fuck meee...she loved a hard cock in her cunt and in her ass at the same tiiiimme…..oh Jesus Dove FUCK.”

His hips thrust and stuttered, his balls drawn taut and tight as he spilled into your hand. He buried his face in your neck and moaned, whimpered, as his seed came forth hot and thick to paint your palm and fingers.

When he finally stilled, you brought the mess he’d made to your lips and made a show of licking every finger before lapping at your palm to clean it thoroughly.

Ezra’s fingers found themselves parting your soaked, swollen folds as you gasped against his mouth, your tongue licking in to caress his teeth, to tangle with the slick velvet of his own talented instrument.

“I want that, Ezra,” you groaned against his hot mouth. “I want that with you...I want you to watch me while I lick a cunt. I want to gag on someone else’s cock for you. Perform for you. I want to watch you get fucked in that beautiful ass….” you keened as two of his fingers entered your twitching, weeping hole. Ezra watched your face, eyes wide and mouth open, as he processed the frantic, lust-soaked words that spilled from your lips unabashed in their filth.

“Is that what you desire my love? To explore the whims of the Satyr, to share the pleasure of other willing bodies with one another?”

“Fuck yes, Ezra…” you sobbed against his flexing bicep as his fingers and palm worked you toward your own rapid petit mort.

“Kevva wept, Dove, then you shall have it.”

tag list: @ifimayhaveaword, @rzrcrst, @absurdthirst, @cinewhore, @hopelikethesun, @yespolkadotkitty, @sin-djarin, @lackofhonor, @din-damn-djarin, @mrpascals, @theocatkov, @thefineandnobleartofavoidance, @hellojustheretolookatmeemees, @cyaredindjarin, @im-like-reallythirsty, @mstgsmy, @goldafterglow, @givemethatgold, @shaqbutt, @sirianisrock, @artemiseamoon, @thatreclusewriter, @scribbledghost, @f0rever15elf, @opheliaelysia, @qveenbvtch, @hdlynn, @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa, @spacegayofficial, @ezraslittlebirdie, @ezrasarm, @ezraslittleblondestreak, @tintinwrites, @kindablackenedsuperhero, @darthadeline, @alexisinorbit, @knittingqueen13, @lueurnotes, @xakilicious, @keeper0fthestars, @huliabitch, @di-kut, @zombieaurora, @corrupt-fvcker, @cryptkeepersoul, @teaofpeach, @thestreamergirl, @frannyzooey, @mndalorians, @sistasarah-sallysaidso, @autumnleaves1991-blog, @heatherbel, @the-feckless-wonder, @millllenniawrites, @revolution-starter, @melon-eyes

#chews-erotically #chews-erotically writes #ezra fic #ezra x reader #ezra prospect #Waxing Gibbous

79 notes · View notes

sammy-gvf · 4 years

Text

We get along (for the most part)

Chapter 2

OC X Lee Bodecker

———————————-

Warnings- a little angst and cursing.

Plot- The local rebel badass girl and Lee Bodecker have had run ins, lets see how it goes, shall we?

Word count : 2,705

MINORS DNI! THIS STORY WILL EVENTUALLY GET 18+. PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS. I DO NOT FEEL LIKE GETTING IN TROUBLE FOR YOU BEING STUPID. THANKS.

CHAPTER ONE IS PINNED ON MY PROFILE!

Sunday morning.

Slowly, I woke from my slumber hoping that I slept through church. Unfortunately, the sound of footsteps coming towards my door tells me differently. Knocking at the door, I hear a quiet voice come through the crack of my door.

“Maggy, are you up? Mamas goin have a fit if you aint up for church.”

That's my brother John, he is always there to wake me up on sundays. He enjoys going to church. I’m not really into it, i usually try to go back to sleep but my parents barely ever let me sleep through church, small town equals gossip. No matter what you do, someone is always talking about you. Sat the wrong way? Gossiped about. Sneezed during church? Gossiped about. Literally anything you do is talked about among the town residents. I was the talk of the town when I was in high school, everyone knew I was sneakin around with Arvin. No one liked it obviously, bein called every name in the book. I didn't care clearly, it didn't bother me or Arvin.

I groan and slowly get out of bed, stretching and looking out of my window. It's a beautiful sunny day in Knockemstiff, I never thought I would ever describe this run down town like that, it's quite beautiful here though. Open fields for miles, I could see why no one would want to leave. I mean in old age, you could just do anything with your land and live off it.

Getting up, I feel my feet hit the cold wood floor of my room. Everyday, I hope I don't get a splinter from the floor so I wear slippers throughout the house. I head to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. My hair is disheveled and almost out of the bun that I had it in the night before, my eyebrows are out of place and the bags underneath my eyes are prominent. I sigh and splash some cold water on my warm face. I grab my toothbrush and go for it, spitting out the toothpaste and flashing my teeth in the mirror to make sure I didn't miss a spot.

I heard my parents and brother moving around pretty quickly so I looked at the clock near my bed. It's 9:30 am, church starts in about 20 minutes and it takes 10 to get there. Quickly, I put my hair in a low bun, slapped on some powder and a plain lip color, a rose color to compliment my fair skin. Hopping around, I grab a plain flowy blue dress that goes up to about the middle of my thigh and a pair of white keds, quick and simple.

I step out of my room and grab my clutch so I have something to hold while in church, I usually can't keep my hands still. I shut the door behind me and head out to the living room to see everyone quickly eating some toast off their plates in the kitchen, I hop over and steal a piece of toast and bacon off Johns plate and then we are out the door.

Hopping in my dads truck, the ride there is quiet. We don't talk much in my family, only at dinner once and a while and sometimes when my father drinks. Which is only when he is done work on Fridays. I make sure I'm out of the house on fridays, he never stops talking when he is drinking. My parents and I have never been that close really, kind of an unspoken family thing. Mother stays quiet and does her motherly duties as us women are expected to do once we pop out a few puppies. I refuse to be like that.

The ride to church is scenic,open fields for miles and so many animals to look at. I enjoy the breeze coming through my hair but I just wish it was from me driving my car out somewhere I have never been. Like maybe California, it's probably beautiful. I have never been to a beach, as a matter of fact I've never been out of Knockemstiff before. I envy everyone who leaves this place and never comes back. As soon as I can get out of here, I will. I swear on everything I love.

The car stops and I get out, my feet hitting the dirt road below me. My keds are gonna need a cleaning after this. Stepping around the car, I separate from my family and hop around the back of the church to smoke a quick cig before I go through the church doors to act like I'm holy for 2 hours.

Stepping to the left side of the church, I put my clutch on a bush and grabbed a cigarette from the pack stuffed in my bag. Quickly I light it and suck on it as quickly as I possibly can to just get a moment to myself. Looking out into the distance, I always forget that the cemetery is this close to the church. Graves for as far as the eyes can see. That distracted me to the point where I forgot how quick I was smoking and ended up inhaling too much smoke at one time, leading me to cough quite loud. I throw the cigarette on the floor below my foot and crush it quickly.

I hear an oh so familiar voice in the distance as I finish my coughing fit.

“ Ms. Lane, what a pleasure to see you on this fine sunday.” He says, walking towards me with his fingers hooked around the belt loops of his pants.

Same uniform everyday, never fails.

“Say, what are you doin here behind the church all by your lonesome? “ Lee says as he stands next to me, I can smell the tobacco and mint on him the same as I did last night. I look over at Lee with an exhausted look on my face from the coughing fit I just had.

Lee looks down at the ground and a grin forms on his face, sneaky bastard never misses a beat.

“Ms.Lane-” Lee begins to say and I stop him

“Please, for the love of christ call me Maggy. I am not 16 anymore, Lee.” You say as you start to walk past him. He grabs your arm and stops you.

“Maggy Lane, just know I know about your little reputation.” Lee says as he still has you by the arm, kind of digging his nails into your soft skin as you try to pull away a bit.

“As a matter of fact, I was there when you began your little shenanigans. Be careful of how you talk to your sheriff, little lady.” You look at him in disgust as he tries to intimidate you.

“ Also, I told you those cigarettes was bad news, you're lucky I don't stop on over and talk to your pop about your little habit.” Lee says with a smirk on his face. You finally wiggle out of his grip, your arm dropping to your side with crescent shaped marks on your arm. You rub the spots where Lee's fingers were just digging into your upper arm.

Looking up at him, he tips his hat at you and starts to walk away. You spit on the ground near his feet and he turns around on his feet, quick.

“ I hope you know you're a prick, Bodecker.” You spit out at him.

Immediately, you are backed up against the wood boards of the church, both of Lee's arms on either side of your head. Your heart is racing and your breath is hitching. You're frozen.

“Listen to me, you little bitch.” Lee inches closer to your face, your noses almost touching. You turn your head to the side hoping that he won't really notice but he grabs your face and holds it so you are looking him directly in the eyes.

“Your little mouth will get you in trouble, especially with me.” Your breath hitches as he gets closer. Your heart could explode. You were terrified.

“ Lee, church is starting. We better get in there before we miss anything” A voice in the distance yells.

Instantly, Lee lets you go and strides back to the unknown voice.

You stand there with a shocked look on your face, as if you had just seen the devil up close. You were frozen in your current position but as soon as people started going in the building you sank to your feet and sat there for a minute breathing heavily. You fixed yourself up and stood outside the door of the old church, taking a deep breath before going in and finding your seat next to your family.

Church dragged on and on, I felt like I was going to fall asleep. A screaming preacher, so many people in such a small space. Half way through, I got up to go to the bathroom and caught Lee staring at me and he gave me a small smirk. Creep.

Stepping into the bathroom, I look at my face in the mirror. It's still slightly red from where Lee had his disgusting hand around my chin. I pushed on the spot and it felt like it was going to bruise.

“ Fuck” I whispered to myself as I turned my head side to side to look at the red around my lips and on my chin. This is for sure going to bruise.

I splash some water on my face to refresh myself and then I step out of the bathroom to bump into something in front of me.

“Shit, I am so sorry” You say as you back up into the oak door and look at the person in front of you.

“ Oh, no worries hun.” the woman in front of you says.

You look at her quickly as you step aside, sticking out your hand and you say “I don't think I have met you before, I’m Maggy Lane.”

She sticks out her hand and shakes yours firmly, she is a very pretty woman with short brown curly hair.

Thin and very well put together, can't be more than 25 years old.

“ It’s very nice to meet you sweetheart, I’m Ruth Har- I mean Bodecker.” She says smiling as she pulls her hand back from the handshake and puts it back on her clutch bag.

“You the sheriff's wife?” you say as you cock your head to the side questioningly.

“Yes, I am.” she smiles, “ We've been married now for about a year, a very fine man he is.” She says as she steps aside to talk to you for a minute before she steps into the bathroom.

You were shocked, Lee actually was married? He was such an asshole, you didn't think anyone would want him. As you had said the previous night, you would tell his wife if he had called you another pet name but she looks so sweet. He doesn't deserve her. You had just said that assumin he even had a woman at home.

“ Thats nice, say you ain't from around here, are ya?” You say in a little southern drawl, she aint from these parts. You can tell by the way she says certain words.

“ No darlin, i'm from Tennessee.” she smiled “Met Lee out there while I was workin in a bar.” she blushed a bit.

“ Huh, well look at that.” you say as you cross your arms and lean against the doorframe of the bathroom. “ Lee does get out of town then.”

She chuckles and you look at the time, church is going to be over soon.

“ Well, it was very nice meeting you, Mrs.Bodecker.” You say as you turn your back and start walking towards the stairs to go back to the chapel area.

“ You too, darlin.” She says waving at you.

“ See you around” You say as you head back up the stairs.

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

Chapter 2 already? I’m crankin shit out lol

Hope yous like it so far! Dont forget to leave opinons/replys and as always dont forget to like/reblog!

tag list : @ladyfallonavenger

@please-buckme

@youcancallmeishita

@unsentlettersandmore

@angelicbabydolll

@local-spacegirl

@do-not-pray-for-me

@not-another-fangirl

@nerdy-depressed

@buckysdolls

#sheriff lee bodecker #lee bodecker #chapter #the devil all the time #sebastian stan #tdatt fic #tdatt fanfiction #ongoing fic

20 notes · View notes

ts-unpopular-opinions · 4 years

Text

Side Tracks opinions part 1: Janus

(Yes I’m staring with Janus and going backwards, I just need to talk about this snake man right now!)

