#sorry for the knives (and guns i guess haha)

[heartfullofleeches]

DUDE THE CREEP READER AND NERD YAN IS SOOOOO GOOD WHHGLEKWN PLEASE I BEG FOR CREEP READER BEING MEAN TO NERD YAN AND THEM LOVING IT if it ain’t too much trouble yknow :]

"Bang!"

A finger flies through their scraggly locks and aim dead center at their forehead. Sliding your thumb back as if cocking a gun, you shoot your trajectory towards the sky as the recoil of your imaginary weapon knocks your arm back. You bring your hand down to drill your index finger right where the bullet would've went.

"Headshot! What have I told you about watching your surroundings? What if I or someone actually decided to get rid of you one of these days."

It's a fib. You both know you could never actually get rid of them with the resources they had access to. Without them, you'd have been locked in up in some cell and forced to watch as they melted down the key into something useful. You were still so thoughtful for training them for the unaccountable future. From all the times you smacked them in the back of the head as greeting, they were able to successfully dodge most attacks from behind by their aggressors. They were always a second too slow to move when it came to your hand as the pain in the back of their head swelled the ache in their chest.

Heart hammering from the thrill and the fear; they will their jaw to unclench as they speak. "S-sorry, Y/n. Guess I got my head in the clouds as usual, haha. That new knife you wanted came in today, which I why I called - Have you eaten anything yet? I'll pay if you haven't."

While they were certain you'd never ditch them, it never hurt to sweeten the pot a little. From hunting knives to vials of their blood they gave you whatever you demanded. You even let them keep the bandages from the time you nearly sliced your finger off testing your new blade. Thankfully, they stocked up on med kits and care tips in preparation for accidents. It was like they were your cute little nurse..

"Sure, I could go for something to eat - since you're offering. As thanks, I'll spare you the photos I was planning to show you of one of your other friends I ran into on my way here."

"Y/n, please stop taking pictures of the people you beat up.... It makes me jealous."

[lotus-mirage]

Trigun Stampede Episode 12 Liveblog!

I think the best way to express what I'm feeling going into this is just like *shaky thumbs up*

Oh that's funny they have Western style music in the background as they discuss the genre. Also what one of the genres of the show may or may not be. Speaking of characters applying themes to themselves lol.

Also wow! We get to look at the spaceships. I'm pretty sure that's more ships than crashed onto the planet?

"Maybe you two are gifts sent by God to act as a bridge between humans and plants." I honestly don't know how to feel about this? I think this is the first time we've seen a religious character that has practiced something presumably similar to something current rather than a space sci-fi offshoot.

...does the growing humanoid form of roots and flowers resemble Rem??

oh and there's Wolfwood. Hi, Wolfwood. What do you think is happening right now.

"It's the end of the world." Okay, question answered. I guess that's what Wolfwood thinks is happening right now.

"...he will connect directly with the plant core" okay so it is singular? And specific to Plants? Or are there multiple for different beings?

That's.... okay he's not actually giving souls to the pre-existing plants, he's using them to create new, separate Independents. That's worse?? Not only is he not doing anything for his existing "brethren" but instead forcing them to... give birth or the equivalent.

"Then he will wipe out humanity and create a new world." I thought your whole thing was preserving humanity?? Unless you think the human/plant hybrids accomplish that.

Sorry do we have to keep zooming in on the very pregnant looking plants? Incredibly uncomfortable rn

The effect on Vash's clothes and glasses is also a little uncomfortable tbf, but less viscerally so

Oh neat the score is echoing the singing!! That's cool.

Knives' vocals overlapping and being so dissonant emotionally is also really cool

very engrossed in the fight scene, but jotting down: he hesitated in reloading the gun. oof.

yeah actually I have no complaints about Meryl not being involved in action scenes the last few episodes. She is very outclassed in these fights. :0

Lmao Wolfwood shows up and immediately starts lugging her around. I love the constant physical comedy with these guys.

"You can bet they'll hunt us down in a frenzy!" meanwhile Wolfwood and Meryl are frantically scrambling away

also I didn't comment on it earlier but lmao Knives' single wing (wait. wait does that have actual biblical connections or is that just a ff7 invention. I'm realizing I have no idea. Oops.)

oh lol now Vash has one. Although it looks a little less traditional. I vote it still counts?

Oooh, they're blaming him. Understandable, but I bet that's gonna be a source of trauma in the future.

Oh wait note they're doing a white/black color scheme. Neat.

Nice and now their wings are framing their positions.

Oh and now they're falling angels. Okay I know these are very surface level observations but I'm having fun and don't have much to say about the fight otherwise haha

Oh nvm, "Nai is dead. You killed him." also gonna be very traumatizing for Vash sometime in the near future! Wonderful. Why are you traumatizing your twin further while actively being incinerated??

wgghhhhh I didn't expect to see the flesh like. melting. yikes.

(Knives' hair is incredibly resilient lol)

...okay I don't actually trust that he's not dead yet tbh.

Yup and there's the explosion.

Oh. Oh that's more of a 'and everybody got vaporized,' huh.

!! The top of the tower actually flew off! I kinda forgot about it in the fight. Huh!!

TWO YEARS!?

(also: titlecard! not as late as say last episodes, but still markedly later than standard)

"third city of JuLai" wait there's multiple?

huh. They changed Vash's arrest conditions. I'm honestly surprised that 'alive' is even still an option. also surprised that they know he was involved at all.

also yay echoing the first episode a little, nice.

:O "gaping crater" indeed

ah yet another cross huh. I guess this makes more sense as a gravestone for Roberto, though.

!! Zazie!?

"Very soon, they'll arrive, crossing over the wall of light." Okay!! Ominous! Both in subject matter and who the warning is coming from.

From EARTH??

eyyyy Milly (Millie?) finally getting namedropped

huh. That's a lot of blood. This isn't the same place as the first episodes, right?

Eriks, huh? <- suspicious and mostly sure of my assumption

Moon? Moon?????

Oh it's the credits backdrop, okay.

...end credits!

"Project Pieces of Earth now entering phase two." ...implying that this was a) according to plan and b) being monitored????

"drain gate" doesn't seem to fit with Vash's deal. interesting. draining from the gate, or something else?

Oh. Okay so they weren't monitoring the planet and the situation there, they were monitoring something else?? Okay that's more interesting actually.

End notes:

Okay well that was a ride! I'm having trouble trying to round this off so I guess I'll just categorize as usual.

The animation/visuals really impressed me for the most part! And to be fair, the times where it didn't could be chalked up to intentional choices, rather than lack of skill or technology. Background was also really cool! Stuck out a few times, but usually in a fun way.

I can't really think of anything to say about the characters or plot tbh, I think I kinda got everything in the liveblog section itself. Eager to see where both go, and thus kind of unsure whether or not I should unfilter the trigun tag yet lol.

Other than that, hmm. Don't really have a favorite among the characters, but I really enjoy Wolfwood's interactions with both Vash and Meryl. Moreso in the fun-to-pick-at dialogue for the former and the kind of goofy back and forth for the latter.

For other semi-core characters, I guess the only one I'm not really interested in is the doctor/priest guy. I think every episode we see him in I get more confused by him. Like. What is he doing? Why is he allowed to do that? How can he do it? Why does he think that's a good idea? It feels like the answer to those were in a state of constant flux near the end there.

On an overall/series level: had a lot of fun with this! Might try out the '98 series, but I don't know if I'll liveblog it (or at least the same way) given that I've seen a bunch of the plot already. Although I've heard it is rather different, so I guess that's subject to change.

[hisgoodgirl666]

Thoughts on the first half of 2010's "I Spit On Your Grave"?

Okay so here’s the over-sharing answer you probably didn’t want haha…

Force in porn or erotica or gifs or stuff like that is different for me than scenes in a regular movie like that. You might not expect it based on my blog lol but sexual assault in movies used to be a pretty hard limit for me since they’d make me panic. Yeah, human brain weird… In fact My First Panic Attack™ was when watching V/H/S when it was the scene of the guys pulling up the girl’s shirt (didn’t know what that movie was about going into it lol…). Anyway, it used to be kind of a big problem for me, despite what I like in fantasy. If it was a year or two ago, I don’t think I’d be able to handle even a portion of I Spit on Your Grave (which I hadn’t heard of until now actually).

However! My brain has chilled out with that more recently. I also used to not be able to handle much horror but suddenly can handle a lot more of that too lately. Idk what’s really made the difference lately. So with that, I did look up I Spit on Your Grave and I watched most of the extended scene. I would say it’s overall too much for something that would turn me on or be a movie I want to watch.  But like… I know I’ve seen gifs of that movie on tumblr, and I’ve reblogged them lol. And it definitely checked a lot of my boxes with guns and knives and intox and even stuff in the forest specifically. There were short isolated moments where I might have been like 👀 lol but otherwise not really for me. I guess just in movies like that (as in not porn) it just focuses a lot more on the terror and humiliation. I guess it’s too real? But a quick gif without context is different. Porn/erotica/fantasy in my head is just better.

I fully recognize the weirdness of something literally triggering a panic attack in me and yet being what I gravitate towards in sexual fantasy. Especially when that panic attack trigger is (was) about sex itself. But yeah like I said, human brain weird. I just go with it though. I’d rather it be a kink than something that’s upsetting.

The vibes that Johnny guy gave off were nice though. The direction my brain goes in was I wish he just took her for himself and wouldn’t let anyone else have her. And just keeps her as his pet. 🥰 And anyone who’s been on my blog for more than a minute would know I’d love a hint of reassurance/soothing too haha. It seemed they wanted to keep things pretty rough/degrading though, which makes sense for the plot.

Anyway thanks for the ask sorry for the novel!

[boolger]

i was tagged by the sweet @rosieblogstuff !!<3 anyone who wants to answer this too, consider this your tag 🫡💖

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 53! Somehow, haha. Once I'm done w thesis, it will grow for sure!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

608,326 words! 😳 i stresswrite

3. What fandoms do you write for?

right now its only Macgyver(2016) and Call of Duty! I've made a marvel crossover, but not anything else. Once I'm done with uni and actually have the time to write and see shows without feeling like I should be doing other stuff, I will definitely write for more! I want to write something for stuff like Knives out, Phantom of the Opera, Star wars -- but mainly a ton of Macgyver and call of duty, lol

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? well, they've changed quite recently, since i jumped headfirst into the COD fandom and was welcomed very nicely! So, right now, theyre:

Adventures of 141's bunny (1,502 kudos😳😳)- Call of Duty

Mami's omega (448 kudos) - Call of Duty

The Heron Club (363 kudos) - Call of Duty

Warm water (150 kudos) - Macgyver

A pregnant night (144 kudos) - Macgyver

Im very grateful for each single kudos !!💖🥰

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, or I try now! It was easier when I was only in the macgyver fandom, since it is much smaller, but now in the Call of Duty fandom, i'm afraid I simply cannot keep up! So if I don’t reply to your comment, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude or anything!👉👈

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

phew, that is one good question, because I honestly don't know. I have a tendency to end things either happy and hopeful like, or dark and like, with the vibe of things just being uncertain but not necersarily angsty? Lmk if im wrong lmao. I think the closest is in A dog needs a garden, but then again, its not really angsty - at least not to the characters. just... dark.🤷‍♀️

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hm. I mean, in my two fics Sir and his good boy and my baby’s got a gun (that I struggle to read myself now bc while I do have a soft spot for them, I hate my writing lol.) I make poor Mac go through a lot of shit, and they both end up on a happy or hopeful note- so those two, I guess? For now, heh.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

mmm, not really. When I do get some questionable comments, I either just answer in a jokingly manner or ignore it. I think I've only deleted one comment, lol. 💀

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

hah, YES. what don't I write. Despite being ace and not really being interested in sex irl, I sure do write a lot of smutty smut. I mostly write kinky stuff, a lot of BDSM ones. A lot of darker stuff too. I mean, out of 53 fics I think maybe 13 ish of them doesn’t have smut in them? So yeah, I write a bunch of smut.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Well, I've only written three (so far) lol. Two of them was just... Angus Macgyver and Jack Dalton having a threesome with a character from a different fandom, LMAO. I've written them having a threesome with Bucky Barnes from marvel and then one with Simon Ghost Riley from Call of Duty. The craziest one technically isn’t a crossover lmao, more just the fact that I made twilight vampires canon in a Macgyver fic I wrote once 💀😂 it’s called this is the skin of a killer, Jack and yes, I find it funny and stupid myself.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not, lol. So no, at least not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Uh, no, again, not that I know of, lmao.👀

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Mmm, not technically, no. I don't talk often with a lot of fanfic writers, (im shy and idk how to become friends with people) but I do have 2 wonderful sweet friends I met through the macgyver fandom, whom i'm very grateful for and love lots. (They adopted my imposter ass who hadn’t even seen the show) They have managed to deal w my annoying ass for like... almost 2 years, I think and somehow isn't scared away yet. So, what I was going with that is, no, i've not co-written anything, but they do spar a lot with me and we discuss ideas and such, hehe. They've def helped me with a lot of fics.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

That is one good question that I honestly don't know the answer of. I'm pretty open to most ships, as long as they're written well in the fic or the show. (and legal. and not *ncest or pseudo *ncest.)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

don't call me out like this, I have a lot of WIPS. But honestly? Probably Wet footprints on the wooden floor (Macgyver). A part of me wants to, but its been like 1,5year or so, i think. At this point I would probably just delete it, then rewrite the entire thing and post it again, lol, because I do like the concept.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I don't know, actually. I like to think I write somewhat interesting plots whenever I'm trying not to just write pure smut. But eh, idk. I think I have an okay sense of humor too? but I am also biased.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Weird sentences! English isn't my first language, Danish is! and the structure of a sentence can be very different in Danish, so sometimes my English sentences ends up weird bc they're translated, lol. I'm working on it and I have definitely become better ver since writing my first fanfic, lol.🤷‍♀️

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I like to read it, but I struggle with writing it! It's hard, especially when you dont speak a certain language. I sometimes go with google translate, but I've tried just writing it like this when its in another language, lol. so ye, fun but hard.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Eh, i mean, I wrote a fanfic or two when I was like 15 or something, but I cannot, for the life of me, remember what for. probably marvel or twilight or something😂

If we go with the boolger account time-line, then it's Macgyver!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

don't make me choose between my babies. So I shall cheat the system and mention some of my fav.

The many deaths of a phoenix(macgyver), since I like the plot ideas lol, even though I feel stuck with it atm.

Lovers in the garden of Eden (macgyver) (dead dove dont eat) which is def fucked up, not the worst kind I've written but still. It has a special place in my dark, f'ed up heart. 🖤

Do you think I'm broken? (macgyver) bc I tried to voice a lot of my own gender struggles through it lol.

and finally, i am a lil proud of So long as I'm your favorite toy(COD) heh.

[keyboardandquill]

Tiny Scene Sunday ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

caution, scars, desperate (bonus: valour) | Hawthorne and Beck :D ❤️

@bloodlessheirbyjacques ❤️✨👀

Jacques thank youuu!!! These have been PERCOLATING in my BRAIN for a long while so I'm glad to finally present to you a not-so-Tiny Scene on this beautiful not-Sunday :]

(CW: gunshot wound, guns, wound tending)

---

There's gauze wrapped around my middle when I wake up. I know this ache—the searing agony of a wound I could have avoided. I'm not sure what hurts more, this, or the fact that I could have prevented it had I shown just a little more caution.

Hawthorne knows it. He offers me a lopsided smile from where he sits beside me, apologetic, almost.

Running my fingers along the neatly-wrapped bandage, it takes my pain-fogged mind a few moments to comprehend what must have happened. Cal has no first aid training, nor does he show any inclination toward it. Yarrow, in her inexperience, wouldn't have been so tidy.

Which leaves Hawthorne.

"Let me know if they're too tight," he murmurs. He reaches out, his hand stopping short of touching me, and clenches it into a fist. "It's been a while since I've had to do that."

I take a slow breath and wince. This one's gonna scar. There's no way it won't. Yet another mark on the patchwork canvas of my body, another painful reminder of everything this world has come to. I glance over at Hawthorne again.

His hunched shoulders, his downcast face, the worried furrow of his brow—all of it is so opposite to the way he usually is, it leaves me craving... normalcy. (The fact that I so quickly took his loud presence as normal, I'll have to examine at a later date.)

"Hey," I croak. He's unscrewing the cap on his canteen before I can even get the next words out, bringing it to my lips to sate my thirst before I continue. "This isn't my first time getting shot, you know. I've built an immunity."

Expressionless, he stares at me for a long moment. "You're telling jokes. Now I know something's really wrong," he says, his somber tone belied by the twinkle in his eye. That's better. "Is that what the other scar was?"

The image of a terrified little boy flashes through my mind. His trembling hands hold a gun, point it at me. He's desperate. We all are. Somebody screams and he startles and his finger pulls the trigger and I double over and wake up wrapped up not unlike I am now.

"Yeah," I say.

"Did you get that one while committing unwise acts of valour too?"

The gun in my memory clatters to the floor. All I could think then was about how empty my stomach had been, how filling it with lead wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I came across that house in the middle of nowhere.

I breathe out a laugh. It hurts. "Not quite." Valour, after all, is a choice. And I didn't choose any of this.

---

thank you @bloodlessheirbyjacques I loved writing this!! It's been stewing in my mind for ages so I hope you enjoy <3

Tag list (ask to be +/-)

@wip-nook @ariskamalt @daltoneering @edgebug @ren-kenobi-wan @sp8sexual @ericaceam

[equestrianwritingsstuff]

Trapped and Forgotten Part 1

Warnings: death mention (in thought and speech), negative thoughts, guns, knives, captivity, eletrical prod, and shocking

Hero and Sidekick never should've teamed up with Villain and Henchman.

That much was certain.

Especially since all four were now trapped in a tiny cell so close that all their legs brushed against each others'.

Hero leaned back and sighed. Gosh they were stupid. Really stupid.

Like immensely, completely, terrifyingly stupid.

Hero closed their eyes. 'Might as well sleep,' they thought. It wouldn't be until later that Supervillain would being their food that was most likely laced with poison or a drug or something bad.

A sharp kick to their shin nade Hero open their eyes. Villain's deep, daring eyes were locked with their's. They bore an expression that could only we translated into "Be Quiet".

'Well Villain, incase you haven't noticed, we weren't talking anyways,' Hero wanted to say, but the ferocity of their gaze made Hero quickly dismiss that idea.

Henchman was resting their head against Villain's shoulder as they slept. Hero never realized how similar they look until now. They both had the same dark brown hair and small nose. Their jawlines were very pronounced and they had high cheek bones. The only thing different was their eyes. First off, Henchman was blind in their right eye. It was a ghostly gray that was completely contradicted their green left eye. Villain had deep blue eyes that seemed to look right into someone's soul.

Hero never realized that they were twins until now.

Sidekick was a stout fellow, only a year younger than the rest. Their blond hair was majestic. Their hazel eyes, full of meaning, calculated everything and everyone. Their skin was immaculate, no blemishes, no acne, no anything except for a thin scar along their forehead. Villain gave them that scar and based on the amused look they gave it whenever they saw it, Villain was proud of what they did.

Hero never actually liked their own appearances. Dull, dry light brown hair that only seemed to collect dust. Their eyes, a near black, never actually won top prize in the Prettiest Eyes of Year competition. Not that they ever applied or anything. Their nose was pointed up very slightly at the end. All their friends said it was cute, but Hero hated it. They were always rubbing it to hide it.

Hero shook their head. Why were they thinking of the looks of others while they were stuck in Supervillain's prison?

They stood up, much to the annoyance of Villain, and carefully crept to the door. They were careful not to step on sleeping Henchman as they stepped over them.

Hero leaned against the door, their calves brushing against Sidekick's back. Their hands fiddled around until they grabbed the lock. It was a weird one that could only be opened with a combination. Maybe it was the same one for all villain's locks in every prison. It was highly unlikely, but...

"Villian," Hero said, looking down at them. Villain responded with a meaningless glare. 'Okay, nevermind,' Hero thought and turned back to the lock. They couldn't break it from in the cell, even if they got Sidekick to use their muscles. They wouldn't be able to get enough leverage.

Why did they have to team up with Villain?

They could be lounging on their sofa with some popcorn and a book or even scouting the city with Sidekick. They could be doing anything. Anything but rotting in a cell with the two people Hero hated the most.

"Please sit down," Villain grumbled. Both Hero and Sidekick turned to the cranky villain.

"Atleast I am actually trying to get out," Hero replied.

"Be quiet," Villain muttered before stretching their neck out and closing their eyes.

"What is wrong with them?" Hero asked Sidekick as they slid down next to their buddy. Hero was practically sitting on their lap.

"I don't know," Sidekick said a note too loud. Villain's eyes shot open and they sent the duo a glare.

"Sorry," Sidekick mouthed and rolled their eyes.

"Why did we even agree to this?" Hero asked.

"You mean, why did you agree to this," Sidekick retorted, looking up at Hero. "I'm not mad, but you wanted to help them."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Hero said quickly, not too happy that Sidekick brought up their mistake.

Hero looked over at the twins. Villain's head was now resting on their shoulder and they held Henchman close. Hero felt a sting of pity for their parents.

"I never knew they were twins," Hero said, almost laughing.

"Yeah, me neither," Sidekick chuckled.

Hero leaned back. They were tired too, after being awake all night waiting for Supervillain to make their appearance.

"You can sleep Hero," Sidekick said. "I will keep watch."

"Just wake one of them up. This was their plan anyways," Hero mumbled, pointing at the twins.

"Hmm," Sidekick responded. "Nah. Let them sleep. Maybe Villain won't be as crabby."

Hero closed their eyes, but sleep didn't come, only memories:

Hero watched as Villain approached them. They held no weapon that Hero could see. Henchman followed from a distance, wearing a hood over their head.

"We need your help Hero," Villain said in a commanding tone. Hero ignored it and asked, "Why? Don't you have some villain friends that would love to help you?"

"Haha," Villain said in mock laughter. Then more serious, "No. It is too dangerous."

"Then why do you think that I would want to help you?" Hero asked. Why would they willingly go into a danger zone for Villain? It wasn't that were scared of danger, but for Villain? Why would they ever do anything for Villain, safe or not?

"Because the Hero I know doesn't run away from danger," Villain was closer now. So close that they could smell their cologne/perfume.

"I don't," Hero said, looking into Villain's blue eyes.

"Then help me dispose of Supervillain," Villain said in a near whisper. "It will be better for me, you, and your stupid civilians."

Maybe. Defeating Supervillain would put thousands of people out of harm's way, but for what price? Hero's life? They could live with that. Or not, they would be technically dead.

Villain's life? Just fine. Henchman's life? Eh, that was okay. They never actually hurt anyone directly, but they still were Villain's second in command and their best friend. Sidekick's life? Sidekick would jump in a pool of lava for anyone, even if they didn't know who they were. That was Sidekick, but Hero couldn't live with that. Definitely not, it would slowly kill them.

But if it all went well with no price, or just Henchman and Villain's lives, then tons of people wouldn't have to suffer. The rest of the villains would perish without someone keeping them in line. But why does Villain suddenly have this need to get rid of Supervillain?

"You must be contemplating whether or not to assist me in this heroic task," Villain said, grinning down at Hero.

"How did you know?" Hero replied sarcastically.

"Intuition," Villain gave Hero a big, fake smile.

"Really?"

"Really."

Both remained silent until Villain asked, "So, can you please help me?"

"No," Hero replied. Half of them couldn't believe they had just refused. The other half felt relieved.

"I know that you are very unsure of that answer," Villain said. Hero glared at them.

"Yes I am!" They yelled. Henchman looked up from where they were standing behind Villain.

Villain raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," Hero muttered. "I'm not sure."

"So," Villain took a step closer. "Is that a yes? Will you help me defeat Supervillain?" Hero could see happiness and maybe a little bit of relief behind those threatening eyes.

"Yes, I will," Hero said. They could see Henchman grin and Villain stepped back.