Alright, I’ve seen lots of people give their takes on each of the sides playlists, and honestly... I feel like they’re not all that similar to my interpretations. I mean yes anyone can interpret the songs how they’d like, but some people just flat out ignore canon to see the songs as their ship instead of what I believe they are actually meant to be seen as. Anyways... Janus! Yes let’s go through each song one by one 💛

1) Black Hole Sun: I’ll admit this one was hard for me. The song is obviously so Janus, with plenty of references to snakes and lying, but I can’t seem to put a finger on the exact meaning. If I had to guess, it’s showing Janus’ fist instance of fearing society. He’s realized that the world is not a safe place for Thomas and no one can be trusted (“Times are gone for honest men” “no one sings like you anymore”). He longs for the ignorance of childhood when society didn’t seem to pose a threat and Thomas wasn’t aware of the dangers and lies it held, but he knows that someone has to protect him from it, and that is Janus (“my youth I pray to keep” “hang my head, drown my fear”).

2) Seemed the Better Way: To me, this is a song about Janus knowing his place as a dark side and knowing that the others will not listen to him (“I better hold my tongue” “better take my place”). He initially trusts the core sides to do what needs to be done and take care of Thomas adequately, but when he realizes that it isnt enough, he finds it hard to keep in hiding (“Seemed the better way” “now it’s much too late to turn the other cheek”).

3) Anywhere: A BIG middle finger to society (“It’s a beautiful world, if youve been lied to” “No no no, nothing in this world is beautiful”). Janus basically trusts no one in society, not even the people closest to Thomas because he believes that everyone will do whatever it takes to get what they want (“Every man standing on another man’s back”). He also believes that society has been a huge detriment to Thomas and, AGAIN, is very dangerous (“It’s the world’s excuse for being disfigured and lying to you”).

4) Talking at the same time: This song is about Virgil. The song begins with explaining that a hard time for one person can be a triumph for another in multiple different metaphors (“Umbrellas cost more in the rain” “hard times for some, for others its sweet” “someone makes money when theres blood in the street”). The next part of the song practically shoves it in your face that it’s about virgil leaving (“Well she told me she would leave me, I ignored all the signs” “I know you're leaving and there's no more next time”). Janus was clearly hurt by Virgil leaving and it seems like he was almost in denial about it happening. A line near the end of the song that I found particularly interesting was “Well we bailed out all the millionaires, They've got the fruit, We've got the rind”. This line to me shows that Janus and the other dark sides let Virgil go, possibly in an attempt to get all of the dark sides accepted. Virgil capitalized on this opportunity and of course, got accepted, however, he left the others behind. Despite wanting Virgil to get accepted by the light sides, Janus remains bitter that Virgil was the only one. Virgil got the fruit, and the rest of the dark sides got the rind.

5) All the Good Girls go to Hell: Janus believes that Thomas needs to listen to him if he is going to stay safe and healthy. He thinks that his assistance, above all other sides, expecially Patton, is crucial for survival in this messed up world. (“And once the water starts to rise, And heaven's out of sight, She'll want the devil on her team” “Look at you needing me”). You’ll find it a common theme in this playlist that Janus refers to himself as the devil or an evil entity of some sort... Just thought I’d point that out.

6) Denial: Well, its in the title folks! Thomas is (or was) in denial. Janus is aware of the moments when Thomas thinks about consulting him or using one of his functions, but almost as soon as he gets the idea, he drops it and acts like the thought never happened (“Don't just shut your eyes closed” “You know that I can hear you thinking, I've heard you all the way from here, But if I look you in the eye though, It's like your thoughts all disappear”). Thomas is struggling for answers to questions that only Janus can answer, but he refuses to listen to consult him and Janus desperately wants this to stop (“I know you're looking for direction, I know where you wanna go” “Please don't turn the light out, I don't think the conversation's over”).

7) Trust in Me: Obviously, the original song has much more sinister undertones, but when listening to the song from Janus’ perspective, I get a different vibe. Basically, Janus just wants Thomas to trust him and give him more reign over decision making. Not much for this one.

8) Razzle Dazzle: JANUS IS EXTRA! Is anyone shocked? Also a HUGE showman. But again, no one’s surprised. Janus believes that the only way to get the light sides to listen to him is to practically put on a show to cover up whatever his true intentions are (“How can they see with sequins in their eyes?” “Razzle dazzle 'em And theyll never catch wise!” “How can they hear the truth above the roar?”) I could keep listing lines but theyre literally all just different versions of the same sentiment.

9) When the Chips are Down: The title right off the bat shows that, again, Janus believes that Thomas needs to look to him when important decisions are on the line. There are also a lump sum of jabs at patton in this song, lines like “Aim for the heart, shoot to kill” and “Cast your eyes to heaven, You get a knife in the back”. Theres also a lot of lines, yet again, of Janus practically begging Thomas to trust him and no one else (“Ain't nobody but yourself to trust” “Help yourself, To hell with the rest, Even the one who loves you best”).

10) Mandy goes to Med School: Soooo this one... Honestly, I don’t really have a lot. The original meaning of the song is not very applicable to Janus, so its a bit hard to pinpoint its meaning. The only thing I can think of is that Janus is again hating on society and the crazy things that people have to go through in it. If you weren’t aware, this song is about coat-hanger abortions.

11) I put a Spell on You: This one seems pretty striaghtforward to me. Janus knows that Thomas doesn’t want him, and it drives him up the wall, but he does what a snake boi does and slithers his way in anyways (“And I don't care if you don't want me, I'm yours right now” “I can't stand it 'cause you put me down”). I suppose you could argue that you could replace Thomas with Patton (mostly because daddy is used like 10 times in the song 😂) but a later song covers their realtionship extremely well.

12) Evil Night Together: Another toughie. My gut feeling is that this is a song about Remus and Janus just going out and having a wild night together. As I read into the lyrics more, though, it seems almost like Janus is doing this for Remus. Like he wants Remus to feel accepted and loved by him (something that can’t be said by Thomas). I just can’t read some of these lines without getting big Momceit vibes... i mean... theyre so supportive! “I'll hold your hand while they drag the river” “I'll cuddle you in the undertow” “I'll hold you close while they dust for prints”. Then theres of course this line... “Who's gonna make you a hero?” And to me, that is Janus saying that, if Thomas only sees Roman as his hero and not Remus, then it is Janus’ job to make Remus feel like a hero. Janus also saying “No need for cake or flowers” also feels like him reassuring Remus that he doesn’t need to be like his brother to be perfect and loved.

13) Don’t tell Mama: I think I’ve seen some people interpreting “mama” as Thomas in this song, but to me Patton seems like a better fit, especially after their interactions in the most recent episode. Basically this song is all about how Janus doesn’t mind people knowing about the bad things he does, but he can absolutely not have one person know. Janus seems to have grown a soft spot for Patton in the new episode and if you ask me, he would definately not want patton finding out about some of immoral things he’s wanted Thomas to do. I mean he literally waits for Patton to sink out and then the second he’s gone he starts scheming about pushing people down stairs and sabotage.

14) You’re a Cad: Another Virgil one, but this time it’s after Virgil’s acceptance. I think Janus has little faith in the beginning that Virgil would get far in his journey to the light side. Whether that is because of envy or just plain pessimism, I’m not sure, but he definately doubted Virgil would ever be able to escape his past (“So now you want the whole world to notice that you've come around, Now you expect, We'll see how you're really so much better now, But I know the truth” “What's the point pretending that you could be a better man, Just give in, since you always end up right back where you began”). Despite his reluctance to support Virgil’s endevors, Janus shows a softer side for Virgil that has gone completely untalked about in canon (“You're a rascal and a rogue, a villain and a crook, Still I tug at your line, I'm a fish on your hook” “Still I know the truth, but I have a sweet tooth for a Cad and a bounder, a dog and a cheap”). Janus really misses Virgil and I would go as far as to say that he regrets the things that he’s done to make Virgil want to leave (“I should be better, but I'm worse” “You're reckless with my heart, still I wait by the phone”).

15) As far as I can See: A sadie but a goodie. Janus doesn’t really understand love, but he’s sure that no one loves him (“As far as I can see Nobody loves me”). No one listens to him, no matter how much he shouts and cries. He doesn’t believe that anyone could love him if they are unwilling to hear him out and communicate with him (“As far as I can see, Nobody's listening” “And when I'm crying out, Nobody cries back for me”).

16) Criminal: AH MY FAVORITE SONG ON THE PLAYLIST! I LEGIT CRIED MY GUYS! Anyway. Janus LOVES Thomas. I would go as far to say that Janus loves Thomas more than any other side. Despite his lacking knowledge of love and what it feels like, he knows for a fact that what he feels for Thomas is the closest thing he will feel to love (“Because he's all I ever knew of love”). Now that thats out of the way, lets get to the juicy stuff... Janus feels like a criminal as he’s been taught over and over again that his opinions and thoughts are bad and harmful (“Cause I'm feelin' like a criminal” “I've done wrong and I wanna suffer for my sins”) This song is ultimately about Janus wanting to improve for Thomas, the one he loves the most. He knows that Thomas needs him, and the only way to get Thomas to listen is to get some help. Whose that help you might ask? Patton. Janus wants to be more helpful, but he doesnt know how. He’s envious of Patton’s ability to be accepted so easily, so he goes to him for advice (“I've come to you cause I need guidance to be true, And I just don't know where I can begin”). Janus wants to be redeemed in Thomas’ eyes, he wan’ts to escape the criminal appearance he’s been doomed to (“And I need to be redeemed, To the one I've sinned against”). He HATES some of the things he does to Thomas and some of the things he makes him think, but he doesn’t want to be forgiven, he believes that he deserves to be punished, but he still wants to get better for Thomas. He just doesn’t know how to do that (“Oh help me, but don't tell me to deny it, I've got to cleanse myself Of all these lies til I'm good enough for him”). Also, Janus sees Patton in a very very high place. He goes as far in this song to liken him to an angel while comparing himself, again, to the devil (“So what would an angel say, The devil wants to know”).

17) Change: The song is about, you guessed it, change! This to me is a continuation of the last song. Janus finally feels like things are changing in his favor (likely after the most recent episode). He was beginning to feel like there was no point in caring or trying, but now that he’s begining to see the light, he’s grown a bit hopeful (“Lately I've been thinking it's just someone else's job to care, Who am I to sympathize when no one gave a damn?” “Trying to find the power in me to be faithful” “Change is a powerful thing, I feel it coming in me”). With Patton’s help and acceptance, Janus is begining to feel worthy of Thomas again and begining to see the he has a voice (“Maybe by the time this song is done I’ll be able to be honest, capable, Of holding you in my arms without letting you fall when I don't feel beautiful Or stable”).

18) Devil in the Details: Janus worries again about his ability to help Thomas. He doesn’t believe that he can tell the difference between good and bad and he looks to Patton for that differentiation (“There was love I meant, there were accidents, So tell me which is which. 'Cause I just can't work it out” “I have, no way, of knowing,…”). There’s also an odd underlying message about doing something that he doesn’t want to do, but continues to do despite this and I’m not quite sure what that could be referring to (“And I know the cost, and I want to stop. But I can't do it, I just can't do it.”). It could simply be referring to him lying or deceiving others, but that seems too simple. I wish I had a better answer.

19) Come Little Children: ALSO MY FAVORITE SONG ON THE PLAYLIST! This is really big guys. This song practically confirms the fact that Janus was in charge of taking in and hiding the dark sides from Thomas (“Come little children, I'll take thee away Into a land of enchantment”). The song literally uses the phrase “My garden of shadows”, a clear metaphor for the hidden parts of Thomas’ mind where Janus keeps the dark sides. But it gets better... Janus pities these poor sides. He hates the way that society has forced them away from the light and into the shadows (“Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way Through all the pain And the sorrows”). Not only does Janus feel bad for these sides and longs to protect them from the cruelness of the real world, but he LOVES them. He values every aspect of them and thinks they are beautiful and perfect. He cannot fathom why society wouldn’t also love see them this way and it frustrates him to hide such amazing traits from the world (“Weep not poor children For life is this way, Murdering beauty and passions”). Despite this sadness and dissapointment, Janus does his job and keeps the dark sides hidden away, knowing that society would never accept them for what they are (“Hush now dear children, It must be this way”).

20) Into the Unknown (no not the Frozen song): This song is VERY IMPORTANT. I have seen so many misinterpretations of this song, and granted mine could also be wrong, but please hear me out. This song comes right after the last song for a reason. The sides that Janus had once hidden away are now being shown to Thomas. He is literally going into the unknown (“Led through the mist, By the milk-light of moon, All that was lost, is revealed.” “Somewhere lost in the clouded annals of history, Lies a place that few have seen. A mysterious place, called The Unknown. Where long-forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through the wood.”) Thomas is figuratively traveling through the wood by learning more about himself and traveling deeper into Janus’ previously mentioned Garden of Shadows. The song ends, beautifully framing Janus’ love for the sides he’s raised and hidden away, calling them “ The loveliest lies of all”....