"Good," Villain said. "We meet here at dawn."

_____

Villain hated Hero. Like actually hated them to the point of wanting to kill them too. If it wasn't for Sidekick watching and protecting them every step they took, they would already be in a coffin waiting for burial.

Like Supervillain was going to be in precisely thirty-six minutes and thirteen seconds.

Thirty-six minutes and twelve seconds.

Thirty-six minutes and eleven seconds.

That was when Villain would finish them.

Henchman, their twin sibling, stood next to them, watching as Hero and Sidekick worked together to break into Supervillain's base.

"Sidekick has some muscle," Henchman said jealously. Atleast what Villain thought was jealousy. They had a knack for reading people's faces and figuring out their emotions. A seceret talent, they called it, but Henchman was nearly impossible to tell. So, Villain had to revert back to asking.

"Jealous?" They asked, crossing their arms.

"Kind of," Henchman said, looking up at Villain. "I work out every day for hours, yet I never gain any muscle."

Villain unconsciously flexed their own muscles.

"I guess you aren't doing the exercises right," Villain said, nudging their sibling playfully, but Henchman wasn't in the mood for jokes.

"Okay!" Hero called from where they were trying to bust the door open. Villain wanted them to be silent, but with Sidekick and Hero, silence was next to impossible.

Villain and Henchman joined their temporary allies at the opened door.

"Okay next step?" Hero asked a bit to enthusiastically for Villain's liking. This was Supervillain they were talking about, not some homeless street fighter.

"Shut off the electricity," Villain said. "Supervillain has a lot of security cameras and sensors, so be careful."

All four stood there in eerie silence. Villain was waiting for Hero and Sidekick to walk into the building and kill the electricity, but their gazes suggested otherwise.

"You want me to cut some wires?" Villain asked. They weren't serious right? 'They can't be,' Villain told themselves. Villain, a noble, feared crimimal doing what sidekicks and henchmen should do. Cutting off the electrical source.

"Of course," Hero replied as if Villain asked a dumb question. Which, to them, Villain knew was a very dumb question.

"Henchman, go," Villain said and looked at their twin, who just raised an eyebrow. They then looked at Sidekick who stood with their hand on their hips.

"Fine!" Villain exclaimed and stormed into Supervillain's base. 'Gosh, they were so bosy! Villain do this, Villain do that!' Villain complained to themselves as they took a couple rights and a left here and there, dodging cameras and sensors until they were at the door to the eletrical room. Villain knew Supervillain's place nearly as well as their own, so it wasn't that difficult.

Maybe that was why the others made Villain turn off the electricity?

Villain pushed open the door to the room. First, they checked for Supervillain's henchmen with their gun raised. No one. They holstered their gun and took out their knife.

"Okay, let's do this," Villain said out loud. They made their way to the humming wires that were clustered in the center of the room. A realization struck them. How would they be able to do this without dying? Being electrified was not a part of Villain's plan.

"Dangit," they whispered and put the knife back. They ran their hand over the smooth rubber covering that protected touchy hands from being shocked by the murderous wires underneath that were constantly fueled by even deadlier electricity.

Fueles by electricity... Villain's eyes made their way to a red lever with two words on the bottom and top that read "On" and "Off".

Villain smiled and reached up to the lever. It was pointed up at "On", so all they had to do was push it down. Easy-peasy.

Villain grasped onto the lever, but found themselves too short to successfully pull it down. They kicked, trying to get some force into their muscles, but nothing worked. They let go.

"Well, time to practice my pull-ups," Villain muttered and grabbed onto the lever again. They pulled all their weight up which caused the lever to snap downwards. The humming stopped and Villain very ungracefully toppled onto the ground.

"Gotta work on that," Villain said and brushed their pants off. They took out their knife and started cutting the wires in half.

"Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy," Villain laughed as they cut the last one. They were somewhat surprised at the evil, macanical sound that escaped their throat until they felt warm breath on their neck.

The laughing wasn't from them.

Villain stepped forward and reached for their gun. They would have to be fast. They pulled out the gun, turned around and-

Clatter.

'Well that's just great,' Villain said to themselves as they viewed the dropped gun with mild contempt.

"Villain," a rough voice sounded. They didn't even have to look up to know it was Supervillain.

"Hey buddy," Villain said back. In times of trouble, act innocent.

"What exactly are you doing to my electricity?" Supervillain asked in a cool tone. Villain bit their tongue to stop the forbidden words that were at the edge of their tongue, "Getting rid of you so I can rise to power and have the world at my evil hand's mercy." Yeah, no that wouldn't work out to well.

So instead, they said, "Fixing your wires. They were quite glitchy."

"Glitchy?" Supervillain asked. Villain forced themselves to look them in the eye.

"Yup," Villain smiled, trying to ignore Supervillain's stare that clearly meant, "I am gonna kill you." Not that Villain could actually blame Supervillain at all, but it wasn't apart of the plan.

Nothing was apart of the plan. Nothing at all.

"So then," Supervillain dropped their hardcore gaze to Villain's knife. "Why are you using the knife?"

"Uh, um," Villain hesitated before saying a bit to quickly, "Cutting it... out?"

"Uh huh," Supervillain nodded slowly. "Guards!"

Crap.

Villain backed up and pleaded with Supervillain, "Aw c'mon now buddy. We are old friends right? Right?"

"Leading a very skilled and talented fighter, a body builder, a braniac, and yourself, a ruthless killer, to my base is considered friendship?"

"Yes," Villain replied with confidence. They couldn't help but feel really good about compliment that Supervillain just told them. Actually, they wanted to thank them and then leave.

"Okay. Someone needs to go to school again because I don't think they passed kindergarten vocabulary," Supervillain said with mock concern on their face.

"I wouldn't know who that is," Villain replied, feigning innocence. 'They have a point though,' Villain thought, thinking about their report cards and all the classes they failed.

"It's you Villain," Supervillain gave a cocky smirk. Villain returned it saying, "That's not very nice."

"It isn't? Well, neither is breaking into my home."

"I wouldn't really call this piece of junk 'home', but whatever suits you I guess." Villain was actually very jealous of Supervillain's set up. Atleast ten prisoner cells with coded locks, various rooms for lounging around, medical rooms, even a garage full of four-wheelers and motorcycles AKA Villain's dream.

"Hmm very funny," Supervillain replied, showing no emotion at all. "Wanna know what else is funny?"

"I'm all ears."

"The fact that I have three of your friends in a cell right now," Supervillain replied. Then, very deftly, they revealed an electrical prod.

Dangit.

"That is very funny!" Villain exclaimed, but their smile faltered as Supervillain crept closer with the prod as a few guards entered the room and flanked them.

"You do realize what this does right?" Supervillain asked and shifted their weight to one foot. When Villain didn't respond, they continued, "An electrical prod, baton, stun gun, whatever you wish to call it."

"I know."

Supervillain smiled.

"It will hurt. If used for too long, you won't be able to move and it will be really confusing. For you."

Villain's bottom lip trembled. Their muscles told them to run, but Supervillain was quick and would shock them easily.

"Scared?" Supervillain asked.

"Duh."

"Well I hope this will be quick for you, but then again, I doubt it," Supervillain rushed forward and pressed the prod against Villain's stomach.

They screamed in pain and dropped to the ground. Their vision blurred and they thrashed around, but only for a second. Their body went totally limp.

Villain couldn't stop tears from rolling down their cheek. Supervillain picked them up, or Villain assumed they did. The world spun around them and quite against their will, their head drooped uselessly.

"Please," Villain murmured, but they doubted Supervillain even heard. If they did, they didn't show it.

Suddenly, they were on the floor, leaning against Supervillain's legs. They could see figures about ten feet, no two feet... five maybe... in front of them. Villain thought they could be concerned, maybe? One or two of them rushed forward, but seemed to be blocked by something like rods.

A hard pressure suddenly appeared on Villain's back and they lurched forward. They crumpled on the ground, unable to move their arms or legs.

"Walk Villain."

"No don't!" Another voice yelled. "Let me." The voice's owner pulled at them. Villain tried to resist it, but their muscles wouldn't move. They couldn't think! They had no idea what was going on.

Villain felt something warm on their back as faces clustered around them.

"What happened?"

"Don't know."

Villain wanted to move, to face the faces and find Henchman, but they felt locked up in their own body.

"Villain? Villain can you hear me?"

Villain tried to open their mouth to say "Yeah", but it came out like a strangled groan.

"They've been shocked," a voice said. "Give them a few minutes and they should be back to normal."

Villain turned their head away. 'Atleast I can move that,' they thought and wondered who's lap they were on. Was it Hero's? Sidekicks? Please, no. 'Hopefully Henchman. Please be Henchman, please,' they said to themselves as their thoughts slowly returned.

As their movement came back, and their orientation, Villain noticed that they were in a cell. They recognized Henchman's face looking down at their own and they sighed in relief. Not Hero or Sidekick, Henchman.

Villain looked out of the cell and into the dark, foreboding hallway and knew right away.

They would never get out.

[m-y-fandoms]

Vampire Nagito Komaeda x Ultimate Monster Hunter reader - Part 2 (Supernatural AU)

Part 1 

WARNINGS: Blood Drinking, Vampire Bites

Please excuse any grammar mistakes. I think I got most but I edited this at 5 A.M. ... I will go back over it and scan for errors soon.

- Admin Kokichi

     Hours passed since your unfortunate encounter, and your heart and mind had finally shaken off the creeps. After finishing your little self-guided tour of campus, you headed to the Main Course dorms to find your room. Your luggage was arranged to come later that evening, but you wanted to see the dorms for yourself now with little else to do. 

      Once you shut the door, the warmth of the sunlight gave way to a wave of the best air conditioning money could buy. The place looked very clean and tidy, with nothing out of place save for a few displaced balls and plastic cups atop a pool table and what appeared to be forgotten lecture notes on a shelf above a central fireplace. This must be the common area, a lounge for the most deserving students in the world!

     Behind the fireplace on either side were two sets of pretentious-looking stairs that led up to what you assumed were the actual dorm rooms. You searched your pocket for your student key card. You flipped it around over and over again in your hand, searching.

     “What?” You weren’t going crazy, were you? Neither floor nor room number were indicated on your card. You pulled your phone out, quickly sifting through emails and texts. Nope. Nowhere, at any point, had the housing department told you exactly what room was yours. Way to drop the ball, Kirigiri… you sighed, finding this situation both a bit humorous and exasperating considering the status of the school.

     Well, you were a last minute transfer. There were bound to be slip-ups.

     Sighing, you resigned to sit, relax for a few minutes, then call the housing department, or simply walk over to the main office building if it was still open.

      "Maybe I'll just..." you decided you'd earned the two minute break and walked leisurely over to one of the beige leather seats. Sitting, you set your chin into your hand propped up by your elbow on the arm of the chair, and began to think of how much you missed your tools. School regulations didn’t allow poisons, crossbows, guns and silver bullets inside the dorms... for obvious reasons. Even students of the blade or other offensive disciplines had to keep all sharp and lethal objects in their practice rooms and out of the dorms (not that all of them followed these rules). Students were allowed to customize and adjust their uniforms according to their talent, but you couldn’t even do that, what with all of the tools of your trade being lethal or unexplainable to the ignorant masses.

     It felt weird, not having a wooden stake strapped to your ankle, not having wolfsbane hidden away in a compartment on your belt. You felt out of place, without knives and rune-inlaid whips hidden on your person... uncomfortable. This school really wasn’t for you.

     "Ah, it’s you!" A voice came from behind.

     "Huh?" You gasped, flying up from your seat, thoroughly startled. Your knee banged off of the coffee table in front of it, leaving you feeling like an absolute buffoon. Your hand instantly flew to your leg, and you hissed softly in pain.

     “Whoops! Didn’t mean to startle you, sorry!”

     Your eyes followed the voice all the way up the stairs to its owner. Nagito was scrambling down the stairs toward you apologetically, feeling responsible for your blunder. He reached his hands out as of to offer you his aid, but froze upon seeing you take a step backward. He stopped directly in front of you, clearing his throat before continuing.

     “What are you doing here? You don’t have to start classes yet?” You stared into his eyes, and a tremble ran up your spine. The greenish-grey, glistening spheres appeared icy and far away. “Well?" When you didn't respond, he spoke up again.

     "I uh... um..."

     "You have a way with words, I see, just like when we met earlier today." He teased, laughing warmly. He had one of those genuine smiles, where the eyes exude friendliness just as much as the mouth, and their misty shine entranced you deeply. He laughed again, a bit awkwardly as you merely gawked at him. A light blush formed on his cheeks and he swept some of his cloud-like hair away from his forehead. He held the eye contact, though, searching your mind for something, anything to tell him more about you. You felt a stinging begin, like a migraine forming in the depths of your brain.

      You shook your head roughly, tearing your eyes away from his gaze. How could you have fallen for that one? 

     Vampires could very easily compel the mortal mind, put one in a mind-hazing trance with direct eye contact alone. Being the offspring of one of the best hunters ever born, you were trained to notice when the bloodsuckers made their attempts to ensnare your mind or read it like a book. That headache was your warning sign, the last defense of a disciplined mind, but it shouldn’t have even of gotten that far. 

     You were slipping… why did this vampire feel… different?

     More importantly, you forced your mind to change the subject, how long had he been trancing other students? Was he doing this on purpose? Some vampires simply forgot their own strengths at times. Did Kirigiri know? Is this dangerous creature simply going around unchecked... doing whatever the hell he likes?!

     He coughed, his eyebrows furrowing with a sudden seriousness. He’d been searching your mind, looking around desperately for a clue, a story, a hint, and just as soon as he thought he’d found an interesting page to start reading, the book was snapped close in front of him. He was pushed out in an effort that seemed practiced, skillful. You saw the discontent lining his features, and decided you needed you stop this. You two needed to be on the same page, before he tried anything else on you; something stupid, or more bold. You couldn’t keep up this charade any longer. You had a feeling he was feeling the same way.

     "Stop that.” You spoke sternly, concisely, confidently. He needed to know not to try that shit again, that you would not simply be prey like others, not mentally nor physically. His mouth formed a smirk, one of relief and something like acknowledging the other player in a game.

     “Ahh~ so I see that I was correct after all. Are we done playing pretend now? Awww, I was actually having a lot of fun! It was quite stimulating, actually.” He frowned, pouting like a child called home at dusk after playing outside all day.

     “I’m afraid so. Sorry to disappoint you,” you crossed your arms over your chest defiantly,” and I don’t appreciate my mind being picked and prodded at. That’s extremely disrespectful, you know? That’s none of your business. If you’re doing that to people on the regular around campus, I will inform the headmaster.” You held a finger out, poking his chest firmly and with aplomb, and he only smiled in response, finding this attempt to intimidate him rather adorable. He held in a giggle behind his hand, not wanting to anger you. “Am I amusing to you?” You threw him a cross look, and he held his hands up in surrender.

     “No, of course not! I was just thinking, well... how do you know? About me, I mean?”

     You face went blank. You weren’t expecting this question, though you probably should have been. There was no possible way to answer this honestly. What were you supposed to say? The headmaster forbade you from telling anyone of your true talent. Disregarding that point, what would this vampire do to you once he found out you were one of those sworn to kill his kind? You didn’t have any means of defending yourself at present. You couldn’t outrun him, or fight back with raw strength. He couldn’t do anything right? He wouldn’t… if he were that brash, there’s no way Kirigiri would’ve let him enroll here in the first place. He has to be on excellent behavior to attend Hope’s Peak, right?

     You blinked once, twice. He was waiting for a response, staring patiently. You needed a response, and quickly.

     “W-what are you doing here?” Nice. Perfect.

     “Huh?” His head tilted, taken aback by the curveball you threw his way.

     “W-well you asked what I’m doing here, and you’re right, if I were starting classes today, I would be in one right now. We have the same core classes outside of the individualized training of our talent specialization. I saw the class rosters and schedules! I know you should be in class right now as well!” You were getting louder with every word, feeling very cornered and vulnerable at the moment. If you had just even one weapon on you… just one…

     “Well, uh…” now you had him. You smirked, feeling pretty clever at the moment. “I forgot my books... just my luck haha,” he countered, “So I came back to my room to get them!”

     “Then where are they?” And sure enough, he had nothing on him but the clothes on his back.

     “Hmm… well I came through the second floor entrance,” he gestured over his back “...and I was about to head to my room but I got uhhh… distracted I guess you could say. I really am hopeless.” There was that big, dumb, goofy grin again. Your mind took a second, but then it clicked.

     “...You smelled me…” you spoke slowly, cautiously.

      “Uh… I guess yeah. You could say that. Well that’s exactly what happened, really. I suppose I am glad we ended our little farce! Would’ve been hard to explain that one...” his index finger reached up, scratching at the side of his mouth pensively.

     “You really are a creep!”

     “Yeah, I’m the worst, I know...” Why was he smiling while saying this? “I’m sorry, again. Usually, it’s not like this. Of course I admire our talented peers and am drawn to them as they are pinnacles of hope and the building blocks of the future, but...” he pantomimed through the air grandly, “ I am very conditioned to the human scent. It doesn’t usually alert me nowadays. I dunno… guess the... tantalizing smell of a particularly interesting human was enough to… stir me.” He smirked almost tauntingly. Your eyes widened, but narrowed again immediately. You would not show him weakness. 

     “Stop that.” You scowled.

     “Apologies, (Y/N). Just speaking my mind. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’m just sort of a disgusting waste of space.” Your scowl melted into a sort of sympathetic frown despite yourself. Did he really mean that? Why would he say that about himself? Vampires were usually more vain on the spectrum of supernatural beings. “I just hold Main Course students in really high esteem, and you’re no exception... actually, far from it. Ever since I met you this morning, you’ve been on my mind more then most mortals… strange...” he seemed lost in his own little world. What? What the hell was going on in his crazy little head? The silence caught his attention, and he seemed to remember you were there as well, looking into your eyes again. He caught himself, making sure to not to make such direct eye contact with you. When he was in these weird moods, he never could quite control his more passive abilities and instincts. “Anyway... yeah, it’s unfortunate that I’m going to be missing part of class now… not that I don’t enjoy the pleasant surprise! I knew there was something special about you right off the bat!" Would he still think that after he knew your true calling? You looked to your right, thankful for the large staircase to escape to. He was giving you unsettling vibes once again. 

     Supernatural beings were known to imprint easily on mortals. Some saw them as beautiful, perplexing, ethereal in their impermanence. Some killed and ate them just because devouring humans, or torturing them until the panicked aura of their tiny, weak souls radiated around the room and feeling that temporary fragility, that adrenaline, was the only way they themselves could feel human. This urge to feel close to humanity was only doubled, dangerously so, in supernaturals who were once human themselves. It was an insatiable need to return to that normalcy, that frailty. 

     Swiftly, you scampered over to the bottom step to put some distance between you and the increasingly imposing immortal before you.

     "Ah, I see. Well, anyway, thanks I suppose. I uh..." you grinned clumsily. “I was just looking for my room, albeit unsuccessfully. You can go ahead and get your books now! I don’t want to hold you up any longer!”

      "I can help! It’s no big deal. The way they get students moved in here can sometimes be confusing. Actually, they put your room number on the student portal, not your card or paperwork, heh! And they don’t even tell you, leave you to find out yourself!” He pulled a large, black rectangle from his pocket, crossing the distance to wave it in front of you like a treat.

     What the...? You patted down your shirt and bottoms alike.

     “Is that my phone? How the hell-?!”

     “Ah, yeah, sorry about that! I swiped it from you when I first came downstairs! I thought it’d help me get to know you better, had you not been willing to divulge the knowledge you have of my kind’s existence.” Once again he was calm, cool and casual whilst in the midst of saying such unusual words. What was this guy’s deal? “Here, you can have it back!”

     “Yeah, I should hope so!” You reached out to snatch your phone from his hand, and it was like time froze.

     The moment your fingertips touched his own in the exchange, your indignant eyes met his, and saw something feral flicker in them. The phone switched hands, and a spark of sorts traveled through your skin and into his. As you pulled back, his hand shot out, taking a tight grip around your wrist.

     Your cheeks warmed up, at once flustered when the atmosphere changed drastically. Your eyes dilated in panic and his lips moved forward, resting upon your hand. He seemed to tense up, a rigidness taking up his entire body. His closed eyes opened wide to match your own and he inhaled deeply of the skin of your knuckles. You pulled away quickly, spooked.

     "S-something wrong? Why are you so weird? I’ve never met any of your kind quite like you." You rubbed your hand curiously.

     “So, you’ve met others?” It was clear he was trying to hold back something deep inside of him that begged to crawl out, his eye twitching slightly.

     “Answer my question.”

     "No, of course not... you just smell... nice, as I said before." He looked away from you, hand extending to guide you upstairs and in the right direction, but your brain was telling you not to go anywhere with him in tow.

     “I- I can find my way myself, but thanks!” You began logging into the Hope’s Peak student portal through your phone’s browser, and quickly looking through your profile to find your room code and number.

     “I insist!” He followed you up the stairs, trailing after your scent like a starved hound. Why couldn't he just get lost? Your thoughts raced anxiously. If you’d had your equipment on you, he would’ve been long dead. He was exhausting, and he didn't feel… safe. “Found it?” he inquired over your shoulder. As you reached the top of the steps, you began to feel your blood boil, but you knew not the true cause of this involuntary reaction.

     Your last little exchange left you feeling foolish and naive. How could you have let a vampire get that close? Why would you let him indulge in the scent of you knowing how easy it was for them to take advantage of humans? You were royally pissed off, and looking for a way to expel that rage, to hurt someone or something the way you were hurting inside.

     “I know you’re a vampire because I kill them. My whole family does. It’s essential to be able to identify one in my line of work. I’d be a pretty shitty hunter if I couldn’t do even that, and you aren’t exactly good at hiding it.” You found your door, swiping your keycard into the extremely sleek, high-tech lock system, and forcing it open a bit too harshly. The frustration you tried to hide in your voice was evident in your actions. Nagito halted, stilled stiff by your suddenly bitter words.

     “Ah,” he cleared his throat, also hiding emotions of his own, “The Ultimate Hunter... it makes sense now.” He recalled seeing your title along with your name on his own school portal. How did he miss that one?

     “Yeah, so maybe you should get lost.” Heartlessly, you began to close the door on him, now fully inside the spacey room that was bare save for a luxurious bed and some basic, modern furniture. “Hn?” A soft gasp left your throat when a polished shoe wedged itself inside the door, stopping you. You looked up, your body filling the crack in the door, and met Nagito’s eyes. There was that far away look again. His eyes were cloudy, tameless, wild.

     “Why must you be so harsh?” His eyes bore into your own now, all inflection and kindness gone from his tone. “I understand you must hate my kind, and now I can appreciate why you reacted so aversely to my voice, my touch, my presence before, but have I done anything to harm you?” You were beginning to get scared now, reaching instinctively for your belt and finding it absent from your pristine uniform.

     “I think you should leave. We obviously aren’t meant to be acquaintances.” You refused to let your voice shake. This might be a turning point, a critical moment. Vampires were never so dangerous as when they knew their prey was afraid.

     “It’s your turn to answer me, now~” Nagito forced himself in the doorway nonchalantly, approaching your slowly retreating form into the middle of your room. You backed away, with him meeting every step.

     “If you must know, you have offended me, yes. Trying to read my mind-”

     “An accident.”

     “Stealing my phone-”

     “A precaution.”

     “Smelling my blood like a pervert, twice!” He smirked.

     “A natural, harmless instinct.” 

     “Even so...” Your eyes were on his own, obviously not focused on his body, and he took this opportunity to reach down, grasping lightly at your hand once again.

     “Even so, what? Those are all petty misunderstandings. Ahhh~” his cold, pointed nose skimmed across the back of your hand once again as he brought it to his face. This time, when you tried to pull away, he held fast, and warning signals flashed in your mind. “Just as I thought! Your scent appeals to me so because you are a shining beacon of hope! I see it now! It’s all coming to me! You protect the world from those of my kind who would seek to destroy it! How wonderful!” His cheek bumped across your knuckles, and you failed once again to pull away.