(Ahhh! I’m sorry that was so long guys 😅 Thank you if you read the whole thing or evern part! I’d like to hear your opinions, so let me know 💛💛💛)

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #ts sanders sides #ts unpopular opinions #ts janus #janus sanders #janus playlist #ts side tracks #janus’ playlist #sanders sides playlist #long post #ts sidetracks

215 notes · View notes

theajaheira · 4 years

Text

not posting this to ao3 bc the convoluted context only exists on tumblr, but here’s a mini thing i wrote today from that au where oz is dating giles and jenny’s daughter. also giles and jenny were in a band together pre-canon for a little while and have a very convoluted love story that i swear will eventually be a fic. fun times.

other things pre-fic that are fun:

ripper and jenny spent like a decade in la co-running a music store together while also raising their kids. jenny handled the actual business, ripper taught guitar classes on the side. janna is very musically gifted but teddy can’t carry a tune to save her life.

theoretically this is a version of canon where janna and buffy are the same age, and someday i will also write the fic where janna appoints herself buffy’s watcher, kicks wesley in the knees, and screams at every member of the council that comes near buffy. she’s heard enough horror stories from her dad.

“Are you nervous?”

The question took Oz by surprise. “Should I be?”

Janna didn’t answer. When he turned to look at her, he saw that she was looking out the window at what he assumed was their final destination: a relatively ordinary-looking house with the beginnings of a vegetable garden on the front lawn. “The last time I brought a guy home to meet my parents, he was super nervous,” she said. “Like, all spacey and weird. My dad was extra nice to him to compensate, but my mom kinda antagonized him a little ‘cause she thought it was funny. She probably won’t do that to you, though. I bet she’ll like you. I mean, she likes pretty much all my friends that I actually care about, and last time I brought a guy home I didn’t actually like him. Mostly it was just to show up Teddy ‘cause she’s always giving me grief about—”

Abruptly, Oz understood. Without a word, he gently tugged Janna’s clenched fists into his own hands, untangling the tightly coiled fingers to lace them with his own.

Janna exhaled. Shakily, she said, “I just really want them to like you.”

“I know,” said Oz.

“I mean really. Usually I don’t care a whole bunch, but you’re different.”

“I know,” said Oz.

“And sometimes my mom can be a little mean. Not like mean-mean, she’s just like that, it’s her way of being nice—”

Oz tugged on Janna’s hands, pulling her into a careful hug. Janna let out a nervous laugh and pressed a clumsy kiss just under his jaw. “I’m a pretty easy guy to like,” he said. “Unless your parents are the kind that don’t like it when a guy is in a band.”

“That would be totally hypocritical,” said Janna. “They were in a band.”

Processing this, Oz felt a slow smile sneak across his face. “So it’s genetic?”

Janna blinked, then smiled too. “Kinda, yeah! They ran a music store in LA till we moved. My dad’s the one who taught me how to play guitar and sing and stuff. He’s not classically trained or anything, but he takes it super seriously.”

“Your dad sounds pretty cool,” said Oz.

“He is pretty cool,” said Janna, her smile growing.

Gently, Oz tugged on Janna’s hand, then let go to open his door and get out of the car. He crossed around to open the door for her too, extending a hand to help her out. She laughed, letting him pull her out of the car, and tripped very purposefully to fall for a moment against his chest; he nudged the car door shut behind her and tugged her into a hug. “We got this, Jay,” he said, smoothing down her hair.

Though she was still very clearly nervous, Janna nodded, tucking her arm into his as they walked up the driveway. Oz rang the doorbell.

Thudding footsteps came from inside the house. Janna groaned. “Oh, no,” she muttered under her breath.

“Is this the boyfriend?” demanded a voice as the door was wrenched open. Looking down, Oz saw a small girl of about twelve surveying the two of them with interest. “I thought he’d be taller. How come he’s shorter than you? Why—”

“I am gonna punt you into next Tuesday, Teddy,” Janna threatened.

“Oh, this is Theodora?” said Oz with interest. “Pleasure.”

“At least someone has manners,” said Teddy with great dignity, turning on her heel and striding down the hall.

“Aren’t you gonna invite us in?” Janna yelled after her.

“Nope!” Teddy yelled back. “You’re probably vampires!”

“Someday I’m gonna kick her like a soccer ball and no one will ever see her again,” Janna was muttering as she yanked Oz over the threshold, roughly divesting him of his coat to hang it on a nearby coat tree. “I used to play soccer in middle school and I think I still know how to do it. Maybe I can get Buffy to do it. I bet if I kicked her really hard—”

“No kicking your sister,” came a very familiar voice.

If Oz was the kind of person whose jaw dropped, he thought it might have right then. Standing in the kitchen doorway was none other than Jenny Calendar, the original drummer for the Spitfires—the one who had toured with the band for two years before she and the lead guitarist dropped out to raise a kid. Jenny Calendar was looking between the two of them with an intrigued grin. Oz had a record with this lady’s face on it. “Uh,” he said. “What?”

“What?” said Janna, as though this was just a normal meeting between Oz and his girlfriend’s mom. “Anyway, mom, this is Oz. Oz, this is my mom, she—”

“I know who she is,” said Oz.

“Well, duh, I just told you,” said Janna. “Where’s Dad? Is he upstairs dissecting bug things for Buffy again?”

“Yeah, that was one time and I told them both they’re never doing that again. That’s my job in this house.” Jenny ruffled Janna’s hair. “Glad nothing ate you on your way here.”

“If it does, you gotta make a necklace out of my bones or something metal like that,” said Janna very seriously.

“God, you’re just like your dad,” said Jenny.

“Oh, yeah, it’s me she gets it from,” quipped Ripper, rounding the corner with Teddy on his shoulders. “Not like anyone else in this house was violent and terrifying at fifteen.”

“Okay, one, shut up. Two, no one needs to hear any of those stories. Three, shut up.” Jenny punched Ripper’s shoulder, careful to avoid jostling Teddy.

Oz was thankfully a little bit more prepared for Ripper’s entrance. If the Spitfires’ drummer was Janna’s mom, the lead guitarist pretty much had to be her dad. “Uh, hey, Janna,” he said, tugging at his girlfriend’s sleeve, “can we—talk outside for a sec?”

Janna looked a little puzzled, but acquiesced without much argument.

Shutting the door behind them, Oz said, “Your parents are Jenny and Ripper.”

“Huh?” said Janna, then, “Oh,” and then her face split open in a huge smile. “I didn’t know you knew about them! Pretty much nobody does! They left the Spitfires before the band got big, so it’s not like I bring it up a lot—”

“Okay, this makes so much sense,” said Oz.

Janna blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Your whole,” Oz waved a hand, “cool thing. It’s not just you, it’s genetic.” He grinned. “I don’t think I stood a chance.”

Janna went very pink, her smile impossibly bright. “You totally have to tell them you like their stuff,” she said. “Dad’s kinda mellow about it, but Mom has these insane stories from the years before she and Dad hooked up and she loves telling people about them.”

“Well, I’d love to hear your mom’s cool band stories,” said Oz, squeezing Janna’s hand. “Probably have a few of our own to share, right?”

“I mean, I’ve told them most of my good ones,” said Janna. “Remember that one time I broke a guitar over Devon’s head?”

“Fondly,” said Oz.

Janna snickered. “Dad’s done worse,” she said. “He was in Wretched for a little while. It was more of a Brit thing so you probably haven’t heard of it, but we have a demo album that they made and it’s soooo bad—”

“Mom wants to know when you’re coming in for dinner!” Teddy yelled from inside the house.

“IN A MINUTE!” Janna yelled back.

“We could go in now,” Oz suggested, “if you—”