     “N-Nagito. Stop. This is.... you must consider context. If we weren’t in school right now, if we were just on the street meeting like this-”

     “You wouldn’t do anything~ because I’m allied and protected~” He sung, his eyes twitching again, lids fluttering softly. Your heart dropped into your stomach. He was right. 

     You were trying to resist, but he was making it so damn hard. It shouldn’t be this hard. You found supernatural beings repulsive. Your father did as well. And his father did! They weren’t trustworthy. Their words were always the lies of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They could charm and glamour weaker mortals with ease and enjoyed it! And you certainly were not a weaker mortal! You found joy in killing them... didn’t you?

     “What you’re doing now is-”

     “It’s strange, hah~ so strange~ I haven’t felt this inspired, this jittery about a mortal in such a long time... haha~ this excitement! I knew it! I knew you were special! You’re the true hope I’ve been looking for! The Ultimate of all Ultimates that will guide our classmates into their roles as the protectors and leaders that will inherit this earth!” He was manic now, inhaling deeply, raggedly onto your skin. One hand crushed your wrist into his own chest, the other held your hand so that it stayed splayed out flat for his access. There was something primal in his eyes. He was quickly becoming unstable. It was a perilous state so common to his kind, but yet it felt still so incredibly unique to Nagito himself, like it was not his immortality but his own character that caused this sudden shift in behavior.

     “Nagito! You sound like a lunatic! Let go, you’re hurting me!” Tears threatened to fall from your eyes. You were strong, usually able to ignore some measure of physical pain, but the way his fingers dug into your wrist coupled with the consternation you felt at the situation set your nerves aflame. Once again you reached instinctively for a weapon or poison you did not have.

     “Am I? I’m sorry. It’s just... I wonder...” You didn’t like where this was going at all. His chest shook with arousal , a bit of drool dripping from the fangs now on display in his mouth, which hung open in his state of reverie. “I wonder what this this hope tastes like... this pure, concentrated source of unbridled hope!” His voice shook, and you pushed at his chest with your free hand. He didn’t budge an inch. It was like he didn’t even notice your actions. “I know I’m unworthy, that a piece of trash like me doesn’t deserve to taste you... but I feel like now that I’m this close, haha~ I can’t stop myself! Truly, truly it’s a grand misfortune that a talentless, meaningless, soulless abomination like myself even dares to take part in such a feast! But...” He lowered his lips to your wrist.

     “Nagito, stop! You can’t do this!” You began to kick and struggle, to scratch and tear at his clothes, to claw at any exposed skin, leaving marks across his cheek and arms. “If you do this, you’ll lose your protection!” His top lip pulled back, something like a snarl emanating from his throat. Clearly that approach wouldn’t work. “You’ll be expelled!” You tried the next deterrent on your mind. Wow, you must’ve been the worst Super High-School Level Monster Hunter in history. Day 1: fooled into a vampire’s clutches. His inhumanely sharp canines grazed the skin of your wrist, feeling your pulse race beneath the surface. He was entranced; there was no stopping this now. A human, without weapons, without enchantments or defenses, without repellants, bombs, herbs, poisons, silver, or means of healing, was no match for a supernatural being. “Please! Please, you- don’t do this!” a last effort. Why did you even try? These savages never sympathized with begging and pleading. They were killers. You were an imbecile to let your guard down around Komaeda for even a second.

     His fangs sunk deeply into your skin, piercing a vein. You yelped out in pain, pulling at his hair and tugging your wrist back, which only nestled his fangs in deeper. You whimpered, little rivulets of your vital fluid running out of his mouth and down to your elbow. He was moaning in delirium, enraptured in the sensation of your blood running down his throat. You wanted to yell, to scream for help, but something inside you was hesitant and holding you back. Something inside you didn’t want anyone to find out about this, to find you two like this.

     “Mmmh~” Nagito’s tongue swirled around the puncture wounds, his lips latched on like a leech. He drank freely, deeply, seemingly careless of how much blood he was taking. It’d been a long time since he’d felt the exhilaration of feeding from true prey. These days they had him on willing donors and blood bags. Nothing compared to the flavor of adrenaline and fear in the bloodstream, no matter how much he hated himself for indulging in it.

     “Naaagi-t-” You stumbled backwards a step, wishing so desperately that you weren’t such an obedient student, that you’d deemed it justified to slip a stake, a knife, anything under your shirt. Your punches, your willful attacks on his abdomen, and the kicks to his knees began to slow down. They were losing the fight behind them, and yet, you would not give up. “St-tt-oo-” He continued to slurp and suck at your wrist, taking no note of the way you slowly were slipping to your knees. 

     The corners of your vision began to cloud and darken. Your head was ringing, much like a time you’d been left concussed after one of your first hunts. This might as well have been one of your first encounters with the supernatural world, with how badly you’d blundered every step.

     Now on your knees, your head hanging limply down into your chest with your arm raised and pulled taut, trailing up to the vampire’s mouth, you felt yourself slipping. Finally, your vision began to fade for the last time, and you fell unconscious. The last thing your mind registered was the sound of Nagito sighing blissfully as he finally detached from your flesh, followed by the sound of frenzied laughter.

[storiesforallfandoms]

facing it alone ~ 10k;z nation

word count: 2537

request?: yes!

@colsondaddybakerxx​​ “Yeah.. is it okay if you use my name? It’s Alison (it’s okay if you can’t) and she spent mostly all of the apocalypse alone but then she runs into the crew (basically the main characters in z nation) and they helped her and toke her in, then she Mets 10k.. at first he really shy but when he opens up to her she realizes they both have a lot in common?? And he very very protective over her, making sure no zombies is even close to her and protecting her mostly all the time.. and eventually he asks her out? Pls try and add some zombie scenes haha x also if it’s to hard to get all the crew in the story it’s okay.. just at least add doc and warren xx”

description: after facing the zombie apocalypse alone for some time, alison ends up running into some survivors, and finds herself bonding with the youngest of the crew

pairing: 10k x female!reader

warnings: swearing, violence, mentions of death

masterlist

Facing the zombie apocalypse alone was much easier than having to face it with people. Being with people was just asking for heartbreak. Eventually they would die, whether it be of old age or other causes, and then they’d turn into a zombie and have to be mercied before they turned completely. Too much emotion, that’s the last thing you wanted during the apocalypse.

That’s why I travelled alone, except for the German Sheppard I found not too long after I started travelling alone. He was the only companionship I really needed, plus I managed to train him to detect when Zs were coming and to be able to fight against them himself.

It had been days since our last meal, and since we last found decent shelter, and I could tell both of us were starting to feel it. I hadn’t slept in days, I only had a few small foods that I was had to share with Hunter and they were starting to become scarce. I had no idea when we’d find another place to stay, or when we’d find food. For the first time in a very long time, I was genuinely afraid that things were going to end for me soon.

Hunter stopped suddenly and started to growl. Without hesitation, I positioned my gun to point towards where Hunter was looking. I waited to hear the familiar growling of a Z and to see one starting to approach, however I was shocked when I saw that it wasn’t a Z, but a totally healthy human, also with a gun raised and pointed at me.

“Hey!” came a female voice. “Are you bitten or otherwise unhealthy?”

“No ma’am!” I responded. “Yourself?”

“Not that I know of.”

I slowly started to lower my weapon. Hunter was still on high alert, although now he wasn’t growing at much. “Go check her out, boy, make sure she’s not dangerous.”

Hunter approached the woman slowly, knowing not to fully charge at a human unless he wanted a first class ticket to Dog Z-dom. She lowered her gun as well as she saw him approaching. As if knowing what he was about to do, she put her hand out and allowed Hunter to sniff her, before giving him a brief scratch behind his ear. That was the number one way to get on Hunter’s good side.

As if to tell me everything was fine, Hunter barked. “Yeah, yeah, I see you getting the best petting of your life, I’m coming.”

I was still cautious as I approached the woman, and she seemed to be as well.

“Lieutenant Roberta Warren,” she said, holding a hand out to me.

“Alison,” I responded, shaking her hand. “And this is Hunter.”

Hunter barked when he heard his name. Roberta smiled at him, petting his head again. “Nice to meet the two of you. Are you travelling alone?”

“Yes ma’am,” I responded. “Just the two of us for at least a year now. What about you?”

“There’s an...accidental team of us,” she responded. “Eight of us as of right now, travelling in a truck back that way.” My stomach chose that moment to make a loud noise, giving away my dire hunger. “When was the last time you ate?”

“Couple days now. We have snacks, but it’s not a lot.”

“You wanna come with us? We’ve recently gotten some food, and we’re looking for shelter for the night. What’s a ninth person, and they’re adorable dog.”

I looked down at Hunter. He looked up at me excitedly. Although I was sure he didn’t understand the situation that much, he definitely understood the words “we have food”, and he understood that he, too, was hungry.

What other choice did I have? Besides starve to death and become a Z. I sighed heavily and placed my machine gun over my shoulder. “Show me the way.”

When Roberta said they had a small team, she really meant a small team. All eight of them were armed to the teeth with guns, knives, spikes, and more. It definitely made my lousy machine gun look obsolete.

“Guys,” Roberta announced, “meet Alison. She’ll be joining us for a while. Alison, this is Doc, Garnett, Addy, Mack, Cassandra, Murphy, and 10k.”

I raised an eyebrow at the younger guy that Roberta addressed last. “10k? Like...ten thousand? That’s...your name?”

He looked at me for a minute before looking down at the ground without a response. I raised an eyebrow at him, amused by the reaction.

“That’s his name, don’t wear it out,” the older man Roberta introduced as Doc spoke. “Nice to have you along with us, and your cute lil pooch.”

Hunter whined happily at the attention he was starting to get.

“Climb in,” Garnett told us, nodding towards the back of the truck. “We should keep moving.”

Everyone got into the truck. I jumped into the pan and whistled for Hunter to join me. He jumped in effortlessly and laid between myself and 10k, resting his head on 10k’s lap. 10k looked startled at first until I laughed at his expression.

“Unless you’re a Z he’s harmless,” I assured him. “You can pet him if you want.”

10k tentatively put his hand on Hunter’s head. Hunter poked 10k’s head with his nose and gave him a quick lick before resting himself comfortably on 10k’s lap. I watched 10k relax and smile as he began to scratch behind Hunter’s ear. I couldn’t help but smile myself, but quickly pretended that it had never happened.

I couldn’t let myself get too close. Once I’ve eaten and gotten some shelter, it would be time to go again. I couldn’t stay around, I couldn’t get attached. Not again.

~~~~~~

We found a lovely house that seemed to belong to a big family once upon a time. It was Z free and had enough space for everyone to be able to sleep comfortably.

Despite finally having a safe place for a night, I found myself unable to sleep. So instead of lying on the floor and keeping up all night, I decided to go outside to get a breath of fresh air. I had taken a room on the second floor of the house, so I opened the window and reached out to take hold of the roof, pulling myself up with ease.

I exclaimed with shock when I saw that I wasn't the only one with this idea. My sudden appearance also shocked 10k, as he jumped and nearly dropped his gun.

“Sorry,” I said. “Didn’t know anyone else was up here. Mind if I join you?”

“You’re already here, I feel like it’d be rude of me to say no now,” he responded.

I chuckled. “I guess you have a point.”

I pulled myself up onto the roof and settled myself next to him. Although he seemed relatively relaxed, 10k still held on to his gun as if his life depended on it. In some ways, I guess it did.

“Why do they call you 10k?” I asked as I laid back on the roof, looking up at the starry night.

“I called myself that, actually,” he told me. “It’s a nickname I came up with when everything started.”

“What’s the meaning of it?”

“It’s how many Zs I’m gonna kill.”

“And what’s your total at now?”

He paused a moment to think before responding, “Two thousand, one hundred eleven.”

My eyes widened. “Holy shit! That’s impressive. What do you have, like, super accurate aim?”

“Basically. I rarely, if ever, miss.” I made a face, impressed by his accuracy. “Why do you travel alone? Were you with someone?”

My body tensed up at the question. Sure, it was innocent enough, and an obvious question to ask someone who had been travelling by themselves.

“I was...once,” I admitted. “A long time ago.”

“What happened to them?”

“It wasn’t a them, it was a him,” I responded. “An old friend of mine, we grew up together. When I was out looking for survivors, he was the only one I came across. We travelled together for months, we found Hunter together and trained him to be as he is. About a year ago, we were fighting some Zs and one...one bit him. Got him pretty good before I could shoot the fucker. We both knew I had to kill him, but neither of us wanted me to. Before I could get the courage to do it, he took my gun and mercy shot himself. It’s...just been me and Hunter ever since.”

10k looked at me with pity and sadness. I kept my eyes trained on the sky, but I could see him out of the corner of my eye.

“I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “No, don’t be. It was a long time ago. I’ve gotten over it."

There was a stretch of silence between us. 10k raised his gun and a shot rang out. I sat up to see a Z falling as 10k cocked his gun.

“Two thousand, one hundred twelve,” he declared.

“Showoff,” I chuckled, bringing my knees to my chin.

“I had to kill my dad,” 10k said, surprising me suddenly. “It was just the two of us, too, and he started to turn. I was forced to mercy kill him, stabbed him through the head. I was alone until I met the people here, too. They’re nice, I prefer to travel with them than to travel alone.”

“They seem nice,” I agreed, although even I could hear the unease in my tone.

10k looked at me. “You’re...gonna stay with us, right? It’s safer to be in a pack.”

“Not if one of you die and become a Z, or if you have to kill someone,” I pointed out. But when I looked up at him, 10k looked kind of upset by my response, like he wanted me to stay. And there was just something about that look that made it hard to say no. “But...maybe it will be better for me and for Hunter if we stay for a while.”

His face lit up, and I couldn’t help but smile as well. The sound of Z groaning could be heard down belong. Luckily, it was only two Zs. I took 10k’s gun without hesitation and shot them both between the eyes with ease.

“I’d say that’s at least two thousand for me,” I noted, passing him his gun back. A smile crept across his face, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

~~~~~~

“A while” ended up becoming a few weeks, and a few weeks extended into a month, and before I knew it Hunter and I were welcomed into the team as if we had been one of their own all along. We constantly moved together, on the fast track to get to California with the hopes of coming up with a cure to the virus with the help of Murphy’s blood.

As to be expected, it wasn’t an easy task to get from point A to point B, but hey, what’s an adventure without some conflict?

After finding more shelter on one particular day, 10k and I were sent out to look for food and water as our supply was starting to get dangerously low again. As per usual, Hunter was right on my heels as we walked.

“Run ahead a little to check the area out, Hunt,” I told him. “But not too far that I can’t see you.”

He happily trotted along ahead of us, scoping out the area as he went.

“He’s pretty well trained,” 10k commented as he watched my faithful pal run ahead of us. “How did you do it?”

“Honestly, he sort of trained himself,” I admitted. “I mean, we fed him treats to praise him for being so good, but he figured out almost everything on his own; how to sense Zs, how to fight them, what we were asking him to do. Dogs are smarter than people think, you know.”

We were both quiet again for some time. Hunter circled back around to let me know he was still there before trotting off yet again.

10k’s arm almost shot out suddenly to stop me from walking before pointing his fun and shooting. He hit two Zs, with ease just as Hunter started barking furiously in front of us. The two of us raised our guns and started firing as the Zs came into view.

I noticed my pup waiting for instruction, so I brought my fingers to my lips and whistled, the signal to attack. In seconds, he was going after any Zs that were nearby, ripping them to shreds and mercying them.

While my guard was down, a Z managed to grab hold of me. I spun around, hitting them with my gun. Before I could shoot them, 10k finished them off. I looked over at him and offered him a small smile, which he returned.

When we finally finished with the Zs, I took my water bottle from my bag and poured some in a bowl for Hunter, who trotted over excitedly with Z blood still dripping from his muzzle.

“That was something,” I sighed. “Thanks for the save, by the way. I appreciate that. I definitely would’ve become Z chow if it weren’t for you.”

“I won’t let that happen,” he assured me. “I won’t even let you ever be changed.”

I looked up at 10k, my eyebrows furrowing together. “I know you won’t, and I appreciate that you have my back dude.”

10k looked down at the grass under his feet, now stained with Z blood as well. “I don’t just mean it like that, though.”

I tilted my head like a confused dog. “What do you mean?”

10k slung his gun over his shoulder and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I know this isn’t exactly the best scenario to ask this, and I totally understand if you say no, but I’d like to maybe...try and be in a relationship with you...if you want that is.”

He couldn’t meet my eyes after he said that. I looked at him for a long time, waiting for him to take it back. I thought maybe this was some dumb joke, maybe Murphy put him up to it in order to try and embarrass me. I wouldn’t put that past Murphy.

But 10k’s face said he really meant it. 10k was too nice of a person to do something like this, and was definitely awkward enough to act this way if he really meant it.

I took his face in my hands and pulled him for a kiss. He seemed taken back at first, like he was unsure of how to respond to such an action. But he soon warmed into it, placing his hands on my arms and leaning back into me.

I pushed him away after hearing Hunter bark at the two of us. I couldn’t help but giggle at 10k’s dreamy smile on his face.

“That’s a yes, by the way,” I told him as I put Hunter’s bowl back in my bag. “Now, let’s get going. We can’t have a relationship if we’re eaten by Zs.”

[jokertrap-ran]

(未定事件簿) 莫弈 SSR [心悬一线] [Tears of Themis] Mo Yi SSR [Heart hanging by a Thread] Card Story Translations (Part 3)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist / Mo Yi’s Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Smoldering Mo Yi is...an experience.  *Next up: 小陆总 !! ...After I finish the Video Call aha-

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Video Call

Location: Forest

He didn’t pay any heed to my protests, heading back towards the Suspension Bridge. Soon, he returned with the Supply Box in hand.

MC: (Thankfully, it was only threatening but not dangerous...)

MC: Sorry, Dr. Mo, for getting you involved in all this today.

My heart had almost leapt out of my throat when he turned and went back to the bridge.

Thinking about it, Mo Yi and I shared the same feelings when we saw the other party alone on the bridge.

Mo Yi: It's fine; as long as you're safe.

Mo Yi: Your injury needs to be seen to as soon as possible. Let me have a look at it.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: !!!

Mo Yi knelt before me, opening the Supply Box and taking out the medical supplies.

I lowered my head and found his silvery hair before me, fluttering gently along with the gentle breeze that blew through the Mountains. It looked absolutely soft.

He held my injured leg up in front of him, treating it as carefully as one would a treasure. Taking off my shoes and socks, he gently turned my ankle, his slender fingers passing on warm touches. 

Mo Yi: Does it sting?

He raised his head, fixing me with a serious look, eyes filled with care.

MC: No...it doesn't…

Mo Yi: Looks like your bone wasn't injured from it.

Mo Yi: I'll help you disinfect it so bear with me for a while.

He lowered his head back down, slowly but carefully rubbing the wound with alcohol.

MC: Ngh…

Mo Yi: Did I hurt you?

Mo Yi: Sorry, I'll be gentler…

He blew on the wound that had just been cleaned by the alcohol, bringing about a refreshing feeling to combat the stinging pain that came with it. I could feel my cheeks heat up for no reason at all. Flustered, I quickly stopped him. 

MC: It's fine Dr. Mo... just...just bandage it already.

He smiled, taking out the bandages and skillfully wrapping the wound up for me. After handling the wound, he sorted out the supplies as I blushed and thanked him. 

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: Thank you, Dr. Mo.

Mo Yi: There's no need for you to be so humble with me. The wound you sustained is on your leg, so it wouldn't be terribly convenient if you did it yourself.

Speaking of wounds, the question that had been lingering in the forefront of my mind earlier resurfaced once more.

MC: Oh, right...how did you end up coming all the way here to find me?

Mo Yi: Since you've already agreed to wait back there for me, there's no way you'd have just upped and left for no rhyme or reason.

Mo Yi: And your personality is such that you won't break an agreement just over your own personal issues.

Mo Yi: So, once I saw Ji Tang's reopened wound, I guessed that you must have gone off in search of the Supply Box.

MC: Haa… You didn't come back after so long, so I thought that you must have been held up by something.

MC: And Ji Tang's wound couldn't just be left alone as it was since it'll be even more troublesome afterwards if it got infected.

Mo Yi: What you did was correct.

Mo Yi: That area isn't far from the bridge, so I thought that you'd head there.

Mo Yi: Needless to say, I managed to find the marks you left behind on the trees nearby.

Mo Yi: So, I followed the marks to you.

Having said that, he frowned, looking at me a little sternly.

Mo Yi: I don't blame you for leaving the place, but don't hide it from me the next time you're injured.

Mo Yi: If you must know, it’s dangerous to be scratched by decaying wood.

Mo Yi: Thankfully, your wound isn’t so deep as to require a Tetanus Shot.

I lowered my head, looking at the carefully bandaged wound and feeling a little downtrodden about it.

MC: I had originally wanted to use this to treat Miss Ji’s wound, but I’d never have thought that I’d end up using it on myself…

Mo Yi: It’s my fault for not being able to hurry back faster.

Mo Yi told me that it had taken a long time to find a place with signal, which had greatly exceeded his initial expectations.

Eventually, he finally managed to get the line through to the Staff, but no one was picking up.

And that was why he had been delayed for so long.

Mo Yi: I did say that I don’t blame you for it, but when I rushed back there and saw neither hide nor hair of you, I...

MC: Sorry, for making you worry.

Seeing the sweat beading on his forehead, I lowered my head apologetically.

Mo Yi: Thank god…

MC: Hm?

Mo Yi: Nothing, it’s just great that you’re okay.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

We sorted out the contents of the Supply Box, deciding to give part of it to Ji Tang and take the rest along with us.

After that, we followed the trail I had marked back. Soon, we reached the place where Ji Tang was.

Ji Tang looked relieved to see both of us back.

Ji Tang: Dr. Mo! I thought...I thought you wouldn’t come back anymore…

Her eyes were filled with surprise and her words were tinted with accusation. Seeing the supply box that Mo Yi held in his hands, she moved to shyly tuck her hair behind her ear.

Ji Tang: You found the Supplies? That’s great, Dr. Mo!

Although the bandage that had been wrapped around my leg was conspicuous, she didn’t seem to have noticed it at all.

Mo Yi: ……

Seeing that Mo Yi wasn’t replying to her at all, she pursed her lips, a pleading look on her face.

Ji Tang: I was especially scared just now when neither of you were here.

Ji Tang: I accidentally reopened my wound and now it hurts so much…

Mo Yi: And why did you think that I wouldn’t come back?

In an utterly rare display for someone like him, Mo Yi unceremoniously interrupted Ji Tang.

Ji Tang: Because...Because I let this little girl up and leave on her own…

She hung her head, wringing her hands together as she stuttered.

MC: I left on my own?

Ji Tang: You suddenly said that you were leaving and I...I should have stopped you.

MC: Miss Ji, I was only going to look for medicine for you. And in your eyes, that was me, leaving of my own accord?

Ji Tang: And how would I know that you had really gone off to look for medicine for me…?

I was so mad at her words that I laughed.

MC: Miss Ji, you really “never cease to amaze me”!

At this point, I had completely reached the last straw of my patience when it came to talking to her.

MC: Forget it. Let’s go, Dr. Mo.

The moment she saw Dr. Mo turn to leave together with me, she threw another fit. 

Ji Tang: Wait, you-! You...you guys are just going to leave me alone here like this?

Mo Yi: I’ve already contacted the Staff. They’ll send people nearby to come fetch you.

Mo Yi: According to my calculations, they should be here within 15 minutes or so.

Mo Yi’s self-control made him keep a calm and level tone with her, but it was painfully obvious that he, too, had gotten angry.

Ji Tang: Did I do something wrong, Dr. Mo? Why must you treat me so?

Mo Yi: If you didn’t throw a fit, neither would she have had to leave alone, nor would she have gotten injured.

Ji Tang: And how would I know that she’d go off and get herself hurt… She has a compass on her, along with food and water. She’ll be fine alone.