Draping her arms around his neck, Janna said, “Give me a minute, Daniel.”

~~~

“Oh my god, I love him,” said Jenny delightedly. “Rupert, he knows our stuff! Does anyone ever know our stuff?”

“Janna’s last one didn’t,” said Ripper, attempting to take a forkful of casserole off his wife’s plate. Jenny whacked his fork with her knife. “Though I do think our darling Teddy psychologically broke the poor chap halfway through dessert.”

“If he was weak enough to be broken by a fifth-grader, he deserved to start crying,” said Teddy mildly. “It’s just facts.”

“She gets the mean streak from me,” said Jenny affectionately, looking at Teddy with adoring pride. “Mama’s girl.”

“They both get the mean streak from you,” said Ripper. Jenny started throwing wadded-up paper towels at him. “See?” he said, catching one of them and lobbing it back in his wife’s direction. “This. This is what I mean.”

“Your family is cool,” said Oz. “My mom’s gonna have a lot to measure up to.”

“Oh god I have to meet your mom?” squeaked Janna. “No one’s ever wanted me to meet their mom! Oh my god, you didn’t—why would I—”

“You know she’s never been this nervous about anyone she’s dated?” said Teddy conspiratorially to Oz. “I think she really likes you. Plus she writes your names together all the time on the fogged-up mirror in the bathroom and she made you a mixtape but she’s too scared to give it—”

“I’m gonna throw you out a goddamn window,” Janna hissed in Teddy’s direction. “You better believe I will.”

“Oz, you’re in a band, yeah?” said Ripper, giving Oz a little grin. “Might be nice to play sometime together, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, I would,” said Oz, and smiled back.

#fic #janna au #calendiles #ISH but they're married #(they got spontaneously married in vegas so that it would be easier to co-run a business)#anyway: yes. pls enjoy this snip. i am writing again now but it's all stuff that will take a while to see the light of day.

19 notes · View notes

smarchit · 4 years

Text

Poetry for an Heiress, Chapter 3

Word Count: 5.1k

Summary: When a duchess and her children are abandoned far from home, they must rely on the kindness of one stranger to guide them home.

Warnings: None (for this chapter)

"Mr. Ezra," Henry called ahead as you walked back to the little house. He jogged a little to keep up with the older man's stride. "Why do you only have one arm?"

Your jaw dropped. It was, you supposed, only a matter of time before one of the children asked it. The fact that it was Henry surprised you slightly, as you honestly thought Marie would ask first. "Henry Avery!" you cried in surprise. "Shame on you, I taught you better than to ask things like that."

Ezra laughed and shook his head. "It's quite alright, Princess, don't worry about it. It's actually quite an interesting story. You see, I lost it to a six-fingered man. Villainous man, you see--"

"I know that story!" Henry cried. "You're making it up!"

"Oh, you wound me," Ezra laughed. "Fine. I was battling my arch-nemesis when he cut it off and dramatically revealed that he was my real father!"

"Come on!" Aiden shouted from beside you. "We know that one too!"

"Your highness, you have very well-read children," he said, turning to face you. "It makes it extraordinarily difficult to pull the proverbial wool over their eyes. Fine then, if you must know, I lost it to pirates. One, an innocent, mind you, was protecting her hide. I admit that my injury was more than justified."

You gave Henry a look and frowned at him. He really should know better. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ezra," you said, "My children know they shouldn't ask personal things like that."

"Oh, that's quite alright," Ezra said as he opened up the front door to the house. "Inquiring minds want to know. And children tend to ask the best questions, after all."

"Tell Mr. Ezra thank you for today," you said, putting your hands behind your back. "And go upstairs and wash up. I will be up shortly." You motioned for the children to go upstairs before you turned back to Ezra. "I am so grateful for what you did today. I don't think I can ever thank you enough. You very well may have saved our lives."

Ezra tutted and waved his hand away. "I am just thankful I was there when I was. Some day, you will have to tell me how you came upon our little haven. That can be my thanks." With that, he turned and walked up the stairs, your knapsack in hand.

Once the children had finally settled down into the small guest bedroom, you slowly, silently, crept out and shut the door behind you. All you needed was for Marie to ask for her third glass of water or for one more story. You were exhausted from the day's events. There was only so much excitement you could take for one day.

You spotted Ezra across the hall in his own room, gathering up a few items to take downstairs with him. He looked up at you and smiled as he finished collecting his things.

On the short walk back to the house from the barn, before Henry had asked his rather inappropriate question, Ezra had insisted you take his bedroom since it was larger. You stated that you wanted to stay with the children in case they got frightened in the night. Ezra had pointed out that the spare room and the main bedroom were directly across the tiny, cramped upstairs hallway from one another. If the children became frightened, they would be able to just run across the hall and get you.

You had felt terrible about commandeering Ezra's bed when he first suggested it after you had put the children to bed. He should have his own bed to sleep in since he had so generously opened his home to you.

"Princess, think nothing of it," he said as he cleared off a few books from the bedside table. "I would not be able to sleep in here knowing you were uncomfortable elsewhere."

He had managed to locate an old hammock he had back from his harvesting days in a storage bin somewhere in the crawlspace. All it needed was a good knot tied off from a rafter and it was good to go. Ezra explained that he kept the tiny wood burning stove going all night anyway, so any worry you may have had about it being too cold was washed away.

After you gave yourself a quick scrub down in the basin in the bedroom, you did your best to wash out the mud from your nightgown. Hopefully the worst of them would come out with a better wash soon. You hung the damp nightgown and robe from a hook by the window and climbed into the bed.

As you were drifting off, you couldn't help but notice how nice Ezra's blankets smelled. His bedding, you imagined, smelled exactly like how he did. Earthy, with just the softest tang of sweat, combined with a pleasant herbal mix. You hadn't smelled something so wonderful since your husband passed. If anything, this smell was far better.

You rolled over, pressed your nose against the pillow, and slipped off into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, you were awoken by delighted chatter coming through the open window. Sunlight streamed in and warmed your cheeks as you slowly opened your eyes.

It took a second to remember where you were. The events of the previous day flooded back and you sighed. It hadn't been a dream. You were stuck on this planet, Muir, as Ezra had called it.

In the daylight, you took the time to glance around Ezra's bedroom. Bundles of drying flowers and herbs hung from the ceiling, no doubt adding to the scent of his blankets. The walls were barely decorated, except for one tiny round mirror that hung near the door.

You swung your legs out of bed and fetched your nightgown from the hook. Blessedly, it was dry and no longer smelled like dirt from the trek through the woods.

Peaking into the children's room, you were surprised to find the bed was already made, with Marie's stuffed dog settled neatly against the pillows.

You followed the voices down the narrow stairs and out the front door to the yard. It seemed as though the children were quite busy with "helping" Ezra around the farm. You had to wonder just how much work was actually getting done.

"Mama!" Marie screeched when she spotted you. She took off running full sprint and launched herself into your arms. "Mama, mama! Mr. Ezra showed us the animals! He said we could help him take care of them!"

"Oh, did he?" you asked, tucking a curl behind her ear. "And are you listening to Mr. Ezra and doing what he asks you?"

She nodded excitedly. "Yes, mama. He said I can gather eggs from the chickens."

Ezra wandered over, a small basket in his hand and a smile on his face. "The key, little bird, is to not leave your hard work behind. We need these eggs to eat. They won't do us any good sitting in the basket next to the pen."

"Oh," she said sheepishly. "Sorry, Mr. Ezra."

"That's quite alright," he replied. "I heard no complaints from the girls, so you must've done a stellar job of gathering their eggs. You did a much better job than your brothers."

"Should I ask what they've gotten themselves into?" you asked, setting Marie down. She skipped off towards the barn, the little egg basket abandoned yet again.

"Oh, nothing bad," Ezra assured. "I tried teaching them to milk the goats. That went over about as well as you would expect it to, I suppose. The one boy seemed a faster learner than the other."

You chuckled and took the basket from him. "Henry was always a fast learner. He likes to do things hands-on, whereas Aiden tries to solve his problems with words."

Ezra smiled at the way you talked about your children. "Aiden and I are quite similar, I should say."

"Not always a bad thing," you replied. "He might make an excellent ruler some day."

"I've gotten myself into a few situations where I wished I would have sat back and assessed the situation first rather than running my mouth." He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "Many things might even have turned out differently if I thought about what I should say before I even said it."

You nodded and gave him a knowing smile. You knew what he was talking about, having wished yourself that you had kept your mouth shut several times while in court with your mother and grandmother. Not wanting to discuss your personal history with him just yet, you looked off to the field where you saw the boys gathering vegetables with one another.

"I'm sure the goat is unhappy," you hummed. "Violated, even."

"She chased them around the yard for twenty minutes or so afterwards before I put the boys out to work in the field," he chuckled, shaking his head. "I will teach those boys how to properly milk a goat."

"Would you like me to help with anything?" you asked, realizing that you hadn’t even offered your own hand around the farm. You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. "I would love to assist in any way I can around here."

Ezra thought for a minute and looked around. "The only thing that comes to mind is the flower garden could use some tender loving care. I am loath to say that I have been neglecting it, sadly. There is, regrettably, only so much I am able to do one-handed."

You turned around to where Ezra had gestured with a nod and frowned at the tiny, overgrown plot.

"I have seen less frightful cemeteries," you said dryly. You turned back to Ezra with a smile. "I am happy to help."

He nodded once as he bent to pick up the egg basket. "Princess, I am thrilled beyond reason that you are so eager to aid a poor scoundrel like myself."

"I wouldn't consider you a scoundrel, Mr. Ezra," you said, clasping your hands in front of you.

Ezra chuckled and blushed slightly. "Now, "Mr. Ezra" almost makes me sound like a dapper gentleman," he said, straightening his back, "And while I appreciate the title from the children, I fear it does not fit me."

"You don't like it?" you asked with a frown. You didn’t mean to offend him in any way, given it was just the proper way of addressing any man, but you’ve never met someone who minded the title.

"Just Ezra is fine for you to call me, miss," he said softly. "Calling me "Mr." makes me sound so formal."

"Ezra," you hummed with a smile. "You know, I believe you're right. That suits you much better."

Ezra ducked his head a bit and mumbled your name before he hurried off towards his house.

You walked towards the shed to collect a basket for any weeds that you would pull up in the garden. It wasn't as grand as the gardens at home, but at least you could tend to this one personally. You had a tiny personal garden on your balcony, and you were always able to keep it full and beautiful in the warmer months. A green thumb, your mother had once said. You always wished you could tend to the larger gardens instead of just overseeing their care.

For the short time you would be here, however, you were determined to make this tiny garden healthy and beautiful. It was the least you could do.

Ezra had treated you all so kindly yesterday, and his intentions seemed to be true. You idly wondered why you immediately felt like you could trust him. His presence filled you with a sense of safety and security that you had not felt in so long.

You spread your robe down on the ground in front of the garden and got to work, yanking up weeds and grasses to the root. It was the only time when you were in the palace that you weren't expected to adhere to the strict dress code or rules set by your grandmother. No gowns or headdresses, or gloves. No constricting clothing. Just the dirt on your hands and under your nails that grandmother would then chide you about later.

You didn't even notice until Ezra tapped you on the shoulder that the sun had risen high in the sky.

"Lunchtime," he said brightly. "Come and enjoy the fruits of this morning's labor. Get out of the sun for a while - your shoulders are fit to burn if you stay out here much longer in the midday sun, Princess. And you really should eat something too. The last thing we need is for you to pass out from hunger."

As if on cue, your stomach rumbled loudly, protesting the fact that you hadn't eaten breakfast. It was easy to lose yourself in a garden.

"Already?" you asked, wiping sweat from your brow.

"Now you sound like your flock, Princess," he chuckled, extending his hand to help you up. Your hand gently grabbed onto his, a small noise of strain coming from your mouth. Your muscles ached from being in the same position for so long. "Come, see the feast they've made for us. I think you will be quite impressed with them."

He offered you his arm to take as you dusted off your skirts, and you hooked yours through his as you walked back towards the house.

"Hello, mama!" Henry said when you entered. It looked like he'd tried to clean up a little, though there was still dirt on his brow.

"Hello, my darlings," you cooed, bringing them all in for a hug. You looked at the wooden kitchen table with pride at what you saw. The children (aided heavily by Ezra, no doubt) had indeed prepared a feast for lunch. Vegetables covered nearly of the table, with small plates of cheese placed precariously throughout. "My goodness, you've all been very busy!"

"Mr. Ezra helped us!" Aiden said, giving you a squeeze with his arms. "He said we had to make a meal fit for a duchess!"

Ezra blushed as he moved around you towards his seat. It was always the little ones who blabbered a bit too much, not that you would find anything in that statement, hopefully. "Or a princess."

You smiled and kissed the tops of each of the children's heads. "Well, eat up! I'm so proud of all of you!"

The children beamed and scrambled to sit down at the mismatched kitchen chairs. As they began to eat, you were very surprised when there were no complaints about eating their vegetables. Back home, it was always a mini-battle at the dinner table to get the most finicky Marie to so much as touch a green with her fork.

"Mr. Ezra said he might like to take us fishing!" Aiden said between bites.

"Yeah!" Henry piped up. "He said there's a little cave we can explore along the way!"

Ezra looked over at you expectantly. "If that's alright with you. I could take the boys -- and Marie, if you would like a day of respite."

"Perhaps," you considered, "If you are all extraordinarily well behaved."

You couldn't help but laugh as all three children immediately straightened their posture and began to take more delicate bites of their food.