Mo Yi: Same goes to you. You have food and water on your person, so nothing will happen to you even if you sit here alone.

Ji Tang was shocked speechless by his one line, stunned and unable to utter another word.

Mo Yi: She got injured for your sake, but you pretended to turn a blind eye to it. Instead…

Mo Yi: Instead, you’ve been overly affectionate towards me right from the start. Do you really think that I wouldn’t see through your motives?

He placed the Supply Box next to her, eyes filled with contempt.

Mo Yi: You shouldn’t lust after someone who doesn’t belong to you.

His words made my heart skip a beat, but Ji Tang was still present, so I had no time to savor the moment.

MC: The Supply Box contains everything you need. There are also a few Flare Guns, should you require it.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Seeing Mo Yi and I turn to leave, Ji Tang struggled as she attempted to grab the corner of Mo Yi’s clothes, only for him to move sideways to avoid her.

Ji Tang: I know what I did was wrong, Dr. Mo!

Ji Tang: I did say things that I shouldn’t have said, and I shouldn’t have kicked up a fuss either.

Ji Tang: But...you-! You shouldn’t treat me like this!

Mo Yi: Why?

A blush formed on her face, her words a little hasty.

Ji Tang: Because… you’re like a Hero to me, one who appeared out of nowhere!

Ji Tang: You were so nice to me, even going so far as to comfort me...]

Mo Yi: That was just me, the Doctor, and my compassion for the injured.

Ji Tang: Then why would you remember me, of all people, among the many other Participants in the Event? What else could this be, if not fated?

Mo Yi: Remember only you? Haha, don’t get it over your head. I simply wanted to confirm your identity at the time.

Mo Yi: People like you who don’t know their own place and don’t know how to be grateful disgust me.

Ji Tang: W-What…?

He faced Ji Tang with a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Instead, his gentle voice and faint smile were as sharp as knives.

Mo Yi: I’ll repeat myself again; you shouldn’t lust after someone who doesn’t belong to you.

It was my first time ever seeing him this angry, so much that it unsettled me a little.

MC: Let bygones be bygones, Dr. Mo. I’m sure you’re already tired out from all the events that have transpired these couple of days. Being angry at her will only do more harm than good to your health.

Ji Tang: Wait! Wait a minute…! Doctor Mo!!

Ignoring Ji Tang, Mo Yi patted my arm comfortingly and led me out of the area.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Location: Forest

MC: You rarely get that angry, Dr. Mo…

MC: I hardly lose my temper with ignorant people, but I certainly did lose my composure today.

MC: I never thought that you would, either…

He halted, turning round to face me seriously.

Mo Yi: Did you perhaps think that I was mad because of the attitude she had towards me?

MC: Was it not? I feel like you aren’t always so… cold to people.

Mo Yi: I most certainly hate her, not because she was going after me, but more because she had placed you in danger.

MC: ……

MC: I’m partially at fault too. I shouldn’t have let her lead me by the nose like that.

Mo Yi: You’ve already done well enough.

Mo Yi: Not only did you manage to find the supplies alone, but you also remembered to leave marks behind to mark your way.

Mo Yi: Others might not have done as well as you did.

MC: Haa… You’re always like this, never wanting to put any blame on me.

Mo Yi: Actually, I too, have a question I’d like to ask you.

MC: What is it?

Mo Yi: If we had a chance to re-do all of this, would you still have chosen to stay with her?

His question made me pause. I mulled over it seriously for a while before laughing helplessly.

MC: Miss Ji might be a handful to get along with, but considering the circumstances back then, I think I’d most likely choose to stay behind again.

MC: Life is the most important thing in the world, so even if the outcome isn’t exactly satisfactory, it still won’t change my own principles in handling things.

Mo Yi: I know. Actually, one of the reasons why I agreed to let you stay behind earlier was because I wanted to see what you would do, when faced with someone like her.

MC: So, do I pass?

Mo Yi: No matter what outcome, you’ll still stick with your own beliefs. However, that’s not to say that you’re lacking in principles and won’t compromise...

Mo Yi: This is the answer you gave me. Not only did you pass with flying colors, but you’ve also even exceeded my expectations.

The sun had been a little skewed at this time, and the golden sunlight filtering through the leaves illuminated Mo Yi’s face, making his smile even warmer.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Two weeks later.

Location: Library

After coming back from the Treasure Hunting Event, Mo Yi and I were both back in Stellis City, absorbing ourselves back into our work.

On the weekend, I had come to the Library to return the books I borrowed when a familiar voice suddenly sounded from behind.

Mo Yi: What a coincidence, (Y\n). You’re here at the Library too?

MC: Huh? Oh, Dr. Mo!

Mo Yi: Here to return books? What have you borrowed?

Looking at his inquisitive gaze, I hurriedly hid the books behind my back. But my hand slipped…

The books fell to the ground with a thud.

Mo Yi picked up the fallen books and his expression morphed into one of surprise upon seeing their respective titles.

Mo Yi: “Love Psychology”? “Behavioral Psychology of Love”? You’re reading these books?

MC: (He saw them… how embarrassing this is...)

MC: I’m actually not borrowing them on a whim.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Location: Base Camp

Back when we had been preparing to return to the City, I had caught sight of one of the Security Staff that had been responsible for the search back then. I asked him about Miss Ji’s situation.

MC: How’s Miss Ji now?

Staff Member: Miss Ji’s alright now. Thankfully, her bone wasn’t fractured.

Staff Member: It’s a sad story, really. I hear that it was her first time participating in such an Event, and she even got abandoned by the partner that she had initially been acting with…

Staff Member: But I heard that this Miss Ji got along swimmingly with one of the members of the rescue team that she had been in the care of!

MC: ???

Staff Member: Man! The Hero saving the Damsel in distress; I’m sure you know of it!

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: I had originally thought that Miss Ji came to like you because of the Suspension Bridge Effect…

Mo Yi: The Suspension Bridge Effect?

MC: Yup. I once heard you talking about it and thought that it quite resembled the situation that Miss Ji was in.

MC: But after hearing that she had come to like another guy in such a short span of time… I can’t help but to doubt myself if I had just guessed it wrongly…

MC: But even if it isn’t the Suspension Bridge Effect at play, her current boyfriend’s still someone who had taken care of her while she was placed in a predicament.

Mo Yi: You couldn’t understand it no matter how much you mulled over it, so you borrowed these books?

Seeing the smile that played at the corner of his lips, I nodded awkwardly. He lowered his head and flipped the book in his hands.

Mo Yi: This book is easy to understand, but not in-depth enough.

MC: Then what do you think of this?

Mo Yi: You’re correct. Miss Ji was in fact, under the influence of the Suspension Bridge Effect when she thought that what she felt was love.

Mo Yi: But these feelings are not true love.

Mo Yi: In the end, the Suspension Bridge Effect is only, but a misunderstanding, so these emotions of hers will be short-lived.

Mo Yi: Once out of the environment that resulted in it, this illusionary love will also dissipate along with it.

MC: So, the reason why she was able to move on so quickly was...because the Suspension Bridge Effect wore off?

Mo Yi: Her original personality also probably had a part in it.

Mo Yi: It’s possible that her original personality had a part in it.

When talking about this topic, Mo Yi's words held no emotion. It was as if Ji Tang was simply a Case Study to him, and not someone that we had actually interacted with.

Mo Yi: How did you feel, back when we were on the Suspension Bridge?

MC: What?

Mo Yi: Did your heartbeat speed up when you were on it together with me?

MC: !!!

MC: N-No…!

He suddenly sprang a question at me, and I didn't quite know how I should answer it. 

But enthusiastically denying it would only expose my true feelings.

I looked at Mo Yi, hesitating for a moment before deciding to tell him the truth. 

MC: (I can't hide my thoughts from him anyway…)

MC: Seeing you suddenly make an appearance back there actually felt... like something right out of a dream.

I adverted my eyes away from his face and tried to get ahold of my emotions.

MC: I actually couldn't bring myself to really any further, but with you there with me, I felt like it wasn't that scary anymore…

His eyes fell upon me and he could see that I was quite broken about the matter.

MC: You can just laugh at me if you want…

Mo Yi: Why would I?

MC: ……

Mo Yi: Have you felt right from the start that this reliance you have on me was caused by the Suspension Bridge?

MC: Your guess is right on the dot as always…

Mo Yi: What about now? Do you still think that it was due to the Suspension Bridge Effect?

MC: No, I've finally thought it through and understood it. This kind of trust is something that's been slowly built up over a long period of time.

MC: You've always been helping me, so that's why I'd think of you whenever I'm scared. This has nothing to do with the Suspension Bridge Effect at all.

A smile spilled across his golden orbs upon hearing my words.

Mo Yi: You think of me when in danger, and the name you call, is also mine. For that, I am extremely happy.

MC: D-Doctor Mo! Did you...overhear…?

Mo Yi: Mo Yi. The name that you yelled back on the Suspension Bridge was undoubtedly mine.

MC: !!!

MC: That was just something that slipped out in a moment of panic…

Mo Yi: I still think that it's way better when you call my name, rather than calling me Dr. Mo.

MC: !!!

Mo Yi: And as to whether this is all a result of the Suspension Bridge Effect at play, you don't have to worry. Only time will tell.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

The warm sunlight poured into the corridors, the white clouds in the sky slowly morphing, changing their appearances.

The afternoon breeze that blew through the windows were exceptionally cool, almost as if it had sensed the heat within my heart.

What Mo Yi said was right. Leave it all to time, and time will tell.

——𝔉𝔦𝔫.——

[sankt-brekker-the-demjin]

The Lockdown Letter Part 4 [end] - Tom Holland x Best Friend!Reader

Summary: Before leaving back to Washington days before the quarantine, Y/N sends her best friend Tom a letter. But what he received was a folded, white blank piece of paper.

warning: maximum. fluff. might get hospitalised.

a/n: literally had to pause from writing this cuz my mum walked in and i didn't want her to think i had a bf chatting on my phone like a love dazed idiot lmaoo

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 

Earlier in the day, Y/N went out to get groceries. Face mask on, hand sanitizer on the bag, and out to venture into the unknown. She had the flare for the dramatics sometimes. The sun was already coming down when she came home. She busied herself with arranging the things she bought and spent the rest of the hours catching up on the phone with her friend Laura before she knocked out on the fluffy mattress for good.

Her phone rang loudly, jolting her awake. She reached for it in the dark. Not looking at who it was, she took it. Remembering she had a conversation with Laura last, she thought it was her. "Bech, the hell you want." She grumbled sleepily.

"Y/N?" An amused sounding male voice called out.

"Uh you're not Laura," Now more awake, she brought her phone to see Tom's caller ID.

"Last time I checked I'm still me." He quipped.

 "I thought you were her," she chuckled. Flipping over to the other side of the bed, hugging the pillow. "What's going on that head of yours?"

Tom cleared his throat, not knowing where to begin. "I saw Knives Out again..." It came out more like a question.

Y/N rubbed her eyes, "Yeah? Told you it was good."

"Then I found the blank letter on an envelope."

Y/N felt her stomach dropped. She sat up on her bed. Excitement, anxiety, feelings mixed all at once. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"And I also saw that part of the movie..." Tom trailed off, "With the lighter."

Pin drop silence on the other end of the line. His heart was gonna leap out of his whole system. "Y/N?"

"Oh, sorry. I just died back there for a moment no biggie haha." She chuckled awkwardly.

Tom smiled, even though he knows she couldn't see it. "Guess what?"

"Err.. what."

"Every time I'm with you," Tom started. "I go into cardiac arrest, too."

Y/N's lips spread to the biggest smile in the world. The same guy she was talking to on the other continent wore the same expression on his face.

Y/N stared at the ceiling and slapped her hands on her cheeks, smile not fading. "Ok," she breathed.

Tom chuckled heartily. Y/N scrunched up her face to keep the spontaneous rat tat tat tat a la machine gun of mushy feels at bay, but failed. She flopped her face back to the pillow.

"Another cardiac arrest?" Smile laced on his voice.

She groaned, before laughing. "Shut up."

"You and me both then."

Y/N flipped onto her back and muttered incoherent words.

"What?" Tom bit his lip from bursting into laughter.

"I don't know what to say ... I know I said something about the world ending and how it was a perfect time to just woman up and confess personally but eh I thought I'd keep it mysterious. Also I didn't think about the very possibility that you might have thrown it away I mean it's blank but that's besides it-"

"Y/N!" Tom shook with laughter, cutting her off from her rambling. "I wish I could hug you right now ... stupid quarantine.."

"Why, would you have flown out here," Y/N opened Google, "4, 731 miles away and bang on my door in the middle of the night?"

"That's very specific, but yes that's a great idea."

"I literally just Googled it for flare." She shrugged. "Maybe after this quarantine. Then we could have a re-do. I'll act like nothing happened."

"Let's do that."

"You wouldn't." She smiled.

"I really would." Tom said in a convincing voice. "We'd have survived a pandemic outbreak, what's a little distance and a plane ticket?"

They both laughed.

"I miss you," he said in a low voice.

"Same here, best friend." She stuck her tongue out even if he couldn't see it. "I'm so glad I met you."

"Me, too." Tom sighed. "I can't wait to see you again."

Y/N yawned. "FaceTime literally exists. And Skype."

"It's not the same." Sensing her sleepy state, he spoke softly, "I'll let you go back to sleep."

"Mmm." She buried her face deeper into the pillow, biting back another smiling exhibit. "Okay."

"I'll call you later. Bye, Y/N."

She nodded to herself, "Bye, Tom." She hung up.

The smiles never left their faces.

-

Roll the end credits.

[fiction-fun]

Manchurian Gold: The Great Escape

@creedtheconquer @theconfusedleo @friedrich-the-gay @hamiltimes @braidedchallah @haha-gunsgoburrr @alexanderdamnhethin @rthoney @andpeggy21

Fandom: Man of Medan, Dark Pictures Anthology

Pairings: Alex/Julia, Conrad/OC, Brad/OC

Words: 13262

Warnings: Mentions of Guns and Knives, minor violence

THIS IS IN COLLABERATION WITH THE AMAZING AND WONDERFUL @2-pints-of-sam-adams1776

Reading Key:

Bold: Narrator

Regular: Laurens

Italics: Me

Oh hello and welcome to my repository, if you choose to stay may I offer a story to keep you entertained? 

Fantastic, now where should we begin? Oh yes this one is one of my favorites, shall we begin?

"Jesus there you are, we are already running late as is." Alex slightly scolds his brother's best friend, a young lady by the name of Cheyenne.

"Sorry Alex kinda got lost or did the fact that we are in a different country escape your understanding." She fires back causing Alex to raise his arms in surrender.

"Julia and Conrad will be there any minute we need to head out now." He says grabbing the things they need and he starts to head out.

"Be nice Alex I'm pretty sure if they get there before us it won't be that bad." Brad interjects giving Cheyenne a sympathetic look.

The 3 friends climbed into the rental car and they headed off to their next stop, where they will be spending the next few days.

"Conrad, there will be plenty of beer, would you relax?" Julia called from the front seat of the car.

Conrad looked back and waved her off.

"Seriously Jules, you'll get to see your lover boy soon. If Lil ol' Connie wants to grab a drink let him." Julia's friend Kaley said looking at her from the driver's seat. 

Julia sighed and looked at where Conrad had disappeared too.

"I'm not worried about that, they're going to be waiting for us!" Julia said with a huff.

Kaley stifled a chuckle and looked at her friend critically.

"Julia, are you sure they won't mind my sudden appearance?" She asked, watching her friend closely.

Julia waved her off much like Conrad had moments ago.

"Yeah, they won't care. Alex is cool and from what he says his brother is pretty chill too." Julia said just as Conrad jumped into the back.

"Alright you two, enough gossiping let's get on the road!" Conrad called with energy.

Kaley shook her head and put the car in gear, the three heading off towards the docks where they'd meet up with the others.

"Can you go grab that last case of beer while we get set up here." Alex asks Brad and his brother nods leaving the boat and going back to the car.

"So we finally get to meet this Julia you've said so much about." Cheyenne teases, taking a seat and Alex shakes his head ignoring her and starts to unpack some things.

"So Julia." Brad says setting the case of beer down.

"Did you take those diving classes like I asked you too?" Alex asks and Brad shakes his head.

"No I didn't." He responds and Alex sighs.

"How are you going to get in the water." He asks and Brad shrugs.

"Just wing it I guess." Brad responds and Cheyenne snorts biting back the laughter threatening to spill out.

"Brad, Julia and Conrad don't mess around with this kind of stuff we are swimming with the big fish now." Alex states and Brad rolls his eyes, "I shouldn't have let you tag along Julia just wanted to meet you."

"Tag along? Last I checked I was invited." Bred fires back and Alex instantly regrets his choice of words.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean that I'm just a little stressed with Med school and this whole long distance thing with Jules." Alex says apologizing to his brother and Brad nods.

"Don't worry man I understand." Brad says, offering a small smile to his brother to reassure him.

The three of them pulled up and Conrad jumped out, phone in hand.

"What are you doing now, Connie?" Julia asked, looking at him.

Kaley just sighed and grabbed her bag, before walking over to the other side of the car.

"Seriously, Conrad? One track mind much?" Kaley asked, moving to stand a bit ahead of them.

Conrad gave a smirk and jumped forward,wrapping his arm around her.

"Come on, Kaley! It's a vacation! Live a little." Conrad said with a little laugh.

Kaley and Julia just shook their heads and the three of them started walking towards the pier.

"They are here." Alex says clicking his phone off as the other two look towards the dock and see 3 figures moving closer to them.

"Julia hey." Alex says to the girl with dirty blond hair and bright blue eyes.

"Alex!" She squeals, pulling him into a hug.

"This is my brother Brad." He says pointing behind him.

"Brad oh my god it's so nice to finally meet you, this is my best friend Kaley and my brother Conrad." She says introducing the ones behind her.

"And who is this?" Conrad asks as Cheyenne comes up from below deck.

"Oh this is…." Alex starts but she walks past him.

"I'm Cheyenne, and you are?" She asks, sticking her hand out to Conrad and a ghost of a smirk appears on his face.

"Conrad." He says and she nods with a smile as they shake hands.

Kaley smiled at the gathered group and moved off to the side to look out at the ocean, noticing that Brad moved towards the side as well. Then Conrad walked up.

"Hey, man." Conrad said looking at Brad.

Brad nodded.

"Hey." Brad said looking to the side.

Conrad being his normal self, wrapped his arms around him and dragged him towards where the beer was.

"Come on, share a cold one with me!" Conrad said, moving to pass Brad one.

Brad shook his head and put his hands up.

"No, trust me, you don't want to see me blowing chunks!" Brad said.

Kaley smirked and grabbed the bottle that had been held out to Brad.

"Then I will just take this." She said, moving to sit on one of the seats.

Conrad shrugged before turning his attention back to Brad.

"So have you ever done this before?" Conrad asked motioning towards the dive gear and ocean beyond.

Brad shook his head again.

"No, I never have."

Conrad smiled, and Kaley who noticed shook her head knowing Conrad was going to say something stupid.

"Ocean virgin nice! We'll pop your cherry, together!" Conrad said with a determined look.

Brad looked distinctly uneasy. Kaley leaned forward, grabbing her tablet from her bag.

"Hey Brad, want to come look at some of my photos from my last free dive? I think you'd be interested." She offered sliding over to give him room.

"Yeah, thanks." Brad said, moving to sit by her.

"If you're handing out drinks I'll take you up on that offer." Cheyenne says coming up to Conrad and he smiles handing her a cold one.

"Tell me, how do you know Alex and Brad?" He asked leaning against the frame taking a swig of his drink.

"Me and Brad have been friends since middle school and well Alex tolerates us." She says sitting down on the seat next to where Conrad was standing.

"Is this your first dive?" He asks, casting a glance over to Brad and Kaley.

"Not my first dive I've done but it is my first one of this magnitude." She says and he looks pleased as he turns his attention back to her.

"Awesome! Glad I'm paired with someone who at least knows somewhat, what they're doing." He says amused and she nods as the captain boards the boat.

"Looks like you and I are a pair." Kaley says softly as the captain boards.

"I'd say make yourselves at-home but….anyways we'll be leaving shortly." Fliss, the captain of the 'Duke of Milan' said as she headed towards the controls in the front.

Brad looked at Kaley, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry you got paired with such a noob." He said softly.

Kaley just laughed lightly shaking her head.

"Don't worry, everyone starts somewhere. All these pics were taken mid range free diving. Swimming but a bit deeper. I need more pictures anyways so if you want we can just chill up in the upper water." Kaley said reassuringly.

Brad smiled happily.

"Yeah, that'd be great." Brad said excitedly.

"Finally we can get going, felt like I was about to bake out in this sun." Cheyenne groans finishing off her drink and she places it in the trash as Conrad takes a seat next to her.

"What do you like to do for fun?" He asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Oh you know the usual, watch movies, listen to music. I also love to read and write but that's more of a guilty pleasure past time." She says, sitting criss cross and she turns slightly to face him.

"What kind of stuff do you write?" He asks and she laughs slightly looking down at her hands as she feels embarrassment start to bubble inside of her.

"Nothing really just little short stories and a few poems here and there." She says and he playfully nudges her shoulder.

"You should let me read some of your stuff some time." He comments and she laughs nervously again.

"Maybe but only if you tell me a little bit about yourself first." She says finally looking back up at him and he nods.

"I like diving, watching movies, uhhhh can't really think of anything else." He says and she nods.

"Alright what do you do for a living." She asks and he smiles slightly.

"I just finished college, I'm trying to become a bartender, what do you do for a living?" He turns the question on her.

"I also just finished college, I'm trying to do something in the history field but haven't found anything yet." She says and he looks somewhat impressed.

"Damn...you're interesting." He says softly.

"So Brad, what do you do? Just, in general?" Kaley asked, adjusting to look at Brad.

He paused and pushed his glasses up, before adjusting to look at her too.

"Well, I'm still in school, studying history with a large focus on world war 2. I love learning all of the different aspects that no one really teaches anymore. Beyond school...I study and read, I work too, I'm a battlefield archeologist. Basically I get to go explore and dig at old battlefields, but I'm only a junior member." Brad said, looking embarrassed as he finished.

Kaleys eyes widened, and a smile split her face.

"That's so cool! I love what you can find in and around battlefields. I myself am studying oceanography with an English secondary and a little bit of a history minor... although my area of expertise is in the civil war. Beyond school I read different things Shakespeare, Homer the  iliad and Odyssey, and a bunch of other stuff. As far as work goes? I work at the aquarium by my school, it's peaceful and relaxing." She said, smiling still.

Brad looked back at her with shock registering as he digested the similarities between them.

"That's...so cool." He said with a bright smile.

After that no one could disturb them for a while as they began debating the differences of their chosen wars and discussing other aspects and things they had learned.

"We're here." Fliss says bringing the Duke to a stop and she lowers the anchor.

"I'm so excited!" Julia squeals zipping up her wet suit.

"If there was a wreck here this place would be swarmed with people like you." Fliss states with a hint of anger in her voice.

"There is a wreck here, if Brad says there is I trust his judgement." Alex says fighting back an eye role.

"Have you ever dove before?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"Yes I have a few times." Alex responds, zipping up his wetsuit.

"Well if you have you should know regulations, if this is an undocumented wreck we need to turn it in….now." She says and Julia sighs getting annoyed.

"Look we paid you ok we can handle this don't worry." Julia snaps and Fliss shakes her head as she walks off.

"Julia, relax ok? She's right. We know regulations, we need to turn it in." Kaley said with a sigh.

Julia looked like she wanted to keep arguing but Alex cut in.

"So what you're saying is that we shouldn't dive? Come on! You even said you wanted to get in the water!" Alex said, trying to get her to their side.

Kaley put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I do. But I want to freedive and only take photos for my oceanography course. Not mess with world war 2 era fighter planes. You guys are treading on dangerous territory, who knows what is on that plane!. Long story short I agree with Fliss, we need to report this." She said crossing her arms definitely, daring them to argue more.