"We've never been fishing," Aiden chirped. He swallowed his bite of food and looked towards Ezra. "Is it hard?"

"No," he replied. "It's fairly simple. If I am able to do it short-handed, I would like to think it is a fairly easy task. Didn't your daddy ever take you boys out fishing? Or hunting?"

"We don't have a daddy, sir," Aiden said softly. Realizing what he'd just said, he looked to you with worry in his eyes.

Henry hung his head and put down his food. He glanced over at you like he expected you to yell.

"Oh, well-- I am terribly sorry," Ezra said sincerely. He was looking more at you than he was at the twins. "I had no way of knowing. I-I truly do apologize."

"It's alright," you said around the lump in your throat. Over the short years since his passing, you’ve learned to hide your grief well, never letting tears slip in front of the child. Nevermind a man you had just met. "You didn't know."

"Can we still go with Mr. Ezra?" Henry asked softly. His eyes were large and watery behind his glasses. Despite the fact that he and his brother were only a few years old when their father was killed, he still claimed to remember him.

"Yes," you said softly. "Of course you can go."

"Now, it'll take me some time to gather the proper materials for fishing," Ezra explained. "A week or two, maybe. You've best listen to your mama and be on your best behavior and I'll take you. Alright?"

The children cheered and you caught Ezra's eye across the table. He offered you a small, apologetic smile. You gave him a nod and a smile, hoping he understood that it was okay - that you were okay.

A few days after you'd arrived, Ezra discovered you were a much better cook than he was. He was a bit sheepish approaching you about it at first. He didn't want to ask too much of you and didn't know if that would be stepping out of line. But after the third night of the same soup Ezra had made, you were more than eager to take over the cooking.

You thought that it would all go much faster if you did it rather than Ezra attempting to chop vegetables by himself.

You found after the first night that you didn't mind sleeping in Ezra's bed at all. You actually looked forward to it throughout the day. It made you feel safe when you curled up in the sheets. More than once, he offered to wash the bedding but you politely declined each time, stating you didn't want him to do any more work than he had to.

One morning, you realized the few changes of clothes you had brought from the pod were in need of a good, thorough wash, especially after a few days of running around and playing on the tiny farm.

You walked around the spare room and collected the children's dirty clothes from the floor of the spare room and tossed them into a basket. It wouldn't take long for you to wash them.

After you gathered up the children's bedding and clothes and your own clothing, you stepped out into the yard. It was a bright, beautiful day, not even a wispy cloud in sight. The children were running around before they began their chores for the day. They had taken to farm life quite well, you thought.

Ezra was lounging on a chair outside the house, doing his best to snap beans one handed as he kept an eye on your children. He acknowledged you with a nod as he tossed the beans into the bowl at his feet.

"Good morning, Princess," he said with a small smile. He looked at you with those warm eyes and you wanted to melt into the yard. "Sleep well?"

"Oh yes, quite well, thank you," you replied. "I'm going to do a bit of laundry. The children are out of clean clothes. As am I, I'm afraid."

"Now that's a pity," Ezra teased, dropping his hand to dangle between his spread legs. He coughed to hide his blush. "Would you like to borrow something of mine? I mean, just so you can clean all of your things."

You considered his offer for a moment before you nodded. If his clothes smelled anything like his bed, it was an opportunity you would be a fool to turn down.

Fifteen minutes later, you were walking down to a washbasin, the basket resting squarely on your hip. Ezra had handed you a deep green thermal shirt that came clear down to your thighs and an old pair of compression pants for you to do your wash in. The smell of his shirt, as you slipped it over your head, was intoxicating.

As you busied yourself with the laundry, you heard Ezra inform the children that they had five more minutes before they had to start their chores.

He sounded like their father, you thought with a smile. You quickly shook that thought from your head and went back to scrubbing a grass stain from Aiden's shirt. I just met him. I cannot have such thoughts about a man I just met. Especially someone like him.

However, you couldn't justify why, exactly, he had to be off limits. Truth be told, the only reason you could come up with was that he was, essentially, still a stranger.

You sighed and abandoned the shirt for now. Perhaps you needed a stronger soap to try and get the stain out. It was possible that Ezra would have a suggestion for how to remove the stubborn stain. You would readily admit you didn't quite know how to properly do laundry. It had always been done for you.

As you walked back towards the house, you checked in on the children as they began their chores.

"Boys, are you behaving?" you asked as you poked your head into the barn. Over the last few days, you had heard of their progress from Ezra, who looked so proud when he talked about them both. It warmed your heart.

"Yes, mama," Henry replied, nodding at the goat he was carefully milking. "Miss Jane is quite pleasant this morning. No complaints so far."

"And Miss Emma and I are starting to get along," Aiden said with a gap-tooth smile. He lifted a hand to pat the sweet brown goat a few times before he went back to milking her as well.

You chuckled at their mannerisms. It really didn't take long for them to adapt to their environment and the people in it. Too often you had wondered about how much of their personalities were absorbed from you or their grandmother. They were just children.

"I'm finishing up the wash," you said to them. "I need to find a stronger soap because someone slid around in the grass too much."

Aiden looked back up at you and gave you a little pout. "I tried to be careful, mama. I did."

"I know, darling," you hummed. "It's quite alright. Be careful, I will be nearby if you need me, and Mr. Ezra is as well."

"Yes, mama," they mumbled in unison as they went back to their work.

You smiled as you walked across the yard to find Marie. The chickens had been undisturbed, and you hadn't seen Marie run past with the basket.

"Up there, little bird," you heard Ezra encourage. "Woah, watch your balance now. If you fell while trying to get a glimpse, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

When you rounded the corner, you saw Ezra with Marie on his shoulders, his one hand firmly holding her as she craned her little neck to look at something.

Marie gasped, and for a brief second, you were worried she'd fallen. "I see them!" she said, amazement evident in her voice.

You melted when you saw Ezra's smile as he held her above his head. He looked up, arching his neck so he could try to see her better.

"How many are there, little birdie?" he asked.

You could see Marie counting on her chubby fingers before she looked down at him. "Four!"

"Splendid!" he laughed, bouncing her slightly on his shoulders. He let her look at the nest for a few more seconds before he bent down so she could climb off.

"Off you get, birdie," he said as you finally walked over to them. "Come on."

"Hi, mama!" Marie gasped when she saw you. "Mama, Mr. Ezra showed me the little birds up there!" She pointed up to the little nest above her head in the tree. From here, you could barely see it.

"Oh?" you asked, bending to pick her up. You gave her cheek a kiss and smiled broadly as you tried to look up and see it.

"Mhm! There's this many!" she explained, holding up four fingers to show you.

"That's wonderful, darling!" you said, tucking an errant curl behind her ear. "Were you gentle with them?"

She nodded quickly. "I was just looking!"

"Good girl," you said as you set her down. You handed her the little basket she used for collecting her eggs. "Go fetch us some eggs, my love."

She nodded and started to run towards the chicken coop when she skidded to a halt and came running back.

Ezra raised a brow and looked down at her.

Marie curtsied and looked at you and then him. "Thank you, Mr. Ezra, for showing me the birdie eggs."

"Of course, little bird," he said, offering a bow in return. "If you want to look at them again, come ask me first. If mama is in there, she might chase you away and you could get hurt."

"Yes, Mr. Ezra," she said. Marie picked up her basket and sprinted towards the chickens.

You and Ezra chuckled and watched her go. Marie loved it here. In the back of your mind, you wondered how hard it would be to take her and the boys back to the palace when the time came. It would quite possibly crush them.

"Penny for your thoughts, Princess?" Ezra asked quietly. He leaned against the tree and studied your face carefully. "I would love to know what is going on in your head."

"Nothing," you said softly. "I mean -- do you have anything to get grass stains out of the boys' clothes?"

Ezra nodded slightly. "Of course. I'll take the shirt and bring it back to you." He walked away back to the house, one hand in his pocket.

You returned to the laundry and hung up what had already been cleaned while you waited for Ezra to bring Aiden's shirt back. As you clipped the clothes to the line, it almost felt as if you had been here your whole life, rather than just a few days. The little farm was the most at peace you had felt in years. There was a serenity that encompassed you here, quite like that of a favorite story.

You were startled from your thoughts by Ezra handing you the shirt, still sopping wet, but stain-free.

"I do apologize for the mess," he chuckled. "It is not that easy to simply wring out a wet cloth for me anymore."

"This is perfect, Ezra," you replied, taking the shirt from him. As you reached to take it from him, your fingers brushed against his and you nearly dropped it in the dirt. The briefest touch seemed to course through your veins, burning you from within.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "My hands can be quite rough sometimes. Believe it or not, Princess, I did, at one point, have hands as soft as your own. I am, however self-made, and with it, comes a certain boorishness most people find to be crass."

You gently touched his hand again and smiled at the way your heart seemed to skip a beat. "I quite enjoy a quick wit and, I don't mind your - how did you put it? Boorish behavior."

Ezra chuckled and turned your hand over in his own. "A scoundrel, your highness. That's all I am."

You opened your mouth to reply, but a peal of laughter erupted from the barn. The boys must have gotten into something because Marie came tearing around the corner with tears in her eyes.

"No!" she shouted as she ran past you both. "It's icky! Get it away!"

Aiden came sprinting across the yard with something in his hands. He had a wicked glint in his eyes. "Come see, Marie! It won't bite you!"

"No!"

Ezra glanced at you and shrugged as he stepped out into Aiden's path. The boy came to a screeching halt and almost fell over in surprise at how quickly Ezra moved. "Hang on there, let me see what you have," he said, holding out his hand. He took it into his hand and chuckled. "Oh, come now, it's just a little grub. Marvelous little creatures, certainly. Not so good for our garden, and especially not good for tormenting your poor sister with."

You smiled and looked down at your daughter who had buried her face in your thigh. "See, my darling?" you soothed. "It's not so bad!"

"It's ugly!" Marie wailed. She balled her fists up in your shirt and shook her head. "Yucky!"

"Your brother is just doing what brothers do, little birdie," Ezra said, handing the grub back to Aiden. He came over and knelt down beside her. "That bug will feed those baby birdies when they hatch - they love that kind of stuff!"

Marie lifted her head and wiped her eyes. "It's still yucky."

Ezra chuckled and tugged on her dress sleeve. "Maybe so, but it will make those babies happy."

You looked over at Aiden, who was rocking uncomfortably back and forth on his feet. He still had one hand cupped to hold the little grub. "Aiden Drake," you said, "Do you want to say something to your sister?"

"Sorry," he mumbled quietly before he took off running back towards the barn.

You sighed and looked down at Marie and Ezra. "Are you all better now?" you asked her.

She nodded and wiped her eyes. "Yes, mama. Thank you, Mr. Ezra."

"You are quite welcome," he said with a smile. "Go on, why don't you finish collecting those eggs for us?"

At his suggestion, Marie lit up with a grin and skipped off back to the pen.

Ezra groaned as he stood up. "I dare say I'm getting too old to get on the ground like that," he chuckled. "They are good kids. Remarkable little things, aren't they? You should be proud of them - all three of them."

You looked away and smiled, tucking your hair behind your ear. "I am very proud of them."

"And you make an excellent mother to them," Ezra said sincerely. "They are truly blessed to have you."

You smiled and nodded at his compliment. Ever since Marie was born, you had tried so hard to be both parents to them. As they got older, it was getting increasingly difficult to do so. You were always afraid you were doing something wrong and it was a relief to hear someone say you were doing a good job. You just wished that you could give them a proper father some day.

Ezra wandered off towards the house, whistling a tune as he went along. He turned briefly and gave you that crooked smile and jerked his head for you to join him.

********

TAGLIST: If you want to be added, please let me know!

@the-feckless-wonder @lestrange2703 @huliabitch @miscellaneous-mando @gallowsjoker

#prospect #ezra x reader #ezra x you #no use of y/n #pedro pascal #my writing #poetry for an heiress

37 notes · View notes

screpdoodle · 3 years

Text

Duality - Chapter Ten (The Grumbletown)

Kaos struggled to fully unfold the gigantic map in the cramped space he and Glumshanks were holed up in. The two sat crouched at a low, wooden table. It looked to be homemade, with knobbly legs and indented sides. A lone lamp was strung from the slanted mud ceiling, wooden cross beams seeming to be the only thing keeping it up. Even Kaos felt slightly cramped as he wrestled with the huge slab of crumpled parchment, twice the size of the table he sat at, if not more. The sound of crackling fire, rambunctious trolls and electronic music outside was muffled by the poorly fortified clay walls, flecks of dirt falling down from the ceiling with every thump of the beat. Kaos’ attention wandered as he watched stout silhouettes run past the clouded windows, followed by a loud CRASH as one of them came catapulting through the glass, rolling across the floor before coming to a stop, beady eyes spinning in their sockets. The troll shook their head, locked eyes with Kaos, then scuttled out of the room through the unlocked front door, leaving it open behind them. Kaos huffed, then slid off of his stool, peering out into the chaotic street. Trolls of all shapes and sizes looked to be having the time of their lives; some were sprawled out across barrels (the ones they weren’t smashing at least), enjoying bottles of ‘soda’ and other treats Kaos didn’t quite recognize. Others were chasing each other around the winding dirt paths, or chasing what Kaos assumed to be the previous residents of the commandeered village - Rats. Kaos didn’t mean that as an insult, no, they looked like literal rats, with matted grey fur, long snouts and worm like tails. Judging by the architecture, the assumption seemed to track. Kaos pulled his head back in as someone threw a cart of wrinkled produce against the wall, the wooden cart splintering and fruits splattering into a multicolored mess of foul smelling slop. Kaos slammed the door shut, looking back to Glumshanks, who had managed to tame the wild map.

“What in Skylands are they even doing out there?” Kaos asked, brushing a few hanging roots out of his way as he walked back to Glumshanks’ side.

“Christening.” Glumshanks answered plainly, sighing. “They do this every time. Make a mess of the place to show ‘dominance’... or something. ‘Cause running out an entire settlement doesn’t do that already, I suppose.”

Kaos frowned, then looked down at the map, trying to pick out any details he might recognize now that he could more easily look over it. But the more he looked, the less he seemed to recognize. Noted landmarks and island formations he had first thought were possible leads were nothing but red herrings. How had he gotten himself so lost?

“If this one doesn’t work, I should have a few others.”

“No no, I’m sure this one is fine. I can’t have gone that far from home.” Kaos waved Glumshanks off, squinting at the map. He tapped one of the sepia-toned islands, frowning. “This is where we are, right?”

“Uhh, I think it’s here actually.”

“Troll. I’m pretty sure I know the location of a place I’ve never been on a map in a language I don’t know.”

“...please tell me that was sarcasm.”

Kaos just looked up, a deadpan expression on his face, before looking back down without another word. He scanned the map once more, mumbling incoherent words under his breath. This wasn’t right. Kaos winced, rubbing his temples as he felt a throbbing pain start creeping its way in, followed by the feeling of a damp rag pressed against his forehead. Kaos opened one eye, looking up as he watched Glumshanks gently dabbing the dried blood away, a concerned look on his green face.

“What do you think you’re doing, troll.”

“Cleaning the wound?” He phrased it more like a question, rather than a clean cut statement.

Kaos furrowed his brow, but didn’t object, simply squirming in his seat as Glumshanks began inspecting the small, albeit quite bloody, cut in his forehead. It didn’t quite hurt, but the sensation wasn’t all that nice either.

“...Maybe if we go back you can find the route you took?”

“That’s just the issue, troll.” Kaos slouched in his seat, resting his chin in his hand and elbow on the table. “I didn’t take a route. One minute I was in my backyard, the next I was here. I remember falling, but that’s about it.”

“Maybe you fell off the edge?”

“Impossible. I was nowhere near the…” Kaos trailed off, then sat forward with a start, the gears turning in his mind. “Glumshanks, are there any islands above this one?”

“A few, but-”

Before Glumshanks could finish his sentence, the sound of splintering wood cut through the muffled ruckus of outside, the sounds flooding in as the two looked over to see the door hanging off of its hinges, a clearly intoxicated Thropp staggering his way inside. Kaos instinctively got up off of his chair, taking a step back. Glumshanks just sighed, looking down.

“So, this is the-” a small hiccup interrupted Thropp’s sentence, “the boghole mama sent you to claim? Man, and I thought the other ones were bad. At least they had real walls.”

Thropp trailed his massive fingers across the clay wall, scraping a good amount of dirt off with his yellowing fingernail. He let out another hiccup before finally setting his beady eyes upon his brother, a tipsy smirk twisted across his face. He lumbered forward, paying no mind as his bare feet stepped over the shards of broken glass that lay across the ground, towering over Glumshanks. He hadn’t seemed to have noticed Kaos quite yet, despite him being right there.

“It was the best one I could find.” Glumshanks mumbled, trying to muster up an air of confidence, albeit to no avail. “You know how hectic it can get. Especially since you tend to be one of the ones causing most of it…”

Glumshanks’ voice grew quieter at the last part. Thropp’s ears twitched, but he didn’t seem to register it. At least not enough to care.

“You better hope there’s enough room in here, or you’ll be sleeping in the ‘doghouse’ again.” Thropp sneered.

If Kaos had thought his breath smelled bad before, it was nothing compared to the stench now. Sour and sickly sweet, like decay. Kaos couldn’t help but cover his nose, the smell all too familiar to him. At this movement though, Thropp’s eyes darted over to the small human, finally noticing him standing there at Glumshanks’ side. It took Thropp a moment to recognize him, the two merely standing there, locked in an unofficial staring contest.

“What. The hell. Are you doing here.” Thropp seemed to sober up almost immediately, his voice taking on a deadly tone.

“Well, cleeaarly ruining your ‘school project’ just wasn’t enough for me, so I had to hunt you down and ruin your homelife too.” Kaos explained, sarcasm dripping from every word he spoke.

“Kaos, I’m not sure if now is a good time to-”

“I knew we should have dealt with you on that- hic- that stupid ship!” Thropp raised his voice, raising his hands up. “At least I have a chance to fix that mistake now!”

Before Kaos knew what was happening, Thropp slammed his fists down, Glumshanks grabbing the small human out of the way at the last second. Kaos squeaked, his heart pounding in his ears. Thropp barely took a second to collect himself, his glare burning holes in Glumshanks’ skull.

“You dingweed!” He spat, slurring his words. “You two talked like, what, once?? And you’re already head over heels for this twerp! You wouldn’t believe how much he yammered on about you, human!!”

Kaos blinked, opened his mouth to ask what exactly Glumshanks had talked about, but before he could even get a word out Thropp threw a right hook at the two of them. Kaos ducked, pulling Glumshanks down with him. Thropp's fist slammed into the side of the staircase, the entire house practically shaking, bits of clay and dirt raining down. Kaos scuttled out of Thropp's line of sight as he quickly shook off the pain of his bloodied knuckles, shouting something Kaos assumed was in trolltongue. Glumshanks quickly scrambled to his feet, dragging Kaos up with him, practically carrying him to the door before his brother could come barreling after them. The two ran out into the night air, the pathways lit by smoldering embers, the trolls outside too busy partying to notice the scene that had unfolded. All but a few, at least. Glumshanks looked up from trying to catch his breath as a large troll came towards them, heavy feet thundering down the crowded street, three smaller trolls in tow. Three smaller trolls Kaos recognized almost immediately; the three lackeys Thropp had dragged along on the ship, the three ‘other brothers’. Which meant the one in the middle was…

“Glumshanks, thurhaakum duruth gorotu ishoing?? gu’vuth shrakeebag hakookinor azverywheruth guoum gorou!” The stout troll ran forward, the three others clambering along behind her, cooing and cackling about how Glumshanks was apparently in ‘hot water’ and how much trouble he was in.

“Mama, I-”

Glumshanks started, only to get cut off by the woman yet again, grabbing him by the sleeve and dragging him back towards the house, paying Kaos no mind whatsoever. Ascral, Haldir and Zhoark trailed off at the sight of him, on the other hand, words turning into hushed whispers as they followed their mother to the door. Kaos hesitated, then followed after them, a curious tilt to his head as he tried his best to listen in.

“I usholmar gorotu ushug ashtazag shrakzag ushhuth gulouse! gorotu dol-noiz ushhiakun athlacuth guakun ishangerous, thurhaakum thuroulmar thuruth ishug guir gorotu duloakum hakost, inium thurorse!!” The mother’s voice was sharp. He couldn’t understand a word she was saying, but Kaos could tell she was... less than pleased. Glumshanks kept trying to speak, but couldn’t get a word in edgewise. It was almost amusing, if not a little sad. They didn’t even seem to notice the door barely hanging on its hinges, simply walking inside as if they did this every day. The trio of smaller trolls threw their knapsacks to the ground as their mother dragged Glumshanks to the table, sitting him down as she continued to lecture on about ‘ushhuth gumportancuth iniir guamilzag gobalueakun’, whatever that meant. Thropp had passed out in the little alcove beneath the loft, his soda-induced stupor leading to a sound slumber. Kaos was amazed he was able to sleep through the shouting, but then again, if he had grown accustomed to his homelife, maybe this was normal for Glumshanks’ family too? Kaos stood in the doorway, watching the trolls acting like they had lived in this house for their entire lives, the chaos from outside now filtering into the lantern-lit room. Zhoark, Haldir and Ascral raced each other up onto the loft, laughing and jeering as their mother verbally berated her stringbean of a son, grunting and snarling as she threw her hands around to punctuate her sentences. Kaos couldn’t help but watch, picking up on details he hadn’t noticed before; like her graying ginger hair tied in a messy bun, the dirtied apron wrapped around waist, the fact that despite her tone, her cool grey eyes were soft, worry creased across the wrinkles in her face rather than anger. Kaos furrowed his brow, then tensed when he heard her voice trail off, gaze now locked on him. She said something to Glumshanks, then quickly walked around the table, standing before Kaos with her arms crossed across her chest, staring down the bridge of her nose at him. Kaos took a step back, looking over his shoulders as if expecting her to be looking at someone else there, before mustering up a hangdog smile.

“You.” She spoke sharply, jabbing a finger at his chest. “Thurhaakum ishug gorotu ashpeauku.”

“Mama, he-” Glumshanks cleared his throat. “Guluth ilabag ininlzag ashpeauku gulumabag.”

The woman looked back to Glumshanks, scrunched her face up, then gestured to the table. “Ashiakum. Ashiakum.”

Kaos just blinked. Before he could figure out a way to respond, she had taken him by the sleeve, dragging him to the table and sitting him down with more force than really necessary. Kaos winced, then rubbed his shoulders, his discomfort creeping up his spine like a clutter of spiderlings. Glumshanks merely offered him a sympathetic smile.

“Kaos, this is our caretaker, Oyana.” He gestured to the troll woman. “Mama, this is Kaos. He’s my, uh-”

“Ishug gorotu azaakum ashugarbaakum.” She interrupted, paused when she noticed Kaos’ look of utter perplexity, then spoke again. “You. Eat dinner?”

“...yes?” Kaos didn’t quite understand the question, but before he could ask her to elaborate, she had already shuffled off into the back room, closing the moth-eaten curtain that covered the doorway behind her. Kaos let his posture slump, breathing a sigh. “Well, your mother sure is... something.”

“Hm? Oh, she’s not my mom.” Glumshanks rested his chin in his hand, his arms resting on the table.

“But you call her mama? Is this, like, a cultural thing I don’t understand or…?”

“Kinda. I think she’s the equivalent of a human grandma to us? Something like that.”

Glumshanks traced his finger across the table’s surface, drawing little swirls in the light layer of grime that covered it. In the back room, Kaos could hear the clanging of utensils, firelight crackling out from beneath the loosely hung drapery. Up in the loft, he could hear the trio talking in hushed grunts, saying things he could barely hear, let alone understand.

“...I guess I’m staying for dinner?” Kaos managed a laugh. “I’ve never had troll cuisine, so this should be fun! Then maybe after we can give that map another look, eh?”

“Yeah, fun.” Glumshanks chuckled, a hint of sarcasm sprinkled over his words, though he cracked a smile nonetheless.

Kaos grinned back, letting his guard slip, if only a little. From the kitchen, Oyana called Glumshanks’ name, causing him to jump up with a start, calling back before rushing into the kitchen, probably to help with the cooking. Kaos sighed. The pounding techno music outside was almost a comfort now that he was used to it. Thropp let out a shuddering snore, then fell silent again, the three upstairs sniggering at the noise. Kaos looked out the window, to the islands past the edge of the village. He needed to get home, but staying here a little longer couldn’t hurt, right?

***

Kaos folded up the comically large map best he could, eventually giving up and thrusting it against Glumshanks’ chest, letting him deal with the crumpled mess of parchment. This was the spot. Kaos stood before the well, then looked up, glaring at the empty night sky above. That couldn’t be right. He had fallen from one well into another, so surely, his home had to be above this one. Kaos huffed, trying to wrack his mind for any possible landmarks he may have passed, something to jog a possible path to take. Anything to prove he was merely misremembering what had happened. He winced, holding his temple, the bandages Glumshanks’ mama had fixed in place scratchy against his fingertips. Had he really hit his head that hard?

“You’re sure this is the place?” Glumshanks cleared his throat, a frown on his face.

“It has to be. How many odd, intricately carved wells could there be in a single area?”

Glumshanks adjusted his worn jacket, then took another look at the map, peering at it from different angles to try and see if they were missing something. Kaos grumbled under his breath, pacing around the well, his hands folded behind his back. This wasn’t adding up.

“You said you were in a forest, right?”

“Yes. A two-toed greeble stole my scarf so I chased it right into those lumberous leviathans’ lair.”

“Lumberous-”

“The trees, Glumwad. Keep up with me here!”

“...riiight.” He looked down at the map again. “There should be a forest not too far from here, if you follow the path you should come to it in no time.”

Kaos paused his pacing, ten pulled the map down to his height, peering at the section Glumshanks was on. Sure enough, it seemed to portray a densely wooded area, though none of the surroundings seemed to spark a feeling of recollection. Still, it was at least a start.

“Well, I guess I’ll head that way then...?” Kaos tried to hide the hesitancy in his voice, to no avail.

Glumshanks looked up the way of the tread path. “If you want, I can walk you there, but Mama wants me back before ‘moonset’, so I can wash the dishes… and make the beds…”

“Let me guess, if Thropp doesn’t have his pillows fluffed he throws a fit?” Kaos snickered.

Glumshanks managed a dry laugh. “More or less…”

Kaos frowned, then wacked Glumshanks on the arm playfully. “Well, we’ll just have to have you back by moonset then, eh?”

“Before moonset.” He corrected.

“Yeah yeah, whatever. You’ll be back to do your menial labour before you even know it.”

Kaos turned, putting on a brave face as he started down the beaten trail. He lingered as he passed by the well, still slightly suspicious of its carved walls, though he did his best to shrug the feeling off. Now wasn’t the time to let his active imagination get in the way. He picked up the pace, trying his best to keep in stride with Glumshanks, who was managing to overtake him even with his slower, meandering speed. Curse those long legs. It didn’t take long for the two to notice the foliage getting denser, the previously vacant planes of boulders and browning, patchy grass now overtaken by thorny roots and dense, red bushes. Kaos hopped over a small break in the island, his frown worsening. He had a faint sense of familiarity, but it felt like he was grasping at straws. It was a few moments before Kaos noticed the troll was no longer by his side. He paused, then looked back. Glumshanks stood at the edge, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

“I… I should be heading back.”

“Yeah- yeah of course. Don’t wanna keep them waiting.” Kaos laughed awkwardly, his spine prickling.

“Stay safe, okay? Don’t go getting eaten by a Gargantula or anything.”

“No promises.”

Glumshanks gave a small, tense wave, Kaos trying his best to reciprocate before turning to face the forest. Knowing Glumshanks wasn’t by his side, the trees seemed to loom over him, branches reaching and leaves rustling like razor blades ready to slice at him if he got too close. Kaos took a step forward, then looked over his shoulder, watching Glumshanks walking away, his heart sinking further with every step the troll took. Kaos took a deep breath, turned to face the path ahead, then began walking.

“Wait!”