Alex opened his mouth to continue, but paused when Fliss walked back, looking frustrated.

"Just don't touch anything. Take pictures if you want but don't touch anything. Otherwise we all will be at risk of being arrested." Fliss says, with a hard glare.

Kaley turned and looked over to Brad.

"Let's go get ready and I can show you some cool stuff." She said walking away from everyone else.

Brad nodded.

"Yeah, alright." He said with a small smile.

"I agree, we should call this wreck in." Cheyenne speaks up, throwing her 2 cents in.

"At least there are a few people on this boat who have their head screwed on straight." Fliss says under her breath as she starts to set up the diving gear.

"Lets go get ready." Cheyenne says giving a nod to Fliss before turning towards Conrad.

"Alex are you ready?" Julia asks making the last connections on her rebreather and he nods, "Alright let's go."

The pair jumped into the water and they started to descend to the wreck.

"Hey Fliss, I'm sorry about them." Cheyenne says coming up to her.

"Thanks." She says not looking up from what she's doing.

"No Fliss, she's right. They were totally in the wrong. Julia's one of my best friends and she can be a major bitch sometimes. Conrad's not a lot better when he gets his mind on something but he at least tones down to a loud jerk while Julia just steam rolls you. Long story short they should have reported it." Kaley said walking over to get her and Brad's flippers goggles and a couple underwater cameras.

Brad walked up behind her, gently taking his goggles and flippers from her.

"Thanks, and both Kaley and Cheyenne are right, Alex can be a big jerk when he wants to be." Brad said as he got his flippers on.

Kaley smiled and moved to sit on the edge of the boat by Brad.

"Don't worry Fliss, we'll follow guidelines and stay in the upper waters so you won't have 2 sets of misbehaving people." Kaley said as she finished getting her flippers and goggles on.

Brad looked up and nodded with a smile.

"Ready, Brad?" Kaley asked as she stood on the small platform that hung off of the boat.

Brad gave a last small smile to Cheyenne and Fliss before moving to stand by Kaley.

"Yeah, yeah I think so!" He said as he pulled his goggles down.

Kaley passed him a camera and with that the two of them leapt into the water and dove a bit to get a better distance from the ship to see the animals and plants of the area.

"Could your first mate interest you in a cold one?" Conrad asks walking up to Fliss.

Fliss turns with a slight disgusted look on her face, "You're not my first mate."

"Cabin boy?" He questions and she shakes her head causing Cheyenne to snort watching his failed attempts.

"Not even close." Fliss says crossing her arms and Conrad takes a deep breath.

"How about if your dashingly handsome well paying client has asked you to join him for a frosty amber colored liquid?" He asks again and Fliss shakes her head.

"I'm only taking this because you people give me a headache, now would you please go I have work to do." She says and he nods handing her the bottle.

"Aye aye captain." He says turning and he takes a seat on the deck.

"Wow that was almost embarrassing to watch." Cheyenne teases Conrad as she takes a seat next to him.

"Hey I'm a man of many talents." He says and she laughs shaking her head.

"Oh are you now." She says back and he nods looking down at her.

"Yes I am, I can show you if you'd like." He quips and she side eyes him.

"Charm must not be one of them." She says looking him over and he shakes his head.

"That is where you're wrong, it's like a boomerang once you think it's gone over your head it comes back and hits you." He says with a wink causing Cheyenne to look away from him as she feels a blush creeping up her neck.

He was right at first she was unfazed by his advancements but as the day has dragged on she's found herself falling little by little and she hates it.

Kaley and Brad slowly swim a little lower in the water. Brad swims a bit ahead of her just to test his flippers and Kaley shakes her head before grabbing him and pulling him back quickly. Brad wide eyed looks at her. Kaley waves her hand through the water in the direction Brad had been headed, causing Brad to look and see a small shark slowly approaching.

"Ahh" Brad bubbles out in surprise.

Kaley smirked a bit and carefully covered his mouth before holding up her camera and pointing at him then the shark. Brad shook his head frantically, so Kaley shrugged and pointed to his camera before starting to swim over to the Shark. Brad, shocked that she had reached it and was carefully resting a hand on the dorsal fin of the shark, slowly raised his camera up and snapped a few pictures. Kaley smiled as he gave her a thumbs up before pointing behind Brad. Brad turned slowly expecting another shark but saw just some flowering sea plants, with a nod and a smile he swam over to them and Kaley captured a few nice shots. An hour or so later they both surfaced and climbed back into the ship.

"I can't believe you grabbed that shark!" Brad said amazed.

Kaley, who was looking over her pictures paused on one of Brad by a coral structure and shrugged lightly.

"Brad, it was a baby reef-back. They aren't dangerous, not even the adults are. The only sharks even less dangerous are nurse sharks." She said as she finally put her camera down and slipped her flippers off before moving onto the slow process of extracting herself from the dive suit.

"Still, it could have been risky." Brad muttered softly, slowly pulling out of his suit.

Kaley plopped onto one of the benches and pulled the suit off her legs, before looking up at Brad, she offered a little sigh.

"Brad, I know sharks and I know the species that are in this area, I was safe. But I thank you for being worried about me." She said smiling softly as she pulled her wet hair into a high ponytail.

Brad sighed and looked up, eyes going wide for a second as he saw her in just a pair of short swim shorts and a tight tank top.

"I...I was worried that you'd be ripped apart. But you do know what you know." Brad said finally.

Kaley smiled and sat next to him.

"Thanks Brad, honestly one of the best free dive partners I've had. Let's look over these pictures." She said smiling brightly.

Brad swallowed before nodding and grabbing his camera to pull his pictures up. Kaley tore her eyes away from Brad with a soft blush, Brad made a sight in only swim trunks.

"Hey is that a boat coming our way?" Cheyenne asks as she scans the waters.

"That must be what was popping up on radar ...I don't think that's the coast guard coming to arrest us, I've got a bad feeling about this." Fliss says picking up the binoculars before glancing back at the others.

"So what do we do?" Conrad asks, crossing his arms and Fliss glares at him.

"We aren't doing anything, I'm the captain so you be quiet and let me talk." She warns and he nods holding his hands up in surrender.

Not even 10 minutes later the boat comes racing by and hits the dive line before it comes to a stop.

"You have to back up, we have divers in the water!" Fliss calls out as the guy that looks to be the quote unquote captain looks over the side of the speed boat.

"Look what you did to our boat." He says pointing at the very obvious indentation on his speed boat.

"Look man we're sorry, how much would it be to fix that? 10." Conrad says bringing out money and he flicks a 10 dollar bill into the water, "No? How about 20?" He flicks another bill into the water, "30?" He flicks another, "Here take it all." He finishes throwing all of it in the water.

The men speed off and Fliss looks up at Conrad, "You're an idiot." She says harshly before walking away.

"What the hell was that, they could have been pirates…..good job." Cheyenne scolds walking away from him.

"You guys are right, why don't I start up the grill." He says walking over to the grill and he starts to put the starter on the charcoal and he lights it, but it blows up and catches on fire.

"Shit." Fliss says rushing to grab the extinguisher and she rushes over and puts the fire out.

"Fuck, Conrad are you ok." Cheyenne says getting up and rushing over to him and she looks him over to make sure.

"Yeah I'm fine." He says letting her examine his arm.

"What the hell was that?" They hear Julia say from the water.

"Some guys ran into the dive line." Fliss informs and Julia nods looking at the money floating in the water.

"Who decided to pay the ocean?" She asks and both Fliss and Cheyenne look at Conrad.

"I don't know, ask your idiot brother." Fliss says and Julia shakes her head.

"Connie I swear to god you can be stupid sometimes." She says shaking her head before holding up her hand, "Anyways everyone shut up and look."

"Oh my God congratulations you guys!" Cheyenne squeals as she gazes at the ring on Julia's left hand.

"Well damn this is cause for celebration." Conrad smiles as he helps bring them in.

Brad and Kaley who had been down below deck until then came up in time to hear Conrad.

"What's the celebration for, Connie?' Kaley called out as they walked over.

Julia squealed a bit and jumped up onto the little platform, before shoving her hand in Kaleys face.

"LOOK!" she squealed happily.

Kaley upon seeing the ring smiled a happy smile for her friend.

"Congrats, I guess Conrad is right. This time." She said muttering the last bit.

"HEY! I heard that!' Conrad called with a smile still plastered on his face.

Kaley rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"That was the point. So how are we going to celebrate? And before Conrad says alcohol, why don't we let Julia and Alex choose since it's their celebration." Kaley said, and the rest nodded, Conrad looking properly chastised.

"How about food? That is if Conrad didn't break the grill." Julia suggested.

Everyone agreed to that and before long everyone was seated with food and all except Brad were drinking a beer, Brad had a soda.

"Why don't you tell us a ghost story Brad." Cheyenne says relaxing back against the bench she was seated on next to Conrad.

"Yeah I agree, come in Brad." Julia says taking another sip of her drink.

"Alright, this is the retelling of a true story." Brad started but Alex cut him off.

"Woah wait a true story? Where did you hear it?" Alex asked.

Brad gave him a little look.

"An old man, on a beach." Brad said pausing.

Alex seemed to settle back down, Kaley leaned forward, getting into the story.

"It was a long time ago on a cloudy day, an old lighthouse keeper was walking the beach, when out of nowhere a frantic woman ran up to him begging and pleading for help. The lighthouse keeper asked what the problem was, and she said her parents had been murdered. Now the lighthouse keeper, realizing the gravity of the situation, started back with her before asking where she was taking him. 'the old lighthouse, I've lived there for years' the women responded. Now the keeper knew that wasn't true because he was the only one to live there in several decades. He tried to tell the woman this, but she wouldn't listen and instead lead him up the stairs. When they reached the top, there were two bodies splayed out in a bloody fashion on the floor." Brad paused for a second to take in the reactions knowing the best part was coming up.

Julia looked freaked out while Fliss looked interested, Kaley leaned even further trying to fully take in the story, he almost felt bad knowing the ending would probably make her jump and fall off the bench. Conrad and Alex looked marginally unimpressed. He continued.

"The man turned to the woman and asked her 'who did this?' she looked at him and said  'my husband, and he's still here, in the closet' she pointed to the old closet and the keeper looked at it before cautiously making his way over to it, he took a second to take a breath expecting to be attacked. The lighthouse keeper opened the door and sure enough, there was a man in the closet and in the shadow the lighthouse keeper couldn't see his face, so he leaned closer, and closer until finally he could make out the man's face. And….it was his OWN FACE and before the keeper knew what happened the man jumped and his eyes bulged out and "WAHHH"" Brad lunged forward, lightning cracking at that moment and Brad's face went creepy.

Julia laughed, Alex looked impressed and Kaley, as expected, fell off her chair in shock.

Fliss looked the slightest bit impressed, Conrad laughed giving Brad a nod while Cheyenne yelps instantly clinging on to Conrad and she hides behind him.

"Alright as much as the story was interesting, I think it's bedtime." Alex says standing and Julia follows him.

"I agree." Fliss says as she too stands up and walks off.

"Was the story really that scary?" Conrad says looking behind him slightly at Cheyenne.

"N-no, just the lightning caught me off guard." She says letting go of him and she fixes her shirt.

"Whatever you say sweetheart." He responds with a wink and a smile and her jaw dropped slightly.

Kaley stood up and stretched lightly.

"Scuse me love birds. Hey Brad, nice story. I was wondering if you wanted to come chat a bit before bed?" She asked side stepping Conrad and Cheyenne.

Brad smiled at her lightly.

"Yeah sure, wanna talk down in my room? So we can sit comfortably?" He asked her as they started walking.

Kaley nodded.

"Yeah that sounds good." She says and follows Brad down and out of sight.

"I would actually like to get to know you better." Conrad says relaxing back against the bench with Cheyenne.

"I would like that too." She says softly looking up at him and he smiles.

"Let's start with the basics, how old are you?" He asks and she nods playing with her hands.

"21, how old are you?" She returns.

"22, do you have any siblings?" He asks the next question.

"Yeah 3 actually, an older brother and sister and then a younger brother." She replies and he nods.

"You know you have beautiful eyes." He whispers and she feels her face heat up.

"Stop you're just saying that to say it." She responds and he looks confused before he shakes his head.

"No, I'm serious it's true." He reassures and she smiles slightly.

"Thank you. If my eyes are beautiful yours are otherworldly." She responds and he smiles happily.

"I could go on with the compliments but I get the feeling you really don't want to hear the truth which is a shame because you deserve to know." He says and she feels her heart stutter at his words.

After a beat of silence, she clears her throat and looks away from him, "As much as I'm enjoying this and your company I think I'm gonna call it a night." She stands and he follows stopping her.

"I mean you can join me, I have the top bunk but we can work something out." He says and she smiles nodding.

"Alright, lead the way." She says moving out of his way and he walks them down to his bunk.

Kaley ducks into Brad's room, looking around before joining him, sitting on the bed. She leans her back against the wall next to him and they sit quietly for a few minutes.

"So...so uh what did you want to talk about?" Brad asks, breaking the silence.

Kaley smiles a bit and looks over at him.

"Well we know each other's majors, and what we enjoy and do for work, but that's all. So tell me about yourself, how old are you?" She asked him, turning to him a bit.

Brad shuffles and looks at her.

"I'm 21, how old are you?" He asks her softly.

Kaley smiles a bit.

"I just turned 22 last week." She said softly.

Brad smiled and nodded.

"Do you have any siblings?" Brad asked her.

Kaley nodded and offered a small smile.

"An older brother and a younger sister." Kaley said softly, slowly slipping down the wall.

She let out a yawn, one that Brad mirrored a few seconds later.

"So, have you always been interested in world war 2?" Kaley asked softly.

The two of them had slid down and we're facing each other on the bed barely awake. Brad nodded, his glasses pressed up.

"Yeah, just seeing the….the differences that have happened have always intrigued me." He said voice, soft.

 Kaley smiled and nodded.

"You're intriguing." She murmured.

Brad laughed a bit.

"So are you." He whispered as they both dozed off.

"Shhhh, we have to be quiet, the children are sleeping." Conrad teases pointing to the bottom bunk where Brad and Kaley are sound asleep.

"Duly noted." Cheyenne whispers climbing the ladder and she settles into the sheets.

"If you want me to, I can sleep on the opposite end with my back to you." He whispers and she shakes her head patting the just big enough space for him to lay next to her.

"I don't mind…..might actually help me sleep better, never was really good at falling asleep on boats." She whispers and he nods, settling next to her closing the gap between them with an arm around her.

"Goodnight." He whispers against her ear and she smiles to herself.

"Goodnight." She whispers back and they too are sound asleep within minutes.

Barely 2 hours later Cheyenne is shaken awake from the force of a random guy pulling Conrad off the bed. She sits up right as Conrad smashes a bottle over the guys head and she jumps into action and she kicks him sending him flying back to the wall, "Are you ok, are you hurt." She frantically says climbing down from the bed and she starts to look at the cut on his forehead.

"I'm fine, are you ok?" He asks and she nods looking over to the other bunk and seeing the two that were there previously are gone.

"Where is everyone?" She asks and Conrad shrugs.

"Both of you shut the fuck up." The man, her and Conrad had tagteamed shouted standing up holding a knife and the two of them held up their hands.

The man ties their hands behind their back and he tapes their mouths before leading them into Alex and Julia's room. When they enter they see everyone there but Brad.

The man pushes them down to the ground harshly and when they land he takes a swing at Conrad but luckily Conrad dodges before he can land the punch as both Alex and Cheyenne kick the guy sending him to the floor. He stands up furious but storms out of the room quickly.

When he leaves Conrad moves to take the tape off of Cheyenne's mouth and she does his before they slowly start to remove the others tape as well, "Is everyone Ok?" He asks and most of them nod when the guy from earlier comes back and takes Fliss.

"What the fuck do they want?" Julia whispers and Conrad looks down.

"I think those are the guys I may have pissed off on that boat earlier." He says softly and a sympathetic look washes over Cheyenne's face.

At that moment the door opens again and the guy drags Conrad out.

Kaley shoots a glare at Cheyenne as she tries to work her socks off. The others watching between the two girls.

"Look at this mess your damn boy-toy got us into!" Kaley hissed in frustration before turning to Alex.

"Alex, weird thing, but pull off my left sock would you?" She asks as she shuffles a bit.

Alex looked at her before turning so both hands were visible.

"Uh sure, but...why? And where's Brad?" He asked as he pulled her sock off.

Kaley smirked with triumph and grabbed the pocket knife that had fallen out of her sock with both feet.

"Because I have a habit of sleeping and existing with a pocket knife in my sock." She says smirking.

"The fuck do you mean boy-toy last time I check he's her brother and your friend." Cheyenne snaps as she wiggles free of her restraints.

"Guys seriously where's Brad?" Alex asks again as she unties him.

"I don't know, maybe you should ask Kaley here, she was getting a little friendly with our dear Brad last I checked." Cheyenne says leaning against the bed again, her head in her hands.

Kaley rolls her eyes before getting Julia to cut her ropes and then cutting Julia's ropes in return. Alex looked at her. Kaley sighed and shuffled against the bed behind her, hiding the pocket knife in her bra.

"I don't know, one minute we were talking and getting to know each other, relaxing before bed. I had planned to go to my room and sleep there. We must have fallen asleep cause a bit later I'm getting grabbed and tied up by these damn goons that CHEYENNE'S boy toy pissed off earlier. My only hope is that he heard something and managed to hide. They didn't see us earlier so maybe we just keep his existence quiet as long as possible. And yeah Connie is her brother and my friend but if anyone was getting friendly with someone it was you and him." Kaley says in a quiet huff, worry etching her face as she talks about Brad.

"I agree about keeping Brad's existence secret. But what exactly do you define 'getting friendly' do tell the class please." Cheyenne huffs looking up from her hands as a shout can be heard from outside.

"So you're saying you didn't grab onto Connie cause you were scared earlier? Or maybe that you haven't been staring at him every chance you get? The flirting you're both playing off as subtle, it's not subtle." Kaley says rolling her eyes as she pays attention to the door.

"Me grabbing onto him earlier during the story was pure coincidence, had anyone else been sitting there I would have grabbed on to them. And in regards to me 'staring at him every chance I get' I'm getting to know him he's the only one that's even bothered to get to know me. You haven't even tired, Julia has given it a little try, same with Fliss. So of course I'm going to naturally gravitate towards him since you have been spending every chance you get with my best friend and Alex, the only other person on this damned boat I actually know has been spending this time like he was supposed to with Julia. So forgive me for looking for a little bit of company. And fuck I'll admit Conrad is one hell of an attractive person you happy." Cheyenne fires off before sinking back into herself.

Kaley pauses and takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

"Look, yeah maybe you're right. I have been monopolizing Brad, but can you blame me? We have so much in common...I haven't found that with anyone else. And sorry I haven't been trying to talk to you as much, truth is I suck at talking to people and groups freak me out. Julia had to practically beg me to come on this trip because I'm so crowd-phobic. And the only reason I got the ability to be friends with her and then Conrad is because our English professor paired us together for a research paper, and she introduced me to her brother. But to be fair yeah I've been monopolizing Brad but you've got Connie wrapped around you so hard I haven't been able to say more than 10 words to the guy. As for getting to know each other, that's all me and Brad have done, is get to know each other. But alright, you admitted what you think of Connie, Brad is an amazing, wonderful, gorgeous guy and why he's still single is a damn mystery to myself." Kaley said before leaning back from where she had leaned forward to look at Cheyenne, and turning to look out the window.

Cheyenne goes to respond but the door swings open and they shove Conrad in with the side of his head bleeding and an obvious black eye, "My god are you ok?" She asks standing and she notices the tip of his right ear missing.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Julia asks and he shakes his head taking a seat.

"Alright, we need to come up with a plan. When they come back we get them." Alex says and they all nod as the door opens again and they drag Julia out faster than anyone can react.

"Fuck." Conrad shouts as Alex pounds on the door.

A few minutes later Julia returns and she looks fine, "What did they want?" Alex asks.

"They were asking about our parents. They want money." She says and Conrads sighs.

Kaley shoots a little glare at Conrad.

"Way to go Connie. How's your ear?" She asks the fight, leaving her as she fails to find a solution.

Julia sits looking sad but looks up at her question.

"My ear is fine, doesn't really hurt any more." He says moving to sit by the window as the storm starts to roll in.

"Look, Kaley I'm sorry for going off on you earlier it was uncalled for." Cheyenne says trying to ease the tension in the air.

Silence falls over the group when a clap of thunder erupts in the sky making everyone jump slightly. Another bolt of lightning flashes and Conrad starts to softly count to himself, "8 seconds, that means the storm is 8 miles away." He says and everyone looks at him confused.

"I'm not following you." Alex says standing and walking over to him.

"If we time it right I can sneak out and steal their speed boat and try to go and get help." Conrad says and Alex nods, processing what he was saying.

"Won't they hear you hitting the window?" Julia asks and Conrad shakes his head.

"Not if we time it with the sound of the thunder." He informs her and everyone agrees, "Ok on my count."

On six both Alex and Conrad hit the window and it pops open allowing Conrad to slip through right before the men come back in.

Conrad breaths in deep and holds his breath as he hears the commotion going on in the room when one of the guys sees him. He grabs the knife next to his foot and he takes off along the side of the boat before jumping back onto the deck completely forgetting the escape mission and he holds the man that tied him and Cheyenne up at knife point.

The guys in the room with the rest of the group stop when they all hear a thump on the main deck. The big one turns and walks back upstairs.

"Damn it, Conrad." Kaley mutters knowing he didn't get away.

Before too long they are all led upstairs, where Conrad rejoins them.

"What happened to the escape?" Julia asks voice low.

Conrad shrugs and glares at the guys.

"He gave it up to try and get them away from us." Kaley whispers back.

"Put the knife down." The big one says and Conrad shakes his head, his grip on the knife tightened.

"Get the fuck off our boat." Conrad shouts back and the guy shakes his head.

"I won't ask again." He says pointing a gun at Kaley and Conrad freezes and a look of fear flashed in his eyes but he doesn't let up.

"No." Conrad says calmly and the big guy shakes his head again.

"I must have threatened the wrong one then, how about now." He says pointing the gun at Cheyenne.

With all backs turned to her, Kaley slowly reaches up to grab her knife.

"Bitch-boy you want my knife where?" She growls and she jumps, and cuts the big ones forehead/cheek.

He grabs her and throws her down repositioning the gun on Cheyenne even as the blood from his new wounds runs fast down his face. Kaley lays on the ground virtually unconscious from the impact blood slowly trickles from her forehead and arm.

"One more time, put the knife down or say goodbye to your girlfriend." The man snarls as he cocks the pistol and places it directly against her temple.

"No, stop please don't." Conrad says shoving the guy he had away and he throws the knife on the ground as they throw him on the ground with the rest of the group.

Kaley comes to, as they drag her back to the group, groggy and unfocused,she slumps gently against Cheyenne where they drop her.

"Sorry, I'm getting you bloody." Kaley mutters softly as she tries to gain more focus.

"It's fine look at me." Cheyenne says holding up her bloodied and scraped up hands.

"I'm sorry I caved, I just couldn't let them shoot you." Conrad whispers and Cheyenne gave him a weak smile, "And I'm sorry I kinda got you knocked out Kaley."

"It's ok." Cheyenne whispers back reaching up and she places her hand over his and he turns his and holds her's.

"All of you shut the fuck up." The guy Conrad had at knife point shouts as the boat hits a rather hard wave and it rocks everyone forward harshly.

"Why are they taking the boat?" Alex whispers and everyone shrugs.

"They say that sign you guys brought back talking about the Manchurian Gold." Fliss hisses glaring at Alex.

"You know what doesn't seem right? How they had you up there nearly this whole time and there is not a scratch on you. I think Fliss is working with them." Alex accuses and everyone looks shocked.

"With them? Are you that stupid, why would I be working with them? Fuck you Alex." Fliss snaps back shaking her head in disgust.

Kaley hums trying to sit up as her head spins.

"Conrad it's fine, not your fault, you know my training...Alex seriously no starting….shit when we have idiots trying to kidnap us." She murmured softly as she tried to look around a bit, but the waves shaking the boat didn't help her with her dizzy head.

Conrad watched her as she swayed trying to focus. Julia looked around as well.

"Manchurian Gold? What the hell is that??" Julia demands in a low whisper.

Fliss just shrugs a bit.

The group falls silent after a few minutes, Julia clings onto Alex, Cheyenne clings onto Conrad as she shakes slightly, Kaley trying not to fall unconscious again and Fliss just stays off to herself.

After about 30 minutes the boat is rocked hard as it hits something else about 4 times before it comes to a stop, "Alright all of you up, now." The guy says and he leads them to the deck as another takes the distributor cap.

Kaley sways violently as she's shoved up onto the ledge to jump into the other boat.

"Hey man! She can't make the jump!" Conrad and Alex both shout, the girls having already jumped but were watching from the door.

Kaley stuck her hands out in front of herself.

"I got it, don't worry." She mutters as she sways again.

She bends her knees and everyone holds their breath, Kaley jumps and just misses the ladder falling into the cold rolling waves below.

"KALEY!" Julia and Conrad scream out, as they rush to try and get down to her.

The guy with the gun points it back towards the girls, causing them to freeze.

"On the boat." He says demandingly.

The guys don't fight trying to protect the other girls. What they didn't know is hitting the cold water had woken Kaley up and snapped her out of her daze. She managed to find a small air pocket below the small platform and she took a deep breath before swimming lower under the boat to avoid their captors detection.

"Keep moving." They shout pushing the 5 remaining group members along.

"Take my hand." Conrad whispers to Cheyenne and she takes his hand holding it tightly.

The guys lead them to a room and they lock them inside in the pure darkness, "Hey can you at least give us a light it's dark in here." Fliss shouts banging on the door and it opens and one of the guys hands her a flashlight.

"We need to find a way out of here." Julia says as she lights an old lamp and she starts to look around the room for something.

"Hey, are you ok?" Conrad asks Cheyenne as she sits in a corner shaking slightly.

"Scared and cold is all." She says looking up at him and he nods sitting down next to her and he pulls her in close and she lays her head on his chest.

"We'll get out of here alive, it'll be ok. When we do, what do you say we spend a little alone time together just the two of us." He whispers, placing a kiss to the top of her head and she nods.

"I'd like that." She whispers back as she feels the shaking starting to die down, "Thank you."

"Hey I found a vent, help me get this open, someone." Alex shouts from the opposite side of the room.

"Someone needs to distract the guards as we get this open." Julia whispers and Fliss nods walking over to the door and she starts to pound on it and shout random things as the other 4 work on getting the vent open.

"It's open come on let's go." Alex whispers and they all sneak out.

Meanwhile back on the Milan, Brad finally walks slowly upstairs to see if the coast is clear. He hears a slight splashing and a slap sound. Before Kaley pulls herself up.

"Brad?" She says as she tries to pull herself all the way on, still weak from before.

"Kaley!" Brad says rushing over to help her.

Kaley lands on the deck and coughs a bit trying to get air back into her body.

"Where is everyone? What happened?" Brad asked as he looked at the navigation system.

Kaley pointed towards the large boat, as she scooped up her knife, and grabbed the first aid kit.

"We got boat jacked and kidnapped, they pointed the gun at me, and then at Cheyenne and I jumped and tried to stab the main guy. He threw me into the control panel which is how I got these, and the rest are on the ship." She said as she cleaned and bandaged her arm.

Brad reached over and took some of the cleaning solution and wiped the wound on her head, before bandaging it.

"Now what?" He asked softly sitting next to her.

She sighed and leaned against him, before looking at the big ship.

"We gotta go after them. The kidnappers don't know about you and they think I'm dead, everyone thinks I'm dead. But if we can get on there and catch up with everyone else, we can work through and maybe get the part they stole." She said quietly.

Brad nodded and after a few moments where he sat and held Kaley softly he stood up and walked over to the side by the ship. He went to step up before stepping back and bouncing a bit.

"Shit! Fuck fuck fuck fuck shit! Come on B you can do this!" He said psyching himself up.

Kaley stood and walked over to him and looked at the ladder they'd have to catch. Brad looked over at her with a small smile.

"Hey, if we survive this, you wanna get food or something?" He asked her.

Kaley paused, not thinking this was the best time, but knowing Brad was too adorable to say no too, nodded.

"Yeah, I'd like that a lot." She said happily. 

Brad whooped in joy before running and jumping onto the ladder and scurrying up to the door. Kaley sighed softly before running and leaping barely catching the ladder this time. She climbed up and Brad pulled her in.

"Now what?" Kaley asked looking at Brad.

Brad looked around, before shrugging.

"Keep walking? Try to find them?" He asked her.

Kaley nodded and feeling adventurous, grabbed his hand.

"Alright, let's go." She said and together they walked down the corridors.

"Alright there's the distributor cap." Fliss says pointing to the deck below them, "I'll go down and get it."

"Be careful." Cheyenne whispers and Fliss nods dropping down to the bottom deck.

Things go south and Fliss gets captured and the other four get split up.

"Where did Alex and Julia go?" Cheyenne asks and Conrad looks behind them.

"I don't know, hopefully they find a way out. Now stay close ok." He says, pulling her closer to him and they continue to walk down the corridors.

"Conrad!" Cheyenne shouts as the floor gives way underneath her and she falls just barely catching herself on a beam.

"Shit, no no no." Conrad yells trying to find a way down to her but to no avail.

"Keep going I'll find my backup to you ok." She shouts back up to him and he nods reluctantly to himself.

"Just be careful ok." He responds.

"You too!" She shouts before she heads off trying to find a way back up.

As she's walking the winding corridors she starts to hear odd noises and see things from the corner of her eyes. She rounds a corner and comes face to face with a clown and she shrieks taking off in the opposite direction.

Kaley and Brad keep walking the corridors, trying to avoid the kidnappers and find their friends. Suddenly they hear a shriek.

"That was Cheyenne!" Brad says and Kaley nods. They pick up the pace and run towards where they heard the shout.

Kaley jolts to a sudden stop, her breathing picking up and her shaking all over the place, Brad looks at her concerned.

"Kaley? Are you ok?" He asks her softly.

She shakes her head and points, but when Brad looks he doesn't see anything.

"There's nothing there Kaley." Brad says gently.

"S-s-spiders." Kaley whispers before backing up and turning racing away from the scene, Brad trying to keep up behind her.

"KAY STOP!" Brad yells as he trips and she races towards an open ledge.

Kaley skids to a stop and shakes her head a bit, taking a deep breath and looking at Brad.

"Brad? What happened?" She asked, still looking pale.

Brad wraps his arms around her and holds her close, pressing a soft reassuring kiss to the top of her head.

"You got spooked, said you saw spiders." He said softly.

Kaley shook, and buried her head in his chest.

"Brad I can't do spiders. There was this thing in summer camp back when I was like 7 and long story short I got trapped in a building that was basically a huge spiders nest." She whispered shakily.

He nodded and held her.

"Don't worry, I won't let the arachnids get you." he said softly.

Kaley giggled softly at that and nodded. The two started to move forwards after that, trying to find their friends again.

"Come on Conrad get it together." He says to himself as he walks the corridors after having a few unexplained experiences since he parted ways with Cheyenne.

He's found his way into a room when a door slams and he turns, coming face to face with what looks like a hag. When he sees this he takes off running but the hag is in hot pursuit and after a few near death experiences he gets outside and looks behind him and sees the hag still chasing him.

After Cheyenne's run in with the clown she somehow found a door leading outside and she takes a deep breath and she feels a weight lift off of her. She looks around and she spots a set of stairs leading up to the next floor and she smiles going up them and finally stepping back inside.

She walks around for a few minutes before she spots Conrad walking, "Conrad!" She shouts trying to get his attention. He turns to her but he takes off running when he looks at her.

"Come on Conrad get it together." She hears him say to himself as she chases him to a room when she hits a loose pole and it slams a door behind her.

He turns again and sees her and yet again he takes off running again and she runs after him calling out his name. They both go through a series of near death experiences before she follows him out onto a ledge, "Please Conrad it's me stop!" She pleads and he turns back to her and a look of panic flashed in his eyes as he looks for a way to escape.

"Connie please!" She shouts and he blinks looking at her again and a look of confusion comes over him.

"Cheyenne? Is that really you?" He questions and she nods her head, tears filling her eyes.

"Yes it's me Connie, now please come here." She says reaching her hand out and he takes it.

She walks him back off the ledge and he just looks down at her, "It's really you." He repeats more for himself than anything.

"God you really scared me." She whispers, hugging him tightly.

"To be fair you scared me too, but you called me Connie." He says and she looks up at him and he smiles.

"Shut up idiot." She smiles and brings him down for a kiss to which he happily returns, "Don't ever do something like that again ok." She whispers and he nods hugging her again.

"Brad, there's a door." Kaley says pointing after what feels like hours of walking.

"Yeah, let's see where that goes." He says quietly.

They walk to the door and shove it open taking a deep breath of the fresh air the small deck they had found offers. They walk to the railing and lean against it for the support. 

"We should keep going." Kaley says standing up.

Brad turns and looks at her, noticing now that they have light, that she has blood running down her cheek again, and she looks pale.

"Hey, are you feeling ok?" He asked, softly wrapping her in his arms.

She sways a bit but nods.

"Yeah I'm fine, why?" Kaley asks looking up at him.

He doesn't respond but reaches up and swipes her cheek a bit, before showing her his thumb.

"Your bleeding again." He says gently.

She sways again, and nods.

"Yeah, I have been for a bit." She tells him quietly.

"What?" Brad asks looking at her.

Kaley nods.

"Yeah, since the whole s-spider vision thing." She says softly.

Brad sighs and leads her over to a pallet in the corner, and pulls her down to lean against his chest. Kaley softly sighs and snuggles against him a bit more.

"Why don't we wait here, I'm sure they'll find us soon." Brad said softly.

Kaley nodded and let her eyes slide closed, resting softly but not really sleeping. Brad rubbing her back and shoulders as they waited.

"Hey is that Brad and Kaley?" Cheyenne asks when they reach the deck.

"It looks like it, HEY!" Conrad calls out as they get closer.

Brad leans forward jostling Kaley awake, before helping her stand.

"Hey!" Brad calls waving.

Kaley waves dazedly as she leans on Brad.

"Hey guys." She says quietly.

"Thank God you guys are ok." Conrad breathes a sigh of relief as he and Cheyenne sit down next to them.

"Hey guys." Cheyenne says softly, laying her head on Conrad's shoulder.

"If you want to sleep you can." Conrad whispers moving slightly so she can lay her head in his lap.

"Thanks Connie." Cheyenne whispers laying down and she relaxes slightly when she feels him rubbing her shoulder softly.

Thankfully about an hour later they hear the door open and they see Alex, Julia, and Fliss walk out holding the distributor cap, "Come on, let's get off of this shit hole." Fliss says climbing down the ladder and she jumps onto the Duke and the others follow.

"What exactly happened to you guys in there?" Cheyenne asks the others.

"After we got split up from you two Alex and I got split up briefly but once I found him there were so many things that had Alex's face…That's one memory I do not want to relive ever." Julia says as a shiver runs down her spine.

"Nothing much, escaped those pirate assholes then met back up with Alex and Julia before finding you guys." Fliss chips in.

"I'm not sure about you guys but this calls for a frosty." Conrad says coming back with a drink in hand and everyone groans.

"What happened with you guys?" Julia asks leaning against Alex.

"Well we got split up after we lost you two but then found each other again after whatever that gas was made Cheyenne here, something entirely different than she is but she was able to snap me out of it….." Conrad says, still trying to understand what exactly happened.

"Before you get too comfortable I'm gonna need to clean your ear." Cheyenne says turning his head so she can look at it now in better lighting.

Kaley sat up as Brad grabbed some of the antiseptic, and looked around.

"After I fell in the water it woke me up a bit. I managed to find a pocket of air, and stayed under water until the coast was clear. Brad helped get me on the...ye-ouch! Careful...he helped get me on the boat and then we talked for a few minutes before getting on the boat." Kaley explained her part.

Brad smiled apologetically, before continuing to dress her wounds.

"I had heard something during the night, and it woke me up. So I climbed out of bed to see what was going on, but when I saw the other boat, I just freaked out and hid. After everything settled down I snuck upstairs to see if anyone was up there. And I saw Kaley trying to get on the boat and rushed to help her. After helping her we got up into the boat and wandered around trying to find you guys. Kaley freaked at one point and ran off but I kept with her." Brad explained as he finished up and Kaley snuggled into his chest.

"He broke me out of whatever gas induced nightmare that was. And after that we kept walking around the boat to find you all. After a few hours we found the deck and intended to keep going and find you." Kaley said, explaining more.

Brad wrapped his arms around her and nodded.

"But I noticed Kaley was bleeding so I decided it would be best to sit on the deck and wait for you all." Brad finished.

"I'm just happy everyone is ok." Julia says breathing a sigh of relief.

"Me too, as much as you guys can be idiots I can at least trust you." Fliss says smiling for the first time since the group had met her.

"Alright Connie come on gotta go get you bandaged up." Cheyenne says holding her hand out for him and he stands following her back.

Cheyenne finds the first Aid kit Brad must have found and she places it on the counter, "Can you sit in the chair please I kinda need to reach your ear to clean it." She says looking up at him and he smiles taking a seat.

She cleans the wound and he hisses slightly wincing at the burn but the small amount of pain is gone as fast as it came and she places the bandage over the wound and cleans up her mess, "Am I done doctor?" He teases and she nods.

"Yes you are free to go." She smiles returning to him.

Kaley rests against Brad the entire way back, the two talking softly to each other. 

*A year and a half later*

Kaley walked towards the dock before turning and smiling gently at Brad. She put her hands on her hips and smiled a bit brighter.

"Bradley come on! We're going to be late" she says and Brad shakes his head before running up to her and wrapping her in his arms.

He smiled and pressed a kiss to her check, before releasing all but her hand

"That fast enough?" He asked jokingly.

She smiled and nodded with a laugh.

"Yeah, perfect. Look! The Duke!" She said turning away from him a bit.

Brad looked up and they both froze slightly as the memories hit them in a rush. Brad gave Kaley a small smile and a hand squeeze.

"Come on, the others are going to be wondering where we are." He said softly.

She shook herself and nodded.

"Yeah you're right let's go." She said softly.

Before long they reached the boat and climbed on, not seeing anyone they settled onto one of the benches.

"We can't be the first ones." Brad says softly.

Kaley nods but shrugs shortly after.

"They could be below deck, who knows for sure. Just relax for a few." Kaley said looking up at him.

"Come on Connie I think I hear Kaley and Brad." Cheyenne says sitting up in bed and she stretches climbing over him and then down the ladder.

"I think all we are waiting on now is Fliss." He says climbing down too and they walk above deck.

"Yeah Alex and Julia were first here." Cheyenne says squinting as the sunlight hits her eyes.

"Hey guys!" Conrad calls to the two on deck.

"Hey look here comes Fliss." Cheyenne says pointing as Fliss steps onto the Duke.

"I see some things never change." She teases starting up the boat.

"Alright we are all here." Conrad smiles relaxing on one of the benches.

Kaley and Brad offered Cheyenne and Conrad smiles.

"Hey guys, hey Fliss. I'm guessing Julia and Alex are downstairs then?" Kaley asked them.

Brad pressed a kiss to her head before wandering off down the stairs.

"Yeah they were here when we got here, Alex said Julia wanted to rest because you know the baby." Conrad sighs opening his arms up for Cheyenne to cuddle in next to him.

"How far along is she again?" Fliss asks from over her shoulder.

Cheyenne cuddles up to Conrad and she sighs, "6 months I think." She says looking up at him and he nods playing with the ring on her finger.

"Yeah that's what they said at least." Conrad responds as she lays her head back down on his chest.

"So when are you guys getting married?" Fliss asks, finally turning to them.

"Next month." They both say happily and Fliss smiles at her friends.

Kaley watches the three talk, smiles softly. Happy that her friends were happy. She leaned back and watched everyone, smiling the whole time.

"So, how's it feel to be this close?" Kaley asked the happy pair.

Cheyenne looked up at Conrad before looking at Kaley.

"It honestly is the best feeling in the world, I love him so damn much." Cheyenne smiled at Kaley as she brought Conrad's hand up and she kissed it.

"Best thing to happen to me, I love you too." Conrad says softly and he kisses the top of Cheyenne's head.

Kaley smiled sweetly at the sight as they started to hear voices coming back up stairs. Brad and Alex both emerged from the doorway leading to the lower deck.

"Hey, so that's where you disappeared too? Hey Alex." Kaley said, turning slightly.

Brad smiled a bit and walked back over to them.

"I actually went down to put our bags in our room, and I ran into Alex on the way back up." Brad said as he sat back beside her.

Alex waved and gave everyone a smile.

"Hey everyone." He said sitting down with a small yawn.

"How's Julia?" Cheyenne questions as she sits up from Conrad.

"Tired but she's perfectly fine." Alex smiles leaning back relaxing.

"I guess the real question now is when are you and Brad going to get hitched." Conrad says sending a knowing look towards Kaley and Brad.

Brad instantly turned beat red and rubbed his neck. Kaley sat up and smiled at him, from where she had leaned against him.

"We will, when we're both ready. Right now we're just enjoying each other. No stress, no rush. We know it's an option and when the time is right, it's on the table, right?" Kaley said with certainty until the end when she turned to Brad for confirmation.

Brad sat up and wrapped his arms around her from the side.

"Of course it is, you'd have to probably kill someone to get rid of me." He said jokingly.

Everyone, even Brad gave an involuntary shudder before laughing at his joke.

"Don't worry, I have no murderous plans." Kaley said, smiling innocently.

Conrad looked at her and shook his head.

"That look says otherwise." He muttered.

Kaley and Brad leaned back and Kaley gave a short laugh.

"No, really the only thing I plan to kill is maybe a fish if we fish, otherwise hamburgers." She said smiling happily.

*Two years later*

"Careful you know how slippery these docs are." Conrad says holding on to Cheyenne's arm softly.

"Connie, I'm pregnant, not fragile." She warns and he nods.

"I agree, I just want you to be careful ok." He says softly, placing a kiss on her temple and she smiles.

"I will, I promise." She says as they reach the Duke and Conrad breathes a small sigh of relief.

"There they are." Julia smiles and she hugs her brother and Cheyenne as her and Alex's son clings to her.

"Hey there buddy." Conrad smiles at him and takes him from Julia.

"Where is everyone else?" Cheyenne asks, smiling slightly at the sight before her.

"Alex had to make a quick run to get more drinks, Fliss is almost here she just texted me and I'm not sure about Brad and Kaley." Julia says sitting back on a bench and Cheyenne follows, "How's your little one?"

"Oh she's perfect, but her and me both are ready for her to come out." Cheyenne laughs and Julia nods knowing all too well how Cheyenne is feeling.

"Come on, let's go back to mama." Conrad coos softly to the little boy in his arms before he walks back over to the girls and he hands him back to Julia.

"Looks like someone loves his Uncle Conrad." Cheyenne teases and Conrad nods with a smile.

Brad parked the car beside the other one.

"Looks like Conrad and Cheyenne are here, I wonder where Alex and Julia are?" He muses lightly.

Kaley laughs softly.

"They do have a son now, maybe it takes longer to get ready with kids? Besides Fliss isn't here either so, all things considered..." She says with a smirk and sent a small smile towards Brad.

"We made pretty good time." She finishes grabbing her bag, the sun glinting softly on the silver band with the purple and blue stones adorning her finger.

Brad nodded smiling and blushing lightly.

"Right, but some of the delay was traffic." He said, grabbing his bag.

Kaley nodded and looked at him holding out her hand.

"Yeah, but traffic wasn't the only reason. Now come on, let's go see what this crazy group has been upto in the last few months since we've seen them." She said smiling happily.

Brad nodded and grabbed her hand. The two of them walked slowly over the small parking lot, crossing the beach before hitting the dock.

"Oh, Julia is here, where's Alex?" Brad muttered softly.

Kaley shruggs before giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Maybe he ran to the store?" She suggested.

Brad nodded accepting that answer.

"Hey guys!" Brad called as they stepped down onto the deck of the Duke.

Kaley smiled and waved as best she could with a bag in her hand, and her other one occupied by Brad.

"Hey everyone." She said smiling happily.

"Hey there they are!" Conrad said standing up and he meets them both with a hug.

"Hey guys." Cheyenne and Julia both say from the bench with a small wave.

"All we are waiting for is Alex and Fliss." Conrad sighs moving to go sit back down next to Cheyenne.

"Alex just got parked and Fliss is 5 minutes out so we should be getting out on the water here soon." Julia says checking her phone and everyone nods.

Brad takes Kaleys bag with a small smile.

"I'm going to go take the bags down to our room, you relax a bit." He said kissing her softly, before moving downstairs.

Kaley smiled and nodded moving to sit on the other bench.

"Alright, but you need to relax too." She said laughing a bit.

"So, how are you guys?" She asked looking at the group at large.

"Well to be expected." Cheyenne teases pointing to her baby bump.

"Tired but good." Julia sighs cradling the little boy in her arms.

"We are good, how are you and Brad?" Conrad asked, offering up a seat for Kaley.

Kaley smiles softly at both girls and nods in thanks to Conrad.

"We're good, we've been busy with work and travel. I actually got the opportunity to dive down and see sharks and rays up close. It was fantastic." Kaley said excitement radiating from her.

"And of course I had about three heart attacks when she said she was diving into a school of sharks." Brad said walking back up and settling down on a chair.

Kaley laughed and pressed a kiss to his check.

"Like, you not telling me the battlefields you were digging in were dangerous didn't cause me my own heart attacks, dear." Kaley said with a small eye roll.

Brad laughed a bit and nodded.

"Yeah, that's fair." He said.

 Brad turned to the others and giving a smile started to dive into a tale from their trip.

"So I'm exploring this old battlefield and I get a text, 'hey by the way diving into sharks! See you later' I thought the rest of the crew were going to have to pick me up off the ground." Brad said waving his hands around.

"That's Kaley for you, leaving something probably dangerous to the last second." Julia laughed softly.

Kaley shook her head and smiled gently.

"I was perfectly safe!" She exclaimed.

"Hey looks like the gang's back together!" Cheyenne exclaimed as both Alex and Fliss walked up.

"Is everyone ready?" Fliss asks with a smile and everyone nods.

"How's my little man?" Alex says sitting down next to Julia.

"He is perfect." Julia smiles at Alex and he nods happily.

*Three years later*

Brad pulled in and parked the car, before shutting it off and running around to get the door for Kaley.

"Brad relax, I'm not going to break." She laughs as she takes his hand to stand up.

Brad nodded and makes sure she was standing ok, reached and grabbed the bags before taking her hand.

"I know, I just want to help." He said smiling and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

Kaley laughed and nodded walking along with him, she let out a small giggle before resting her free hand on her belly, and smiled gently. Brad smiled and reached over rubbing her belly.

"Is little one tossing and turning again?" He asked, smiling.

Kaley laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, but not as much as usual, just a little bit of a floppy." She said smiling.

Brad laughed and rubbed her belly gently.

"You be nice to momma." He said softly and gently.

They continued talking as they walked up the beach, Brad carefully helping Kaley on the deck. She let out a loud laugh.

"Really Brad! I'm fine!" She said giggling.

Brad nodded and helped her down.

"I know you are, but...still." he says as she helps her settle into a bench.

Kaley sighs and settles back, Brad setting the bags by the steps.

"I'm going to run the bags down to our room, you relax for a bit." Brad says smiling.

Kaley leans forward and presses a kiss to his lips. And nodded.

"Alright sounds good, I wonder where everyone else is? Usually they beat us here." Kaley mused, as she settled back.