Kaos was nearly bowled over as Glumshanks came racing up to join him, branches and dry leaves crunching beneath his bare feet. The troll skidded to a stop, wringing his hands together.

“I-I’m sure Thropp can survive without me for a little longer. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help out?”

Kaos smiled, his eyes lighting up. “A piss poor one, that’s what.”

Glumshanks laughed breathlessly, then ducked under a low hanging branch, walking along into the looming shadows. Kaos took a moment, then followed, keeping his hand on his rusty pruning shears. Just in case.

#skylanders #bring back the skylands #skylanders academy #second leaf #duality #fan retelling #fan continuation #fan fiction #writing

5 notes · View notes

stylishanachronism · 4 years

Note

Could I request either dialogue prompt 3 or 11 for whichever characters you feel like make them work?

lmao like a month later, here you go babe, thank you so much for the prompt. 3 was “I can’t see anything.” “Hold on I’ll set something on fire.”

“I can’t see anything.”

“Hold on, I’ll set something on fire.”

Alys sighs at him, but doesn’t protest, hiking Vela higher on her hip. She, he squints, just puts her thumb in her mouth, her other arm tight around Alys’ neck, wide-eyed and clingy to the point her mother can’t put her down, though she’s not looking so steady herself.

From the half sunk rowboat moored at the end of the rotting dock, this place hasn’t been occupied in years, but a little groping at a likely shadow gets him a crude torch, a replacement for the one mounted at the wall that never got used, better than the broken crate he was expecting.

“It seems awfully empty. Do you think he even came this way?”

“Nowhere else for him to go.” He clicks his sparker together, lucky that was still in his pocket, cursing under his breath as the damp rag won’t catch. She frowns, but not at his language; she’s squinting out into the dark herself, turning so Vela’s away from the stream, closer to the cave mouth.

“See something?”

“Mm. It might be nothing, but- Beodul?” She calls, to no response.

“Maybe it’s the locals.”

“I’m fairly certain the pirates left, dear.”

He clicks his sparker again, pressing it up against the resin this time, and the resulting bloom of light catches on steel, a skeleton wobbling towards them, still dressed in rags and rust.

“Looks like at least one of them didn’t.”

It’s a nasty little surprise, Alys accepting the torch as she backs away, but it comes apart at the barest swing of his sword, which is somewhat alarming, but better it be extra fragile than the other way around. Alys frowns at it, eyes going hazy in a way he doesn’t like for a moment, and then she’s ignoring it again, lifting the torch higher and peering down the passageway.

The sand’s too mussed to give any hint of which way Beodul went; there��s at least two more bodies, so to speak, in here, from the tracks on the floor, though if he had to put money on it the right fork looks like it’s seen more movement recently.

“Which way, do you think?”

He takes the torch back from her, not the smartest idea, given he’s the one with the sword, but he’s also taller, and it’s awful dark in here, and the extra reach shows what might very well be a boot print in the spill of sand ahead of them.

“Right.”

She lets him take the lead, murmuring to Vela in low tones, trying to coax her sweet again, at a guess, she’d never much liked the dark before all this shit happened, but she screamed when they tried to leave her behind, and Alys is just as clingy, considering, so it wasn’t like she resisted too hard, and he follows the bootprints as best he can, pausing at another fork. This place must be a misery when the tide comes in, given the rotting bridges everywhere, light from some distant crack in the roof enough for him to know they aren’t setting foot that way, that particular bridge well out, but there’s a passage ahead, and another squeezed between that one and the water, and nothing in the sand to say which one’s a better bet.

“Beodul?” Alys calls again, coming up to his elbow, free hand cupped around her mouth, and it’s hard to tell, what with the echoes, but he thinks the answering cry comes from ahead of them. It sounds pained, or at the least terrified, so with a quick glance at Alys, whose mouth has set in a grim line, clearly they’re thinking the same thing, he presses forwards, passing the torch back to her as he goes.

The skeleton that comes careening out of the dark is not Beodul, but it is wearing boots. A boot. Its friend has the other, its breastplate buckled in in a way that makes a frankly horrible noise every time it moves, the same noise that brought them this direction, he realizes, so at least if Beodul isn’t dead, he wasn’t screaming either.

It’s a trickier fight than the last, there’s two of them this time, and he can’t back up, or see much of anything, so it’s luck more than anything else that lets him shoulder one of them into the wall hard enough it crumbles before it can get past him. He catches a glimpse of Alys stomping its skull in from the corner of his eye, something about the way she moves unsettling and strange, but he doesn’t get a good look, and can’t spare the attention anyway, as the one in the breastplate, the one still standing, claws at his face. At least it doesn’t have a sword, like the other one did.

One of them is a simpler proposition, even though he still can’t see shit; he feints for its knees and then smashes its skull askew, ducks as it doesn’t give up and grabs at him again, and settles for doing some grabbing himself, hooking his fingers under its jawbone and yanking until it comes to pieces. Alys stumbles in his peripheral, Vela sliding off her hip with a wail, but they’ve both got their feet under them by the time the skeleton collapses into itself and he’s able to turn around.

Alys is chalky, what little color she’d regained well gone, the graze on her temple dark and sticky again, and she’s ice cold when he catches her chin to get a better look, but the torch is still steady in her hand, and it looks like she just moved too fast or something, since the graze is already clotting up again, so that’s something, at least.

“You’re alright?”

“Should be asking you that, Nineteen.”

Her smile’s more like a grimace, but it counts.

“I’m fine.”

She pulls away then, ducking to check on Vela, whose eyes are wet and whose lip is wobbling, but otherwise looks unharmed.

“Sweetheart?”

Vela bursts into tears, flinging her arms around her mother’s shoulders again and smearing her snotty face into her neck, Alys rocking back on her heels to catch her.

“Oh, my heart.”

He takes the torch back so she can gather the girl close, stroking her hair and murmuring to her as she cries, keeping watch.

“Do you want to go back to the beach? We have to stay and find Master Beodul, but I’d feel much better if you were safe outside.” She asks, cupping her cheek as her sniffles peter out. Safe… isn’t the word he’d use, between the wildlife and the fact she’d probably be the healthiest person at their little camp, for all she’s six years old, but it’s a tossup, considering what they’ve found in here so far.

“No!” She shakes her head vehemently, braids flying, and Alys gives him a helpless look.

“Vela—“

“No!!!”

She’s back near tears again, probably also on the verge of screaming her head off again, which is really the last thing they need, and Alys pulls her back against her shoulder, listening intently as her daughter sobs her way through her fears. He can’t actually understand what she’s saying, for the most part, though Alys is looking distinctly alarmed as it goes on, but he’s had the ‘what if Mama doesn’t wake up?’ discussion with her enough times over the last month he can guess the gist of it.

“Oh, Vela.” She sighs, when she starts crying too hard to speak. “Oh, my girl.” She cradles her head, stroking her thumb along the line of her skull. “Not even the gods know what might happen tomorrow, but I promise I will always do my best to come home to you.”

She gives him another look, cutting her eyes away behind him as she lifts her again, and yeah, if they have to settle Vela he doesn’t really like this spot to do it.

The skeletons came out of a sharp turn in the wall, opening into a small chamber, the main passage veering away to join the other one, he thinks, lining up the space in his head. If they died here, the evidence is long gone; from the waterline on the posts holding up the platform that covers most of the room, this place floods most every day, at least. It’s rotting like everything else in here, but it holds his weight when he tries it, and he’s half again as heavy as Alys and Vela together so that should be fine. This was where the previous occupants slept, if he had to make a guess, or maybe where whoever was in charge did their work, since there’s a table, mildewed papers strewn across it, and a rickety chair that amazingly doesn’t look like it’ll collapse into dust if he drops them in it, though he leans on it himself just to be sure, but it might have been something else, given the piles, probably once neatly organized, around the edges of the thing.

Vela has progressed into hiccuping by the time Alys sits down, looking highly dubious about the state of the platform and everything on it, settling Vela into her lap and holding her close as she starts to hum, and he leaves her to it, kicking through the mouldering treasures stacked along the wall of the platform instead. Most of it’s beyond salvaging; blackened paintings that tear at a breath, bolts of fine fabrics rotted into a single mass, sacks of what was probably grain gone to dirt, but there’s a little coin, a handful of jewelry, some deeply tarnished silver candlesticks, and the candles themselves are fine, poured beeswax tapers that were probably tied neatly into bundles at some point, but no longer, and at the back, half buried under the rest of it, a pile of something wrapped in sturdy oilcloth, miraculously preserved against the elements.

“Something interesting?” Alys comes to lean on him, Vela clearly feeling better, looking over his shoulder as he drags it out, and then her fingers tighten into his shirt as she gets a good look at it.

“You know what it is?”

She leans further forward, Vela, quiet again, squeezing between them to cling to his shirt too, and he can hear the smile in her voice as she starts listing it off.

“Three, no, four bolts of dyed wyrwool broadcloth from the Pearl Coast, out of a lot of two hundred, two bolts of violet from the Pales, out of a lot of ten, a special order for…. someone from the Republics, I don’t recognize the name, and a bolt each of samite and cloth-of-silver, from a Master Caligari’s workshop in Old Valia, from the same order.”

“How do you figure that?” She’s a Watcher, sure, but no mind hunter, and this is a bit of a stretch.

“Aelere’s always been thorough. And you ought to recognize Aloth’s spellwork, honestly.”

He leans forward, careful, and yeah, now that he’s looking it’s familiar, not that he could have placed it, but she seems certain, except-

“Aelere?”

“My cousin. I’ve not gone mad, stop fretting.” She stands up again, tugging Vela away so he can get to his feet as well.

“How’d Aloth get involved, then?”

“He had a very expensive education, and he’s good at this sort of thing; she probably bullied him into it on one of his visits.”

“Like you bullied him about the rations?”

“That was just common sense. He needed to eat too, so he might as well have gone to the effort.”

The second he’s standing, Vela’s back to clinging, one hand fisted in his shirt, the other tight in her mother’s skirts, like the minute she couldn’t see him’s convinced her he’ll up and vanish on her, which is not going to be doable once they’re out of this nook. Which. On the off hand, he’d really like to find Beodul and get the Hel out of here before anything else happens, but Alys sitting down for a longer spell is probably a better idea, she’s still an icon of Berath, but breathing, and they really ought to see if there’s anything left in those papers, maybe get an idea of what the Hel even happened in here before they run headlong into it. Given her luck he wouldn’t even be surprised by a dragon somewhere in this mess.

“I don’t think a dragon could get in here, Edér.” She sighs, letting him shuffle them back to the table, clearly having read the look on his face. Vela’s brows draw together, but her eyes aren’t wet, good, so she’s probably thinking about her little friends, who won’t be too big to fit anywhere until the rest of them were all long dead and gone.

“Not the kittens, my heart.” Alys agrees, dropping back into the chair and peeling open the logbook set pride of place in front of her, wafting a dirty, vegetablely scent that makes Vela scrunch her nose and press closer to him. He snags a scrap of parchment for himself, pinned to the desk with a pitted, rusty eating knife; wasteful, that, the point would’ve never been the same even before whatever the Hel went down happened. The handwriting’s atrocious, even without the bleed, and the mildew’s not helping any neither, but the gist of it seems to be somebody was pissed and proper worried about something the headman, whatever they called him, had bought as added security, plus the fact that they apparently don’t have an Aloth to hand to keep the tides from wrecking everything.

“Ah.”

“Ah?”

“Well, if we’re lucky, the construct our friend from the storm picked up somewhere will have rusted to pieces.”

So this was that asshole’s stomping grounds. Whatever guilt he might have felt over making off with what wasn’t already destroyed dissolves instantly.

“I don’t know why he picked it up, he was already behind on his taxes and those aren’t cheap to maintain, or easy to control, for that matter.” She wrinkles her nose, probably thinking about the little animat they’d picked up all those years ago, probably still kicking under the rubble of the house. That thing was tough as nails, but clearly this is a different beast.

“Pirates don’t pay taxes.” At least, he’s pretty sure they don’t pay taxes, given the whole ‘outside of the law’ bit.

“Tithes to the Principi council, who mostly use it to maintain their little fort as I understand it. Same thing really. In any case he was well behind on them.” She frowns at his accounting, the wet really hasn’t improved the state of that asshole’s books, then closes it again and pushes it away.

It might just be the torchlight, but it looks like she’s got a little color back when she glances up at him, eyes flickering between the parchment in his hand and his face, and he drops it back on the table.

“Construct probably killed everyone in here, somebody was complaining about it ‘giving them the eye’, best as I can guess. If we see crystals, keep an eye out, apparently it liked them.”

“Adra, not crystals, if I had to guess. I’m no animancer, but I’ve never encountered a construct with a particularly stable or well anchored soul.“

She accepts his hand back up, leaning into his shoulder when she sways on her feet, and honestly he doesn’t know how she’s still standing. She was asleep for a long time, and then the fight, and then the storm, and then they all escaped drowning by the skin of their teeth, and now this shit. She gives him a dry look as she steps away, mouth twisting, but doesn’t say anything, taking the torch back again and tugging Vela to follow, though she scowls and doesn’t let go of his shirt.

“I’m fine, Edér.” She says eventually, leading them back into the tunnel.

“You aren’t, but nothing we can do about that now.”

They make a funny little parade, Alys leading though she ought to be behind him, Vela clutching at them both with a grim determination that would be cute in any other circumstance, and he never liked any of this to begin with but he likes it less now. Hopefully they’ll find Beodul and get the Hel out of here before anything else happens, they’ve got to be running out of cavern if the map he’s put together in his head’s any good.

It’s a little drier, as they get further in, the tunnel sloping up just enough to let things dry out a smidge, which only serves to make the sand slippery, exactly what they needed right now.