Brad shrugged as he reached down to grab the bags.

"Maybe it took longer to get ready with the kids?" He suggested as he started down the steps.

"Come on Lily let's go." Conrad said happily, picking up his daughter as the three of them arrived at the docks.

"Connie, I can get some of the bags since you also have Lily." Cheyenne smiles stepping out of the car and he nods handing her 2 bags.

"Looks like Kaley and Brad are here." Conrad said pointing to their car and Cheyenne smiles happily.

"Hey Kaley!" Cheyenne says happily, carefully giving her a hug when they reach the Duke.

"Why don't we run down and find Uncle Brad yeah?" Conrad asks Lily, setting her down and she nods her head happily, blonde curls bouncing.

"How are you?" Cheyenne asked Kaley, turning to her after watching her husband and daughter go below deck.

Kaley laughs and settles back again rubbing her belly.

"I'm as good as can be expected, wore out and I think we're both ready for her to come out. And I feel bad, because Brad has to pick up all the slack that I can't do anymore. But enough about me, how are you doing?" She asks as she refocuses on Cheyenne.

"They always say baby number 2 is easier so like you as can be expected but he's been good and not giving me a hard time, but Connie is always right there acting like I can break at just the smallest of wind gusts but he's super excited to meet our little man." Cheyenne smiled, placing a hand on her belly.

"Hey everyone." Fliss greats stepping onto the deck and the two girls smile and wave at her.

"Hey Fliss!" Cheyenne said happily standing and hugging her friend to which Fliss returned the hug.

"Where is everyone?" She asked looking around.

"Conrad and Lily are below deck with Brad and uh Alex and Julia are almost here." Cheyenne responded when the three from below come up.

"Look Lily it's Aunt Fliss." Conrad whispers to his daughter and the little girl's face lights up and she runs as best as she can over to Fliss.

"Hey pretty girl." Fliss smiles picking the little one up.

"Hi." She says softly hugging Fliss.

With some assistance, Kaley stands and carefully hugs Fliss.

Brad smiling right by Kaley offers a wave before helping her back down. 

"How are you doing Fliss?" He asks looking up from his wife.

"I'm good, it's nice seeing you guys again, like always." Fliss smiles at him as Alex and Julia step onto the boat.

"Aunt Fliss!" Noah shouts and runs over to her hugging her leg.

"Hey little man." She smiles down at him and he giggles.

"Hey guys, how was the drive?" Cheyenne asked and Alex smiled.

"Long but we are here now." Alex said, helping Julia sit down.

"And how are you sis?" Conrad asked, taking a seat next to her.

"Tired but happy to be here with everyone." She smiled at her brother and he nodded.

"Shall we get going?" Fliss asks, setting Lily down and the little girl runs back over to her father.

"Yeah I think we are." Alex sighs, relaxing back a little.

Kaley sighs and looks around with a smile.

"What's up?" Brad whispers to her with a small smile, giving her hand a squeeze.

Kaley smiles at him and rests their joint hands on her belly.

"Just happy, who knew that kind of terrible trip those years ago, would lead to us all having and being one big family?" She said softly as she watched the kids run and play on the deck, while Julia, Alex, Cheyenne and Conrad talk between themselves.

Brad smiled and nodded looking around again.

"Who knew." He agreed.

Cheyenne took a seat next to Conrad and he smiled at her leaning over, placing a kiss on her lips and she smiles relaxed.

"I can't believe all of us are here right now. It feels so good to be surrounded by all this joy when not so long ago it could have been so different." Cheyenne whispered and Conrad nodded, placing a hand on her belly.

"Yeah but we are all here now that's what matters." He whispered, placing a kiss to Cheyenne's temple and she nodded.

"I love you." She said and he smiled wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close.

"I love you too." He said kissing the top of her head and he sighs softly.

And that concludes our little story, our group of friends luckily got out of everything alive and they lived happily.

I hope you like our story, but be sure to come back soon there are many stories to be told and it's all up to you.

[erintoknow]

just a little sting

fallen hero: rebirth fanfiction / poetry. technically retribution spoilers i guess? ~800 words

------

chen stands over you, crossing his arms. “i don’t think think anyone actually minded your singing, you know.” he shrugs, “it’s not like you were any good at hiding it anyway.” 

  an added threat as red water seeps out around you the ambulance rolling over your body with a thunk! thunk! and men in white and black pour out over you. their faces covered in static – surgical knives and bonesaws at the ready

and the hands that hold you down

                                              down

                                              down

                                              down

                                              down

  no words, just red water running down your front from the font of your mouth, nose, eyes. felt not seen, you’re there again, and she stares you down with your eyes or are your eyes hers? you can’t move from the table she’s strapped to can’t move can’t watch, just know, feel. inquisitive little metal blades parting layers like origami flowers blossoming.

  she whispered ‘welcome home’, the pinch of metal slipping into your neck, just a little sting

  things are supposed to end when they end. end process, end program, control alt delete, shut down just–

wet the system, soak in like red water, filling out the wounds, expanding lines of orange distorting the tattoos on your chest – the room is gone, the men are gone, she’s gone, was she ever here? but the argument was so convincing, the promise of green, verdant freedom, her words twisted like red lines wrapped around your arms

      “What are you doing?” Julia puts a hand on your shoulder and you flinch, pull away.

    “What does it look like?” Deflection, find where you stand first.

    “You’re really leaning on that railing there, Ari.”

    “I am?” You pull back, don’t let go. Don’t let go. If you don’t acknowledge the red, it can’t hurt you. “S-sorry. Got lost in thought. How was the talk with your boyfriend?”

    “Ugh, not so much 'boyfriend' anymore.”

    “You don’t want to work things out?”

    “He wanted me to pull strings to put him on the team to make up for it.”

    “Oh. Yikes.” You lean forward again. “Sorry I wrecked thi–“ The metal gives out and this time around the wheel julia ortega does not catch you

      you’re falling,

          falling,

              glass shards scratching

              lines in your mask

              greenery blossoming in the cement below you, the earth reaches up, because you just can’t resist one last arrogance: pretending the earth would see you as one of her own. a joke of self delusion – there’s only delusion coming out of that pool –waxing crescent– red water, filling up your mouth, lungs

        “Fffff-aaugh!” You scream as you leap to your feet, heart pumping, adrenaline running. Where’s the danger? Who’s the enemy? Where’s your gun?

    “Woah, hey, Sidestep, are you okay?” Anathema’s hands are raised, eyebrows up in worry. Sergeant Steel stands in the door frame, arms crossed.

    You take a breath. Calm down. Stay in control, stay focused. “I’m, uh, I’m okay. Sorry. Sorry…”

    Steel speaks first, “Were you here all night?”

    “I must have just fallen asleep after th-that fight… yesterday?” You raise your voice in a question mark. Did you really sleep here all night? Dangerous. "Give me a break Steel.”

    “I am beginning to think you just live here now.”

    “I have my own place, thank you very much!”

    “Where would that be?”

    “None of your dang business-“

    “Woah, hey, hey,” Anathema raises up her hands, stepping between the two of you. “Relax, we’re all on the same side here.”

    “Are we?”

    “You had no right being here unsupervised.”

    Anathema grimaces, “Steel, relax. We’ll sort this all out when Charge gets in, okay?”

    “We’ll see.” You and Steel answer together.

    “What are you even doing here anyway, Themmy?” You ask, tugging on your hair, when did it get so long? There hasn’t been time yet.

    “What are you talking about?” She turns to you, the burns on her face growing of their own accord.

    “Didn’t you die?”

    “Haha, why? Did you?”

    Her eyes are white -no pupils- as she reaches a hand for you, dripping flashes of green and you recoil, trip backwards through the conference room glass. your head smashes open against asphalt

                  You lay there on the floor, legs still hanging on the bed and feel the pain rebound around the back of your head. Leave your eyes closed and just focus on the feeling of air in your lungs. The ever-present itch of too dry skin, the slight ache of your breasts, the twinge in your leg. The thin bedsheet still tangled in between your legs. Your can feel how your nightshirt has ridden up, exposing your torso. It’s enough to get your heart running but you don’t move to fix it just yet.

    Are you awake this time? Is this going to be another fake out? What’s memory and what’s dream? You let the static buzz of self-occupied minds wash over you with only token resistance, take that as your answer. You never have telepathy in your dreams, can’t read your own mind after all.

    You exhale the air out of your lungs, a sustained push for as long as you can bare to keep it up.

    God, you’re so tired.

[pseudonymfox]

Abort Mission (3)

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: You and your  boyfriend  have powers, now he is dead and you are expecting a baby. Hydra is interested  in the child so they send the Winter Soldier. What happens if Bucky unexpectedly falls for you…

This Part: You get closer, James suddenly disappears and you found out about his secret...

Warnings: pregnancy, making out, angst, flashback, fluff

A/N: Part 3 already...It’s getting away from my original idea but I really like this version haha

Series Masterlist - Main Masterlist

<<Previous Part

“So uhm-I just have the couch for you but I swear it’s comfortable enough to sleep on it” you chuckled and let both of you inside your little home. Hopefully he proved himself right and is as trustworthy as he seemed to be if not you can at least try to defend yourself. The past weeks you decided to start training your powers a bit even if you would have to do that alone. They were definitely better then last time but still not good enough.

“Totally fine with me. Thank you” he said, standing in the middle of the room while you moved to your closet to give him a few extra blankets and pillows.

“Thanks” he mumbled and laid them on the couch. Without him looking you decided to hide a few of your guns and knives away, hoping that he wouldn’t find the other ones.

“Are you hungry?” you asked him, undressing yourself from your shoes and jacket.

“You don’t have to cook me something” he insisted but it wasn’t like that you felt like starving at this point do it didn’t matter anyway if it was for him or not.

“First of all I am hungry too and I trying to be nice” you laughed it off and just started to cook self made lasagna.

James started helping you shortly after. The first minutes with him were pretty weird but as soon as you found something to talk about was it easier. Talking and laughing with someone while cooking together felt somehow normal again like you forgot how it was to have a friend or a nice neighbour.

“Is that yours?” he asked and you looked from behind the fridge door confused at James. He pointed to the door and you remembered the ultrasound picture that you hung up there.

“Oh..Yeah it is” you smiled a bit feeling the release of finally having it told someone even if other part of you just screamed to kick him out again and to stay distant. You couldn’t lie to him anyway, your name was standing on it.

“That’s great!-” James said and realised how unsurprised that sounded. “-Congratulations!” he added, walking up to you without hesitation and hugged you.

A nervous and emotional laugh escaping your lips as he held you deep within his strong arms. Slowly he released you again. One second you just stared into each other eyes before you remembered the food you wanted to make and got back to it.

“Will you move again?” he asked suddenly as you already ate together in front of the tv with a random reality show on it.

“No..I don’t know..Why?” you replied hoping that you really wouldn’t have to move again.

“No offense but it doesn’t look really...homey here..y’know for a baby or for you” he said looking around your small grey and lifeless apartment. In some way he was right but neither did you really think about it or wanted to imagine yourself having to.

“Well I just moved in but you’re right, I should try to start make this more..homey” you said snickering and poking lazily in your food around not really feeling hungry anymore. You had no idea to where even start and besides that you’ve had no idea what is supposed to be in a nursery or what this baby even needs.

“What about the father?” James asked. Looking back up, you met his eyes and quickly took his empty plate, standing up to bring them into the kitchen.

“(Y/N)” you heard him say.

“I’m tired. I’ll go sleep now. You need something else, you’ll find me in here.” you said walking into your bedroom and closing the door. You wanted to talk to him but also didn’t, at least not about this and not about Luke. All you’ve done was to push that subject away.

Later the same night you laid in your bed with your eyes wide open, not being able to fall asleep any time soon. Rolling around the bed without any hope to find the right position to sleep in you decided to switch the lights back on and read a book. That helped you often to fall asleep in no time. Maybe it’s the fact that someone is sleeping on your couch or the fact that you thought about Luke again.

A knock let you flinch up before you told yourself once again that the villains won’t knock on your damn door. James poked his head into the doorway. He looked tired with messy hair that was lazily put up in a bun but also as he just slept as much as you did in this night.

“Hey..Uhm I wanted to apologize for earlier” he seemed to be honest, without further thoughts you’ve decided to not let him standing there in the doorway like this anymore, patting the empty space space besides you. Slowly and with hesitation he moved from the door to the other side on the bed and sat down on the very edge of the mattress. With hiding smirk you looked to him and put your book on your nightstand and looked back to him.

“It’s ok..I just feel like I can’t talk about it...-That looks uncomfortable” you said and tried to change the subject or at least lighten up the mood with the last part. He moved a few inches closer but still far away from you. For one side you thought it was nice from him and on the other side you’ve thought that maybe you want him to move closer or just let your feelings out that you held in for the past months.

“Just know that you don’t have to but you can..if you feel like it” he said with honesty and turned to you waiting for you to open up towards him.

He choose to take the Plan B and get closer to you which he still tried to do even if it meant to stay that close to you and let you hopefully open up towards him. Everything for the mission right?

“Ok Thanks well I guess if I can talk to you then now that you can talk to me too.” you smiled back at him. Until now James was just as open towards you as you were towards him. Which was almost nothing.

“Are you just as hungry as I am because I feel like I am starving” you stood up and and put on your jacket and shoes, not bothering to change out of your sweatpants.

“You want to go out right now? It’s like two in the morning” he reminded you looking to the clock before he just dressed himself as well as you shrugged at him. Together you got out already greeted by a cold breeze from the night. Not much people are still outside but luckily most of the shops are open. 

“So what are you hungry for?” James asked as you walked along the streets looking for what you’re up to.

“I don’t really wanna push the fault on the pregnancy but I am really hungry for a chocolate cake but also something with bacon...Oh look let’s get in this Diner” you pointed to the small diner talk looked beautifully old fashioned, you’ve never been to this part of Washington but you already knew that you would like this diner. Somehow you had a thing for old fashioned things.

“James?” was the last thing he heard before he snapped out of everything as he looked to the diner.

He had no idea what was happening but it was like a switch was turning inside of him. His mind turned around like he was in a dream. A small young blonde boy was sitting across from him, he was talking but somehow James couldn’t hear a word that he was saying. They sat in a diner looking just like the one he was standing in front of with (Y/N). Looking down he saw his hands, both hands. No metal arm and he didn’t felt his long hair brushing over his shoulders. Closing his eyes for a second he shook his head lightly and as he opened his eyes again he was met with yours. Your warm hand on his shoulder and with your concerned look staring at him as you asked him again what is wrong.

“Sorry just spaced out a bit there..” James chuckled that died down pretty quickly.

“-Let’s eat something” he added and walked with you to the entrance.

“Good morning. What can I get for you sweethearts?” an elderly women asked you as you both still looked through the menu of the diner that was enlightened by the neon sign that was outside and some soft, slow music playing in the background that fitted to the late night.

“I’ll get the lava cake and just lots of bacon” you handed back the card and looked smiling at her before back to James.

“I just take a coffee thanks” he said simply and also gave her the menu back. Once again you’ve noticed the glove on his hands but decided not to bother him about it, same with what happened in front of the diner. All you wanted right now was food which came much quicker than you thought but the diner wasn’t full or anything so that makes sense.

“That’s SO good!” you said chewing on the cake mixed with the bacon which caused a delicious mix in your mouth thanks to your current state of pregnancy and hormonal state.

“You sure you don’t want anything. Maybe you wanna have something from me, as awful as that must look just try” you suggested him while still eating happily.

“I guess I’ll pass. But thanks tho” he replied smiling.

“Whatever you say..” you simply said and continued. For the next while you just sat in comfortable silence while you ate and he sipped on his coffee. The waitress came once in a while and asked if you needed something else or if anything was ok.

“So why did you move to washington James? Tell me something about you” you asked him and finished your last bite.

“Well I needed change and that’s about it” James said firmly to you and just shrugged.

“That’s about it? So mysterious” you smirked at him and drank your milkshake that you’ve ordered a few minutes ago.

For god knows how long you have sat there but you could already saw more and more people on the streets, the sun began to light up the sky in a rosy tone and you grew more and more tired but that didn’t change a fact that the both of you had fun talking and laughing with each other through the whole night. The kind of fun you both didn’t have in ages and probably also needed. Just to have or let someone in your life again and to come out of your shell. Sometimes you would see the waitress give you knowing looks which made you blush. As the hours passed you’ve already ordered breakfast, the coffee keeping you even longer up.

“Do you dance?” you asked as you heard the music changed to ‘La vie en rose’ came one.

“To be honest I don’t know” he laughed and saw your disappointed look that dropped down to your plate as you poked around the plate. He was about to ask you to stand up and dance with him. The old James would probably have done that already but as he looked behind your head he saw a man staring a hole into him with a grim look. He knew him from Hydra and gulped harshly. He had no idea what they were up to but as he observed the diner further he saw more of them. Most of them probably already longer there. Why didn’t he notice them asked himself.

“How about we go home and catch up on some sleep” he faked yawned and laid enough money down quickly before you could even reach for your purse. Going over to your table he helped you up and guided you towards the exit.The way home he changed back into a cold and defensive mode, looking around and checking everything twice he always had his hand on your back guiding you away from everything he saw as a threat. Back at home he closed all the curtains before flopping on the couch closer as meant to be besides you. You took on of the blankets and draped them lazily over the both of you. The coffee left your body quicker than you thought as you turned into a more comfortable position that was on your side facing James, which ended up the both of you just inches away from each other.

“That was really fun..thank you” you whispered to him, not even knowing he was still awake.

His eyes were already closed and his breathing changed into a soft snoring just as he opened his eyes again he let them fall down to your lips, looking back and forth.

You and him must have been to tired to know that this wasn’t a good decision but also you were searching desperately for some closure and James needed that too, just to be loved again or feel something else then pain or suffering so you leaned in first.

Your lips already touching in a soft manner as he was going further and started kissing you harder with each second. His hand sneaked to your waist and pulled you closer to him while you put your arms around his neck pulling him down with you so he was kinda laying on top of you. That continued with mostly lazy kissed that turned maybe even more sloppy but you enjoyed it. James did his best concentrating on this but then while your little makeout session what he really did. He did enjoyed that and when Hydra would know about this then he knew exactly what is going to happen. He knew he doesn’t deserve that and neither wasn’t supposed to get this warm feeling inside of him mixed with the pleasure of your soft lips against his and how your sweet moans mixed with his but the voices in his head started getting louder telling him the consequenses of his actions. James pulls away first and as he opened his eyes he saw you softly smiling at him. Even against his urge to kiss you again he was about to tense up.

“Sorry I shouldn’t have done that“ he brought out looking away from you.

“No..Oh god, that was my fault. I should be sorry. We should just go to sleep now..I - I’ll go“ you told cursing yourself under your breath before making your way to your bedroom in Embarrassment and closing the door behind you. Shaking away the feeling of him against your lips you’ve managed thankfully to fall asleep in no time probably due the exhaustion.

The sleep you really needed turned out to be more of a power nap of a few hours as you woke up again. Rubbing your eyes, you sat up to the edge of your bed, you remembered what even happened last night and how it came to it. You would like to jump out of the window right now and just disappear into thin air but either way you would have to go out of that door and face the embarrassing encounter with him.

With on final push you opened the door and got surprised with no one. He wasn’t on the couch, neither in the kitchen or in the bathroom and your apartment wasn’t that big. James just left which was way worse then having to face him and talk about it and he didn’t even left a note or something to let you know.

“Great job (Y/N)“ you mumbled under your breath as you began with your usual routine of the day. A new week with a what seemed like a fantastic beginning. You ate breakfast on your way to George and Abigail and got already greeted with Hunter laying on the front porch and Abigail sitting outside knitting something.

“Good Morning Abi” you greeted her, kissing her cheek and hugging her.

“Morning my dear. Are you hungry?” she asked you with a worried glance. If you would say yes then she would probably start making you a whole menu, even tho that was supposed to be your job.

“No thanks. Good morning to you too hunter, you wanna have a treat?“ you chuckled and made your way inside with Hunter right behind you, breathing heavily out of excitement. Greeting on your way in George who was as expected watching football on the tv, you gave hunter his favorite treat first and started doing your tasks that didn’t take really long but the time was flying by. Shortly after lunch you made tea and sat outside with the two of them.

“Abigail didn’t you have a present for (Y/N)“ George reminded her as she sprung up and got inside. Surprised you looked to George wo just smiled at his wife who giggled that you could still hear.

“George you don’t have to!“ you said honestly, not knowing in any way what they wanted to give to you.

“Just take the present. It’s not much but she worked on it day and night“ he patted your shoulder and grinned. Abigail came shortly after through the backdoor again and joined you on the bench, giving you a nicely wrapped little box.

“Listen sweetie. It’s not much but let me tell you that we wish you the really best“ she said and you smiled brightly not believing that they did that. Carefully you unwrapped it, not wanting to destroy her hard work like that.

Inside was a more paper and as you took it out you saw the little knitted sweater, shocked and mostly confused you looked at first but it brought to tears that even tho you didn’t tell them they made that for you.

“How did you know?“ you asked and heard your voice cracking slightly.

“Wasn’t that hard to know after you ate the whole damn thing from what George called an apple pie besides that I am not blind“ she laughed at George who scoffed and rolled his eyes. He tried it often to bake a apple pie but always failed for some reason.

“Very funny“ he said.

“Thank you so much Abigail“ you said and held the tears back as good as you could.and hugged her tightly and afterwards also George.

Even tho you never had parents you are sure that is what it feels like to have someone like them. So nice, kind and welcoming in a world like this. Never once you felt that loved from one of your former “families“ if you even could call them like that when they treated you like a bag of trash or a disease.

The day turned out to be so much better than you thought.

In the evening as you got safely home you haven’t heard from James at all which worried you a bit but maybe he didn’t wanted to see you after what happened. Which broke your heart a bit, you knew that you shouldn’t have let that happen. You felt like a slut, it’s hasn’t been long ago since Luke died you go to the next one. But you didn’t wanted to stress about it, it was a one time thing. A mistake and nothing more. James must see it the same way.

The week passed and neither did you heard or seen anything from him...

You felt like you should step your game up and knock on his door, ask if he was ok and that you are sorry from what happened. Stepping up the stairs you stopped every few seconds, changing your mind over and over again. Soon you saw his apartment door and held your hand up and finally with a confidence boost you knocked on the door just as your knuckles met the wooden door she creaked open for a few inches.

You gulped harshly and called his name out. You pushed the door open wider and remembered what that could mean but why Jams. The old reflexes came up again and you let you hand snap back to your belt realising that you haven’t wore a gun or a knife for a whole week which is normally a good sign but not now. Stepping into his apartment you were surprised and shocked how it looked. Was that even his? Is this the right number? you thought and stepped carefully and slow further into the room.

It was built like yours but the windows are covered in newspaper, one is even broken. The glass shattered all over the place. He didn’t have any furniture or anything. Just a old mattress laying in the middle of the room. You began to come up with things that could have happened here. Was that your fault? Is everyone dying around you?

The kitchen just as empty.

“James?“ you called out a few times and made your way to his bedroom. Opening the door it was just as empty, no bed and neither a dresser or something else. You were about to turn around and leave as you saw the other wall covered in papers and pictures, stepping further to it you looked at everything that hung up there. With widening and shocked eyes you held a hand over your mouth to stifle a gasp.

Every little picture was from you and some of these things were months ago. Some of them from you and Luke. Messy notes sticked to each picture with the location and date of it. It looked like it was from a cop but you are pretty sure who it could be.

Hydra.

Angered you took the trash can and ripped everything from the wall, frustrated tears left your eyes as you realised all of that bullshit he was telling you. How everything was a lie and you felt trapped again. Like you had to start again. Thanks to James...when this was even his real name.

You took the trash can with you and everything that looked like it was about you, Luke or even George or Abigail.

Going back down to your apartment you let the door fall shut with a loud thump. Letting your hands resting on the door as you calmed down again wich didn’t helped much now that you had to move again. Away from Abigail and George which hurted the most.

A storm was going wild outside. Thunder rumbled through the air and you heard the rain splashing against your windows. The electricity wasn’t working but that happened before so you aren’t surprised about that. You were on your couch and began to look at the pictures, notes that were mostly in what looked like russian. A hot chocolate was in your hands warming your hands as your heard the fire escape creaking loudly.

At first you didn’t thought much about it but then again just louder.

You stepped up from the couch and got a closer look to it. The didn’t just sounded like it was caused from the wind.

Slowly you opened the window and stuck your head out. It was dark and the rain started to drain you and your living room. You didn’t saw much in the dark but then the sound came again. Much different to before it was more like a thumping and clinking of the metal. Looking up from where it was coming from you saw something or more like someone just falling down the stairs until it was in your level. You let out a scream and jumped back into your room on the floor from the shock. Thunder stuck loudly again as you stood up again, moving to the window again. The what looked like a man didn’t move a muscle. Just to check what in the hell is even going on you made your way out of the window, onto the fire escape. Almost instantly you’re drenched to the bones as you crunched down to roll the body around, he had brown hair and was really heavy. His brown hair sticked to his face and as you moved it away you flinched away from the familiar features.

“Jesus Christ...James?“

Next Part>>

Feedback appreciated!

xoxo Sophie

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[fantroll-purgatory]

FIRST: Alternia or Beforus?: Lives on Demokratia, and I won’t send the link again for the wiki I made because you’ve already seen it twice now lmao. Sorry for the invasion lmao

Haha are you guys just all recommending this blog to each other or did you all happen to follow it already? Either way I’m glad to see so many of y’all. 

Name (preferably include how you came up with it and why): Her name’s Celina, which is derived from the Roman goddess Selene, who is the goddess of the moon. Her last name, which she doesn’t use (or remember), is Igenia, which means “Of noble descent.” I’ve had her for a little over a year so there might’ve been a different name reasoning, but not sure.

Hmmm. Celina is a real human name And possibly a very common one among your primary audience, which are two strikes that always make me waver on a name. Maybe we could try to effectively combine Celina and Celeste to make something just a little more uncommon? Like Celist or Celise. That reads less immediately like A Regular Ol’ Name. Igenia works well, tho! I can’t find the definition saying it means noble, but I trust you. And it works anyways because there’s a company called iGenea that researches ancestry, etc. 

Age: 9 sweeps

Strife Specibus: Knifekind

Simple and to the point! She seems rough and violent, so that’s definitely fair. 

Fetch Modus: Garbagekind

Puts everything in without any organization, and while you can technically dig around and find exactly what you need, it’s a lot easier to just pull something out at random. It gets harder to find things the more shit you put in, which is why with her it’s really just filled with guns and knives and a few limited edition Beeyoncé (Troll Beyoncé) posters.

How DARE she do this to Troloncé. That’s hilarious though that’s not even a modus at this point she’s just dragging a garbage bag around with her like a heathen. Do people try to tell her to get a real modus. Does she hit them over the head with her garbage bag. This is so fitting for a dog-themed troll. 

Symbol and meaning: Canis Major- symbol of the greater dog I chose this for two reasons: one, unga unga dog, she’s a furry chad. Two, in astrological sense, Canis Major is the greater hunting dog of Orion, and is chasing Lepus, the rabbit. Since Celina’s whole schtick is fighting and dogs and hunting and what not, I found it a good fit.

I might edit the symbol a little just to match the fuchsia sign language, but we’ll see. 

Pesterchum: cagedMongrel [CM]

Is she caged? She doesn’t seem very caged. she might be an UNCAGED mongrel. That would also make her have the initials UM and would let you make who let the dogs out jokes. 

Quirk: x2 R’s (like a growling little dog), no punctuation, and rambling, hardly intelligible, insulting. + B’s for emoticons cuz her sick shades B)

Special Abilities (if any): Nuh-uh

Guardian/pets?: Sealmom, Fighting fish

Sealmom is a fully aquatic, leviathan seal that is Celina’s lusus. Celina has a bunch of deadly sorta beta fish that she breeds and forces them into tournaments and then only lets one live.

What Is A Seal But A Water Puppy. I love that gjhbhjg. You say she’s fully aquatic, so I’ll go ahead and let that slide. Am having fun imagining a fully aquatic seal, though. Fsr I’m thinking about like, Pinnicarids from Subnautica despite them not being fully aquatic… it’s just the Vibe. Alien species are fun!

Also the fighting fish rings idea is such a good concept I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before. But also I’m tattling on her to Duckie for animal cruelty. 

Personality: Celina is, at her purest, truest form is a major fuckwad. Her intelligence is less than lackluster and she finds such.. intense joy in just purely pissing people off, either through only slightly empty threats to just being a gross flirt. She has taken the duty to personally make everyone around her on edge and in a bad mood just because she thinks its funny.

Oh Bastard. Going to be a fun character to write and play, though. She’s going to get her ass kicked at some point.

Interests: Fighting, cannibalism, bullying, holding fighting fish tournaments, fawning over hot people (celebrities or just women coughnothergfthocough)

Cannibalism?! Ma’am what are you doing! 

Title: Thief of Rage

Oof I don’t know if she’s a Thief of Rage, because this implies she steals other people’s negative feelings and takes all forethought upon herself for her own benefit…. HHhhrm. I guess Thief Is technically redistributive in general so it can work. I’m squinting but it works.

Land: Land of Havoc and Fool’s Gold

I Love this name.

Dream planet: Prospit

Mutable, relatively sure in herself, honest in her outward projection… yeah, that’s a prospitan alright.

Design time!: 

Want to begin by apologizing for the lack of transparency. My actual laptop decided to break and so I’m trapped on my school laptop, which can’t handle an actual art program, so I’m editing in paint for the time being ;_;. Luckily there aren’t many changes here. I edited the sign like I said to have the Classique Fuchsia Prongs, and I brought her blood color back down to the canon range. I don’t know how the hemospectrum works in the Demokratia au, so I just rolled with the Canon Blood Laws (There’s only 12/13). 

-CD

[imaginexsa]

Safe (Bucky x Reader)

A/N: Hi guys!! I manage to upload this soon after the T’Challa one because I started to write it quite awhile ago but it took me some time to finish it haha. I’ll try my best to get more fics uploaded!! I hope this was what you wanted haha...enjoy!!

Request: @justawildmarebearmcrbvbfob: Hiii I was wondering if I could request an imagine? Like Bucky and reader with like "don't give her a knife last time she almost died killed me" "I know it's a shame I missed" and like the reader and Bucky have a hate/love relationship and like they accidentally reveal they like each other in like a huge argument and idk you go from there I guess

You lounged on the roller chair, rolling side to side as you waited. It’s not a surprise but Director Nick Fury had called you in, needing your help and skills. You had been helping the Avengers every now and then, enough that Fury had continuously tried to recruit you but you rejected every time. It was funny how you were working with them for free as you usually expected some sort of payment, but there was a special reason that made you want to work with them.

They needed your knowledge about the enemy’s base and plans, and as you were one of the top mercenaries out in the field you have worked for that organization they’re after. You drummed your fingers on the table as you let out a heavy breath, hearing the door opened as people walked in.

“You’re early,” Fury said as he took a seat at the head of the meeting table. You glanced at him as the rest of the Avengers took their seats, you not paying much attention to them.

“You’re late,” you replied, turning your head away from him as he gave you a look. You looked at the rest of the team, smiling as your gaze landed on a familiar person. He gave you a look of distaste, making your smile grow bigger. “Why the long face, sweetheart?”

Bucky frowned. “I’m not your sweetheart.”

“Sure, you aren’t, sweetheart.” You winked as you turned to face Fury again. Bucky allowed a small smile as he saw you turned away, Fury starting to talk about the mission.

Fury went through what was needed to be done and the plans, asking you to elaborate on some of the plans as well. You showed them a blueprint of the place and told them about the hidden passageways and tunnels. Steve wrapping up and ordering everyone to get ready.

When everyone assembled in the quinjet, you were talking to Steve about what they were going to do first when all of you arrived. Steve passed you some of your knives that you placed on the seats and chided you about misplacing your weapons.

“It’s alright, I don’t think anyone is dumb enough to sit on them,” you said nonchalantly, Steve giving you a look.

“Don’t give her a knife,” Bucky spoke, capturing yours and Steve’s attention, him eyeing you with his brows furrowed. “She almost killed me the last time.”

You let out a dramatic huff, giving him a sad look. “I know, it’s a shame I missed.”

Bucky looked like he was ready to throttle you, Steve intervening. “Y/N.”

“Okay okay, I’ll stop disturbing the old man.” You rolled your eyes as you gave Bucky a grin. Steve gave you an exasperated look.

“Must you always bait him?”

You acted like you were thinking before looking at Steve and shrugging. “You could call it a hobby.”

~

You huffed as you pressed your back against the tree, reloading your gun as the enemies continued firing in your direction. Taking in another breath you turned and took some shots, killing a few guys before leaning against the tree again. “Maybe I should retire.”

“Maybe you should,” Bucky said from beside you, moving to shoot, glancing at you with a smirk. “Looks like you’re getting slower.”

You frowned as you cocked your gun and ran out, killing more people. Bucky followed behind and covered you, both of you making sure that no one was left before Bucky spoke through the comms. “Cleared.”

Turning to look at Bucky, you saw Bucky open his mouth to say something before his face changed as he tried running to you. You started to turn back to see what he was looking at. “Wha-”

You couldn’t finish your sentence as you were thrown back by the force of a bullet piercing your shoulder. Bucky immediately opened fire and took down the shooter. “Y/N just got shot, I need someone to do a sweep for anymore enemies outside.”

“Got it,” Cap replied through the comms.

Bucky ran to your side as you struggled to sit up, the initial pain turning numb. You glared at him. “Cleared my ass.”

The soldier narrowed his eyes. “I killed him.”

“After he shot me, thanks,” you muttered.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset,” Bucky replied.

You felt your blood boiling as you stared straight at him. “Why am I upset?”

Bucky nodded and you stood up, ignoring the burning sensation in your shoulder as you jabbed him in the chest. “You said cleared when it wasn’t and a few seconds later, I got shot. Well, I’m sorry I got such a shitty partner.”

You watched as Bucky’s nose flared, anger clear in his eyes. “It might not have happened if you’ve been observant and noticed the shooter. What? Are you blind now?”

“You almost got me killed! If I didn’t notice him, you should’ve helped me watch my back like how I watched yours,” you retorted.

Bucky clenched his jaw and you noticed the muscles tensing as his hair fell forward, covering his eyes partly. You reach out unconsciously to push the lock of hair aside as you continued ranting. “Now I’m injured and you’re not. We both could’ve gotten out of this unhurt but you gotta go and do this. I don’t even know why I agreed to do this. And for free!”

“No one asked you to do it for free, why did you even have to butt into this?” Bucky said through gritted teeth.

“Why did I agree to it? I wouldn’t have done it at all but I like you and wanted to see you, is that wrong? And now I come out of this shot. Shot!” You exclaimed as you threw your hands up, regretting immediately as it stung your shoulder. The bullet was definitely still lodged in there.

“Well, I like you too!” Bucky shouted back. “And hell, I thought you were gonna die and that would’ve killed me.”

“Ugh, I really can’t believe you let me get shot,” you said, your voice becoming softer, sighing. “It hurts.”

Silence hung in the air as you suddenly realized what both of you said to each other. You immediately looked to Bucky. “Wait, what?”

Bucky sighed before he placed a hand on your cheek. “I’m sorry.”

You looked to him in surprise.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, putting his hand down. “I’m sorry that I let you get shot and for whatever I said just now.”

You blinked at him, speechless, before clearing your throat. Reaching up, you poked his cheek. “Are you real? Is this real? Am I dead?”

Bucky smiled slightly before shaking his head. “No, you’re not dead, thank god.”

“I’m sorry too,” you said after a while. “You’re not a bad partner.”

Bucky’s smile widened and you looked down as you fiddled with your fingers, taking a deep breath before looking at him again. “I like you, Bucky.”

He moved to pick you up princess style. You immediately held on before looking at him. “You know it’s my shoulder that got shot not my legs and that I can walk, right?”

“I know,” Bucky replied as he headed for the quinjet. He glanced down at you. “I like you too, Y/N. Quite a lot.”

You grinned as he looked back up, you leaning up to kiss his jaw. As you relaxed in his arms, you suddenly thought about something. “What about the mission?”

“It’s done,” Bucky simply replied.

“What?” You frowned.

Bucky smiled. “While you were busy arguing with me, the team quickly finished up and went back to the quinjet to wait for us.”

“Really? I didn’t even notice them,” you muttered, feeling your shoulder starting to ache more as your eyelids grew heavy. “Bucky, I’m feeling very tired.”

Bucky immediately started picking up pace. “Stay awake, doll. Just a little bit more.”

You leaned your head on his shoulder. “I’ll be fine, just keep me safe.”

“I promise, I’ll always keep you safe.”

Tags: @melconnor2007, @sammysgirl1997

[thirstresponsibly]

Loose Ends (2/?)

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Summary: Y/N thought she had left her past with Hydra behind, just as Bucky did, but when it comes back to haunt her, she is consumed.

A/N:  Part two of Loose Ends! I don’t know if anyone is following the story, but I promise I will update more frequently when the semester is over! 😓 (I haven’t seen Infinity War because of finals, so this is clearly assuming those events never happened) The next chapter will be more of a background for the reader/flashbacks. Please feel free to leave comments/feedback/ask to be tagged!

Read Part One

Tag List:

@papi-chulo-bucky @diinofayce 

(I edited the post so I can fix the tags - I’m sorry if you got re-mentioned!)

Word Count: 2100 (Ended up being longer than I thought haha)

Warnings: Mentions of violence, like one use of explicit language

Silently, the team took their positions around the perimeter of the Hydra base. The plan was to infiltrate and gather intel, while keeping casualties to a minimum. They were to capture as many operatives as possible, using lethal force only when necessary. Another thing you had to adapt to. Keeping people alive was dangerous in this line of work. Every person spared is just one more loose end.

But you weren’t an assassin anymore; you were an Avenger. And Avengers had a certain reputation to maintain. Killing when necessary is one thing, but parading around as a band of merciless vigilantes is a dangerous potential spiral that inspired the Sokovia Accords in the first place. The armory was stocked with non-lethal weapons to make the transition easier, but you were rather attached to your knives. They were a souvenir from darker times, but you knew how to wield them. The balance, the grip, the weight - the fit was so natural, they may as well have been welded as extensions of your arms. While you weren’t a stranger to firearms, you recognized that there was a certain degree of control that the knives offered that guns never could. You knew exactly how to tread the fine line between a fatal and a crippling blow. You knew exactly how much pressure to apply and which areas to target. Bucky often teased that the semblance between his arm and your knives was the real reason you were attracted to him, but he would be lying if he didn’t admit that he was in awe of someone who could not only match his knife skills, but exceed them.

Even so, you  grabbed a handgun from the rack as you stalked down the ramp of the quinjet. Like second nature, you unloaded the chamber, counted the rounds, and reloaded the gun, switching the safety on for now. 15 bullets. Knives were your weapons of choice, but it would be naive to pretend that they could be enough. It was best to prepared.

Just in case.

The team split into pairs, slowly inching towards the base, careful not to attract any attention from the guards patrolling the perimeter. Natasha and Peter were charged with taking out the guards on the north end of the compound. Steve and Wanda took the west end, while Sam and Tony took the east. You and Bucky circled around to the south gate, keeping a steady pace but careful not to arouse any suspicion.

“In position,” Bucky murmurs into his earpiece. As the rest of the team confirmed their positions, you let your eyes sweep the immediate area. You spotted two cameras facing the entrance, just as the intel suggested, and three guards lumbering in close vicinity to the guard tower.

“What do you see, (Y/N)?” Bucky crouches next to you, looking through the scope of his rifle. The serum did away with any real need to have to use his scope, but, like you, Bucky was careful.

“Two cameras. Three on the ground, but there could be more in the tower.”

“Cameras shouldn’t be a problem,” Tony chimed. You could imagine the smug look on his face and smirked. He had been tinkering with a device for the last few days that would knock out both the external cameras and any broadcast system within the base.

“Cameras are down. Take out the guards and wait for everyone to clean up before heading in. It’s better to go in all at once,” Steve cautioned.

“Ready, soldier?” You teased, relishing in the soft smile that crept onto his face. Bucky trailed his eyes across your face, taking in the smallest details of your face. It was his ritual before a fight; he claimed it reminded him of what he wanted to come back to. You stood silently and extended your hand to him, never letting your eyes wander from his.

“Always,” he winked. He took your hand and turned the safety on his rifle off. You reached behind you and drew your knives.

<hr>

Taking out the guards went smoothly. Bucky distracted the three guards, while you slipped into the guard tower. With Tony’s device in place, the commotion outside the compound went undetected and you quickly knocked out the two Hydra operatives you found lingering in the tower. As you finished tying up the unconscious guards, Bucky dragged in his own victims. While you stripped them of their key cards, Bucky fiddled with the security console, bringing up the surveillance footage from within the compound. At this point, the others were ready to move into the compound and waited for Bucky to give the all-clear. Slipping the last key card in your pocket, you hesitated before taking their radio devices apart as well. Just in case.

“From what I’m seeing, most of the compound looks clear. There’s a few stragglers, but it shouldn’t be a problem. Nat should be able to get in easy and retrieve the files while we sweep the building.”

You peered over Bucky’s shoulder and scanned the panel of footage. The agents were armed, but seemed unconcerned. Most of them had their weapons slung across their backs or tucked haphazardly into their belts, choosing instead to keep their hands free.

“They don’t seem to be expecting anything,” I muttered.

“I guess Stark’s device really worked,” Sam said, almost with a reluctant admiration.

“And why would you assume otherwise?” Tony retorted indignantly.

You had been with the Avengers long enough to recognize that the exasperated sigh that managed to penetrate the banter belonged to Steve. Bucky smirked, tongue prodding at the wall of his cheek. Catching the glint of amusement in your eyes, he shook his head and chuckled softly.

“Alright, Cap. Whenever you’re ready,” you relayed, wiping the blood off your blade on an unconscious guard’s uniform.

“Resourceful,” Bucky commented, nodding his head in mock intrigue.

You rolled your eyes, handing him a key card in case you guys got separated. Tightening your grip on your knives, you followed Bucky back outside and crept to the entrance, waiting for Steve’s word.

“Alright, guys. Head in. Remember the plan.”

Thanks to your meticulous planning, navigating the south end of the compound was a breeze. You and Bucky stuck together and tackled one room at a time, careful to keep tabs on the number of hostiles you encountered. Tony’s gadget may have worked, but this wasn’t the time to let your guard down. So far, the mission had gone seamlessly. Aside from the occasional grunts and string of expletives hissed through the earpiece, everything seemed to have gone flawlessly. So much so that you began to get suspicious.

Bucky sensed your anxiety and nudged you gently with his elbow, keeping his rifle aimed ahead. You shook your head, signaling that something felt off. When you looked up at him, you saw his eyes had lost the shine they had back in the guard tower. He felt it too. You were suddenly hyper aware of everything around you. You cringed, hearing the distinct, but slightly muffled sound of your boots padding against the floor.

“Nat. Peter. Where are you guys with the files?” You asked under your breath, wary of your voice reverberating through the compound.

“Still looking. Peter’s clearing out the next room, but I can’t find anything on these computers. There’s nothing on them. Unless anyone’s interested in a quick game of solitaire.”

“That’s impossible,” Wanda said, in between breaths. “We cleared the entire west corridor, there’s nothing here either.

“Stark and I are coming up empty too. None of the guards are giving anything up either. Something’s not right,” Sam cautioned.

“Yeah, we’re getting that too,” Bucky muttered, his deep voice amplifying with the acoustics of the building.

“Hey, guys…” Peter trailed off, leaving the comms to pick up the unmistakable sound of fingers flying over a keyboard.

“What’d you find, kid?” Tony urged. The tension was palpable and the silence loaded with uncertainties. You hadn’t realized you had stopped walking until Bucky beckoned you over to the last door with a slight nod of his head. You let go of the breath you were holding, hoping Peter’s voice would soon fill the insufferable silence.

“Mr. Stark…”

You backed away from the door, nodding at Bucky as you got into position. You bent your knees slightly and shifted your weight onto your right foot, ready to lunge forward.

“Come on, kid. Use your words.”

“I think…”

Gun in one hand, Bucky swiped the key card with the other and pivoted out of the way to let you rush the guards. The doors slid open and you stormed through the opening, only to be met with a rank of of Hydra agents with their weapons directed straight at you.

“I think it’s a trap.”

“(Y/N)!”

Before you could register Bucky’s voice, you felt a flesh arm yank you back into the corridor while a vibranium one deflected a bullet destined to pierce straight through your heart.

“Fuck!”

“(Y/N)??” Wanda yelled, panic seeping through her voice.

“Everyone get out now!” Steve commanded.

With Bucky in tow, you began sprinting through the corridors, navigating the mental blueprints of the building in your mind. You knew every inch of this place, in theory. You knew where every camera was mounted, where every turn would lead. Even now, in the midst of rapid gunfire and frantic yelling in Russian, you could imagine every possible escape route you could take. But this? The ambush? This shouldn’t have happened. This wasn’t part of the plan.

You sheathed your knives, reaching instead for the handgun tucked away in your belt and flipping the safety off. There were too many for you guys to attempt to take on, even with a serum-enhanced soldier at your back. The only option was to follow Steve’s orders and get back to the quinjet. You had 15 rounds. Discretion was no longer an option; you were shooting to kill.

At this point, you could hear the same commotion echoing through the rest of the building. The others were dealing with the same situation and there was no telling how outnumbered they actually were.  You and Bucky worked like a well oiled machine, trading off shots as you rounded corners.

Fourteen.

Thirteen.

Twelve. You missed. A waste of a bullet.

Eleven.

Bucky laid down cover fire while you struggled to get the door open. Rifling through the key cards, you swiped one after the other only to be met with a blinding red light mocking you. Hearing the unsettling click of the rifle’s empty clip, you immediately took Bucky’s place, shoving your cards into his hands and buying him time to get the door open.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.

The door whirred as it slid open and Bucky once again called your name. You nodded in acknowledgement and fired off a few more shots before following him into the last stretch of the building. You heard frantic chatter in your earpiece, but it was eclipsed by the ringing in your ears.

Six. Five. Four.

As you slid through the door, Bucky grunted as he smashed the key card console, dragging out the wires, hoping it would deter the stream of hostiles. For good measure, he dragged a desk from one of the rooms and barricaded the door.

Taking a second to catch his breath, he relayed that the quinjet was on standby.

“Nat’s already there and Peter’s helping Steve and Wanda make their way there. They’re just waiting for  us, Stark and Wilson.”

“Actually, just you guys now. What’s your status,” Tony inquired.

“Almost out of the building. Bucky’s out of ammo and I only have four shots left.”

“Make them count, kid,” you heard after a brief silence.

“I always d-”

You were interrupted by the sound of Bucky’s makeshift barricade succumbing to Hydra’s soldiers as they slowly funneled in. You and Bucky picked up your pace with you turning around every once in a while to slow the enemy down.

Three. Two.

The next time you turned around, you felt your heart plummet and your legs fail, leaving you trailing behind Bucky. Among the crowd, you caught a man with his sleeves rolled up. A prominent, jagged scar traced his forearm and carved into his elbow. A face from your past, one you never thought you would see again, was staring at you with pure malice and a grin as he savored the effect he had on you. It was him. Someone you should have killed a long time ago. He lowered his gun, but the others rushed forward. You snapped out of your stupor and shot the one closest to you.

Three. No. Two? Two.

Your eyes never once wavered from the man’s as you shot the guy behind him, saving him for last.

One.

Realizing you were no longer paralyzed, his grin faltered. You aimed at his head and pulled the trigger with conviction.

Click.

The shock was plastered across your face, reviving his malicious grin once again as he raised his own rifle.