The gleam of adra gets him by surprise, knocking him out of his grumbly thoughts as they come around another corner, this time into a proper cavern, and this must be where those assholes lived, not the little one, he can see the remains of a couple of hammocks tangled up with a pile of bones that’s not trying to kill them, heaped up near the dull, dead stone. It’s somehow creepier than the live stuff, sort of empty and shadowed, and really, he hasn’t liked any of this, but this is the last straw. A quick glance says Beodul’s not in here either, and even if there might be information they can come back for it, it’s not like it can end up in worse condition, so he chivvies them towards the tunnel leading out again; it should loop around to meet up with that broken bridge they saw earlier, which now that he thinks about it seems like it might have been Beodul’s doing, so if he’s anywhere, he’ll be there.

They almost make it out. They’re steps from the exit when Alys slips, windmilling back as her legs go out from under her, and what he’d taken for a particularly salty pile of rocks scrapes itself to its feet, lumbering at them faster than they can get past it.

Alys scrambles backwards, the torch flying out of her hand as she grabs Vela and drags her away, and its all he can do not to trip over her himself, doing an awkward little hop that just means when the thing swings at him it’s all he can do to duck, a broken edge on its arm drawing a line of fire across his shoulder, but his shirt doesn’t tear so it can’t be that bad, and he spares a thought for that old door, probably still leaning up against the wall in his cottage, where it does them all a fuck lot of good, as he dodges away from the girls, trying to keep its attention.

It’s limping, for lack of a better word, something wrecked in one of its legs, what he’d taken for salt more like mold, great holes eaten away in its shell, and despite that it’s still faster than he’d like, with more reach, and a sword is not the thing to be fighting it with, but it’s all he’s got so it’ll have to suffice.

The first swing just clatters off it, getting its attention well enough but not actually doing anything, and he has to dodge again as it swings its other arm at him, but the second catches one of those moldy patches and punches straight through, overbalancing him, and it, fortunately, though it nearly takes the sword right out of his hand, and then Alys is singing, whipping the memory of this place into something tangible, and the bones huddled near the adra pull themselves into the semblance of whoever they were before they died.

They, whoever they were, had a gun in life, which is also less than ideal, but it lets him swing around behind the thing and kick another of the moldy patches in, the machinery inside grinding out little sparks where bits of it have rusted nearly together, and the delicate little lattice of adra and copper looks important, so he swings at that, misses, has to back away as it decides he’s a better target than the person it already killed, and Alys makes a horrible, breathless noise and the lattice explodes in a flash of light that leaves purple-green-gold spots in his vision.

There’s a finality to the way the thing crashes back to the floor, solidified when it doesn’t try to get up again, but he doesn’t have time to do more than kick it’s innards away, because Vela is screaming, for real this time. Alys is crumpled on the ground, and for a long, heart-stopping second he thinks this is it, whatever it was she did finally killed her, gods, why did they even come in here, and then she’s scrabbling at the floor, trying to heave herself back up as Vela shrieks in denial, patting at her shoulder as the closest thing to hand.

He has no memory of crossing the cavern back to them, it happens so fast, going to his knees and hauling her to hers, Vela darting under her mother’s arm as soon as she properly reaches for her. She’s lost all color, for true this time, the blood in the whites of her eyes not helping that impression any, staring out into the dark in a way that’d make all his hair stand on end if it wasn’t doing that already. The soft, greenish glow of the adra isn’t helping any, painting everything in sickly shades of grey with the help of the still guttering torch, the blood in her eyes and on her face, nose and temple and her lip is split, to boot, black in the dimness, pupils blown to pits, and she’s breathing like she can’t get any air in her lungs.

“Alys? Alys?”

“Mama!!”

Alys chokes, gasping, and then gives up on talking and flings her arm around his shoulders, fisting her hand in his shirt with an unpleasant squish, dragging Vela to her breast, and starts to cry.

#thank you for meming me!!!#pillars of eternity #risualto #my fic #I got stuck on literally one transition sentence whoops #and then my brain tried to kill me #but on the bright side I got rid of most of the extraneous touching if not the emotional whiplash #look I write precisely two things and neither of them well #and those two things are academic papers and romance novels #touching is a really great shorthand to build chemistry of any sort so I tend to put a lot of it in without realizing #if you hadn't noticed I have extremely detailed headcanons about some really wild shit here you go #this touches on tax law practical wizadry international commerce education and medical care among other things #also bronze disease can't forget the bronze disease #this was supposed to be ~5 lines of a joke about skeletons and now look where we are #related since I know this wasn't clear: both Alys and Vela are reading Eder's mind #but not a one of them realizes it because Alys wasn't given to ciphering before and Vela is a baby #and Eder is canonically Not Great about keeping his thoughts in his own head #look I've got an extensive vaugely scientific thing re: how much soul fits eothas' uh filter #which is a whole thing I won't get into right now #and also if you don't think the image of infant Vela plus the wurmlings curled up in a basket together is the cutest thing...#wurms are baby dragons; wurms form little flocks to keep each other alive when they're small; Vela was also a baby;wurms aren't very smart #therefore yes as far as the wurmlings are concerned Vela is also a wurmling #also yes this just sort of ends I had a real ending but yeah that transition sentence bit me and I was tired of the whole mess #if I ever like edit this properly I'll append it

11 notes · View notes

fizzyxcustard · 4 years

Text

Something Borrowed (1)

Fandom: North and South (modern AU)

Summary: Requested by the wonderful @dabisburntnut Your eldest sister is getting married and you have been invited. However, your family are quite pushy about hooking you up with someone, so you ask your boss (and friend), John Thornton to go with you.

Pairings: Modern!John Thornton x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Silliness, insecurity, drunkenness, very slight anxiety mention, slight overweight!reader mention.

Word count: 1544

Comments/Notes: My newest tag list is still under construction, so by all means send me an ask or message if you want to be added for all fics, a particular series or fandom. I’m using Lucas North as my modern!John Thornton. Come on, it’s RA anyway. ;)

Music listened to while writing this piece: ASMR video by FredsVoice ASMR on YouTube.

Masterlist of fan fiction here

It was your lunch break. You plopped down in the seat opposite John, your boss and owner of the factory where you worked as his receptionist. “Can I borrow you for the weekend?” you asked, grinning.

John looked up from the stack of papers on his desk and gave a tired smile.

“You bloody well need it by the looks of it,” you said, seeing the dark circles beneath your friend’s eyes. Had John been sleeping at work again? A couple of times you’d come in at half seven, only to find him asleep in his chair, arms and head on the desk.

“Isn’t your sister getting married?” John asked, stretching back in his seat.

“She is, and my mum is pushing at me to take a guest with me, preferably a man,” you sighed.

“Ahh, a means to an end?” John chuckled wryly.

“No. I didn’t say that,” you replied. “I was thinking of asking you before, but you’ve been so snowed under with all these orders and signing them off, and opening up the new factory, I didn’t think you’d want to go. Or have time to. I’m comfortable with you, John. I don’t feel that with many people.”

John couldn’t help but smile shyly at you. “Well, I’m glad you feel like that.”

“The wedding is at some large country townhouse. Most of what my sister tells me just goes in one ear and out the other, so I don’t really know. All I know is that I’m getting a lift up with my auntie and uncle. We don’t want to take too many cars, so we’re all piling in as few as we can.”

John leaned forward in his chair and watched you, your arms moving this way and that as you explained everything to him. He loved watching you gesticulate; you were so passionate and every word you spoke always sounded so heartfelt. You did nothing by half measure. So if he had been invited to such a close family member’s wedding, then you must have really thought a lot of him.

When you left the office, John sighed to himself and leaned back in his chair, looking out the window behind him. His heart was finally beginning to settle back down to its normal rhythm. You always had this effect on him, but he enjoyed every second of it. The only thing he didn’t enjoy was pondering constantly if you actually felt something for him as he did you. Each lunch break you shared with him; you text each other regularly out of work and, a few times, John had even given you a lift to and from work when your car was being repaired.

***

For the next three days, you began searching for your dress. Of course, like you normally did, you left things to the last minute if they were things you didn’t want to do. Seeing your sister get married was not something that particularly bothered you; she had always seemed to dislike you, constantly taking the opposite stance to you in debates, and she made it clear that her life was more complete because she now had a man she was about to marry and had three children from a previous relationship. Her husband to be wasn’t much better either. Most of the time he ignored you, only passing pleasantries because he felt obliged. The saving grace in all of this was John. He would be your comfort and your familiarity. None of your family made sense to you. Your parents were middle-aged, fairly well off, and found more interest in their twice yearly holidays in Spain and Italy. Your two sisters had their own lives to lead now, and you rarely saw them.

It hadn’t come as a surprise that your sister hadn’t chosen you to be a bridesmaid or her maid of honour. Those titles went to your sister’s best friends, more people who looked down on you like you were a piece of excrement they had just trod in.

By the time you chose your dress, it was almost closing time, two days before the big day. You had settled on a lilac strap dress. It was quite modest, simple and wouldn’t (hopefully) bring too much attention to your thicker curves.

***

On the morning of your travel to the wedding venue, you got up and began your normal routine of shower, breakfast and podcasts on your phone. John would be arriving at ten and then your aunt and uncle at eleven to pick you both up. Your uncle was nearing eighty now so you had asked John if he would possibly take over driving half way as the town house was about a two-hour drive away in the middle of nowhere.

Your small suitcase was ready for the two-night stay away. The voice of a kind man spoke into your ears as he discussed ways of combating anxiety and making the most of your life. Listening to podcasts in a morning and journaling always encouraged you to meet the day with a brave face, and today you would desperately need that brave face. The thought of all your judgemental family in one place didn’t particularly please you. If only the earth could open up and you could disappear somewhere for a couple of days.

John arrived at ten promptly. You let him in and closed your eyes, basking in his wonderful aroma as he wafted past you. “Do you want any breakfast?” you asked.

“I already ate before I came out,” he replied. John placed his weekender bag down in the hallway next to your wheelie suitcase.

***

The drive to the venue was quite uneventful. Your uncle Mike drove slowly and you couldn’t help but keep looking across at John from your seat, ready to laugh at the speed. In the middle of you was your five-year-old niece, Lily. She kept looking up at John, grinning.

“Is this your boyfriend?” Lily asked you.

“No, he’s my friend,” you replied, blushing hard.

“Come on now, dear. You’d make a lovely couple,” your aunt Janet chuckled.

John folded his arms and looked out of the car window. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him; his long legs made him look incredibly uncomfortable, as though he had been folded over many times to fit in the car.

“You should be looking for a nice husband, you know?” uncle Mike said, looking at you through the review mirror. “Mr. Thornton here seems like a good match.”

“Can we just change topic, please?” you insisted. “I think you’re embarrassing him.”

“We didn’t mean anything by it,” aunt Janet replied, sounding sad for upsetting you both.

Once you had arrived at the large house, the grounds covered in acres of trees, plantations and fountains, you all grabbed your belongings from the car and began a steady walk to the hotel which was situated just behind.

Lily held your hand, and for the first time you wondered why she had been forced to come with you. Why hadn’t she gone with your mum and dad? Not that you minded your niece coming along, but it seemed quite harsh breaking her up from her siblings. At least she was with family.

“Auntie (y/n)?” Lily asked politely.

“Yes, sweets?”

She beckoned you down with her small hand so she could whisper in your ear. Her high pitched, melodic voice became low in your ear. “Can you ask Mr. Thornton to dance with me?”

“I’m sure he won’t mind,” you replied, looking over at John.

“Pardon?” John asked, still looking a little uncomfortable and out of place.

“Lily was asking if you’d dance with her at the reception.”

John bent down to the little blonde haired girl and smiled. “You’ll be first on my list,” he said.

The sight of John interacting with your niece made you feel something warm in your chest and it spread outward through you.

“Come on, darlings,” aunt Janet called.

The hotel behind the main venue was a lot more modern, having television screens in the reception and plenty of coffee machines. “Hello,” a well set, dark-haired man said, offering you all a smile. He was dressed in a black suit and you noticed the name Peter on his name badge. “You must be part of the group for the wedding planned for this weekend?”

“We are,” aunt Janet said.

You still kept hold of Lily’s hand and watched John avert his gaze towards the door, as though he wanted to disappear and never be seen again.

“You’ve all been booked into rooms. Can I take all of your names, please?” Peter asked.

Of course you knew that Lily would have to check in properly with her mum and dad, who were strangely absent. Considering that your uncle drove so slow, you seemed to be the first group who had arrived.

Peter then turned to you and John. “I see we just have a ‘plus one’ for you, Sir,” he told John. “But can we take a name.”

“John Thornton.”

“That has all been checked for you. A king-size room is now available for you both.”

You blanched. “Is that one bed or two?” you asked.

“It’s one large bed.”

Oh, shit!

Main tag list: @shikin83 @deepestfirefun @emrfangirl @dabisburntnut @aspookybunny @karlthecat15722 @tigereyesf @swoopswishsward @sunnysidesidra @la-meneur-louve @moony-artnstuff @mama-tole-me-not-2-come @wolfavatar17 @morganofthecoves1 @narnvaeron @hobbitoferebor @meganlpie @thequeenoferebor @mynameisnoneya1991 @jumpingmanatee @xxbyimm @annewoods91 @nowiloveandwilllove @inhabitant-of-the-void @thorinthehottotty @rachel1959 @reinabell @paracosmfantasy @blankdblank @sherala007 @creativelyquestioninglife @c-s-stars @phyreblue @middleearthmama @luna-xial

#John thornton #modern!John thornton #north and south #John Thornton x reader #fanfic #request #north and south au #fanfiction #weddings

151 notes · View notes